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"Now," said Frodides, observing the rather dirty tabletops, the empty shelves wherein should have sat clean plates, and the dusty and mussy floor. Baby Drihten was crawling across that floor, his cheeks flushed and his eyes bright, pursuing a spider eagerly. Mereflod and Motan were tying bunches of flowers together with long stems of grass. Deman and Fierlan were sitting with their arms about each other and quarreling. Middaeg and Beorht, the second pair of twins, were exchanging the words they had just learned that day, delighting that they could speak. Giefu had his head against the wall and was looking dreamy, no doubt imagining great adventures with himself as the hero. Maercwen and Gomen were in earnest conversation about music. Frodides felt her heart swell up and quicken its beat with a fierce pain of pride and love.
"Maercwen, Gomen," she said, "will you help me get the children out of the kitchen?" So saying, she lifted Drihten from off the floor, where he was bitterly weeping because the spider had crept into a crack in the wall.
Maercwen and Gomen, never ceasing in their conversation, hustled their younger brothers and sisters away. They had all finished their breakfast, and Frodides didn't like to have the children in the kitchen just after a meal. She needed some space to sweep and scrub. She went to the kitchen door with them, and gave Leofan a parting kiss as he went out to work in the stables. Then she stood and watched as the group of children paraded through the Common Room, talking and laughing and, for Motan's part, singing.
"Oh," said Frodides, with a flush coming to her cheek, "I love my family."
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