3- Jem and the Mystery Thief

 When a silver dollar goes missing from mean Will’s collection, Jem is blamed. After all, he’s the only one who went indoors during recess. When a charm bracelet is stolen the next day, more fingers point his way. How can Jem prove he isn’t the culprit?

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Chapter 1

Countdown

 

Jem took a bite of his morning mush and made a face.

Not even pouring molasses on his hot cereal made it taste better.

He peeked under the table. His golden dog lay at his feet.

When Nugget saw Jem looking at him, his tail thumped.

“Good dog,” Jem said.

Nugget could lick a bowl of mush clean in a hurry. Mama would never know.

But Jem’s belly would know. It grumbled.

Jem was too hungry this morning to give Nugget his mush. He took another bite and made another face.

“Whatcha doing?” Jem’s little sister, Ellie, asked as she climbed up next to him on the split-log bench.

“Eating breakfast,” he said between mouthfuls.

Ellie pointed to a beat-up  book. “No. What are you doing with that?”

“Nothing.” Jem slammed the book shut.

Paper was hard to come by in a gold camp. His school copybook cost five whole cents.

If Mama or Miss Cheney, the teacher, saw Jem wasting paper, there would be trouble.

Big trouble.

Ellie slumped. “Is it a secret?”

Jem shook his head. He looked around.

Mama was hanging clothes. They hung on a rope line that was tied between two pine trees near the family’s big canvas tent.

Not far away, a pot of beans boiled on the outdoor cookstove.

“Hurry, Jem,” Mama called from her clothesline. “You don’t want to be late for school.”

Jem ate another spoonful of mush.

“If it’s not a secret, then tell me.” Ellie scooted closer. “Please?”

Jem put down his spoon. He might as well tell her. She’d pester him until he did.

“Oh, all right.”

He opened his copybook to the last page. Five rows of crooked boxes took up the whole space.

Jem had written “May 1859” at the top of the page.

“What is it?” Ellie asked.

“A calendar.”

Ellie touched the first row with her finger. “Why are all those big Xs in the boxes?”

“Every morning, I cross out one more box.”

“Why?”

Jem rolled his eyes. “Roasted rattlesnakes, Ellie! You ask too many questions.”

Just then, Mama’s words popped into Jem’s head. “Be patient with your sister.”

He let out a long breath. It was not easy being the big brother.

“I’m counting down the days until school is out.” He slid his finger to the last day of May. “This box shows the last day of school.”

“Yippee!” Ellie clapped her hands. “Then we play every day. Not just on Saturdays.”

“Yep.”

Jem liked playing with Ellie. Even if she talked too much.

Even if she tagged along behind him and asked questions all day long.

There was nobody else to play with. Not many children lived in Goldtown.

Only miners. A lot of miners. Maybe a thousand, or even more.

Some women lived in the gold camp too. Like Mama.

Jem sometimes wished he could play with his school chum Perry. But Perry’s pa panned gold clear over in Two Bit Gulch.

The gulch was too far away to go visit a friend.

If he wanted to, Jem could go into town and play with Will Sterling.

He made a face. Nope. Not mean Will.

That rich boy always made fun of Jem and Ellie. He liked getting Jem into trouble, too.

Will’s father owned the new gold mine up on Belle Hill. A lot of miners had stopped panning for gold in Cripple Creek. They worked for Mr. Sterling now.

The miners dug deep underground to find gold.

Pa said it was dark down there. And damp. And dangerous.

A shiver went down Jem’s neck.

He hoped Pa never went to work for Mr. Sterling. He didn’t want Pa to go down inside that deep, dark mine.

Ellie sighed. “I wish I could go to school.”

Jem jerked his thoughts back to the breakfast table. “Huh?”

“I said I wish I could go to school.”

“You want to sit in school all day?” Jem asked. “When you could be panning gold? Or catching frogs? Or playing with Nugget?”

“Mama won’t let me go to the pond by myself,” Ellie said.

Ellie was right about that.

“Panning for gold is hard work,” she went on. “And the water is cold.”

Right again.

“And Nugget likes you best.” Ellie sighed again. “He even follows you to school.”

Nugget’s head popped up at his name. He crawled out from under the table. His tail wagged. 

Jem didn’t say anything.

“If I went to school, I wouldn’t be so lonely all day,” Ellie said in a small voice.

“Lonely?” Jem’s eyebrows went up. “With Pa and Mama right here? And Strike-it-rich Sam and—”

“They’re busy.”

Ellie had a point.

Maybe school wasn’t that bad. At least there was recess. And twenty kids to play with.

Jem looked at Ellie. Then he looked at Nugget.

Nugget was a good dog. He was friendly, and everybody liked him.

Everybody but mean Will.

It was also true that Nugget liked Jem best. The dog followed him everywhere.

Jem liked keeping Nugget nearby, but maybe . . .

He pushed away from the table. “I’ll find a rope and tie Nugget up. That way he can’t follow me to school. You can play with him all day.”

“Really?” Ellie’s eyes lit up.

“Yes, really!”

 

Chapter 2

Will Sterling

 

Jem slowed his steps when he walked into the schoolyard half an hour later.

“I wish I hadn’t left Nugget home.”

Ever since Nugget had become Jem’s own dog, mean Will left Jem alone. He stayed far away from Jem and Ellie’s pie wagon on Saturdays.

No more smashed pies. No more mean words.

Will didn’t pick on Jem at school either.  

Nugget followed Jem to school every day. He never barked. He no longer howled when the children sang.

Instead, Nugget plopped down under the big manzanita bush next to the schoolhouse. He rested in the shade and waited for recess.

During recess, the children played with Nugget.

Even Miss Cheney agreed that Nugget had grown into a very polite dog. 

“Where’s Nugget?” Jem’s friend Cole asked. “Is he all right?”

The boys climbed the schoolhouse steps together.

“I left him home so Ellie could play with him,” Jem said.

When he slid into his seat, two more children asked about Nugget.

Jem beamed. Everybody missed Nugget!

Everybody but Will.

“Dirty ol’ dog,” Will said in a low, mean voice.

He sat just across the aisle. His black hair hung over his forehead.

Jem’s smile turned to a scowl. He wanted to say something mean to Will, but he didn’t.

He kept his mouth shut tight.  

The bell rang. Clang, clang, clang!

Jem looked at the empty spot next to him. Perry was not in school . . . again.

His friend was probably panning gold beside his pa. They panned in the creek that splashed through Two Bit Gulch.  

Perry only came to school when it rained. Or if his mama made him go.

“Lucky duck.” Jem put his chin in his hands and stared at his desktop.

Right now, he could be helping Pa and their prospector friend Strike.

Jem could be pouring water into the rocker box. Or panning gold beside Ellie.

A fist-sized gold nugget might wash into Jem’s gold pan. Or maybe—

“Jeremiah Coulter.”

Jem sat up straight. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Thank you for leaving your dog home,” Miss Cheney said. “I was asked to take care of this problem.”

Jem’s mouth fell open. Nugget? A problem?

“There are to be no pets at school.” The teacher sounded sad. “Please leave him home for the rest of the school year.”

Jem nodded. He was too surprised to speak.

Will clapped a hand over his mouth. He choked back a laugh.

This is mean Will’s fault, Jem thought.

For sure Will had told his father about Nugget. Mr. Sterling had told Miss Cheney.

Jem leaned across the aisle. “Tattletale,” he whispered.

Will’s cheeks turned red, but he didn’t say a word. He just scowled at Jem.  

The boys glared at each other until Miss Cheney rapped a ruler on her desk. “Let’s begin our day.”

Jem turned his head to the front. So did Will.

Miss Cheney read the Bible and said a long prayer. Then she put the Good Book away.

Will waved his hand in the air. “Miss Cheney! Miss Cheney!”

“What is it, William?”

He jumped up. “I have something special to show the class today.”

Jem let out a big breath. Roasted rattlesnakes! Not again.

Will always had something to show the class.

One time he brought his Noah’s ark. Each tiny wooden animal was hand-painted. The ark’s roof even came off. The animals fit inside the big boat.

Too bad Will didn’t let anybody play with his precious Noah’s ark.

Just last week, Will brought a five-pound chunk of gold ore to show the class. It came from the new mine. 

“Father let me name our mine,” Will had told the class. “I’m calling it the Midas mine. On account of rich King Midas in my storybook. Everything he touched turned to gold.”

Jem wondered what show-off Will had brought today.

“Please come up here to share,” Miss Cheney said.

“Yes, ma’am.” Will walked to the front of the class.

“This is my coin collection.” He lifted a leather pouch. It looked like Jem’s gold pouch, only much bigger.

Will shook the pouch. Coins jingled.

Twenty children leaned over their desktops.  

Jem leaned forward too. He wanted a better look.

Will opened the pouch and stuck his hand inside. “I have lots of pennies, dimes, and quarters, plus two five-dollar gold pieces.”

He held up a big silver coin. “But this silver dollar is my favorite. See how shiny it is?”

No one said a word. Jem held his breath.

“You may come closer, children,” Miss Cheney said.

The children sprang from their seats. They crowded around Will and his silver dollar.

“Ooh!” Clara said. “It’s the prettiest thing I ever saw.”

Everybody agreed.

Jem had never seen a silver dollar before. Not in all his seven-and-a-half years.

He reached out to touch the shiny coin.

“No!” Will knocked Jem’s hand away. “You’ll get it dirty.”

Jem’s cheeks grew hot. 

Then something worse happened.

Will passed the silver dollar around to the big boys and girls. He also let everybody hold the gold pieces.

Everybody but Jem.  

A big lump got stuck in Jem’s throat. Mean ol’ Will!

Miss Cheney didn’t see Will’s meanness. She was too busy looking at the coins.

Will finally returned to his seat. He dumped out the pouch and spread the coins out on his desktop.

Miss Cheney’s eyebrows went up. “What are you doing, William?”

“I want to look at my coins while I study my lessons,” Will said.

Will wasn’t the only one who wanted to look at the coins. The rest of the morning, Jem kept peeking across the aisle to see them.

He couldn’t help it.

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