The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (15 page)

The children took off their shoes and set to work.

“There’s another!” cried Benny. “I can’t dig fast enough.”

Watch seemed to know what was going on. He stood still a minute watching Benny dig with the stick. Then he began to dig too, with his paws.

“Good old Watch!” cried Benny. “You can do all my digging if you want, and I will take the clams out for you.” As if he really did understand, the dog waited for Benny to show him where the clam was. Then he began to dig again. The older children laughed to see the sand fly under his paws, but they were very glad to see the pan fill up.

“I suppose these are for dinner tomorrow,” said Henry, as he threw a clam on the pile.

“Yes,” said Jessie. “These will keep all right here. We can cover them all over with seaweed.”

“I think we have enough,” said Henry, looking at the pan. He went to the water and pulled out a lot of wet seaweed. He spread this carefully over the clams.

“I wish we knew what was around that next point,” he said. “Let’s find out.”

“We’re exploring now, Benny,” said Violet. “You must keep your eyes open.”

Benny’s eyes were certainly open when he went around the point. In the water near the beach was a little raft.

“Oh, I know that Grandfather fixed this place for us to swim in!” said Benny.

“Of course he did,” said Henry. “The water here can’t be over my head, but it is deep enough for swimming.”

The children explored until three o’clock. Then they all agreed to go swimming, and went to their rooms to put on their suits. When they came back to the beach, they all walked together into the water.

“Cold!” said Benny, walking out again. “I like warm water.”

“That’s because you’re not in all over,” said Jessie, laughing. “You just watch Henry, and you’ll soon like it.”

They all watched Henry as he went quickly into the water and began swimming hand over hand to the raft. Watch swam along beside him.

“It’s great!” Henry shouted, as he sat on the raft “Come on out, Jessie.”

“I will, just as soon as I get Benny in,” she called back. “You’ll never be warm unless you go in all over, Benny.” But Benny would not go in. He sat in his swimming suit, throwing stones into the water. Violet was down the beach, looking for seaweed. She said she would stay with Benny while Jessie swam out to the raft. As Jessie and Henry sat with their feet in the water, they saw a man coming.

“It’s Joe!” said Henry. It was Joe, and he was wearing a swimming suit.

Henry watched as Joe came along the beach and sat down beside Benny.

“How is the water today?” asked Joe.

“It’s awfully cold,” replied Benny. “It’s ice melted.”

“I guess that’s because you haven’t been in all over,” said Joe, smiling.

“Yes, that’s what Jessie says,” said Benny.

“That is called rockweed,” said Joe suddenly, as Violet picked up a long piece of brown seaweed. “There are beautiful seaweeds around here. See this dark green one on the sand? And here’s another red one. Look! There is a piece of it in that wave!” Joe went into the water, and Violet followed him.

“Oh, there it goes!” she cried. “We’ve lost it.”

Benny was standing up by this time, looking into the waves. He did not even feel the water washing over his feet. The seaweed came up on a wave and went down again. This time Benny went after it.

“I’ve got it!” he shouted. He was right. He had caught the red seaweed, and he was wet all over.

“Good for you, Benny!” said Joe with a smile. “Let me take it a minute.”

“Here,” said Benny, handing the seaweed to Joe. He did not know that he was standing in melted ice.

“Say, I have an idea,” said Joe. “Float the seaweed like this in water. Then pick it up by putting a piece of writing paper under it and spread out the feathery branches with a pin.”

“Will the seaweed stay on the paper?” asked Violet.

“Yes,” said Joe. “There is something in the seaweed that makes it stick to the paper when it is dry. Then you can use the paper for writing letters.”

“Oh, I’d like that,” cried Violet, “but I’d also like to make a seaweed collection!”

“Fine!” said Henry, for he and Jessie had come back from the raft to see what was going on. “You can write down the names of the seaweed and make a little book.”

“That will be hard to do. There aren’t many everyday names for seaweed,” said Joe.

“You know lots of things, don’t you, Joe?” said Benny.

The three older children agreed, for they had seen how clever Joe had been in getting Benny into the cold water without his knowing it.

After they had dressed and were sitting down to supper, Henry was thinking about Joe. Later, when he was in bed, he thought, “Joe is a very strange handy man, to know the names of the different kinds of seaweed.”

W
e must go on exploring the island,” said Henry, the morning after the clam digging. “It may rain any day and the days are just flying by.”

“We can go this morning,” said Jessie, coming to the doorway of the barn. “The clams will not take very long to cook, and that’s all we are going to have for dinner except, of course, bread, butter, and milk. If we get back by eleven o’clock, we shall have plenty of time.”

“It’s settled, then,” said Henry. “Let’s take the big kettle. We might find something we want to bring home. Now where is Benny?”

“There he is,” said Jessie, pointing.

Benny was coming from the dock. He had a basket of groceries with him.

“Hurry up, Benny. We are going to explore,” said Henry, taking the kettle.

“Aren’t we going to cook my clams?” asked Benny.

“Oh, yes. We’ll be back in plenty of time to cook your clams, Benny.”

They started down the beach.

“See this funny shell,” said Jessie. She dug it out with her foot. “It is just like a little boat. Let’s save it.” She dropped it into the kettle.

“And here’s a beautiful one,” said Violet. “Let’s save all the shells we find.”

“Look at this pretty purple flower, Jessie, right in the sand,” said Benny.

“Let’s save all the flowers we find, too,” said Jessie. “Put it in the kettle, Benny.”

Just then Henry began to jump around on the sand. The others watched him in surprise.

“What in the world is the matter with you?” asked Jessie, as Watch began to jump with him.

“I have a great idea! Oh, boy!” cried Henry.

“Tell us,” said Violet, as they all sat down on the sand.

“Well,” began Henry, “you all know what a museum is—”

“I don’t,” said Benny.

“Oh, sure you do, Benny,” cried Henry. “You must have seen pictures of museums; places where they keep all kinds of birds and animals and flowers.”

“And shells,” said Violet.

“That’s it,” cried Henry, looking at his sister. “You know what my idea is already, don’t you?”

“I think so,” said Violet. “And I think it is a perfectly wonderful idea.”

“Oh, do you?” asked Henry. “I wasn’t sure.”

“What is this idea?” asked Jessie.

“Well,” answered Henry, “we are sure to find some interesting things on this island to keep. We found these things without looking at all. Maybe we shall find lots more—butterflies, birds, seaweed—”

“We could clean out the upstairs in the barn,” said Jessie.

“And have a museum,” said Benny.

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do!” said Jessie. “That will give us lots of things to do on rainy days. Violet could make little signs for everything, and you could make a table to go around the room. And I will dry the flowers between newspapers and put the shells in boxes.”

“We wouldn’t have real birds, would we?” asked Violet, looking worried.

“Oh, no!” cried Henry. “We could cut birds out of heavy paper and color them—every bird we see.”

“Then we could cut down some small trees and put the birds on the branches,” said Jessie. “I’ve seen them in the museum.”

“Good!” said Henry. “We might find old birds’ nests to put up in the trees. We will have plenty of fun this whole summer.”

Violet began to write down in the little book:

1. Birds

2. Flowers

3. Seaweed

4. Shells

5. Butterflies

“That’s enough for a beginning,” said Henry, standing up. “We shall have to be on the watch every minute.”

And so the exploring party set out once more, looking at the trees for birds, and dropping flowers and shells into the kettle.

“How can I write the names of these shells when we don’t know their names?” asked Violet. She dropped a long, thin clam shell into the kettle, but nobody knew what it was.

“I suppose we could get a book about shells from the library,” said Henry. “Grandfather said we could go across to the mainland with Captain Daniel if we wanted to, but I don’t want to leave this island for even a minute.”

“Something will turn up,” said Jessie.

Something did turn up. The very minute the explorers came back to their barn, they saw Joe getting into the motorboat.

“Oh,
wait!”
called Jessie, running down to the dock.

“Don’t hurry,” called Joe. “Plenty of time.”

But all the children kept on running just the same.

“Are you going to the stores now, Joe?” asked Jessie.

“That’s just where I am going,” replied Joe. “I will get anything you want and I shall be back in an hour.”

“Then you will go right by the library!” cried Jessie. “Would you be willing to get us some books?”

“Yes, I can get all the books you want by signing for them,” he said.

Joe took out a pen and a piece of paper and gave them to Jessie. “Write the names of the books you want and I will get them.”

“I can’t,” answered Jessie, giving back the paper. “We don’t know the names of the books. But we want books with pictures in them to tell us the names of flowers, birds, shells, butterflies, and seaweed.”

Joe smiled in a queer way and said, “I could ask the girl in the library to pick them out for you.”

“That’s right,” agreed Henry. “She would know.”

But when Joe went into the library, he did not ask for any help. He gave the girl in the library the names of so many books that she had to write very fast. Then a small boy went off to get them. When the books were tied up, the strange handy man went away, leaving the girl and small boy looking after him in surprise.