The boys woke up with the sound of rain beating against their bedroom window. It was dark and gloomy outside and raining very hard.   As much as the boys wanted to find out where the old train tracks went they knew that the Woodland really needed the rain.  They weren’t in any hurry and knew that exploring the old tracks would have to wait for another day.  Bobby still in his pajamas went into the kitchen.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked Billy.

Billy thought about it for a while then told Bobby he’d like some waffles and some hot apple cinnamon topping like Brownie made for them.

“Ok,” Bobby called out from the kitchen, “Oatmeal it is.”

“Oatmeal,” Billy replied, “I thought we were having waffles.”

“Only if you’re making them, or going to mom and dads’ for breakfast,” was Bobby’s response.

Disappointed that he wasn’t getting waffles Billy told Bobby that oatmeal would be fine. The boys finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen and went into the living room.

“What are we going to do today?” Billy asked Bobby. “There’s nothing we can do out in the rain.”

“There’s something we can do,” replied Bobby, we can go to the library and do some research and try to get some information about those railroad tracks.”

The boys got dressed, and made their beds.  

“Do you think Amanda would like to go to the library with us,” Bobby asked.

“We can stop by the house and find out,” Billy replied. 

The boys put on their raincoats and boots and stepped out onto the porch. They made their way down the trail through the wind and rain.  Billy was in a hurry to get out of the rain and didn’t see the big rock in the path ahead of him.  He tripped and went face first down in the mud.  As Bobby looked down at his brother in the mud he tried very hard not to laugh.  He told Billy that if he didn’t stop playing in the mud he’d be giving pigs a bad reputation.  Billy was covered from head to toe with mud and laughing as he looked up at Bobby.

“This is fun,” he said as he grabbed Bobby’s pants leg and pulled on it sending Bobby down in the mud.

“Great job Billy,” Bobby replied, how can we go to Amanda’s covered in mud.

“We can’t,” was Billy’s reply, “we’ll have to go home and change.”

The boys returned to there cabin and put on clean dry clothes and headed back to Amanda’s house, making sure not to fall in the mud again. The boys got to Amanda’s and knocked on the door.  Amanda came to the door.

“What are you doing out in the rain?” she asked.

“We’re going to the library to do research on the old railroad tracks,” Billy answered, “and we wanted to know if you’d want to come with us.”

Amanda was glad the boys stopped by, and was excited about going to the library to do research on the old railroad tracks.  When they got to the library they found a table in a quiet corner and hung up their coats.

“Were do we start?” asked Amanda.

“Let’s start with maps of the area,” Bobby answered.

The three of them spread out in the library looking for old maps of the Woodland, and surrounding area.  Billy and Amanda came back to the table with two large rolled up maps, and carefully unrolled them out on the table.

“These maps are very old aren’t they?” Amanda asked Billy.  

“They sure are,” Billy replied, pointing to the date on the bottom right corner of the map.

The date on the map was stamped 1890 and the map covered the entire area that they knew as the Woodland.  The three of them gathered around the map trying to figure out where they were on the map, but nothing on the map matched the Woodland.

“Are we sure this is the right map?” Amanda asked.

”Oh it’s the right map,” Bobby replied, “just the wrong time.” 

With a puzzled look on his face, Billy asked, “What do you mean wrong time?”

Bobby pointed to the date stamped on the map, “this map is over a hundred years old,” he said.

“That’s right,” Billy said, “none of this was here a hundred years ago.”

“Except this,” Bobby was pointing to three buildings grouped together at the top of a hill.  

Amanda noticed that the one building was just off the trail that passed through the Woodland and asked if that could be the old house.

“It could be,” replied Bobby, “it seems to be in the right place.”

Billy pointed to the other two building.

“What do you think they are?” he asked.

 Bobby wasn’t sure, but they did notice that they were very big and set back a ways from the house.  Bobby told Amanda and Billy that they had to find some old history books that might tell them what was on the hill.

They soon found one very old book tucked away on a shelf in the back corner of the library.  The book was covered with dust and looked like no-one had opened it in a hundred years.  Amanda opened the book and started to read it.  It explained how in 1886 a wealthy business man wanted a secluded summer home to vacation away from the city so he built the house up on the hill.  The book went on to tell how in the 1890’s gold was discovered in Alaska.  The wealthy business man realized people would need transportation to Alaska.  So he built a private railroad from the Woodland all the way up to Alaska. For many years the railroad took people back and forth from the Woodland to Alaska.  Soon Alaska started to grow in population and more and more railroads were built to take people up to Alaska.  The new railroads went from the big cities so less and less people used the railroad that the business man had built.  After many years of service the railroad was closed down, never to be used again.

“Do you think the tracks still go to Alaska?” Billy asked.

“I don’t,” know was Bobby’s response to the question.

Amanda read on in the book, and explained to the boys that after the railroad closed down the people in the Woodland started to move away.  The business man that built the railroad also moved back to the city.  He abandoned the house and railroad he built leaving everything behind.

“Wow,” Billy said, very excited, “do you think every things still there.”

“I don’t know,” was Bobby’s response to the question, “I really don’t think many people here in the Woodland even know it’s up there.”

The book continued to tell the story of the railroad and how it was built and all the equipment that was used. The book told of the huge steam locomotive that was used to pull the cars, and because of the big brass bell on the front of the steam engine everyone called the locomotive The Woodland Bell.  As Amanda read on they all realized that the train was like a large R.V. on tracks.  The train had a sleeper car, dining car, an observation car and a baggage car with the last car being a caboose.  Amanda turned to the boys and told them from what she’s reading  the steam engine and all the cars were left up there on the hill behind the house some where in the woods.

“Well if it stops raining tomorrow we know what we all are going to be doing,” Bobby said with a smile on his face.

“Yeah,” Billy replied, “we’re going exploring.”

Bobby and Amanda both laughed; there was nothing that Billy enjoyed doing more then going exploring, except maybe eating.  Bobby took the old map over to the copy machine and made several copies of the map so they would have something to follow when they went exploring the next day.

The rain was starting to let up as the three of them left the library.  Bobby told Amanda and Billy that they should stop at the Professors house and tell him what they’re planning to do.

“Good idea,” was Billy’s response, “we should tell him were we’re going so in case something happens or we get lost they know were to find us.”

By the time they got to the Professors house the rain had stopped and the sky was starting to clear.  Bobby rang the door bell and they waited for the Professor to come to the door. The Professor was surprised when he opened the door to find the three of them standing at his door step.

“What are the three of you doing out in the rain?” he asked.

“We were at the library Professor,” Billy told him, “doing research on the old house on the hill.”

The Professor asked them if they found out anything interesting.  The three of them sat down and started to tell The Professor what they learned at the library.  Amanda told him about the book they found that told them about the history of the house as Billy rolled out the copy of the map they found.  They studied the map, and The Professor pointed out on the map where all the cabins and caves that are now in the Woodland are.  They realized that there were no cabins or houses built on the hill near the old house on the hill. Billy asked The Professor why he thought no-one had ever built on that hill. 

The Professor explained that years ago long before he and Brownie had moved to the Woodland there was an old bear named Honeyhound that lived near the hill and one day he went up on the hill and was never seen of again.

“What happened to him?” Amanda asked.

“No-one knows,” replied The Professor, “but from that day on everyone thought the hill was haunted and they stayed away.”

Billy’s eyes lit up, “that sounds like another mystery,” he said.

Bobby looked at Billy and told him that they have enough mysteries to deal with and they don’t need another.  It was getting late and darkness was filling the Woodland like a thick black fog.  The Professor told them that it was time they went home. He told them to be careful when they go exploring and to return to his house by sunset, to let him know that they’re all safe.  They told The Professor that they’ll see him tomorrow afternoon and left heading up the trail towards there cabin and Amanda’s house.

They walked Amanda to her house said good night and continued up the trail to their cabin.  Going inside Billy surprised Bobby by telling him that he would cook dinner and walked into the kitchen.  Bobby looked at the map again. While Billy made tacos with fresh lettuce, tomato’s and rice and beans, and topped them with sour cream and grated cheese.

“What are you making for dinner, it sure smells good,” Bobby asked.

“Tacos,” Billy hollered back from the kitchen, “and they’re ready to eat.”

The boys sat down and had dinner.

“There’s only one thing wrong with these tacos,” Bobby said, as he ate the last one.

“What’s that?” asked Billy.

“You didn’t make enough,” was his reply.  

Billy looked at Bobby, “You know Bobby you really are a pig,” he said, “You ate six of them all by yourself.”

The boy’s had a good laugh and Bobby holding his belly told Billy that he didn’t think he’d need breakfast tomorrow.  Smiling Billy told him that by tomorrow morning he’d be hungry again and have plenty of room for breakfast. The boys cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for bed, as Bobby turned off the light the boys said good night to each other and quickly fell off to sleep.