CHAPTER 4
The Potato Pit
You go on ahead, Sim,” said Mr. Alden. “We’ll follow if you are sure your wife wants to make sandwiches for us.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Sim. “We got lots of milk, too. We can fill up your Thermos bottles.”
“We’ll drink more milk than that, Sim,” said Henry. “There are four of us, you know. I could drink a quart myself right now.”
“Let’s have one Thermos of coffee for Grandfather,” said Violet, who always thought of Grandfather.
“You can have all the milk you want,” said Sim. “We have forty cows.”
They all went out the back door.
“Don’t lock the door,” said Sim. “Just leave it.”
He got into his car. The family got into the station wagon and off they went. This time they went to the red house nearest the store. Sim took them into the kitchen. His wife smiled when she saw them coming.
“Ma, can you make some chicken sandwiches? This is Mr. Alden and his grandchildren. They want a picnic lunch.”
“How do you do, Mrs. Morse,” said Grandfather, shaking hands. “You are very kind to do this for us.”
“Glad to,” said Mrs. Morse. “I made bread yesterday so I have six loaves.”
“Oh, homemade bread!” said Benny. “What a picnic!”
“Make some egg sandwiches too, Ma,” said Sim. “These children seem to be half starved. I’ll get the cans of milk.”
“Why do you call her ma?” asked Benny. “Isn’t she your wife?”
“Yes, she’s my wife. But I call her ma because we have six kids.”
Mrs. Morse began to chop up chicken in a wooden tray. “You have courage,” she said, “to move into that old house.”
“Why?” asked Benny. “It isn’t haunted, is it?”
“No, it isn’t haunted,” said Mrs. Morse. “But nobody in this town would live in it.”
“Why not?” asked Grandfather. “I’d really like to know.”
“Well, I can’t tell you why. But there is something mysterious about it. I never did know what it was.”
“That’s the funniest thing!” said Jessie. “Nobody seems to know.”
“Did something happen a long time ago?” asked Henry.
Mrs. Morse looked up. “Yes, that’s exactly right! It happened so long ago, nobody remembers. But they remember there was something.”
“Who is the oldest person in this town?” Henry asked.
“Oldest person? Let me think. That would be Grandpa Cole. He’s almost a hundred years old. But he can still see to read and he can walk with a cane.”
“Maybe he would remember something he heard when he was a boy,” said Jessie.
“Maybe he would. That’s right. I never asked Grandpa Cole,” said Mrs. Morse. She began to crack eggs and take off the shells.
Benny’s eyes grew wide with surprise.
“Oh, those eggs were hard-boiled already!” cried Benny. “I thought they would run out when I saw you crack them.”
“Yes, I always have cold eggs for my family. They like cold hard-boiled eggs for breakfast.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Benny. “I like cold eggs for a picnic. And for breakfast I like them hot and soft-boiled.”
Mrs. Morse laughed. “Most people do,” she said. “I’ve got a funny family.”
She was an excellent cook, though. Soon she took out a big basket with a handle. She began to wrap the sandwiches in waxed paper. She put them in the basket. “You like pickles?” she asked.
“Oh, we love pickles!” said Benny. He looked up. He expected to see a bottle of pickles. But these pickles were as long as his hand.
“My, those are superman pickles,” he said. “One will be enough. It looks just like a cucumber.”
“Pickles are cucumbers, Benny,” said Jessie.
“Well, I never knew that,” said Benny.
“I have some cookies, too,” said Mrs. Morse. “You’d better have some cookies for dessert.”
They were big round white cookies with a hole in the middle. They were brown around the edges. How good they smelled!
“There you are,” she said at last. She shut the cover of the basket. “Good luck!” She gave a Thermos of coffee to Jessie.
Henry took the basket and thanked her. Grandfather paid her. That is, he tried to pay her. But she gave the money right back. “No,” she said, “I love to do something like that. It was a pleasure.”
Mr. Alden knew she meant it. So he said he would always remember it, and each one of the four children thanked her again.
Off they went in the station wagon, back to the farm. They took the basket to the big flat stones by the front door. Henry found a chair for Grandfather. The rest sat on the warm stones. Out came the sandwiches, the eggs, the pickles.
Mrs. Morse had put in some paper cups for milk, and one beautiful cup and saucer and a spoon for Mr. Alden. “That’s good!” said Grandfather. “I like my coffee in a cup.”
“Not a paper cup,” said Benny.
“Right. No paper cup for me.”
On top of the basket was an enormous bone for Watch. He took it and went off with it. Everyone was eating cookies when they heard a car coming. Watch began to bark. He ran right over to the children, but he wagged his tail.
“Now who is that?” asked Jessie.
“I bet it’s the man to fix the roof,” said Benny.
He was right. A thin man with white hair stopped his car and got out. He looked at the children and Mr. Alden. He had a load of shingles in the back of his car.
“Are you the man to fix the roof?” Benny asked.
“Yep,” said the man.
“Have you got a long ladder?” asked Henry.
“Nope.”
“I suppose you have to wait for Sim to bring a ladder,” said Grandfather.
“Yep,” said the man. He began to take the shingles out of his car.
Grandfather smiled. “Will you tell me your name?”
“Yep. It’s Delbert King. But call me Del.”
Benny said, “You heard my Aunt Jane wants to come here to live? Quick like a fox. How long do you think it will take to shingle this roof?”
“I don’t know,” said Del. He took out a big box of nails. Another car came slowly up the drive.
“Now who is that?” said Jessie.
“I bet it’s another man to work on the house,” said Henry.
“Look,” said Violet. “There are three men in that car. Grandfather, you can turn a whole town upside down in no time!”
Then Sim came back too. He had another man with him. Now there were six men.
Grandfather said to Sim, “Let’s go into the house and see what to do first.” Everyone followed. Watch went along, wagging his tail.
The boards in the floor were very wide.
“Some of this just needs cleaning,” said Sim. “The last people left it in pretty good shape.”
“I thought nobody had lived here for a long time,” said Benny.
“No, a family moved in and stayed about six months a while ago. Then they went back to New York. They didn’t like the country,” said Sim.
One of the men looked at Benny and said, “Why do you want to live here anyway?”
“We don’t,” said Benny. “It’s my Aunt Jane. She used to live here. And Grandfather, too. This is Grandfather. He used to live here when he was a boy.”
Grandfather looked at the workman. “What’s the matter with the house?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said the man. He stood on one foot and then the other. He looked at Sim. “Always something queer about this place. Lots of stories.”
“Tell me one,” said Grandfather. “Just one story.”
“Well, there was an old gun.”
“Yes, we’ve heard about that gun!” said Grandfather. “Sim has it at his house.”
“No, it’s at my father’s house,” said Sim.
“Well, I shall see it soon,” said Grandfather. “What about the gun?”
“They say it came from this house,” said the workman. “I guess it was a musket. It was a long time ago.”
“Same story,” said Grandfather. “I am going to fix up the house just the same. Fix the windows. Fix the roof. Put in bathrooms. Put in hot water. A furnace. How long will that take?”
“Well, three weeks,” said Sim. “We’ve got a lot of men.”
Violet said, “School will be out, and we can come up and stay awhile.”
“We’ll find out what the matter is,” said Benny. “I bet it’s nothing. Just stories people tell.”
The men looked at Benny and laughed. “Maybe it’s nothing, son, but I bet it’s something.”
“Well, if it is, my grandfather will find out,” said Benny.
“That’s the truth,” said Sim. “He will.”
The men went out and put ladders up to the roof. Some of the men stayed inside and began to build a fire in the stove.
“Are you cold?” asked Henry. It was a very warm day.
“No, we have to heat water from the well,” said a man.
The workers had big kettles and soon there was plenty of hot water. The men began to wash the floors and walls.
After awhile the Aldens tired of watching the work. They went down to the cellar.
“Oh, what a place!” cried Benny as his eyes grew used to the darkness. “I can believe this cellar was here during the Revolution.”
“A dirt floor with rocks coming through,” Henry said as he looked about. “I suppose people kept vegetables down here in the winter.”
“Right, Henry,” said Grandfather. “We kept potatoes in that pit. We called it the potato pit. I remember it very well. I used to come down here and get two dozen potatoes for dinner. We had so many men working on the farm then.”
The four young Aldens went over the rocks to look into the hole. It was quite deep. It was lined with stones and plastered.
“No potatoes,” said Benny.
They all laughed, and Violet said, “Imagine finding a potato from Revolutionary days!”
“Well,” said Grandfather with a smile, “I can’t say that I remember the Revolution. But we kept potatoes there. And probably that was always the place for potatoes.”
“Maybe the mystery is in the potato pit,” said Jessie. She looked over the edge again.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Mr. Alden. He started to go upstairs. “I lived here a long time. There was nothing in that pit but potatoes.”
“I wonder if the mystery is in the big fireplace in the kitchen,” said Violet. “Let’s look in those ovens.” They went upstairs to the kitchen.
“Let’s get in,” said Benny. It was a fine idea. Benny could get into the ovens and stand up. There was an oven on each side of the fireplace.
But not a clue was to be found.
“Well, I think we had better find that motel,” said Mr. Alden. He looked at his watch. “We will have to have three rooms.”
“Oh, I hope they will take dogs,” said Benny. “Some motels won’t take animals.”
The men had finished washing the floor in the sitting room.
“Oh, how lovely this looks!” cried Jessie. “Wait till we get up some white curtains!”
The men looked at her.
“A fine job, men,” said Grandfather. “When you get through, just walk out. No need to lock the door, so Sim tells me.” He smiled at every man.
“That’s it,” said Henry to himself. “I can see why people enjoy working for Grandfather. He always looks right at them and smiles.” |