Young Whit and the Revolutionary Secret

Writing in his journal on Sunday, January 12, young John Avery Whittaker records the most incredible stretch of his life so far - a season that began a week before Christmas, when he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

The Monday after Christmas, John and his friend and next-door neighbor Emmy Capello walk downtown and notice shopkeepers swapping Christmas decorations for red, white, and blue banners. Before Emmy can explain, their English teacher, Mrs. Wagner, rushes up and declares John "the perfect Constant Bullfinch." She points to a statue in the park of a boy in colonial clothes beside a cannon: Constant Bullfinch, the town's Revolutionary War hero. Every January the town throws its biggest celebration of the year in his honor, ending with a reenactment of the Battle of Enoch River, where young Constant - turned away from the Patriot army for being too small - stayed by an artillery battery and kept the cannon firing, stopping the British. Mrs. Wagner asks John to take over the starring role from Wilson Knox, who has grown too big for it. John eagerly agrees, and Emmy sees right through him: he loves history, sure, but he mostly loves the chance to needle Wilson, his biggest enemy since the Whittakers moved to town.

The plan collapses at home. John's father reminds him that he promised to clean up the Town Hall records room as punishment for breaking into it during an earlier adventure, and that a Christian must be a man of integrity who fulfills his obligations before chasing his own pleasures. Fiona agrees, and John glumly gives up the part. On New Year's Eve, Wilson - fresh from smashing mailboxes with his friends - circles John on his bike to gloat about winning the role, then promptly crashes. But his taunts sting, and they keep stinging as John and his friend Ben Huck spend the following days sorting moldy boxes in the records room, with the reenactment rehearsals visible right across the street.

After Wilson knocks two bottles of soda out of John's hands, John storms back to the records room and punches a box - and out spills a very old file marked "Bullfinch." Inside are two astonishing documents. The family records show that Constant Bullfinch died in 1778, two years before the battle he supposedly won. And a signed confession reveals the truth: after her father died on a British prison ship and sickness took her mother and brother, twelve-year-old Constance Bullfinch took her dead brother's identity and went to serve in his honor. The town's great hero was a girl.

Mayor Merriweather, it turns out, already knows - every mayor has, passing the secret down since colonial days. He pleads with John to keep it quiet, arguing that in these hard Depression years the town needs the celebration, the money it brings, and the hope. "Keep the secret. Keep the tradition. Keep the legend," he urges. Ben agrees that Constance deserves the credit, but begs John to wait just until after the celebration so folks can have their fun. John reluctantly agrees - until Wilson ambushes him on Main Street with a chant of "Loser!" Angrier than he has ever been, John turns on his heel and marches the file straight to the newspaper office.

The next morning the story explodes across town. Crowds protest at town hall, arguments nearly come to blows, businesses pull out, and the day before the event, the mayor cancels Constant Bullfinch Day entirely. John is hailed by some and blamed by others, but the hardest blow comes from Emmy, who storms up to his porch in tears of fury. Her father was counting on his celebration booth to earn money the family needs to make it through to spring - and she guesses exactly why John couldn't wait one more week: he did it to get back at Wilson.

Miserable, John asks Fiona whether telling the truth isn't the Christian thing to do. Her answer cuts to the heart of it: "You did do the right thing. You just did it for the wrong reason." Truth should always be the standard, she tells him, but it must never be a weapon for revenge - it should be spoken in love, with others' best interests at heart.

The next morning John announces his plan at breakfast: he will ask the newspaper to print his apology to the whole town, promise to help fix what he broke, and apologize to Wilson face to face. Then he asks his dad for help with one more thing. That afternoon, father and son stand together in the freezing Enoch River, where John is baptized while Fiona, Charlie, and Ben beam from the bank - and as he comes up out of the water, he spots Emmy, who has come after all. Wrapped in warm blankets and loving embraces, John closes his journal entry with the day's real news: he has been baptized, and now, he writes, "I truly feel like a new creation."