The Stuffed Bear Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “Hey,” Benny said. “Look who just walked by.”

  “Professor Tweedy.” Henry swiveled around to see where the professor was headed. “He’s two booths back.”

  “Then that’s where I’m going,” Jessie said. “Our napkin dispenser is empty. I’ll get some napkins from Professor Tweedy’s booth and see what he’s up to. He’s got that big briefcase he always carries everywhere. I wonder what he’s doing here.”

  Jessie waited a few minutes, then got up. The other children pretended to eat their food. They glanced up every few seconds to see what Jessie was going to do.

  When she came to Professor Tweedy’s booth, Jessie saw his open briefcase on the seat. She was disappointed there was no bear inside. In front of him, the professor had spread out his notebook, some papers, and a magazine opened to bear photographs. He was copying something into his notebook.

  “Oh, hi, Professor Tweedy,” Jessie said, not hesitating a bit. “I’d like a few napkins from that dispenser,” she said before the professor had a chance to protest. “The one at our booth is empty. Thanks so much. See you later.”

  Jessie scooted back to her own booth with a fistful of napkins. “Guess what. Professor Tweedy didn’t have the Herr Bear, but he was definitely taking down notes about bears. I saw it for sure.”

  “Then for sure we’re going to find out why,” Henry said before biting down on his double-decker turkey sandwich.

  CHAPTER 7

  Too Many Bears

  When the Aldens strolled over to the toy hospital after lunch, the CLOSED sign was posted on the door.

  “Don’t worry,” Peggy said. “Doc closed early. He needs to finish all the work he has on the bears people dropped off for the jamboree. He told me he’ll be in the workshop.”

  Peggy and the children walked around the back. They were surprised to see Miss Sayer’s yellow van backing out. The passenger with the familiar red furry head wasn’t in the van.

  “Oh, dear, Chatter Bear must be inside,” Peggy said. “That must mean Doc is working on him again. He fixed him as best he could. Finally he told Miss Sayer her bear is far from ready to be presented.”

  Peggy unlocked the back door for the Aldens. When they stepped inside, Chatter Bear lay on the worktable.

  Doc was bent over him, adjusting some buttons. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here, everybody. I could sure use some help. Miss Sayer said this fellow now talks when she doesn’t want him to and won’t speak when she does want him to. I’ve spent more time on this patient than all my other ones put together.”

  “That’s why we came over,” Jessie said. “Peggy’s going to show us how to fix some of the bears.”

  “The children also want to find out more about Herr Bears,” Peggy said. “I’m letting them use our computer to get the information they’re looking for.”

  “Even bear detectives use computers,” Benny told Doc.

  Chatter Bear continued to stare at the ceiling. For once, he had nothing to say. Doc had taken out all his batteries. “I found it too strange having his eyes blink at me while I worked on his voice box,” Doc explained. “Oh, one more problem. You know that pile of old bear-collector magazines we were going to try to sell, Peggy? Now some of those are gone, too.”

  “Lots of things are walking out of the toy hospital,” Peggy said. “Not just bears.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask, but did you children have any luck tracking down Herr Bear?” Doc asked. “His owner gets here tomorrow afternoon. I don’t even want to think about telling her he disappeared. I could try tracking down another one, but it won’t be the same.”

  Benny touched Chatter Bear’s red nylon ears. “We saw some brown furry ears sticking out of Mrs. Keppel’s bag. Only we couldn’t tell if they were Herr Bear’s ears.”

  Doc snapped some batteries into Chatter Bear’s voice box. “Is Mrs. Keppel that lady who was here the morning you children arrived? With the gray hair in a braid? I never had a chance to help her with her bear. Now I wonder what she wanted.”

  “What bear?” Jessie asked.

  “She had a bear in a blue bag, if I remember correctly,” Doc said. “I thought she left after that, but I guess she waited for me in the Bear Den.”

  “That’s when we saw her,” Henry said. “I wonder if the bear she brought you was the one Benny saw in her booth.”

  Doc was done. He pressed a button, and Chatter Bear began to speak: “I’mmm Chaaaattter Baaaaar. Annnnnd IIIII like toooooo talkkkkkk.”

  The children covered their ears until Doc turned off the bear.

  “Can I put the eye batteries in?” Benny asked Doc.

  Doc smiled. “Sure. Then you can help me look for a glass eye for Mister B. How’s that sound?”

  “Like a good idea,” Benny said. “Now it’s Mister B.’s turn to see the doctor.” After he got Chatter Bear’s eyes flashing again, he went off with Doc.

  Peggy brought the other children back into the office where the computer was. She clicked the computer mouse a few times. “Here’s a list of our favorite places on the Internet for finding information about stuffed bears.”

  “Thanks,” Jessie said. “We’re going to look up Professor Tweedy’s name and Mrs. Keppel’s and Miss Sayer’s, too. Maybe we can find some clues about them.”

  Peggy laughed and clicked on another list. “The professor has probably written a few articles about the presidents for his college. If you type in his name on any of these places, perhaps you can learn more about him. I don’t know about the other two people, though. They’re not well-known, except to us, of course.”

  “Thanks, Peggy,” Jessie said. “After I finish with the computer, I’ll come back and help you with your bears.”

  After watching Jessie work for a few minutes, Henry and Violet decided to go back to the workroom. They found Doc and Benny sifting through small drawers of glass eyes.

  “Here’s one that’s just right!” Benny cried when he found a golden glass eye for Mister B.

  “A perfect match,” Doc said. “Let’s set it aside. After you kids make a new covering for him, we can attach this new eye and his old one.”

  Peggy showed the three interested children how to slip off Mister B.’s old wool coat. Then she helped them take it apart to use as a pattern to cut pieces for a new wool covering.

  “He looks so sad and pale now, lying there in his thin lining with no nose, or eyes, or mouth,” Violet said a few minutes later.

  “He looks like a ghost bear,” Henry said as he carefully traced a pattern on some stiff paper from the outline of Mister B.’s old wool cover. “Here, Violet. Why don’t you cut the pieces now? You have steady hands.”

  For the next hour, the two older children cut and trimmed and stitched a new woolly cover for Mister B.

  “While you two are stitching, I’m going to have Benny stuff Mister B.,” Peggy said. “I did manage to find some grade-A fleece. Goodness knows what happened to the fleece we sheared in the barn.”

  The children worked quietly, stuffing, sewing, threading, and snipping. They only stopped when they heard Jessie call them into the office.

  “Come here!” she cried. “You won’t believe what I found out about Professor Tweedy.”

  Henry sat down next to Jessie and began to read the computer screen.

  “Skip to the last paragraph in this article about him,” Jessie said. “The rest is about some kind of special history project he’s working on.”

  Henry read the last paragraph aloud:

  “Professor Tweedy’s hobbies include bird-watching, stamp collecting, and rare-book collecting. For this article, his wife reported that he has also become an expert on antique bears. When asked about this unlikely hobby for a professor of historical research on presidents, all Professor Tweedy would say is, ‘Indeed!’”

  “Wow!” Benny said. “Now he sounds like someone who might want Herr Bear.”

  Jessie handed Henry a few sheets of paper that she had printed out. “Maybe, maybe no
t. Here’s an article about Herr Bears that I found on the computer when I looked up antique bears. And guess the name of the daughter of the man who designed the Herr Bear twins. Just guess.”

  The other children could hardly stand it.

  “Is it Miss Sayer’s first name?” Benny asked.

  “Hazel?” Violet guessed.

  Jessie shook her head from side to side. “Nein!” she said. “That means ‘no’ in German. The designer’s daughter’s name is Elsa. That’s Mrs. Keppel’s first name.”

  Peggy looked over Henry’s shoulder to read the sheet of paper. “Elsa Berne.”

  “Maybe Berne was Mrs. Keppel’s name before she got married,” Henry said. “The article says another child’s name was Kurt Berne, but he died about thirty years ago.”

  Jessie sank back in her chair. “I couldn’t find anything about Elsa Keppel or Hazel Sayer. But I learned a lot about Herr Bears. Some of it is sad. Herr Bears were the most popular bears in Europe a long time ago. They stopped being made after the factory burned down.”

  “It did?” Violet said. “How awful.”

  “Yes,” Jessie went on, “that made Fritz Berne, the designer, lose his business. I even found an article from an old newspaper about the fire and how the Bernes had to sell their house and almost everything they owned.”

  Violet was curious about this sad end to the Herr Bears. “Did you find out anything about the twin bears, Jessie?”

  “That’s the saddest part,” Jessie said. “In the article about the fire, it mentioned that some of the family’s things were stolen around the time the Bernes moved away. But no one was ever caught. Apparently the twin bears either disappeared or were stolen.”

  “You mean Doc’s Herr Bear could’ve been stolen before?” Benny asked.

  “Looks like it,” Jessie said. “The twin Herr Bears were valuable even back then. Fritz Berne used pictures of them in his advertisements and everything. The bears were famous.”

  “That’s so sad,” Violet said. “If Mrs. Keppel is related to Fritz Berne, maybe the Herr Bear is hers. I wonder how we can find out.”

  The Aldens grew quiet now. Stories about children separated from their homes always made them think about when they left their own home after their mother and father died.

  Violet went back to the workroom. She brought something for Jessie. “Look!” she told her sister. “This will cheer you up.”

  “Mister B.!” Jessie broke into a huge smile. “You have a new covering. Or you almost have a new cover anyway. Plus, you look as if you’ve been eating too many blueberries. You’re nice and chubby now. Grandfather isn’t going to recognize you. You’re almost as good as new.”

  Just as the other children began to explain how they had fixed Mister B., they heard a loud thud in the book room. Everyone ran over at once.

  “Professor Tweedy!” Peggy said. “What are you doing up there? Please come down.”

  Professor Tweedy was tottering on a step stool and looking very confused. Above him stood a bookcase with a half-empty shelf. On the floor lay a pile of books.

  A large picture book rested on top of the heap. The title said: Antique Bears.

  CHAPTER 8

  Bears on Parade

  Benny clicked the seat belt over his furry stomach. “Now Chatter Bear isn’t the only bear wearing a seat belt,” he announced to everyone in Peggy’s car. “Are you sure Miss Sayer and Professor Tweedy didn’t see us in our costumes?”

  Peggy couldn’t help smiling at the sight of the two furry heads in the rearview mirror and the one next to her in the front seat. “I’m sure, Benny,” she answered, starting the car. “Miss Sayer left early without even eating any breakfast. She wanted to get the best position in the Teddy Bear Parade.”

  “What about Professor Tweedy?” Violet asked from inside her Mama Bear costume. “If we see him, we don’t want him to know it’s us.”

  “I’m not sure where the professor went,” Peggy said, “but he left an hour ago. Don’t worry about being in costume. It’s our secret. I’ll drop you off just outside town, so no one sees that we’re together. Oh, here comes Henry on Doc’s old bike.”

  Benny rolled down the window with one paw to talk to Henry. “Make sure Mister B. waves to people watching the parade.”

  “I will.” Henry settled Mister B. into a basket on the handlebars. “Mister B. and I will both wave. Since you guys are in costume, make sure to look for me if you see anything suspicious going on, okay?”

  “We will,” the three bears said before Peggy pulled away.

  A few minutes later, Peggy dropped the children off a couple blocks from the Old Mills Town Hall. Minutes after that, Henry rolled by on the bike. He squeezed the squawky bike horn. The three bears waved back but didn’t say anything. They didn’t want anyone to know that they had a human brother.

  Old Mills looked like a bear town, not a people town. There seemed to be more bear marchers lined in the parade than parade watchers on the sidewalks. Some of the marchers showed off their bears on handmade floats or carts. Others borrowed strollers and wagons to display their favorite bears.

  Henry joined the bike marchers. While he waited for the parade to start, he kept an eye on his brother and sisters in their bear costumes. They were surrounded by children who wanted to have their pictures taken with the Three Bears.

  Soon a television crew from a news station came by. Jessie, Violet, and Benny were going to be on television. Of course, no one would know who they were, but Henry knew they wouldn’t mind!

  With crowds surrounding them, the younger Aldens didn’t see Mrs. Keppel slip away from the crowd. She stopped to speak to someone standing beside her cart of Woodland Bears. After quickly looking around, she stepped inside the Town Hall.

  Henry couldn’t believe it. Didn’t she know the parade was about to start? He had no choice. He tied up his bike and grabbed Mister B. At the edge of the crowd, he waved his arms at Jessie.

  Jessie knew right away that Henry needed her. She whispered to Violet and went off to see what Henry wanted.

  “What’s the matter, Henry?” Jessie whispered from under her Papa Bear head. She kept on nodding to the crowds while she waited for Henry’s answer.

  Henry handed her a piece of paper and a pencil. “Could you autograph this for my little brother?” he said. “He likes the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

  When Jessie looked down, she saw that Henry had written a message to her:

  Mrs. Keppel went into the Town Hall. Let’s follow her.

  Jessie quickly returned to Benny and Violet. “Stay here,” she whispered. “Henry and I have to follow Mrs. Keppel. I’ll be back in a while.”

  Benny wanted to come, but so many children crowded around, he and Violet couldn’t get away.

  By the time Jessie caught up with Henry, he was already in the lobby. Mrs. Keppel was about ten feet ahead, clicking her thick heels along the marble floors. Tiptoeing behind Mrs. Keppel, Henry and Jessie tried not to sneeze or cough or bump into anything.

  Mrs. Keppel turned around a couple times. When she did, the children hid behind the pillars, which were just barely wide enough to hide Jessie’s bear head.

  Mrs. Keppel entered the main hall, which was dark.

  Tiptoeing behind, Henry and Jessie could barely see Mrs. Keppel.

  Henry guessed she was headed for her booth. Taking a chance, he signaled to Jessie to scoot around in another direction.

  Jessie made a loop around the other aisles. She and Henry just had to get to Peggy’s booth before Mrs. Keppel got to hers.

  “I’m glad we wore sneakers,” Jessie whispered when they got to Peggy’s booth ahead of Mrs. Keppel. She pulled the curtain slightly, just enough to see into Mrs. Keppel’s booth. Soon they heard her footsteps. They were afraid to breathe.

  Mrs. Keppel turned on the small spotlight in her booth. She took out a key and opened a small wooden cabinet. She pulled out a bag—the very one Benny and Henry had seen. The ears were st
ill sticking out of the bag.

  A minute later, the whole bear was sticking out. In fact, an entire Herr Bear was sticking out! Mrs. Keppel picked him up and hugged him. She turned off the light, then left the hall.

  “Violet is going to be so upset,” Jessie whispered to Henry, feeling upset herself.

  “So the thief turned out to be Mrs. Keppel after all. I wonder if she’s going to march in the parade with the Herr Bear.”

  Henry thought about this as he made his way with Jessie through the dark hall. “How can she do that? Doc could have her arrested for theft. Something doesn’t make sense.”

  The children squinted when they came out into the sunlight again. The Teddy Bear Parade was under way. That’s when Henry and Jessie noticed two furry marchers going the wrong way.

  “You won’t believe what we saw!” Jessie said when she and Henry joined Violet and Benny. She forgot all about pretending to be a bear.

  Mama Bear’s head drooped when she heard what Jessie had to say. “It was Mrs. Keppel who took Herr Bear,” Violet said. Her Mama Bear costume had a happy bear face, but the voice inside it sounded sad. “I can’t believe she was the thief.”

  “I know,” Jessie said. “Look. The parade just stopped so the oompah band can play a song in front of the mayor. Let’s catch up with Mrs. Keppel.”

  Henry took Mister B. back to his bike while the younger children ran ahead like a trio of bears running through the woods.

  “There’s the Woodland Bears cart,” Violet said when she saw the pretty painted cart a few feet ahead.

  The Three Bears surrounded the cart.

  “Hello, bears,” Mrs. Keppel said cheerfully. “Come meet my bear.”

  By this time Henry had rolled up on his bike and stopped in front of Mrs. Keppel, too.

  “We already met your bear,” he said firmly. “Only it’s not your bear. That’s the Herr Bear that was in Doc Firman’s Toy Hospital.”

  Mrs. Keppel’s mouth opened, but nothing came out right away. Finally she found her voice. “You know nothing about this bear. Go find Doctor Firman. I can prove that this bear belongs to me. Can he and the owner say the same about their Herr Bear?”