THE STORY: Founders Day in Appleford is a big event, particularly for Irving Martin (leader of the local brass band) and his wife Mattie (who was in Appleford before she married Irving and won’t let him forget it). This year Irving has scheduled a “musical extravaganza” which requires his future son-in-law, Jim Diamond, to chime in with bugle calls and gun shots, while Grandpa Ben Martin thumps the bass drum. They are set to begin when young Hank Martin comes in holding a human bone, which he unearthed while digging in the back yard. When Dr. Hutchinson announces the bone might only be a year or so old suspicions begin to multiply, especially against Jim, who arrived in town rather mysteriously a year earlier. But Jim isn’t the only one with a secret in his past, and confessions begin to pour out. When all this comes to the attention of Sheriff Gilbert (still smarting over being dropped from the band), the fat is on the fire. There are dark murmurings about foul play, and Jim is ready to leave town when Grandpa Ben confesses that the skeleton in the yard was his doing. Many years earlier he tried to sell the skeleton to a medical school, but when it was refused he had to put it somewhere, and the yard was the handiest solution. The irony is that the bones belonged to the town’s founder, a mean old skinflint, and before whose empty monument the Founders Day ceremonies are held each year by the respectful and unsuspecting citizens.
