Autumn Down on the Farm Read online

  Autumn Down on the Farm

  Elaine Rogers

  ARTHUR H. STOCKWELL LTD

  Torrs Park Ilfracombe Devon

  Established 1898

  www.ahstockwell.co.uk

  2017 digital version converted and published by

  Andrews UK Limited

  www.andrewsuk.com

  © Elaine Rogers, 2017

  First published in Great Britain, 2017

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

  By the same author:

  Winter Down on the Farm

  Spring Down on the Farm

  Summer Down on the Farm

  ‘To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to be forgotten.’

  Characters in Autumn Down on the Farm

  At the Evanses’ Farm

  Mr Dai Evans - The Farmer

  Mrs Megan Evans - The Farmer’s Wife

  Tiddles - The Female Cat

  Fluffy Junior - The Male Baby Rabbit

  Charlie - The Shire Horse

  Flora - The Friesian Cow

  Percy - The Male Pig

  Sarah - The Female Duck

  Henrietta - The Hen

  Freddy - The Frog

  In the Village Shop

  Mr Graham Allen - The Postmaster

  Mrs Mary Allen - The Grocer

  At the Joneses’ Farm

  Mr Tawny Owl

  At the Vet’s

  Mr Chris Slater - The Vet

  Miss Tracy Woods - Mr Slater’s Fiancée and Receptionist

  Eric - The Rabbit

  At the Green Dragon Inn

  Mr Tony Harris - The Landlord

  Mrs Jill Harris - The Landlady and Mr Harris’s Wife

  Billy Harris - Their Son

  Mrs Enid Brown - The Cook

  Mrs Wendy Adams - The Waitress

  Mrs Helen Davies - The Barmaid

  Brandy - The Rabbit

  At the Vicarage

  Mr Derek North - The Vicar

  Georgia-Mae North - Their Daughter

  At the Wedding Reception

  Mrs June Ellis - The Reporter

  Mr Dudley Langley - Mr Marvellous, the Magician

  Mrs Carol Langley - Mr Langley’s Wife and Assistant

  Fluffy Senior - Father of Eric, Brandy and Fluffy Junior

  Vicki - Angel on the Christmas Tree

  Chapter One

  As the leaves on the trees began to change colour, so the work down on the farm changed too. The days were less warm and the nights became darker earlier. Mr and Mrs Evans still had plenty of work to do looking after their farm animals and bringing in the fruit off the trees in the orchard to store in the barn for them to eat over the winter. The vegetables had been harvested and were already stored there.

  The Evanses relied on all of the fruit and vegetables, and the eggs Henrietta the hen and Sarah the duck gave them. They drank the milk from Flora the cow and also used it to make butter and cheese. They bought basic foods such as tea, coffee, cereals, porridge, flour and cocoa from Mr and Mrs Allen, who owned the shop in Rosehill village at the other end of Underhill Lane.

  Mrs Evans made all of her own bread, rolls, scones, biscuits and cakes, along with jams, marmalades and chutneys, which were stored in the larder in the kitchen. Her ginger marmalade and blackcurrant jam had both won first prizes, judged by the vicar, Derek North, at the summer village fête back in August.

  He had awarded the prize for the best-tasting cake to Enid Brown for her coffee-and-walnut cake; he had said it tasted heavenly (a good thing for a vicar to say).

  The villagers were all looking forward to the wedding of Chris, the vet, and his fiancée, Tracy, on 21 December in the local church.

  Mr Evans came running into the farmhouse kitchen. He was soaking wet. The rain had begun a few minutes ago and he ran for cover in the kitchen.

  “Come along in, Dai, my dear. Take off your wet things and I’ll make us a hot mug of coffee,” said Mrs Evans.

  Mr Evans took off his coat and boots and put them on a chair in front of the fire to dry.

  Tiddles the cat and Fluffy the little rabbit stretched and yawned and decided they would be staying indoors by the fire too until the wet stuff humans called rain had stopped.

  The other animals on the farm took shelter too. Charlie the shire horse and Flora the cow were warm and cosy inside the barn, Percy the pig sheltered in his pigsty, Henrietta the hen and Sarah the duck in Henrietta’s henhouse, and Freddy the frog at the bottom of the duck pond.

  After lunch it was still raining hard so the Evanses decided to stay indoors and bake and tidy out the larder and cupboards, a job Mrs Evans had been putting off until a day came like this one.

  They talked about what had happened in the summer: the fête, Chris finding out that the three rabbits in the village were brothers, and the repairs to the church roof. Now preparations had begun for the December wedding of Chris and Tracy. The two animals listened to the Evanses chattering.

  They made a list of things they needed from the Allens’ grocery shop in the village, and planned to go tomorrow when the farm work had been done.

  Next day in the village stores, Mr and Mrs Evans were putting their shopping into their bags when in walked Tracy.

  “Hello, my dear. Are you and Chris all right?” said Mrs Evans.

  “Yes, thank you - we are both fine. I must tell you what I’ve done,” replied Tracy. “I contacted the Rosehill News to tell them the stories of our three wonderful rabbits. There is a reporter, Mrs June Ellis, coming tomorrow to take pictures and write up the story of how Chris tested all three rabbits and found they were related and brought them back together again. Can you bring your little rabbit to the pub tomorrow at 11 a.m. so they can be photographed together?” said Tracy.

  “Of course we will,” said Mr Evans. “See you then.”

  They drove back to the farm and put away the shopping, then they sat down to have a cup of tea, talking about what Tracy had told them.

  Tiddles said to Fluffy, “Why, if your picture gets into the paper you’ll be famous. They’ll be asking for your paw print next.”

  Fluffy laughed at the idea of his paw print on a photo of him, maybe in somebody’s house on display.

  Mr and Mrs Evans decided to eat their lunch at The Green Dragon Inn the next day after the reporter had finished with them. They decided to take Tiddles along as well, as the two animals did everything together since Tiddles had fetched Mrs Evans to dig the little rabbit out of the snow back in January. They all got into the truck and set off for the village pub.

  Chapter Two

  Everyone was already there when the Evanses got to the pub. They were introduced to the reporter, June Ellis, by Tracy. Chris was there with his rabbit, Eric, and the Harrises’ rabbit, Brandy.

  June smiled at the couple and shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  She began to start writing the stories of the three rabbits from what people had pieced together about what had happened over the last year or so.

  The three rabbits sat together listening and looked so cute. June began to take pictures of them; they began to show off, posing and preening themselves in front of the camera.

  When June had finished
all the humans had lunch. Enid and Wendy were kept busy.

  June said the story and the photos would be in that week’s paper, due out the day after tomorrow.

  Everyone in the village wanted a copy, and Mr Allen had to order extra copies to cope with the demand. The story was printed along with some of the photos of the three rabbits; it told how they had lost each other and how Chris had brought them together again and where they were all living now in Rosehill village. Brandy was at The Green Dragon Inn, Eric was at the vet’s surgery, and Fluffy was at Sunny Hill Farm with the Evanses.

  Mrs Carol Langley lived in the nearby town with her husband, Dudley. He was a magician. His name was Mr Marvellous when he was doing his magic act on the stage, and Carol was his assistant.

  They had put an advert in the local paper saying they were going to perform their magic show live in all the towns and surrounding villages during the autumn up until the week before Christmas.

  Carol began to read the story about the three rabbits and looked at the photos. As they were twins, the two older rabbits were so alike (like two peas in a pod). It made her think about her own rabbit they used in the magic show, called Mr Rabbit.

  She called out to her husband, “Dudley, come and read this story in this week’s paper. Where did you say you got Mr Rabbit from last year?”

  He replied, “I told you - I bought him cheaply from two men in the pub. They said they wanted a quick sale. Perhaps they were scared the police would find them.”

  After talking things over, Carol phoned the paper and asked to speak to June Ellis. She told her their story and invited her to come and see Mr Rabbit in the magic show in the nearby town. She asked June not to tell anyone until they were sure all the rabbits came from the same family or if it was just a coincidence.

  Carol had made clothes for the rabbit to wear in the magic show. She was most proud of the yellow-checked waistcoat, which made him look very posh.

  June came to see the show. She too thought Mr Rabbit could belong to the little family in Rosehill village, but she knew that rabbits could look alike and be no relation to each other at all.

  Dudley and Carol explained to June how they had trained the rabbit to do his tricks for the show, and to sit up and bow to the audience as they clapped him. They often went into schools to do their magic show for all the schoolchildren. They also did birthday parties and had even appeared onstage in a pantomime a few times - once in Babes in the Wood, and in Snow White twice, before Mr Rabbit had been included in the show.

  June went back to her paper and kept the story quiet until she could check on the details.

  Chapter Three

  Everyone was busy buying Christmas presents and writing and delivering cards to each other. The village shop and post office was busy from opening to closing time. The church was at its busiest. The pub had decorated the trees outside with coloured lights, and lights hung on the lamp posts in the village high street. All the houses seemed to have a Christmas tree in the window for all to see.

  Chris and Tracy’s wedding day was getting nearer. All of the villagers had been invited to it. Tracy had asked Georgia-Mae to be her bridesmaid and her sister Jill to be her matron of honour. Her brother-in-law Tony would give her away as her parents now lived in America and would not be able to come to the wedding, but Tracy had wanted it to be held in the village she had come to love, and with the people who had welcomed her to the village as one of them.

  Chris had secretly asked Tracy’s parents if he and his bride could spend Christmas and New Year with them for their honeymoon. He had already found someone that he went to vet’s school with to look after the animals at the surgery while they were away.

  Chris’s family all lived in Birmingham. It wasn’t too far away, so they would be able to come to the wedding and reception. He had asked his young friend Billy to be his best man.

  The reception was to be held in the pub. Jill and Tony would be decorating the inside of the pub, and Enid and Mary Allen were going to prepare all the food for the reception helped by Wendy and Helen.

  Tracy had asked Wendy to help make the wedding cake. She had the idea for Wendy to do the fruit cake for the bottom layer, Mrs Evans to do her sponge for the middle layer and Enid to make her prizewinning coffee-and-walnut cake for the top layer. Wendy would put it all together and ice and decorate it.

  Helen had been into the town to get bride and groom figures for the top of the cake. Everyone said that the figures looked like Chris and Tracy.

  Helen and Wendy were going to do the flowers in the pub and the church, the bride’s bouquet and the bridesmaids’ posies, and all the guests had agreed to wear a flower in their buttonholes. Tracy had chosen cream-coloured roses and lots of lilac and purple flowers to match the lilac bridesmaids’ dresses.

  Chris, Billy and Tony were all going to wear dark-coloured suits and cream shirts, each of them with a lilac tie.

  Chris had wanted something different at the reception besides the usual food, drink, music and dancing. He had seen the advert for Mr Marvellous the magician and his assistant Carol and, as he had always loved magic tricks since he was a little boy, he had told Tracy about his dream. Tracy had secretly asked Tony to book the magician act as a surprise for Chris.

  Tracy thought it would be a nice get-together and something different to bring all the village together as a start to Christmas.

  The day of the wedding was lovely and sunny, but frosty and cold. Everyone knew what job they had to do. Enid and Mary cooked and prepared the food; then they put it out on the pub tables, which were covered with tablecloths. Wendy proudly carried the cake and placed it on the top table, where Chris and Tracy would be sitting.

  She said, “Well, what do you think of it?”

  All the helpers looked at it in awe.

  “It’s beautiful,” replied Jill. “Tracy and Chris will love it.”

  Wendy had covered the three cakes with soft white icing. On the bottom layer (the rich fruit cake) she had iced lilac flowers to match the flowers that everyone was either wearing or carrying. On the middle layer (which was the Victoria sponge) she had iced gold and silver horseshoes. And the top layer (the coffee-and-walnut cake) had been iced white too, but had a very special coffee-flavoured rabbit made of icing on it; it looked just like Eric and Brandy. Everyone smiled when Wendy pointed out the little iced rabbit.

  “He’s so cute. You are clever,” said Helen.

  Everyone went off to get changed into their wedding outfits. The village car park was getting full.

  Mr Evans had painted an old carriage that had been in his barn for a long time, and Mrs Evans had decorated it with lilac flowers and ribbons. Charlie the shire horse would proudly pull it into the village, to the church, carrying Tracy and her bridesmaids from the surgery. Chris had stayed at the Evanses’ farm overnight. Mr Evans drove him into the village and Mrs Evans drove the carriage.

  By 2.30 p.m. the village church began to fill up with the guests. Most of them were the villagers and members of Chris’s family, who had come from Birmingham with his mother and father. Mr Evans parked the truck and he and Chris got out.

  “Good luck, my boy. You’re marrying a lovely girl,” he said.

  “Thanks,” said Chris.

  People were shown to their seats in the church. Chris stood at the front of the church with Billy to wait for Tracy to arrive.

  The music in the church began to play as Tracy walked down the aisle with Tony holding her arm to give her away. Jill and Georgia-Mae followed behind.

  The three little rabbits and Tiddles the cat sat by the side of the vicar, Derek North, happy they had been included in the wedding. The church looked and smelt lovely with all the flowers in it.

  When Tracy reached Chris he whispered, “You look beautiful, just like an angel.”

  “Thank you,” she replied. �
��I’ve never seen you dressed up before - how handsome you look.”

  Derek North, the vicar, married them and then they all crossed the green to the reception at the pub.

  Enid, Mary, Helen and Wendy had done themselves proud: all the food looked wonderful, but all everyone was talking about was the wedding cake. Chris and Tracy laughed to see the little brown iced rabbit on the top layer of the cake.

  Chapter Four

  When Tony had booked Mr Marvellous and his assistant, Carol, for the wedding reception, Carol had asked him, “Is the reception in the village where the three rabbits mentioned in the newspaper story are living?”

  “Yes, that’s right. You will meet them as they are coming to the wedding and the reception too,” said Tony.

  It was arranged that the magic act would be at the pub at seven o’clock. Carol didn’t tell Tony about their rabbit in the show, but she rang the Rosehill News and spoke to June Ellis and asked her if she would like to go with them to the reception and see if they could find out any more about the rabbits.