(eng) Patricia C. Wrede - Frontier Magic 01 by Thirteenth Child

Author:Thirteenth Child [Child, Thirteenth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

THAT FALL, LAN WENT BACK EAST TO A BOARDING SCHOOL IN Pennsylvania. I’d known, out on the edge of my mind, that he and Papa had been talking about it all spring while Mama was in her cast, but I’d been too busy to pay it much mind. Papa said that it was time Lan had different magic teachers, who could show him a wider range of techniques.

Lan didn’t seem too pleased with the notion. He said he wanted to stay in Mill City and go to the upper school that Allie and Robbie were in and study magic with Papa and the other college professors, the way he’d been doing. But Papa said the Mill City upper school wouldn’t give him the theoretical grounding he needed, and picking up bits and pieces from the other professors wasn’t anything like the kind of education he’d get from a top-drawer Eastern school.

I heard them arguing about it more than once before Lan agreed to go. After a while, I noticed that Papa never once said straight out that Lan was a double-seventh son, but he talked a lot about how Lan needed to stretch and challenge himself and about reaching his full potential. He’d never talked like that to any of the other boys.

He didn’t fool Lan one bit, either. A week after school let out, Lan came looking for me. I was out behind the house with Allie and Nan, beating the winter’s dirt and dust out of the big parlor rug. It should have been done weeks before with the other carpets, but we’d left it for last because it was so large, and then had gotten busy with other things. Whaling away with the carpet beaters was usually fun, but that day was warm, with no wind to carry the dust off, so it was just hot, sweaty, dirty work. It is truly amazing how much dust and dirt you can pound out of a carpet in the spring, even one that’s been sitting in a room that’s hardly ever used.

We’d almost finished going over the carpet when Lan showed up with two buckets and asked if I could go frogging with him. I wasn’t slow about putting my carpet beater aside, though I wondered what Lan really wanted. He usually went fishing or frogging with one of the boys from down the hill, or by himself, if they couldn’t come.

Lan handed me a bucket, and we started for the creek. As soon as we were well out of earshot, he said abruptly, “You know Papa’s been at me to go to this boarding school out East, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“What do you think of it?”

“What do I think of it?” I stared at him. “That’s for you and Papa to decide, surely.”

“Yes, but you’re my twin,” Lan said impatiently. “And…well, what if you need me again?”

“Need you…Oh, you mean if Tad Holiger starts in on me again?” I considered. “He hasn’t bothered me or William since that time last winter.

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