The Mysterious Code

to give us an
oil burner he used to use in the apartment over our garage. He will have it
remodeled and installed in the clubhouse.”
    “Oh, no, he won’t,”
Trixie said.
    Diana opened her big
eyes in astonishment. “Why not?”
    “Di, please don’t
look like that,” Trixie said. “I meant you know we can’t just take it as a
gift.”
    “My daddy won’t be
using it at all,” Diana said. “Don’t be so particular, Trixie.”
    “I’m not the only
one who is particular, and you know it,” Trixie said. “It’s Jim. Jim is so con—
cons—”
    “Conscientious,” her
mother supplied.
    “Thanks, Moms. Jim
thinks we should be careful to keep our rule: Earn everything we use for the
club. I think Jim’s right. He’s always right.” Mrs. Belden smiled a little.
Trixie’s face flushed. “Well, he is always right,” she insisted. “Maybe, though, we
could compromise, if your father really isn’t going to use the oil burner, Di.”
    “He isn’t,” Diana
said. “He was going to give it to anyone who’d take it away.”
    “In that case, maybe
Jim will think we can take it. We’ll have to pay to have it repaired and
installed, or,” Trixie added, Td not be surprised if Jim and Brian could repair
it and install it themselves. With some help from Regan, maybe.”
    “Now for my news,” Honey said.
“Began is going to run an electric cord out from the stable to the clubhouse.
Then we can have lights in the evening to work on the used furniture. Think how
much longer we can work.”
    Trixie spun around
the room, her eyes dancing. “Isn’t it wonderful how everyone is helping?” she
sang.
    “That isn’t all,”
Honey continued. “My mother said she was just about ready to clear out the
attic and send all die odds and ends, as she called them, to some charity.”
    “All those
beautiful, beautiful things in your attic?” Trixie cried. “I don’t know any
better charity than—”
    “UNICEF, of course,”
Honey said. “Mother doesn’t think the
things are so beautiful. She told Jim and me this morning that we could have anything we
wanted from the one big room over the upstairs library.”
    “Oh!” Trixie’s face
fell. “I’ve never been in that room. I thought she meant that beautiful
furniture you used to have in your city home that she has stored in the attic.
That was a silly thing to think,” Trixie added.
    “Some of the things
in the other attic room are almost as pretty,” Honey said. “They’re older, and
our show is an antique show. Of
course, they have to be glued here and there, and stained. Maybe some of the
chairs have to be re-covered. Why don’t we go and look at them? I’ve only
looked through the cubbyhole door, myself.”
    “I have to dust the
house first,” Trixie said. Her mother looked at her in amazement to think she
had remembered.
    “We’ll help you,
won’t we, Di? Jim’s waiting for us at the house,” Honey said. “Where are Brian
and Mart?”
    “In town with Brian
s jalopy, getting it fixed,” Trixie said. “Maybe they will be here by the time
we finish dusting.”
    “They are here now,”
Bobby announced. He had just opened the back door to ask his mother for a
cookie. “Brian s car sounds so smooth now—just listen!”
    They listened as
Brian whirled the car around and backed it into the garage. It did not sound
much louder than a cement mixer. The girls, hurrying around the house to finish
the dusting, thought it sounded wonderful. They loved Brian s old car almost as
much as he did.
    “Is there anything
the boys have to do for Daddy?” Trixie asked, gathering the dustcloths and
putting them in the broom closet.
    “No,” her mother
answered. “This is one Saturday they haven’t a thing to do—I mean, outside of
regular chores. They were going to wash the station wagon, but it’s too cold a
day for that.”
    “Then may we go over
to the Manor House and explore the attic? Did you hear that, Brian?” she asked
her brother. “And Mart? There are some pieces of old furniture and other things
in the Wheeler attic that Mrs. Wheeler said we could have for our show. Shall
we go over and explore the attic now?”
    “What’s keeping us?”
Mart asked and picked his little brother up and put him on his shoulder.
    “Me, too?” Bobby
asked.
    “I’m afraid not
today, lamb,” Trixie said. “We’re going to be pretty busy.”
    “Let him come, too,”
Honey said. “Miss Trask will read to him, or Regan will take him out to