Abilities of a fictional eight year old

Young Esk has been discovered after stowing away on a barge. The owner is deciding whether to let her stay with them.

Esk ... said " 'I don't mind sleeping in the fleeces. And I can pay my way. I can do - ' She hesitated; ... discretion made a successful bid for control of her tongue ' - helpful things'.
...
' What sort of helpful things?' he asked. 'Washing and sweeping, yesno?'
' If you like,' said Esk, 'or distillilation...; I can spin, card, rett, flallow, and weave on the hand, frame, harp and Noble looms and I can knit if people start the wool on for me...'
'And can you play a musical instrument?'
Esk returned his steady gaze, not batting an eyelid. 'Probably.'"

From "Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

I loved the way that Esk knows her limits: she is extremely confident about her ability to do almost anything, but the one thing she can't do is to cast on.

This is from the third book of the Disc World series, a humorous fantasy series. Knitting crops up on a number of occasions in the books.

Submerged

sub - takes the ablative, under
mergo - meaning to sink or cover over, 3rd conjugation

submerged - from the Latin: what happens when one studies hard for an exam (next week!) and has no spare brain power for blogging.