Mystery Ranch (8 page)
Authors: Gertrude Warner
“I heard all about your Mystery Man,” he said.
“He’s not
my
Mystery Man,” said Jessie, laughing. “But he was nice, wasn’t he?”
“He doesn’t seem like a Mystery Man any more,” said Violet. “I’d like to see him again sometime.”
Mr. Alden said, “He
could
come to the party tomorrow, if anyone asked him.”
“Very well,” said Aunt Jane. “I don’t mind having a Mystery Man at my birthday party.”
“Will he fly?” asked Jessie.
“No. He is already here,” said Grandfather. “He got off the train when I did!”
“And we didn’t even see him,” said Benny.
“Well, he is still a Mystery Man in some ways, isn’t he?” said Violet.
I
t’s the Mystery Man!” shouted Benny, looking out the window the next day. “I hope the guard will let him in.”
It was John Carter, the tall young man with the brown hair and brown eyes. He went first to Aunt Jane and thanked her for asking him to come. Then he spoke to all the children as if he were delighted to see them.
“I want to show you something, Carter,” said Mr. Alden. “You children come, too. We’re going to look at the fireplace in the other kitchen.”
“I won’t go,” said Aunt Jane, smiling. “I know all about that chimney.”
When they stood before the fireplace, Mr. Alden said, “See that yellow and black in the stone, Carter?”
“Why, this is funny!” Mr. Carter said, “That fireplace is made of uranium ore! There is gold and silver in it, too.”
“The gold and silver are not good,” said Mr. Alden. “Of course, we had never heard of uranium when we built the chimney. I think that is the only chimney in the world that is made of uranium ore.”
“Is the chimney the same all the way up?” asked Benny.
Grandfather laughed. “Yes, all the way up. We left it rough outside, and smoothed it inside. My father and mother and I went East, and we had a chimney right here with uranium in it!”
They went back to the living room.
Jessie said, “Aunt Jane, you remember you said there were no mysteries in this house? And in a way, that chimney was a fine mystery.”
“I didn’t know it then,” said her aunt.
“We didn’t know about the fields either,” said Benny, “or who the Mystery Man was. Let’s call this Mystery Ranch!”
“That’s a fine name!” said Mr. Carter. “You could paint the name on a sign and hang it over the driveway.”
At six o’clock, the birthday party began. Everyone was excited. Watch barked and barked, and nobody stopped him.
They set the big table with a white linen cloth. They set eight places with Aunt Jane’s best dishes. The birthday cake had seventy tiny candles on it.
When supper was over, Aunt Jane said, “Take the dishes into the kitchen and leave them there. You can wash them later. I want to open my presents!”
The children had made their presents for Aunt Jane with loving hands. They sat, watching the pretty little lady.
Jessie thought, “How very different she is from the little old lady in bed! I’m glad we came here.”
“I love every one of my presents!” cried Aunt Jane.
“Now let me get yours, Grandfather!” cried Henry.
“Very well, my boy,” said Mr. Alden, smiling.
Henry rushed out to the barn. Soon he came back with a tiny black and white puppy in his arms. He put it on the floor. It was very soft. Watch stood up quickly and looked at it.
“Come here, Watch,” said Jessie. “Be a good dog.”
“Her name is Lady, Aunt Jane,” said Henry.
“Oh, what a beautiful little dog!” said Aunt Jane. “Is she for me?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Alden. “To take the place of Watch when the children go home.”
Watch wagged his tail a little. He sat down.
“She’s just a baby dog, Watch,” said Jessie. “You be good, now.”
“Do you want to hold the puppy, Aunt Jane?” asked Henry.
He put the little dog in her arms. Watch didn’t like this. He sat and looked at the stranger.
Aunt Jane loved it. Anyone could see that. The puppy loved her, too. It lay down against her arm and shut its eyes.
“Lady is tired,” said Henry. “She goes to sleep whenever she can.”
Aunt Jane sat very still. She held the baby dog quietly. She was very pleased when it went to sleep.
Watch lay down again, beside Jessie, as if to say, “Well, I don’t care. After all, I’m Jessie’s dog.”
Grandfather looked at his family and his friends. He loved every one of his grandchildren. He was very happy now that he had a sister again.
Grandfather said to Mr. Carter, “This is a very happy day for me. You can see what fine grandchildren I have.”
“You certainly do, Mr. Alden.”
“Now we will all be happy next year,” he went on. “The children will go back to school. Sam and Annie can move into this house. Maggie can stay happily with Jane. And best of all, I have a sister again.”
But Aunt Jane shook her head and said, with tears in her eyes, “No, James. Best of all, I have a brother.”
The Alden children just looked at one another. They were too happy to say a word.
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 book. And so she continued the Aldens’ adventures, writing a total of nineteen books in the Boxcar Children series.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1958, 1986 by Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 978-1-4532-0764-2
This 2010 edition distributed by Open Road Integrated Media
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