Marjorie hurried across the room to show Penny the map. “See,” she said pointing. “The big X is behind the Donahues’ cabin on the west side. Judy and I know what’s planted there. We got blisters on our hands the day we helped Pat and Mal hoe up those potato hills!”
Penny glanced at the map and then she laughed. “You silly girls! Don’t you know that this is a joke the boys played on you?” She went back into the hall and called up the stairs:
“Jimmy, come down here right away, please.”
Jimmy took the stairs two at a time. “What’s up?” he demanded. “The house on fire?”
For answer Penny handed him the jewelry box lid. “Didn’t you paste that map there to play a joke on the girls?”
Jimmy stared at the map in amazement. “Honestly, Penny,” he said soberly. “I never saw the darn thing before.”
“How about Alf and Brook?” Penny asked sternly. “A joke’s a joke, but this one might have caused serious trouble. If someone not as thoughtful as Marjorie had found it and followed directions he would have ruined Pat’s potatoes.”
“I know,” Jimmy said, still staring at the map. “But neither Alf nor Brook did it, Penny. They’ve never been inside the storage room, so they couldn’t possibly have planted this map in the cover of the costume jewelry box.”
“Well then,” Penny said firmly. “The person who did, did it purposely to annoy us.”