Old Green World Read Online Free Page A

well at market?” Arto said. “We do well because you always come to us first and trade with us. You trade for the Newtons. And you always have, since the very beginning.”
    “It’s selfish. You have the best cart,” Mister Ewan said. He looked at Albert. “I remember when you were a baby. Your father had just started to bring the cart. You would roam around all day talking to everyone. Charming everyone.”
    “He loved the butcher,” Arto said. “One time he disappeared for hours, have I told you this story? I was terrified. His mothers would kill me if I lost him. And so I run around the market in a panic, and turn over every rug and every cart, and then when I get back to ours he is just sitting there, covered in blood and offal, and smiling and saying, ‘I was helping the butcher.’”
    Mary Hawking drifted over to them from her cart. She sold spices. Arto was talking, but she interrupted him. “The Baixans are sneaking in, did you know that? On their boats. All quiet-like. If they knew what was good for them, they’d turn around and jump back into the sea.” She punched Albert’s arm. “Before we send you at them.”
    Samuel Bohm had joined in by now. He built furniture. “I heard they’re down south, somewhere with nothing but rocks and beasts. I heard they’re going to settle in and make a town. Then, when they have a town, they’ll attack us and say the Island is theirs.”
    Geoffrey Pauli sat in the cart next to Arto’s, selling his pottery. His son Harald sat next to him and ate a small rhubarb cake that Albert had given him. Geoffrey wiped some cake off of Harald and then made a face at Samuel. “How do you know all this about the Baixans, if there’s nothing where they are?”
    “Mal Planck heard it from one of the Adepts,” Samuel said.
    “So the Adepts know this. The Adepts ,” Geoffrey said. “And, knowing this, they are just letting the Baixans do it.”
    “I don’t know, maybe the Adepts have something up their sleeve. Maybe they’re just waiting for Albert to finish school in a few weeks, so he can send them all crashing back into the sea.” Samuel gave Albert a gentle punch on the arm as well. Albert had gotten a lot of gentle punches recently.
    “I’ll believe it when I see a Baixan,” Geoffrey said. Samuel started to say something, but Geoffrey was already walking to the other side of the cart.
    They sold out of most of their supply in a blur of a morning. By lunch, everyone had gotten their shopping and their gossip out of the way. They sat quietly while Arto counted the money. Most of the White Islanders still found money bizarre and frightening, but Arto had taken to it. “It stands in for things you trade. We had something like this in Viru. I understand some things,” he had said to Albert.
    Albert went to get pies for his father and himself from a cart down the way. On the way there, he went to the book cart. The volumes were large, sewn with hide on the front. “The sisters put the words on them at school,” he said to Harriet, the book vendor.
    “We just have ones with words on them already. Because I’m not an Adept.” Harriet smiled. “I have plenty of books, though, and I know them all. So you can come and talk to me. And I can talk to Sister Clare if you want something I don’t have.”
    “Do you have any physics?” Albert asked.
    Harriet picked up a volume. “This is called the Feynman Lectures. I tried to read it once. It’s difficult. I didn’t understand it!” She laughed. “Do you study physics at school?”
    “Thomas does. Physics is mostly for Administrators, I guess.” Albert said. “Do you have any sutras?” She had a book with sutras and stories of bodhisattvas. He paged through it. It had pictures: images of the Buddha and mandalas.
    The traffic at the cart picked up a bit right after lunch, but then dropped off again. Arto was relieved; he was running low in stock and hated to turn people away. They sat in the cart, and Albert