Excerpt:

Gauthier pushes his hair back with an impatient gesture. "But I want to study. You see why you absolutely must continue to help me. It's my only chance. Now tell me what goes on in this town, Troyes, that you know so well and I not at all."
Elvina shakes her head. "I don't know what goes on in Troyes, but I can tell you about the Sabbath."

"Go on then; tell me."

Elvina takes her min back to the contented hours she had spent with her family. "We had the Sabbath meal at my grandfather's, Solomon ben Isaac's. My grandmother had prepared everything. It was almost like before."

"Before what?"

"Before you…well, you know…I mean before Peter the Hermit arrived."

"I understand." He nods. "Go on."

"Around the table, only my mother, Miriam, was missing. There were several of my grandfather's students and two travelers whom my grandfather invited because they were passing through Troyes. One of them has been as far as the land of Israel and even farther — all the way to Baghdad. He has seen flying camels, which are also called dromedaries. He has seem elephants and he told us how they eat."

Gauthier looked puzzled; then Elvina explains, "An elephant is a huge gray animal with a long nose that it uses to reach out for its food and put it into its mouth. Everything we do with our hands, the elephant does with its long nose. An elephant is so strong, it can carry twelve armed warriors! The other merchant had nothing exciting to tell us, but he has his own personal clack that he wears attached to his belt."

"He has as clock of his own?" Gaithier's blue eyes are wide with surprise.

"Yes. It's a long silver tablet with gold edges, and it has holes in it. The names of the months are carved in pairs in a certain order. You hold the silver tablet by a chain and put a little silver peg into one of the holes, depending on the month it is, and then the peg's shadow falls on signs, which mark the hours. So the traveler can know what time it is whenever he likes, in the forest or at sea. All he needs is a ray of sunlight, as the merchant said. It really is magnificent!"

Elvina remembers the astonishment in Solomon ben Isaac's eyes. He looked even more amazed than the boys! First he weighed the clock in his hands and admired its lightness, and then he went over to the window so that the light shone on the dial.