The boat deck tilted under Lilly's feet She teetered The black water yawned beneath
Destinations he hot wind sneaked in through the flap of the ragged canvas tent and rattled the pages of Lilly's book She curled on her cot in a corner pretending to read Millicent Murray and the Fish That Didn't Splash A new crate of books had just arrived by camelback and sat in the center of the tent floor Usually Lilly couldn't wait to dive into the latest Millicent Murray mystery What Lilly was really doing though was eavesdropping on her momma and poppa as they sat nearby reading and rereading the pages of the letter The envelope had lain on top of the books when they pried off the lid of the wooden crate Lilly had recognized the return address printed on the envelope
SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTE the college that sent them off on all their expeditions to the corners of the world Except of course the world didn't have corners Lilly knew that She knew the world was round pear shaped really with a circumference of 24 901 55 miles at the equator Just because Lilly had never gone to a real school didn't mean she didn't know things Lots of things The crates that followed them on their expeditions to the jungle or the desert or the tops of old volcanoes always contained schoolbooks along with scientific journals for her parents and any new Millicent Murray mysteries for Lilly Lilly's poppa always said she was smarter than any two ten year olds he knew He had said something like that ever since Lilly could remember Smarter than any two four year olds Smarter than any two five year olds Lilly was seven before she realized Poppa didn't know any other seven year olds How could he It had always been just the three of them Lilly and her momma and poppa traveling together to study boomerang beetles or lily pad leeches or snowshoe mosquitoes Lilly's poppa lowered his voice and Lilly leaned closer to hear This was new this whispering Usually they told her straight out where they were going next
