Matilda Bone by Karen Cushman

leaves and stems, "I must tell them by their smell. Ah, here is sweet marjoram ... bitterroot ... tansy."
    One day after Sarah fell asleep, Matilda spent a few minutes watching Nathaniel at work. The apothecary pulled a bottle off the shelf and gave it to Walter. "Here," he said, "take this woodruff to Master Stark at the grocers' guild." Walter took the bottle and, when Nathaniel turned around, exchanged it for another. Matilda gasped at his presumption and wondered whether to tell Nathaniel, but Walter grasped her arm and whispered, "I saw you watching me. Sometimes Nathaniel makes mistakes, picking up the monkshood instead of the comfrey root or the berries of the mistletoe instead of the juniper bush, but I watch him carefully and make things right. Nathaniel has taught me well."
    "If you know so much, why do you stay here?" Matilda whispered back to him. "Surely you could do better with a proper apothecary who has a busier trade?"
    "Being an apothecary requires more than merely reading labels. There is still much he knows that I do not."
    This reminded Matilda of what Peg had said about Tom, about different kinds of learning and knowing. She was no longer so sure it was not true.
    "And I am fond of him," Walter continued. "I would never abandon him, no matter how much more 'proper' another apothecary might be." In spite of herself Matilda thought more kindly of Walter after this.
    Frequently someone came to offer advice about Nathaniel's eyes. The daughter-in-law of Old Agnes the witch said she could do wonders with chicken blood and nail clippings. Peter Threadneedle suggested Nathaniel wash his eyes with onion juice and spit on a toad at midnight. Old Olaf applied a hemlock salve he had brought from the north and watched all night to make sure he had not used too much hemlock, thus killing Nathaniel instead of curing him. Still Nathaniel's sight grew no better.
    With her prayers each night Matilda requested God's assistance for Nathaniel's eyes. She felt sorry for the kindly old man, and she liked the sound of "When but fourteen years of age, the holy Matilda effected the cure of a blind apothecary."
Dear Lord,
she prayed,
just as You miraculously provided leather so that Saints Crispin and Crispinian could make shoes for the poor, please provide a miracle so that Master Nathaniel may see well again. And while you are about it, could You please think about helping Sarah?
    And
O Saint Leger, who suffered the removal of your saintly eyes and tongue, please ask God to help Nathaniel. Saint Lucy, you who plucked out your own eyes and had them miraculously restored, please help Nathaniel's sight. Good Saint Clarus, whose name means
clear,
please help one whose vision isn't. Clear. Thank you.
    Amen,
said the saints, for once neglecting to talk back to her.
    A week of this had gone by when Sarah said, "My Nathaniel, an old donkey has an old eye. You must accept it. Well, we know it happens to many, and it has become clear that there is nothing to be done for it."
    Matilda wondered if perhaps she had not been praying properly. Surely if she was doing it right, God would heed her. But God did not.

Chapter Twelve: Consulting Master Theobald

    After Easter Day the earth began to warm and grow again. The winds blew soft and sweet. Peddlers offered rosemary and bay, fresh green parsley, and young white radishes.
    For many days Matilda had been thinking about Nathaniel. Prayer was not helping him. Was God not listening?
    The talk in the market was all of Master Theobald, who had cured Martha Threadneedle of excessive melancholy by a compound of viper's flesh and other ingredients known only to him. Maybe here was a cure for Nathaniel.
    "Have you consulted the master physician, Theobald?" she asked Nathaniel. "He is famous and learned. Perhaps he knows of something more to do."
    Sarah said, "The master physician does not bother with the likes of us."
    "I would not know how to approach him," added Nathaniel. "Nor would we have coins