Part 24 (2/2)
THERE was an outdoor telephone booth at the entrance to a parking lot next to police headquarters. Nancy entered it and dialed the number of the Peterson bakery. To her delight, she learned that her old friend was home from the hospital and would be glad to see her.
When George heard this she said, ”You're running a shuttle service between River Heights and Mapleton.”
Bess giggled. ”With side trips to Stanford and Sandy Creek.”
”Don't plan on staying home long,” Nancy warned them. ”I may need you tonight.”
”Tonight!” Bess exclaimed. ”I was counting on giving myself a shampoo and-”
”Whatever it is,” George interrupted, ”the Swenson-Raybolt mystery is more important. Well, I'll stick by you, Nancy.”
”And I will, of course,” Bess declared. ”But please get this mystery solved soon, so I can catch up on a few things.”
”Like what?” George asked.
”Well, I've postponed a nice date three times already,” Bess said. ”I was to go out with Jeff Allen tonight, but I'll put it off again. Nancy, where will we be going?”
Nancy said this would depend on what she learned from the diary.
When the girls reached River Heights, Nancy dropped off Bess and George at their homes, then drove to the Peterson bakery. She learned from the counter clerk that the owner was upstairs in his apartment, and the woman showed Nancy the stairway to the second floor.
The elderly convalescent was seated in an armchair and apologized for not rising to greet Nancy. She smiled, saying, ”Mr. Peterson, it's wonderful to see you again, and how glad I am you're feeling better.”
”Thank you, Nancy. Why, you're a young lady now!” He laughed. ”I remember you as a little girl, always objecting to the ribbons Mrs. Gruen put in your hair. You especially liked my Swedish fruit tarts.”
”Mm,” said Nancy, smiling in recollection. ”I can almost taste the lingonberry ones now. They were my favorite. Well, Mr. Peterson, I've come to ask a favor of you. Would you translate a Swedish diary for me?”
”It would give me great pleasure. I am very much interested in diaries. Many secrets of history have been unraveled by diaries that were uncovered some time after the writers' deaths.”
”I never realized that,” said Nancy.
”In many cases this is true of the personal journals the famous people kept,” the baker explained. ”Take Queen Victoria of England, for instance. Pictures of her and the complicated politics she was forced to play make her seem like a very stern old lady. But she left a diary telling of her life as a young queen and mother of small children that gives a very different idea of her. She was gay-loved to dance and give very elegant parties.”
”How interesting!”
”Then of course there were other diaries set down by great men of history; for example, George Was.h.i.+ngton's well-kept account of his life. One section tells of a journey from Was.h.i.+ngton to Philadelphia which took five days! He also told of a gift of mules to him from General Lafayette for his farm.
”One of the most important diaries was that of Christopher Columbus, who kept a record of his entire journey from Palos in Spain to our continent. Did you know, Nancy, that when he saw the sh.o.r.es of Cuba he thought it was j.a.pan?”
Nancy laughed. ”I guess the old mariners made some amazing mistakes.”
”What is more amazing is how they managed to get back home,” said Mr. Peterson. ”Some of the voyages must have seemed endless. I enjoyed reading about a schoolmaster who took a job as a private tutor with a family that was moving from Scotland to Virginia. It was a three-month voyage and all he received for tutoring the children was 'bed, board, was.h.i.+ng, and five pounds' for the entire time!”
”How things have changed!” Nancy remarked.
She had listened in rapt attention to his recital of items in the old journals. Nancy wondered if Joe Swenson's up-to-date diary would prove to be as revealing about the writer's inner thoughts. A tingle of excitement came over her as she took the diary from her purse and handed it to Mr. Peterson.
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