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bag and pull out a card.

    Dink’s card had a big
B
written on the front. He turned the card over and found a feather taped there.
    “What did you get?” Dink asked Josh and Ruth Rose, showing them his card.
    “I have a
G
,” Ruth Rose said. “With a flower petal on the back.”
    “Mine is
M
,” Josh said. He flipped the card over and found some brownish hairs taped in place.
    “Okay, everyone has a card now,” Angie called out. “The letter is one clue, and the item on the back is a second clue. Have fun!”
    “This is so cool,” Ruth Rose said. “But I think mine is too easy.
G
must stand for
garden
.”
    “Yeah, but which garden?” Dink asked. “There are flowers planted everywhere!”
    Dink took another look at his card and the feather on the back. “What doyou guys think?” he asked.
    “Easy,” Josh said.
“Birdbath.”
    “It could also be
birdhouse
or
bird-feeder
,” Ruth Rose said. “Whose clue should we do first?”
    “Mine,” Dink said.
    “Why you?” Josh asked.
    “Because these are alphabet clues, and
Dink
comes before
Josh
and
Ruth Rose
in the alphabet!” Dink announced.
    “Okay, let’s go see where the birds hang out,” Ruth Rose said.
    The kids walked around the lodge. They waved to other kids wandering around with white cards in their hands.
    They found a hummingbird feeder, but saw no ripped piece of map.
    They peeked inside a birdhouse, but saw only twigs and dead grass.
    “Look,” Josh said. He pointed to a few birds splashing in a birdbath.
    The kids rushed over, scaring thebirds into a nearby tree. The birdbath was made of a concrete bowl standing on a pedestal.
    “I don’t see a piece of map,” Josh said.
    Dink tipped the water out and removed the bowl. Underneath, stuck there with masking tape, was a piece of paper. “I found it!” he cried.

    They all looked at the fragment of paper. Its edges were torn on all sides but one. That side had a dark blue line. Some pencil lines had been drawn on the paper, but they made no sense.
    “One down, twenty-five to go,” Dink said.
    “Let’s look for a garden,” Ruth Rose said, glancing at her own card.
    “Wait a sec,” Josh said. He found a hose attached to the lodge and filled the birdbath with clean water.
    The kids roamed around the lodge, checking out flower beds. They saw plenty of flowers, but no map pieces.
    Ruth Rose studied the petal that was taped to the back of her card. She smelled it and rubbed her finger across its surface. “This looks like some of my grandmother’s roses,” she said. “Let’s look for roses.”
    On the south side of the lodge, in fullsunlight now, stood three rosebushes. Each held several pink blossoms. Ruth Rose compared the living blooms to the petal on her card. “I can’t tell if they’re the same,” she said. “This petal is drying up.”
    There was a ring of smooth rocks surrounding the small garden. Ruth Rose began looking under each rock. She found the map piece under the last one.
    The kids stared at the piece of paper in Ruth Rose’s hand. It was the same kind of paper Dink had found under the birdbath. This piece had four letters written on it in block letters.
    “E-T
and
F-R,”
Josh said. “They must be parts of words.”
    “I wonder if the other kids are finding their pieces,” Dink said, looking around. Kids were all over the camp, each one carrying a card.
    “Let’s look for yours now, Josh,” Ruth Rose said.
    They studied the hairs that were taped on his card.
    “
M
could stand for a lot of things,” Josh said. “Like
marshmallow
.”
    “Marshmallows don’t have hair,” Ruth Rose reminded him.
    “Duh,” Josh said.
    “Do you think these are human hairs?” Dink asked. “Oh my gosh, they could be from Mario’s mustache!”
    “Or Mademoiselle Musée’s hair!” Ruth Rose said.
    “No,” Josh said. “These hairs are light brown with a little white. She has black hair, and Mario’s mustache is very dark brown.”
    “They could be bristles