He blinked awake and gradually became aware that someone sat across the room on the ledge of the dark and empty hearth. He raised his head. You missed church, said Andrew. Andrew rested his chin on his knees, his legs pulled up close and his arms wrapped around his shins. I try to. Mamma say you can miss church but not the Big-To-Do. What time is it? Afternoon sometime. Some of us already gone over. Mamma said wait on you. Why didn't you wake me? Believe I did. Cassius raised his head higher and saw The Iliad on the floor at Andrew's feet. Andrew had dropped it, possibly more than once, which explained the sound of a door slamming in his dream. A folded sheet of paper that had been hidden between the pages had come partway out when Andrew dropped the book. Cassius rose from his pallet and as he took the book off the floor, he pushed the sheet of paper back and put both The Iliad and The Odyssey out of sight. Leaving out a book was careless, and he could not afford to be careless.
