Mere curiosity. [No, not exactly. It's never mere anything with Illarion, even if it is mostly that.] I do not know how closely he resembles the Mayor. But the children care fiercely for him, and he for them, though he is only one man [or monster] and there are very many orphans in Trench. He often needs help. I have known other Sleepers to be frequent visitors--so, I wished to know, if he is much as he was.

[There's one of two usual ways this sort of gambit broke. It would be interesting to hear which Fern chose, if either.]

Though it is another symptom of the world's unfairness that there are so many children without parents, no?