Chapter Eight: The Big Dig
Grandma or Grandpa must have said something to Pastor Thomas about my snow cone business. He dedicated his entire sermon to the value of hard work. He briefly mentioned my snow cone business as an example. The congregation bellowed in laughter as they heard about the bitterness of the drinks. He went on to mention that we must not let one failure doom our future. We should learn from our mistakes, have faith, and try harder next time instead of giving up.
Pastor Thomas’s sermon made a lot of sense. I definitely learned from my mistake last night. I wish I still had the $27 I wasted on that stupid carnival. I could use it to buy a new fragrant soap maker kit. I got a soap kit for Christmas, but my batch of soap didn’t turn out as expected. The directions said to melt the soap before adding the fragrances. Unfortunately, I turned the microwave to the wrong setting and burnt the soap until it smelled like burnt popcorn. I tried to add some fragrance to it, but it didn’t help. The bottom of the bowl that I melted the soap in had been burnt black by the soap and was ruined. It took a couple of days and a few cans of air freshener to get the smell of the burnt soap out of the house
Dad said that I‘m not allowed to do any more experiments in the house. I don’t think that’s fair. How am I supposed to learn from my mistakes if I’m not allowed to have any? I’d like to know of any scientist that did a perfect experiment the first time that they tried. I read somewhere that a scientist was trying to make some kind of rubber material when he discovered Silly Putty.
I have a Social Studies project due Wednesday that I need to work on. We have to make a presentation on different cultures of the world. Autumn is going to show her sombrero that she got when her family went to Cancun, Mexico on vacation. I’ve never been to Mexico or any fun places like that, so I haven’t decided what I’m going to do for my project. I also need to figure out what I’m going to do about Suzy. Right now, though, I’m craving some adventure.
After we got home from church, I grabbed my metal detector and headed to the field behind my house. Maybe I could find something from the Civil War like Dad said. Better yet, maybe I could find a buried treasure.
With all of the digging that I have done since I first got my metal detector, I’ve given some thought to becoming an archaeologist. I’ve found some small fossils while digging up old tin cans, but I haven’t discovered anything major yet. It would be awesome if I found a dinosaur bone or an ancient mummy. I saw a movie where this guy found a frozen caveman while digging a swimming pool in his yard. Archaeologists are always finding cool stuff. The only bad thing is that they don’t usually get to keep their discoveries. They usually end up having to give whatever they find to museums. I’ve heard of a lot of famous scientists, but I haven’t heard of many famous archaeologists. When I discover something, I want everyone to remember my name.
Autumn arrived a few minutes after I began my treasure hunt in the field.
“Are you starting the expedition without me?” she asked. “I thought we were going to wait until this summer before we started.”
“I figured we might as well get a head start,” I replied. “It’ll take at least all summer to explore the whole field if we’re out here every day. We’re going on vacation to the Smokey Mountains in June for a week. I’d rather get a head start now so that we don’t have to work as hard to make up for those days when we can’t be out here.”
“Yeah, I guess we should do as much as we can now. We’ll probably have some days when it rains that we’ll have to make up also,” said Autumn.
I wasn’t worried about it raining that much this summer. It seems like it does all the raining around here in April and May. My dad always complains about all of the rain we get in April and May because he has to mow the grass too often. By July, he complains about the grass dying because of the lack of rain. I would think that he would be glad that he doesn’t have to mow it as frequently. He said that he’s going to buy a sprinkler to water the grass this summer. I don’t quite understand why he wants to water the grass to make it grow when he’s going to have to mow it more. He mentioned that he might buy a riding mower this year. If he does, maybe he’ll teach me how to drive it. I’m not sure if I would need a license for it or not.
Autumn and I took turns using the metal detector without much luck. Suzy seemed to be having more luck than we were. Old bones that he had buried and long forgotten about were his treasure. He was striking it rich every time he began digging. Suzy would sniff in circles around the field. When he picked up a scent, he would follow it until he found the spot to dig. It was almost as if he had a treasure map with an X that marked the spot to dig.
I wish that my metal detector could sense treasure as well as Suzy’s nose could identify hidden bones. All that we were finding were rusty nails, bottle caps, and tin cans.
We finally thought that we might have found some treasure when the sound from the metal detector started buzzing loud and consistently.
“I think we’ve found something good this time,” Autumn said grinning as she held the metal detector over the spot where the possible treasure was.
I quickly grabbed my shovel and began digging the spot. With any luck, we’d find something worthwhile. Grandma Becky told me that her dad used to bury his money instead of putting it in the bank. She said that he buried it because he didn’t trust anyone else with it. When he died, no one knew how much money had or where it was buried. I don’t know who owned our property back in the old days, but maybe they buried their money too. Autumn and I would be rich.
“Another can,” Autumn groaned as I excavated an old coffee can.
“Maybe there’s some kind of treasure inside it,” I said confidently as I examined the can. Grandma Becky said that my great grandpa used to bury his money in all sorts of containers, including coffee cans. Through the dirt and rust, I could make out sell by November 1 1960 on the side of the old can.
“Look at the date on this,” I instructed Autumn.
“I didn’t even know that they had coffee back then,” she replied.
“I bet there’s money in it. Something’s inside it for sure,” I said as I shook the can.
“Dirt! Nothing but dirt!” Autumn said dejected when I peeled the plastic lid off of the can. “Did they not have a garbage man back in the old days? How can there be so much junk in this field?"
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s some treasure out there somewhere,” I said.
We both decided to continue our expedition this summer. It was suppertime, and Autumn had to go home anyhow. I still had to figure out what I was going to do about Suzy and start on my Social Studies project.
Although I was tired and sweaty from all the digging, I didn’t get too discouraged about not finding any treasure. I‘ve heard that some archaeologists have dug for years before they discovered something. When they do find something, it’s usually something important that’s hundreds of years old.
The coffee can wasn’t ancient, but it was over 50 years old. That’s older than my dad anyway. I carried the old can into the house with me and washed it off. Although it seemed worthless, I thought that it was cool that I found something that old.