The straw hat nodded. “Point made,” Matt Holcroft replied easily.

Anna marveled at how Matt Holcroft spoke to his son as if he was a man grown, and nearly Matt’s equal. Certainly her Ma and Pa had never spoken to or of her, as if she was grown, nor had Aunt Jinny. But then, Josh was bringing good cash money into the household on a very regular basis, so probably his father figured he’d earned the right to be treated as grown. She tried not to think too hard about the fact that she was doing the opposite, pulling money out of Jinny’s household rather than bringing it in.

’Cause I am helpin’ with the chores, and I am helpin’ with the potions, she reminded herself. And the more I larn, the more I c’n he’p.

Maybe one of these days she could actually do something her aunt couldn’t!

Josh was looking down at his statue, which looked perfect to her, but the discontent on his face suggested he thought he could have done better. “Iffen I gits th’ chance t’do a liddle one in marble, there’s a passel I could do t’make it purdier,” he said, looking up at her. “The wings ain’t quite right. Feathers don’t curve, they’s straight. The mouth ain’t right, neither. Face looks flat.”

Well, she didn’t see any of that. But maybe that was because he was an artist and she wasn’t?

She caught a little movement out of the corner of her eye, just as the wagon hit a section of rutted road and Josh reached out reflexively to steady his creation. To her amusement, a couple of the little Elemental critters, a mud-man and a thing made of chestnut leaves, nuts, and twigs, emerged from the straw. Had they been there all along? Or had they somehow just spontaneously generated from the straw? Or had they just appeared “by magic”?

The mud-man clambered over the straw and her ankle to come stand on the hind end of the statue, looking down at it, as if examining it critically. The other one climbed her skirt to tug at her hand. She opened it obediently, and it climbed into her palm to survey the statue from this loftier perch. She repressed a giggle—held it back because Josh would have no idea what she was laughing at—when she heard a snort from Josh.

She looked up to see he was staring at her hand, grinning, as if he could see the Elemental too.

Then he looked up to meet her astonished eyes.

You seed ’em too? she mouthed at him.

He nodded.

What ’bout yore Pa?

He shook his head, then mouthed back at her, We’ll talk later.

Well, she durned well hoped they’d talk later! The fact that he could see the Elementals too made her so excited she wanted to bust!

But the two critters evidently had seen all they cared to. The one in her hand hopped down and buried itself in the straw, followed by the mud-man. And when she cautiously parted the straw where they had vanished, there was nothing there.