From acorn to sapling 3/13

Naturally enough, The first person she found was the landlord of the George and Dragons. It seemed that with the exception of those employed in the timber yard, all the other villagers were out working in the new fields.

“We just woke up one morning and there it was,” said the landlord. “The stream had stopped running, so we could cross the river without using up riddles going over the bridge. Several people went up into the hills to try and find out why the river wasn’t flowing and found someone had put a dam across the valley.”

He waited for a moment to see if Jennifer Jane came up with one of her clever ideas, before explaining his own thoughts on the matter.

“It had to be magic to build a dam overnight, but goodness alone knows who, or why it was done. Then the farmers thought of ploughing up the new fields and watering them using long lengths of hose from the lake behind the dam. The funny thing is that the dam is slowly getting higher as the water level rises, but nobody sees it happening and we still don’t know who’s doing it!”

Ermintrude was beginning to get fidgety, so the apprentices climbed back onto her broom and flew back to Esmerelda’s shop. Jennifer Jane didn’t say any more, she paid attention to her new lessons and waited until she could go back to the Witches’ Home for a chat with Abigail.

Abigail didn’t seem all that bothered. “I don’t know why anyone would want to build a dam up in the hills, but it seems like quite a good idea to me. It’s not doing any harm; indeed the villagers are making sensible use of the opportunity, so the only loser is Gordon. I’m sure you’ll soon think of an idea to make him happy again, in the meantime don’t worry about it.”

Jennifer Jane took Abigail at her word. However she made up her mind that in future she’d use her scooter to fly to her new lessons. The foot platform and the luggage compartment would hold a lot more jars than Erm’s broom and she’d feel safer if she was doing the flying.