"I loved to read," Aunt Sarah said, "But it landed me in a heap of trouble a couple of times." She laughed. "I was like my father, he liked to read too. He read the paper after work faithfully. I read the La Junta Tribune a bit too but I liked to read books best. A shipment of books came from a man in Massachusetts and they were put in the Santa Fe Reading room. I could check them out, but it didn't take me long to read the interesting ones.

Father thought La Junta had too many saloons and he tried to help make improvements in town. He was a Justice of the Peace when I was a girl. The little trees he helped plant in the City park behind the courthouse were now big enough to give some shade. We were proud of those trees.

One day father came home with exciting news.

"La Junta is going to get a library," he announced. "It's going to be called the Woodruff Memorial Library."

"Who's that?" Oscar asked.

"He's the man who donated those books to the Santa Fe Reading room last year."

I can still recall waiting for that library and the first day that it opened. Fanny and I stopped after school that day and it was a grand place. There were books on shelves and it seemed just like heaven. I started looking. We could only check out two books at a time and I wanted to make sure I picked out the best ones, but I just couldn't make up my mind.

Fanny didn't like books as well as I did and she got downright antsy.

"Come on Sadie," she said. "Let's go."

"Just a minute," I kept telling her but she finally gave up.

"I have to go," she said. "Mama will need me. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah." I was too busy reading to pay much attention and was glad when she left so she wouldn't interrupt my looking.

Reading was just like traveling to a different time and place and I got so tangled up in those books I plumb forgot to look up until Miss Bowman rang the bell.

"It's closing time," she announced. "You'll have to check out your books now."

I was startled to see that it was getting dark outside. I was in trouble now.

"Is someone waiting for you Sarah?" she asked. "It's getting dark out there."

"Yes," I lied. "My brother's waiting for me."

"Good," she said. "You shouldn't be walking the streets by yourself." La Junta had too many saloons and nice girls didn't walk the streets by themselves.

I started running, guess I thought if I ran fast enough I could turn the hands of the clock back so it would be daylight again but it didn't help.

I was still a block from home when I saw a man walking towards me. I was so scared, I thought about hiding but then I'd be in more trouble when I got home so I decided I'd just run past him.

"Sarah," the voice said. I breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn't a man after all, it was Alfred.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

I tried to think of a good story I could tell but I wasn't too good at lying. "At the library," I said.

"We've been looking for you," he said. "You're in big trouble."

He was right, I was in trouble and I was grounded for a couple of weeks. I couldn't go near the library. Oscar was mighty unhappy with me because he had to take my books back. He wasn't that het up about reading. I didn't get to check out anymore books until I got off my grounding. Those two weeks seemed more like two years.

When I finally paid for my crime I was careful to leave the Woodruff Memorial Library when Fanny left. But my reading still got me into more trouble.

I just couldn't keep my hands off the books and I carried one with me as I did my work.

"Do your chores first, Sadie," Mama told me. "Then you can read."

But I ignored her and tried to read while I did chores. Of course that took me twice as long to get things done but I sure did a lot of traveling that way.

It was early in the evening one Saturday night and I was nearly finished with a book when Mama insisted I stop and take my bath. Mother had strung a curtain on a line in the living room so we could take baths in private. No one was looking so I grabbed my book so I could read while I took my bath. I was soon lost in the pages.

"Sarah," Albert yelled. "Aren't you about done?"

"Almost," I said and turned another page. I only had a few more pages to read and I had to finish them.

"Sarah," Mama's voice startled me. "Do you have a book in there?"

"No Mama," I lied as I jumped up. The book slipped out of my hands and fell into the water. I desperately pulled it out. Now I was in real trouble. I dried as fast as possible, then wrapped the poor book in the towel. I hurried and dressed and ran for the bedroom with the towel wrapped book and slipped it under my bed.

"Bring that towel back here," Mama ordered. "Sakes alive girl, what's got into you?" We used two towels for our baths, one for top drying and one for bottom drying. We had to save all we could on the washing. Washing clothes was hard to do in that day.

"Goodness," Mama said as I handed her the towel. "How'd you get this towel so wet?"

"I don't know," I gulped. She was exasperated with me because she had to get a clean towel for my brothers.

That book under my bed haunted me. At night I had nightmares that it was chasing me. I hadn't even got to finish reading it and now it was ruined and laying under my bed. I was afraid to look under there. I didn't have a thing to read because I couldn't go to the library. I had a bad case of the mulleygrubs.

One day Father came home from town.

"Sarah, the librarian told me you have an overdue book," he said.

"No, I don't," I protested.

"Well, she says you do," Father said.

I was getting panicky and feeling sick. I thought I might be getting a fever. I had no money to pay for the book and my fibbing was catching up with me.

"If you've lost a book," Father said. "You'll just have to find a way to earn money to pay for it."

"I didn't lose it," I insisted.

"Well, what happened to it?"

I finally broke down and went into the bedroom. I got on my hands and knees and brought out the poor dear book. I felt like I'd killed it, one of my best friends. Those pages looked terrible.

"Here it is," I confessed.

"What in the world?" Father asked.

"I dropped it into the bathtub," I admitted.

Mother and father just looked at the book in my hand and shook their heads.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mother asked.

"I was ashamed of myself," I admitted.

"Now I know why you've been coming home from school so early," she said. "Let me see it.

There were tears streaming down my face as I handed it to her. I'd never get to go to the library again.

Mama looked at it. "I have an idea," she said. "Get the flat irons out, Sarah and put them on the stove."

I halfheartedly did what she told me.

"Now get a dish towel." Now I was getting curious.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'm not going to do anything," she said. "As soon as the irons get hot you're going to iron each page of this book and see if you can get them straightened out."

After the flat irons heated up I put the dish towel over the page just like Mama told me and started ironing. Wonder of wonders, the wrinkles smoothed out under the dish towel and the heat from the flat irons. It took me a long time to iron all that book but when I finished it looked almost as good as new.

Father loaned me the money to pay the fine. I paid him back by helping milk the cow. I was so happy to go back to the library.

I never tried to hide anything under my bed again. It didn't work and I figured it was better to face the consequences rather than have a book chasing me in my dreams.