The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (16 page)

Joe was really delighted to go over to the barn and see the children. He knocked at their open door with his foot, as his arms were full of books.

“Oh, come in!” cried Jessie. She put a cover on the kettle and came over to him at once. “Did you have any luck?”

“I don’t know. I hope so,” said Joe.

“Oh, Henry,” cried Jessie, “I don’t know what to do first, but I suppose I must fix the clams.”

“You surely must,” said Henry. “We are so hungry we could eat the chairs, but I will not open the books until after we eat.”

“Won’t you stay to dinner, Joe?” asked Jessie. “I washed the clams six times and they are cooking now. I think they are almost done.”

Oh, how Joe wanted to stay to dinner! “I-I—” he said.

“That’s fine!” said Jessie, as if he had said ‘Yes.’”

“You’re our first guest,” shouted Benny with delight. “But you’ll have to wash your own dishes.”

“Oh no, he won’t, Benny,” cried Jessie. “You shouldn’t say such things.”

“I would like to wash my own dishes,” said Joe, smiling. “And I really would like to see if the books are all right.”

Violet smiled, because the smell of the clams was good enough to make anyone hungry. While Jessie melted some butter, Violet went out and brought back five of Benny’s purple flowers and put one at each place.

The clams were all open when Jessie looked in the kettle. She began to take them out with a saucepan.

“Please let me do that,” said Joe. “That kettle is so heavy.”

“Thank you so much,” said Jessie. “I can put the melted butter into the cups.” She did this quickly, and then poured the clam water into five bowls. Violet set them all on the table.

“Oh, dear, what shall we do for another place to sit?” asked Jessie.

“Let me bring the block from my woodpile,” said Joe.

When Joe came back with the block of wood, Benny asked, “How do you eat clams, anyway?”

“Pull the clam out,” said Joe. “See! Then put him into the clam water, then into the melted butter—”

“Then you put him into your mouth,” said Benny.

They all laughed at Benny, but they did not talk much, for they were too busy eating. Joe picked out Benny’s clams for him.

“I never had so much fun at a dinner in my life,” said Joe when the clams were gone, “but I want to help with the dishes.”

“All right,” said Jessie. “I put the kettle of water on to heat before we sat down. You may wipe dishes if you really want to.”

When the dishwater was hot, the dishes were washed and soon were all put away in the cupboard.

Then Jessie said, “Now show us the books, Joe!”

J
oe and the children sat around the table to look at the books. Henry took off the paper and found twelve interesting-looking books.

“The Butterfly Book,” said Jessie.

“The Shell Book,” said Violet.

“The Flower Book,” said Henry. “Oh, these three books must belong to a set. Just look at the beautiful pictures.”

The handy man seemed to be just as interested as the children. He soon found a picture of the purple flower on the table. It was the Beach Pea. Then Joe showed the children the names of the shells they had found. He saw that Henry was staring at him. “How did you ever learn all this?” asked Henry.

“Oh, I just picked it up,” said Joe. “I used to live near the beach.”

Joe saw that he would have to be more careful, because it appeared that he knew too much for a handy man. And so he said he would have to get back to his work.

After Joe had gone, Henry said, “Let’s look upstairs.” He ran up the stairs and the others followed with the dog. First Henry opened the big windows. Then he looked around the room. The pile of straw was at one end. In the corner stood an old straight-backed chair. Jessie went over and shook it.

“Wonderful!” said Jessie. “We’ll use that when Grandfather comes to call. To think of having a real guest chair!”

“I wish we had some boards,” said Henry. “I thought we might find some up here.”

“What is this?” asked Benny.

“Boards!” shouted Henry.

Some eight-foot boards were piled on the floor under the straw.

“Well, now,” cried Henry, “how lucky we are! I’ll get right to work. I can carry the boards down under the trees, and saw them to make tables.”

“I ought to dry the flowers,” said Jessie. “Violet can look up their names and Benny can help carry down the boards.”

“We ought to have lots of newspapers for drying the flowers,” said Violet, going downstairs. “And we haven’t a single newspaper.”

“Joe has,” said Benny to everyone’s surprise. “He gets two every day, so he must have a lot.”

“You go ask him, Benny, will you?” said Violet. “Just ask him for old ones, and be sure to thank Joe.”

When Benny arrived at Captain Daniel’s hut, he knocked at the door.

“Hello!” called a voice. Benny walked around to the other side of the hut. Joe and the captain sat there cleaning fish.

“Have you any old newspapers?” asked Benny. “Not to read, but to dry flowers between.”

“We certainly have,” said Joe, smiling. He pointed to some piles of old newspapers.

“Oh, one pile will be enough,” cried Benny, delighted. “Jessie only wanted a dozen. Thank you, Joe. She will be surprised.”

Jessie was surprised and pleased.

“Have you a thin board about a foot long?” she called to Henry.

“How’s this?” asked Henry.

“Perfect. Go get it, Benny,” said Jessie.

But she had used the wrong words for Benny and the right words for Watch. When the dog heard “Go get it,” he ran out of the barn to Henry who put the board carefully in the dog’s mouth. Then Watch ran back and laid the board at Jessie’s feet. Jessie was so pleased that she stopped her work and gave him a piece of bread.

The girls smoothed the flowers out on the newspapers, just as they had done in school. Then they covered the flowers with more papers and a board and put a large stone on top.

“I hear a motorboat,” said Henry.

“I’m going down to see,” said Benny. “There might be something for us.”

Jessie said, “Don’t be too sure.” To her surprise he came back in a few minutes with a big box.

“We did get something!” he cried. “It’s from Grandfather! Captain Daniel said so.”

Henry opened the big box.

“Sweaters!” he said.

Benny took his at once. “I know mine is that red one,” he said. “And I guess that purple one is Violet’s.”

There was a beautiful blue one for Jessie, and a brown one for Henry. They all put them on to see how they looked.

“Grandfather thinks it’s going to get cold,” said Jessie.

“So do I,” answered Henry. “I think we shall be glad of these presents very soon.”

When Jessie woke up late that night she heard rain falling on the roof of the barn. She put on her shoes and shut all the windows. Henry got up to help shut the barn door. “Now I guess we’ll keep dry,” he whispered.

“The rain is coming in somewhere,” said Jessie softly. They listened, and they could hear the sound of water dropping near the stove.

“We mustn’t let the stove get wet,” cried Henry, speaking out loud. “Get the big kettle!”

Henry put it under the stream of water. The water seemed to come faster and faster into the kettle.

“We can’t go to sleep because the kettle might run over,” said Henry after a minute.

“What’s the matter, Jessie?” called Benny in a sleepy voice.

“Rain is coming through the roof,” said Henry. “You go back to sleep.”

“I can’t,” cried Benny. “Rain is coming in my window, too, and all over me.”

“Oh, dear!” cried Jessie. “Where is the flashlight?”

With the flashlight, the two older children soon saw that the wall near Benny’s bed was very wet. A stream of water was running in under his window.

“Get up, Benny!” cried Henry.

Benny came out slowly. “I don’t like this bed,” he said. He began to cry. “I like my bed at Grandfather’s house, and I want to go home! It’s nice and dry there.”

“Now, Benny, don’t be like that!” cried Jessie. “You’re a big boy, and you ought to be up helping us. You wouldn’t like it if we left you at home, would you?”

“No,” said Benny. This idea woke him up, and he started to help move his bed out.

“What’s the matter?” called Violet.

“It’s raining in this barn!” said Benny. “Maybe on you, too.”

“No, it’s not,” said Violet. “But I can hear it coming in somewhere.”

“It’s coming in all over the place,” cried Henry.

“I wish we had more kettles,” said Jessie. “I’ll put one pail under this window and the other pail in the corner.”

“We can’t go to sleep,” said Violet. “The pails and kettle will run over.”

“The rest of you can go to sleep,” said Henry. “I will stay up and empty the pails. Benny, you get into my bed. I think we have found all the places where the rain is coming in.”

Benny was glad to get into bed and he was soon asleep again. Henry sat up for an hour. He emptied the pails once more, and then crawled in beside Benny. The rain had almost stopped.

“I’ll fix the roof tomorrow,” he thought. “And maybe Joe will help me. He’s a very handy man.”

The next morning it was still raining. The children dressed and ate breakfast and then watched the rain.

“One of us must go outside for the groceries,” said Henry, “and I think I’m the one. My clothes are going to get awfully wet, so what shall I do while they dry?”

“Where are all your other clothes?” asked Benny.

Henry pointed to the clothesline over the stove.

“They aren’t dry yet,” said Jessie. “I’m sorry now that I washed them.”

“Henry can go to bed while his clothes dry,” said Benny.

“Say, listen, Benny!” cried Henry. “How would you like to go to bed? You get busy and think of something I could put on.”

“Jessie could make you a suit out of a blanket,” said Benny suddenly.

“I really could!” cried Jessie. “It’s lucky we brought along Violet’s workbag. I’ll make you a pair of pants out of a blanket. And you can put on your new sweater while your things dry.”

“Good for you, Jessie,” said Henry. “Now let’s be sure we have thought of everything we want, so I won’t have to go out again.”

“I have an idea,” said Benny. “Why don’t you put on your swimming suit to go outside and then your clothes won’t get wet?”

“That is a good idea, Benny. What would we do without you?” said Henry.

“Benny, you are wonderful,” agreed Jessie.

Benny laughed and said, “I know you could make pants out of a blanket if you had to.”

“I’ll put on my swimming suit,” said Henry. “You be thinking of what you want.”

Jessie said, “There will be some potatoes in the box because I ordered them. And all that bread and milk. Do you think you can carry it all? I am going to make some clam chowder, and I’ll need onions from the garden. The onions aren’t very big, but big enough.”

“I’ll get the onions first,” said Henry, appearing in his swimming suit, “and give them to you through the door. I think I can carry everything else.”

Henry handed the little onions to Jessie through the partly open door. When he came in with the basket of groceries, he looked as if he had been swimming.

After a rub down with a towel, Henry put on his dry clothes and was ready for work.

“This is a perfect day to work on our museum things,” he said. “I can make some boxes for the shells and butterflies.”

Soon the table was covered with wood, paper, paints, and tools.

At half-past eleven, Jessie stopped her work to make the chowder.

“I’m going to use these little onions for the chowder,” she said.

Jessie melted some butter and put the onions in it. Then she added water and salt and the sliced potatoes. When the potatoes were done, she added the cut-up clams and at the very last minute, the milk.

Soon, when dinner was ready, the four children took their bowls of chowder and sat down, not minding the rain at all.

“Jessie, you can make
anything!”
cried Henry.

“Yum, yum! Jessie can make good chowder!” said Benny.

After dinner, the children painted birds and fixed the feathery seaweed for their museum. Henry went upstairs to put up the tables.