At breakfast next morning Mom said, “With all the talk last night about the Underground Railroad, I forgot to tell you that I called Mrs. Murphy.”
“Oh, good. What did she say?” asked Jan.
“She said she would love to have a puppet show at our house. So we arranged a date. Let’s see now ... ” Mom got up to look at the kitchen calendar.
“Here it is. She is coming at three o’clock on the 25th of July. That’s a Tuesday afternoon a little less than two weeks from today. How does that sound?”
Jan and Julie looked at one another. Then Julie said, “Sounds great, Mom. That doesn’t give us much time to get everything ready, though. We better get started today.”
“If your room is straightened up and your beds are made, you can go after breakfast dishes are done,” said Mom.
“Could we pack a lunch and take it to the barn, Mom?” asked Jan.
Mother nodded.
Soon the girls were knocking on the Baker’s side door.
Susan made sandwiches while Fred hunted for a few things to use at the barn.
When they were leaving, he said, “I couldn’t find the club box. We must have left it at the barn yesterday.”
He had a couple pairs of scissors and some felt marking pens in his hand. “I was going to put these things in the club box, but guess I’ll have to carry them. They are so heavy I don’t know if I can do it without help.
“Jan, lend a fellow a hand, will you?” He was bent over double with his hands nearly touching the ground. Grunts and moans were the only sounds he made for the next few minutes.
The girls in turn laughed and teased him. They were still giggling and acting silly when they reached the barn.
Jan was first in the door. She stopped suddenly and stared. The others joined her one by one with exclamations of horror.
The contents of the club box were strewn around the barn. The pencils were broken in two. The stapler was smashed. Papers were everywhere.
Silently they picked up the mess. Susan spotted the club box in a corner. “Hey, there’s a note taped in here,” she called.
Everyone came to look. A note neatly printed was taped inside the lid. Jan read: FACT CLUB: DO NOT COME TO BARN. I AM HERE FIRST. That was all. There was no name.
“Someone has taken a dislike to us,” Fred commented.
Susan was looking scared. “Maybe we shouldn’t come here. Every time we do, something bad happens,” she whispered. She looked like she might cry.
Fred opened his mouth to say something. But before he could Julie said quietly, “Don’t worry, Susan. I know God won’t let anything terrible happen. He loves us and I trust Him.”
“But how do you know, Julie?” asked Susan.
“Well, He says in His Word, the Bible, that He cares for us. It’s in the book of First Peter some place.”
“You’re never afraid, are you?” Susan said in a small voice.
Julie looked embarrassed, but she answered, “I can’t say ‘never’, but I know Jesus as my Savior. And I know He is always with me.”
Susan was silent thinking. Fred had gone to look out the barn door. Jan was pretending not to listen. She was picking up the few remaining papers.
As Jan put the things that weren’t spoiled in the club box, she made a discovery. “Do you know what? That pocket knife is gone.”
Though the children searched in every corner of the barn, the pocket knife was nowhere to be found.
“It must have been the owner of the knife who made this mess,” Julie said. “I think we should go see Gramps for a few minutes.”
“Why?” asked Jan.
“Don’t you think he should know about this?” Julie said. “Anyway he asked us to come see him again and we never did.”
The sun was blinding after the cool, dim barn. It was going to be a hot day.
The children walked the short distance to Gramps’ house and knocked on the door.
Mrs. Ray opened the door as before, but this time she smiled. “Why, hello. Gramps, that is, Mr. Hinkle was talking about you children yesterday. Come in, come in.”
“He will be glad to see you,” she added as she led the way to the sitting room.
As on that other day Gramps was sitting in his rocker, a blanket over his knees. His eyes lit up when he saw who his callers were. “Hello, there and welcome,” he said. “Martha, see if we have something for these young people to drink.
“Sit down and tell me what brings you to see an old man.” His eyes twinkled.
“Now Gramps,” Julie protested, “you asked us to come see you.” He laughed. “So I did,” he said.
Jan explained what they had found in the barn a short while before. After looking at the others, she also told him about the face, the knife, and the noise. “And today the pocket knife is gone,” she finished.
Gramps looked thoughtful. “Sounds like someone else wants to play in the barn too. Only he or she was not polite enough to ask first. Well, you young people can still have your club in the barn, but keep an eye open for this other person, please. I would like to have a talk with him.”
They agreed.
Mrs. Ray brought some iced tea in tall glasses just then. It was very warm in the little sitting room and Jan, for one, was thankful for the cold drink.
As they sipped their tea, they told in turns their plans for a carnival and puppet show.
Gramps was interested. “You’ll have to let me know how it turns out,” he said.
“Jan,” said Julie suddenly, “we didn’t tell Fred and Susan what Mom told us last night about the Underground Railroad.”
“What’s this?” Gramps asked.
“Fred saw an article about North Falls and the Underground Railroad in the North Falls Town Press. The article said Greentown Road was a route for the Underground Railroad,” Julie said. She went on to explain what Mrs. Davidson had told the twins about Ohio and the Underground Railroad.
“I couldn’t understand everything Mom said, could you Julie?” Jan asked.
Julie shook her head. “There was a lot of stuff about Fugitive Slave Laws too. But Jan and I thought it was like having history come alive. Wow, when you think that slaves were hurried to freedom right on this very road ...” she let the sentence hang unfinished.
“Well,” said Gramps after a short silence, “well, well. I wonder if Grandad knew that. If he did, he never mentioned it to me.”
Shortly afterward they left. Talking about newspapers reminded Fred that he had to deliver those same papers that afternoon. The children still wanted time to plan the carnival that day, so they left with promises to come again soon.
“I’ll bring you a newspaper, Gramps,” Fred promised, “then you can read that article for yourself.”
By the time they got back to the barn it was noon. They decided to eat their sandwiches first.
When the lunch things were at last cleared away, Fred found paper and pencil that were still whole. “Susan, as our Club Secretary, would you please take notes?” Fred said it so seriously that Susan looked at him with suspicion.
“We should have a Treasurer too,” he went on.
“I think Julie would be a good one for the job,” Jan said loyally.
The others thought so too, so Julie became Club Treasurer. Someone suggested Fred be President and Jan, Vice President.
“Madam Secretary, do you have all of this written down?” Fred asked in an important sounding voice.
“Yes, Mr. President,” replied Susan trying hard not to giggle, “but I have a question.”
“Yes, please go on,” said Fred.
“Well, Mr. President, who will be the members of this Club?”
The children looked at one another. It was true, they each were an officer. Susan started to giggle. Soon they were all shouting and laughing.
It seemed very funny for a club to have no members!
Finally Fred said, “Will the meeting come to order!”
His tone of voice sent everyone into fresh whoops.
At last they calmed down. Susan held her pencil and paper ready. “We wanted to have a fun house, I think,” said Julie.
“How about games?” asked Jan.
“We could have a bean bag toss.” Fred jumped up and threw a pretend bean bag.
“Does horseshoes or ring toss sound like a good idea?” asked Susan.
“Fred has a set of hard rubber horseshoes that we play in our yard sometimes.”
Someone suggested a fish pond. And they decided to have popcorn and juice for refreshments.
“We’ll need to advertise somehow and make tickets,” Fred reminded them after it was quiet for awhile.
“Wow, there’s a lot to do,” Jan remarked. “Maybe we should ask Steve and Candy to help.”
“Hey, that’s a good idea. I’ll bet Michael would like to help too,” said Susan.
That decided, they each picked a game to be in charge of. Fred wanted to do the fun house. Jan said she would help him. Julie thought she would do the bean bag toss.
“I’ll paint a big clown face on the bottom of a box,” she said. “Then I’ll cut out his eyes, nose, and mouth to throw the bean bags into. I’ll have to make bean bags too.”
“Not only is she pretty, but she’s talented too,” said Fred. Julie turned pink.
“Fred,” Susan squeaked, “do you always have to embarrass people? I’ll help you make the things, Julie. But for the carnival I’ll be in charge of the horseshoe game.”
That left the fishpond. The twins were certain Steve and Candy would like to man that.
“What are we going to use for prizes?” Jan asked suddenly.
“And money to buy them?” Fred wanted to know.
“We’ll need money to buy art supplies too,” put in Julie.
“I guess we’ll all just have to rob our banks and pool our money to get started,” Susan said.
Everyone agreed to see what money he or she had at home to put in the carnival fund. Then they would ask a parent to take them to buy supplies.
“Whew, there’s more to this than meets the eye,” Fred remarked. “Wow, I’ve got to get home and deliver those papers,” he said jumping up.
“There’s a lot to do all right,” said Julie, “but I can’t wait to get started. It’s going to be so much fun.”