The Mystery at Mead's Mountain

you’ll get to love it the way Wanda and I do.”
    Katie came in with still another tray, this one with big pitchers of orange juice and milk and baskets of homemade sweet rolls.
    “Katie,” Honey said, looking at her appreciatively, “I’m surprised to see you in a long skirt, instead of in ski pants like Linda and Wanda. Don’t you like to ski?”
    “Honey, I’ll let you in on my secret.” Katie lifted her gaily colored skirt to her knees, revealing a pair of ski pants underneath. “I love to ski! I’d rather ski than just about anything, but I do have other duties. When I’m just wearing ski pants, I want to be out on the slopes, but somehow in a long skirt I feel more like an indoor-type pioneer woman. So I wear the skirt while I work inside, but I keep the ski clothes on underneath so I’ll be ready to go instantly.”
    “How clever,” said Trixie, glad that she herself hardly ever had to wear a long skirt.
    There were no other people in the restaurant yet, so Katie sat down with the group. “Tell me more about yourselves,” she requested. “What do you do? What are your plans for the future?”
    “Well, we’re all outdoors people,” Jim began, “so I know we’ll enjoy our time here.”
    “Someday Jim’s going to have a school for orphan boys, where lessons will be sandwiched in between outdoor activities,” Di put in. “I myself am interested in art.”
    “And Brian’s going to be Jim’s doctor in residence,” Honey contributed.
    “If I ever make it through medical school,” Brian commented. “I also hope to serve in a medical program—like the ship HOPE. Mart here is going to be Jim’s agriculturist in residence.”
    “Trixie and Honey plan to operate the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency when they get out of college,” Mart said, helping himself to his third sweet roll. Then he winked. “They think they’re professionals already, so we, uh, try to humor them. If you have any mysteries lying around—beware!”
    “Detectives?” Katie raised an eyebrow.
    Di, always loyal, jumped to the girls’ defense. “Trixie and Honey are every bit as good as professionals. They’ve solved lots of cases when even the police were stumped, and they’ve made a lot of people happy, me included.”
    “What do you say, Miss Trask?” Katie asked.
    “It’s quite true,” replied Miss Trask. “But let’s save the stories of their exploits for another time.”
    “Please do,” said Katie, glancing up at the new arrivals coming into the restaurant. She excused herself and hurried back to the kitchen.
    “If you’re such great detectives,” said Wanda somewhat skeptically, “maybe you can find my missing quarters.”
    Mart pointed at Wanda : “Quiet, ye doubting Thomas, or ye will stir up a hornet’s nest.”
    Trixie was instantly alert. “Missing quarters?”
    “Whenever I have a few quarters in change, I put them in the jar on my desk,” explained Wanda. “When the jar is full, I take them down to the bank and put them into my buy-a-car-someday fund. The jar was almost full.”
    “When did you notice it was missing?” Trixie asked.
    “Let’s see... the day before Christmas Eve. I had just shown Eric—that’s our new ski instructor—to his room. I went to tell Katie that he was here, and when I came back, the jar was gone. I didn’t keep my door locked then, so anyone could have taken it.”
    “Does Eric spend a lot of quarters?” asked Trixie thoughtfully.
    Wanda shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “As you can see, Wanda, Trixie’s more of a professional jumper-to-conclusions than a detective,” Mart scoffed. “Come on, everyone. We came here to ski!”
    “You came to the right place,” said Linda. “I’ll go help you with your skis, and then Eric can give you lessons. He’s an expert cross-country skier. He’s out packing down snow on the bunny tow right now.”
    “Very crafty.” Wanda grinned at her sister. “That leaves me with the dirty dishes.”
    “I owe you one,” called Linda, already out the door. “See you at lunch, Miss Trask,” Honey said as the Bob-Whites followed Linda to the ski shop.
    While Linda was outfitting them with the narrow lightweight skis, Trixie asked casually, “Was Eric just hired a couple of days ago?”
    Linda nodded. “Eric and his mother had reservations for two weeks during the Christmas holidays. Pat was surprised when Eric arrived alone and asked him for a job. Luckily for Eric, things were much busier here than