The kettle
The dented copper kettle on the south-window hook is the col-house's namesake and its heart. It was carried over the road for years before it was ever hung in a window, and when a small fire is lit beneath it on a dark morning it throws a…
The long pine table
The long pine table runs down the centre of the col-house kitchen, and it is Marga's — the table she set for Toll the night he came up the col with nothing left, and fed him at without asking a single question. Older than the keeper and…
The south-window fire-cradle
The south-window fire-cradle is the small iron mechanism of the kept light: a handful of coals held at a low heat beneath the copper kettle so it can throw its warm glow into the window through the dark, long after the main hearth is…