The saving grace of selling an exotic crop to an exotic audience was that there was money to spare, from time to time, and your parents (to their great credit) invested it in education for their offspring. Not for you, of course, but for your sister McKenna, the firstborn, in an effort to increase her marriageability.

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  You shift your hands against the bowl of potato scraps, smiling as you think back to McKenna's early tutoring sessions. Without fail, you would abandon your duties whenever the tutor came 'round and hide where you could listen in on the lessons. You particularly loved: