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…
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