“That potion!” shrieked Ms. Wickity, her face now furious red. “It’s making me cast lucky spells! The terrible prophecy has come true!”
Clover was off and running down the path. Ms. Wickity chased behind her, still crying out spells: “Spike, spike, lightning strike!” and “Sting, sting, bees take wing!” When Clover looked back, instead of lightning and bees, rainbows and butterflies were flying out of the open door.
Clover ran the whole way back to the Agency, hugging the cage with the kitten in it. She glimpsed a yellow bird as she was running and wondered if it might be Penny, but she was afraid the witch was after her and didn’t stop. She ran past the oak tree, past the ring of mushrooms. It wasn’t long before she emerged into the clearing, panting and hot.
The Agency was just up ahead, crooked and moss-covered as ever. The sight of it filled Clover with happiness.
She hurried up the path that curved like a dragon’s tail. When she reached the garden gnome, standing by the door with his arms crossed, she patted him on the head.
“Good job,” she said.
With a grunt, the gnome fell asleep at once.
Clover unlocked the door and took a deep breath. The building still smelled very strongly of smoke, a reminder of Snort. She could hear the unicorns neighing from the back. They were hungry.
Boy, do I have a lot of work to do, thought Clover.
First she freed the kitten from the cage. He leapt out happily and joined her as she fed the animals. They were so hungry, one of the unicorns even nibbled at her hair! Then she began to clean up the Agency. She found a hammer and nails in the storage room and fixed Moondrop’s stall door. Every time she had used a hammer before she had hit her fingers, but this time she wasn’t nervous. She confidently pounded away, and didn’t strike herself once. She changed the hay in the unicorns’ stables, and vigorously cleaned Moondrop’s and Snort’s pens so they were ready for new animals. She moved on to the front room. With a bucket and mop and an armful of rags, she scrubbed the floor, and dusted the tables and bookshelves. She beat the rug again, making sure it was as clean as it could be, and she put a vase of flowers over the burnt spot on the table. When she was done, the entire Agency sparkled.
Everything was in order. She even wrote out all her questions for Mr. Jams (like What is a hippogriff? and What is the stardust for?) so she wouldn’t forget them. Then she put on the kettle and brewed a cup of green tea, in honor of the little kitten, and together she and the kitten curled up on the couch in the front room.
As she stroked the kitten and waited for the tea to cool, she thought about how strange it was that Ms. Wickity had made her own fortune come true. Clover almost felt sorry for the witch; but then the kitten purred in her lap, and she was so glad that the awful witch never would, never COULD, do harm again.
In the last few days, so much had changed. Her friendless, luckless summer had transformed into one filled with enchantment and excitement. Just days ago, she hadn’t been certain magic existed. Now she knew it did. It was her bad luck that she didn’t believe in anymore.
Things happened. Bad things. Good things. It was what you did with them that mattered. And so far, Clover was proud of what she had done. She was proud of all the matches she had made, proud of keeping the Agency safe, proud of saving the kitten. Those were lucky happenings of her own making.
Although she could never share these things with her parents, she knew they would be extra proud of her. Her mom was right—being plucky had made her lucky.
Dipping a spoonful of honey into her tea, she had an idea.
“I’ll call you Dipity,” Clover announced to the kitten. “Short for ‘Serendipity,’ which means ‘lucky happenings.’ That’s a good name for you.”
The kitten flicked his green tail in approval.
She hoped Mr. Jams would let her keep him.
And just as she thought of Mr. Jams, she heard the front door creak open and Mr. Jams’s voice: “Clover, I’ve returned!”
He pushed through the door. Dipity leapt off Clover’s lap and hid under the couch.
Mr. Jams’s pointed beard was tangled with bits of twigs, and one knee of his pants was ripped. His boots were covered in muck and his jacket was torn and stained. But his blue eyes twinkled with excitement. He smiled as he glanced at the room. “Very neat and calm in here, I must say. Not a horse feather out of place. Nothing much happened, then? No problems? I’m sorry I am a little late. There was no way around it. But I knew you could handle it. I’m lucky you were here to help.”
“Well …” started Clover. “There were a few things that happened.”
“And I can’t wait to hear about them. But first, no time to delay. Come outside—I need your help bringing it in.”
“It? What is it? What animal did you rescue?”
“It’s not really an animal. At least not yet. But it will be. Beaks and eggshells, will it ever.”
“What do you mean?” Clover’s heart started to pound with excitement.
But Mr. Jams had already turned around and hurried out the door.
As Clover hurried after him, she realized she was walking with a bounce in her step. This time, she didn’t change it.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To a large degree, I believe, like Clover does at the end of this book, that you make your own luck. But when it comes to all the people who helped me bring this book to life, I have been completely and totally lucky beyond my own making. Thank you to all those people: my dad, who is Mr. Jams; my mom and my family; my writing soul mate, Vikki Vansickle; my writing group, the Inkslingers—Rachelle Delaney, Tanya Lloyd Kyi, Lori Sherritt-Fleming, Maryn Quarless, Shannon Ozirny, and Christy Goerzen; Lee Edward Fodi, who was there when this story was born; Dimiter Savoff, for believing in my writing; my writing friends James and KC, and the whole Storm Crow gang; my wonderful Disney • Hyperion team, especially Stephanie Lurie, editors Catherine Onder and Rotem Moscovich, editorial assistant Julie Moody, and designers Sara Gillingham and Joann Hill; my wonderful HarperCollins Canada team, especially editor Hadley Dyer; and the talented Alexandra Boiger. Special thanks to my amazing agent, Emily Van Beek; to my dear husband, Luke; and finally, most of all, to Tiffany Stone for her utterly thoughtful edits and ideas and time (and her whole family for putting up with Clover). Tiff, you are the best.
About the Author
KALLIE GEORGE works as an author and editor in Vancouver, Canada, and she holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from the University of British Columbia. In addition to writing and editing, Kallie is a speaker and leads workshops for aspiring writers. She dreams of one day adopting a fairy horse. Visit her online at kalliegeorge.com.
ALEXANDRA BOIGER grew up in Munich, Germany, where she studied graphic design, and then began a career in feature animation, allowing her to work for Warner Bros. UK and DreamWorks. After transitioning to children’s book illustration, she has worked on numerous popular titles, including the Tallulah series. She lives with her husband and daughter in northern California. See more of her work online at alexandraboiger.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
The text for this book is set in 11.5-point Janson Text. Janson is based on late-17th century type designed by the Hungarian printer Nicholas Kis.
The illustrations for this book were created using graphite on paper, then spot colored digitally using various textures.
Credits
Cover design by Sara Gillingham Studio
Cover illustration © 2015 by Alexandra Boiger
Copyright
Clover’s Luck
Text copyright © 2015 by Kallie George.
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Alexandra Boiger.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced,
transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPUB Edition January 2015 ISBN 9781443419826
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
FIRST CANADIAN EDITION
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
2 Bloor Street East, 20th Floor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4W 1A8
www.harpercollins.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication information is available upon request
ISBN 978-1-44341-980-2
RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
Clover's Luck Page 7