Where's the Cash Nuts?!

"Grandpa's at it again!" said Tiffany. "He's hidden the cash nuts!" Christopher and Billie Lin, Tiffany's cousins, looked excited. This was their favorite game to play with grandpa, when he hid the cashews, which the grandkids called, 'cash nuts'.

"Oh boy!" said Billie Lin, the youngest granddaughter, "Let's find them!"

"Yes!" said Christopher, "Where's the first clue?"

"He didn't give any clues out this time!" Tiffany said.

"No clues?!" shouted Christopher, "No fair!"

"Aww ... come on, Chris, we can do it!" said Billie Lin.

"Where'd you see him go?" Chris asked Tiffany.

"He's been all over the place, even in the basement!" Tiffany replied, the last word being in a hushed tone.

"THE BASEMENT?!!!!" Chris and Billie chorused. The grandkids did not enjoy going into the dark and spooky basement. They all thought monsters lived there in the dark.

"Let's look up here first!" Chris suggested.

"Good idea." Billie sighed with relief.

The kids scattered all over the house, looking in all the usual places. Grandpa, pretending to watch TV, smiled secretively as he watched them looking everywhere.

Finally, Billie shouted, "I found them!" and brought the tin to the kitchen table where they pried off the lid anxiously. Their mouths watered as they anticipated eating a few while grandpa got them their ice cream reward, with cashews on top.

Their faces fell in disappointment when they discovered the tin was full of pebbles instead of cashews. Tiffany started digging around in the pebbles and pulled out a note. It had strange markings on it.

"Oh great! How are we supposed to read this?!" Billie asked. "The writing looks backwards."

"That's it!" Chris shouted, snatching the note, he ran toward the bathroom. He was holding the note up in front of the mirror when the girls got there.

"It says ... 'Comes from a cow, rhymes with silk, pour yourselves a glass of ____'".

"Milk!" the girls shouted together, as all three kids ran for the refrigerator.

"I got it! I got it!" Billie said as she pulled the note out of the handle of the gallon of milk. Chris read aloud over her shoulder, 'If clothes get wet, they'll be just fine, if you dry them on a ____'".

"Dryer?" Billie asked. The kids ran to the dryer and looked. Nothing.

"Hmmm ..." said Tiffany. "Dryer didn't rhyme."

"Yeah" said Chris

"You dry clothes on it and it rhymes with fine." Tiffany continued, "How about .... Clothesline?"

Quick as a flash the kids ran out to the clothesline and found another clue pinned to the line.

Chris read the clue aloud, "The sixteenth president of the United States would put these on a fire to keep warm."

The kids ran to the wood pile and searched and searched to no avail. At last they sat down on the bench to read the clue again.

"Who was the sixteenth president?" Billie asked, maybe that's part of it.

"Abraham Lincoln" said Chris

"Wood ... Lincoln wood ... " Tiffany said, thinking aloud.

"No! Lincoln logs!" shouted Billie.

"Oh cool, I get it, Lincoln Logs!" replied Chris. Billie and Tiffany were closer to the house. They beat Chris back in, but came to a dead stop once inside when they realized where the Lincoln logs were.

"The Lincoln logs got put in the b-basement last time grandma picked up because she got sick of stepping on them." Billie stammered.

"Y-you go first, you're the oldest." She said to Chris.

"Who me? I'm not going down there!" Chris answered.

"Well, don't look at me!" said Tiffany.

"This is ridiculous. Somebody's got to go!" said Billie.

"Let's all go together." Said Tiffany.

They looked at each other and Chris and Billie reluctantly said, "Okay" so they went very slowly down the stairs, holding hands to make sure nobody chickened out. When they got to the Lincoln logs they found another note.

"Let's read it upstairs where there's more light." Suggested Chris.

"Great idea!" said the girls.

The kids couldn't get to the stairs fast enough, their little hearts were pounding. Suddenly, a dark, looming shape stepped out of the shadows ... "Raaaarrhhhhh" growled grandpa, with his hands up in the air.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!" and "Eeeeeeeeek!!" were all grandpa heard in reply as the grandkids screamed their way up the stairs.

When they got done huffing and puffing, Chris read the note aloud, "Three such brave grandkids deserve a reward. Go to the kitchen table, the cash nuts are poured!"

The kids ran to the kitchen and saw three heaping bowls of ice cream covered in cashews with buggy gumdrop eyes and red licorice monster mouths. On the table was another note, "The only monsters in this house are the ones sitting at this table gobbling down monster ice cream and cash nuts!"

When grandpa reached the top of the stairs, three monsters stood there waiting to Rarrrrhhhhh him!