NOVEMBER 30, 1861

Melissa and Jesse were talking outside the newspaper office. "Jumpin' Jehosophat Hannibal," that is a funny expression. Melissa was flipping through the diary. "It's on a lot of pages in here."

"Yeah, I know. I've been reading it." Jesse leaned down to look at the page Melissa was reading.

Joshua and Thaddeus left the hotel and walked down the boardwalk toward the saloon. As they were passing the PEG, they heard the children.

"Hannibal must be the boy's name, and Jumpin' Jehosophat is what she says when she's mad at him." Melissa explained.

Joshua stopped in his tracks, and Thaddeus followed suit. They couldn't believe their ears. They turned around and walked back to the kids. "What did you just say?" the light brown haired man inquired.

"Who are you?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, he's alright, Jesse. He's Joshua and the other one is Thaddeus. They're friends of my brother's."

"What you got there?" Thaddeus was looking at the book in Melissa's hands.

"Oh, it's a diary. Jesse found it."

"A diary?" Jones eyebrows shot up.

Smiling Smith asked, "Whose diary?"

"That's the strange part. Jesse found a diary that belongs to another Jessie; only this Jessie is a girl. He found it under a chair on the train when he was coming back to Dreamville." Melissa answered.

"May I see it?" The wavy blonde haired man moved closer and held out his hand.

Melissa had been taught to not argue with any elders. But it wasn't really hers to hand over, so she looked to Jesse for approval. He nodded his head, so she handed over the diary.

Thaddeus glanced through it noticing his name and his brothers and sisters names wrote down inside it. After glancing at the name in the front of the book, he stated, "It's hers Heyes. It's Jessie's diary."

"Wowwho!" Joshua cried in jubilation. "Where did you say you found it?"

"On the train from Ohio to here." The young lad said.

"Do you know who Jessie is?" Melissa wanted to know, and Jesse eagerly waited their reply.

"Yeah, she's my sister." Thaddeus held the book tightly in his hands.

"She is? Well, where is she?" the young girl pried.

"We don't know. We've been looking for her." Jessie's brother responded. "Can we keep her diary? It might help us."

"Yeah, sure. It does belong to your sister and not me. I hope it helps you find her." Jesse acknowledged.

"Yeah, I hope it helps, too." Thaddeus said before walking off with Joshua trailing him.

Inside their hotel room, Heyes asked for the book, but Jedidiah was reluctant to give it to him. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to look at this. It is after all my sister's diary."

"But Kid we need to read it. It might tell us where she is." He reached out for the book again, but his partner backed off.

"I'll read it and see if there is anything that might help us. I'll start at the last entry and work backwards. It might tell us where she was at last before she lost her diary."

"Alright Kid, go ahead. If you read anything of importance let me know, ok." Joshua dropped on the bed and waited for Kid to speak again. Kid sat down in a chair and began reading.