She moved to one of the boxes and began to place them on the shelf, glancing briefly over to Betsy to see how she was shelving them. (i.e. in Alphabetical order.) She followed suit with whatever was happening and quickly shelved books. Ruth started to sing again, a little ditty about a girl in a dell or something similar. The work was hard but it was fine for her. "This is not so bad," she said after a little while.

Betsy's particular strategy seemed to be based on the size of the book. She was putting the biggest volumes on the bottom and the smaller ones up top. Which was hardly surprising, the woman might not even be able to read depending on where she grew up so her only concern was getting as much of this job done as quickly and easily as she could. "Aye, not really something I normally do but we should be able to get some of these boxes out of here today at this rate."

She nodded and grabbed the next box over and started with that. "He seems to have a lot of books," she said as they worked. "This is certainly more relaxin' than scrubbin' floors," she murmured. She ran her finger over the spine of one book, reading the title and sighing as she slid it into place.

The titles were exclusively things that would likely confuse Ruth, mostly because they were all academic books. Each one doubtless a trove of information about the world but not really anything that would make a person excited to read them. Unless they were a particularly odd person.

She finished shelving the second box of books when her fatigue started to catch up with her. Ruth was quiet by that point, her face a little ashen. The girl struggled to keep from yawning and lifted a hand to cover her mouth. How long had they been at it anyway? Still no complaints from her. She continued to work through her fatigue even still.

"Oh dear, oh dear."

The voice of Edward Blackwood sounds as he enters the room and sees what they are doing.

"No, that isn't where that goes. Oh dear, okay, we can fix this."

He mutters as he walks up to the two women and he grabs a book out of Betsy's hands the woman looking a bit shocked as he flips it over and points to the spine which as marked.

"Okay,"

He says talking over any possible protest.

"I should have realized this would be a problem, do you see the numbers on the spine here."

He points at a bit of paper that had been glued to the spine with a set of digits on them.

"And then you see the numbers on the shelves here."

He points at a brass placard on the shelf for them both to see, as they were about to get a lesson on the Dewey Decimal system.

She was wide-eyed as Edward came in and started to fuss over the shelving of the books. She knew of the system... sort of... and she knew that books went in alphabetical order and by genre at the library, but she didn't know that the numbers meant anything until right that moment.

Ruth didn't protest, she merely put the books she'd shelved back into the box and said, "Ye wish it ta be like a public library then? We can do that," her tone soft. She tilted her head because she found Edward quite fascinating, then she glanced over to Betsy to see how she was faring.

After all, it was hard work to shelve books and they had been in there for a while going at it. At the sudden fuss, Jacob awoke from his slumber and began to whimper. Ruth rubbed his back soothingly and he settled back down, as he was a pretty easy going baby for the most part.

"Yes, exactly! Good!"

He gestures towards the nearby chairs and encourages them to sit down as he grabs a chalkboard and drags it over. He looks at what is written on it and then flips the board over on its swivel to a blank side.

For the next hour, both Betsy and Ruth have the Dewey Decimal System explained to them. Edward, as it transpired, was an excellent teacher. While he was prone to going off on tangents he managed to break things down into easily understood pieces and his exuberance for knowledge was infectious in its way. Though the fact that he was still gaunt and pale did make him seem a bit mad as he explains it all.

"Okay."

He says once he feels that they should be able to understand it all.

"Any questions?"

Betsy looks over at Ruth her eyes wide, apparently, she'd never been caught shelving before and she'd not been expecting this.

She made no complaints whatsoever at being able to relax while he taught them a lesson in how to shelve books. It was a little overwhelming, but Ruth proved to be a rapt student. She guessed she would have to translate to Betsy later, for the girl looked quite cowed by this lesson. Curious, she said, "Do ye... cata...log the books as well?" She had to think of the word.

"Of course, the catalogue is right here..."

Edward says, before spending about five minutes looking around before finding the books whose sole purpose was keeping track of which books went where. It was buried underneath several other tombs in the centre of a table large and cluttered enough that Edward had to bend over it to reach it.