Mystery of the Spider's Clue by Gertrude Chandler Warner

CHAPTER 1
Sam the Window Man
    â€œDon’t forget about the ladder,” said Benny Alden, “You didn’t forget it, did you, Violet?”
    Violet, who was ten, smiled at her six-year-old brother. “No, I didn’t, Benny,” she said. She looked down at her drawing of a man on a bike. There was a ladder lashed to the top of the bike, and there were pails hanging over the handlebars. “How could I forget Sam’s ladder?”
    â€œYou’re doing a great job, Violet,” said twelve-year-old Jessie. “That looks just like Sam Snow, with his silver hair and his droopy mustache.”
    â€œAnd that’s exactly the way Sam’s bike looks, too,” Henry pointed out. “Violet even remembered Sam’s old rags tied to the ladder.” At fourteen, Henry was the oldest of the Aldens.
    â€œYou really are a wonderful artist, Violet,” Jessie said with pride.
    Violet smiled gratefully at her older sister. “I think I am getting better,” she said in her soft voice. “But I still have a lot to learn.” Violet enjoyed drawing. And she was good at it, too.
    It was a sunny afternoon, and the four Aldens—Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny—were sitting under a shady tree on the back lawn. They were making a special get-well card for their friend Sam the Window Man. Violet was drawing a picture to go on the front. The other Aldens were making up a poem to go inside. The Aldens’ dog, Watch, was dozing in the sun nearby.

    Benny took a close look at Violet’s picture. “Purple?” His eyebrows suddenly shot up. “Does Sam use purple rags for washing windows?” he asked.
    Violet laughed a little. “Probably not.” Purple was Violet’s favorite color, and she almost always wore something purple or violet. “But I wanted to make everything very colorful,” she explained.
    â€œThat was a good idea,” said Jessie. “Bright colors are very cheery.”
    Benny looked over at their boxcar, with its coat of bright red paint. “Our old home always makes me feel cheery.”
    Jessie brushed her hand across Benny’s hair. “It always makes me feel cheery, too,” she said.
    After their parents had died, the Aldens had found an old abandoned boxcar in the woods. The boxcar was their home for a while until their grandfather found them. That’s when James Alden brought his grandchildren to live with him in his big white house in Greenfield. And the boxcar had come along, too. Now it had a special place in the backyard. The Aldens often used their old home as a clubhouse.
    â€œI’m almost done.” Violet was adding a rainbow to her picture. “It should only take me another minute or two to finish.”
    â€œI wish we could say the same thing,” said Jessie, sighing. “Making up poems isn’t easy. The important thing is to let Sam know that the whole town misses him.”
    â€œ And that we want him to get better soon,” added Benny.
    For a moment, no one said a word. They were all too busy thinking. Jessie finally spoke up. “Maybe we could start out like this: With ladder and bucket, you ride through the town— ”
    After a pause, Benny put in, “Washing our windows— ”
    â€œ Upstairs and down !” finished Henry.
    Violet clapped her hands. “That sounds great!”
    â€œDo you really think so?” Benny asked, and Violet nodded.
    â€œI’ll jot it down in my notebook,” Jessie said. “Then we won’t forget how it goes.”
    â€œGood thinking,” said Henry. They could always count on Jessie to be organized.
    Benny was grinning from ear to ear. “I told you we could do it! Making up poems is easy once you get the hang of it.”
    Sure enough, it didn’t take the children long to finish. After Jessie copied their poem onto the get-well card, she read it out loud.
With ladder and bucket,
    You ride