The Secret House Adventure

By M.L. Adams

Author M. L. Adams wrote “The Secret House Adventure” for 8+ years old who are just entering the world of fiction for children, moving beyond the single words of “Cat in the Hat”, but not quite ready for “Harry Potter”.
Four spunky best friends in Small Town, U.S.A. are compelled to enter a forbidden old mansion at the edge of town. Penny, “Mac”, “Toad” and Jeannie are transported into a time warp they are unable to explain, far beyond the ordinary life they know. Along the way, they learn the history of the house and the people who had occupied it, but the mystery of their experience does not seem to have an easy answer.
Go on this exciting ride with them, as they try to figure out how an ordinary abandoned house keeps bringing these curious 10 year old back to its door over and over again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491867310

M.L. Adams

M.L. Adams is best known for a humor column in a local newspaper. This is her first published work. Always interested in fictional novels and humor, she was first influenced as a teenager by the writings of Robert Benchley. Now a great-grandmother, she lives in Western Oregon with her husband.

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The Secret House Adventure

M.L. Adams

AuthorHouse™ LLC

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 M.L. Adams. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse : 02/19/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6730-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-6731-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903311

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Contents

Part 1 — The Secret House Adventure

Chapter 1 The Perfect Saturday

Chapter 2 The Gang of Four + one Dog and a Pesky Little Brother

Chapter 3 Secret House Mansion

Chapter 4 – Millions of frogs

Chapter 5 1875

Chapter 6 – The plan

Chapter 7— Surprise!

Chapter 8 – Curiosity Killed the Cat?

Chapter 9 – Breaking the Law

Chapter 10 – Scared Stiff

Chapter 11 – Hidden Treasure

Part 2 — The Clue in the Lake

Chapter 12 – Friends with a secret.

Chapter 13 — Fish and Bones

Chapter 14 — But What About the Potato Salad?

Chapter 15 – A Real Life Crook

Chapter 16 – Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Chapter 17 – Going it Alone

Chapter 18 – Telling the Secret

Chapter 19 – To the Future and Beyond

Part 1

The Secret House Adventure

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Chapter 1 The Perfect Saturday

It was the barking that woke her up. The sun shining in the window reminded her that it was Saturday, because daddy always let her sleep in on Saturdays. It was her favorite day. Daddy would already have done the milking and fed her calves. Hank Taylor was the best dad in the world to Penny and her brother Joey, and the barking would mean he was on his way back to the house for breakfast with their big old shaggy collie on his heels. Penny jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed downstairs. Mom was just taking biscuits out of the oven, and the smell of bacon filled the kitchen. Biscuits and bacon. How could this not be the best Saturday ever? Her best friends were suppose to be here at nine, so she would have to hurry and eat and get her teeth brushed.

Dad came in, pulling off his boots and leaving them on the porch, where Bingo lay down to guard them from possible boot thieves, already panting from the warm morning. It was probably going to be hot again today. He had already told Penny she and her friends could spend the day catching frogs in the garden pond at the old house today, and transfer them to the larger lake on the far side of their property, almost a half mile away. It would keep them busy, and cool, most of the day. Then they planned to walk into town and get ice cream and soda.

Thanks, daddy, for feeding my calves this morning? How is the little one? He didn’t want to drink from the bucket yesterday. Her father was solemn when he told her not to be surprised if the little brown and white calf didn’t make it through the day. She didn’t want to hear bad news today. She didn’t want anything to ruin her perfect Saturday. But life on the farm sometimes can be harsh, and losing a calf or a colt or a piglet was part of it. Suddenly, the biscuit wasn’t so good. She nibbled on it, stuffed some bacon in it, and took it with her to go say goodbye to the helpless little struggling animal. Bingo followed closely. No one got past Bingo. If anyone was headed anywhere, Bingo was with them.

The calf was in a horse stall, lying down, but not yet all the way down, giving her some hope that it might survive. She got down on all fours, nose to nose with the sweet little baby and gave it a hug, smoothing his soft hair and she told him to hang on, try to eat and be strong. Tears in her eyes, she closed the stall gate and blew him a kiss and headed back to the house.

Her little brother, Joey was on the porch when she reached the end of the path, putting out a dish for the dog and filling his water pan. Joey was 6 , three years younger than Penny, and already responsible for several chores around the farm. He was a good kid, but he always wanted to hang around with Penny and her friends, which was a profound irritant to Penny. She loved her little brother, but sometimes she wished he had more friends his own age close by so she didn’t have to look out for him all the time. She set about finding buckets and cans and scoops and nets to catch frogs later on. It was going to get hotter as summer began, and most of the frogs would surely die in the shallow garden pond at that old house. No