One day, Jack fully dismantled Mike's tree house down the path from his house - actually it was Jack and me who did the dismantling after Jack convinced me that my presence and assistance were imperative. We rebuilt it across the river in a secret place and put up a stockade around the tree to keep the Indians from attacking us if they had a mind to.
Although no-one in our parts had been attacked by Indians that I knew of, they were sure attacking the settlers out west. At least that's what Jack said. They would charge on their horses hollering and screaming and shooting their arrows and throwing their tomahawks just when you least expected it and the next thing you knew you were dead. That's what Jack said. He didn't read the newspapers because he couldn't read that well but he talked to people on the river and he knew everyone on the river and so he got all the news fresh before the newspapers even had a hint of what was going on.
"So what's the sense in reading newspapers?" said Jack. "You can't believe everything you read anyway."
He had a point. Anyway, Jack and I used to go to the tree house all the time taking care that no-one followed. Because if anyone got wind of the fact that Mike's tree-house had been re-settled across the river and that Jack and I did the resettling, we'd have to leave town or forever live under the shame of knowing that everyone knew who did it. Jack probably wouldn't care but I would.
YOU ARE READING
Jack: Book One in the Trilogy, the Battle Begins
Teen FictionIn Book 1, Jack conspires with friend Jeremy to undermine their racist, secessionist teacher's efforts to poison his students' minds with his benefits-of-slavery lectures. Will the students buy into it? Not if Jack has any say. The book is dedicated...
