Thanksgiving Thief Read online

  “This is the only part left of what used to be a large area of wilderness. It used to stretch way out into the countryside,” Mr. Drew explained.

  “Really?” Nancy said.

  Mr. Drew nodded. “This whole area was once all trees and bushes,” he told the girls. He stopped the car. “Let’s get out and look around. We’ll need to be quiet, just in case our friends are around here, and I think they are.”

  “Friends?” asked Nancy.

  “I don’t consider anyone trying to destroy Thanksgiving a friend,” Bess added.

  “Me either,” George put in.

  “Don’t be so quick to judge,” said Mr. Drew. “There are always two sides to every story.”

  For the next several minutes, the four of them made their way through the thick underbrush, trying to be as quiet as possible.

  Suddenly Mr. Drew held a finger up to his lips, warning them not to make a sound. He slowly pulled apart a couple of branches and peered between them. “Nancy, look at this,” he whispered.

  “Oh my gosh!” Nancy whispered back. “I don’t believe it.”

  Bess and George took turns looking. Then the four of them moved back, away from the thicket, so they could talk about what they had seen.

  “They’re the crooks, all right, Nancy,” George said. “We’ve solved another case.”

  “Right,” Nancy said. “We caught them red-handed with the evidence.”

  In the thicket, Nancy had seen the two adult wild turkeys, along with three offspring. They were surrounded by a bag of stuffing mix, some dried pumpkin puree, and piles of green beans.

  “But that still doesn’t explain who opened the refrigerator door and ruined all of Mr. Davidson’s fresh turkeys,” Bess said.

  “Oh, I think it does, Bess,” Nancy said. “If those turkeys are strong enough to carry some of that food here to the thicket, then I’m sure they’d be strong enough to fly up on that table where I found the feather and open the refrigerator handle with a foot or a beak.”

  “Wow!” George said. “I’m impressed with how smart they are!”

  “Animals will do whatever it takes to survive,” Nancy said. “Of course, they were probably shocked when they found other turkeys in the refrigerator!”

  “Well, yeah!” Bess said.

  Nancy turned to her father. “How did you know the turkeys would be here, Dad?” she asked.

  “Well, like I told you, Nancy, this whole area used to be wilderness,” Mr. Drew explained. “It was home to a lot of wildlife, including wild turkeys. Come over here,” he said. “I want to show you something else.”

  They walked several yards to the edge of the park. They saw a group of new homes. “These housing additions were built where a lot of wild animals used to live,” Mr. Drew said. “Now there’s not enough land left to support them.”

  Nancy turned to Bess and George. “Well, the Clue Crew solved the mystery of who was trying to destroy Thanksgiving in River Heights,” she said, “but now we have another problem. . . .”

  At school on Wednesday morning, the day of the festival, Mrs. Ramirez said, “Nancy Drew has an announcement to make.”

  Nancy came to the front of the room. “The people who were trying to destroy the River Heights Thanksgiving Celebration aren’t people,” she began. “They’re wild turkeys.”

  The class gasped.

  “Oh, I saw them on television!” Deirdre said. “They were drinking dirty water from that broken pipe here at our school.”

  “Right!” said Nancy.

  She then told the class about the disappearing wilderness. She talked about how the Clue Crew had seen the wild turkeys in the last remaining thicket trying to feed their young.

  “That’s terrible,” Katherine Madison said. “We can’t let this happen to them.”

  “We need to do something about it,” said Deirdre.

  The rest of the class agreed.

  “Well, here’s my plan,” Nancy said. “My dad says there is some land on the other side of the river. We’re going to ask the City of River Heights to buy that land so the local wildlife, including turkeys, will have a place to live.”

  The class cheered.

  “Why hasn’t the wildlife already gone there?” Peter Patino asked.

  “The river’s probably too wide for some of them to swim across,” George guessed. “But we honestly didn’t ask them that question.”

  The class laughed.

  “The wild turkeys will have a place to live and raise their families,” Bess said. “And they won’t have to come over to our school to steal food!”

  “What will they do until we get the wildlife refuge ready?” Katherine asked.

  “That brings me to the second part of my plan,” Nancy continued. “We’re going to feed them in the park every week until the wildlife refuge is ready. Who’s with me?”

  All the hands in the class went up.

  While Nancy was making a list of volunteers, a couple of the other teachers came into the room. They huddled with Mrs. Ramirez, then left.

  Mrs. Ramirez quieted down the class. “The other classes want to be involved too, Nancy, so we should have plenty of volunteers to make sure the turkeys are fed until they can be moved,” she said.

  Nancy grinned.

  “Now, then, class, we’re going to the gym to practice for the pageant,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “I hope you haven’t forgotten that the Thanksgiving Celebration is tonight.”

  “We haven’t!” the class shouted.

  That night Nancy, Bess, George, and Mary White Cloud were huddled in the wings behind the curtain.

  George pulled the curtain back to peek out. “Oh, wow!” she said. “This place is packed.”

  “Let me look at you,” said Mary. She adjusted their headbands. “Perfect. You really do look like Native American princesses.”

  “Do you have our turkey feathers?” Bess asked.

  Mary nodded. “Your three and one Mr. Fulton gave me!” she said.

  “Super!” Nancy said.

  “I am now going to perform the feather ritual,” Mary said. “I will put one feather at the back of each headband.”

  “Places, princesses,” Mrs. Ramirez whispered. “You’re on in two minutes.”

  Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew lined up behind Mary.

  “I wonder if we would have found any feathers if those wild turkeys hadn’t tried to destroy Thanksgiving,” Bess whispered.

  “I don’t really believe now that they were trying to destroy Thanksgiving, Bess,” Nancy whispered back. “I think they were just trying to get our attention.”

  “Well, they certainly did that,” George said with a smile.

  Then, on cue, the four Native American princesses walked out onto the stage, where they were welcomed by the Pilgrims.

  Pumpkin Pie Pomander

  A pomander is a mixture of great-smelling things packaged in a paper ball. A pumpkin pie pomander will make you think it’s Thanksgiving all year when you hang it inside your closet or put it in a drawer.

  You will need:

  One orange

  Two boxes of dried cloves

  One tin or jar of pumpkin pie spice

  Two sheets of tissue paper

  Ten to twelve inches of orange or brown grosgrain (narrow) ribbon

  One plastic food-storage bag

  Two sheets of stickers with gold or silver stars and half moons, or two sheets with stickers that would appeal to one of your friends, if you plan to give the pomander as a gift!

  Before you start, you need to put on an apron, and then cover the kitchen table with newspaper. It’s probably a good idea to secure the newspaper with tape. Then, when it’s time to clean up, you can simply wad up the newspaper and throw it into the trash.

  First, stick the cloves into the orange, pushing them down as far as they’ll go, until the entire surface is covered.

  Next, put the pumpkin pie spice in the food-storage bag. Add the clove-studded orange and shake gently until the
orange is covered with the spice.

  Then wrap the orange in the tissue paper, tie it up with the orange or brown ribbon, and put it in a warm, dry place for about a month. When the orange is dried out, the pomander is ready to make your room smell like it’s full of pumpkin pies!

  Now decorate the tissue paper with the stickers, and you’re all set!

  Read all the books in the Blast to the Past Series!

  #1 Lincoln’s Legacy

  #2 Disney’s Dream

  #3 Bell’s Breakthrough

  #4 King’s Courage

  #5 Sacagawea’s Strength

  #6 Ben Franklin’s Fame

  #7 Washington’s War

  #8 Betsy’s Star

  Nancy Drew

  and the Clue Crew

  Can you solve these other mysteries from Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew?

  #12 Valentine’s Day Secret

  1-4169-4944-5 (paperback)

  #13 Chick-napped!

  1-4169-5522-4 (paperback)

  #14 The Zoo Crew

  1-4169-5899-1 (paperback)

  #15 Mall Madness

  1-4169-5900-9 (paperback)

  Collect them all!