Sarah's Search for Treasure

by Bertha Schwartz

  Sarah rushed to get warm water for Ma, while the miners moved the crib and other smaller bed into the living room.

  As Sarah returned to her baking, the miners filled the wood box to over-flowing and all the water buckets they could find.

  “You sure there is nothin’ else we kin help you with, Miss Sarah?” asked Ben, one of the miner-turned-furniture-makers.

  Sarah turned to find all the men still standing in the kitchen and eying the pie pockets she had fried earlier. She couldn’t keep from chuckling, and then she explained that she hadn’t had enough oven room and had decided to fry some as an experiment.

  “We’ll be happy to taste them for you,” offered young Ben, hopefully.

  Sarah quickly glazed them and offered them each one, glad she had enough finished. Their enthusiastic response warmed her heart.

  “I think that’s the best thing I ever tasted in my life!” exclaimed Ben. “I’d do a lot of work for another one of those.”

  “If you make some more of those for us, we’ll make a table without pay,” offered Mr. Marner.

  “We will, too,” said Mr. Daniels, the other furniture boss. “And it will be ten times as pretty as theirs.”

  The other crew let out a roar and tore out of the kitchen, followed by the second crew. Sarah couldn’t keep from chuckling at their good-natured competition. After putting the last of the bread in the oven, she went back to frying the pies and keeping an eye on Brian playing on a blanket in the corner of the kitchen.

  Ma came out of the bedroom looking worried. “How is that man, Ma?” Sarah asked.

  Ma shook her head. “Not good. I’m afraid I don’t know how to care for him. I wish we could get a doctor to come.”

  Sarah handed Ma a fried pie and a cup of hot coffee. “What’s this?” asked Ma.

  Sarah explained everything, including the miners’ response.

  “Oh, my!” exclaimed Ma. “Have you tasted them?”

  Sarah shook her head and picked up a peach one. The glazed, flaky crust and warm peach filling seemed to melt in Sarah’s mouth. It reminded her of a pie and a donut rolled into one. “They’re delicious!”

  Ma chuckled. “I’m afraid you started something here. We’ll never be able to keep up. Maybe we can teach Li’l Joe to help fry them. But we need to get dinner started.”

  “I have potatoes cooking for mashed potatoes,” Sarah motioned to the large kettle on the stove. “If you make gravy, I’ll start frying pork. But I didn’t get any cookies baked.”

  Ma chuckled. “We probably won’t need any cookies for a while. I can finish dinner. You had better keep frying pies as fast as you can. I’ll start some more pie filling, too.”

  Just then, Sarah heard a thump on the porch, followed by some loud braying. Sarah rushed to the porch. She would recognize Minnie’s voice anywhere! There, in front of the porch, stood their stolen donkey! As Sarah hurried down the steps, she noticed that Minnie was loaded heavily. After hugging her enthusiastically, Sarah ran her hands over Minnie’s body.

  “Her hooves look sore and worn,” Sarah told Ma, who had come outside. “And she seems tired. Otherwise, I think she’s fine. I’ll take these saddle bags off. They look heavy.” She tried to lift one. “They are heavy!”

  Sarah opened one of the bags. It was filled with brown packages. She opened the first one and found a pile of small rocks. Sarah dug deeper and pulled out another package. It was filled with dull yellow rocks. “Gold!” she whispered.

  “I think so, too,” said Ma. “I have a feeling whoever stole Minnie is going to be back, and soon.”

  “What can we do?” asked Sarah. “We’ll have to hide Minnie and the gold.”

  “The gold isn’t ours. But it might be stolen, too. We can’t hide it in the bedroom.”

  “We can hide it in the empty potato crates in the basement,” Sarah suggested. “I’ll put some more potatoes on top and maybe another crate or two. But what about Minnie?”

  Ma shook her head. “We can’t hide a noisy donkey. But let’s get her unloaded quickly.”

  Sarah shifted through the packages before she hid them. One was rectangular-shaped. She opened it to find a worn Bible. Inside the front cover, in fancy script, were the words, “To Susannah Maria Daily, on her twelfth birthday. From Pa and Ma. May you always follow the teachings of our Lord.”

  Sarah quickly wrapped the Bible again and slid it back into the saddle bags, questions tumbling through her mind.

  She hurried back upstairs in time to see two loaded wagons pulling up. Sarah stuck her head in the bedroom to tell Ma they were home from town. She glanced at the still form of Mr. Douglas’ son, feeling sadness for Mr. Douglas. And then she ran outside to meet the wagons.

  Dennis was off the wagon and fussing over Minnie already. While the others gathered, too, Sarah saw Ma pull Mr. Douglas aside. His face turned white as he hurried inside. Ma followed. Sarah explained the situation to Louis, the carpenter and driver of the second wagon.

  By now, the other miners had also gathered. As Sarah repeated the story, Louis was rapidly unhitching one of the horses. “There was a doctor in town,” he explained. “I’m going to go see if I can catch him before he rides out. I can ride this horse bareback.”

  “Take mine,” offered Ben. “He’s fast and still fresh. I’ll go saddle him.” He turned and ran to the barn.

  The rest of the miners helped unload and promised to keep a constant watch on Minnie, so she wouldn’t get stolen again. Sarah and Ma didn’t tell anyone about the saddle bags.

  Sarah prayed the doctor would make it in time to help Adrian.

  Sarah was in the garden when Louis returned with another man. Both horses were white-flecked with sweat and panting hard. Louis led the horses to the barn, while the doctor raced up the porch steps and into the house without stopping.

  Sarah gathered the peas she had picked and hurried inside. Hearing a quiet murmur of voices from behind the closed bedroom door, Sarah sat down and began shelling peas, praying for the stranger in the bedroom.

  When Ma finally came out of the bedroom, Sarah asked, “How is he, Ma?”

  Ma sighed. “Not good. Whoever did this planned to kill him. They nearly did. The man needs our prayers. And so does Mr. Douglas.”

  Sarah nodded.

  That night Mr. Douglas sat beside his son’s bed, while Ma and Baby Brian used the guest room. Little Gracie curled into a tiny ball as close to Sarah as possible, while Dorie slept on the other side of her.

  It seemed Sarah had just fallen asleep when she was awakened by the dogs barking and growling and men shouting! She grabbed a wrap and hurried downstairs. Did they capture a girl? The Bible she had found belonged to a girl. She was almost afraid to go find out.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  More Trouble

  AS SARAH DRESSED QUICKLY, SHE thought about the inscription inside the Bible she had found in the saddle bags—“To Susannah Maria Daily on her twelfth birthday . . . ” Surely it wasn’t a girl!

  Sarah raced outside to the circle of men and barking dogs. As she neared, she saw the miners were holding someone down. It looked like a fairly young man . . . He looked vaguely familiar. As Sarah got closer she recognized him. “Billy McGregor!”

  “You know him?” asked Mr. Daniels. “He was trying to take off with your donkey.”

  “Yes, I know him! He tried to steal Minnie once before, and he got caught! And he’s stolen a lot of chickens and other animals from our farm already. He’s a thief!”

  “I bought that donkey fair and square!” shouted Billy. “You probably came in the middle of the night and stole her back! I paid good money for her!”

  “How much did you pay?” asked one of the miners.

  “Well, I . . . uh,” Billy was clearly taken off guard. “I paid good money for her.”

  “I thought so,” said the miner. “You didn’t pay a dime, or you’d remember how much you paid. He’s a thief.” The miner turned and winked at Sarah. “We’ll lock him up, and then
we can hang him in the morning.”

  “No-o-o! No-o-o!” Billy wailed, falling down on his knees. “I’ll never steal anything again, ever, ever! Please, please, don’t hang me! I didn’t mean to!”

  Sarah had seen his drama before. She knew if they listened to him and let him go, he would keep right on stealing. “Let’s lock him up for now,” she said.

  “Oh, ma’am!” Billy continued to wail. “My saddle bags, please. If I may have my saddle bags, at least! Please, ma’am, oh please!”

  Sarah crossed her arms. “I suppose you stole those, too, didn’t you? Probably even the Bible. Who is Susannah Maria Daily?”

  Sarah was surprised when Billy’s expression changed completely. He looked suddenly ashamed. “It was my mother’s Bible,” he said, barely above a whisper.

  “Your Mother would be ashamed of you, Billy McGregor!” Sarah said. “You think you are going to put on a show again until everyone pities you and lets you go. Then you are going to brag about it to everyone you meet. Not this time! Your mother is not here to make you behave, but the miners and I are. We are going to tie you up tonight. We’ll decide what to do with you in the morning.”

  Sarah could see Billy was truly frightened this time. But when he turned pleading eyes her way, she lifted her chin. She was not going to be bullied by him again. Mr. Daniels, one of the miner-turned-furniture-makers, took Billy by the shoulders and led him toward the barn.

  Back in the kitchen, Sarah told Ma all that had happened. “Do you think he stole that gold, too?” Sarah asked, in a whisper.

  “I don’t know,” Ma also spoke in quiet tones. “But if anyone finds out how much gold we’re hiding, our lives could be in danger. Even men who are usually honest might be tempted to steal.”

  “Maybe Billy won’t tell anyone,” Sarah hoped.

  “Actually, he probably won’t because he knows someone might steal it from him if anyone finds out,” Ma replied. “What are we going to do with him? I’d just as soon he and his gold were gone, whether he stole it or not.”

  The next morning, Sarah had a plan. She told the miners she thought it would be fair if Billy worked for them for four weeks to make up for everything he had stolen from them.

  “What makes you think he won’t run off?” asked Li’l Joe.

  “He won’t get his saddle bags back until then,” Sarah answered, calmly, refusing to look at Billy. Sarah realized her mistake as soon as she’d said it and quickly added, “or his mother’s Bible.”

  “What’s in his saddle bags that he’s so anxious ta have?” asked a burly miner whom Sarah didn’t know.

  “Bet it’s gold,” answered another. “‘An’ I bet it’s stolen.”

  Sarah quickly glanced at Billy. He looked more scared than she had ever seen him.

  “Actually,” Sarah replied, thinking rapidly, “it’s something personal.”

  “Ha!” snorted a miner. “Prob’ly love letters. Ya got a girl, Billy boy?”

  “Shut up!” yelled Billy, his face going from white to red in a matter of seconds.

  “Whoever woulda thought?” crowed another. “Ol’ Billy boy’s got hisself a girl!”

  “Didja think ya could impress her with a donkey?” teased another one.

  “When ya go ta jail fer stealing, can I have yer girl, Billy?”

  Sarah banged on the kettle for silence. “Another thing Billy will need to do is every evening, he needs to read aloud one chapter from his mother’s Bible during supper.”

  Sarah was surprised when the miners all got up and quietly left after that announcement. Mr. Daniels nodded at Sarah as he left. “Thanks for the delicious breakfast, as always. And we’ll see to it that Billy cooperates.”

  Billy was still sitting in his chair, a mutinous expression on his face. “You can start by gathering the dirty dishes,” Sarah told him.

  “You think I’m going to take orders from you, you have another guess coming,” Billy snorted.

  “You have another guess coming,” said Mr. Douglas, coming into the dining room.

  “One word to the miners, and they’ll be all over you. They respect Sarah.”

  “A piece of my gold will change all that,” Billy bragged.

  “So there is gold? I’m guessing the miners are going to start thinking and figure it out, too. You stole it, didn’t you, Billy?”

  “No way! It was mine, fair and square!”

  “That’s what you said about our donkey, and we know you were lying,” Sarah said.

  “Billy,” Mr. Douglas said firmly, “your life is in enough danger as it is. I suggest you do exactly whatever Sarah tells you, so you draw as little attention to yourself as possible. You are much safer here than if you leave. If some of those miners suspect that you have stolen gold, they won’t hesitate to steal it from you. And they’ll go to any extent to get it.”

  Billy’s face was filled with fear. Without another word, he rose and started gathering the dirty dishes.

  Mr. Douglas motioned Sarah outside. When they were a ways from the house, Mr. Douglas told Sarah, “We need to do something about that gold. You and your ma’s lives are in danger, too.”

  Before Sarah could reply, Dennis came running to meet them, tears running down his face. “Sarah!” he cried. “Lady and her colt were stolen last night! They’re gone!” He threw himself against Sarah and sobbed.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Young Horse Thief

  SARAH HURRIED TO THE FRONT of the house and rang the dinner bell. In minutes, all of the men still on the farm gathered on the front porch. Sarah quickly explained the situation. “If we could divide into four groups and head out in different directions, maybe we could still find them.”

  The miners quickly agreed.

  “Does someone have a horse I can borrow?” asked Sarah.

  “You are going with us?” asked one of the miners.

  “Of course, she is,” answered Red. “You can ride Li’l Joe’s horse. Your ma’ll need help to have dinner ready for everyone by the time we get back.”

  Li’l Joe agreed reluctantly. He and Dennis ran to saddle his horse for Sarah. As the men went to get their horses, Sarah slipped back inside. She raced upstairs and pulled on a pair of David’s pants under her skirt. Rolling up the cuffs, she hurried downstairs and told Ma what was going on and then rushed outside.

  Mounting on Li’l Joe’s small horse, Sarah tried speaking above the noise of the gathering men.

  Finally, Red yelled, “Quiet, everyone! Sarah wants to say something!”

  Sarah thanked him with a smile and then said, “Why don’t we plan that we all return here at noon, whether we find anything or not?”

  At the murmurs of agreements, Sarah continued, “I guess I don’t need to add that if you find them, you bring them and the thief back unharmed.” At the men’s nods, Sarah added, “In appreciation, you will receive dinner at no charge.”

  As cheers went up, a miner called out, “Does that include one of those pie pocket things?”

  One of his neighbors shoved him, but the rest chuckled and looked at Sarah.

  Sarah smiled. “If you wait until we have enough made, you’ll each get two.”

  Amid the cheers, Red called for their attention again. “At least one of us in all four groups has got a gun. If ya find somethin’, shoot in the air three times. If anyone else is within hearin’, they can come that way.”

  The men nodded again and headed down the lane. Sarah paused to look back at the small group that had gathered on the porch. Ma was holding Brian, with Gracie clinging to her skirt. Dorie was waving with one hand, while the other arm was wrapped around Sparky, the half-grown pup. Li’l Joe and Dennis both had an arm around a dog, too, while the other two dogs lay at their feet.

  Just as Sarah turned around to join the men, she saw Billy move in the shadows of the porch. Would he run while they were gone?

  Sarah knew Mr. Douglas was still inside with his son. He hadn’t improved much this morning. The doctor had promis
ed to come check again this evening. As Sarah had hurried down the stairs earlier, she had heard Mr. Douglas reading the Bible out loud. It reminded Sarah to pray for both of them again. “ And Lord Jesus,” Sarah prayed as she rode, “please help us find Lady and her colt. And keep everyone safe. And please, watch over Pa and David, too.”

  “This way, Sarah,” called Red, interrupting her prayer. “You are going with my group.”

  Sarah followed Red until they fanned out to be able to cover a wider area. The little bay mare was willing and easily kept up with the bigger horses. Sarah relaxed in the saddle and enjoyed the ride. Remembering Lady and her colt made her sit up straighter and carefully watch her surroundings.

  After riding steadily for several hours without seeing anything unusual, Red held up his hand, signaling them to stop and gather.

  “I think we oughta head back by another route,” Red said. “We’ll cover a larger area. It’ll be noon by the time we make it back.”

  Sarah wanted to protest. She felt like they were giving up too easily. But all of the others agreed, so she remained silent.

  They hadn’t gone far, when Red again motioned them to gather. Coming closer, Sarah tried to see what Red was watching. As she neared, she could make out some riders in the distance.

  “Any of them horses look like Lady?” asked Red, as they continued to ride.

  Sarah studied them carefully. “I don’t think so. There is no colt along either.”

  “Let’s catch them,” said Red, nudging his horse into a run.

  In minutes, they caught up with them. It was obvious the four men were miners and had been for a while. Their riding horses and pack horses were heavily loaded.

  “Howdy!” called Red, keeping his tone friendly. He glanced at Sarah with his eyebrows raised, clearly asking if any of the horses were Lady. She gave a slight shake of her head.

  “How are you folks doin’?” Red asked.

  The scruffy-looking men eyed them warily. “Fine,” answered the man with the gray beard. After a bit of silence, he added, “Why don’tcha tell us what ya want?”