Samir was excited; today was the day his friends Josephine and Ben were coming to visit. Samir’s family had moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, and he wanted to show his friends his new home town.
Josephine and Ben arrived with Ben’s mom in time for lunch. Samir’s mother took everyone out to eat at a restaurant down the street.
“What do you have planned for the afternoon. Samir?” asked his mom.
Samir looked at Jo and Ben. “Want to see the cool library I found?” he asked.
“Sure!” they both said at once. Samir had known they’d want to go; one of the reasons they were such good friends was that they all loved books.
“You can walk to the library from here,” said Samir’s mom. “While you’re there I’ll show Ben’s mom around Amherst. When do you want me to come pick you up?”
“Oh I dunno,” said Samir. “Can you just come to the library and find us when you’re done?”
The mothers both laughed; Samir, Ben, and Josephine could spend all day in a place with so many books.
“That sounds good,” said Ben’s mom, “I’d like to see the library too.”
“See you!” said the kids, and they took off.
The Jones Library was just across the street. “Wow,” said Josephine, “it almost looks like a huge house.”
“A house for books,” said Ben.
“I know,” said Samir, “it doesn’t look anything like the library we used to go to, right? And wait ’til you see what it looks like inside.”
Inside, the first thing Ben and Josephine saw was the big front staircase. One of the librarians was coming down the stairs, and came over to the kids. “Hi Samir,” she said. “Are these the friends you were telling me about?”
“It’s Josephine and Ben,” said Samir. “They’re my friends from where I used to live.”
“Our library doesn’t look anything like yours,” said Ben. “It’s a lot smaller. This one looks like… um…”
“Like a grand hotel?” smiled the librarian. “That’s where this library once was, before this building was built.”
“I didn’t know that,” said Samir. “Why did they put up a new building instead of just using the place they had?”
The librarian got a funny look on her face for just a moment. “Well,” she said, “I could tell you the story…but sometimes that’s not the best way to find out about this place.”
Samir frowned. “What do you mean?”
The librarian smiled again. “Just look around,” she said. “We have a few books in here, you know. Some of them can tell you the story of the Jones Library. And we have some other things you might like to see, too.”
Josephine noticed that the librarian had that strange look again.
“If you go through that doorway,” said the librarian, pointing, “there’s a table in the very back of the room. Why don’t you set yourselves up there and see what you can find out about the library?”
“OK, thanks,” said the kids. They found the table and sat down.
“What do you think she meant?” asked Ben.
“I guess she’s going to bring us a book about the library,” said Samir.
“Or something,” said Josephine. “Did you see that weird look she had a couple of times?”
Ben was just about to say something when he was distracted by a glint of light in the corner of his eye.
“Hey,” he said, “what’s that?”
He got up to look. The sun was coming in through the window, and must have reflected off a very shiny gold-colored book cart, just around the corner of the nearest shelves.
There weren’t any books on the cart, but there was a small stack of old photographs. Ben brought them over to the table. “Look at this,” he said. “One of the librarians must have forgotten them on that cart.” He laid the photos out on the table. There were pictures of big fires, a place with huge stacks of wooden boards, soldiers fighting wars, and at the bottom, an old photo of the library itself.
“Hey cool,” said Samir, “I wonder what these were doing on a book cart. Was there anything else there?”
“I don’t think so,” said Ben. “Let me take another look.” He got up to look, but the shiny book cart was gone. “That’s weird,” he said. “Did you hear somebody come get that cart?”
Josephine and Samir shook their heads no. “You’re supposed to be quiet in libraries,” said Josephine, “librarians probably try to be extra quiet.”
“Yeah, they probably learn that in library school,” said Samir, trying not to laugh. Then Ben and Josephine had to cover their mouths to keep from giggling too.
“But look,” said Samir, when they got over it, “maybe that librarian brought us these photos. I bet they’re clues for the story of the library.”
“And we’re supposed to figure them out!” said Josephine.
“Nice,” said Ben. “Let’s take a closer look.”
One of the photos showed a man. Samir turned it over to see the back. “Samuel Minot Jones,” he read. “This is called the Jones Library. I wonder if it’s named after him?”
“Hey look,” said Josephine. This time a flash of light had distracted her. “The book cart’s back.”
All three got up. They could see the corner of the gold book cart. It was back where it had been before, around the corner of the shelves. This time there was a book on it: Samuel Minot Jones: the story of an Amherst boy.
The kids grabbed the book and took it to their table to look through. “The library is named after him, said Samir. “I wonder what else…”
Samir trailed off as a tiny flash of light distracted him. “Hey wait,” he said, “I bet there’s something new on the cart.”
They looked around the corner of the bookshelves where the cart had been before, but it was gone. “Over there,” said Ben, pointing at the end of the shelves. He hurried down the aisle with Josephine and Samir close behind.
When they came to the end of the shelves and looked around the corner, the cart wasn’t anywhere to be seen. They were back near the library’s entrance. Another librarian, one they hadn’t seen before, noticed them looking around and walked over. “Can I help you find something?” she asked.
“We, um…” began Ben.
“We were just looking for the golden book cart,” said Josephine.
The library frowned. “We don’t have a golden book cart,” she said. “All of our carts are just boring gray. It might be fun to have a gold one, though.”
Across the hall behind the librarian, an elevator door slid open. Nobody was in it…but Samir could see a bit of the golden cart inside.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but where does the elevator take you?”
“If you go all the way to the top, you’ll find the special collections room,” said the librarian.
“Can we go see it?”
“Of course you can,” she said, “just ring the buzzer when you get there if the door isn’t open.”
“Cool, thanks,” said Samir. He started toward the elevator. Ben and Josephine followed.
As soon as they got into the elevator, the door slid shut as if it had been waiting for them. It was a small elevator, and a little crowded with three kids and a book cart. Josephine reached out to press the button for the top floor when she noticed somebody must have already pressed it. “Huh,” she said, “look at this, somebody already pressed…”
She stopped when she realized Samir and Ben weren’t listening. They were staring at the book cart. There was a sword on it. A real sword, in a scabbard. “Wow,” said Ben. “Do you think
there’s a knight in armor in this library?”
Josephine looked more closely at the scabbard which was decorated with some emblems.
“Not unless there were knights in armor who fought for the United States,” she said. “Look what it says right there.” She pointed at some words embossed into the metal: United States Army.
“It does look pretty old, though,” said Samir.
Before they could talk any more about the sword, the elevator stopped and the door slid open.
“Maybe we’re supposed to take this with us,” said Ben. “If there’s any place it would belong, it’s in a special collection.”
He picked up the sword carefully and all three went into the hall. The elevator door slid shut behind them. Right in front of them was the Special Collections sign next to a closed door.
Samir tried to open it, but it was locked. “The librarian said we might have to ring a buzzer,” said Josephine. “It must be this.” She pressed the doorbell button.
In just a moment another librarian opened the door. “Welcome to the special collections room,” she said. Then she noticed the sword. “Oh, thanks for bringing back Samuel’s sword,” she said. “Where did it get to this time?”
“It was in the elevator, on the golden book cart,” said Ben, handing the sword to the librarian.
“Golden cart? I thought all the book carts were gray,” said the librarian. “But I’ll just put this back. Sometimes it gets taken out for people to see. Come on in and see what else we have.”
She led the way into the special collections room.
“You called it Samuel’s sword,” said Samir. “Is that Samuel Jones?”
“That’s whose sword it was,” said the librarian. “The library is named after him. He joined the army in 1864 because of the Civil War.”
“Is your special collection all about him?” asked Josephine.
“Not just about him,” said the librarian. “We do have a lot that has to do with Samuel Jones, since he made the whole library possible, but our collections are about a lot of people from right around this area. Emily Dickinson lived here in town, you know, and Robert Frost — have you read any of his poems? Anyway, he was from this area too, and we have some things that have to do with both of them. And some other people too.”
They walked a bit farther, then the librarian excused herself. “I have to go put the sword back,” she said. “Take a look around. I won’t be far away if you need any help or have any questions.”
Josephine pointed and said “Hey, there’s the gold cart again.” Just past a tall bookshelf they could see a corner of the gleaming cart.
“Look, you do have a golden cart,” said Samir to the librarian — but she had already gone.
“Who took it out of the elevator though?” said Ben. “We were the only ones…”
“Maybe they have two,” said Samir. “Let’s check this one out.”
This time there was a framed picture on the cart. The picture was a drawing of a city next to water — a lake or ocean. It was drawn as if the artist had been in an airplane, but the boats in the water looked too old fashioned for airplanes. The caption on the frame said “Chicago, Shortly Before the 1871 Fire.”
“I’ve heard of the Great Chicago Fire,” said Ben, picking up the picture for a closer look. “But what can that have to do with a library here in Amherst?”
“We could ask that librarian,” said Samir.
They looked around, but didn’t find the librarian. “Let’s take this picture back down to our table,” suggested Ben. “We can check out all the clues we’ve found so far.”
The three headed toward the door they’d used coming in to the special collections room, but Josephine stopped next to a window. “Look down there!” she whispered, pointing. Below the windows, part of the library had a glass ceiling — looking through it, they could see the golden book cart.
“How did it get back down there?” whispered Samir.
“It must be like you said; they have two,” said Ben.
“Then how come the librarians all say the carts are gray?” asked Josephine.
“However it got there, there are of things on the cart down there,” said Samir. “I can’t see from here what they are. Let’s go down.”
They were so excited they didn’t notice that when they got to the hallway, the elevator door was open, as if it was waiting for them. When they got back to the main floor, they weren’t quite sure which way to go to find the cart. They decided to go back to their study table and put down the framed picture Ben was still carrying. But at the end of the row between the shelves, there was the golden cart.
“It’s waiting for us,” said Josephine.
Samir looked up at the ceiling. “It couldn’t have been here when we saw it through the ceiling,” he said. “This part of the ceiling isn’t glass.”
“I think the librarians are trying to prank us,” said Ben.
“Let’s just see what the cart has for us now,” said Josephine. On the cart was an old book of some sort. It had been in a fire; it was charred around the edges. On the cover it said Amherst Hotel and Ledger of Accounts.
“Wait a minute,” said Samir, “we were just talking about the big fire in Chicago — but was there one in Amherst too?”
“Put it on the list of things to check out,” said Josephine. “But look at the other book, Uncle Wiggly’s Adventures! I had this book when I was little! I mean, I had my own copy. It was a lot newer than this one though,” she said. The book was pretty old. Ben carefully opened the cover and read the title page. “1912,” he said. “By Howard Garis.” I wonder if he was from Amherst too.
They put the books and the framed picture on their table along with the Jones biography and the old photos.
“OK,” said Samir, “we know the library is named after Samuel Jones. He was in the army during the Civil War, and had something to do with the great Chicago Fire.”
“And this, too,” said Josephine, pointing to the picture of the huge stacks of lumber.
“Wait, I know what that is,” said Ben, “it’s a lumberyard. If you’re building a house, that’s where you go to get all the wood you need.”
“Maybe that’s it,” said Samir. “After the Chicago fire, they had to build the whole city again. So whoever had a lumberyard…”
“Would get rich!” said Ben.
“Maybe rich enough to build something big back in your home town,” said Josephine.
“Right,” said Samir, “and if you grew up in a town where there were really good writers, maybe you’d want the big thing to be a library…”
“…so it could hold books like Uncle Wiggly,” said Josephine lightly touching the book. “This was my favorite when I was about six. My mom took me to story hours at my library and that was one of the books.”
“But what’s the Amherst Hotel ledger all about?” said Ben. “I guess there was a fire there, but what would that have to do with the library.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” said a new voice. It was one of the librarians. The one they’d met when they first came into the library. The one, Samir remembered, who had sent them back to this table to start with.
“Remember I mentioned a hotel when you came in?” said the librarian. “That was the Amherst Hotel, and the Jones Library started there, before this building was put up. There was a big fire there, but most of the books and other collections were rescued.”
She looked at the books and pictures collected on the table. “It looks like you’ve found a lot of clues about this place,” she said with a smile.
“Well, um…we didn’t exactly find them,” said Samir.
“Or…we kind of did, but somebody was helping us,” said Josephine.
“Oh?” said the librarian. “You asked one of my coworkers about the library?”
“Not exactly,” said Ben.
“By the way,” said Samir, trying to sound casual, “how many of those gold book carts do you have here?”
“Gold book carts?” said the librarian. “Sorry, all of our book carts are just painted gray. Why?”
“What about that one right around the corner, then?” asked Samir, pointing behind the librarian.
She turned around to look. “Where?”
“Uh…” said Samir. The librarian had moved to the side as she turned, and the kids could see the corner of the bookshelves. Where there wasn’t a golden book cart.
The librarian gave a little laugh. “Well, if you need a cart to roll around as you collect clues about the library, just ask. But you’ll have to settle for a gray one, the same as everybody else. I should get back to work. Good luck!”
After the librarian left, Samir looked at Josephine and Ben. “There’s something funny going on,” he said. “That book cart — or those carts, if there’s more than one — was definitely not gray.”
Just then Samir’s and Ben’s mothers came around the corner. “Hi kids,” they said. “Learn anything interesting?”
“Totally,” said Josephine. “You wouldn’t believe all the stuff that happened to put this library here.”
“Yeah,” said Ben, fires, wars, getting rich, great writers…”
“And a golden…” began Samir. He stopped when Ben and Josephine started coughing loudly.
Their coughing sounded fake to him, but it gave him a moment to think that maybe he didn’t want to tell anyone else about a book cart that the librarians thought wasn’t even there.
“Er, well anyway, we saw a real sword from the Civil War,” he finished.
“Wow,” said his mom. You’ve discovered all the secrets of this place, then. We should get going though.”
“We want to come back again though,” said Samir. “I have a feeling we haven’t found out everything.”
“Not by a long shot,” said Josephine. As they got up to leave, she saw a tiny gleam of golden light out of the corner of her eye.
The Jones Library in Amherst. Its history and interior layout are exactly as described in the story. The story was written for the anniversary of the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2019.
