"No, it's a float," said Captain Daniel, laughing. "Henry will have to give you a lobster for finding this float."
Everyone watched as Henry pulled in the lobster pot. At last it came to the top.
"Oh, there are a lot!" cried Henry. "It's a pile of claws. There must be four lobsters. No, five!"
"Six!" said Jessie, as Captain Daniel dropped them one by one into the box. "Isn't that enough for our dinner? Six lobsters? You and Joe will have to come to dinner, too, to help us eat them."
"Yes, thank you, and I'll boil them for you," said Captain Daniel. "I have a big wide kettle. When you take the meat out of the shells it is ready to eat."
"But I don't know how to take the meat out," said Jessie.
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"Joe will show you," said the captain.
"Let's do it outdoors," said Jessie.
After they had pulled in a few more lobster pots, Captain Daniel headed the boat back to the island.
"You caught fifteen lobsters," said Benny. "That's a lot!"
"Not very many," said the captain when they had reached the island again. "Some days I get two or three dozen. And six of these lobsters are yours."
When the lobsters had been cooked, Joe sat down on the sand with his young cousins to take out the lobster meat. Jessie and Henry worked, but Violet and Benny just watched.
While they were working, Benny said, "Please let me come when they blow the top off the cave."
Joe looked a little worried. He remembered what had happened before when he said "No." And so he said, "Benny, I'm sorry, but only the ones who will do the work can come."
"Will you be here?" asked Violet.
"Yes, Violet. I have to come. You see this is my work. All the things will go in a museum bigger than
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Uncle James' museum. You found some wonderful things."
"Oh, Joe, I'd like to have this for my work, tool" said Henry. "Would you teach me?"
"Yes, Henry, I'd like to. You never can tell what will happen. We might work together."
"Will you tell us everything the men find?" asked Jessie.
"Oh, my, yes!" replied Joe. "You can see every single thing after they have dug it out. I'm glad you don't feel too bad about not doing the digging."
"We understand," said Henry. "It will be better this way."
"Now the lobster meat is all out," said Jessie. "How shall we fix it, Joe?"
"Some people like it cold," began Joe.
"Oh, but I want to cook just once more on the stove," cried Jessie.
Joe smiled. "Then have a stew. Put the lobster meat in milk with butter and salt, and eat it hot."
"That sounds good," said Jessie.
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The stew was delicious. When they were eating, Henry said, "I have an idea. Let's come back here weekends until it gets too cold to come."
"Wonderful," said Jessie. "Now we won't have much packing to do. We've eaten all the food."
Violet put the dishes in the cupboard while Jessie put the towels and blankets in boxes to be taken home and washed. Henry stood the rest of the boxes along the wall and shut all the windows. They left the museum just as it was.
Benny carried Violet's paints, pen, and her work-bag. She carried the violin herself.
"Good-by, barn!" said Benny, when Henry shut the door. "I am not going to cry."
"Good for you, Benny!" said Henry. "Just keep thinking how lonesome Grandfather has been."
"I want to go home now," said Benny. "I want to sleep in my real bed."
Henry laughed. A real bed seemed very good to him, too.
Captain Daniel took the children over to the
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mainland. When they saw their grandfather waiting for them in the car, they ran to him and all began to talk at once.
"Get in, get in!" said Mr. Alden. "I want to hear all about it, but I can't understand four people all talking at the same time."
But the children could hardly wait to take turns. They told him about the floats and the lobsters and the cave.
"They are going to blow the top off the cave, Grandfather!*' cried Benny.
"Really?" said Mr. Alden, who of course knew all about it. "What a noise that will make!"
"Joe won't be home for good until later," said Jessie. "He said to tell you that he would stay with Captain Daniel. He won't move into the little yellow house."
"I should say he won't!" cried Mr. Alden.
For a minute, the children were too surprised to say anything.
Then Henry said, "Grandfather, that's one thing we can't understand. Why didn't we ever get to go
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into that little yellow house? Doesn't it belong to you?"
Mr. Alden looked at his grandchildren. Then he said quietly, "That's another story."
"We won't ask about it now," said Jessie quickly. "You have been so wonderful to us. Thank you for our summer on the island."
"That's all right," said Mr. Alden, smiling again. "I'm glad to have you all at home. I believe I shall even be glad to hear Watch bark at the milkman tomorrow morning."
That night, when Jessie was going to bed in her own room, she thought she heard Benny calling.
"Did you call me, Benny?" she asked, going into her little brother's room.
"Yes," said Benny very slowly, for he was almost asleep. "I said Joe is going to live with us, and he's my best friend in all the world."
"Yes, I know he is," said Jessie, pulling up the blanket.
"I mean all but you, Jessie, of course, and Violet, and Grandfather--"
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"And Watch?" asked Jessie.
"Yes, of course Watch, and Henry--"
He stopped.
"And Captain Daniel--"
Jessie saw that Benny's eyes were shut. He had gone to sleep naming his friends. But it did not matter, thought Jessie, smiling. For it would have taken a long time to name all of Benny's friends.
And downstairs, the children's real best friend settled back in his big chair to make plans for them.
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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.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
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. And so she continued the Aldens' adventures, writing a total of nineteen books in the Boxcar Children series.
Gertrude Chandler Warner, Surprise Island
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