ElsBeth and the Privateer, Book II in the Cape Cod Witch Series. J Bean Palmer

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      ElsBeth slid to the floor and rolled around, shaking with belly laughs. That would be something!

      Professor Badinoff cleared his throat. He was an important and renowned intellect, after all, and didn’t often have students rolling on the floor during math lessons. This wasn’t the expected or proper behavior.

      “Yes, well, as I was saying …” the professor continued.

      Badinoff pointed to the extensive collection of rubber, tree frogs ElsBeth kept in her room. “ElsBeth, count out one hundred frogs, please.”

      ElsBeth busily added up the required number of amphibians and placed them around on the hooked rug by her bed.

      The professor flew to the slate chalkboard he used for mathematics lessons. He wrote neatly, in fancy script, “100 divided by 5=?”

      He then directed ElsBeth to separate the one hundred frogs into five equal piles. ElsBeth divided the tree frogs by color, because she liked the look of it that way, and put the green, brown, purple, orange and red frogs in their own neat rows.

      “Now, ElsBeth, count how many frogs are in each group, please,” the professor instructed in his serious teaching voice.

      ElsBeth carefully added up the number of frogs in each group, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth with the effort to keep track. “Twenty! There are exactly twenty in each.”

      “Precisely,” said Badinoff. And flapping his wing over the slate, he erased the question mark and wrote “20” in its place. “The quotient is twenty.”

      ElsBeth frowned. “What’s a quotient?”

      Badinoff smiled, his exceptional ears perking up. “Excellent question, ElsBeth. The word ‘quotient’ comes to us from Latin, an important language for magical beings, by the way.

      “In Latin the word means ‘how many times.’ The basic idea is ‘how many.’ So, if you had one hundred frogs, and you wanted to split them up into five groups — so you could have them jump out from all sides and surprise someone, for example — you would have a tidy total of twenty frogs in each group.

      “Finding a quotient comes in handy for cooking and spell making, and dividing and placing your troops in any serious battle — just to name a few uses off the top of my head,” he added modestly.

      “I would love to have a hundred frogs jump out and surprise Ms. Finch when she’s picking on me. Or at Robert Hillman-Jones when he’s pulling my braids. I never knew mathematics could be so extremely useful.

      “Thank you, Professor,” she added respectfully.

      Professor Badinoff puffed out his chest and lightly fluttered his wings at the sudden interest he had inspired in his young pupil.

      He was about to continue the lesson and get into his favorite Einstein equations when he took a second look at ElsBeth’s shining face. He saw that she had learned something important and that it was time to end off for now.

      So instead of diving into the next lesson, the wise bat said, “Well … er … yes. I think that is enough for today. Well done, ElsBeth.”

      And with a quick sweep of his wings he erased the board and took off out the window, looking for someone with whom he could debate some of Einstein’s less well understood theories, a favorite pastime when not teaching ElsBeth, or gobbling up some of those tasty New England mosquitoes.

      Chapter 4

      A Witch’s Dreams Begin Again

      That night ElsBeth crawled happily into bed. She could see the silvery moon through her window. It seemed to be winking at her in a friendly fashion.

      The stars were twinkling, too. Her lids grew heavy and she soon dropped off to sleep. But it was a fitful sleep and full of dreams. Oh, what dreams …

      “ElsBeth, save me!” Robert Hillman-Jones, dressed in his expensive Abercrombie & Fitch clothes, was covered in muck and stumbling down a tunnel. ElsBeth called over and over for him to stop, but her classmate ran on deeper and deeper into the darkness.

      Something was after him, and ElsBeth couldn’t catch up. She fell farther and farther behind. She was so tired. But she couldn’t stop. She felt a cold, creepy presence not of this earth.

      Now something chased ElsBeth! She tried to run faster, but the muck sucked at her sneakers. The thing behind her closed in. Her heart raced. She couldn’t go any faster and it was almost upon her. ElsBeth collapsed, and waited for the end … but nothing happened.

      “Wake up, dear. It’s time to get up.”

      Instead of cold slimy mud, ElsBeth felt warm soft hands on her forehead. And heard her grandmother’s musical voice.

      ElsBeth blinked. She unconsciously rubbed the bat birthmark on her heel. It was morning. The sun was already up and she was tangled wrong way to in the half-moon comforter on her little captain’s bed.

      Sylvanas was perched on the headboard, looking both disinterested and concerned at the same time. In the chair by the bed her grandmother smiled gently.

      Grandmother still looked distracted, but the important thing was that she was there.

      ElsBeth relaxed. It was just a bad dream. But Grandmother had cautioned her before that a witch’s dreams could be important. She must write everything down in her diary before she forgot.

      ElsBeth took up the small leather-bound book she kept on her bedside table. She pulled the lavender velvet ribbon, opening to the next blank page.

      The silver bat that weighted the end of the ribbon flashed in the morning sun, sending its reflection so it looked like a small bat was flitting about the room. The little witch scribbled everything she could remember.

      This was the first dream she’d had since Halloween. Then she had dreamt of the pirate Billy Bowlegs and his awesome treasure. And that dream had turned out to be true.

      While ElsBeth wrote, Hannah stood up, then turned around, confused. She backed up and plopped down into the rocking chair by the window.

      The older witch shook her head and said out loud — but seemed to be talking to herself, “This isn’t good. This is just not good.”

      Hannah looked like she was in some kind of trance. She got up again, patted ElsBeth’s head, and slowly wandered out, seeming to forget that ElsBeth was even there.

      ElsBeth had never felt so alone as she watched her grandmother leave, without even asking her about her dream.

      What could be wrong with Grandmother, she worried again as she pulled on her purple sneakers and got ready for school.

      Chapter 5

      School — Again!

      When СКАЧАТЬ