Mystery in the Old Trunk

“Surely there is something up here in this musty old attic that we can use to make costumes,” commented Marie Perry to her brother Jonathan. “I mean, look, we’ve found our baby albums, an old round suitcase with a hat in it – so it must be a hot box - and some old pictures that appear to be printed on metal. There’s just got to be some good stuff up here for costumes.”

Suddenly Marie began quickly tossing clothes out of an old trunk. “What are you doing” shouted Jonathan, “besides making a big mess?” “Look!” said Marie as she held up a black thing that appeared to be a book.

“What is it?” asked Jonathan.

“I think it's a Bible. It’s been in a fire. The cover is all crinkled up and brittle.”

“Wow! Can you open it?”

“I’ll try. The edges of the pages are blackened and curled by the fire, so I’m not sure I can separate them.” Marie very slowly opened the Bible, afraid the book would fall completely apart or the pages would simply disintegrate into dust. “Look at this, Jonathan. Even though the edges of the pages are burned, the writing wasn’t hurt by the fire. That is amazing!”

“Yeah, and I see why the cover didn’t burn completely; it’s leather. Wonder who this belonged to and how it ended up in our attic?”

“Let me see if there’s anything written in the front.” Very carefully Marie opened the cover and saw the inside blank page. Or, rather, it had been blank at one time. It was covered in writing that looked as if it were done by a child who was practicing writing his name. "Emery" was written in several places on the page. When she turned to the next page, she exclaimed, “Oh, Jonathan, listen to this. It says,

With all my love,

John

Halfway between the two oaks in Twin Oaks Field.

“Can you believe this? This Bible is almost two hundred years old! Do you think John and Martha might be some of our ancestors?”