It was one of the most amazing things Dillon had ever seen. People working together to rebuild a barn. There must have been a hundred men who came out to help. Orson coordinated everything and split the groups up. Chad and Claude group was tasked with clearing the debris and sorting out the useful items to help rebuild the barn. Brandon was tasked with cutting down any trees on the property that could be used in the construction of the barn, the men he had were also could at shaping wood into useful planks. They had to be careful, they couldn’t cut trees along the road or at he nearby forest. That would be taken as thief and could land them in the dungeons or have a hand cut off. However if a tree had fallen and it was blown onto the property they had full rights to it. On and off some of the queens men including the collector would watch them as they worked. Sam went about collecting stones to repair some walls and stone foundations of some smaller structures. Mire had a group of men working on the frame work. They used nails pulled out from some boards and Orson also had a large stock prepared for emergencies. Master Dudlow worked on the roof of the barn laying seeder shingles down. Not all the roofs had shingles some were thatched and a man name Fergun a thatcher from a nearby village that had been untouched y the storm had brought carts of thatch with him. He set about fixing the straw roofs.
It was an incredible affair and the first Barn they worked on took no more than a day. Then they moved on to the next property to do the same. Dillon himself did not simply just watch, his skills as a hunter was not needed for this so he joined Claude and Chad looking for useful debris. It was sobering when going through the wreckage seeing personal memories crushed by the storm. Simple drawings of people he did not know were torn, heirlooms, not of much value, but significant in their history shattered.
The work was hard, but he had the strength ad the resolve to help these people out. Dillon wondered how his home fared. Was his village untouched or were they rebuilding it as these people were helping each other rebuild their homes?
The men were not the only ones who labored. The woman eventually came later in the day, bringing simple fair, ale and water. Even Beth was there helping out. He had spied Missus Dudlow dirtying the girls face with ash and tied a bonnet to her head. He didn’t understand what that was about. It seemed like she wanted Beth’s face hidden. He wondered if they were afraid that the people who had kidnapped her were in the large group of helpers. He couldn’t see that, people who would help their fellow man out would not be they type to hurt a girl. After a while the dirt on her face didn’t make much of a difference all the other ladies didn’t remain clean after working as hard as the men.
Beth came to him with a bucket of water and ladle some water out for him to drink. He set down a a rotten board he was taking to the discard pile and gladly drank from the ladle.
“These people are working so hard and not receiving any recompense for it. Why would they bother?”
Dillon looked at the people laboring on the barn. “It makes sense. If these people didn’t help each other out then they would be worse off. They all rely on each other one way or another. The miller would not have any work if the farmers stopped producing grains. Same for the Brewster's they rely on the barley and hops grown here and if they could not produce ale the cooper would not be making barrels to store it in or to store the produce the farmers would normally grow. The smith would loose out on selling the beaten metal used to wrap around the barrels and he would have no one to sell the farm equipment he makes.” Dillon pointed to Sam “The logger he pays a fee to cut down the queens tree’s and he is given a license to sell a percentage of his labor to benefit the local trades. Without the materials he provides most of the people here would have no way to make a living. Even th smith who’s trade is in metal would not have the fuel for his fire.”
“I never thought of it that way before.”
“To be honest I hadn’t either, not until I saw how these people got together and helped each other out. I only knew that we had to taxes to pay and for my uncle it was with furs. Without these people even the kingdom would suffer. The kingdom runs on the backs of these people. These people are far more important then the nobles who live a life of privilege.”
