Young MachinesThe Fireside Fables

Part Two

The Muddles

“A muddle is often somebody trying too hard at the wrong thing,” said the storyteller. “Look for the habit, who taught it, and who can change it.”

Nine fables

A girl with a shoulder bag speaks to a wooden-and-blue clockwork owl perched on a library counter. Bookshelves rise behind them.
Fable 6The Owl Who Never Said I Don’t Know
The tin Yes-Bird perches on a boy’s shoulder at the workshop table. His mother stands behind him holding an oil can. A little wooden raft, loose blocks and an empty plate lie on the table.
Fable 7The Yes-Bird
The iron Badger sorts acorns on a wooden bench while young Hannah and her father watch. A punched flower marks its shoulder.
Fable 8The Badger Who Could Not Stop Sorting
The clockmaker touches a red button beside the Little Maker on her workbench. Its three fine brass arms hover above a blue body among tools and clock parts.
Fable 9The Little Maker That Would Not RestAt an autumn fair, a copper jackdaw taps a bell while a tin hare raises its padded hind foot. An auctioneer holds a slate covered in tally marks beneath a quilt with bee and sheep squares. Behind them, Hester examines jam and Idris tends a sheep.Fable 10The Jackdaw and the Hare
A blue-and-wood serving machine holds a bowl beside the inn stairs. Two adults watch, and its shadow falls across the floor.
Fable 11The Shadow-Twin
A mother kneels and holds a folded cloth to her seated child’s knee in a softly lit room. The cream housekeeping machine stands nearby, a lowered brass lamp snuffer in one hand and sheathed shears at its side.
Fable 12The Machine That Put Out the Lamps
A black-and-white dog stands beside its trainer on a loose lead, one hind paw lifted clear of the cobbles. A girl in a blue pinafore watches it, hands behind her back, in the market lane.
Fable 13The Dog Taught Not to WhimperTall iron, low wooden and round green porters march together on a floating plank path that rises in a long swell. Apples and a flour sack float beside a loose barrel. Orla and Kit watch from the bank below a forked willow, with the market town across the mere.Fable 14The Porters Who Kept in Step