Free Tuppence To Spend by Lilian Harry

familiar to them and so dear. He had been withthem all their lives, first as a young, strong father, then as an ageing grandfather but still hale enough to do a good day’s work, until the stroke had bound him to his chair. They would miss him dreadfully and so, they knew, would the whole village. Joe Sellers had known everyone and been everyone’s friend. Bridge End would be a poorer place without him.
    Ruth closed his eyes gently and looked in her purse for two pennies to lay on them. ‘I’ll have to go and tell the rector. And I suppose I should fetch the doctor in too, since Dad’s been under him for the past few months. And there’s our Jane, she’s got to know, and we’ll have to get the funeral arranged. There’s a lot to see to …’
    ‘And I’ll see to it,’ Lizzie said quietly. ‘I’ll go and see the rector and the doctor, and then I’ll go home and fetch Mum and Dad. We’ll all come down and be with you, and I’ll stop the night too, if you want me. We can think about the funeral tomorrow. We’ll all help, Auntie, you know that.’
    Ruth nodded. ‘I know, love. I know. You’re a good girl and Jane’s the best sister anyone could ever want. But there’s one thing I do want to do myself. I’ll lay him out.’ Gently, as if she were still taking care not to hurt him, she straightened the twisted body. ‘It’s the last thing I can do for him, poor old soul.’
    Lizzie pulled on her boots and scarf again and hurried out into the storm, knowing that for a little while Ruth wanted to be alone with her father. She could sit here beside him, in front of the fire Mrs Perkins had made up, and stroke the thin grey hair and look at the face she had known since she was a baby, and give him her thoughts and her prayers. Soon enough his colour would all have gone and his flesh would cool and harden. But for a little while it would be as if he were just asleep.
    As she sat there, Ruth heard Silver scuffle and scratch in the kitchen. He’d be wanting his sunflower seeds, shethought, and was glad she still had one living being to look after. She stroked her father’s head and bent to lay a soft farewell kiss on his forehead.
    ‘ Poor old Joe,’ Silver said mournfully from the kitchen. ‘ Poor old Joe … You old bugger, you!’

Chapter Five
    As Ruth had said, snow in Portsmouth was very different from in the country, its pristine whiteness quickly rimed with black from the soot of many fires and the dirt of passing vehicles. On the roads it turned to slush and the slush then froze into grubby ridges of ice. The pavements were death traps, and worse where the children turned them into polished slides.
    A lot of Portsmouth children didn’t go back to the country. There hadn’t been any bombs and once they’d come home it didn’t seem worth going through all that upheaval again. They roamed the streets, starting up snowball fights and terrorising passers-by. The schools, commandeered for first-aid posts or war offices, were barred to them and although a scheme had begun for holding classes in people’s front rooms, it was difficult to pin down the pupils.
    Micky Baxter, who had hardly ever gone to school even before the war started, now ignored it completely. With most of the other April Grove children away, he took to hanging about outside number 2, waiting for Sammy to come out to do the shopping, and fell into step with him, kicking his feet in the slush as they walked up October Street. ‘What’re you going for today?’
    ‘I got to get a cabbage and some potatoes, and then ask Mr Hines for some mince. We’re having shepherd’s pie.’
    ‘I don’t mind shepherd’s pie,’ Micky said. ‘We has that sometimes, with peas. I like the crunchy bits round the edges.’
    Sammy said nothing. He and Gordon argued sometimes over those bits, until their father told them to shut up. Usually, Gordon got them but Nora would slip a few bits on to Sammy’s plate if she could.
    ‘I’m going down