"I'm a-gotten thirteen pebblers," Astrid announced as the game ended. "How menny ye got, bucko?"
Harry eyed his small heap of pebbles. He looked nervously up at Astrid, then back to his pebbles.
"I've got thirteen also," he invented. Astrid glanced at his pile, then laughed.
"You got less than I, bucko! Haven't ye ever learnded countin'?"
Harry didn't say a word. There wasn't much he could say.
"Harry doesn't hafta learn to count." Gil spoke up loyally. "Know why? 'Cause he's number one. Even if he lost Three Pebblers."
Harry, who felt rather flattered, tossed one of his pebbles at Astrid. "Hear that, Astrid? Number one. Anyway, I wasn't trying to beat you. I could have, if I wanted to."
Astrid sneered as she caught the pebble midair, then hurled it back with deadly accuracy at Gil's head. "Righto, jus' like ye beated me in countin, eh?"
Gil ducked quickly; the pebble missed him by inches. Astrid picked up another pebble, tossing it idly.
"Wanna 'nother one, hookyhead?"
"It's his hand, not his head," Gil felt compelled to yell back as he and Harry ran for it.
Later, as they both munched away at some peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches, Gil decided to bring up a question he'd been turning over.
"How come you don't know how to count?"
Harry stuffed the last of his sandwich into his mouth. "S'like you said. Never learned."
"Why not?"
"Don't need to. Uma does the counting for me."
"Oh. Okay. Want the rest of my sandwich?"
And with that, the conversation was closed.