Tree House Mystery (8 page)
“You can’t see it from the ground,” said Jeffrey. “Climb up into the tree and we’ll show you. You are going to eat dinner up here with us, you know.”
The two boys had climbed the rope ladder, but Uncle Max went up the ladder. Henry had made a wooden cover for the knothole. Jeffrey opened it and took out the telescope and gave it to his uncle. “See,” he said, “look under the roof. Right over there.”
“There it is!” said Uncle Max. “You’re right!”
When dinner was ready, Sammy and Jeffrey let down the basket and Jessie put in paper plates with hamburgers, and pickles. There was milk for the boys and coffee for Uncle Max. Later there was pie and cheese.
After dinner it was time to show Uncle Max the attic. Jeffrey and Sammy started off with him when Mr. Alden surprised them by getting up. “I’d like to go, too,” he said.
The boys showed Uncle Max the wallpaper, the round window, and all the toys. They showed him the rocking horse.
Uncle Max took a tape measure out of his pocket. He measured the horse and rockers. He looked carefully at the colors. Then he drew a picture of the horse on a sketch pad he had brought.
“I see how well you draw,” Mr. Alden said. “That will be a fine sign. I’d like to help the new restaurant in some way. Why don’t you buy what you need for the sign and send the bill to me?”
Uncle Max agreed because he knew that Mr. Alden really was interested in the restaurant.
When everyone was in the yard again and it was almost time to go Uncle Max said, “I’ve been thinking about the mystery of the closed room. I thought I did not have any clues, but perhaps I am wrong.”
Now Uncle Max took the package that he had brought. He took off the brown paper and held out a leather-covered book. There were words in gold letters on the cover. They said “Household Journal.”
Everyone waited for Uncle Max to explain.
“When we moved away from this house,” he said, “we packed our books into boxes. I did not have any reason to look at the books that belonged to me for a long time. When I did, I found that this book had been packed with mine. It never belonged to me, so it must have been a mistake.”
Uncle Max opened the book and everyone saw that about half of it was filled with handwritten notes. In fact, it looked like a diary with dates written in it.
“To tell the truth,” Uncle Max said, “I thought I might tear out these pages and use the rest of the book for sketching. But I never did, and I just kept the book. It wasn’t my father’s book, and I decided it must have been left in the house at one time and mixed in with our books.”
Sammy couldn’t wait any longer. “But what does it say?” he asked.
Uncle Max said, “I knew you’d ask. I have been reading it, and now I think that this belonged to Mrs. Carver, Willy’s grandmother. She wrote down people who came to visit, things she ordered for the house, and the vegetables in her own garden.”
The children didn’t see how that would help solve the mystery but they waited.
“Look here,” Uncle Max said. “Here is a page dated April 5, 1910. It shows that Mrs. Carver bought five rolls of wallpaper. ‘For little W’s room,’ it says.”
Jessie said, “That’s the paper with the drums and toys used for the closet and Willy’s room! She was getting ready for his visit.”
Uncle Max turned the page. “For July 10 it says ‘W’s birthday. Ordered cake and favors for ten children.’”
“That’s right!” Sammy said. “We read about the party in the old newspaper at the library. It’s the one Mrs. McGregor remembers.”
“Now,” said Uncle Max, “see if you can read this last page for yourselves.”
The date was August 15, 1910. The writing was faded and hard to read. It was Jessie who puzzled it out. This is what she read: “House rented to Johnson family. Cannot bear to think of strange children playing with W’s toys. Finished papering closet before packing to leave. Hope to return next year.”
For a minute everyone was quiet. Then Benny said, “That makes our guess right. Mrs. Carver closed up the room herself.”
“She never told anyone,” Henry said. “She thought she was coming back. But we know that she didn’t.”
“And so the rocking horse has been hidden all this time!” said Jeffrey. “I’m glad we’re the ones who found it.”
Uncle Max said, “I am, too. And now the rocking horse will have a new home and lots and lots of children will see it—I hope.”
T
here was plenty to do to help Uncle Max get his restaurant open.
Jessie and Violet made bright yellow curtains for the big new window. Jeffrey and Sam wrote a story about the rocking horse. Mr. Alden had it printed on place mats with a picture of the rocking horse in the middle. Henry and Benny helped paint and make shelves to hold the old toys. Uncle Max put up his new sign outside.
The Rocking Horse Restaurant was to have its big opening day on a Saturday. There was an advertisement in the Greenfield News. On Friday Henry, the other Aldens, with Jeffrey and Sammy, took the old toys to Uncle Max. Jessie and Violet had flowers to put on the tables.
Jeffrey and Sammy carried Willy Carver’s wonderful old rocking horse from the Alden station wagon. Soon the horse was standing in its special place just inside the door at one side. Children coming in could see it and pat its nose but they could not ride it. That would have been too much for the old horse.
On opening day the restaurant was clean and shining. The new window let in the sunlight. Uncle Max had bought more tables and chairs. The new sign hung outside on an iron pole. Place mats were on the tables, and everything was ready.
The Aldens and the Beaches came before noon. Everyone was almost too excited to do anything. But they helped Uncle Max in every way they could. Jessie and Violet set the tables. Benny and the Beach boys peeled potatoes.
“You are certainly a lot of help to me,” said Uncle Max. “What should I do without you?”
Sammy said, “I guess you think we act as if the Rocking Horse Restaurant is ours. Anyway we can’t stay away.”
Jessie said, “I almost wish we weren’t going on our vacation so soon. We are leaving next week.”
“I’m sorry,” said Uncle Max. “I didn’t know you Aldens were going away so soon.”
But Sammy said, “We’ll be here, Uncle Max.”
Jeffrey added, “We’ll keep you company. We’ll come to lunch and dinner often.”
Everything was ready now. There was nothing to do but wait. At eleven o’clock no customers had come. Everyone was afraid there wouldn’t be any customers at all.
But at half-past eleven they changed their minds. They were afraid there would be too many customers! More and more people kept coming in.
Many children came. They loved the rocking horse and the story on the place mats. And they liked Uncle Max’s cooking, too. They begged their parents to bring them again.
When all the customers had gone, the Aldens and the Beaches sat down to talk over the day. What a success it had been!
John Beach said, “Of course this was your biggest day. It won’t be like this every day.”
“I hope not,” said Uncle Max. “I like to wait on the children myself. I like to hear them talk. It will be fine if the restaurant is just busy enough for me to do all the work.”
“Well, you heard them today,” said Benny. “The children certainly had a good time. They’ll be back.”
Suddenly Uncle Max began to laugh. He said, “I almost forgot. Now that we are alone, I have a surprise for everybody. Excuse me a minute.”
Uncle Max went behind the counter and came out carrying an enormous cake.
“Just look at that cake!” exclaimed Jessie. “Did you make it, Uncle Max?”
“I did,” said Uncle Max. “I wanted to say thank you to everybody.”
Max had done his best. The frosting was creamy white, decorated with pink roses and pale green leaves. In the middle of the cake was a beautiful rocking horse made of frosting.
“Oh, it’s too pretty to cut!” said Violet.
The cake was as good as it looked. It was soon cut and everyone began to eat. It was a wonderful way for Uncle Max to say thank you.
As Sammy finished his large piece, he said, “I want to tell you something, Benny.”
“Go right ahead,” said Benny. “I’m listening.”
“I want to thank you for everything,” said Sammy. “I didn’t know how to pull out a nail, and I couldn’t climb. I didn’t know how to make things, and I didn’t even know how to make friends. Now I can make friends with anybody.”
The others listened. They knew it was true.
But Benny said, “Now you listen, Sammy. Thank you for all you taught me.”
“I taught you?” cried Sammy. “I couldn’t teach you anything!”
“Oh, yes, you did, Sammy. I learned from you and Jeffrey that sometimes I ought to shut my mouth and stop talking—and think. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Oh, don’t, Ben!” said Jessie. “You wouldn’t be Benny any more if you didn’t talk all the time.”
“I’ll
think
about it anyway,” said Benny.
Everybody laughed.
Then Jeffrey said, “I’ve been thinking, too, and I think we ought to thank the Aldens for the tree house. If they hadn’t helped us build the tree house, none of this would have happened.”
“That’s right, Jeff,” said Sammy. “We would never have found the spyglass.”
“We would never have found the little round window,” added Jeffrey.
“You would never have found the rocking horse,” said Mrs. Beach.
“There wouldn’t have been a Rocking Horse Restaurant,” said Mr. Beach.
Uncle Max nodded his head. “A lot of things have been lost and found: the spyglass, the rocking horse, a whole room—and a brother.” He looked at John Beach. “Without the tree house, I don’t think I would have found my brother quite so soon. Do you, John?”
“I have to agree, Max, and I’m glad we are good friends at last.” He shook hands with Max.
When it was time to go home, Mrs. Beach took Jessie and Violet by the hand. She smiled at them, but she said nothing.
Mr. Beach went out with Mr. Alden. He said, “After this, our family is going to have fun together. Just the way you do. We have found that our boys mean more to us than anything else in the whole world.”
“Good,” said Grandfather. “I’m glad. I had to learn that the hard way a long time ago.” And as he said this he thought about how his grandchildren had once made a home for themselves in an old boxcar.
As Henry drove home, Benny said, “We had a lot of fun. But the best part about the whole thing is Mr. Beach and Uncle Max being friends again.”
And everyone agreed with Benny.
G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children
, quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner's books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens' independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books. And so she continued the Aldens’ adventures, writing a total of nineteen books in the Boxcar Children series.
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
T
HE
B
OXCAR
C
HILDREN
S
URPRISE
I
SLAND
T
HE
Y
ELLOW
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY
M
YSTERY
R
ANCH
M
IKE’S
M
YSTERY
B
LUE
B
AY
M
YSTERY
T
HE
W
OODSHED
M
YSTERY
T
HE
L
IGHTHOUSE
M
YSTERY
M
OUNTAIN
T
OP
M
YSTERY
S
CHOOLHOUSE
M
YSTERY
C
ABOOSE
M
YSTERY
H
OUSEBOAT
M
YSTERY