The Letters of the Road
Spring
- A First Wall, CrackedThe Mason answers an apprentice whose first solo wall has cracked, and whose letter was mostly about what the crack says about their hands.
- The Swarm Over the HedgeThe Beekeeper answers a new keeper who chased their first escaped swarm and got stung for it.
- Forty LampsThe Lamplighter answers someone ready to quit the round, since every lamp lit at dusk is out again by morning.
- An Answer Up the RoadThe unsigned spring reply — the crack re-pointed twice, the swarm-box tried in disbelief, the first lamp done whole.
Summer
- A Deadline Is Not a LevelThe Mason answers a letter about a client's deadline arriving before the mortar will, and about building well without letting a calendar decide who you are.
- What the Box Can SpareThe Beekeeper answers a keeper eager to take a good year's whole harvest, on leaving enough for winter.
- What the Short Nights Are ForThe Lamplighter answers someone who feels the short bright nights make the round pointless, and finds the extra quiet is part of the job too.
- A Good Evening, ReportedThe unsigned summer reply — a deadline told once and let go, a jar tasted properly, an evening caught almost being mourned early and let stand instead.
Autumn
- What the Drains TakeThe Mason answers a letter about an old, loved wall coming partly down for new drains, and about carrying a built thing without clutching it.
- Wasps at the Weak HiveThe Beekeeper answers a keeper furious at wasps robbing a weak hive, on watching anger while still defending the door.
- No One to See ItThe Lamplighter answers a letter about lighting the round in fog thick enough that no one is out to see it, and the difference between tending and trade.
- What Was Actually ThereThe unsigned autumn reply — a stone kept back and put down, a fence mended without anger doing the deciding, four mornings of unthanked help watched honestly for what it actually cost.
Winter
- Building AnywayThe Mason answers a letter asking why anyone builds in a season that is bound to crack a share of the work, and what that has to do with a house nobody keeps forever.
- The Quiet Box in WinterThe Beekeeper answers a keeper afraid a silent winter hive has died, on sitting with not knowing.
- One Lamp, All NightThe Lamplighter answers a letter from the year's longest night, when the whole round happens in the dark, on what a year of the round adds up to.
- Closing the Year, Opening It AgainThe unsigned winter reply — a heaved footing reset without the old shame, a quiet hive sat with rather than solved, one honest lamp out of forty, and the year closed by admitting what held and what did not.