Even though the Sheriff and his deputies would be coming in a few days, no one seemed that concerned. There was too much to do. When Alice and I went to the cabin to get settled, there was a vase on the wood stove with wildflowers and a note from Morning Star that said, "Welcome to your new home." "I don't believe we're actually here." Alice read the note again. "Me either. I feel like I'm starting a new chapter in my lif...

Tim and Gabe moved the round table back to the center of the room and placed the chairs around it. Tammy placed the oil lamp in the center for lighting it later when it got dark. Dan brought in several arm loads of wood, while Liz and Atticus followed with a box filled with kindling. Tammy filled a pot with water from her five gallon jug and measured out rice. Several unopened cans of black beans sat on the counter. "I’m...

My dad waved at us as we came though the waist high grass in the pasture. Standing with Glenn and Dan, he held his sketchbook and pointed to some place on the other side of the orchard. Atticus straddled his father's shoulders, while Liz and Tammy knelt by the fire, preparing lunch. Alice grabbed my hand and started running towards them. I glanced back at Grace walking slowly, the branch cane over her shoulder, her eyes s...

A short, pot-bellied man walked towards us through the tall brown grass. Bald, except for a thin patch of gray hair above his ears, he had a small silver badge on his tan shirt, a holster with a black-handled gun on his hip. I’m not sure why he left his hat in the car.Glenn stiffened and watched the sheriff approaching. "Uh-oh," my dad muttered. Alice swallowed and glanced at me. I knew she was thinking Bendula. Atticus p...

Turns out, I didn’t have to go downstairs. A few minutes later, just as I was telling Alice about Elizabeth’s message, my dad came into my room. I know he heard me say, "We have to find out if it’s the Bendula." Our eyes met, and then he took a deep breath and I could see how frustrated he was with not knowing what was going on. "Right, we’ll go right after school." I knew it was late and wondered if I should skip another...

When we got home the next day, it was late Tuesday afternoon, and both Alice and I were eager to tell Gabe and Tim what was happening and to call Elizabeth. We had already missed two days of school. It didn’t matter to me, but I was surprised that Alice didn’t seem to care either. For most of the trip, I was quiet, but listened to Glenn and my dad talking about all the possibilities and how to get started transforming the...

It was late Sunday afternoon when we arrived back at the farm a week later. We would have left on Saturday, but Glenn's friend, Edgar, needed to use the van to move some furniture and said we could borrow it the next day. We met Tim and Gabe at Charley's for pizza one night and told them what was happening. "Wow, it's like an adventure movie," Tim said, and Gabe said he wished he could go and see the Indians and the farm...

It took quite a while to find the small gravestones. They lay twentyor thirty feet in the woods, surrounded and hidden by dozens of birch trees and green bushes. Grace wasn’t certain exactly where they were, but knew they were near two huge pine trees that towered over the other trees, “I know they’re near these trees,” she said. “Now I feel bad that I haven’t been here in fifteen years. I should have realized the woods w...

"What if we paid the back taxes before it went to auction?" Glenn asked. "That way, they wouldn’t be discovered." "I’ve already thought of that," Grace said. "It’s a possibility and would solve one problem but not the more serious one." Alice and I listened, surprised at Glenn’s idea and, even more, surprised that Grace had already thought about it, but I didn’t know what she meant by the more serious problem. "You’re rig...

We arrived at Glenn’s farm a little after three in the afternoon.Instead of the VW bus, Glenn had borrowed a larger, newer, blue van from his friend, Edgar, someone he had met at Occupy Wall Street. He knew about Glenn’s plan and was interested in being part of it if it got off the ground. Glenn wanted to make sure his mom would be comfortable, and this van had more seats and a lot more storage space, so the trip was a li...

It was a long drive home. My dad took over the driving somewhere in Massachusetts and Glenn was able to nap. Alice was asleep on my shoulder. l also dozed off, but kept waking up to see where we were. My dad was quiet and listened to a jazz station. Glenn woke up and continued driving when we got closer to New York where bumper to bumper traffic brought us to a stand still. It took us an hour and a half to reach the Verra...

It was just past noon when we got back to the farm and started getting ready to leave. The sky was blue without a cloud. The fire was out and dad picked up the grill from the rocks and leaned it against the rocks that surrounded the pile of ashes. Glenn carried the blue ice chest to the van and Tammy gathered the cooking utensils, the iron skillet, coffee pot and orange plastic jug of water. Alice and I went to the cabin...

Morning Star led the way through the tall grass in the pasture to the red ribbon marking the path through the woods. After we passed the stone wall on the hill, she stepped aside and allowed Glenn to go ahead, followed by my father and Tammy, who carried the empty basket on her arm. Before climbing, Morning Star looked back at the farm. I wondered what she was thinking, but she had the same astonished, smiling look in her...

Sun Dancer led us back to the farm on a narrow, well worn and clearedpath that was much easier than the way we had walked before. "This is the way we go to visit our ancestors who are buried near the river,” he said. “Remember this way when you return tomorrow." When we reached the bottom of the hill, he took two strips of leather out of a small pouch he carried and tied them to a branch, so we would know where to enter....

While we made our way down the other side of the hill through the much thicker woods and no path, we stopped a few times, uncertain which way to go. "I think it’s this way," I said, pointing in one direction and Alice said, "No, I think we came from that direction." "Maybe we should have let Sun Dancer bring us back," I said. "Maybe," Alice responded, looking around. "We’ll find our way back. Let’s go that way," she said...