Nancy

Wooden Thing###
I recently won a "Mystery Box" at a Halloween party which turned out to be somewhat of a treat instead of a trick. At first glance as I opened it I was very disappointed. It was some sort of thing made of wood that made no sense at all. It had wheels of a sort and a piece of wood that opened to nothing or so it seemed. It was round on both ends and looked really old. Some kind of screws had been used and it was the size of small loaf of bread.###I shook my head and threw it back in the "mystery box", aptly named! But I could not get the thing out of my mind, it just kept tugging at my curiosity nerve.
When I got home I took it out again and began manipulating "the thing" (also aptly named). There seemed to be some kind of writing on it in pencil that made no sense "Rs5/. I pushed and I pulled on the sort of wheel and lifted the piece of wood several times and would you believe it! The wheel fell off and there it was, a tiny piece of paper stuffed in an opening that read "I made this when I was five years old and gave it to my Mom." It was signed by a famous 17th century sculptor!! I googled it and sure enough RS5/ were his initials. I now have it listed on ebay.