God’s Ring Fingers, This Book Is Great!

24th DAY OF FEBRUARY, Feast of Saint Matthias, who preached to cannibals

Dennis called on Sunday, and let us know, among other things, that we should be expecting an agent from Los Gatos and her clients on Tuesday, between noon and 1:00p; since Dennis wasn’t feeling at all well, I was nominated to fill in…

Come Tuesday noon, the house was spiffed, Her Majesty en crate, and the vehicles outside the fence. What’s a girl to do? Grab a book, of course. On the side table in the living room was Seumas MacManus’ The Story of the Irish Race. I picked up where I’d left off, and pretty soon got lost in all the place names. Hoping against hope, I checked in the library, but no world atlas. OTOH, up one shelf and to the left from where the map sorts of books live are the (generally) Irish/Ireland books, and stuck in there was a little gem (besides that it’s a Newbery Honor Book).

I pulled Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, off the shelf, because it didn’t look familiar, but definitely sounded interesting. Boy, was I ever right this time!!

Catherine, the daughter of a minor knight and his lady wife, is in her thirteenth year, in the year of Our Lord 1290, in England. The book begins thusly:

12th DAY OF SEPTEMBER
I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.

Once I picked myself off the floor and carried on, there was quite a bit more hysterics following. I got quite a bit into the book, as our house viewers didn’t arrive until 1:30 or so, and discovered there was quite a bit more to Birdy’s life than silliness: when she finally gets to witness a hanging in a village, whether her curses actually work, dealing with her mother’s miscarriage, the wedding of the abomination (her brother, Robert)…

As soon as my Dennis impersonation duties were completed, back to Birdy I went, and finished up this evening. Oh my, well worth the effort! And I do wonder how she made out once she left home.

I can only hope that Saint Matthias had a fork with him…