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The Chicken Mystery

The students in grade 5 and 6 made this mystery based on some of the events they heard after interviewing some of the long-term residents of Castor. Special thanks to the Castor Museum Society for allowing us to photograph
the old clock for use in our story.

1. The year was 1912. A family was living near a new settlement called Castor. Spencer had two brothers named Johnny and James. Spencer was tall and had red hair with freckles. Johnny was short and husky with brown hair.	2. James was average with a big pointy nose and had ears that stuck out like a cow. They also had a dog they called JD. He had brownish-white scraggly hair. Where they lived, on the farm, they raised chickens and some cows.
3. There were many types of chickens like Light Sussex that were white with black tips and there were Jersey Black Giants that were mostly black. Those were some of the types of chickens on their farm.	4. The boys had to get up at about 5:00 o’clock in the morning just to feed the chickens and cows.
5. That’s early, very early.	6. When there were rotten eggs...
7. Spencer and Johnny threw them up,	8. and let them drop and it made a big stench.
9. The boys helped the men farm. The bigger chickens ate chaff and wheat and the little ones ate chopped up wheat. The chickens did not do much. They were no good besides for food and eggs.	10. One day Johnny went out to the chicken barn and he noticed that a couple of chickens were missing.
11. Johnny told his brothers and they helped him look for the chickens.	12. James went behind the house and found four dead chickens. They were half eaten.
13. James screamed like a schoolgirl. The brothers came running. They didn’t say much.	14. The Mama and Papa thought perhaps a predator had taken them. They were right. There were tracks. The tracks looked just like those of our dog, JD! They went out and checked the doghouse.
15. There he was, chewing on chicken bones!	16. The boys started building a fence around the chicken barn.
17. JD was chained to the house. When the chickens were full grown and roosting, JD didn’t have to be chained any more.	18. Even better, now it was time for some fried chicken.

19. Yummy!