A summer responsibility, by Edmund Fallow

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

Edith Churton brought the school silkworms home in a biscuit tin at the beginning of the summer holiday of 1952. Her mother refused to have them in the kitchen, so Edith cleared a shelf in the spare bedroom. She lined two shoe boxes with clean paper and wrote the dates on their lids. Before breakfast she walked to the mulberry tree behind the vicarage, collecting leaves in a basket rather than a bag so that they would not be crushed. She wiped each leaf with a damp cloth and removed the uneaten pieces from the previous day. Her little brother was allowed to watch only if he stood with his hands behind his back. As the worms grew she moved some into a third box. When her cousin invited her to the seaside for a week, Edith declined without asking her mother. Nobody else, she said, knew which leaves were ready.

List five things you learn about Edith in this extract.