Tree House Mystery by Gertrude Warner Page A

now. There are four of them. Could we make a casserole?”
    “Why not?” asked Mrs. McGregor, smiling. “I’ll sit and watch you work.”
    That was what the Alden children liked best. They liked to work without any help, and Mrs. McGregor knew it well.
    Everyone began to work. Benny opened cans of tomato soup. Henry peeled onions and cut them up. Violet got out some hamburger and began to break it up to cook in a pan. Jessie cooked macaroni and got out the cheese.
    When all the things were cooked, Jessie put them together in a big dish and covered the top with cheese. She put it in the oven to bake.
    Mrs. McGregor waited until Jessie had closed the oven door. Then she said, “Did you say a Beach family is moving in next door? I’ve been sitting here thinking about that old house. I haven’t been in it for years.”
    “But you were in it once?” Benny asked.
    “Yes,” Mrs. McGregor said. “I must have been quite little because everything seemed huge to me. Let’s see, I was invited there for a birthday party.”
    “That sounds like fun,” Violet said. “Then there must have been a family with children there.”
    “No,” Mrs. McGregor said. “That’s the odd part about it. I’m sure this was special. An old lady lived there, I remember that. Even when I was little I thought it was sad that there was that great big house and just an old lady in it. Oh, I wish I could remember more.”
    The Aldens kept quiet while Mrs. McGregor rocked back and forth. At last she shook her head. “No, I can’t remember anything else except that somebody got a little hunting horn. I remember a little boy with a great big sailor collar with ruffles. Maybe the horn was a birthday present.”
    “What happened to the old lady?” asked Jessie.
    “I don’t remember,” Mrs. McGregor said. “My family moved out of town and we lived on a farm. Since your grandfather has been here, nobody has lived in the house. I know that much.”
    Benny said, “I guess the house always seemed a little spooky with all those big trees around it.”
    Jessie said, “Most of the time we don’t think about the house being there at all. It’s been empty so long.”
    “I like to think about two boys being there now,” Benny said. “Can we take them some dessert?”
    Mrs. McGregor said, “You can take four of my orange puddings. I made a dozen.”
    “Oh, thank you,” said Violet. “That’s wonderful.”
    So that was how the Beach family had their first supper as neighbors to the Alden family. It was true that Mrs. Beach was tired from moving and was glad to see a meal brought in by four smiling children.
    A few days later Jessie was looking at the Greenfield News. “Here’s something about our neighbors,” she said.
    “What is it?” asked Henry. “It seems funny that we have to find out about them by reading a newspaper.”
    Jessie read the news story aloud. It said that Mr. and Mrs. John Beach had moved into the house next to that owned by Mr. James Henry Alden. It also told that Mr. Beach was a scientist for the new Greenfield Chemical Company.
    “Let me see,” Benny said. Then he sounded disappointed. “It doesn’t say anything at all about two boys in the family. I guess they don’t count.”
    “I think we had better go over and call on our new neighbors,” Mr. Alden said.
    Benny said, “We’d better go in the evening. The mother and father go out every day. I guess they work.”
    “You see a lot, Ben,” Jessie told him. “You must spend a lot of time looking out the window.”
    “No,” Benny said. “I just happened to see the Beaches get in their car and drive off in the morning. Then I happened to see them when they came home in the afternoon.”
    Grandfather and the others laughed at Benny. They walked over to the house next door and rang the bell.
    Mr. Beach came to the door and asked the Aldens to come in. The Beaches were all at home.
    Mr. Beach was a tall thin man with very dark eyes and brown hair. He went