“Mill City is a little too large to make do with a one-room schoolhouse,” Papa said. “As for the house, you’ll know what it’s like as soon as I do. It’s being provided by the college, and we’ll have to see what we find when we get there.”

Mama gave him a disapproving look. “Daniel! What were you thinking? If they give us some little cracker box, we’ll never fit!”

“I let them know how many of us there are,” Papa reassured her. Mama still looked worried, until he added, “If the college doesn’t have someone in charge with sense enough to provide a dwelling large enough to hold us all, why, it’ll just show how very much they need my help, won’t it?”

That made Mama laugh, and the talk settled down. The older ones still weren’t totally happy with the notion, but everyone could see that they didn’t have a vote. The middle ones were split between the ones like Hugh, who thought that whatever happened would be fun and an adventure, and the ones like Diane and Rennie, who seemed to feel abandoned or hurt that Mama and Papa would even consider muddling up their lives like this. And the younger ones…we were just confused and excited. None of us had any real notion what it would mean.

Finally Papa called everyone to order and said, “I think we’ve covered the main points. Does anyone have any other questions?”

I raised my hand. “What’s a land-grant college?”

Papa laughed. “Trust Eff to get to the heart of the matter!” he said, as if I’d asked something very clever. And then he explained.

After the Secession War ended in 1838, the Assembly wanted to do something nice for all the Northern states and territories that had stuck with them in the fight. They couldn’t give out money, because there wasn’t any; they’d spent it all on winning the war. But one really bright Assemblyman had an idea. There were millions of acres of Federal land all over the country that hadn’t yet been homesteaded and that were bringing in no taxes or other money. Why not give some of it to the states and territories, to set up colleges? The states could sell the land, or rent it out, or build on it—whatever they wanted, as long as the money they got from it paid for colleges that taught people useful skills like agriculture and engineering and magic along with things like Latin and law.