"That's because you're a girl," he said. He stuck his tongue out at her and then strutted towards the door. When Samantha reached out to grab him, he ran. He paused in the doorway to say, "You are pretty nice. For a girl."
Samantha watched him run off, shaking her head and smiling. Since Miss Brigham had still not arrived, she took a couple logs off Wendell's expert pile to stoke the fire. Warmth flooded the cottage right away. She took a seat at Miss Brigham's table, where she found a note written in elaborate cursive script. "Went to see Reverend Crane. Will return shortly," the note read. What am I supposed to do now? Samantha wondered.
She saw a broom in the corner and decided to sweep up all the wood chips from where Wendell had dumped the wood. Boys are so messy, she thought as she swept. She didn't really mind, though; she thought Wendell an adorable little boy. Even those other two weren't so bad once they knew who was in charge. Maybe Miss Brigham would let her look after the boys. She definitely had a talent for that.
When she finished sweeping around the hearth, she decided she might as well do the rest of the cottage. She dragged the table into a corner and stacked the chairs up. Lastly, she rolled up a rough gray rug in the center of the room. As she did, she saw it had been hiding something.
Beneath the rug was a door cut into the floor with a metal ring attached. When she pulled on the ring, the door creaked open to reveal a hole, from which came a terrible smell, like the rotting smell from her dreams. Samantha put a hand to her face, her lunch threatening to come back up. She tried to imagine what Miss Brigham was keeping down there. Maybe Miss Brigham had murdered everyone's parents and stuffed them in her cellar. That would explain their sudden disappearance.
"There's only one way to find out," she said. She lit a candle with the hearth fire and then jumped into the hole.