The Red Trailer Mystery

too weak from hunger to do anything but cry."
    Trixie flushed with impatience. "I meant the mother and the other two children. Sally was sort of sulking, but the little boy in overalls was just sitting there with the most awful vacant look on his face. It made me feel as though they had all given up hope, as if they didn’t care much what happened to them." She shuddered. "It’s all so mysterious. Why aren’t they supposed to speak to strangers? Why did the mother look so shocked when Sally said Bud was her puppy?"
    "And why," Honey finished, "do they keep the shades down on a hot evening like this when they haven’t even gone to bed?"
    Miss Trask came to the door of the Swan then. "I thought you two girls were going to fix a delicious meal." She handed them each an apron. "We must eat and go right to bed so we can get an early start tomorrow. We wasted half a day this morning just looking for Reddy."
    "I know," Honey said as she and Trixie got to work with a can opener and a frying pan. "We told Dad we’d arrive at Autoville tomorrow at the latest, so we’ve got to in case he or Mother should call to see if we arrived safely."
    Trixie stirred the dried beef in the hot oil, then added the thick, creamy mushroom soup while Honey buttered the toast and cut it into little squares.
    "Let’s save on dishwashing," Trixie said with a grin. She hated indoor work and always did her chores at home just as fast as she could. "If I add a can of peas to this goulash, there’ll be one less pan to wash." Miss Trask laughed good-naturedly. "All right, this once. But no more shortcuts. I want three-course meals from now on."
    The dinner was delicious, although it took only a few minutes to prepare, and Trixie ate so much she fell asleep almost the minute she climbed into her bunk. The top deck she had chosen was on the side next to the red trailer. It began to rain in the night, at first a gentle patter, but after a while it came down in an angry torrent.
    Trixie awoke with a start when the cold rain splashed in her face, and she hastily closed the window beside her bunk. Honey had already closed the other windows, with Miss Trask’s help.
    "You certainly sleep soundly," Honey said. "We have been shouting at you to wake up for a long time."
    Trixie swung her legs over the side of her bunk and grinned down at them. "Isn’t this cozy? I love being all snug and warm inside and listening to the sound of rain coming down on the roof."
    "I do, too," Miss Trask said, ‘Taut this is a little too snug and warm for me. It’s going to get awfully stuffy in here if we can t open the windows soon."
    "Mother can’t stand the Hudson River Valley in July and August," Honey said. "She says it’s not only the heat but the humidity! That’s why Dad took her on a trip to Canada."
    The rain continued, and the windows inside the trailer became clouded with steam. Trixie curled up on top of her bed and tried to go to sleep. "Poor Honey," she thought, "she can’t help thinking about her mother and wondering why she doesn’t behave like other mothers."
    Honey had admitted to Trixie the very first day they met that she hardly knew her parents and had been brought up by nurses and governesses between boarding school and camp. Honey was, indeed, a poor little rich girl, and Trixie hoped that when the Canadian trip was over, Honey and her mother would turn over a new leaf and try to get to know each other. Trixie could not bear to see anyone unhappy, and she knew that, although Honey loved Miss Trask, she craved the kind of mother Trixie herself had.
    "But still," Trixie told herself, "she’s not as bad off as Jim, who’s an orphan. We’ve got to find him, and then maybe, as Honey hopes, the Wheelers will adopt him so she can have a brother. He’ll like Brian and
    Mart, and we can all go to school together next fall and have such good times in the winter, skiing and sledding and skating."
    Having Jim as a neighbor was such a pleasant thought that Trixie began to dream about the fun they could all have if things worked out right, and while she dreamed, the rain faded into a drizzle and finally stopped altogether.
    Sleepily Trixie raised the window beside her bunk and went back to her dreams. Suddenly her happy thoughts were rudely interrupted by very unhappy sounds from the next trailer. A woman was weeping softly, as though she could no longer keep her misery bottled up inside her.
    And then a man’s voice, harsh and argumentative, rose