The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (57 page)

“Yes,” said Mr. Alden. He looked at Jessie and Henry. “Those books are really wonderful. I think your first lesson should be a letter to your teachers. You can say thank-you for all their hard work. Then later you can thank them again, when you see the books.”

“What about Mike’s writing, too?” asked Benny.

“Look here, old fellow!” cried Henry. “You worry too much about Mike!”

“I think he ought to do what we do,” said Benny.

Grandfather patted Benny’s shoulder. “You may be sure he will, Benny,” he said. “Mike and I have been writing letters to each other for a long time.”

“I thought I saw Mike’s writing!” said Benny. “I saw it just yesterday when I gave you the mail!”

“That’s right,” said Mr. Alden. “Mike is packing his red suitcase this very day. When we land at Chicago, Mike will be there waiting.”

It was very exciting to take the plane. It was a jet. Stairs were put in place against the airplane door.

The Aldens went up the stairs with their bags.

“The first time we ever went on a plane!” cried Benny to the stewardess.

She laughed. “You’ll like it,” she said.

Mr. Alden had been on a plane many times. He could answer all Benny’s questions. At last the plane rose in the air. They were off!

“I’ll bet old Mike will be scared!” said Benny.

“We’ll soon see,” said Mr. Alden. “We will see Mike in just a short while.”

When the plane started to go down, they all looked out of the windows. Suddenly Violet said, “There’s Mike with his dark red bag!”

“He doesn’t look scared at all,” said Jessie. “And do try to be nice to him, Benny.”

“Oh, of course I will,” said Benny. “He’ll love this jet! I’ll tell him it will say woosh! and we’ll be there.”

Mike was delighted to see Benny again. The two boys sat together and talked all the time. Mr. Alden had a seat to himself and slept.

“Did you get a schoolbook, Mike?” asked Benny.

“Yes, I have it right in my new bag. Your grandfather asked my teacher to write it for me. It has lots of pictures in it, too.”

“There! You looked, Mike! Grandfather said not to look until we were on the boat!”

“Careful, Ben!” said Henry.

“I didn’t look very much,” said Mike. “I just saw one picture of a big fish.”

“A fish!” said Benny. “What a schoolbook! I suppose mine is different.”

Soon they had lunch. Then the plane began to go down again.

“So many exciting things,” said Jessie. “We don’t have time to think.”

“You will have plenty of time when you get on the ship,” said Mr. Alden.

Jessie was right and Mr. Alden was right. They landed. They said good-by to the stewardess. Mr. Alden got a car to take them to the ship. The ship’s name was the
Sea Star,
and they were soon on it.

“Here we are!” said Mr. Alden. “And here is your friend, Lars!”

Lars was in uniform.

“You look different, Lars,” said Benny.

“Yes, my lad. I’m a sailor now. I’m still First Mate on this ship until we get to the island. This is Captain Brown.”

The Captain shook hands with them all. He seemed to know all their names.

“This ship is very big, isn’t it, Grandfather?” said Benny.

Grandfather laughed. “Yes,” he said. “It is not a passenger ship. It is a big freighter, but it’s very clean and very safe. And it will take us where we want to go. Not many ships can do that, for very few ships go to that island.”

“We want to go to a beautiful desert island, Captain,” said Mike.

“And that’s where we will take you,” said Captain Brown. “You are the only people on the ship, except the crew. Lars will show you where you eat and sleep.”

The boat rocked gently at the dock. Jessie and Violet had one very small room. Benny and Mike had another very small one. Henry and Mr. Alden each had a room to himself.

“We can take only eight people,” said Lars. “The cargo takes up a lot of room on the ship.” There was still room on deck for seven long chairs.

Soon there were six people in the chairs. The men shouted and threw the ropes over on the deck. The freighter began to move.

“Here we go!” sang Benny and Mike together.

They were chugging under the beautiful Golden Gate bridge into the great Pacific Ocean!

S
ea gulls flew after the boat, screaming. The cook threw out food for them. They screamed louder and louder. More and more came, until there were hundreds.

“Aren’t they beautiful!” cried Jessie. She went over to look. A big gull landed on the rail near her. “They are such a lovely gray color.”

“How long will this trip be, Captain?” asked Henry.

“About two weeks,” said Captain Brown. “Then we’ll put the family off at the island, and the
Sea Star
will go on to Tahiti.”

“Who is the family?” asked Mike. “Am I in the family?”

“Of course,” said Benny. “I wouldn’t go without you, would I?”

“Then the
Sea Star
will come back for us,” Henry went on.

“Right. You will be alone on the island with Lars for two or three weeks. I understand that’s what you want?”

“Yes,” said Jessie. “We love to live like that. We like to find our own food and dishes, and we love to explore.”

The sunset came then. It was beautiful. The whole sky was red and pink and violet. “We never saw anything like that at home,” Violet said.

It was beautiful after the sun went down. The sky was black, but the stars were wonderful.

Benny said, “I never really saw the stars before. I didn’t know they were so bright.”

The Captain said, “You can see the same stars here that you see at home. Later you will see stars you never saw before. I will show you the Southern Cross.”

Everyone was tired. They slept well all night. The next morning after breakfast a bell rang.

“What’s that?” asked Mike. “It sounds like a school bell!”

“I think it is a school bell,” said Henry laughing. “Look at Grandfather. He is ringing it.”

Mr. Alden said, “School will begin at nine o’clock every day. You can sit in your chairs and get your lessons. You will find things you need in this box.”

In the box were pens, pencils, paints and all kinds of paper.

Jessie opened her blue book. “Well, well!” she said. “Here is Lesson One about gulls and stars and fish!”

“That’s the picture I saw!” cried Mike. “It’s a flying fish.”

Soon everyone was busy reading. After a while Violet got up. She took a box of paints out of the box. She began painting a picture of a sea gull. Henry soon began making a picture of the Big Dipper in a black sky. The boys drew pictures of flying fish.

“A whale!” called Lars. Everyone rushed to the rail.

“It is very near!” shouted Mike. “Look at that tail!”

“There he goes, spouting water!” said Henry. A lot of water rose in the air. Then came the porpoises.

“There are about two hundred of them,” said Lars. “They swim in a long line, like that, every day. They go over to one beach to eat fish and come back every night.”

“Just see them roll around!” said Mike. “Are they round?”

“No. You’ll find a picture of them in your book,” said Mr. Alden. “I think that is in Lesson Two.”

So it was every minute. The children saw something new and then they always found a picture of it in their books.

“I told you they were wonderful books,” said Grandfather. “There is a lesson about the radio room. You will like that. Bill in the radio room will show you the radar tomorrow.”

The next day the children saw every part of the ship. They knew every sailor on the
Sea Star.
They had school every day.

One morning the family could not see land any more. The bell rang for Ship’s School and soon the five children were studying.

Henry went to the rail and looked down.

“Now this is interesting!” he cried. “Come and look!”

They all saw a long white bag. The ship was pulling it through the water.

“What is that thing?” asked Mike.

“It is a piece of cloth made into a net,” said Henry. “It catches plankton.”

“What is plankton?” asked Mike.

“It is made up of tiny, tiny animals and fish eggs and seaweed,” said Henry. “Some of it is too small to see. But whales live on it.”

Jessie said, “I’ve heard about it. I heard that we could feed the whole world on plankton if we wanted to.”

“Why don’t we?” asked Benny.

“People don’t like it,” said Jessie.

Mike said, “Maybe somebody will find how to make it taste good. Maybe I will when I grow up.”

“Good old Mike!” said Benny. “Maybe you will. I’d like to see what is in that net.”

The children looked up. Lars was coming. He said, “If you come below, we will pull in the net.”

“Can we see the things inside?” asked Mike.

“Some of them,” said Lars, “but some are too small to see. We have a microscope, which is fun to look into.”

“Isn’t this exciting!” cried Mike. He ran down the stairs.

A sailor had pulled in the net. He let the plankton run out into a big tub. The plankton was very bright colored. In the dark ship, it shone like red fire.

“Beautiful!” said Violet.

“How awful it smells!” said Mike.

“Just a good old fish smell,” said Benny. “You’ll have to learn to like fish, Mike.”

“Oh, there’s a tiny crab!” cried Mike. “I can see right through him!”

“And that’s a tiny little fish!” cried Violet. “And pink seaweed. And green seaweed.”

Mr. Alden had the microscope. He put it on the table. Then he gave Henry a piece of glass. “Get some of the plankton on that glass,” he said.