“I know,” Susan said, “and that is why it would be such a surprise to everybody and why nobody would guess.”
“Dear me!” said Mother. “But why?”
“Maybe she wanted to collect insurance on it, or maybe she just wanted some excitement or something. Surely you could think of reasons.”
“Yes, I could!” Mother said. “Please, Dorothy, finish whisking the eggs. I’ll be with you again in a minute.” She began jotting notes on the scratch pad where she usually wrote her grocery lists. “Countess stole own necklace,” she muttered as she scribbled, “to keep it from falling into the hands of wicked brother-in-law who was real murderer of Countess’s husband. Angus McAngus finds clue—”
“The eggs are whisked, Mrs. Ridgeway,” Dorothy said.
“Fine! Fine!” Mother cried, returning to the cake dough, and beginning to fold in the whites of eggs. “Susan, whatever made you suspect the Countess?”
“I think it was Dickie,” Susan said. “The birdseed was being stolen and we suspected the mice, but all the time it was Dickie, himself.”
“Susan,” Mother said, “I will teach you how to use the typewriter. You shall write the novels for the family.”
“No,” Susan said, “I’d rather tell and let you write. But maybe we can work together.”
Just then there was a great shout from the back door. Tommy Tucker had arrived, fresh from a shower bath in the athletic dressing room. He had a crisscross bit of adhesive tape on his left cheek and a red spot of Mercurochrome over his right eye, and he was smiling his wide, nice smile. Behind him rushed the Gimmicks and the Torrences, and George and Terence and Dumpling and Susan rushed at him from inside the house.
“Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!” they shouted.
“Hey!” cried Tommy. “What kind of scrimmage is this? I’ve had enough tackling for one day.”
“Tommy, we won’t tackle! We’ll be your guard,” they cried. “Come in! Come in! We’ll all be very good to you.”
“Dorothy, too?” asked Tommy.
Dorothy was peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink, but she turned around and smiled at all of them, and she seemed to have forgotten how to say “Am-scray!”
And so it was a lovely party.
FAMILY STORIES: FURTHER READING
By Nancy Pearl
Little Women BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Best Friends BY MARY BARD
Al Capone Does My Shirts AND SEQUELS
BY GENNIFER CHOLDENKO
Ellen Tebbits; Beezus and Ramona AND SEQUELS;
Henry Huggins AND SEQUELS BY BEVERLY CLEARY
The Moffats AND SEQUELS BY ELEANOR ESTES
The Saturdays AND SEQUELS
BY ELIZABETH ENRIGHT
All-of-a-Kind-Family AND SEQUELS BY SYDNEY TAYLOR
Ludell BY BRENDA WILKINSON
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CAROL RYRIE BRINK (1895–1981) was an American author of more than thirty books for children and adults. She is widely known for her novel, Caddie Woodlawn, which won the 1936 Newbery Medal, the award given to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in a given year. Carol grew up in Idaho and later attended the University of Idaho. She transferred to the University of California, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1918. She married that same year and settled with her husband in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they lived for more than forty years and had two children. Brink’s first novel, Anything Can Happen on the River, was published in 1934. Three of Brink’s children’s books are included in the Book Crush Rediscoveries series: Family Grandstand (1952), Family Sabbatical (1956), and The Highly Trained Dogs of Professor Petit (1953).
Carol Ryrie Brink, Family Grandstand (Nancy Pearl's Book Crush Rediscoveries)
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends