Mike's Mystery (2 page)
Authors: Gertrude Warner
“It is very queer that the fire started in four places at once,” said Mr. Carter.
“I wonder if anyone set the fire,” said Henry.
“Oh, no!” cried Mrs. Wood. “Why would anybody set fire to our house?”
“What do you plan to do now, Mrs. Wood?” asked Mr. Carter.
“I really don’t know,” she answered. “I’m staying in the blue house with my good neighbor, Mrs. Smith, for tonight.”
Breakfast came then. The eight hungry people went to work on the bacon and eggs, toast, and cereal and milk. For a minute the restaurant was very still. Then the children heard a man say, “I heard that the boy who lived there set the house on fire just for fun.”
In an instant Mike was out of his chair. He ran over and faced the man who had spoken. “I did not!” he shouted. “Who says I did?”
In another minute all four children were behind Mike.
“Mike never did!” shouted Benny. “He wouldn’t! Who says he did?”
The man laughed a little. He was very much surprised. “Well, don’t get so excited, sonny,” he said.
“Don’t get excited?” yelled Mike. “You told a lie about me!”
“I didn’t say it,” said the man. “I said I heard it.”
Then Henry spoke. “Can you tell us who told you? You must know this story is very bad for Mike.”
“Well, well,” said the man. “You’re not afraid to stand up for a friend, are you?”
“No, sir,” said Henry.
Jessie said, “Mike likes fun, yes. He gets into trouble. But he would never set his own house on fire.”
Then Benny went right up to the man. He said, “Mike wouldn’t set a fire in the cellar anyway. His dog was there.”
“So his dog was there,” repeated the man. “That settles it. I believe you.”
“Who told you?” asked Mike. He was not yelling now.
“I don’t know him,” said the man. “He was a stranger to me. He stood beside me in the crowd, watching the fire. I think that he wore a blue hat.”
“I’ll ask him,” said Benny, “if I ever see a man with a blue hat.”
The man looked at the four of them. “I wish I had as many good friends as you have, Mike,” he said. He looked at Benny. “This one here is a wonderful friend.”
“He don’t always stand up for me,” said Mike.
“Doesn’t,” said Benny.
“Now look here, Ben!” said Mike. “Don’t start that again!”
“You see how Mike is,” said Jessie. “He will fight over nothing. But he would never set a fire. Come on back, boys, and eat your breakfast.”
The children moved away. All this time Mr. Carter had sat still watching. “Well, Jessie!” he said. “That was just like a play! I am very proud of all of you.”
“Why didn’t you come over, too?” asked Benny.
“You didn’t need me,” said Mr. Carter laughing. “You children did it much better than I would. But the man could see I was with you if you needed help.”
Mike began to eat again.
“That gave me a good appetite,” he said.
“Your appetite was all right before,” said Henry, laughing.
“I like to have you with us, Mike,” said Violet, laughing. “Now if you weren’t here, I couldn’t eat my breakfast at all.”
“That’s right,” said Henry. “She couldn’t.”
“Now everyone watch out for a man with a blue hat,” said Benny drinking the last of his milk.
“That man would change his hat, Ben,” said Mike.
“Maybe he will have a black hat next time. Maybe no hat at all.”
“I’ll watch, too,” said Mr. Carter. “You can be sure of that.”
I
have to go up to the uranium mine,” said Mr. Carter. “You can all come with me if you want.”
“I think I’ll go to my neighbor’s,” said Mrs. Wood. “I’m all tired out with Mike’s doings.”
“Yes, I’ll go with you, Ma,” said Pat. “Maybe I can help around the place, to pay for taking us in.”
“The rest of us will go with you, Mr. Carter,” said Benny. “It’s our own mine after all, and we haven’t seen it yet. You come too, Mike.”
“Well, Benny, you are asking for trouble,” said Henry laughing.
“I’m no
trouble,”
cried Mike. “I might help you. I know a lot of things.”
Soon they were on their way to the mine in Mr. Carter’s car. When they arrived, they could see great machines at work. Workmen were everywhere. Mr. Carter stopped his car at a large building. It had a small office in one corner.
“I’m going into the office for a few minutes,” said Mr. Carter. “You may stay in the car and watch the men. But you must not go any closer than you are now.”
“Can’t we go into the big building?” asked Benny.
Mr. Carter said, “Oh, yes, you can do that. But it is empty. Just one big room. Nothing to see. I’ll be back soon.”
When Mr. Carter had shut the office door, Mike said, “I bet he’s going to find out about insurance on our things and tell someone in there about the blue hat.”
“Yes,” said Benny. “Let’s see what is in that empty room.”
Benny got out of the car and quietly walked into the big, empty room. Jessie followed him. They stood looking around.
“A big room going to waste, Jessie!” said Benny.
“Yes, Benny,” said his sister. For a minute they said nothing more. Jessie was thinking about what Benny had said—a big room going to waste.
“Look, Benny!” she said excitedly. “Do you remember what Mrs. Wood said about baking?”
“Yes, I do. She said she loved to bake pies and she didn’t like to wash.”
“That’s just right, Benny! Now listen! If we could get a good stove—”
“Mrs. Wood could bake in it,” finished Benny.
“And right here in this very room,” said Henry. One by one the others had come inside, too.
Then another gentle voice said, “I’m sure Grandfather would let us buy a stove.” It was Violet. She was smiling.
“My mother likes to make pies the best,” said Mike. “On pies she is a wizard.”
Henry laughed. “Well, now that we are all here, let’s get together on this.”
“My mother could sell pies to the miners,” said Mike. “There’s about a million men, I should say. We could make money. And I could eat pies whenever I wanted to,” Mike finished.
“If we had a stove,” said Benny.
“Not quite a million men,” said Henry. “Maybe a hundred or more.”
“Maybe we could all live up here,” said Mike.
“You wouldn’t want to live here, Mike,” said Benny. “Wait till you see your room at Aunt Jane’s. Right next to me.”
“We’ll ask Mr. Carter what he thinks,” said Jessie. He knows everything and he will settle it.”
But it was really Mrs. Wood who settled it.
B
enny began to talk the minute he got into the car. Mike began to talk too.
“Wait, boys,” said Mr. Carter. “One at a time! I can’t hear a word you say.”
“I’ll talk first,” said Mike.
“Well, you can this time,” agreed Benny. “It’s about your own mother, after all.”
“That’s right, Ben,” said Mike. “Thank you. Mr. Carter, my mother works hard at her washing, but she don’t—doesn’t like it.”
“Yes, Mike,” said Mr. Carter. “But what do you want me to do about it?”
“We’ve thought of a good job for her,” said Mike. “She loves to make pies. So why not make pies and sell them? She gives away millions of pies.”
“Now, Mike,” said Benny. “Mr. Carter won’t believe you, if you say millions.”
“Well, dozens, then,” said Mike.
“Good for you, Mike,” said Mr. Carter laughing. “I do believe you, for I have eaten many of those pies myself.”
“Well, there you are,” said Mike. “Everyone likes Ma’s pies and everyone will buy them.”
Then Mr. Carter said, “I think you are wasting time telling me about this plan. Why don’t we go ask your mother? She is the one to decide.”
Mrs. Wood was surprised when they all came back to Mrs. Smith’s blue house.
Henry said, “Hello, Mrs. Wood. We want you to come up to the office at the uranium mine for a few minutes.”
“All right,” said Mrs. Wood. “I’d like to go. I know the night watchman up there, and I’d like to take him a cherry pie.”
“You mean you’ve made another pie already?” asked Violet.
“I made four more,” said Mrs. Wood. “They are for the kind people who helped me get out of my burning house. One is for your Aunt Jane, Benny. My neighbor gave me the shortening and filling for the pies, and I will pay her back in washing.”
Mike winked at Benny. “Maybe, yes,” he said. “And maybe, no.”
The children talked and laughed all the way to the mine. They could hardly wait to show the room to Mike’s mother. At last they all stood in the big empty room.
“See this room going to waste!” cried Benny. “Now if you had a nice stove—”
Mrs. Wood put her arm around Benny. “What a kind little boy you are, Benny!” she said in a low voice. “I begin to see now what you are all planning for me.”
“You mean you like the idea of making pies for a living?” asked Jessie. “Wouldn’t you get tired of making pies?”
“I’d never be tired of making pies, my dear!” cried Mrs. Wood. “I love to mix them up, and roll them out, and fill them with cherries, apples, peaches, or blueberries. And best of all I like to see people eat them.”
A man behind them said, “I’d rather eat them than watch other people eat them.” Everyone turned around.
“The night watchman!” cried Mike. “Hello, Mr. McCarthy!”
“Hello yourself, Mike,” said the man.
“Oh, Mr. McCarthy,” said Mrs. Wood. “Here’s a cherry pie I made for you. I hope you will like it.” She gave him the cherry pie.
“Is there anyone in the whole world that doesn’t like your pies?” asked Mr. McCarthy. He looked at the children. “What’s this I hear about selling pies?”
Mike began to jump around. “See this room!” he shouted. “Ma can have a stove in that corner. She can bake her pies in it. She can sell them at that big window and we will all help her.”
“Well, well,” cried Mr. McCarthy. “And which of you thought of this?”
“My sister Jessie was the first to think of it,” said Benny. “But I was next to the first, wasn’t I, Henry?”
“Yes, you were,” said Henry. “We have to buy a sink and a refrigerator, Mr. McCarthy. And we have to ask Mr. Gardner, the boss, for the use of the room.”
“We can ask Grandfather to let us buy the sink and things,” said Violet.
“Suppose this grandfather of yours won’t let you buy all that?” said Mr. McCarthy. “After all, it will cost a lot of money. Not many men would trust children with this plan.”
“My grandfather will,” said Benny. “We were all alone in the Boxcar. We didn’t know Grandfather then. And we did all right.”
Mr. Carter nodded at the night watchman. He said, “Mr. Alden trusts these children. He always tries to help them with their ideas.”
