Read Online Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Patricia C. Wrede
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can’t do that!” Professor Graham said, startled.
“I most certainly can,” Mama said. “I’m his mother, and I’m not an employee of this college, nor of the Settlement Office, either.”
“Rothmer—”
“I’ll reserve the train tickets while she’s at the Settlement Office,” Papa said. “Do you want to take anyone else, Sara? It might save some face at the Settlement Office if we make the trip look like a family visit.”
“At the moment, I really don’t care how foolish the Settlement Office looks,” Mama said. “But we can discuss it on the ride into town, if you think there’s need.”
And that was that. Just as soon as they could get the buggy hitched up, Papa and Mama and Professor Graham were off to town. They stayed away the whole rest of the day, and I would have given my best Sunday dress and a year’s growth to have been able to see what happened when Mama arrived at the Settlement Office. I almost went and asked Rennie if she’d do a scrying spell to see, but I’d have had to tell her why, and Rennie couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure she could work a scry spell. She never paid much attention to her magic lessons, that I ever saw, and even if she’d learned scrying, there was a good chance she’d forgotten how since she graduated from the upper school.
Mama and Papa were home in time for dinner, and they didn’t say one thing about the Settlement Office or Lan. I thought about telling Lan, at least, what I’d heard, but in the end I didn’t. It was plain that Mama and Papa didn’t want him knowing, nor me, either. I couldn’t unhear what I’d heard, but I could pretend I hadn’t heard it.
Three days later, Papa and Professor Graham and Professor Jeffries left to study the settlements.
They were gone most of the summer. We got letters every week, regular as dawn and dusk, and Mama read them out to us after dinner. Sometimes people from the college stopped by to ask how we were and how Papa was getting on—students and professors, mostly, though Dean Farley visited twice. Nobody ever came from the Homestead and Settlement Office.
Meantime, Mill City filled up with people. Some were from the settlements, farm families who’d decided to come in where it was certain-sure to be safe and where they could earn some money, since their crops for the year were gone. Some were from the East, new folks looking to get land from the Settlement Office. But there wasn’t much land left on the east side of the Mammoth River, and the Settlement Office was having enough trouble taking care of the hamlets and tinytowns they already had on the west side of the river. They weren’t starting up any new ones right then. So the Easterners mostly ended up angry and frustrated.
Papa came home in mid-August. He and Professor Jeffries just rode up one day all unexpected, and found Mama having tea with some students on the front porch. Papa and Professor Jeffries were dusty and sunburned, but Mama hugged both of them anyway, and so did the rest of us. Then Mama made them sit right down and have tea, too, though they were covered with dirt and she’d never in a million years have let any of the boys do such a thing.
The next day, Papa went down to the North Plains Territory Homestead Claim and Settlement Office. He came home cross as two sticks and locked himself in his study. Three days later, he sent out copies of his report on the settlements—not just to the Settlement Office, but to Uncle Martin in New Amsterdam, Mr. Loring in Washington (who was head of the Frontier Management Department that was in charge of all the country’s Homestead and Settlement offices), three or four senators and a dozen assemblymen who represented border states all along the Mammoth River, and the heads of the two biggest settler groups, even though one of them was halfway down the Mammoth River in the Middle Plains and had nothing to do with us.
From then until school
“I most certainly can,” Mama said. “I’m his mother, and I’m not an employee of this college, nor of the Settlement Office, either.”
“Rothmer—”
“I’ll reserve the train tickets while she’s at the Settlement Office,” Papa said. “Do you want to take anyone else, Sara? It might save some face at the Settlement Office if we make the trip look like a family visit.”
“At the moment, I really don’t care how foolish the Settlement Office looks,” Mama said. “But we can discuss it on the ride into town, if you think there’s need.”
And that was that. Just as soon as they could get the buggy hitched up, Papa and Mama and Professor Graham were off to town. They stayed away the whole rest of the day, and I would have given my best Sunday dress and a year’s growth to have been able to see what happened when Mama arrived at the Settlement Office. I almost went and asked Rennie if she’d do a scrying spell to see, but I’d have had to tell her why, and Rennie couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure she could work a scry spell. She never paid much attention to her magic lessons, that I ever saw, and even if she’d learned scrying, there was a good chance she’d forgotten how since she graduated from the upper school.
Mama and Papa were home in time for dinner, and they didn’t say one thing about the Settlement Office or Lan. I thought about telling Lan, at least, what I’d heard, but in the end I didn’t. It was plain that Mama and Papa didn’t want him knowing, nor me, either. I couldn’t unhear what I’d heard, but I could pretend I hadn’t heard it.
Three days later, Papa and Professor Graham and Professor Jeffries left to study the settlements.
They were gone most of the summer. We got letters every week, regular as dawn and dusk, and Mama read them out to us after dinner. Sometimes people from the college stopped by to ask how we were and how Papa was getting on—students and professors, mostly, though Dean Farley visited twice. Nobody ever came from the Homestead and Settlement Office.
Meantime, Mill City filled up with people. Some were from the settlements, farm families who’d decided to come in where it was certain-sure to be safe and where they could earn some money, since their crops for the year were gone. Some were from the East, new folks looking to get land from the Settlement Office. But there wasn’t much land left on the east side of the Mammoth River, and the Settlement Office was having enough trouble taking care of the hamlets and tinytowns they already had on the west side of the river. They weren’t starting up any new ones right then. So the Easterners mostly ended up angry and frustrated.
Papa came home in mid-August. He and Professor Jeffries just rode up one day all unexpected, and found Mama having tea with some students on the front porch. Papa and Professor Jeffries were dusty and sunburned, but Mama hugged both of them anyway, and so did the rest of us. Then Mama made them sit right down and have tea, too, though they were covered with dirt and she’d never in a million years have let any of the boys do such a thing.
The next day, Papa went down to the North Plains Territory Homestead Claim and Settlement Office. He came home cross as two sticks and locked himself in his study. Three days later, he sent out copies of his report on the settlements—not just to the Settlement Office, but to Uncle Martin in New Amsterdam, Mr. Loring in Washington (who was head of the Frontier Management Department that was in charge of all the country’s Homestead and Settlement offices), three or four senators and a dozen assemblymen who represented border states all along the Mammoth River, and the heads of the two biggest settler groups, even though one of them was halfway down the Mammoth River in the Middle Plains and had nothing to do with us.
From then until school
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