"You don't find anything larger than a gopher," said Melena. They were at the side of the brook, working at laundry. The small spring wetness had long since ceased, and the drought had clamped its hand down again. The stream was only a thin trickle. Elphaba, who would not come near the water, was stripping a wild pear tree of its stunted crop. She clung to the trunk with her hands and out- turned feet, and threw her head around, catching the sour fruit with her teeth and then spitting seeds and stem on the ground.
"This is larger than a gopher," said Nanny. "Trust me. Have you bears? It could have been a bear cub, though it moved mighty fast."
"No bears. There's the rumor of rock tigers on the felltop, but they tell me not a single one has been sighted in ages. And rock tigers are notoriously skittish and shy. They don't come near human dwellings."
"A wolf then? Are there wolves?" Nanny let the sheet droop in the water. "It could have been a wolf."
"Nanny, you think you're in the desert. Wend Hardings is desolate, I agree, but it's a tame barrenness for all that. You're alarming me with your wolf and your tiger talk."
Elphaba, who would not speak yet, made a low growl in the pocket of her throat.
"I don't like it," said Nanny. "Let's finish up and dry these things back at the house. Enough is enough. Besides, I have other things I want to say to you. Let's give the child to Turtle Heart and let's go off somewhere." She shuddered. "Somewhere safe."
"What you have to say you can say within earshot of Elphaba," said Melena. "You know she doesn't understand a word."
"You confuse not speaking with not listening," said Nanny. "I think she understands plenty."
"Look, she's smearing fruit on her neck, like a cologne-"
"Like a war paint, you mean."
"Oh, dour Nanny, stop being such a goose and scrub those sheets harder. They're filthy."
"I need hardly ask whose sweat and leakage this is .
"Oh you, no you needn't ask, but don't start moralizing at me-"
"But you know Frex is bound to notice sooner or later. These energetic afternoon naps you take-well, you always had an eye for the fellow with a decent helping of sausage and hard-boiled eggs-"
"Nanny, come, this is none of your affair."
"More's the pity," said Nanny, sighing. "Isn't aging a cruel hoax? I'd trade my hard-won pearls of wisdom for a good romp with Uncle Flagpole any day."
Melena flipped a handful of water in Nanny's face to shut her up. The older woman blinked and she said, "Well, it's your garden, plant there what you choose and reap what you may. What I want to talk about is the child, anyway."
The girl was now squatting behind the pear tree, eyes narrowed at something in the distance. She looked, thought Melena, like a sphinx, like a stone beast. A fly even landed on her face and walked across the bridge of her nose, and the child didn't flinch or squirm. Then, suddenly, she leaped and pounced, a naked green kitten after an invisible butterfly.
"What about her?"
"Melena, she needs to get used to other children. She'll start talking a little bit if she sees that other chicks are talking."
"Talking among children is an overrated concept."
"Don't be glib. You know she needs to get used to people other than us. She's not going to have an easy time of it anyhow, unless she sheds her greeny skin as she grows up. She needs the habits of conversation. Look, I give her chores to do, I warble nursery rhymes at her. Melena, why doesn't she respond like other children?"
