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“What are you up to?” she said at last

“Cynthia,” he said, “is your intuition in running order? Is this earthquake weather? Is the land going to sink? Will war be declared? Or is it only that our delphiniuht?”

“Hold on Let me feel my bones”

He opened his eyes and watched Cynthia in turn closing hers and sitting absolutely statue-still, her hands on her knees Finally she shook her head and smiled

“No No war declared No land sinking Not even a blight Why?”

“I’ve met a lot of Doom Talkers today Well, two, anyway, and—”

The screen door burst wide Fortnum’s body jerked as if he had been struck “What!”

Toardener’s wooden flat in his arms, stepped out on the porch

“Sorry,” he said “What’s wrong, Dad?”

“Nothing,” Fortnu “Is that the crop?”

Toreat In just seven hours, with lots of water, look how big the darn things are!” He set the flat on the table between his parents

The crop was indeed plentiful Hundreds of s up in the damp soil

“I’ll bek” said Fortnum, impressed

Cynthia put out her hand to touch the flat, then took it away uneasily

“I hate to be a spoilsport, but … there’s no way for these to be anything else but mushrooms, is there?”