The Hudson River Mystery

Alice in Wonderland says, there are four branches of arithmetic—’Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.’ You only know about one—Distraction!”
    ”Well, that thing you said about ugliness certainly applies to you,” said Trixie with a defiant toss of her curls.
    ”You missed the boat on that one,” her mother said. ”You and Mart look enough alike to be twins, don’t forget.”
    ”Don’t remind me,” grumbled Mart. ”Anyway,” Trixie said hastily, ”it’s missing the bus that’s going to happen if we don’t step on it. Come along, birdbrain brothers!”
    To her amazement, they obeyed.

    After school that afternoon, Trixie got off the bus with Jim and Honey at Manor House. She had seen better days for riding—it was foggy and chilly. But it had been such a long time since she had seen Susie that Trixie felt she would have gone riding even in the rain.
    The small black mare seemed just as glad to see Trixie, neighing gleefully even before Trixie fed her several sugar cubes.
    ”Whoa, Susie,” said Trixie. ”Bet you think I’ve deserted you! Well, I haven’t—I’ve just been waylaid by vegetables, sick brothers, and history tests, not to mention by making a complete fool of myself at least once a day.”
    Trixie saddled the mare and rode out of the Wheeler stable.
    ”Whoa yourself, Trixie,” Jim said, cantering up behind her on Jupiter. ”You’re being pretty rough on yourself these days, aren’t you?”
    Honey mounted Lady and joined the others, calling, ”How does somebody get waylaid by a vegetable, anyway? Sounds like fun!”
    ”This is more fun, take my word for it,” yelled Trixie. She broke into a gallop that soon had the others chasing her.
    The riders halted for a rest on a ridge not far from Killifish Road. Despite the vague shroud of mist that hung over the game preserve, they felt alive and glad to be outdoors. A flock of starlings disappeared into the fog with an angry flutter.
    Jim watched them and chuckled. ”Your brother was giving me some cockeyed story about starlings the other day, Trixie,” he said. ”Something about how they came to be in this area.”
    ”You mean my know-it-all brother?”
    ”Right—Mart. He said that during the nineteenth century, there was a Shakespeare fan in New York City who decided that America should have some of every bird species ever mentioned in a Shakespeare play. We apparently lacked starlings, so this man released a bunch of them in Central Park, and they worked their way all over from there.”
    ”Mr. Maypenny says starlings are real pests, too,” remarked Honey.
    ”So’s Mart,” Trixie said immediately.
    Jim’s green eyes twinkled at her. ”You’ll have to admit he has the oddest assortment of facts rattling around in his head.”
    ”I just wish he’d keep more of them to himself,” said Trixie. ”Oh, don’t mind me. I’m still holding it against him that he said what I saw in the river was a sea serpent, not a shark.”
    Jim and Honey were strangely silent.
    ”And I’ll bet you guys agree with him,” Trixie went on. She patted Susie absently and released a heavy sigh. ”Yipes, it’s really true what I was telling Loyola—I am definitely going to be the world’s most feeble-brained detective.”
    ”Trix, stop knocking yourself,” said Jim. ”You’re a perfectly perfect detective,” Honey added. ”Why, look how fast you figured out Brian’s problem, I mean, the problem that was giving him problems—well, you know what I mean. You had it figured out even before the doctors did.”
    ”That was smooth work,” Jim agreed.
    Trixie flushed. ”I’m not fishing for compliments, you two,” she said. ”I just think maybe I should forget about that ambition and concentrate on something I’m better at. Vegetables, for example.”
    ”Maybe you just need your eyes checked,” Jim said matter-of-factly.
    ”It’s my ears I can’t believe!” said Trixie. ”Why can’t anyone take my word for it that I saw a shark?”
    Honey and Jim exchanged looks. ”It’s not that we doubt your word all the time,” Honey said, then hesitated. ”It’s just that—well, it’s hard to take you seriously when you talk about something that’s plainly impossible.”
    ”You mean, you’re laughing at me,” accused Trixie.
    ”Yes,” Jim said bluntly. ”Look at it this way, Trixie: You’d be laughing at me if I told you I saw, say, a unicorn in the game preserve, or if Honey started blabbering