The Ogress and the Orphans

While the Matron and Myron get the kids ready for bed, Anthea reads her to-do list, finding she’s done everything but organize the reading room. In truth, she keeps the item on the list so she can claim she has work to do while taking time for herself. In addition, the room seems to reorganize itself, and different books appear on the shelves at different times. Anthea pulls down a volume on crows and starts to read, unconcerned about the late hour. Time somehow works differently in the reading room, and “the more time the children spent there, the more time they seemed to have” (107).

Bartleby and Cass arrive. Anthea tries to get them to leave, but they stay and convince her to tell them her theory about the crows around town. Anthea’s noticed that whenever they hear crows at night, there is a box from their benefactor the next morning, and she believes the crows are responsible for the gifts. Anthea is fluent in the crow language, and she hears them outside, calling “the more you give, the more you have” (114).