Pigeon Post

CHARACTERS Swallows--John, Susan, Titty, Roger Walker
Amazons--Nancy [Ruth], Peggy Blackett
D.'s--Dorothea, Dick Callum
Captain Flint [Jim Turner]
Mrs Blackett, ("Timothy the armadillo"), "Squashy Hat" [Timothy Steddings], Slater Bob, Mrs Tyson, Robin Tyson, Beckfoot Cook, pigeons--Homer, Sophocles, Sappho, Lt. Col. T. E. Jolys, porter at Strictland Jct. station, Mrs Newby (farmer's wife on train), engine-driver & fireman on train, (guard at station), Robert (porter or something at Rio station), (boy who brings milk to Beckfoot from Low Farm...Jacky?), boatman at Rio pier, Dick Elleray (hire driver), hedgehog, 3 men from Atkinson's farm, farmhand from Tyson's farm
 
SETTING Lake (High Topps)
 
TIME late July - early August 1932
 
BOATS (etc.) Amazon
Beckfoot rowboat
Rattletrap the car
 
TIMELINE

(numbers are days, names are chapter titles)

1

 Beginning Already • The Plan

2

 Consulting Slater Bob • Mrs Blackett Makes Conditions

3

 Pioneers and Stay-at-Homes • News From the Wilderness

4

 Trek to Tyson's • High Topps • Two Kinds of Camping Places

5

 Prospecting • Fending Off the Enemy

6

 Pot of Paint • Can't Anybody Dowse

7

 Desperation • Titty Makes Up Her Mind To Do It

8

 Sinking the Well

9

 Shifting Camp

10

 The White Spots

11

 Roger Alone • What's Become of Him?

12

 Staking Their Claim • Crushing and Panning

13

 Jack-in-the-Box • Buried Alive • Hurrying Moles • "We've Got to Do It All Ourselves"

14

 A Run on Blowpipes

15

 Charcoal-Burners

16

 Blast Furnace

17

 Disaster • Smoke Over High Topps • In the Gulch • At Beckfoot • The Natives • The End
 
NOTES • Captain Flint has been away in South America (River Plate, according to his postcards; and Pernambuco a week before the action starts in the story).

• Mrs Jackson at Holly Howe has visitors for the next 2 weeks.

• Bridget has whooping cough--on the day before the story starts, she was only whooping 2 times a day.

• The Swallows have come straight from school--Roger & Titty both had a long day's journey from the south; John and Susan's schools are not so far from the Lake.

• The D.'s were not supposed to be there "for ages yet" because Mr Callum was correcting exam papers.

• The entire group is camping in the Beckfoot garden until Mrs Walker comes up to Holly Howe--Swallow is the Jackson's, so they won't have it until then.

• Beckfoot is being re-decorated--painters, plasterers, paperhangers, etc.

• Susan got a mincing machine for her birthday.

• Roger has been promoted to able-seaman (from ship's boy).

• Mrs Blackett's father and Slater Bob went to Africa together to prospect for gold.

• The charcoal burners are away at the low end of the Lake this summer.

• Dundale, Ling Scar, High Topps, Grey Screes, Greenbanks are all locations mentioned; Grey Cap, Slate Crop, Brown's Dog, Jimson's, Giftie, and Old Level are all names of mines mentioned.

• The story mentions that the first miners in the area were German copper miners in the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

• Mr Walker is in China.

• The matches the kids use come in a box with a picture of Noah's Ark on it.

• On Day 17, Mrs Blackett tells Dick that his parents will be at Dixon's on the day after tomorrow; Mrs Walker and Bridget will be staying at Beckfoot for a day or two before going to Holly Howe.

• Col. Jolys's telephone number is Fellside 75.
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