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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 18, 2015 2:48:57 GMT -5
If pressed, Elsie could definitely have named every single one of her father's books. She could remember somewhere between fifty and a hundred titles, almost exclusively on herbology and the care of magical creatures. If she was pressed just a little bit harder, she could also name the twenty novels that her mother owned. And given the opportunity, she'd be more than happy to tell you that her father had read each of the sordid romance novels at least a dozen times. It was a poorly kept secret on the farm that he had more than one reason for buying her mother such novels for Christmas every year, though no one would have been foolish enough to make a joke about it. One of the reasons that she had been finally convinced to attend Cascade was that her grandfather had told her that there were hundreds of books in their library, a feat that the Australian Institute for Adolescent Witches and Wizards definitely couldn't match. The school had only been open since Federation, a measly nineteen years, and no time at all to accumulate books.
Walking into the library, Elsie was quite sure that her grandfather had understated the number of books. The walls were lined with them, books of all shapes, sizes and colours. There was even a staircase that pointed downstairs to the stacks, a whole other world of books that she wasn't allowed to access yet. Elsie just stood in the middle of the library, trying to contemplate what all of these books could possibly contain. It helped when she compared her father's selection of the best herbology books to the room, if just the cream of one subject could fill a whole bookshelf, maybe all of these books could have useful stuff in them. After all, the school was hardly likely to just have the best, they'd have all kinds of variety.
She quickly grew aware that she might be making both a spectacle and a nuisance of herself. That city folk took those born out in the sticks as a joke was pretty well known, and Elsie was going to do her best to avoid that particular stereotype. She took a seat at one of the desks, and continued to marvel at all of the books silently. How would you even begin to try and choose one to read? The overwhelming amount of choice was just... overwhelming. Elsie decided to use the excuse of 'struck dumb' for her lack of eloquence on that one.
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 18, 2015 3:11:05 GMT -5
Mary set down a pile of books and straightened the badge on her chest: LIBRARY STAFF. She liked her badge, really, and she liked working in the library. She didn't necessarily like how the wealthy students tended to look down on her, but ... well, it was certainly a huge step up from caring for her loud, messy younger siblings. When she made a mistake in the library, nobody hit her. In the worst-case scenario, they would look at her sternly and demand that she reorganize or go find the misplaced book or anything that was needed to correct her foolish error.
Oh, she was being silly ... but, really, after a summer back home? It was difficult not to reflect. She tugged at her sleeve, trying in vain to force it to cover the bruising around her wrist. But, no, the shirt was too small and the sleeves were not long enough to cover the injury. Her father was truly a brute. Mary did not miss him.
Well, this was a foolish train of thought. She was getting distracted when she had important work to do. The books needed to be returned to their proper places on the shelves. A few of them had call numbers beginning with 109, so she gathered them up in her arms and began to make her way to the appropriate shelf just before noticing the girl staring around in wonder. The girl then proceeded to sit at a table, attempting to make it look natural, but she continued to gaze around at the books, awe in her eyes.
Well, Mary was official library staff, was she not? She should offer some assistance. She hated this part of the job, though. Just walking up to someone and speaking? It was terrifying! But she forced herself forward, stopping in front of the unfamiliar girl and clearing her throat. "Um ... excuse me, but ... I work here. In the library. Um. And was wondering ... did you need me to help you find something?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 18, 2015 3:46:55 GMT -5
"How? How could you possibly find something in this... this absolute forest of books? There's got to be thousands upon thousands of them!" Imagine one person knowing exactly where each book was unless- "Wait, there's a catalogue, isn't there? Don't answer that." Elsie buried her face in her hands for a moment, before looking up again. "Sorry. I'm new. Just a little bit-" not again "-overwhelmed. There's so much stuff here, and I don't actually know anyone and... my accent. It doesn't do me any favours, really." Wow, way to be strong, Elsie. Just blubber to the first girl that actually talks to you and make yourself look like a complete twit.
Elsie stood up and offered the girl a hand to shake. "I'm Elsie. I just moved here from Australia. Do you really work in the library? Somehow I just thought they'd rope students into doing it, or hire someone from outside. How do you have time to study? Is the workload that light, or are you just crazily efficient? Am I blathering?" Come on, girl, you literally got kicked out of your last school for staging a coup. This is nothing. You're only on the opposite side of the world, a million kilometres away from everyone you've ever met. No biggie. "I wasn't exactly looking for anything in particular. Just, sort of, looking about. I guess. Libraries are usually pretty safe, as far as schools go, easy place to go to avoid a crowd."
It finally occurred to Elsie to actually take a good look at her new acquaintance, though even that might be going a bit far, and she was slightly confused. The girl seemed to be wearing a top that was definitely too small for her, and it didn't seem like a conscious effort in order to show off her chest, either. There was a scar, at least one, and Elsie had to stop herself from scowling. She'd known men like that, not in the biblical sense thank goodness, and one she'd given a good long scar of his own down his cheek. Elsie decided that she'd stared long enough, and stopped consciously, grinning at the girl, and trying to keep from moving about as she stood. Restless, like a pack of dogs her mum had dubbed her sisters and her.
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 18, 2015 4:28:24 GMT -5
Mary's eyes opened to the size of dinner plates as she took in Elsie's response, and she struggled against the increase in her heart rate. There was no reason to panic. She hadn't done anything wrong, and Elsie's emotional reply hadn't really been related to Mary, only to her own stress. And, of course, she was under considerable stress! She'd just arrived from across the world, and she didn't know anybody, and there were a lot of books, after all.
This is all right. This was not your fault. Fight the panic.
Mary gave her best smile as she shook Elsie's hand, and a compassionate look came into her eyes. "That's all right," she assured her. "I'm Mary, and, yes, there's a catalog and an organized numbering system and ... and it makes the library much easier, really. Don't worry. And I think your accent is very pretty."
Oh, but the awkwardness. How to explain? Well, my parents are dirt poor and have far too many children and my father lost his job because he's a lousy drunk and -
"I, well, I'm out of place, too. And I work here a few hours a week in order to ... to balance out some ... financial details. Um. So there's still plenty of time to study, and yes, the library is always quiet on the first day of classes. Um." She tacked a grin onto the end of the sentence, having staved off the panic attack that always loomed when other people experienced strong emotions.
"It's all right, really. It must be difficult to transfer to a different school in a different country. But I'm sure you'll make friends very soon!" After all, judging by the fine materials of her clothing, Elsie's family had more than enough money to ensure that she could fit in with the majority of the student population. It also didn't hurt that she was strikingly pretty, not a plain Jane like Mary herself. She felt a flush rise in her cheeks, and unconsciously tugged at her sleeve once again.
"Um. Well, what house are you in? I'm in Aqua."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 18, 2015 4:50:14 GMT -5
Elsie noticed, but neither comprehended or commented on Mary's strange reaction to her babbling. Was she really that overbearing? Or was there something else at play, like shyness or something. Elsie couldn't tell, and she could hardly ask. If the girl- Mary- had been willing to tell her, she probably already would have. Everyone deserved to limit who they told their weaknesses to, in her opinion. And no matter how 'brash' people, or more specifically, men, thought she was, she could be very sensitive when she wanted to be. Sometimes.
"Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It just didn't occur to me straight away, we only had a few books at my place, and the Australian school... Books were not high on the agenda. They take a practical approach, because, well, they just haven't had the time or budget to collect all of this." She gestured to the books, even though it was fairly clear what she was talking about. "Thanks. I've got a bit of a complex about the whole 'farm girl' thing, but I generally calm down after a bit. Though I did set one of the city boys on fire for making a couple of insulting comments about my little sister."
Elsie winced at the word 'financial', definitely aware of the faux pas that she had committed. Mary seemed willing to overlook her blunder though, so Elsie just smiled and nodded. "We birds of a feather should flock together, I guess. All of the people around here seem so sure of themselves, so certain in who they are. It's crazy, what kind of teenagers have that kind of confidence?"
"You seem very confident about that, but I'm not so sure. I mean, I'm so used to spending time in places where there's nothing around for hundreds of kilometres- I mean miles. Dirt under my nails, and a bloody blast-ended skrewt gone rogue. A lot of these people are all, you know, parties and dances and dresses and fancy stuff. Even the uniform- eugh! It's disgusting, I think, worse than uniforms usually are. But then again, you seem really at home in here, with all these books. I can't imagine that, just being here seems so surreal!
"I'm in the one that sounds like a cross between fury and Diego. Yours sounds much easier to remember. We didn't even have houses in the Aussie Institute, they were trying to be all rebellious and not British." Elsie decided that she liked Mary, that she found it strange still that the girl was hanging out here instead of with her friends, financial difficulties aside. On the off, and very sad possibility that Mary was mostly or entirely friendless, she would endeavour to change that.
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 18, 2015 19:04:35 GMT -5
Realizing that this person wasn't just going to dismiss her and walk away, Mary set the books down on the table and leaned comfortably against it, feeling her lips stretch into what might have been a somewhat manic-looking smile. She was making a friend! ... Right? She was, wasn't she? Well, at least she was having a conversation. That was progress in and of itself.
"Oh, yes, this school has been around for about two hundred years, so they've had time to build up quite a collection ... you what?" She'd fought back in defense of her sister? That was just ... well, where did she get the courage? How? Mary would simply have stared at her feet and walked quickly away, blushing with tears in her eyes. "You're so brave! I wish ... well, I wish I could do things like that. I just get so nervous and I walk away and then I feel silly and ashamed."
Nodding with a far-away look in her eyes, Mary sighed in agreement with Elsie's statement about the confidence of the students. "It's true. I don't understand it, myself. Certainly I feel comfortable and confident in here with the books, but otherwise ... well, the students here can be cruel to those whom they perceive as outsiders. ... Oh, but, I mean - or, I don't mean that you should be concerned because, well ... you're pretty. And you're not poor. Poverty seems to ... stain people, somehow. I think that you'll do better than I have. It will be easier, farm girl or not. I ... I'm sorry, that's very ... impertinent of me."
Fortunately, Mary was rescued by the mention of Fuego house. "Oh, Fuego! That seems perfect for you. Brave enough to set fire to a mean boy? And, of course, fuego means fire, which ... well, you probably know that, I'm sorry, I'm babbling."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 18, 2015 19:44:54 GMT -5
"Don't say that like it's something to be admired, it's what got me sent halfway around the world. I just, y'know, grew up telling boys what to do. Getting to school and having them not do what they were told to do, even when it was the cleverest thing to do... It didn't sit well with me. But apparently I don't sit well with most people's 'sensibilities'." So much so that her sisters had been betting on how long she would manage before being expelled. The oldest had trusted her as far as six months, but none of the others had wagered any further along than that. "The only other city I've been in before was Darwin, and that was to get on the boat to come here. I'm worried I'm going to end up arrested for something I don't even know I should be doing."
Unfortunately, it seemed that students everywhere were of the same breed. "It's like they attack outsiders so that they themselves don't get attack. It's just cowardly. But it's not like anyway can really do anything about it, we're just supposed to keep our heads down and work." Keeping her head down was definitely not one of Elsie's skills, and she didn't have the patience to keep up some kind of docile disguise for the next three years she would be here. Especially not if it meant she would then get married to some arsehole and have to keep it up for the rest of her life. That, to her at least, sounded like the most horrible of fates. Her sisters had teased her about being an old maid at fifteen, but in her mind that was at least better than marrying some guy who beat you.
"Oh, no, don't worry. I've been through that back home, and it doesn't exactly work out how you'd expect. The richer they are, the more they expect you to act like a lady, which clearly I am not good at, and the more they ostracise you for not being a lady. Poor, tough women can dominate their husbands and run things. Rich tough women have to at least pretend not to run their husband." Poverty stained people? Elsie's worries about the school just intensified. She didn't have the slightest clue how to act in 'a manner appropriate for a lady', and she'd been friends with people much, much poorer than her all her life. Somehow being the token rich girl in a bunch of much less wealthy people sounded like it might make her more of a target.
At the very least, if things went too badly, she'd be sent home. It's not like she would ever have to worry about employment, there was always a place for her on her father's farm. And she could wipe the floor with any of the boys here at Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology. "Poetic irony, I think that's called, isn't it? Maybe I should make fire my weapon of choice then," she grinned. Starting another coup if everything went bad probably wasn't the worst idea after all.
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 19, 2015 5:25:31 GMT -5
Mary gazed thoughtfully down at her hands, struggling to process these ideas that were so very foreign to her. "Maybe ... maybe it got you in trouble, but doesn't it also help you? Because you were able to protect your sister, and that is important, and you could protect yourself against ... well, anybody. I suppose, if we were mixed together, we would make the perfect girl, sort of ... being aggressive at some times and staying silent at others."
Mary was certainly capable of defending herself, and she'd often fantasized about pulling out her wand and using some defensive spells on her father, but ... somehow she knew that it wouldn't matter even if she did. Something would happen, something would go wrong to ensure that she was left on the losing side regardless of how hard she fought. It was an accepted truth in her mind. There was simply nothing she could do.
But Elsie, the more she spoke, the more Mary felt as though the other girl were opening doors she'd never even dreamed of. For example, the idea that there were some downfalls to having wealth. From the outside, the other students seemed perfect and their group impenetrable, but maybe they were living lives or being people that were untrue for themselves. And was that worthwhile? Was it right to put such pressure on people?
Oh, foolish thoughts. She shouldn't indulge too much in philosophical meanderings. After all, somewhere there must be a boy who would be willing to make her his bride so that she'd never have to go back to her father's home. Boys didn't like philosophical girls, did they? And that was the goal; survival was the goal. Beside survival, nothing else mattered.
"Well, I suppose I don't know much about any of that. Well, except about the boys, of course. Boys don't like it when girls tell them what to do. But, really, you shouldn't worry so much. I'm sorry to have made that happen. It wasn't my intent. And, yes, you should work with fire! It seems to have ... chosen you, I suppose. Have you met any of the other Fuego students yet?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 19, 2015 5:54:50 GMT -5
"Almost a shame there's isn't some crazy machine that does such a thing. Of course, we could also make the worst girl. Angry and aggressive at the worst of times, and silent when it's most hurtful. Nigh-unbeatable, I'd say." Mary was right- Elsie didn't regret protecting her littlest sister for a second. Moving across the world for the sum total of her crimes was one heck of a punishment, but were she to go back, she'd do it again in a heartbeat. Elsie could tell that she was, in many ways, Mary's antithesis, but both of them could do with a little exposure to different worlds. She had no idea what it was like to be Mary, scared to stand up for herself, envious of the girls with money, unsure of her future. Elsie could do all of that, but she lacked Mary's calm respect, her tolerance. Her level-headedness, for sure. A little mixing would do them both good.
"Boy, bah! It's like our whole lives are supposed to revolve around them. Keep out of their way when we're little, talk about them constantly when we're older, take care of them when we get one. I'm not going to kowtow to some upstart who still puts his boots on the wrong feet." Why spend all that time at school if you were just going to leave it to marry some boy and spend the rest of your life taking care of him? Elsie thought the whole thing was utterly ridiculous. Though she wasn't as immune as she pretended to be. "It's okay Mary, I can deal with a little worry. Nerves have got to be good for something, I suppose." What, exactly, she didn't know, but complaining about nerves to a nervous person was too insensitive ever for her to blunder into.
"Not really. For the strong-willed house, they seem to mostly have a lot of things on their collective mind other than showing the new girl around. I think there was a first year who was actually helpful, but being shown around by a little first year is a tad embarrassing." She had missed half of her classes on the first day, out of sheer desperation from trying to find the correct classroom. The place was not built for ease of navigation, but it's looks, she had realised eventually. "Out of curiosity what do you do when you and in the library or studying? For fun, I mean? Or am I asking a very silly question because the answer is obviously 'reading'?"
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 21, 2015 19:05:18 GMT -5
"Oh ... well, that is a very good point. I hadn't thought of it that way." Goodness, she was just unbearably dim, wasn't she? The more they talked, the more Mary worried that Elsie would quickly become bored with her. Perhaps her lack of popularity was as simple as that: not a factor of her poverty or her half-blood status, but simply of her dullness. Really, the only exciting thing she'd ever done was to defy her parents' wishes and come to Cascade. It had just been too marvelous an opportunity to pass up. But she couldn't very well share this little story of rebellion, could she? It would mean revealing the truth about her mother, her mother's choices, her life.
Oh, how her life could have been different if her mother had come to Cascade.
"Boys are, in many ways, unlikeable ... crass, and entitled, but ... but I do not know how one can make a life for herself without them. There are so few opportunities ... but how I would love to be able to break away! To travel, or ... or to write. To write would be marvelous. I simply fear that ... well, I don't know. Never mind that."
I simply fear that my own capabilities are insufficient to the task.
Nerves ... perhaps they could be good for something if only she had fewer of them.
But Mary perked up a bit when Elsie mentioned not having been shown around yet. "Oh, well, I could give you a tour! First-years don't know much of anything, do they? I could do a much better job. That is, if you'd like me to. I will be working here until five, but then there will be time!
"As for fun, well ... I suppose I do read quite a bit, and I write, and there are a few people I like to talk to, but not many. And I like to walk the grounds sometimes, looking for pixies, because they can be terribly fun and tell you all sorts of things. I once was told by a pixie that I would be having a surprise quiz in Transfiguration, so I studied extra, and there was a quiz and I earned one hundred and three percent on it! Although, they sometimes lie ... more often than not, really. But I suppose you know all about them, having grown up surrounded by magical creatures?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 21, 2015 19:48:57 GMT -5
"Be fun though. I don't think anyone's let me prattle on about absolute nonsense for quite this long... ever. Usually someone's moaning and clutching their ears by about now," Elsie laughed, but it was hardly enough to disguise that her chatty nature was one of the things that she had genuine reservations about. And compared to someone like Mary, whose default mode seemed to be quiet and introspective, it really stood out to her. She felt like she was talking Mary's ear off, and half expected her one-and-only almost-friend to just disappear with some half-baked excuse.
"Forget boys, you're a writer? That's marvellous!" What a talent to have, Elsie could never manage to have anything she wrote come out as anything but aggressively mediocre. And that only because most things that she did were done aggressively. "What do you write?" Elsie asked eagerly, imagining reading something that someone she knew had written. Would it make the whole experience of reading different, or would she not be able to discern any change between reading something Mary had written than one of her mother's authors had.
Elsie nodded vigorously. "Definitely, a guided tour sounds fantastic. I promise I won't stand around ogling the books for the entire time between now and then." She wouldn't promise not to ogle- read individual books for the entire time. That would just be setting herself up to be called a liar.
"Pixies, I will tell you now, are the spawn of the bloody devil. A bunch of them took it upon rearrange my bedroom once, it was horrible. Couldn't find anything for months!" Elsie had a special corner of loathing in her for pixies and their antics. In her opinion, she was the troublemaker, and she didn't appreciate the competition that they gave. "They must really like you to have actually done something useful. Or maybe it didn't know, and you got lucky!"
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Mary Fulton
Aqua Student - Year 6
I just want everybody to get along
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Post by Mary Fulton on Jun 24, 2015 2:51:25 GMT -5
"Oh, you don't prattle!" Mary exclaimed. "Prattling is dull, and I do not find you dull at all. In fact, I ... well, I find myself worried that I am the dull one. I do not speak with other students very often." Well, if that wasn't the most obvious thing she could possibly have said. Oh, but Elsie seemed so excited about her writing! Mary couldn't help it; she flushed bright red.
She was a good writer, and she knew it, and she felt absolutely sinful for knowing it. But it was difficult not to take solace and pride in her skill when she was so unremarkable in every other way! This was new and different, but certainly, if she were careful, she could discuss her writing without sounding pompous ... couldn't she? "Yes, writing is so much fun! I keep a journal, in which I often write poetry, and I have been working on a longer story about ... well, family life, I suppose. And the longing that a young woman feels for adventure. ... Oh, as far as subject matter goes, I know it is terribly trite. It is my experiment with writing like Jane Austen: sharp tongues and all. It is quite a challenge, really, but I think it is coming along well."
That wasn't too bad, was it? Oh, she hoped she sounded modest enough. Although, on second thought, Elsie didn't exactly seem the type to judge her for being proud of her writings. Elsie, in fact, almost seemed like a Jane Austen character come to life. A Lizzy Bennet, or ... no, perhaps Elsie was who Emma Woodhouse became after the end of the novel, and Mary could be her Harriet!
Mary beamed when Elsie took her up on the offer of a tour, then looked horrorstruck at the idea of having her things upended by pixies. Not that Mary had enough possessions to fill a room, of course, but still ... all those parchment pages ... she shuddered at the thought. "Well, I don't know why the pixies would have a particular fondness for me, but they haven't tried anything like that. Perhaps there is a charm keeping them out of the school? But ... "
She was shocked when she glanced at the clock on the wall and saw how much time she had passed in conversation. Mr. Flynn always treated her kindly, and Mary did not want to repay his kindness by whiling away her work hours on activities that did not directly benefit the library. "Oh, my! I'm afraid I need to finish putting these books back in their places, but five o'clock? For a tour?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 24, 2015 20:11:15 GMT -5
Elsie could hardly believe that Mary thought she was the dull one. "I don't think you can be a writer and be dull. They're kind of mutually exclusive. What an imagination you must have!" Elsie had always thought that imagination was not one of her strong suits, she lived in a world where dragons and all kind of fantastical creatures were the norm, she'd never exercised her mind to try and imagine even crazier things than already populated her life.
"There are only supposed to be a handful of stories in the world anyway, aren't there? What really matters is how you tell the story." That sounded pretty calm in Elsie's opinion. Inside she was marvelling at the fact that Mary seemed to seek to rival Jane Austen, a feat that Elsie herself could never have imagined even attempting. Hers, she had long ago decided, would be a fun life, and full life, but not a life long remembered. "I supposed there will come the day when young girls are all clamouring to read your stories alongside Austen, and the Bronte sisters!" And Mary thought that she was dull, how preposterous! The world was open to a writer, always ready to hear the next great story that would sweep its way across the globe, changing lives. It seemed her mother had been proven right when she said that she would meet incredible, interesting people in America.
There were many reasons that the pixies might decide that they liked Mary. For one, she was quiet, and that made them seem noisier by comparison. For another, Elsie imagined that they would enjoy playing jokes on the people who had made Mary an outsider. Maybe these pixies had a sense of justice- unlike the little grey scoundrels back home. "That would be a good idea. In Australia, we have enough trouble with the charms to keep flies out, and that's on top of the flyscreens!"
"Five o'clock," Elsie agreed. There was plenty to do in the meantime, and she could certainly look forward to the guided tour. "Don't work too hard!"
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