In fact, that day in Claud's room, Mallory was telling us about baby-sitting for her brothers and sisters the day before. Her face was lit up with excitement. "Nicky and Vanessa are both really into their Heritage Day projects," she said. "I think a lot of our regular clients will be, too. They're making a big deal of it at the elementary school. Everybody's supposed to do some kind of historical research— about their family tree, or about Stoneybrook, or about how their family came to Stoneybrook, or whatever. They're supposed to come up with projects and skits and stuff, and then there's going to be a big fair where

they can show off what they've learned."

Heritage Day sounded like fun — something to look forward to. I left that day's meeting with something new to think about, but you know what? I still hadn't been able to forget about my dream.

Chapter 3.

"Look at this one, Mary Anne!" Charlotte held up an old, sepia-toned photograph of a serious young woman.

"Wow," I said. "Look at those braids piled up on her head. Imagine how long her hair must have been when it was unbraided!"

It was a Friday evening, after a BSC meeting, and I was sitting for Charlotte Johanssen. She's one of our favorite kids to sit for; she's fun to be with, and smart, and almost never gets into mischief. That day she was already hard at work on her Heritage Day project. Charlotte's a great student — in fact, she skipped a grade so that even though she's barely eight years old, she's in third grade.

Charlotte had told me that everyone in her class was working on their family trees. Each student was supposed to research his family history, and find out when and why his family had ended up in Stoneybrook. For some kids,

the job would be fairly easy; if they'd moved to Stoneybrook recently, they wouldn't have to do much research. But a lot of families have lived in this town for generations, and Charlotte's was one of them.