The Ogress and the Orphans

The stone reveals that a dragon burned down the Library. While the rest of the town tried to stop the fire, Myron rescued as many books as he could, sustaining burns to his skin and damage to his lungs. The stone managed to warn Myron that the books were not safe because “he is still here” (67). Myron moved the books to the Orphan House and never told anyone.

At the Orphan House, Anthea is in a foul mood until Myron asks what the matter is, making her burst into tears. She doesn’t tell him because she can’t bring herself to say she’s afraid of being kicked out of the house. She collects herself and goes outside to do some work on the roof. She thinks about how the Matron and Myron might ask her to leave simply because it would be one less mouth to feed. While she hammers shingles, Bartleby calls up to ask what she’s doing. She replies, “Just making sure nothing breaks off and falls away” (77).

The stone gives some additional information about dragons in general, focusing on one particularly curious dragon. While roasting an antelope for dinner, the dragon wonders what it would be like to be an antelope, and the curiosity combined with magic brings the antelope’s skin to life, which the dragon puts on to become an antelope. One day, a lioness stalks him, and just before she pounces, the dragon slips from the antelope’s skin and scares her off. The dragon recognizes the predatory look in the lioness’ eyes as one he used to have, which makes him realize how being an antelope has expanded his understanding of the world.

He brings the magic skin to dragons, who live among the antelopes, learn what he learned, and decide to make more skins so they can understand all creatures. Most dragons become wiser, more caring creatures from these experiences, but a few unkind dragons do not. Instead, they use the skins in wicked ways because knowledge can be used for bad, understanding can be twisted, and “empathy can be transformed into a weapon” (82).

Early one morning, Myron asks Bartleby to help check for a box of vegetables out front. There is none, which makes Myron worry, and Bartleby tries to cheer him up by getting excited about gathering eggs from the chickens and milk from the goats. Despite his excitement, there is little to gather, and Bartleby worries about what will happen when they run out of food. He thinks about the gifts from the unknown benefactor and asks Myron if kindness is still kind if there are unkind motives behind an action. Myron responds that the reason for kindness matters less than the action and that it is up to a person to reach their own conclusions about what others do. Bartleby isn’t sure he agrees. He feels it’s important to know why people do things “if for no other reason than to arrive at the truth” (93).

The Matron arrives in the kitchen, disappointed to see the meager gatherings from the garden and animals. She puts on a brave face and sends Bartleby to wake up the kids. Bartleby does, thinking about everything Matron said about how they’ll be fine and all the things she implied about how they might not be fine, after all.

The Ogress continues to make gifts for the townspeople and watch them through her periscope. One day while gathering food in the woods, the Ogress and crows meet a herd of sheep in desperate need of food and water. The Ogress helps them, and the sheep join her on the farm. At first, the crows are skeptical, but the sheep win them over by providing milk for cheese and giving the crows a soft place to rest. Shortly after, a dog finds its way onto the farm. The crows dislike dogs, but the Ogress takes this one in, and the crows learn the dog, like the sheep, is useful.

One night while searching the woods, the dog and crows come across a discarded human skin wearing fine clothes and shiny bobbles. There is something wrong about the skin, and “the wrongness of it seemed to infect the very air in their lungs” (102). They run back to the farm, and when the Ogress asks what they found in their travels, they don’t mention the skin because it’s too terrifying to think about.