The Red Trailer Mystery

path toward the red trailer. "Course I feel all right," she said over one shoulder. "But I’d better not let Daddy catch me talking to you ’trangers."
    "You were wonderful, Honey," Trixie said admiringly as they set off in the opposite direction. "Where did you learn that life-saving trick with a shirt?"
    "At camp," Honey told her. "And it’s a good one to know about, because there’s very little danger of being choked or kicked by the person you’re trying to rescue. Sally is so young, I was sure she’d get panicky and grab me around the neck if I got too close. But there was nothing to that rescue as soon as she turned on her back and floated."
    "I wish I were as levelheaded as you," Trixie said ruefully. "I got so excited I barged right into the lake with my shoes on." Water sloshed out of her moccasins. "And," she added, "I wish I could swim as well as you do, Honey."
    Honey smiled. "If you’d gone to camp as many years as I have, you’d be much better than I am. Look how quickly you learned to ride. Regan thinks you’re the best pupil he ever had. You’ll be riding circles around me soon."
    Trixie flushed with pleasure. "It’ll be years before I catch up with you and Jim. You’re both marvelous." Honey, embarrassed, quickly changed the subject. "That shaggy-haired man couldn’t be too mean a father, Trixie," she said. "Not if he went to all the trouble of teaching his little girl to float. And she didn’t talk as though she were the least bit afraid of him. I’m beginning to think—" She stopped as they heard footsteps on the path behind them.
    Both girls turned around and there, hurrying after them, was Joeanne, her pigtails flying. Cuddled in her arms, as happy as though he belonged there, was the black cocker spaniel puppy.
    "Buddy!" Honey gasped. "Then he did follow you!" Joeanne shook her head soberly as she handed the puppy to Honey. "No. Somehow or other my little sister hid him in the trailer just before we left camp this morning. We didn’t find him till we stopped for lunch. I’m awfully sorry it happened."
    She turned to go, but Honey stopped her with an impulsive gesture. "Oh, don’t be sorry," she cried generously. "If Sally loves Buddy that much, I think she should have him. I can get another dog. Please take him back to your little sister."
    Joeanne pulled away and set her shoulders stiffly. "No, thank you. Sally should be punished for taking him away from you. You must have been awfully worried about him."
    "But maybe he followed her inside your trailer," Honey pointed out "I don’t think she should be punished. It was our fault for leaving a window open."
    Joeanne frowned, as though she were holding back hot tears. "I don’t think you left a window open," she said evenly ."I think Sally climbed into the trailer and took him. Anyway," she finished in a rush of words, "we can’t keep him. We couldn’t afford to feed him."
    Then, before they could stop her, she buried her face in the crook of her arm and stumbled into the woods. Trixie and Honey watched her until she disappeared down a path that wound around the hill and away from where the red trailer was parked.

An Awkward Moment • 4

    THE GIRLS put on their swimsuits, took a quick swim in the lake, then dressed in dry playsuits. The roast potatoes Miss Trask had cooked were delicious with the broiled hamburgers and tomatoes. They toasted marshmallows on long sticks and ate so many of them Miss Trask said they would be sick.
    "I can’t get used to Honey’s new appetite," she told Trixie. "You know, before she met you she hardly ate a thing."
    Honey smiled, her mouth too full to speak, and Trixie said, "I wonder what the red trailer family had for lunch. They all look half-starved."
    "I wish we could do something for them," Honey said. "I couldn’t bear it when Joeanne stumbled off in the woods crying. What do you suppose makes them so unhappy?"
    "I can’t understand any of it," Trixie said as she burned the paper plates and wiped the forks with a paper napkin.
    They threw dirt on the dying embers of the fire to make sure it was out. Then Miss Trask said, "Why don’t you two ride in the trailer? Perhaps you could take naps. Nobody had much sleep last night."
    "All right," Trixie and Honey agreed, and in a few minutes they were ready to start. They had just got the dogs safely inside when they saw the red trailer coming around the lake. It stopped beside the Swan, and the shaggy-haired man got out. He walked a few