The Boxcar Children Mysteries: Books One through Twelve by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page A

you.”
    “That’s right,” agreed Henry. “She would know.”
    But when Joe went into the library, he did not ask for any help. He gave the girl in the library the names of so many books that she had to write very fast. Then a small boy went off to get them. When the books were tied up, the strange handy man went away, leaving the girl and small boy looking after him in surprise.
    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!”



CHAPTER 6
The Museum
    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