The girl continued to watch as the witch began her work.  Positioned beside the reading stand, she raised her wand to “ready” and faced the target.  Odd-sounding words spilled from her mouth as the wand moved smoothly and then veered with a very precise flick.  Purple sparks sputtered from the end of the wand and then died.  She turned and pointed her wand at the reading stand.  The quill leapt to attention, dipped itself in the ink and added a notation to the notebook.  On the next attempt she intoned the words a little differently.  More purple sparks, and another notation.

The girl watched for quite a while before she lost interest.  With each test the Inventor of Magic changed something.  Sometimes it was the way she spoke the words.  Other times it was the manner in which she moved her wand.  Occasionally little purple flames made an appearance.  Once a thrilling fist-sized ball of purple flame burst from the wand and ricocheted off the stone target.  The woman quickly aimed her wand at it and calmly pronounced, “Exstinguere!”⁴  The ball of flame immediately poofed into nonexistence.  Most often nothing more exciting than a few short-lived purple sparks appeared.  Turning back to the garden, the girl busied herself with her own work.