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stories about what kind of man would establish such a wonderful place as Pine Hollow.
    “He was a Rough Rider, you know,” Stevie began.
    “I always thought Max the First was a
good
rider,” Meg protested.
    “No, I mean a Rough Rider, like pounding up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. Remember that stuff about the Spanish-American War?”
    “Oh, yeah,” Meg said. “Roosevelt was the guy who said ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’?”
    “That’s right!” Stevie said. “And that’s why Max the Second always carried his riding crop in town!”
    Everybody laughed, except Joe Novick. He was waiting for a quiet moment. “I don’t think so,” he said. The crowd around the campfire turned to hear
his
theory. “I mean, well, maybe he did that
before
 …”
    “Before
what
?” Betsy Cavanaugh asked eagerly.
    “Well, the earthquake, of course,” Joe said matter-of-factly. “See, the way I figure it, he was in San Francisco in 1906. You know those old sand buckets in thestables?” They all knew them. Fire was a constant threat in a stable and, in addition to the standard fire extinguishers, there were old leather sand buckets every few feet. “I think he was part of the horseback bucket brigade that saved the city of San Francisco—”
    “Saved it?” Carole interrupted. “The whole place was burned down!”
    “I just thought the buckets were mementos of the Great Fire,” Joe finished.
    Maybe they were.
    “Oh, no, no,” Lisa jumped in, entering into the spirit of the thing. “You’ve got this all wrong.” Everybody turned to her. Even Max seemed interested in what she had to say. “A name like Maxmillian Regnery has to be a cover,” she began. “I just learned in school that the Latin word for king is
rex
or
regis
, so the name
Regnery
was chosen because Max the First had royal blood, and I think it was Russian royal blood!”
    The kids around the campfire burst into laughter. This was the strangest theory yet. While they listened, Lisa explained that Max the First was probably actually a son of the Russian czar Nicholas II. “He and Alexandra had so many kids, nobody could keep track of them. And when the revolution began, Max the First began spying for the revolutionaries. That’s how he escaped execution. But he was always afraid the royalists would find him. So he escaped to Virginia, changed his name, and opened Pine Hollow!”
    There was a great round of applause for Lisa’s new, untested theory.
    “Not bad,” Stevie told her, grinning with amusement. At school, Lisa was a straight-A student. Now Stevie could see some use for all the knowledge Lisa had to acquire to be so good.
    Adam Levine took Lisa’s story about Russian history as a challenge.
    “I think you’re on the completely wrong track,” he began, trying not to laugh. “You’re ignoring the well-known fact that Mrs. Reg always keeps that broom near her desk. It was, of course, the broom Max the First’s mother used to fly on Halloween. She wouldn’t let
him
fly it, so he started riding horses.”
    Everybody burst into laughter.
    “Come on, Max,” Meg urged. “What’s the real truth?”
    The campers turned to him and waited. Max never commented on the silly stories about his grandfather, which, of course, just made the old man seem all the more mysterious. “Well, I’ll tell you this,” he said, and then paused. Stevie wondered if he might actually reveal something of the truth. A cricket chirped. When the last chirp had echoed in the darkness, Max continued. “I’ll tell you this,” he repeated. “I think you’re on the right track now.”
    He’d sounded so serious that, for a moment, Stevie had believed him.
    Later on, tucked into sleeping bags, safe in their tent, Lisa and Stevie giggled about the silly stories. Carole, tired and happy, plopped a pillow over her ears and went to sleep immediately.
    “You know, there is a true answer to the question about Max the First,” Lisa