an excerpt...

From the book in progress. It's entirely likely that this, along with mush of the rest of it, will be re-written once the first draft has been completed.

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She continued, “They were printed with blank pages at each end, and it was on these that family trees were recorded. Many people also kept their most important papers safely folded away inside the book. They are rare these days and extremely valuable. Not just valuable because they are worth a lot of money, although that’s true-- but because the information in them often exists nowhere else.”

Emily had a way of discussing dry topics like bibles and paper so fervently, and with such interest, it was impossible not to get caught up in her excitement. The three of them sat and waited as she donned a pair of white gloves and rustled through a sheaf of papers that looked very dry indeed. They were all wondering when she was going to pull out one of these family bibles.

Instead, Emily drew three yellowed sheets of paper on which the brown ink had nearly faded away. She carefully spread them out on the table so they could all see them, and removed her gloves. “These three pages were tucked away- not in a bible, but in an early edition copy of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species!”

She paused dramatically to let this soak in. When she saw they were all staring blankly at her, she sighed, and continued. “This book was one of the breakthroughs that led to modern scientific study as we know it. The man who wrote these pages was a scientist! It was his bible, you see?”

“O-oh!” the three let out nearly in unison.

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