Boxcar Children 12 - Houseboat Mystery by Warner Gertrude Chandler

Author:Warner, Gertrude Chandler [Warner, Gertrude Chandler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2010-10-09T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Something Wrong

The next morning the Aldens waited only long enough to eat breakfast and change the name of the houseboat.

Benny climbed up the ladder to change the letters. He said, “I hate to take The Watch Alden down. But you’ve had your day, Watch. Today it will be The Mrs. McGregor."

When Benny climbed down, Henry was saying, “I wish we could find out why those horses are so thin. We know that Mr. April pays Sam well.”

Jessie added, “Sam said he gives as much as he can to Dolly.”

“And we know Sam loves his horse,” said Violet. “It doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Benny thought a minute. Then he laughed. “The only way to find out is to ask Sam,” he said.

“Oh, no,” said Jessie, shaking her head. “I would never ask Sam!”

“I would,” said Benny. “I bet Sam would tell me.”

Henry laughed. “I bet he would, too, Ben. Try it! No harm done if he won’t tell.”

Violet said, “Sam likes Benny. I think he would say that Benny was comical, just as Mr. Rivers did.”

So the Aldens locked up the houseboat and went back to April Center. As they walked through the gate Benny looked around for Sam. But Sam was nowhere in sight.

“You’ll like the country store, Ben,” said Henry, walking along. “They will have everything in there—cloth, sugar, cheese, and a cracker barrel.”

The cracker barrel was the first thing the Aldens saw when they went into the store. The storekeeper looked up at Benny and said, “Help yourself to a cracker!”

There was a hole in the cover of the wooden barrel. Benny put his hand into the hole and pulled out a cracker. Henry came next. He said to the man, “That hole is almost too small for my hand.”

“That is why the hole was made small,” replied the man. “Nobody can get two crackers out at one time. They used to try in the old days, but they never could do it.”

Three old men were sitting around an old stove, smoking pipes. Grandfather looked around the room and said, “This looks exactly like the old country store I went in when I was a boy. See the old-fashioned stick candy?”

“Red-and-white stripes,” said Benny. “I bet it is peppermint.”

The storekeeper said, “Try the coffee grinder, folks. Right over there.”

They all went to look at the coffee grinder. Jessie said, “I don’t suppose you sell the coffee, do you?”

“Oh, yes, I do,” the storekeeper answered. “You can buy coffee, candy, cheese, and oats for horses. All the other things are just to look at.”

Jessie said, “We’ll take a pound of coffee, then.”

The man poured a pound of brown coffee beans into the coffee mill. He said to Benny, “Grind away, son!”

Benny took the handle and turned it round and round. It was hard work. The ground coffee came out in a bag and was all ready to use.

“Did you say you sell cheese?” asked Mr. Alden.

“Right here!” The man showed them an enormous round cheese, as big as an automobile tire.

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