The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve (49 page)

“I try to,” said John Carter with a twinkle in his eye. “Hello, Jessie! And Violet. Benny is still his same old self.”

“What will happen to Mike’s family?” asked Henry.

“All these houses belong to the Uranium Company. So when the place cools off, the pink house will be built again,” replied the man.

“How about the things inside? The washing machine?” asked Jessie.

“I don’t know, but insurance will take care of some things later.”

“Aunt Jane said Mike could come up to our house,” said Violet.

“Oh, did she indeed!” said Mr. Carter, laughing. “You’ll have a lively time! Don’t you want me, too?”

“You would be a big help,” said Jessie, smiling.

“You can have a whole room, Mike, if you come to Aunt Jane’s,” said Benny. “You’d better ask your mother if you can come.”

“Yes, I’m willing, and thankful, too,” said Mrs. Wood. “But tell Miss Alden to send Mike back if he gets too much for her.”

Then Benny asked suddenly, “Mike! Have you had anything to eat?”

“No!” shouted Mike. “It all burned up. I didn’t have any milk, or any oatmeal, or any eggs—”

“Come on, Mike!” shouted Benny. “I could eat another egg myself. Let’s all go to the restaurant!”

Mr. Carter looked at Jessie and laughed. He said, “I wonder what’s the matter with me? I never even thought of breakfast! And Mrs. Wood, you must be starved. We’ll all go to the restaurant and have breakfast.”

“We follow Benny as usual,” said Mrs. Wood smiling. “He has the ideas.”

L
et’s all sit at the big table,” said Henry. “Then we can talk.”

“I don’t want to talk. I want to eat!” shouted Mike.

“Then you can keep still all you want,” said Benny. “We’ll do the talking.”

“But I’ll say something if I want to,” argued Mike.

“Well, make up your mind,” returned Benny. “You’re the one that said you didn’t want to talk.”

“I only said I was hungry,” said Mike.

“Oh, stop it, Mike,” said his mother. “All this talk about nothing. Don’t you know you have no home?”

“That sounds awful,” said Jessie. “Tell me, how did you know the house was on fire?”

“The dog,” said Mrs. Wood. “Spotty was down in the cellar. He sleeps down there. He barked and barked. I knew something was wrong, so I went down to see. There was fire on all four sides. I let the dog out and woke up Mike and Pat.”

“You didn’t wake me,” said Mike. “I was awake.”

“Yes, you were, son,” agreed his mother. “I will say you were going down to get the dog yourself.”

“Spotty was the most important one,” said Mike, “because he can’t open doors.”

“By the way, where is the dog?” asked Mr. Carter.

“He’s tied up at the blue house,” said Pat. “He was in the way, barking at everyone.”

“Yes, we had to leave Watch and Lady at the ranch, too,” said Jessie. “A fire is no place for dogs.”

“It is very queer that the fire started in four places at once,” said Mr. Carter.

“I wonder if anyone set the fire,” said Henry.

“Oh, no!” cried Mrs. Wood. “Why would anybody set fire to our house?”

“What do you plan to do now, Mrs. Wood?” asked Mr. Carter.

“I really don’t know,” she answered. “I’m staying in the blue house with my good neighbor, Mrs. Smith, for tonight.”

Breakfast came then. The eight hungry people went to work on the bacon and eggs, toast, and cereal and milk. For a minute the restaurant was very still. Then the children heard a man say, “I heard that the boy who lived there set the house on fire just for fun.”

In an instant Mike was out of his chair. He ran over and faced the man who had spoken. “I did not!” he shouted. “Who says I did?”

In another minute all four children were behind Mike.

“Mike never did!” shouted Benny. “He wouldn’t! Who says he did?”

The man laughed a little. He was very much surprised. “Well, don’t get so excited, sonny,” he said.

“Don’t get excited?” yelled Mike. “You told a lie about me!”

“I didn’t say it,” said the man. “I said I heard it.”

Then Henry spoke. “Can you tell us who told you? You must know this story is very bad for Mike.”

“Well, well,” said the man. “You’re not afraid to stand up for a friend, are you?”

“No, sir,” said Henry.

Jessie said, “Mike likes fun, yes. He gets into trouble. But he would never set his own house on fire.”

Then Benny went right up to the man. He said, “Mike wouldn’t set a fire in the cellar anyway. His dog was there.”

“So his dog was there,” repeated the man. “That settles it. I believe you.”

“Who told you?” asked Mike. He was not yelling now.

“I don’t know him,” said the man. “He was a stranger to me. He stood beside me in the crowd, watching the fire. I think that he wore a blue hat.”

“I’ll ask him,” said Benny, “if I ever see a man with a blue hat.”

The man looked at the four of them. “I wish I had as many good friends as you have, Mike,” he said. He looked at Benny. “This one here is a wonderful friend.”

“He don’t always stand up for me,” said Mike.

“Doesn’t,” said Benny.

“Now look here, Ben!” said Mike. “Don’t start that again!”

“You see how Mike is,” said Jessie. “He will fight over nothing. But he would never set a fire. Come on back, boys, and eat your breakfast.”

The children moved away. All this time Mr. Carter had sat still watching. “Well, Jessie!” he said. “That was just like a play! I am very proud of all of you.”

“Why didn’t you come over, too?” asked Benny.

“You didn’t need me,” said Mr. Carter laughing. “You children did it much better than I would. But the man could see I was with you if you needed help.”

Mike began to eat again.

“That gave me a good appetite,” he said.

“Your appetite was all right before,” said Henry, laughing.

“I like to have you with us, Mike,” said Violet, laughing. “Now if you weren’t here, I couldn’t eat my breakfast at all.”

“That’s right,” said Henry. “She couldn’t.”

“Now everyone watch out for a man with a blue hat,” said Benny drinking the last of his milk.

“That man would change his hat, Ben,” said Mike.

“Maybe he will have a black hat next time. Maybe no hat at all.”

“I’ll watch, too,” said Mr. Carter. “You can be sure of that.”

I
have to go up to the uranium mine,” said Mr. Carter. “You can all come with me if you want.”

“I think I’ll go to my neighbor’s,” said Mrs. Wood. “I’m all tired out with Mike’s doings.”

“Yes, I’ll go with you, Ma,” said Pat. “Maybe I can help around the place, to pay for taking us in.”

“The rest of us will go with you, Mr. Carter,” said Benny. “It’s our own mine after all, and we haven’t seen it yet. You come too, Mike.”

“Well, Benny, you are asking for trouble,” said Henry laughing.

“I’m no
trouble,”
cried Mike. “I might help you. I know a lot of things.”

Soon they were on their way to the mine in Mr. Carter’s car. When they arrived, they could see great machines at work. Workmen were everywhere. Mr. Carter stopped his car at a large building. It had a small office in one corner.

“I’m going into the office for a few minutes,” said Mr. Carter. “You may stay in the car and watch the men. But you must not go any closer than you are now.”

“Can’t we go into the big building?” asked Benny.

Mr. Carter said, “Oh, yes, you can do that. But it is empty. Just one big room. Nothing to see. I’ll be back soon.”

When Mr. Carter had shut the office door, Mike said, “I bet he’s going to find out about insurance on our things and tell someone in there about the blue hat.”

“Yes,” said Benny. “Let’s see what is in that empty room.”

Benny got out of the car and quietly walked into the big, empty room. Jessie followed him. They stood looking around.

“A big room going to waste, Jessie!” said Benny.

“Yes, Benny,” said his sister. For a minute they said nothing more. Jessie was thinking about what Benny had said—a big room going to waste.

“Look, Benny!” she said excitedly. “Do you remember what Mrs. Wood said about baking?”

“Yes, I do. She said she loved to bake pies and she didn’t like to wash.”

“That’s just right, Benny! Now listen! If we could get a good stove—”

“Mrs. Wood could bake in it,” finished Benny.

“And right here in this very room,” said Henry. One by one the others had come inside, too.

Then another gentle voice said, “I’m sure Grandfather would let us buy a stove.” It was Violet. She was smiling.

“My mother likes to make pies the best,” said Mike. “On pies she is a wizard.”

Henry laughed. “Well, now that we are all here, let’s get together on this.”

“My mother could sell pies to the miners,” said Mike. “There’s about a million men, I should say. We could make money. And I could eat pies whenever I wanted to,” Mike finished.

“If we had a stove,” said Benny.

“Not quite a million men,” said Henry. “Maybe a hundred or more.”

“Maybe we could all live up here,” said Mike.

“You wouldn’t want to live here, Mike,” said Benny. “Wait till you see your room at Aunt Jane’s. Right next to me.”

“We’ll ask Mr. Carter what he thinks,” said Jessie. He knows everything and he will settle it.”

But it was really Mrs. Wood who settled it.

B
enny began to talk the minute he got into the car. Mike began to talk too.

“Wait, boys,” said Mr. Carter. “One at a time! I can’t hear a word you say.”

“I’ll talk first,” said Mike.

“Well, you can this time,” agreed Benny. “It’s about your own mother, after all.”

“That’s right, Ben,” said Mike. “Thank you. Mr. Carter, my mother works hard at her washing, but she don’t—doesn’t like it.”

“Yes, Mike,” said Mr. Carter. “But what do you want me to do about it?”

“We’ve thought of a good job for her,” said Mike. “She loves to make pies. So why not make pies and sell them? She gives away millions of pies.”