“Remnants of wood where some of their cabins used to be. Each site has been excavated and marked. We’ve also built several replicas. Professor Jones was a great help with that.”
They continued walking for several more minutes and then Benny pointed to a spot that was staked off. “This is it,” he said. “I left the bones – or pieces – whichever they are, right where I found them, in that little box. Unfortunately, the shovel broke through it before I realized what it was.” The spot he directed them to was on the side of a gentle grassy slope.
“Could it be another cemetery?” Bertie asked.
Both men shrugged their shoulders and Benny said, “This might be another job for Professor Jones and his students.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Harry agreed, as he walked around the area. “When I get back to the office, I’ll contact him.” Pulling a disposable glove on one hand, Harry bent down and picked up several of the bones for a closer look, then replaced them. “They don’t appear to be pieces because they have no jagged edges to indicate breaks. To me, they just look like very small bones.”
“Perhaps a stillborn infant, or very young child,” Bertie suggested.
Harry nodded as he straightened up and looked around. “Hard to say… it doesn’t look like a cemetery. The ground is too even. Old cemeteries are usually similar to old vegetable gardens with humps and hollows.”
“Gosh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Benny said. “Maybe some rich old guy, buried on his own land?”
“Possible, I suppose. The Professor will have a better idea,” Harry replied. “I don’t think we should disturb anything until the Professor has a chance to examine the area.”
“That’s fine with me,” Benny said.
“So, what have you done to the rest of the place?” Harry asked.
“Well, since I don’t need it for hay anymore, the old barn has been restored to it’s former state as a church.”
“I’d love to see that,” Bertie said.
Benny laughed. “Mildred is preparing a lunch. Then we’ll take you on a tour. Come on.”
After a generous sampling of Mildred’s homemade goodies, the Stacks took Harry and Bertie on a tour of the buildings that had been reconstructed, commemorating the old gated community. “Professor Jones and some of his students did some work here last summer, through some kind of summer grant program. They uncovered the foundations of several cabins, or small homes, and pieced together enough information to form a fairly complete picture of their size and layout.”
“That’s right,” Mrs. Stack agreed, “and one of the girls did the research and gathered information on what the interior of small homes was like in that time period.”
“So, a lot of work went into getting this right,” Harry said.
“We have no way of knowing if they’re exactly right but these cabins reflect other small homes of the time, so they’re as close as we could get,” Benny said, with a shrug.
