The Treasure Hunt Read Online Free PDF

girls.
    â€œOh, it’s old and dusty and cobwebby, and the windows are all boarded up,” Rebecca reported cheerfully.
    Veronica put in, “But we’ve cleaned most of it already, and it was nice and warm after we put up our stove.”
    â€œMy brother Ben is going to rent a house too,” Lydia told them. “I shouldn’t have worried about a house for us since there are so many around that are not being used.”
    â€œDid you worry? I thought Jake came down here ahead of you to build a house,” Veronica said in surprise.
    Lydia smiled sheepishly. “Yes, I worried they wouldn’t have it done. I guess I’m not a very good pioneer.”
    â€œWhy, our parents went off to North Dakota and had nothing but sod houses,” Rebecca said. “They were real pioneers!”
    As soon as she could, Lydia wrote a letter to Mary and Susanna Swartzentruber, back in North Dakota.
    Dear Mary and Susanna,
    Our house is almost finished, and we are glad because the weather is cold. It is not as cold as North Dakota, though. Right now there is no snow on the ground, but it snowed the first night we were here.
    The name of our nearest town is Wild Horse. I think that is a funny name for a town, don’t you? Maybe someday I will find out why our town has that name.
    The train ride was fun. I liked sleeping in the upper bunk. The swaying was like a ship on the ocean. I hope you get to take a ride on a train too one day.
    Your friend,
    Lydia
    Not long afterward, a letter came from her friends. Mary and Susanna had big news for Lydia.
    Dear Lydia,
    Guess what! We are going to move too! I wish we would come to Colorado, but we are moving to Montana. The name of our nearest town will be Glendive. Do you know where Montana is? It is right beside North Dakota and up by the Canadian border. Montana is the third largest state of the USA. It is really big! There’s lots of room in Montana for you too if you don’t like it in Colorado…
    Lydia stopped reading and stared thoughtfully out the window. She did not want to move away from Colorado because moving was hard work. But she did wish that Mary and Susanna Swartzentruber did not live so far away.

6
    To the Hospital
    W ith Colorado’s dry, pleasant weather, the families were able to keep building all winter. The sun shone nearly every day, and the temperature frequently went up to forty degrees at noon.
    The nights, of course, were colder. Chilly winds poked through the cracks of hastily built houses. One morning when Lydia came downstairs to the kitchen, Mother wasn’t there. Polly told her gravely, “Mother has a bad earache, and Father went to get the doctor.”
    â€œOh,” said Lydia in alarm. “Is it really bad this time?” Mother had been plagued with earaches for years, especially during the frigid North Dakota winters.
    Polly cracked an egg and let it drop into the sizzling pan. “It must be pretty bad if Father’s getting the doctor.”
    â€œI had hoped Mother’s earaches would be better here in Colorado since it’s warmer,” Lisbet said as she caught onto the conversation after coming in from the barn with the milk.
    â€œSo did I,” Lydia echoed. She didn’t like to think of Mother lying in the bedroom in pain. “What do you think the doctor will do to her?”
    â€œI have no idea,” Polly confessed. “There’s a car coming up the road now. Maybe that’s him.”
    Father returned home at the same time as the Ford chugged in the driveway. Dr. Crawford was a short dumpy man. He barely looked at the girls when he entered the house, but went straight to the bedroom with Father. Lydia heard low voices in there. Only a short time later, Dr. Crawford and Father came out of the bedroom and left the house. Out by the car, they talked for a few minutes, and then the doctor drove away.
    Father hurried back inside. “Is breakfast getting cold?”