The Mystery off Glen Road

sense in his little finger!”
    Honey gasped again. “Do you know Jim, Mr. Maypenny? I mean, does Jim know about your property here in the woods?”
    “Imagine so,” the old man said easily. “Stopped in real sociablelike the other day when he and that Belden boy were out fixing up the bird-feeding stations that were knocked down by the storm. Gave ’em a few hints that they found helpful, or so they said.”
    Trixie and Honey stared at each other. Then they both hugged each other, almost hysterical with laughter. “It all comes from keeping see-cruds,” Trixie finally managed to murmur.
    Honey turned and slipped her arm through Mr. Maypenny’s. “You,” she told him pleadingly, “could be the answer to all of our problems. Please, please, say yes, you will.”
    “Well, now, girl,” he said with a pleased expression on his weatherbeaten face, “it would take a stronger man than I am to refuse you anything. If you’d just tell me what you’re talking about.” Honey merely winked. “You know perfectly well what I’m talking about, Mr. Maypenny. You’re the only man in the whole wide world who should be the gamekeeper for Daddy’s preserve. He would engage you tomorrow if Jim and I told him that you would accept.”
    He winked back at her with such a droll expression on his face that Trixie burst into laughter. “Well, now,” he said, laughing as hard as she was, “I sort of got the impression that you kids were the gamekeepers. Wouldn’t want to cut you out of any money.”
    “Oh, no,” Honey cried. “On account of school and all, we can’t work after this weekend. We only did it because there wasn’t anybody else, and besides, we had to have the money.”
    Both talking at once, they told him the whole story then. When he heard about Trixie’s ring and Brian’s car, and the clubhouse, he threw up his hands. “Why, it’s like something out of a book,” he chortled. “If ever a bunch of kids needed help, it’s you all. But I must say I admire you for carrying on by yourselves.”
    “We tried,” Trixie said forlornly. “But if you don’t think we deserve that fifty dollars tomorrow, we won’t accept it.”
    He frowned at her. “Never said anything of the kind. In my opinion, you’ve done a grand job. Why, Fleagle would never have noticed those single-tire tread marks, and he’d never have found my dead deer and the rabbit snare unless he fell over them.” He stared at his gnarled fingers. “Got a touch of arthritis. Means a storm’s coming. Most likely a blizzard. The thing to do first is make that clubhouse weatherproof. And I know how. Jim Frayne knows as much as I did when I was a boy of his age, but don’t forget that I’ve learned a lot since. If I had a horse now, I’d ride over to that clubhouse and teach Jim a few tricks.”
    “Oh, oh,” Honey cried. “I’m so glad you know how to ride, Mr. Maypenny. Daddy’ll buy you a horse as soon as you accept the job, but right now you take Strawberry—the roan. Trixie and I’ll take turns riding back on Lady. Won’t we, Trix?”
    Trixie shook her head and carefully strapped Bobby’s compass around her wrist. “You ride to the clubhouse with Mr. Maypenny, Honey. I feel like walking—and thinking. It’s all so wonderful, I don’t want to hurry.”

Snow and Surprises ● 20

    THE BLIZZARD started with a snow flurry around nine o’clock that night. Trixie fell asleep without any worries because, thanks to Mr. Maypenny, the clubhouse was as tight as a drum. The whole day had been so wonderful that she tried to stay awake as long as she could so she could think over all the nice things that had happened.
    In the first place, Bobby had been so delighted when she gave him back his compass that he rushed to his mother, confessing and crying in a loud voice: “Oh, I’m such a bad, bad boy! I tookted Trixie’s ring and losted it, but she didn’t get mad, ’cause it wasn’t the right ring. The right ring ’longs to Mr. Lytell on account of Brian’s car. But it really ’longs to Trixie, so I’m going to get it back when I give him my squirrel-bird.”
    He went on with his strange and garbled version, chanting loudly every now and then, “Old lamps for new. Old lamps for new. Hey! I’m Aladdin.”
    So, in the end, Trixie had had to explain the whole transaction to her parents. To her relief, they were very sympathetic and did not scold her at all.
    “You’re a banker at heart, Trix,” Mr. Belden said