The Pet Show Mystery

shy. It’s never been one of my bigger problems,” Trixie said, laughing at herself.
    Honey didn’t join in the laughter. “I can do more than imagine it. I can remember what it’s like. It’s no fun, believe me.”
    Both girls sat quietly for a moment, remembering the days when Honey Wheeler had first moved to the Manor House just down the road from Crabapple Farm. She’d been pale, shy, and frightened of her own shadow. The only child of wealthy parents who traveled much of the time, she’d been raised in boarding schools. Most of her problems had come from not having a real home, with real friends and neighbors.
    Realizing that, the Wheelers had bought the Manor House with its horses, stables, and acres of game preserve. They’d also hired Miss Trask, one of Honey’s teachers from boarding school, to come and manage the house full-time.
    The Wheelers’ plan for helping their daughter had succeeded even better than they’d hoped. The success was largely due to the bold and energetic Belden youngsters who became Honey’s closest neighbors and, in short order, best friends.
    To make things “perfectly perfect,” as Honey was fond of saying, soon after Trixie met Honey, the two girls met Jim Frayne, a runaway orphan. After Jim had escaped from his cruel stepfather and found his rightful inheritance, he’d been adopted by the Wheelers.
    In just a few months, Honey had a real home, best friends, and an older brother. “Coming to Sleepyside was like the start of a new life for me,” Honey said aloud.
    “It was for me, too,’’ Trixie said. “Even with two older brothers and one younger one, I’ve felt lonely sometimes. Now that you’re here, I never feel that way anymore.”
    “I’m sure it helps that my brother Jim is here, too,” Honey said playfully.
    Trixie grinned. There was a special friendship between Trixie and Jim, and all of the Bob-Whites knew about it. But Trixie hadn’t quite been able to admit those feelings yet, not even to herself. “Maybe I did too much to help you overcome your shyness,” Trixie said. “Now you tease me as badly as Brian and Mart do.”
    “I could never tease you the way Mart does,” Honey countered. “I’d certainly never resort to anything so low as calling you ‘Beatrix.’ ”
    “Ugh!” Trixie cringed at the sound of her hated real name. “Well, when he does that I can always get even by calling him my ‘almost twin.’ He hates the fact that he’s only eleven months older than I am.”
    “He tries so hard to act older and wiser,” Honey pointed out. “From the way he talks, you’d think he was eleven years older.”
    “You should hear him now!” Trixie said. “He’s taking a computer course this term, and he came home sounding like a floppy disk.”
    Trixie sighed and sank back against the wall. “In a way, though, I envy Mart. He has his computer class to look forward to every day. What do I have? Snow and ice and cold. Yuch!”
    “I know what you mean. When we were off traveling upstate trying to find my brother, I really believed we were doing something important. There’s no other feeling quite as good.”
    “That’s it exactly!” Trixie said. “See? I knew you’d understand how I feel, even though nobody else seems to. I just can’t believe there’s nothing important in the world to do in winter. I think we don’t have enough gumption to go out in the cold and find the things that need to be done.”
    “The way Norma Nelson has, you mean?” Honey asked quietly.
    “Yes, the way—wait a minute! Honey, that’s it! Why can’t the Bob-Whites start a feeding program, too?”
    “Oh, Trixie, that’s a wonderful idea. We’ll use what’s in the treasury to buy cracked corn. We could start our route where Norma’s leaves off, since we live farther out in the country.”
    Trixie nodded. Her thoughts were already churning furiously. “That’s not enough, though. If we start only a couple more routes, we’ll wind up feeling as defeated as Norma does. We need to get lots more people involved. Imagine what would happen if everyone in Sleepyside were feeding the birds!”
    “We could save nearly all of them,” Honey said. “But how do we do it?”
    “I don’t know, but we’ll think of something. I’ll tell you what, you talk to Jim. I’ll talk to Brian and Mart. Tomorrow at school we’ll talk to Di and Dan, too.” Diana Lynch and Dan Mangan were the two newest Bob-Whites. They were often busy with family