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represent the first states. As you can see, this one doesn’t.”
    â€œSo it’s, like, worth more than twenty dollars?” Dalton asked.
    â€œA bit more, yes,” said Mr. August. “In fact, the last one that sold at auction sold for well over a million dollars.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

    I guess whatever was bothering Tessa’s stomach earlier must have been catching, because after that, Dalton said he wasn’t feeling so good, either, and we had to leave. Even though I hadn’t been that excited about going to the museum, I was disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer. It was cool to look at the coins. You couldn’t help wondering what they had bought and who else had held them since they were made—more than two hundred years ago.
    From now on, I decided, I’d pay more attention to the change in my pocket.
    It was nine o’clock when we got back to the White House, and Tessa and I changed into pajamas. We were reading when Mom came in to say good night. She was still wearing her Madam President clothes. This time it was a pale blue dress with no sleeves and a full skirt. She had already taken off her shoes and her earrings.
    â€œMama!” Tessa held her arms out for a snuggle. “What a beautiful dress!”
    Mom kissed Tessa, then looked down at herself and made a face. “Kind of snug at the moment. I probably shouldn’t have had dessert. I know—what would you think if I asked the designers to start using elastic waistbands like the ones on my sweatpants?”
    Tessa’s terrible frown made Mom and me both laugh. Then Mom gave me a kiss and sat down on the edge of Tessa’s bed.
    â€œHow’s running the country going, Mom?” I asked her.
    â€œPretty smoothly at the moment.” Mom knocked on the wooden headboard of my bed for good luck. “There hasn’t been a serious crisis since yesterday, when we severed relations with a small, faraway country. And besides church, the only thing on my schedule tomorrow is that medal ceremony in the Rose Garden. What’s the latest with you girls?”
    â€œWe went to the museum and Dalton got a tummyache,” Tessa said.
    â€œThe way he eats candy all the time, I’m not surprised,” Mom said.
    â€œAunt Jen told us if you eat too much candy you get fat and your teeth fall out,” Tessa said. “But Dalton’s not fat and he’s got plenty of teeth. Also, he got a hundred bags of jelly beans for Christmas.”
    Mom yawned. “Interesting.”
    â€œAnd he’s still got some jelly beans left,” Tessa said.
    â€œUnh-hunh,” Mom said.
    Then I managed to get a word in. “Did you hear about the archeology dig?”
    â€œI know you helped Professor Mudd,” Mom said.
    â€œBut did you hear about the holes and the missing gold?” I asked.
    Tessa started to interrupt with something else about candy, but Mom asked me to tell her about the gold, and I did.
    Tessa raised her hand. “I have a comment about that.”
    Mom sighed. “Go ahead, muffin.”
    â€œ
I
think Wen Fei and Stephanie did it,” Tessa said. “They’re the ones who found the gold first. I mean, if there is gold. Which probably there isn’t, like Professor Mudd believes, anyway.”
    Mom stood up. “I can see that this case is especially mysterious. In fact”—she yawned—“it’s so mysterious I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
    â€œThat’s okay, Mama,” Tessa said. “We’ve got it under control. You just worry about running the country.”
    Mom wiped pretend sweat from her forehead. “Phew. Now, good night, muffins. I’ll see you for church in the morning.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

    GRANNY thinks it’s some kind of big privilege that she lets us sleep in till eight o’clock on Sunday. The way she says it, chickens never sleep in at all, and when she was