The air began to get rather cold as she paddled past Ireland and the jagged fjords of Norway. She shivered, realizing the North Pole must be somewhere ahead and the air would only get colder as she approached it. But she felt that she had seen a picture of Mount Everest covered in snow. Perhaps she should keep going. Dodging an iceberg, she noticed a group … pod?… pack?… of rather dismal-looking penguins milling about on an icy coast nearby. While she wanted to stop to admire them, she had a patron waiting for an answer. Steeling herself against the freezing air, she continued across the tossing and ice-strewn Arctic Ocean, looking for tall mountains.

Suddenly, she dug her oars into the water as a realization hit her. The rowboat bounced and swayed as she ground, or rather watered, to a halt.

Lenora might not have known much about cartography. But she did know penguins. And everyone who knows about penguins knows they live near the South Pole, not the North. Those dismal-looking penguins were far, far from home. She remembered the words of the Oath: Do you swear to find a path for those who are lost?

As a librarian, it was her job to help these castaway penguins, even if it meant a delay for another patron. She hauled on the oars until she was back facing the penguins on their little island. Soon she had rowed her way up to the bunch (group? pod? herd?) of confused-looking birds.

“Hello,” said Lenora. “How may I help you?”

The penguins looked at her and flapped their wings in distress and made various honks and squeals, but nothing that Lenora could understand.

“Rats,” said Lenora. She opened her notebook. Penguins can’t speak English, she wrote. Got lucky with the belugas.

Then she noticed, beside the penguins, a half-opened cardboard box labeled FOR LIBRARIANS ONLY. She pulled open a flap. Inside, nestled amid foam packing peanuts, were several pairs of headphones, each with a mini-microphone. PENGUIN TRANSLATOR 3000 was stamped on each. How convenient, thought Lenora. She put one on.

“Hello,” said Lenora. “How may I help you?”

CHAPTER NINE

Lenora Ascends the Summit

“Oh, thank heavens,” said one of the penguins to Lenora. “We’ve been hoping a librarian would come by. You see, when the globe was built, we were dropped off in the wrong place. We’re terribly lost.”

“I think I can help you,” said Lenora. “Climb aboard! By the way, what do you call a, er, gathering of penguins?”

“We’re known as a colony, a rookery, or a waddle,” said the birds, clambering over the side of the rowboat as it swayed wildly. “But really you can call us whatever you like. Unlike beluga whales, we’re not hypersensitive about it.”