The Gatehouse Mystery

something which would explain why we came back."
    Trixie sighed and crammed the pincushion, thread, and a package of needles into the pocket of her jeans. "What might we need that Moms didn't pack?" She stared around the cluttered floor.
    "Certainly not Bobby's old high chair or playpen," Mart said in a discouraged tone of voice, "or his crib. Say, why don't they keep kids that age in cribs, anyway? Cribs with ceiling-high iron bars!"
    "Write a letter to your congressman about it," Trixie said with a giggle. "I've got it," she cried suddenly. "Those old roller skates. Jim has been promising to make Bobby a scooter out of an orange crate for ages. We'll each carry a pair. Come on."
    Trixie hurried down the steep stairs so fast that she tripped on the bottom step and fell headlong into the hall. As she scrambled up, Bobby appeared at his bedroom door.
    "Hey!" he greeted them. "Whatcha gonna do with those roller skates?"
    "A scooter for you," Trixie said sweetly. "Jim's going to make you one. Now go to bed, Bobby."
    Suddenly he burst into tears. "Oh, oh, and I was such a bad boy. Trixie," he wailed, "I choppeded Dinah's head off."
    Trixie knelt and pulled him into her arms. "It doesn't matter, Bobby, darling," she crooned. "Dinah
    is just an old rag doll. 1 should have given her to you long ago. Anyway, I was a bad girl to mess up your toy box."
    "She certainly was," Mart said soothingly. "And I'm a bad boy not to have made you a scooter before I went to camp." He took Bobby back to bed, and together they tucked him in.
    All smiles now, he kissed them good night and they hurried away. Mr. Belden stopped them in the downstairs hall, eyeing the roller skates. "So Bobby's going to have a scooter at last?"
    "That's right, Dad," Mart said. "I'm really terrible. Jim is a better brother to Bobby than Brian and I are."
    "I wouldn't say that," his father said, chuckling. "In fact, when you're home, you and Brian spoil the child to death."
    "He can't accuse me of that," Trixie said later, when she and Mart were climbing the hill. "I'm the terrible one. I'm forever losing my temper when I have to take care of Bobby, and he really is so cute."
    "Oh, well," Mart said cheerfully, "you'll improve with age. In fact, according to Moms and Dad, you've taken great strides this summer. I have a feeling that Honey has a good influence on you. She's really super."
    "I love her," Trixie cried. "She's got just about everything, and I don't mean money."
    "Money," Mart said airily. "Oh, that! Say, Jim's great, too. Brian thinks the world of him already. He hopes they'll be in the same class at High."
    "I hope so, too," Trixie said and led the way into the tack room. She gave Honey the thread, needles, and pincushion while Mart explained.
    "You're to make the switch, Brian, old boy, old boy," Mart finished. "Trixie and I have had too many narrow escapes already." He wiped his moist brow on the sleeve of his shirt. "Whew! Suppose Dad had caught Trixie with that mending gear in her hand! Bro -ther, would he ever have been suspicious."
    Honey quickly and deftly repaired the ripped seam and handed the pincushion to Brian. "It all comes of being the eldest son," she said, smiling. "Are you going to slip this into your mother's sewing basket now, or in the dead of night?"
    Brian groaned. "In the dead of night, I hope to be on hand to help catch our prowler." He glared at Mart. "If you think Dad's suspicions would have been aroused if he had caught Trixie with this feminine object, what's he going to think if he catches me with it?"
    "If he does," Mart said cheerfully, "just nibble on it. In Alaska, strawberries do grow to that size."
    "That's a big help," Brian said sarcastically. "Why don't you fly up to Juneau and get me a parka, so I can sneak into the house disguised as an Eskimo?"
    "The least we can do," Honey said after Brian had left, "is to have his horse saddled and bridled when he gets back. I'll do it."
    "Who's going to ride whom?" Mart asked.
    "I dibs Susie," Trixie said. "Okay, Honey?"
    Honey nodded. "Do you want to ride Strawberry, Mart? I like Lady, especially when I'm tired and sleepy, as I am now." She turned to Jim. "Did Brian get on well with Starlight?"
    "They're crazy about each other," Jim said. "Sure you don't want to ride Jupe, Mart?"
    "Not me," Mart said. "I'm not good enough. He might blacken my eye."
    "That whole yam is fishy," Jim said as they saddled and bridled the horses. "I wonder why Dick didn't come back this