He reached into his pocket and got out the rest of the coins and handed them to Mrs. Jackson.
"These are all old coins," she said, examining them. "Most of these coins are made of silver. There isn't a new coin here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin to show him.
"These are the new coins," she said, showing him the ones she had. "Yours might look the same, but they're much older and worth much more. I'll have to talk to your mother about these. You really shouldn't bring something so valuable to school. You might lose them."
Baartock didn't know what 'valuable' was, and was going to tell her that his mother had a jar full of these coins, but Mrs. Jackson noticed his plate still full of food.
"I thought you were hungry." "Am hungry," he said, then pointed at the plate. He remembered the word that meant just how awful the food was. "Terrible," he said.
"You don't like it? I thought our lunch was pretty good today."
"Terrible," he said again. "Can't eat."
Mrs. Jackson thought for a moment. "There's no reason you can't bring your lunch to school, instead of buying it," she said. "and I want to talk to your mother about these coins. I'll drive you home after school, so I can talk to her. May I keep these coins to give back to her?"
"Yes," Baartock said
Mrs. Jackson walked away, thinking about how little she really knew about trolls.