“It’s 1776!!” she gasped.
No one said a word until Jamal exclaimed, “But it’s July 8th, not July 4th!”
“Now that is significant!” declared Mr. C. “This must have something to do with why we’re here.”
“But what? And why on the 8th of July?” asked Simon. “Shouldn’t we have come back in time for our nation’s first birthday, on July 4th, 1776? Now that would have been really cool!”
“Yeah, what a bummer. We missed it by four days,” moaned Cooper.
“But maybe we were supposed to miss it,” mused Chelsea.
“But why?” asked Gabby.
“Chelsea might be on to something,” said Jamal. “What does the rest of that broadside say?”
The Trackers were so stunned that they had time traveled back to 1776 that they hadn’t read beyond that.
“Well, let’s see,” Gabby continued to read, “it says that today at noon they will ring the State Bell, calling all citizens to the steps of the Pennsylvania State House for the first public reading of the…” Gabby stopped, her eyes widened. “…of The Declaration of Independence!”
“Oh my gosh, that’s the Liberty Bell!” cried Chelsea. “I did a report for my Metal and Minerals class on why the Liberty Bell cracked. It was cast in 1751 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s founding of Pennsylvania and because it was a blend of copper and tin that weighed 2,080 pounds it…”
“Maybe later, Chels,” interrupted Jamal excitedly. “This is why Philadelphia is so crowded. People came to hear the Declaration of Independence for the first time!”
“And the Pennsylvania State House is what we now call Independence Hall,” added Mr. C.
“What time is it now?” asked Maya.
Cooper glanced in a clockmaker’s window. “We only have twenty minutes before noon. If we are going to find out why we are here, we’d better hurry!”
