Luke & Finley hunt for dinosaurs

             Luke & Finley go searching for dinosaurs

          Luke and Finley McGinnis set out one day in search of dinosaurs. The other kids had called them silly.

          “There are no dinosaurs left for you to find,” they said

            But Luke was convinced. He had seen dinosaur tracks in the history museum, so he knew what to look for.

             Now, all he had to do was sneak up on one and spread a net over them to catch them.

             “Are you sure that it is going to be that easy, Luke? “ asked Finley. “I heard these guys can grow pretty big.”

             “No problem Finley,” said Luke. “I put sleeping powder in the onion sandwiches that we will leave out for them. Then we just have to haul them into the open.”

                Luke and Finley walked and walked up one hill and down another, looking for the dinosaur tracks he had seen in the museum.

                 “It is getting kind of late, Luke,” said Finley. “Mom and dad will be unhappy if we are late for supper.”

                  “Just a little longer, Finley. I know we are close.”

                  And then Luke saw it. A very big three toed footprint was sunk into the creek bank of Little Juniata Creek.

               “Look Finley, Look,” said Luke. “It is just like the dinosaur foot prints that I saw in the history museum. I think we can follow the tracks back to the dinosaur cave and lay out our onion sandwiches.”

                “Okay Luke,” said Finley. “But we had better hurry up or mom and dad will be unhappy with us.

                  Luke looked at the large foot print and then saw another one under a bush. Then, another and another one, all  heading up the hill to a big cave opening in the hillside.

                  “It’s them, Finley” Luke cried.” Let’s lay out the sleepy onion sandwiches and then we can go home to dinner. We can come back tomorrow to see what happened.”

                    Luke and Finley then raced home wo wash up and get ready for dinner. Dad asked him what they had been up to but Luke only smiled and said “We were out hunting dinosaurs.” Both mom and dad laughed at that. “Well, I hope you catch one,” they said with a smile.

                    Luke and Linsey went to bed early that night, tired from their hunting trip.

                    Mom and dad smiled and said,” They really have an imagination, don’t they?

                     The next day, Luke and Finley set out after breakfast and hurried to the place along Little Juniata Creek where they had first found the dinosaur tracks. They climbed the hill to the cave mouth and looked around.

                    There were no dinosaurs there, but a note had been left on a big stick. “Thank you for the delicious sandwiches. They are the best we have had in years. I am sorry we couldn’t thank you in person, but we all have to go now. There is a big dinosaur baseball game in Australia and we are playing in it. I am a shortstop and Bill is a catcher. I hope we get a chance to meet you someday.”

                    Luke and Finley didn’t know what to do. No one was ever going to believe that they had found a few dinosaurs. The note could have been written by the wolves or the owls.

                     “I guess this will have to be our secret, Finley” said Luke. ”Maybe someday the dinosaurs will return and we will see them again.”

                        And every time after that Luke and Finley looked at the ground when they were in the park, looking for dinosaur tracks. They could only imagine Dino playing shortstop in a baseball game and Bill the dinosaur playing catcher. And every time mom and dad brought them to a baseball game at the Curve, they looked around expectantly just in case Bill and Dino were watching the game as well.

                                             -30-

                                           (650 WORDS)

                                        Joseph Xavier Martin