The Long Table, by Hester Grainger

An original novel extract set in the twentieth century.

Dennis had been at Low Moss Farm less than an hour, that first September of the war, when Mrs Thwaite sat him at the end of the long kitchen table and told him how things would be. Boots came off at the back door and stayed there, she said, whatever the weather and whoever was chasing him. He was not to go near the bull’s field, not even to look over the wall, because the bull did not care for strangers and neither, at first, would the farm dogs. Water from the pump was for washing; drinking water came from the stone jar in the dairy, and he was to fill it again if he emptied it. He would write to his mother every Sunday after chapel, and she would post the letter herself on Monday when she took the eggs to the village. The wireless was Mr Thwaite’s and was switched on for the news at six and nothing else. Lastly, she said, putting a bowl of rabbit stew in front of him, he would eat what was set down and say if he wanted more, because in this house nobody went hungry by keeping quiet. Dennis, who had never seen a rabbit except in a picture book, picked up his spoon.

List five rules Mrs Thwaite gives Dennis on his first evening at the farm.