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

look upstairs.” He ran up the stairs and the others followed with the dog. First Henry opened the big windows. Then he looked around the room. The pile of straw was at one end. In the corner stood an old straight-backed chair. Jessie went over and shook it.
    “Wonderful!” said Jessie. “We’ll use that when Grandfather comes to call. To think of having a real guest chair!”
    “I wish we had some boards,” said Henry. “I thought we might find some up here.”
    “What is this?” asked Benny.
    “Boards!” shouted Henry.
    Some eight-foot boards were piled on the floor under the straw.
    “Well, now,” cried Henry, “how lucky we are! I’ll get right to work. I can carry the boards down under the trees, and saw them to make tables.”
    “I ought to dry the flowers,” said Jessie. “Violet can look up their names and Benny can help carry down the boards.”
    “We ought to have lots of newspapers for drying the flowers,” said Violet, going downstairs. “And we haven’t a single newspaper.”
    “Joe has,” said Benny to everyone’s surprise. “He gets two every day, so he must have a lot.”
    “You go ask him, Benny, will you?” said Violet. “Just ask him for old ones, and be sure to thank Joe.”
    When Benny arrived at Captain Daniel’s hut, he knocked at the door.
    “Hello!” called a voice. Benny walked around to the other side of the hut. Joe and the captain sat there cleaning fish.
    “Have you any old newspapers?” asked Benny. “Not to read, but to dry flowers between.”
    “We certainly have,” said Joe, smiling. He pointed to some piles of old newspapers.
    “Oh, one pile will be enough,” cried Benny, delighted. “Jessie only wanted a dozen. Thank you, Joe. She will be surprised.”
    Jessie was surprised and pleased.
    “Have you a thin board about a foot long?” she called to Henry.
    “How’s this?” asked Henry.
    “Perfect. Go get it, Benny,” said Jessie.
    But she had used the wrong words for Benny and the right words for Watch. When the dog heard “Go get it,” he ran out of the barn to Henry who put the board carefully in the dog’s mouth. Then Watch ran back and laid the board at Jessie’s feet. Jessie was so pleased that she stopped her work and gave him a piece of bread.
    The girls smoothed the flowers out on the newspapers, just as they had done in school. Then they covered the flowers with more papers and a board and put a large stone on top.
    “I hear a motorboat,” said Henry.
    “I’m going down to see,” said Benny. “There might be something for us.”
    Jessie said, “Don’t be too sure.” To her surprise he came back in a few minutes with a big box.
    “We did get something!” he cried. “It’s from Grandfather! Captain Daniel said so.”
    Henry opened the big box.
    “Sweaters!” he said.
    Benny took his at once. “I know mine is that red one,” he said. “And I guess that purple one is Violet’s.”
    There was a beautiful blue one for Jessie, and a brown one for Henry. They all put them on to see how they looked.
    “Grandfather thinks it’s going to get cold,” said Jessie.
    “So do I,” answered Henry. “I think we shall be glad of these presents very soon.”
    When Jessie woke up late that night she heard rain falling on the roof of the barn. She put on her shoes and shut all the windows. Henry got up to help shut the barn door. “Now I guess we’ll keep dry,” he whispered.

    “The rain is coming in somewhere,” said Jessie softly. They listened, and they could hear the sound of water dropping near the stove.
    “We mustn’t let the stove get wet,” cried Henry, speaking out loud. “Get the big kettle!”
    Henry put it under the stream of water. The water seemed to come faster and faster into the kettle.
    “We can’t go to sleep because the kettle might run over,” said Henry after a minute.
    “What’s the matter, Jessie?” called Benny in a sleepy voice.
    “Rain is coming through the roof,” said Henry. “You go