The Aldens turned to the left and came to the long hall. The front door was at one end of the hall. On the other side of the hall was a parlor and a bedroom. The Aldens walked quickly through these rooms. There would be time to explore them later.
“I suppose there are four bedrooms upstairs,” said Jessie.
“Oh, let’s go upstairs,” said Benny. “Maybe there is something wrong up there.”
“I can’t see anything wrong downstairs,” said Henry. “It’s only dirty and dusty. A fireplace in every room. Think of that!”
“Upstairs, too,” said Grandfather. “That’s how we kept warm. There were no heaters in those days.”
Upstairs they went. There were the four bedrooms. No bathroom.
“We simply can’t stay here, Grandfather,” said Jessie, the good housekeeper. “It is too dirty.”
“Oh, no! We will stay at a motel as I said. Maybe we can get somebody to clean this place up.”
“We could do it,” said Benny.
“No, it will take a strong woman to do this. And maybe a man would be still better,” said Mr. Alden. He looked around thoughtfully.
“There’s a man at the back door,” said Benny. “I can see his car.”
They all went down to find a tall young man getting out of a car.
“Are you Mr. Morse’s son who can fix the roof?” asked Benny.
“That’s right, son,” said the man. “Call me Sim. I’m Simeon Morse.”
“Oh, that’ll be neat!” shouted Benny. “When Sam comes we’ll have Sim and Sam!”
“And who is Sam?” asked Sim.
“He is coming with my sister,” said Mr. Alden. “You’ll get along fine with Sam. He and his wife are going to handle the farm work for my sister. Now I want you to tell me the truth, young man. What is the matter with this house?”
Sim stood on one foot and then the other. He was very nervous.
“Well, I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Then what makes you think there is any trouble here?”
“I don’t know that, either,” said Sim.
Grandfather sat down in a kitchen chair and leaned forward. “Now, Simeon,” he said. “You sit right down here. I want to know just what’s going on. Your father says there is something strange about this place. And you think so, too. What makes you think so? After all, I used to live here and nothing seemed so mysterious then.”
Sim looked at Grandfather for a moment. Then he said, “But your family left, just the way all the others have. Nobody stays.”
“But what is it that makes you think this?” Grandfather asked.
“Kind of silly,” said Sim.
“Never mind that. I want to know what it is, silly or not.”
“Well,” said Sim, “maybe you know the Bean family? Used to live over in that next house?”
“I certainly do.”
Sim went on. “There used to be an older boy there who found a gun some place.”
“I know,” said Grandfather. “I have forgotten his first name.”
“Andrew,” said Sim.
“That’s right! Andrew it was! We called him Andy and his father didn’t like it. Andy Bean! How could I forget that? Now what’s the story?”
“Well, that Andrew was wild. He made a lot of trouble. And that gun set this whole place on fire. They put the fire out, but Andrew never showed up again. Never. His brother got the farm.”
“Well, what’s the matter with this house? That was long ago.”
Sim looked at Mr. Alden. “You want the truth of it? Seems as if nobody ever got along very well here after that. Bad to worse. People tell all kinds of stories. They say that Andrew found the gun here, and somebody was hiding here and gave it to him. Somebody up to no good.”
“Now who could that be?”
“I don’t know. It was a terrible long time ago.”
“What kind of a gun was it?” asked Henry.
“Yes! That’s a good question. We’ve got that gun over to my father’s house right now. It’s an awful old gun. The kind they used in the Revolutionary War. Long time ago.”
“I should like to see that gun very much,” said Mr. Alden.
“See it any time,” said Sim. “Ask my father.”
Mr. Alden looked at Henry and Jessie. “I think there is some story about this gun. And we need to find out what it is!”
“Oh, boy!” cried Benny. “And now we’ll have some fun. When my grandfather really gets going, Sim, things happen.”
“I bet,” said Sim. He smiled at Benny.
“Now, Sim,” Mr. Alden went on, “is this house dangerous? Can’t it be fixed and cleaned up?”
“Sure,” said Sim. “Nothing wrong with the house itself, I guess.” He scowled.
“I thought you said there was something wrong with the house!” cried Mr. Alden.
“It’s just what people say and how they feel about this place. Bad luck. The house is all right. I guess we ought to put a heavy post in the cellar to make the floor safe. Fix the roof. Fix the windows. Paint a little. You could live here OK.”
“Well, you’re a fine friend,” said Mr. Alden. “I’m glad we found you. Can you get some help and start right to work on this place? Today?”
“Today? Well, I don’t know about today.”
“Why not?” asked Grandfather. “Are you busy somewhere else?”
“Well, I guess I could leave. I’m just fixing my tractor. Do that any time.”
“What about help?”
“I guess the neighbors would help. They are glad Miss Alden is coming back here. May change the old place’s luck.”
“You mean the neighbors know already?” asked Grandfather.
“Oh, sure. Knew that last night. Everybody knew it last night.”
“Well, news goes around fast,” said Grandfather. He laughed. “I remember it did when I lived here. You get your help because I don’t know the people yet. Start right away. I will give you some money to buy paint, wood, and that beam for the cellar.” He counted out some money for Sim to use.
“You folks can’t live here now,” said Sim, looking at the four children.
“Oh, no. We thought we could find a motel.”
“Yes, you can. Right down the road, about four miles. It’s a nice motel. Got a carpet on the floor and a TV and everything.”
“Oh, Sim,” said Jessie, “how about a bathroom in this house? Can you put in a bathroom?”
“Where did you want a bathroom?” asked Sim.
“I thought two,” said Jessie. “You could easily take a piece of the big hall. One upstairs and one downstairs.”
“Right, Jessie,” said her grandfather. “Anybody around here put in a bathroom?”
Sim scratched his head. “I always wanted to put in a bathroom,” he said. “Costs too much, though.”
“Well, you go ahead,” said Mr. Alden. “Get all the men you need. The thing is, I want this done as soon as possible. Jane wants to move right away this minute.”
“She’s changed some, I guess,” said Sim. “My father says she used to move slow. And you were the fast one.”
“Right,” said Mr. Alden. “Jane has changed a lot. We both move fast now, Sim. Tell your father.”
“No fear,” said Sim. “I tell him everything.”
While Mr. Alden and Sim talked, Violet and Benny went exploring.
Violet found a path through the uncut grass of the yard. It led to the front door. There she found some big, flat flagstones, warm in the sun.
Benny ran toward the barn. He poked his head through the crack left by a sagging door. The barn was dark and empty. An old lantern hung on a peg beside a broken harness. Nothing moved. “Spooky,” Benny thought to himself.
Suddenly it seemed a long time since their early breakfast. Benny ran back to Grandfather. “I’m hungry,” he said.
“Again?” asked Grandfather. “Have you forgotten that breakfast?”
“I have myself, Gr
andfather,” said Violet. “I wish we could have a picnic and not go to the motel for lunch. This is such a nice yard.”
“You call this a nice yard?” asked Sim. “You ought to see it when the grass is cut. Looks good.”
“Look at those enormous flat stones by the front door,” said Violet. “We could take a chair out there for Grandfather and have a fine picnic.”
Mr. Alden always listened to Violet. “Well,” he said, “let’s go down to the motel and get some sandwiches, and ask them to fill our Thermos bottles. Could we get sandwiches at the motel, Sim?”
“Well, you could,” said Sim. “But my wife would love to make you some chicken sandwiches. She makes ’em fine.”
“Neat!” cried Benny.
“Could make some egg sandwiches, too,” said Sim.
“We’ll be right down,” cried Benny.
“I’ll go down and tell her,” said Sim. “And I’ll call up some of the neighbors and tell them about this job.”
“Ah!” said Grandfather. His eyes were shining.
“Ah!” said Benny. For a minute he looked just like his grandfather. Sim looked at them both. He saw how much they wanted the house fixed. He said to himself, “They want that house fixed quick, and it will be fixed quick.”
CHAPTER 4
The Potato Pit
You go on ahead, Sim,” said Mr. Alden. “We’ll follow if you are sure your wife wants to make sandwiches for us.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Sim. “We got lots of milk, too. We can fill up your Thermos bottles.”
“We’ll drink more milk than that, Sim,” said Henry. “There are four of us, you know. I could drink a quart myself right now.”
“Let’s have one Thermos of coffee for Grandfather,” said Violet, who always thought of Grandfather.
“You can have all the milk you want,” said Sim. “We have forty cows.”
They all went out the back door.
“Don’t lock the door,” said Sim. “Just leave it.”
He got into his car. The family got into the station wagon and off they went. This time they went to the red house nearest the store. Sim took them into the kitchen. His wife smiled when she saw them coming.
“Ma, can you make some chicken sandwiches? This is Mr. Alden and his grandchildren. They want a picnic lunch.”
“How do you do, Mrs. Morse,” said Grandfather, shaking hands. “You are very kind to do this for us.”
“Glad to,” said Mrs. Morse. “I made bread yesterday so I have six loaves.”
“Oh, homemade bread!” said Benny. “What a picnic!”
“Make some egg sandwiches too, Ma,” said Sim. “These children seem to be half starved. I’ll get the cans of milk.”
“Why do you call her ma?” asked Benny. “Isn’t she your wife?”
“Yes, she’s my wife. But I call her ma because we have six kids.”
Mrs. Morse began to chop up chicken in a wooden tray. “You have courage,” she said, “to move into that old house.”
“Why?” asked Benny. “It isn’t haunted, is it?”
“No, it isn’t haunted,” said Mrs. Morse. “But nobody in this town would live in it.”
“Why not?” asked Grandfather. “I’d really like to know.”
“Well, I can’t tell you why. But there is something mysterious about it. I never did know what it was.”
“That’s the funniest thing!” said Jessie. “Nobody seems to know.”
“Did something happen a long time ago?” asked Henry.
Mrs. Morse looked up. “Yes, that’s exactly right! It happened so long ago, nobody remembers. But they remember there was something.”
“Who is the oldest person in this town?” Henry asked.
“Oldest person? Let me think. That would be Grandpa Cole. He’s almost a hundred years old. But he can still see to read and he can walk with a cane.”
“Maybe he would remember something he heard when he was a boy,” said Jessie.
“Maybe he would. That’s right. I never asked Grandpa Cole,” said Mrs. Morse. She began to crack eggs and take off the shells.
Benny’s eyes grew wide with surprise.
“Oh, those eggs were hard-boiled already!” cried Benny. “I thought they would run out when I saw you crack them.”
“Yes, I always have cold eggs for my family. They like cold hard-boiled eggs for breakfast.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Benny. “I like cold eggs for a picnic. And for breakfast I like them hot and soft-boiled.”
Mrs. Morse laughed. “Most people do,” she said. “I’ve got a funny family.”
She was an excellent cook, though. Soon she took out a big basket with a handle. She began to wrap the sandwiches in waxed paper. She put them in the basket. “You like pickles?” she asked.
“Oh, we love pickles!” said Benny. He looked up. He expected to see a bottle of pickles. But these pickles were as long as his hand.
“My, those are superman pickles,” he said. “One will be enough. It looks just like a cucumber.”
“Pickles are cucumbers, Benny,” said Jessie.
“Well, I never knew that,” said Benny.
“I have some cookies, too,” said Mrs. Morse. “You’d better have some cookies for dessert.”
They were big round white cookies with a hole in the middle. They were brown around the edges. How good they smelled!
“There you are,” she said at last. She shut the cover of the basket. “Good luck!” She gave a Thermos of coffee to Jessie.
Henry took the basket and thanked her. Grandfather paid her. That is, he tried to pay her. But she gave the money right back. “No,” she said, “I love to do something like that. It was a pleasure.”
Mr. Alden knew she meant it. So he said he would always remember it, and each one of the four children thanked her again.
Off they went in the station wagon, back to the farm. They took the basket to the big flat stones by the front door. Henry found a chair for Grandfather. The rest sat on the warm stones. Out came the sandwiches, the eggs, the pickles.
Mrs. Morse had put in some paper cups for milk, and one beautiful cup and saucer and a spoon for Mr. Alden. “That’s good!” said Grandfather. “I like my coffee in a cup.”
“Not a paper cup,” said Benny.
“Right. No paper cup for me.”
On top of the basket was an enormous bone for Watch. He took it and went off with it. Everyone was eating cookies when they heard a car coming. Watch began to bark. He ran right over to the children, but he wagged his tail.
“Now who is that?” asked Jessie.
“I bet it’s the man to fix the roof,” said Benny.
He was right. A thin man with white hair stopped his car and got out. He looked at the children and Mr. Alden. He had a load of shingles in the back of his car.
“Are you the man to fix the roof?” Benny asked.
“Yep,” said the man.
“Have you got a long ladder?” asked Henry.
“Nope.”
“I suppose you have to wait for Sim to bring a ladder,” said Grandfather.
“Yep,” said the man. He began to take the shingles out of his car.
Grandfather smiled. “Will you tell me your name?”
“Yep. It’s Delbert King. But call me Del.”
Benny said, “You heard my Aunt Jane wants to come here to live? Quick like a fox. How long do you think it will take to shingle this roof?”
“I don’t know,” said Del. He took out a big box of nails. Another car came slowly up the drive.
“Now who is that?” said Jessie.
“I bet it’s another man to work on the house,” said Henry.
“Look,” said Violet. “There are three men in that car. Grandfather, you can turn a whole town upside down in no time!”
Then Sim came back too. He had another man with him. Now there were six men.
Grandfather said to Sim, “Let’s go into the house and see what to do first.” Ev
eryone followed. Watch went along, wagging his tail.
The boards in the floor were very wide.
“Some of this just needs cleaning,” said Sim. “The last people left it in pretty good shape.”
“I thought nobody had lived here for a long time,” said Benny.
“No, a family moved in and stayed about six months a while ago. Then they went back to New York. They didn’t like the country,” said Sim.
One of the men looked at Benny and said, “Why do you want to live here anyway?”
“We don’t,” said Benny. “It’s my Aunt Jane. She used to live here. And Grandfather, too. This is Grandfather. He used to live here when he was a boy.”
Grandfather looked at the workman. “What’s the matter with the house?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said the man. He stood on one foot and then the other. He looked at Sim. “Always something queer about this place. Lots of stories.”
“Tell me one,” said Grandfather. “Just one story.”
“Well, there was an old gun.”
“Yes, we’ve heard about that gun!” said Grandfather. “Sim has it at his house.”
“No, it’s at my father’s house,” said Sim.
“Well, I shall see it soon,” said Grandfather. “What about the gun?”
“They say it came from this house,” said the workman. “I guess it was a musket. It was a long time ago.”
“Same story,” said Grandfather. “I am going to fix up the house just the same. Fix the windows. Fix the roof. Put in bathrooms. Put in hot water. A furnace. How long will that take?”
“Well, three weeks,” said Sim. “We’ve got a lot of men.”
Violet said, “School will be out, and we can come up and stay awhile.”
“We’ll find out what the matter is,” said Benny. “I bet it’s nothing. Just stories people tell.”
The men looked at Benny and laughed. “Maybe it’s nothing, son, but I bet it’s something.”
“Well, if it is, my grandfather will find out,” said Benny.
“That’s the truth,” said Sim. “He will.”
The men went out and put ladders up to the roof. Some of the men stayed inside and began to build a fire in the stove.
“Are you cold?” asked Henry. It was a very warm day.
“No, we have to heat water from the well,” said a man.