The Little Things in Life

LITTLE BLACK BOOK

This all started on one early Saturday spring morning, I was riding 4 wheelers with my 9 year old son. Cruising through the woods I hear a faint call “Dad!”, I turned to see my son standing next to his bike with the chain hanging down. I turn around to go back to him, after fixing the chain, he jumped back on the bike and took off. I stood there with my heart in my stomach watching him take off, as I look down I see in the thick of the brush just off the trail, I see this black rectangular looking object. Curiosity got the better of me, so I pushed myself through the brush and sticker bushes to see what had caught my eye. Once reaching this object I had realized it was little leather black book with combination lock on the strap, a picture of what seemed to be a shield and sword on the cover, this book seemed like it was a hundred years old. (How this survived the weather I will never know.) Later that evening I examined the book, worked on the lock, about 2 hours past, the locked finally opened. Inside this book was something that would change my life, I was very skeptical while reading the contents of this though, There was writing on the first page only, the rest of the book was blank. The writing said,

“To whomever finds this book, I was a very lonely man, last to survive in my family with no one to leave my belongings to, I have written a riddle for you to solve, for whomever can solve this riddle can be the one to take ownership of what is found.”

“Where this book was found, the belongings are near”

“What word of five letters has one left when two are removed”

“What gets bigger when more is taken away”

“What has many needles, but doesn't sew”

“What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps”

I had read this over and over, thinking this is a trick of some sort, I thought “What the heck, I have nothing better to do. I spent the next hour or so laying on the couch working out these riddles. First part, took me a few minutes to figure out that it meant “STONE”. Second portion took me some more time then the first with some researching to figure that it meant “HOLE”, so now I see that there is a stone covering a hole, but where? I continue down to the third portion, this is spring time so this also took some time and research, (Boy I really wish Google was around at this time) I finally figured out that this meant Christmas tree, must have been around that time that this book was buried. So now I have a stone covering a hole near a Christmas tree. We are in the woods, there are quite a bit of these trees around! Continuing down to the last portion of this, this one was rather easy to figure out it meant “RIVER” now I have a very good idea of where this is. The next morning I pack up the four wheeler and head off into the woods where I found this book, about 200 yards south of where I found this book I can hear the river flowing. I ride down through the woods to the river, to my surprise, I see a large pine tree near the mouth of the river with a very large stone right underneath. I drive over, after cutting away many branches hanging from this tree to access this stone, I tie a rope to the four wheeler and stone, It took quite a bit of power, being in 4 wheel drive to pull this stone out from under the tree, low and behold there was a rather large hole that this stone was covering, as I look into this hole that was underneath this large rock under the tree I see a chest, my heart again dropped to my stomach like I was watching my son flying on a four wheeler. Opening up the chest was a complete surprise to me, there were about 20 gold dollar coins dated 1878 inside, took me about an hour to feel my body again, I was stunned and speachless.

Unfortunately I will never know who left this book, the feeling he had being alone. I will never be able to thank this man. This was a day I will never forget, the lesson learned from all this. I will always be thankful for what I have and never let any of my family or friends feel alone again. I could not imagine how the poor man felt being all alone for many years to have to leave his belongings to someone he will never know or ever know if someone even ever found it.