Dear Austin Read Online Free PDF

heaven!
    I wish you were here, Austin, so we could finish off one of these pies together the way we used to. Guess I'll just have to work on one alone! I hope Reuben is baking something special for you right now.
    Your about-to-be-grinning brother, Levi

July 26, 1853
    Dear Austin,
    The only news I have to tell you is that there's been another robbery in Sudbury! Charlie's blacksmith shed was broken into and some of his best irons were stolen. Charlie's daughter Anna saw the thieves from her bedroom window and woke up the rest of the house. By the time Charlie got to the shed, the thieves had gone. Anna did get a look at them, but she couldn't make out their faces, it being so dark. What she could see, though, was that there were two of them, one tall and the other short.
    Jupiter, Possum, and I have been working on our whittling up in the hayloft. Ever since she saw the barn owl kill that mouse, Darcy hasn't bothered us. She's so afraid of the owl that she won't even step into the barn. When she comes for Jupiter, she stands outside and calls up to him. If we see that she's getting braver and coming closer, we just start hooting and she runs away!
    I was telling Jupiter and Possum what I had found out about the Underground Railroad, and Jupiter's eyesgot mighty big. I asked him if he knew any more about it, but he just shrugged as if he didn't. Possum had other things on his mind—namely, worms. When Possum gets on a new subject, hell go on about it for days.
    The subject of worms is what he's been stuck on all week. He said he'd been studying them, and he figures that they're smarter than dogs. I said they weren't. And I went on to say that it would take a mighty dumb person to consider a worm smart.
    Jupiter grinned and pointed to Possum. He was only fooling, but Possum didn't take it that way. He said that neither of us had “the brains God gave a squirrel” and marched off home.
    Possum's
got
a short fuse, and when he's proved wrong, it's like to blow. I expect he'll get over it in a few days’ time.
    Everybody is jumpier than ever on account of the robbery, and I now sleep with my slingshot under my pillow. I wish the thieves would come around our place and I had a shot at them.
    Your brother, Levi

July 30, 1853
    Dear Austin,
    Something bad happened yesterday, and it was all my fault. I keep thinking, If only I could take it back. Have you ever felt this way, Austin?
    Sometimes I wish that you weren't clear across the country but rather home with me here in Sudbury. Because sometimes I come upon things that I just can't figure out on my own.
    Jupiter, Possum, and I were out in front of the house having a critters contest. There was frog jumping, turtle crawling, and worm slinking. We had lined all the critters” up and were running races. Most of the contestants were performing admirably, ‘cepting the worms. They kept curling up and didn't seem especially interested in the notion of speed. Anyway, we were watching the worms and waiting for them to straighten out and move when Darcy Nightingale came over from Widow Needly's place to fetch some molasses. She went into the house and came out to wait while Miss Amelia poured the molasses into a jar.
    Darcy was humming as usual, but she looked different somehow, and when I mentioned this she began to grin.
    “Is it her dress, Jupe?” I asked. “Is she wearing a new dress?”
    Jupiter shook his head.
    “Seems like I was born in this old blue linsey-woolsey,” Darcy said. “Miss Pearly complains every time she's got to let it down or out.”
    I stared hard at her, and she started to giggle.
    “It's mah new hair ribbons,” she answered proudly, bringing her hand to her head. That's when I noticed the yellow material tied in little bows all over her head. “Miss Pearly made herself some new curtains yesterday, and she said I could have de scraps that were too small to go in her quilting basket,” explained Darcy.
    “Be still, oh, mah heart!” Possum