Fixing Mistakes

"Oops."

Tenerië looked up from her own work at Faramir's dismayed exclamation. She didn't see a puddle of spilled ink or other disaster but her young pupil looked upset as his gaze met her own. "What's wrong, Faramir?"

"I... I... misspelled Hyarmendacil and now it's ruined! I left out the r and there's not enough room to squeeze one in between the a and the m. I'm really sorry!"

Remembering a similar incident when she was a new apprentice and the horror stories her dorm mates had told her about how strict Master Remedur was about making mistakes and wasting parchment, Tenerië set aside her pen and joined the 9-year old on the other side of the work table. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Faramir. We all make mistakes when we're copying texts. The important thing is to catch them so they can be fixed. Let's see what you did."

"But you don't make mistakes. Edgil said so," Faramir told her, belatedly putting his pen back on the rack next to the inkwell.

"Oh, I make plenty of mistakes." She sat down next to him and looked at the offending word. "I just fix them when I can. Now, why do you think you missed the r? Were you doing the copying letter by letter or were you reading the whole word and then writing it?."

"Ummm... I thought I was reading each letter but I guess I wasn't." The boy frowned at the page.

"I think I know what happened. You know this story by heart--I heard you telling it to your brother the other day--so you were writing it out instead of copying. The same thing happens to me sometimes when I'm copying something I know very well. Now set this aside and when the ink has dried I'll show you how to fix it."

Faramir got up and carried the sheet of parchment over to the drying rack. "Are you really not mad at me?"

Tenerië frowned for a minute at his worried tone of voice then her expression lightened. "Has Edgil been telling you that I'll tear you to bits if you don't do everything perfectly? Don't worry that it's tattling; he tells all the new apprentices the same thing, just like his father told me the same thing about Master Rememdur when I first came here. It's something of a family tradition I think."

Faramir returned to the worktable and nodded. "But he looked really serious when he said it. I really like learning from you, Mistress Tenerië, so I don't want you to be angry and not teach me anymore."

"You don't need to worry about that, Faramir," she said. "Do you know why I'm not angry with you?"

"Not really. I made a mistake."

"And you told me right away that you did. If you had just kept going, knowing that you missed copying the r, then I would have been angry. But by telling me now before there are more words written on the line or the line below, we can fix it easily."

Faramir seemed satisfied by her answer and asked. "Is it hard to fix mistakes?"

"Sometimes. Now, come with me and I'll show you some of the more interesting mistakes and corrections that archivists have made and then you can tell me which of them we should use to fix your mistake."