Dear Austin Read Online Free PDF Page A

not below. I suspect they are looking for some kind of secret door that leads to the Underground Railroad. I hope they leave Jupiter's pa alone.
    Tomorrow Jupiter and I are going to make up another batch of Reuben's hiccup remedy tea. Possum found an old whiskey flask in his grandpa's attic. We're going to fill it with the tea, and that way I can keep it on me for emergencies. Best be getting to bed, as my lamp is low on oil.
    Your brother, Levi

July 23, 1853
    Dear Austin,
    I have some news about the Underground Railroad. I found out at dinner that it is not underground at all! And not even a railroad! When I asked Miss Amelia about it, she seemed real surprised. I told her what I had heard at Miller's store and she said that there were no tracks underground and no train! She said that there were just people helping people to freedom. The Underground Railroad is a secret network of folks who use their houses to hide slaves who are running north out of slavery.
    When I told her what Old Man Potts had said about the law being on the side of the slave catchers, Miss Ameha frowned. “Sometimes,” she said, “a body has to follow the laws of their heart. If in your heart you know a law to be bad and to cause suffering, then you must follow the course of good, even if it goes against the law of the land. That is what the men and women who are working to free the slaves are doing.”
    “Women?” I asked, for I was surprised that there would be any women working on this railroad.
    Miss Amelia went on to tell me about a brave “conductor,” a slave named Harriet Tubman. She said this woman was so brave that people call her Moses, like from the Bible. She has a price on her head for taking slaves out of slavery down south and bringing them up north on the Underground Railroad.
    When I asked Miss Amelia how it was she knew so much about this Underground Railroad, she said we had talked enough and the ash bucket needed emptying. That's what she always says when she wants to change the subject. I can't tell you how many times I've had to” empty that ash bucket when it weren't nearly full!
    Later that evening, Possum, Jupiter, and I were sitting up in the hayloft working on our whittling. Darcy Nightingale started to climb the ladder to fetch Jupiter to walk her home. It was a close call, for she almost caught sight of the stick Jupiter is making for her. If it weren't for Possum throwing ahorse blanket over Jupiter's lap, Darcy would have - seen it for sure.
    “Ain't no girls allowed up here,” I told her. She huffed and puffed and said she wouldn't bother us. And afore I knew it, she had set herself down in the straw beside the loft window and was humming a tune as she swung her legs over the window ledge.
    Jupiter was helping me with old turnip head. We were trying to get his features to look less vegetable and more human, but we weren't having much success. Darcy started asking all kinds of questions, talking and singing and jabbering away. I finally had to tell her to “hush up.” Just as she did, -we heard the barn owl hoot up in the rafters, and as we all turned to look we saw it swoop down into the barn and snatch up a mouse that was running out of Essie's stall. The mouse was wiggling and struggling to free itself, but it was no match for the death grip of that owl.
    Darcy covered her face with her hands and didn't make a peep after that. She's got a big mouth for a little girl, but I suppose her heart's just as big, especially when it comes to tiny critters.
    I'm sitting at the kitchen table as I write this. And the room is full of our favorite smell. Do you remember what that was? Warm cherry pie! There are four pies cooling in the pie safe. Miss Amelia has taken to baking for Preacher Tully and his old father, who lives with him. Seems she can't bake them just one pie but insists on two and sometimes three! Possum says that maybe Miss Amelia is sweet on the preacher. Either that or she's trying to bake herself into