Jeffrey and Sammy pulled the bed away from the wall. They took the blanket off. They shook the pillow. They pulled the sheet back and looked at the mattress.
After a few minutes Jeffrey said sadly, “I guess there aren’t any clues here.”
“Put the things back then,” suggested Violet.
Just as Sammy was putting the pillow down he looked at it and stopped. “We didn’t see this before! Look, there are letters here on the pillowslip.”
Everybody came over to look. In tiny cross-stitch embroidery there were two letters, W and C.
“The C must stand for Carver,” Jeffrey guessed. “But what about the W?”
“Think!” said Benny. “Maybe the W stands for the little boy’s first name. It could be Walter or William.”
“Or Wally,” said Sammy. “Come on, maybe we can find something else.”
Violet and Jessie took out every drawer of the desk. They were all empty. Violet put her hand into the empty spaces for the drawers to see if she could find a secret drawer. But there was nothing to find.
Jessie was looking at the top of the desk. “Look at this—here are some letters carved on the desk with a knife. It isn’t very plain. Let’s see. Here is a W and this must be an I.”
Violet looked too. “There are two L’s and a Y,” she said.
“WILLY!” everybody shouted at once.
“I bet the little boy was named Willy Carver,” said Sammy. “That goes with the initials on the pillowslip.”
Benny and Henry had looked all around the window and door but they had found nothing. They looked at the old toys and shook the red slippers. But they could not find any new clues.
Jessie said, “Come on, Violet. Let’s put the drawers back in the desk. Too bad it’s all empty.”
The big rocking horse stood in the center of the room. Sammy patted its head. He ran his hand over its mane. He touched the saddle.
“Look,” he called. “I think the saddle comes off. Help me undo this buckle.”
Everyone gathered around. Violet unfastened the buckle. Benny helped Jeffrey lift the saddle. As the boys did so, something slipped from the rocking horse’s back and fell to the floor.
Sammy crawled between the rockers and lifted the paper carefully. He handed it to Jessie. “You take it, Jessie,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ll tear it.”
“I’m almost afraid to touch it myself,” said Jessie. She took the folded paper. “It’s a little book,” she said. “Only four pages long.”
The old paper was folded twice and pinned with a rusty pin to make a little book.
Sammy said, “Somebody drew a picture of the rocking horse on the cover.”
Sure enough, there was a picture of the horse. It showed a little boy sitting on its back. Underneath was printed “My Pony.”
Jessie turned the pages carefully. “It looks as if somebody wrote a story,” she said.
“Read it,” Sammy begged.
“Yes, read it,” they all said.
The writing was faded and hard to read. Jessie read slowly.
“‘This is a true story,’” she began. “‘It is Willy’s favorite story. Once upon a time there was a little boy named Willy. Every summer he came to Grandma Carver’s house. Grandma loved Willy. She made a little room just for him up under the roof. Willy likes his little room.’”
Violet said, “Oh, Jessie, somebody must have written all that down for Willy. Maybe he liked to hear it at bedtime. Go on.”
Jessie read on. “‘Willy has special toys at Grandma’s. The most special of all is a rocking horse. It has been in Grandma’s family for years and years. Many little boys have ridden it. Now Willy loves to ride it. He calls it his pony. The End.’”
“That’s all?” Jeffrey asked.
“Yes,” replied Jessie. “That’s the end.”
“We have two real clues,” Benny said. “We know the little boy’s name. And we know he came to visit his grandmother here. He didn’t live here all the time. But why do you suppose the room was all closed up?”
“Well, that’s still a mystery,” said Henry.
Benny looked over at the toys he and Henry had found. He looked at the ball, the toy horn, and the little train engine. Suddenly something made him stand still.
“Wait,” Benny said. “I’m getting some sort of idea. That horn reminds me of something.”
Everyone stared at Benny. Nobody laughed. Then Benny smiled. “I know! Do you remember when we made the casserole?” he asked.
“Yes,” Jessie said. “But what has that to do with this room?”
“Mrs. McGregor!” Benny said. “That’s what! She told us when she was a little girl she came to this house for a birthday party. She remembered something about a toy horn and a little boy.”
“It must have been Willy Carver’s party!” Violet exclaimed. “If we tell her about this, maybe she can remember something more.”
“Come on,” Benny said. “Let’s show her the horn and see.”
Mrs. McGregor was in the kitchen. She dusted flour off her hands and smiled at her visitors. She listened to their story and picked up the old toy horn.
“Oh, deary me!” she said. “How well I remember this little tin horn! The little boy had it for a birthday present. The boy in the sailor suit.”
“That’s good!” said Benny. “That’s a good clue, Mrs. McGregor.”
Mrs. McGregor still held the little tin horn in her hands. She said, “I wish I could tell you more.”
“You have told us a lot,” said Violet. “Maybe if we knew when the party was it might help. At least we would know when the room was still open.”
“That’s right,” agreed Henry.
Mrs. McGregor thought for a minute. “Let me see. It was before we moved to the farm. I was five then. So the party must have been when I was about four years old. That would be 1910. Yes, it must have been the summer of 1910. I’m sure it was summer. I had a sunbonnet.”
“A name and a date,” Benny said. “That ought to help us. But I don’t know how yet.”
Mrs. McGregor said, “I’m afraid that’s all I can do. I wish I knew someone else who might remember the Carvers. They were important people in Greenfield, but they have all been gone a long, long time.”
“Let’s go up in the tree house and think,” Sammy said. “You come, too, Benny.”
So Benny went back with Sammy and Jeffrey. By and by Mrs. Beach saw the boys up in the tree house.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“We’re thinking,” Sammy said. “But we’re not thinking.”
Jeffrey explained, “We have some clues, but now we don’t know what to do with them. We just can’t think why that room was closed off.”
“Tell me what you know so far,” Mrs. Beach suggested.
The boys told her they knew it was Willy Carver’s room and that he had visited his grandmother in the summer of 1910.
“But that’s so long ago no one can remember anything,” Jeffrey said.
“There aren’t any Carvers left in Greenfield,” Benny said.
Mrs. Beach said, “That doesn’t mean you have to stop hunting. I have been writing a book about people who came to America in 1685. I have been able to find out a lot about them. You just have to know where to look.”
“Look?” said Benny. Then suddenly he guessed what Mrs. Beach meant. “I know!” he exclaimed. “The library!”
CHAPTER 9
Good News
It was library day when Violet and Benny rode their bikes over to the Beaches. Jessie and Henry had made other plans and could not go, but Sammy and Jeffrey were waiting. They had notebooks and pencils.
“Follow us,” Benny called. “We know the way.” Soon the four children were chaining their bicycles in front of the Greenfield Public Library. It was a large library for a small town.
Mrs. White was always glad to see the Aldens coming. She laughed. She said, “I know what you want, Benny. Some science books and some mystery book
s. And how about your new friends? Do they like mysteries?”
“Yes, but—” Sammy and Jeffrey both began at once. Then Jeffrey went on, “We have a real mystery story already. That’s why we came.”
Then Benny told Mrs. White about the mystery room. He said, “We want to know one special thing. Why was the room closed up?”
“What a puzzle!” Mrs. White exclaimed. “I hope I can help you find out. I won’t promise. You are lucky to have that date, 1910. Come with me and I’ll show you what we have. You may find some clues.”
Mrs. White led the children into a room in another part of the library. “People often come to learn about past times in Greenfield. We keep everything about Greenfield history here,” she said. “We have some interesting things like old letters people have given to the library. There are old books and newspapers, too. Now let’s see. Where shall we begin?”
Violet said, “We thought maybe old copies of the Greenfield News might help us. The Carvers had that big house and were an important family.”
“A good place to begin,” Mrs. White agreed. “We have the old newspapers made into big books. Sit down at this long table and I will bring you some. You can begin with June, July, and August of 1910.”
Soon Mrs. White put the big books on the table. She looked at Sammy and asked, “Do you think you can read these newspapers? They are not easy.”
Jeffrey said, “Sammy can read anything.” And Mrs. White was surprised to find out later that this was true.
After the librarian had gone, the room was very still. The Aldens and the Beaches were busy looking at the old copies of the Greenfield News.
“Here,” Sammy whispered. “Look at this—there’s a story on the front page about this library. It was first opened on June 5,1910.”
“Here’s something about a big fire,” Benny said. “A lumberyard burned. It says it was once owned by the Carver family. I guess they were important people.”
“I’m going to look on the pages that tell about neighbors visiting and having parties,” Violet said. “I think that’s where we might see something about Willy’s grandmother.”
Jeffrey and Sammy looked through several papers but they did not find anything.
Suddenly Violet whispered, “Here! It says something about Mrs. A. M. Carver. Oh, it’s just about a meeting of church ladies. That doesn’t help us.”
The children began to feel tired. The print in the old newspapers was small and hard to read. It wasn’t as easy as they had hoped. But nobody wanted to give up.
Mrs. White looked in. “Any luck?” she asked.
Just then Jeffrey began to breathe hard. He said, “Listen. Here it is.” Then he read a notice. It said, “Mrs. A. M. Carver is entertaining her grandson Willy for the summer. He is the son of Joseph Carver of London, England, who is in the coal mining business there. Willy will return to his parents on August first of this year.”
“Oh, good for you!” said Violet. “You found the first good clue, Jeff.”
Benny had the July papers and now he said, “Here’s a little story about Willy’s birthday party. Certainly that’s the one Mrs. McGregor remembers.”
Sammy said, “Let’s see if there is a story about Willy going home. Look in the August newspapers.”
All four children looked, trying to read as fast as they could.
It was Benny who found what they wanted. He read, “‘This week Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Carver came to Greenfield to get their son and take him back to England. They are returning to live in London permanently, taking Mrs. A. M. Carver with them. The Carver family home has been rented to Mr. and Mrs. David Johnson, who will occupy it the first of September. The Johnsons have five children.’”
“Now that’s something new!” Benny said. “We didn’t know anyone lived in the house between the Carvers and the first Beach family.”
“And now we have the Johnsons,” agreed Violet.
“With five kids,” added Jeffrey.
All at once Sammy said, “Now everyone keep still and let me think! I have an idea and then I lose it. Here it is again. Suppose Mrs. Carver didn’t want five strange children playing with all Willy’s toys. I’ll bet she closed up that room and hid it so that nobody would know it was there.”
Benny said slowly, “You may be right, Sammy. At least nobody ever found it until we did. I haven’t any better ideas.”
Violet said, “I don’t think we can find anything more here. Nobody would put anything about that closed room in the newspapers. It was such a secret.”
“Let’s show that nice librarian what we found,” Sammy said. “I copied it in my notebook.”
Mrs. White was glad to hear what the children had found. “Do come again,” she said. “You read very well, Sammy.”
“I’ll come again,” Sammy said. “I want a book about the moon’s surface.”
“We have many of those,” said Mrs. White with a smile. “I’ll try to pick out a hard one for you.”
Violet, Benny, Jeffrey, and Sam started home on their bikes. Sammy said, “We’ve been so excited about the mystery room that we haven’t finished the tree house.”
“We can finish it after lunch,” Jeff said.
Benny said, “You can put up the lantern and the mailbox and the rope ladder.”
Later that afternoon Sammy said, “I wish Dad and Mom would come home. I want to tell them what we found in the library.”
Jeffrey said, “I’ve been thinking about Uncle Max. He might remember something more if we told him about the Johnsons and their five children. I’d like to know if Sammy’s idea is right.”
When Mr. and Mrs. Beach came home, they found the tree house done and the backyard picked up.
“Didn’t you go to the library after all?” asked Mrs. Beach. “Come in and tell me.”
They all went into the living room and the children sat down on the floor.
“Oh, we went all right, Mom!” said Sammy. “And just listen to this. We found it in the old newspapers.” He took out his notebook and read his notes to his parents.
Mr. Beach said, “I never heard of the Johnsons. I wonder if Max has. Maybe he has forgotten them, too. Would you like to drive over there this evening after dinner and ask him?”
Jeffrey said, “Oh, Dad, that is the very thing we want most.”
Sammy was very quiet. He was thinking. All at once he exclaimed, “I have the most stupendous idea! Uncle Max could name his restaurant the Rocking Horse! We could give him the big rocking horse for children to look at. They couldn’t ride on it because it is so old. But children would want to come and so their parents would bring them, and the eating place would be a great success.”
Benny said, “That’s the best idea yet. I would want to go to a place named the Rocking Horse.”
“So would I,” said Mrs. Beach.
But Jeffrey was thinking, too. He said, “Dad, do the toys in the hidden room belong to us?”
“Yes, they do,” replied his father. “I bought the house and everything in it and the land around it. So if you want to give the toys to Uncle Max, you may. Of course Uncle Max may not like the idea.”
“I think he will, Mr. Beach,” said Benny. “He is ready to try almost anything.”
Violet said, “We have to go. It’s dinner time.”
Mrs. Beach said, “Come back later and drive to Uncle Max’s with us. It’s everybody’s mystery now.”
CHAPTER 10
An Old Secret
Uncle Max was glad to see his brother’s family coming to visit. Benny had come along, too.
“You see I have started to cut a long window,” Max said, pointing at the front wall of the restaurant. “This place is already a lot lighter.”
“The boys have a question they want to ask you, Max,” said Mrs. Beach.
“I hope I can answer it,” he said.
Sammy told about the newspaper stories about Willy Carver, Mrs. Carver, and the Johnsons. Before he had finished, Uncle Max began to nod his head.
“Yes,” he said, “our father bought the house from Joseph Carver, but I remember it had to be all cleaned up because so many children had lived there. Don’t you recall, John? No, I guess you were too little to notice.”
“I guess I was,” Mr. Beach said.
“Then there was something else,” Uncle Max said and frowned. “I can’t think. It was a visitor. I was only a kid myself.”
“Oh, think hard,” begged Sammy. “Was the visitor a man or a woman?”
“It was a man,” answered Uncle Max. “A young man. He came to see our father. He spoke in a way that seemed funny to me. You know, he said ‘rawther’ for ‘rather’.”
“That sounds English,” Mrs. Beach said.
“Well,” Uncle Max went on, “my dad and the young man went upstairs and all over the house. They were looking for something, but I don’t know what it was. I am sure they did not find anything because the young man was disappointed when he left.”
“Did they go up to the third floor?” Benny asked.
“Yes, I remember climbing the stairs behind them.”
Jeffrey looked ready to burst with an idea. He said, “I can guess who that was. It must have been Willy Carver. He would have been grown-up then and maybe he wanted to find his old room.”
Benny said, “I think you’re right, Jeff. I’m sure he never forgot that big rocking horse.”
Sammy said, “He’d never guess part of his old room had been closed off and the door covered with wallpaper. He must have thought the toys and rocking horse were lost or taken away by someone else.”
“It does all fit in,” said Uncle Max. “Quite a mystery. If his grandmother closed that room off, she never told him about it.”
“And now let’s talk about your restaurant,” said John Beach.
Max shook his head. “I haven’t thought of a good name for it yet.”
Sammy could not wait. “I have! It’s the most stupendous name—the Rocking Horse!”
Uncle Max burst out laughing. “It is a stupendous name, Sammy. How did you ever think of it?”
“Well, you know that rocking horse that belonged to Willy? We could bring it down and put it beside the door and then put all the other old toys on shelves around the room for children to look at.”
Tree House Mystery Page 5