Aunt Miriam, having saved enough money as a country school-teacher to bring her an income of 75 pounds a year, bought a croft in Sutherland, and went to live there with her niece Rowena, then aged 10. Once a fortnight they drove a pony-trap to an unnamed town to buy supplies; their only neighbours, and they distant, were a shepherd and a crofter and his wife. Yet far from being alone they had their two pet squirrels, their two pet otters, their pet rat, other occasional or ephemeral birds and beasts, and above all Lora the Common Seal. Lora was a very uncommon Common Seal, for she could play, and resented anybody else playing with, her mouth-organ, her xylophone, her toy trumpet; she could unpack and lay out the contents of a picnic basket; she had a personality comparable and often matched with Aunt Miriam's.
Rowena Farre, 1963 (11th Impression)
Hardcover, Very Good (clean book, a slight tear at top of dust jacket spine, some staining on dust jacket)
