She put her glasses back on. Mrs. K appeared to be more bashful than usual. She took a deep breath and then fiddled with her glasses again.
“We know you were searching for your old locker,” Henry said. “You must have left something in there.”
“You had to leave school to have your tonsils taken out,” Jessie continued.
“But then the next year, you went to Greenfield School,” Violet said.
“So you never got your things from your locker!” Benny finished.
“Yes…yes, it’s all true,” Mrs. K said.
The Alden children watched as Mrs. Koslowski relaxed. Bob brought her a bottle of water. She slowly sipped it.
“A week before I went into the hospital, my grandmother gave me a bracelet—a token of good luck,” Mrs. K finally said. “It was gold with tiny amethyst crystals. My birthstone…and also my grandmother’s birthstone. I was so proud of it I brought it to school to show my friends! But then…I forgot it.”
“Hyacinth explained that the bracelet is very precious to her,” Bob said. “Not because of its cost, but because it came from her grandmother!”
Mrs. Koslowski nodded. She touched her wrist, as if she was stroking an imaginary piece of jewelry.
“I’m sure the volunteers will understand,” Jessie said. “Maybe you could tell them your story.”
“And then they’ll know there is no such thing as the Hawthorne ghost!” Benny added.
Mrs. K brightened. “Bob,” she said. “Do you think you could gather the volunteers? I’d like to apologize to them!”
Everyone smiled. Bob said he would call a volunteer meeting for the following day. Mrs. K would have her chance to tell them how sorry she was for scaring them during the renovations.
Henry turned to Mrs. K. “Now,” he said. “Let’s get your things.”
Mrs. K jumped to her feet. She followed Henry as he led the way down the hallway. She had a spring in her step.
“This is it,” Jessie said, pointing to the shut locker. She spun the dial a few times. Then she asked Mrs. Koslowski for the combination.
“I’m not sure I remember it,” Mrs. K replied. “I didn’t even remember my locker was here.”
She called out a few numbers as Jessie turned the dial. Each combination turned out to be wrong. The locker was still shut tight.
“Did you use a special date as the combination?” Henry asked. “For my school locker, I use the day, month, and last two digits of the year we met Grandfather. That way, I always remember it.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Mrs. Koslowski replied. “My grandmother’s birthday. Try this, Jessie…”
She recited three more sets of numbers. This time, the dial clicked, and the locker opened. Mrs. Koslowski reached inside and pulled out a small box. Opening it, she revealed a beautiful, sparkling gold bracelet with soft purple gemstones. Violet helped Mrs. K clasp it around her wrist.
“What else is in there?” Benny asked.
“Let’s see,” she replied. She reached into the locker again and pulled out some old school supplies and a pencil case. Everyone chose an item to examine.
“It’s like we opened a time capsule!” Jessie exclaimed.
She was holding one of Mrs. K’s old school folders. On the front, several animated characters were cheerfully giving the thumbs-up sign.
“Look at these,” Henry said as he turned over a few coins in his hand. Although old, the coins were shiny and bright from being tucked away in the dark locker.
Mrs. K turned to Benny. “Oh dear,” she said, seeing the small plastic horse he was holding. “That’s a toy from my favorite TV show. I’d forgotten all about these things. Finding them now is like taking a trip down memory lane!”
Under a few schoolbooks, they discovered an old newspaper that had been stashed away in the locker. The Alden children took turns reading the current events from 1955.
Everyone was excited that Mrs. K had finally found her belongings. Bob even suggested featuring them in the new display case.
“What a wonderful idea,” Mrs. K replied.
Violet nodded enthusiastically. “This way,” she said, “everyone who visits the art center will know what school was like in the fifties.”
The Alden children knew that Grandfather would arrive soon to pick them up. As they said good night to Bob, Ansel, and Mrs. K, she turned to them one last time.
“Thank you!” she called. And then she descended the back staircase and was out of sight.
Grandfather and the Alden children stood on the stone steps of the new Hawthorne Art Center. They looked up at the old building with astonishment. It was hardly the spooky school they had found months earlier while running their weekend errands. In fact, although the sun was setting, the area was lit up. Several street lamps had been added to the parking lot, and small lanterns lined the path to the front door. Inside the building, all of the broken lights had been fixed. The old school glowed brightly. The renovations were complete.
Grandfather opened the newly painted red door and ushered the children inside. A large banner in the entrance hall read, GRAND OPENING PARTY!
Henry looked around. “Wow!” he said. “Everything looks great. It’s like a brand-new building.”
Violet gazed up at the grand trophy case, now without the cobwebs. The old trophies had been polished and looked beautiful.
“Yes,” she said. “And it still has all of the details that made Hawthorne School so special.”
Bob spotted the Aldens and welcomed them to the party. As Grandfather chatted with him, the Alden children continued to walk through the art center. They marveled at how much it had changed.
They came to Room 108. Instantly, they recognized the photographs hanging on the walls inside the room. They were the black-and-white pictures Ansel had taken before the renovations were finished. They turned out to be spooky and artistic—just as he had hoped. Violet found a sign-up sheet for photography lessons. She put her name on the list. She couldn’t wait to start taking her own photographs.
Next door, the antique chalkboard was now behind a plastic case. The old-fashioned lessons and curvy handwriting were preserved for everyone to see.
They walked upstairs to find that the hall was now a gallery space. There was room for drawings and sculptures to be displayed.
“It’s a good thing Mrs. K found her things when she did,” Jessie noted. “She almost lost them forever.”
As the others nodded, they heard someone walk up behind them.
“And I owe it all to you,” Mrs. K said. The children turned to see Mrs. Koslowski. They noticed right away that she was wearing her purple and gold bracelet. After a few minutes of catching up, Henry asked if she ever spoke to the other volunteers. He wondered if she’d had the chance to tell them about the strange message she wrote on the chalkboard.
“Oh yes,” she said. “Bob called a meeting for the next day. I put the Hawthorne ghost rumor to rest once and for all!”
Everyone was thrilled with the good news. They said good-bye to Mrs. K and headed back downstairs to look for Grandfather. He was still standing with Bob. As they joined them, Ansel and Martha also approached.
“Your photographs are wonderful,” Violet told him. “We saw them hanging in Room 108.”
“Thanks!” Ansel replied. “You should see the darkroom. It’s all fixed up and ready for photography students to use.”
Violet smiled, knowing she would soon have the chance to test it out herself.
Jessie turned to Martha. “How is your antique business?” she asked.
Martha couldn’t wait to tell them all about it. When the furniture finally went to auction, she was the first bidder. All of the furniture sold quickly.
“Except,” she said, “for a very special piece. I saved this for myself…”
Martha pulled out her cell phone and showed them a photo of the old clock.
“It’s now fixed and works perfectly!” she said.
Bob turned his
attention to the children. “What do you think of the new art center?” he asked.
“It’s perfect,” Jessie replied.
“There’s just one thing missing,” Benny said.
Bob looked puzzled. “What’s that?” he asked.
“The snack tent!” Benny replied.
Everyone laughed.
CHAPTER 1
Not a Good Sign
“There’s the sign for Appleville ahead!” Six-year-old Benny Alden called out from the back seat of his grandfather’s car. “I see the big apple on it! We’re almost there.”
“Good. I was afraid we’d be late for Cousin Alice’s speech,” Benny’s sister, twelve-year-old Jessie said. “It’s so exciting that she might become the mayor of Appleville.”
Henry, who was fourteen and the oldest of the Alden children, checked his watch. “We should make it with plenty of time.”
“I can’t wait to see Soo Lee. We haven’t seen her in a while,” Benny’s other sister, ten-year-old Violet said. Soo Lee was Cousin Alice and Cousin Joe’s daughter. She was about Benny’s age and the Alden children always had fun when she was with them.
Suddenly a thump, thump, thump sound came from beneath the car. The car veered to the right as if it was going to go off the road. Grandfather struggled to bring the vehicle under control. Watch, the Aldens’ dog, yelped and crouched down on the seat. Everyone held their breath. When the car came to a stop, Violet cried, “What happened?”
Grandfather gave a sigh. “A tire blew out. It happens sometimes. Everyone all right?”
Jessie checked on Violet and Benny before she replied, “We’re fine.”
“We may be fine, but I’m not sure Appleville is,” Violet said, pointing to a trembling figure out the window.
The car had come to stop right underneath the Appleville sign. Usually the sign welcoming people to the town had an image of a big yellow apple with a smiley face on it and the slogan, “Appleville: A Happy Place!” in large red letters.
This time it was different. “Something is wrong with the sign,” Benny said.
“Someone has been painting on it,” Jessie said. A large black bird with a red head had been painted to look like it was flying over the apple, which now had a frown painted over the smile. The word “happy” had been crossed out and a new word painted above it.
“It says “cursed” doesn’t it?” Benny asked. Benny was just learning to read. “It says, “Appleville: a Cursed Place!”
“Yes, and there’s more,” Henry said. “Someone painted on the bottom of the sign too.”
Violet’s voice was shaky when she read the words aloud. “It says, “Move Away! You’ve been warned!”
Benny hunched down in the seat. “I don’t know if I want to go to Appleville anymore. Why would Alice want to be mayor of a cursed town?”
“Someone is just playing a trick,” Jessie said, putting her arm around Benny. “A town can’t be cursed.”
“It’s terrible that someone ruined their sign,” Violet said.
“It’s also illegal,” Grandfather added. “Whoever did it is defacing someone else’s property.”
“I wouldn’t want to paint that kind of bird,” Violet said. “It’s very ugly.” Violet was a good artist. She liked to draw and paint birds and animals.
“What kind of bird is it?” Benny sat up and looked out the window again, feeling a little better.
“It’s some type of vulture,” Henry said. “See how small its head looks compared to its body? Vultures don’t have feathers on their heads so they look strange compared to other birds.”
“I wonder why the town hasn’t fixed the sign,” Jessie said. “It won’t make people want to visit Appleville.”
“We can ask Alice and Joe, but first we’ll have to do something about the tire.” Grandfather opened the car door.
“How far are we from Joe and Alice’s house? Can we ride our bikes there?” Violet asked. The Alden children’s bikes were secured to the bike rack on their grandfather’s car.
“It’s not very far, but it’s getting dark and it’s chilly out.” Grandfather took his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll just call someone to come out and change the tire.”
“I can change it,” Henry said, “We have a spare tire in the trunk.”
“I’ll help,” Jessie said.
Grandfather thought for a moment and then nodded his head. “It’s nice to have such handy grandchildren.”
While Henry and Jessie were changing the tire, Violet and Benny got out of the car with Watch to look around. The only house they saw was set back across a field of dead grass. Next to the house were rows of small trees. Behind the house was a forest.
“Those woods looks like where we found our boxcar,” Violet said. After their parents had died, the Alden children were scared to go live with their grandfather, not knowing him and fearing he was mean. They had run away and found an old boxcar to live in until their grandfather found them, and they realized he wasn’t mean after all.
“It looks spookier than where we had our boxcar.” The trees behind the house were tall and spindly and crowded close together. Bushes with dark leaves grew underneath the trees so it was hard to see very far into the forest. Benny shivered and glanced back up at the sign and the vulture. “I don’t know if I want to wait out here.”
“It’s only spooky because it’s getting dark,” Violet said, though she felt a little uneasy too.
“That’s a creepy, old house,” Benny said. “I wonder if anyone lives there.” The house hadn’t been painted in a long time. Some of the shutters hung crookedly from the windows.
“I think it’s empty. There aren’t any lights on and there are weeds all over the yard.” A flash of red caught Violet’s eye. “Look! Maybe someone does live there. There’s a woman in a red jacket.”
An older woman with white hair wearing a red coat stood by a side porch looking up at the house.
Violet waved and called, “Hello!”
The woman didn’t turn around. Instead she walked around the corner of the house until she disappeared from Benny and Violet’s view.
“That’s strange,” Violet said. “She didn’t even wave at us.”
“We’re done!” Henry called.
“We just need to put away the tools and then we can be on our way,” Jessie added.
Watch began to growl. “What’s wrong, boy?” Benny asked. Watch growled again and then stalked forward, crouched low to the ground.
“He sees a dog over at the house.” Violet pointed to a big shaggy brown dog staring at them from the steps of the house.
Watch crept toward the other animal. “Watch, come back!” Violet called. But Watch didn’t listen. He leaped forward and dashed off into the tall grass between the car and the house.
The big dog saw Watch running toward him. Even though Watch was much smaller, the shaggy animal acted scared of the little terrier. He turned and ran away into the woods before Watch could reach him.
“Watch!” Violet yelled.
Henry and Jessie heard Violet and hurried over to her and Benny.
“WATCH!” Henry shouted. Watch stopped and looked back over his shoulder.
Jessie whistled. “Watch, come back!” This time Watch listened. He bounded back to the car wagging his tail.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t get lost,” Benny scolded the dog.
“Let’s go,” Grandfather said. “We should make it just in time.”
Everyone piled back in the car. As they drew close to town, they passed another sign. This one showed a smiling white-haired man wearing overalls and a train conductor’s hat. Words across the top of the sign read “Charlie Ford for Mayor. Vote for Charlie and help Appleville chug into the future!”
“That’s funny,” Benny said. “Towns can’t chug like trains. I thought Alice was going to be mayor.”
“Only if she gets elected,” Jessie explained. “Charlie Ford must be another candidate who is running against her. She’l
l have to get more votes than he does to win the race.”
Benny laughed. “It’s funny to say Mr. Ford is running against Alice. It sounds like they have to race around a track to see who wins.”
“That would be fun to watch but not a good way to decide who is in charge of a town,” Henry said.
“I like Mr. Ford’s hat,” Benny said. “I wish I had a train conductor hat.”
“Mr. Ford is lucky no one painted on his sign,” Violet said. “I still can’t believe someone ruined the town sign.”
Benny wished Violet hadn’t brought up the Appleville sign. He didn’t want to think about a curse.
GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.
Gertrude Chandler Warner grew up in Putnam, Connecticut. She wrote The Boxcar Children because she had always dreamed about what it would be like to live in a caboose or a freight car—just as the Aldens do. When readers asked for more adventures, Warner wrote more books—a total of nineteen in all.
After her death, other authors have continued to write stories about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, and today the Boxcar Children series has more than one hundred books.