Lavender-Green Magic by Andre Norton Read Free Book Online

cover or two. But they stood straight, and Grandma touched her fingers to the backs of the nearest ones gently.
    â€œLibrary—we’ve got a library to our ownselves. Me an’ Luther, we’ve read nigh every single one of these here. ’Course th’ library truck comes around twice a month, down to th’ Forks. But it ain’t always easy to get down there, not in winter. Th’ country men, they cleans off th’ main road, but in winter th’ lane’s sometimes too snowed up to make it. But we ain’t without books, even if we can’t git down to the truck.”
    Crock inspected the shelves. “They’re real old, some of them, aren’t they?”
    â€œGuess so. Miss Sarah, she takes those the library can use, but there’s a lot left over. Magazines, too. So we got ourselves a library an’ it’s a good thing to pass th’ time when it’s winter an’ we ain’t got much business with th’ junk. I found me a parcel o’ books about herbs. Them I keep right to hand ’cause I try things they tell about—they being old an’ sorta forgot in these days. There’s some books for young’uns, too. But mind you, treat ’em right. Books should be real treasures, I always think. A lotta thinkin’ an’ hard work must go into writin’ a book.
    â€œNow then.” She returned to the table. “Mrs. Dale is bringin’ out those Cubs of hers after school, so we have to git everything smartened up a bit. Luther, you an’ Crockett here, why don’t you go an’ see as how things back in the toy stall are loosened up a mite so as they can crawl around an’ look at ’em good. We’ll just clear way these here dishes—”
    A little to her own surprise, Holly found herself with a dish towel made from an old sack in one hand, using it on the warm plates, mugs, and bowls that emerged from the big tin pan in which Grandma vigorously plunged them, while Judy took them when dry to stack on the proper shelf.
    â€œMany hands make light work,” Grandma said. “That’s an old sayin’ an’ it is a true one. I’m glad Mrs. Dale is comin’, gives you young’uns a chance to meet her. She teaches fifth grade at th’ big school—”
    â€œI’m in fifth grade,” Judy broke in eagerly. “Will she be my teacher?”
    â€œThat she will. Now you, Holly, you’ll probably have Mrs. Finch. She’s a lot older’n Mrs. Dale. Some folks think she’s strict. But she’s fair an’ she treats you right. Only she’ll expect you to try hard—”
    â€œHolly got an honor report card last time,” Judy supplied. “Mom let her choose a prize and she chose going to the movies—all of us. We saw a Walt Disney, about Bambi. It was an old picture, but we’d never seen it before, only a little bit of it on the TV. It was good, all about a baby deer.”
    â€œWas it now? Well, come a little later you’ll maybe get to see a real deer. Luther, he takes kindly to animals. He puts out hay when th’ weather turns bad. Th’ deer come in last year—”
    â€œGrandma—” Judy turned to look at the hearth—“the kitten, what happened to the kitten?”
    â€œHe dried hisself off after he’d had a good feed. Then he went explorin’, likely to turn up most anywheres about. Cats is like that, they is curious, want to know all about a place ’fore they settle in. There now—he might have known we was talkin’ about him.”
    The gray cat appeared, as if he were a shadow able to detach himself from the other shadows, to sit before his very empty, well-polished plate on the hearth. When he saw that they were watching him, he opened his mouth as if he were mewing, only Holly could not hear a sound. Certainly he did not look as bedraggled as when Grandpa had brought him in.