Cereal Box Mystery (7 page)

They walked home quickly from the mailbox on the corner and hurried around to the boxcar.

Inside, Jessie was spreading a tablecloth across the old table. In the middle of it, she put a vase with flowers that she had picked that day. Outside, Soo Lee was hanging pinecones coated with glitter and paint and tied to ribbons on a small red maple tree near the boxcar. Benny ran to help her.

“Violet, would you hand me the tape, please?” Henry asked. “I dropped it.”

Violet hurried to pick up the tape and hand it to her brother. He taped the corner of the poster above the door. It said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDFATHER.

At that moment, Mrs. McGregor came out the back door. In her hands she held a beautiful cake, with pink and lavender roses and green leaves made of sugar. On top of the cake were blue candles.

“That is the best birthday cake I’ve ever seen,” Violet said, clasping her hands together.

“And the most delicious one you’ll ever eat,” Mrs. McGregor assured her. “Until my next one. Now, who wants to help me bring out the punch?”

“I will,” said Benny. He skipped alongside Mrs. McGregor as she went back to the house. “I could lick the frosting bowl for you,” he volunteered.

Mrs. McGregor laughed.

Henry looked at his watch. “Cousin Alice and Cousin Joe will be here in ten minutes,” he said.

They all worked faster than ever. At last Violet tied a big bow on the Japanese maple tree.

A car pulled into the driveway.

Quickly everyone jumped into the boxcar and pulled the door closed.

Peering through a crack, they saw the back door open. Then they saw Mrs. McGregor gesture toward the boxcar.

“Do you think he suspects anything?” Jessie whispered.

“Not yet,” said Henry. He held on to Benny to keep him from jumping out of the boxcar too early. Benny held on to Watch.

Grandfather, Mrs. McGregor, Alice, and Joe walked toward the boxcar.

“Now!” whispered Henry.

Jessie pushed open the boxcar door and they all leaped out.

“Surprise!” they all shouted, and Watch barked loudly.

Then, as Mrs. McGregor, Alice, and Joe joined in, they all began to sing “Happy Birthday.”

Grandfather’s mouth dropped open in surprise. But when everyone had finished singing, he began to laugh.

“Are you surprised, Grandfather?” Benny asked.

“I sure am,” his grandfather answered. He looked at Joe and Alice. “Did you know about this?”

Joe and Alice nodded. Alice said, “That’s why we invited you to come visit — so there would be time to decorate the boxcar.”

Benny said, “Do you want some cake? Mrs. McGregor made it. It’s your favorite kind.” He paused and added, “Mine, too.”

Laughing, everybody went into the boxcar. Grandfather Alden blew out the candles on his cake. He cut it and gave everybody a piece, while Henry and Jessie poured the punch and Violet passed out the napkins.

“Let’s eat our cake and drink our punch outside under a tree,” Jessie said.

“Yes,” Violet agreed. “I know just the tree.”

“Come on, Grandfather,” Benny said.

When they reached the tree, Grandfather said, “My goodness! Another surprise!”

“It’s a Japanese maple tree,” Henry said. “We picked it out ourselves.”

“It’s a wonderful tree. And it has some very fine decorations,” Grandfather said.

“We made those,” Soo Lee told him.

They sat down in the grass under the new tree and ate their cake and drank punch. Mrs. McGregor gave Watch a special dog biscuit that she had saved for the birthday celebration.

“With the sun shining through the red leaves of this maple, they are the color of rubies,” Grandfather declared, looking up at his birthday tree.

“Some rubies,” Violet said. “Not all rubies are red.”

“Speaking of rubies,” said Joe, “Alice and I have something to show you.”

Alice reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the latest edition of the Greenfield newspaper. “Your names are on page one,” she told the Boxcar Children.

Sure enough, the newspaper had printed the whole story of the stolen jewels and how Henry, Jessie, Violet, Benny, and Soo Lee had helped find and capture the robbers. The story even mentioned Watch.

“We’ll have to save this,” Henry said.

Benny sighed.

“What’s wrong, Benny?” asked Violet.

“I wish I had my detective’s badge,” Benny said. “I could have worn it when we solved the case. Then I would have been a real detective.”

Jessie laughed. “Oh, Benny. You don’t need a detective’s badge to be a real detective. You are one already.”

“Really?” asked Benny.

“Yes!” declared Jessie.

“Not only are you all real detectives,” said Grandfather Alden, looking around, “but you are my favorite detectives in the whole world. You are the very best.”

“Is that true?” Benny asked.

“It certainly is, Benny,” Grandfather said. “It certainly is.”

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.

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

S
NOWBOUND
M
YSTERY

T
REE
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

B
ICYCLE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
AND

M
YSTERY
B
EHIND
THE
W
ALL

B
US
S
TATION
M
YSTERY

B
ENNY
U
NCOVERS
A
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
C
ABIN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
D
ESERTED
L
IBRARY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
A
NIMAL
S
HELTER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
O
LD
M
OTEL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
P
AINTING

T
HE
A
MUSEMENT
P
ARK
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
IXED
-U
P
Z
OO

T
HE
C
AMP
-O
UT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
G
IRL

T
HE
M
YSTERY
C
RUISE

T
HE
D
ISAPPEARING
F
RIEND
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
INGING
G
HOST

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
NOW

T
HE
P
IZZA
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
H
ORSE

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
D
OG
S
HOW

T
HE
C
ASTLE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
V
ILLAGE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
I
CE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
P
URPLE
P
OOL

T
HE
G
HOST
S
HIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
W
ASHINGTON
, DC

T
HE
C
ANOE
T
RIP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
B
EACH

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
ISSING
C
AT

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT
S
NOWFLAKE
I
NN

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON
S
TAGE

T
HE
D
INOSAUR
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
M
USIC

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
B
ALL
P
ARK

T
HE
C
HOCOLATE
S
UNDAE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
OT
A
IR
B
ALLOON

T
HE
M
YSTERY
B
OOKSTORE

T
HE
P
ILGRIM
V
ILLAGE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
TOLEN
B
OXCAR

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN THE
C
AVE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
T
RAIN

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
F
AIR

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
M
INE

T
HE
G
UIDE
D
OG
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
URRICANE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
P
ET
S
HOP
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
ECRET
M
ESSAGE

T
HE
F
IREHOUSE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY IN
S
AN
F
RANCISCO