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The twins smiled and laughed both knowing that the old lady would be sure to hesitate before she ever tried that trick on some unsuspecting children again.

Looking over the hillside on the opposite direction to the house the twins took in the wonderful view of trees and nature and then started down the hill, where they were going they did not know. What they did know was that other adventures were coming.

At the bottom of the hill they came to an old road which was obviously hardly ever travelled on. They walked and talked about recent events and talked of days of old when they lived with the Tuckers. Mentioning the Tuckers made them both sad and they hoped that some day soon they would be with them again.

They heard a banging noise and it was just around a corner on the road, it was a rock banging on something. The twins stopped at the corner and peered around to see what was happening.

"What do you see" said Mary to Ben because Ben was closer to the edge of the corner than she was.

Ben said "Its an old man, he is fixing a wagon wheel that has broken on his cart", "He looks friendly, lets say hello and offer to help him".

"Okay", said Mary trusting her brothers instincts.

Around the corner they slowly went and they saw a cart with its axle held up by some rocks, with a wheel missing and the man who was about 50 years old hammering the wheel rim with a large rock.

"Hello" said Ben.

The man turned around and smiled and said "Good day to you both", "I didn't expect to meet anyone out here and especially not two children". "My wheel hit a large rock at speed and the metal rim is a tad buckled and as you can see I am trying to straighten it out, my hammers handle broke so I am using this rock as a hammer".

Mary produced a hammer from her backpack and handed it to the man, the man said "Thank you, that's mighty handy young lady and just what I need to finish the job".

"My name is Mary and my brothers name is Ben" said Mary reaching out to shake the mans hand, Ben did the same, the man noticed the firm handshakes from both the children.

"They call me Dr Jones because I used to sell cures for everything in this here old wagon. I am not really a doctor but the name stuck and so everyone calls me that now". "These days I sell many things, You could say that I have a travelling store".

Dr Jones had snowy white hair and a well trimmed white beard, he was about 5 feet six inches tall, he wore leather boots, old jeans and a shirt and vest. Tied around his waist was a long hunting knife.

"Can we help with the wagon wheel"? asked Ben.

"You sure can, come here and hold this wheel steady while I hit it".

After a few more whacks with the hammer the job was done. Ben and Mary helped Dr Jones to put the wheel back on the wagon. Dr Jones handed the hammer back to Mary and once again said "Thank you", he looked at Ben and said "That sure is one helpful sister that you have there".

Ben agreed smiling at Mary who blushed while she was putting the hammer back into her backpack. Ben knew that when they left the Tuckers farm that Mary's magical backpack would be very useful on their travels.

"That's a nice horse you have there", said Ben staring at the white horse that was hitched to the front of the wagon.

"Her names Jessy and she's been with me for the last 6 years. She's a good horse and a great companion", said Dr Jones as he and the children stepped over to the horse and patted Jessy. Dr Jones took a sugar lump out of his pocket and fed it to the horse.

While patting the horse Dr Jones said, "Where are you young ones heading", "If you are going my way you can come along and keep me company", "I travel these country roads often and it can get a tad lonely, don't get me wrong I enjoy talking to Jessy its just that she doesn't answer back and anyway she has heard all my stories over and over again".

Ben and Mary liked the man and they both smiled at each other holding back a giggle or two.

"Thank you, we are going the same way as you" Ben said noticing the direction that the wagon was pointed in.

With that both children climbed up on the front of the wagon with Ben next to Dr Jones and Mary next to Ben. Dr Jones then said, "Take her away Jessy my girl", he waved the reins and the wagon lurched forward with the familiar clippity clop of the horses hooves on the dusty rocky road.

The children chatted with Dr Jones who never asked them why they were by themselves and it didn't seem to bother him, yet he must have been curious about them. Dr Jones whiled the time away with many stories from his past, the twins were fascinated.

The night drew near and it was getting dark so Dr Jones said to the children, "We will camp for the night over there" and he pointed to a spot about forty feet from the roadside.

He urged his horse off the road and over to the spot he and picked and the children saw that people had camped there before because there were remains of old fires and the ground was well prepared for camping overnight.

Dr Jones stopped the wagon and they all got down.

"While I unhitch Jessy and see to her needs you children fetch some wood for the fire please, don't wander too far away because there are wild animals around in these parts, and you may run across one of the gangs that hang around here as well".

"Okay", the twins said together and with that they were off scouting around near the campsite for old wood that was lying around. It didn't take long and the twins were back in camp helping Dr Jones get the fire started. Dr Jones then took out an old frying pan and some food and started to cook a meal. He asked the children, "Do you have any food in them there backpacks"?

"We sure do" the twins said as one. And with that they removed some of the food that they had got from the mean old lady and handed it to Dr Jones. Dr Jones told the children to wash up and bring back some water from the stream that was near by and while they did this he set out three plates and put some hot food on them. Mary had earlier on collected roots and plants for cooking with dinner, she was an expert in natrue and what could and could not be eaten by humans.

After dinner they all sat around the camp fire with full stomachs and happy faces.
Dr Jones took out an old guitar from the back of the wagon and they all sang songs for about an hour and then Dr Jones offered to tell the children a story before they went to bed, the children loved the thought and said, "Yes"!

Dr Jones told them a good scary story and then they all went to bed.

The next morning Ben opened his eyes to see Dr Jones hitching up Jessy so he got up and woke Mary and they both ran down to the stream to wash up. When they got back they put away all their sleeping gear and sat down around the camp fire while Dr Jones dished out some hot breakfast.

"Must get a hair cut and trim this here beard when I reach the next town", said Dr Jones thoughtfully rubbing his chin with his fingers. Mary untied her backpack and pulled out a pair of scissors and a small old mirror, she then said, "I can trim your hair for you Dr Jones". He smiled in wonder at this versatile girl.

"Please hold the mirror Dr Jones", said a confident Mary, "While I get to work".

Ben asked her to trim the curls off his hair as well, this kept Mary busy for a while.

She loved being useful and was always pleased when her collection of odd bits came in handy from time to time.

Then the twins happily ate breakfast and then helped Dr Jones "shut down" the camp fire and clean up their rubbish.

"Okay lets hit the trail", said Dr Jones as he climbed up on the wagon and with a wave of the reins they were off. Dr Jones told more stories to the children's delight, although both of the twins sometimes they wondered about the truth being stretched somewhat in some of the stories, but they never complained.

It was all good fun and Dr Jones was a nice person that the twins both liked and trusted.

About an hour after they started out, the twins were soaking up another of Dr Jones adventures when a bunch of teenage boys jumped out from behind the trees at the side of the road and stood in front of the wagon. The teenage boys had rifles and they looked like they new how to use them.

To be continued…