Small Plates Read Online Free

plenty of time. Don’t give up now.”
    As she waited for Pru to have her little cry, Faith looked through the stack of quilt squares. Each one was different—she recalled that this was what made the quilt a “sampler”—and each was beautifully done. It was hard to believe someone could make such tiny stitches.
    At the bottom of the basket, Faith found a small piece of paper they’d overlooked when they were searching for something bulkier. On it, written in a spidery hand, was a strange-looking formula:

    â€œWhat is that?” Tom asked. “Some kind of code?”
    â€œIt looks like one of Aunt Eliza’s acrostic puzzles,” Pru said. “You know, where you transfer letters to numbered squares and get a phrase.”
    â€œNot a phrase! A message!” Faith gasped. “It must be the answer we’re looking for—the hiding place!”
    Tom scratched his head. “But where are the letters?”
    As soon as he spoke, they were all struck by the same thought. Three heads turned toward the quilted squares next to the basket.
    â€œDo you know the names?” Faith asked Prudence. “If not, Pix Miller will.” The Millers were members of First Parish, and Pix was an avid quilter.
    â€œI’m pretty sure I know them all.” Her voice caught for a moment. “She kept repeating them to me. I haven’t mixed them up, have you? I’m sure she left them in order.”
    Faith shook her head. “I looked at them, but they’re just as we found them. Get a piece of paper, Tom, and we’ll start listing the names. Before we know it, we’ll have the answer as easy as—Boston cream pie!”
    Tom handed Faith a pen and took a small notebook from his pocket. “I still don’t get it, though.”
    Prudence’s face was flushed—becomingly this time, Faith noted. “It’s simple! The number ‘one’ stands for the first letter of the first name of the first quilt square. ‘Two’ the second letter of the second square. Then back to ‘one,’ but it’s the first letter of the third square, and so on. When we put the letters over the numbers, we’ll know where she hid the will!”
    Tom got it. The Fairchild family members were rabid games players from outdoorsy ones like touch football to indoorsy mammoth board game marathons.
    The first five squares were: Old Maid’s Puzzle, English Ivy, Tall Pine Tree, Boston Puzzle, and Maple Leaf. Starting with the O, they soon spelled out “On top.”
    â€œAll the names seem to relate to Boston, New England, and Eliza herself,” Faith said excitedly.
    â€œShe told me the quilt was going to be a memoir. I thought she meant she was using her favorite squares. And now I also know why she kept telling me the names!” Pru said. “Quick, Tom, I mean Reverend Fairchild, here are the next six: City Secrets, Church Steps, Evening Star, Secret Drawer—do you think there is one?—Cherry Basket, and Memory Block.”
    The third word was cherry . Faith could scarcely breathe. One more word and they would have it! She looked about. “ Cherry could refer to the color, or wood, or a pattern. No shortcuts.”
    â€œHere it goes.” Pru slowly picked up each of the remaining nine squares and said the names aloud: “Silver and Gold, Beacon Lights, Duck and Ducklings—she loved the statues in the Public Gardens—Hourglass, Aunt Eliza’s Star—she said it would be rising soon—Bright Hopes, Fair Play, Brickwork, and Butterfly.”
    Tom seemed to be taking forever, and Faith almost snatched the notebook from him.

    â€œSecretary,” he cried. “On Top Cherry Secretary.”
    Prudence raced into the library and led them to the Chippendale secretary where she had been seated when they arrived.
    Tom, clearly the tallest, dragged a footstool over and stood on top of it. He reached up to the