It was a very nice and sunny day when Hilda Robinson decided to take her children and husband Robert out on a nice walk along the frozen river.
“You must remember to wrap up nice and warm or you might get frightfully ill like poor Peter Cottontail!” Hilda lectured her children, she had said this line at least twenty times over the past week or so, always when the children wanted to go outside.
After walking for a good thirty minutes the family reached a small bench where they decided to take in the wonderful scenery. Poor Hilda had been cooped up inside making the play costumes and had had hardly any time to enjoy the snowy beauty of the village.
“Let’s play hide and seek!” Frances called to her younger sister,
“Yes let’s! I’ll hide and you seek. Give my one minute” exclaimed little Elise. The snow was coming up very high on her and she found it quite hard to walk at times.
“Ready or not, here I come!” Frances shouted and whirlled around to scan the snowy lanscape for any sign of Elise.
“Mother, Father, I can’t find her anywhere!” Frances said in a breathless voice, she had been searching for about half an hour, “Elise is not usually that good at hiding”
“Elise! Come out now! This is not funny anymore!” Robert shouted into the country side, where had his little girl gone?
“Elise, we are not playing anymore, just come out!” Hilda shouted, her voice full of concer for her youngest daughter.
“Lets go to the other side of the valley and look” Robert suggested, pulling his wife after him. The trio quickly walked to the other side of the valley but still could not see Elise anywhere. After shouting loudly for a few minutes Hilda started to sob into her husbands shoulder, where was Elise?
Robert put his arm around her while Frances looked anxiously around herself before noticing something rather odd. In the distance she could see a red, brown and green thing in the water, she began to make her way towards it, calling to her parents to follow her.
What they saw made them freeze in their tracks. It was a battered, faded boat, covered in snow and at the front stood a figure which they all knew so well.
“Elise! There you are! You gave us such a fright darling! Don’t you ever walk away this far again!” Hilda exclaimed, very relived to see that her daughter was alright.
Robert was staring at the boat and skidded over the frozen river towards it.
He climbed over the side and found a ramp which he then leaned against the side of the boat to help his wife and daughter to get into the canal boat. Gingerly, they both walked across.
After many hugs the Robinsons turned their attention to the vessel they were on. Hilda pulled at the door, it was unlocked.
“Is it safe to go inside do you think?” she questioned her husband.
“I think so”
They all stared at the inside of the boat, it was very dusty.
Their footsteps ecoed around the room and dust flew away at every step. They laid their eyes on what they supposed was a childrens bedroom.
They then entered a kitchen and Robert found a fold out table and more of those bed/bench things. Hilda had to think of what Evangeline Beaman would say if she saw this kitchen, both sink and stove were covered heavily with dust, very different to Evangelines sparkling house and kitchen.
Hilda pushed open the back door and stepped out and onto a little porch on which you could see the lovely view behind the boat.
Frances in the meantime had had enough of looking at snow and went in the search of her sister who had now hidden herself in one of those benches. The top could fold up on that one so Elise and Frances checked that all of the benches could do that and they could.
The Robisons re grouped in the kitchen area after looking at the small bathroom which only had a toilet in it. Robert was thinking over time. How did the boat get here? Why was it abandoned? Would they have to take it to the village when the ice melted? How could you renovate it? But mostly he was thinking, Who did it belong to?
To be continued…
Hello Everyone! Yes what you have seen was the Rose of Sylvania which I bought. It is quite faded (the stickers) and I want to peel some of the stickers away (the ones that say toilet and shower) but the colour is brighter behind those.
Just some photos of it now.
Does anyone know how I can re print the stickers?
How to bring the plastic back to it’s former colour?
How to remove scratches?
PLEASE help me if you know how to do any of these or have web links to some websites which could help!
Emily
