The upper shelf

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The lending library was unusually busy. A lecturer had requested the largest atlas in the collection, and visitors were already gathering in the room above. Ruth carried the wooden ladder towards the highest shelf. As she placed her foot on the second rung, it yielded slightly beneath her shoe. A thin brown trail ran from one of its nails.

She stepped down and called Mr Crowe from the front desk. He pressed the rung once with the end of his cane and said that old furniture always moved a little. When Ruth pointed to the nail, he glanced towards the waiting visitors. The atlas was not heavy, he told her, and cautious people could turn a speck of rust into a public calamity.

Ruth moved the ladder away from the shelves and tied a cord between its sides. The porter had gone to deliver books, so she crossed the square to fetch the carpenter herself. While she was away, several visitors complained that the lecture had been delayed. Mr Crowe met her at the door with his watch open in his hand.

The carpenter examined the ladder without speaking. He took hold of the doubtful rung and drew it free with two fingers. Its underside had split around the nail, leaving only a narrow strip of sound wood. Mr Crowe remarked that another ladder might have been borrowed in less time. Ruth looked at the broken rung and then at the crowded room above.

When the repair was finished, she climbed slowly, testing each step before lifting down the atlas. Applause had already begun upstairs. She carried the book towards it, leaving the warning cord folded beside the ladder.

“Ruth causes inconvenience, but the writer ultimately presents her caution as justified.”

Evaluate this view of the passage, using detailed references to support your response.

In your response, you could consider:

• what Ruth notices about the ladder
• how Mr Crowe and the visitors react to the delay
• what the carpenter finds and how the passage ends.