Nate let the paper curl again and placed it in a drawer on the nightstand. He got up and put the books back in the boxes. When he was finished, he stuffed them into his closet and then took the ones from the library downstairs, but kept the U through W encyclopedia. The note must have been about the Underground Railroad. It looked like coded instructions. Perhaps learning more about UGRR would help decipher its meaning. Too excited to sleep, Nate settled himself with Encyclopedia U in a wingback chair in the corner of his room. After reading the brief account of the UGRR in the volume, he wanted to know more about the conductors who had led it. In the library he discovered that the encyclopedias contained information on some of the ones he already knew. John P Parker, Harriet Tubman and Peg Leg Joe all risked their lives time and time again and made incredible sacrifices. He wondered about the many others who had failed to make it into the pages of a book. How many of their stories remained untold? His generation would probably never be asked to make such a sacrifice, but if they did, how many would answer the call? Before he knew it, daylight appeared through the window. Eventually, Nate went back to bed and slept until his grandfather woke him up at eight thirty for breakfast. At the table, he asked, “Do your books ever do anything funny?” Nate yawned but was too tired to put the energy into covering a mouth full of cheese grits. “I’m afraid we haven’t been able to find any books inclined toward stand-up,” Grandpa said. “The ones we have stay put until we come and read them.” “It’s funny,” Nate said. "As if it would be so unusual for things to move on their own in this place." "Nathan." Grandma looked at him as if she were planning to check his forehead...... middle of paper. .....fr. We'll be back in a few hours." His grandmother got up and went into their room and came out with a hat and gloves. His grandfather jingled his pockets and took out the keys. The key ring contained about a dozen keys hanging from Nate wondering what they did with all those keys since they never locked anything. “Nathan,” Grandma said, “would you like to. "Please clean up the kitchen while we're gone?" "Of course, Grandma followed them home." He stood for a moment watching them leave, then went into the house. In the hall, he stood turned and looked at Odd with a frown, his grandparents were driving thirty-five miles to town to pick up a package for the reverend. Why couldn't he pick up his own. package? He shook his head and ran up the stairs to get dressed for the hike. ?.