Page 65 of Charlotte

“I know.”

“If he does not, it may have nothing to do with you.”

“I know that too.”

Knowing, Lottie was discovering, did not always settle a heart into obedience.

The little library had gained another shelf that morning. Mr. Stafford had sent over rough planks, and Mr. Olsen had installed them under Cornelia’s supervision and Delly’s written instructions. The room was beginning to look less like a storage place for books and more like a promise learning to stand upright.

The nature section had claimed the end of the first shelf. It was not yet much of a section. One pressed camas lay drying between scrap papers beneath Shakespeare. A child had brought in a feather and then taken it home again because his sister cried.

A woman from the mercantile had donated two clean sheets of writing paper, and Mrs. Beck had promised ribbon, which Delly said was not a classification method no matter how cheerfully applied.

Lottie had labeled a folded sheet: Wild Rose Ridge Field Pages.

It sounded official.

It contained one flower, two empty pages, and a smudge where Mrs. Hanford had inspected the ink before it dried.

A boy came in near noon with a folded paper and a serious expression.

“Miss Bellamy?”

“Yes?”

“Mr. Peterson said to give you this.”

Lottie stood so quickly her knee struck the table leg.

The boy handed over the paper, then looked toward the cookie tin. “Mrs. Beck said readers may have one.”

“Are you a reader?”

“I can be.”

“Then you may have one.”

He took two before she could correct him and fled.

Lottie looked down at the folded paper in her hand. It was rough-edged and creased once through the middle. Her name was written on the outside.

Miss Bellamy.

Not Lottie.

She told herself not to be disappointed. A written name was not the same as a spoken one. Perhaps Miss Bellamy was safer in ink.

Inside were three drawings.

Not fancy drawings. Nothing shaded or ornamental. But clear. A deer track, a raccoon print, and the small, neat shape of a squirrel’s foot. Under each, Peterson had written where one might find the track and how to tell it from something similar.

Deer: heart-shaped, sharp point if ground soft.

Raccoon: like small hands. Near water, mostly.

Squirrel: front feet smaller, hind feet longer. Trouble near sacks and roof beams.

Lottie smiled so hard her cheeks hurt.