[Tevildo]

After warmly greeting Marigold and lauding her determination to learn to read, Miz Bella excused herself and returned to her desk in the adjoining chamber in order to put the finishing touches on the first day's lessons. She left Camille and Marigold with instructions to continue setting up the classroom and the books from Mayor Samwise. She was pleased to note that Ginger, one of the servers at the Inn, had come in to help them.

As the door between the chambers closed, Camille beckoned to Marigold with an inviting hand, "Come here and see what Ginger and I are doing." There were a great many piles of books strewn all over the floor in one corner of the room. Ginger was studiously working but gave a brief nod of welcome to Marigold. The books seemed to be sorted according to size, height, and color. Ginger would separate the volumes into piles and have Camille set them neatly on the shelves.

Turning to Marigold, Camille explained, "Miz Bella asked me to put the books in order. She had said we might do it by title. But Ginger thought of a much better scheme: to arrange the books by size and height. She's so smart. And I had another idea, too. I suggested we sort the piles by color. Very pretty, don't you think? I did try it by title but the big and little books were all mixed up in a jumble. I'm sure Miz Bella will like this better." Camille did not bother mentioning that she had only succeeded in alphabetizing three of the volumes, which were at the very beginning of the alphabet.

The young hobbit lass pointed triumphantly to a long shelf on the wall where there were a series of red books all in a row: fat ones on one end, skinny ones on the other, and the very tallest in the middle. A few picture books sat on the lower shelf. Camille beamed proudly at her handiwork, observing, "I've seen Cook store her bowls in the kitchen just like this: big ones in one cupboard, another for smaller ones, and the third for those that are middle-sized. So it should work well with books. I hope Miz Bella will be pleased."

With that, the young hobbit set back to work, mentioning to Marigold, "If you'd like, you can help us to sort the rest...."