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The following afternoon, the Aldens finished their chores early and rode into town with Mr. Morgan and Sarah.
“I always stop at the post office for the mail while Dad goes to the hardware store,” Sarah said. “Then we both head straight to Hilary’s for chocolate ice cream sodas1.”
The post office was crowded, and Benny spotted2 Ms. Jefferies picking up a large manila envelope at the counter. “Look who’s here,” he whispered. “And for once, she’s smiling!”
Ms. Jefferies turned quickly toward the door and nearly bumped into Sarah and Violet. “Sorry—oh, it’s you,” she said, recognizing the children.
“Hi, Ms. Jefferies,” Sarah said politely. “We would have been glad to pick that up for you.” She pointed3 to the manila envelope, and Ms. Jefferies shook her head and turned pink.
“No, I . . . it’s nothing,” she said.
“We always pick up mail for our guests,” Sarah went on. “It’s really no trouble—”
“I told you no thanks!” Ms. Jefferies blurted4 out. She clutched the envelope to her chest and hurried out of the post office.
Benny looked up in surprise. “What was she so mad about?”
Sarah shrugged5. “Maybe she was just in a hurry. She might have a lot of stops to make.”
Benny smiled. “Like at Hilary’s, for a chocolate ice cream soda,” he said, and everyone laughed.
Later that afternoon, Jessie was delivering fresh towels to the bunkhouse guests. She tapped lightly on Ms. Jefferies’s door. When no one answered, she let herself in and left the towels on the sturdy pine dresser. She started to leave when she noticed a pile of photographs on the dresser. Suddenly she realized that they were photographs of Wind Dancer!
But how did Ms. Jefferies get them? Wind Dancer was hardly ever out of the stable! Something very strange was going on. But Jessie didn’t want Ms. Jefferies to come in and think she was snooping. She quickly moved toward the door. But in her hurry, she stumbled over Ms. Jefferies’s briefcase7. Setting the briefcase upright, she noticed the gold initials on the top. “A.S.F.,” she said softly. “Something’s not right . . . ” She shook her head and quietly let herself out.
Jessie waited until after dinner to tell Henry and the others what she had discovered. They were as surprised as she was.
“You’re sure it was Wind Dancer in the photographs?” Henry asked. He kept his voice low because they were sitting on the front porch of the main house. He and Violet were perched on the porch railing, and Benny and Jessie were rocking on a hand-made swing.
“I’m positive. And the funny thing is that they were just like the pictures you see in magazines.”
“What do you mean?” Violet asked.
Jessie thought for a moment. “Well, they were really clear, and they were taken from all different angles.”
“Maybe Ms. Jefferies is a good photographer,” Henry said.
“But that still wouldn’t explain how she managed to get close to Wind Dancer,” Violet pointed out. “He’s always locked up during the day.”
“That’s true,” Jessie agreed. “And what about the initials on the briefcase?”
“Maybe it belongs to someone else and she stole it,” Benny piped up. “Or borrowed it.”
“Wait, I just thought of something,” Violet said, her eyes big. “What if Ms. Jefferies isn’t using her real name?” Everyone turned to look at her. “What if she’s using a phony name at Sunny Oaks?”
“That would definitely mean she’s up to something,” Henry said grimly.
No one said anything for a long moment. Then, finally, Jessie broke the silence. “What should we do?” she whispered.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what she does next.” Henry looked very serious. “And we’ll try to watch her as much as we can.”
Since there didn’t seem to be anything else to say or do about Ms. Jefferies, Henry and Benny went inside to play checkers, and Jessie and Violet went for a walk.
“Let’s go by the stable,” Violet suggested. “I have half an apple I saved for Oliver.”
A few minutes later, the girls were happy to see that the stable was unlocked and Oliver was happily munching8 hay inside his stall.
“Hey, Oliver,” Violet said as the horse ambled9 over to greet them. She handed him the apple. Suddenly a sharp noise from the interior of the barn made her jump in surprise.
“What’s that?” Jessie cried.
“Sorry to frighten you, girls,” a voice said in the shadows. “I think I just knocked over a pitchfork.” Jed Owens, whom they’d met at the barn raising, strolled out casually10 from the back of the barn. Jessie and Violet exchanged a look. He was coming from Wind Dancer’s stall! What was he up to?
“What are you doing here?” Violet asked.
“Oh, just locking up,” he said vaguely11. Violet knew something was wrong. Danny had said that Mr. Morgan always locked up the stable. He never would give the keys to someone else.
Jed started to head out the door but changed his mind and stopped by Oliver’s stall instead. “Hey, that’s funny,” he said, pointing to a small bundle of fur sleeping in the straw. “How did that goat get in here?”
“That’s Arnold,” Jessie said, surprised. “He always sleeps with the horses.”
“He does?” Jed laughed. “Doesn’t he know he’s a goat?”
“Of course he does. But farmers like to have goats sleep in the horse stalls. They calm the horses down.”
“They do?” Jed looked amazed.
“Didn’t you know that?” Violet asked.
“Sure . . . I guess I just forgot.” Jed ran his hand through his hair and looked embarrassed.
“We’d better be going,” Violet said. Suddenly she wanted to get back to the main house. First she had felt suspicious of Ms. Jefferies, and now Jed Owens!
It was very late that night when Benny crawled out of bed and went quietly outside. Henry had been teaching him all about the constellations12, and he wanted to take another look at the night sky. “There’s the big dipper,” he said to himself. “And the North Star and the Seven Sisters . . . ” Suddenly he was distracted by two beams of bright light flashing by the pond. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. The lights disappeared for a minute and then swung in a big arc. Maybe it was a ghost! Or a spaceship!
He hurried inside and shook Henry’s shoulders. “Henry, wake up,” he pleaded. “There are some really scary lights by the pond.”
“You’re imagining things. Go back to sleep,” Henry mumbled13 into his blanket.
“But the lights . . . I saw them. Honest!”
Henry sat up and peered out the window. “I can’t see anything out there.”
“They come and go,” Benny insisted.
Henry rumpled14 his brother’s hair. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s probably all those ghost stories Mrs. Morgan told tonight. Let me know if you see more lights, though.”
“Okay.” Benny sighed and climbed the ladder to the top bunk6. Mrs. Morgan had told some scary ghost stories earlier that evening around the camp fire. But this was different. He really had seen those lights!
It was bright and sunny two days later, and everyone was excited over the Cooperstown Fair. Benny ate his breakfast in record time, and then raced over to the vegetable patch to pick his prize cantaloupe. He had decided15 to leave it on the vine until the very last moment so it would grow as much as it could. As he trudged16 back to the main house, he shifted his tool belt around his waist, and glanced idly toward the pond. He knew he had seen lights at the pond the other night. But what did they mean?
Violet and Jessie helped Mrs. Morgan load pies and jams into the back of the pickup17 truck, and Henry helped Danny pour his apple cider into brown jugs18. When everything was ready, Mrs. Morgan took a final look around the kitchen. “Have we forgotten anything?” she asked the Aldens.
“Plenty of paper plates and plastic forks,” Benny piped up.
Mrs. Morgan looked puzzled. “What for?”
“So we can eat the pies when the judges are finished with them!”
Mrs. Morgan smiled. “There’s plenty of food at the fair, Benny. And don’t worry. I’ll save you a slice of every one of our pies that wins a prize.”
“And even the ones that don’t,” Benny said, and everyone laughed.
Half an hour later, the Morgans pulled up into a grassy19 area next to the Cooperstown County Fairgrounds.
“Here we are!” Sarah sang out. “And look how many people showed up!”
“There’s a good turnout this year,” Mr. Morgan said approvingly. He pointed to dozens of colorful display booths set up in neat rows. The narrow aisles20 between the booths were jammed with visitors, and children scampered21 everywhere.
The Aldens scrambled22 out of the back of the pickup truck, and Benny gave a low whistle when he spied the top of a Ferris wheel. “Wow! I didn’t know there would be rides. It looks just like a carnival23!”
“They always have a few rides at the fair,” Sarah told him, “but the homemade goodies are the best part.”
The Morgans waved to a young girl leading a pinto pony24 out of a horse van. “She’s showing her horse in the ring for the very first time,” Sarah said to Violet. “If you want, we can go to one of the competitions. They go on all day long.”
“That would be wonderful.” Violet clapped her hands together excitedly.
“Remind me to stop by Mrs. Ames’s booth,” Mrs. Morgan said. “I’d like to buy some of those needlepoint key rings she makes.” She smiled at Jessie. “They make wonderful Christmas gifts.”
“Let’s go, everybody,” Mr. Morgan said. He unloaded Danny’s cider from the back of the truck and handed Benny his cantaloupe. “Who’s going to carry the pies?”
“The Aldens will help me,” Mrs. Morgan said. “Take two each, and nobody drop them!” she pleaded.
Violet helped arrange the sparkling jelly glasses and pies on a long picnic table covered with bright blue felt. Several people stopped to buy pickled watermelon rind and blueberry jam.
“We have to pick one of these apple pies to be judged,” Mrs. Morgan said to Violet. “Which one do you think is the best?”
Violet looked at the pies and pointed to one with a delicate latticework crust. “That one,” she said proudly. She remembered how Mrs. Morgan had taught her to cut the pie crust in thin strips and lay them crisscross over the apples.
“Please keep an eye on things while I drop it off,” Mrs. Morgan said, heading for the judges’ table.
Violet was busy for the next hour as people lined up to buy preserves. She had just sold the last jar of peach-ginger preserves when she spotted a tall, dark-haired man walking across the fairgrounds. There was something familiar about his face, and she squinted25, concentrating. She knew she had seen him before, and then suddenly it came to her. He looked just like one of the men who had tried to kidnap Wind Dancer! She tried to get a better look at him, but someone drove a pickup truck down the midway, blocking her view.
She needed help, but who could she ask? Henry had gone back to Sunny Oaks to fetch more cider, and Jessie was helping26 Sarah sell corn dolls. Then she spotted Benny, clutching a giant wad of pink cotton candy, standing27 right in front of her!
“Benny!” she cried. She dashed around the table, hugging him in relief.
“What’s going on?” His face was sticky from the candy and he tried to wriggle28 away.
“I need you to help me,” she said, bending down so her face was close to his. “I think I just saw one of the men who tried to steal Wind Dancer.”
“Really? Are you sure?” Benny gulped29.
“I think so, but I have to stay here at the booth, so I need you to find out. He’s wearing a cowboy hat, and he’s over by the leather goods booth. It’s the place with all the belts and saddles. If you hurry, he’ll probably still be there.”
Before she could say another word, Benny handed her his cotton candy and scooted away. His heart pounding, he zigzagged30 past a boy leading a Shetland pony, and nearly got caught in a line of prize hogs31 being moved into a pen. Still running, he darted32 past a popcorn33 stand and skidded34 to a stop when he spotted the leather goods booth. There was the man in the cowboy hat! His back was turned to Benny, and he was talking to another man.
Benny sneaked35 up to the side of the booth and dropped to his knees. He waited until no one was watching and then dove under the heavy cloth that covered the display table. Luckily it drooped36 almost all the way to the ground, and he knew that no one could see him. The two men were still talking, and Benny crawled quietly toward the sound of their voices.
“I think we should do it at night,” one of the men was saying. “There are too many people around the stable during the day.”
“You’re right. But I’d sure like to get the key to that stall. It would make things a lot easier.”
Benny cautiously peered out from the narrow slit37 between the cloth and the muddy ground. His nose was just inches away from a pair of black leather cowboy boots with silver toes. Those were the same boots the man named Ryan had been wearing the day he tried to steal Wind Dancer!
Benny scurried38 backward until he was at the end of the display table and then bolted out from underneath39. He ran all the way back to Violet, who was telling the Morgans about the man she’d spotted.
“It’s them!” Benny gasped40 to Mr. and Mrs. Morgan and Violet. “I recognized the cowboy boots.”
“Let’s go see,” Mr. Morgan said quickly to his wife. “The children should stay right here.”
The next half hour passed slowly as Violet and Benny waited for the Morgans to return. Finally Mr. Morgan appeared and rubbed his forehead wearily. “It’s no use,” he said. “We checked the leather goods booth and walked all around the fairgrounds. They’re nowhere in sight.”
“Oh, no,” Benny said. “Maybe they saw me and ran away.”
“Don’t worry about it, Benny,” Mr. Morgan said. “You did a good job tipping us off. Now we know they’re going to try again, and we’ll have to be extra careful.”
At sunset, the Alden children piled into the back of the pickup truck for the ride back to Sunny Oaks. Benny was thrilled because his cantaloupe had won a third-place ribbon, and Jessie and Violet were very excited that their pies and jams had won prizes.
Wind Dancer was on everyone’s mind, though. That night, back in the bunkhouse, Violet finally mentioned him. “It’s scary to think those men are still around,” she said. “And that they’re going to try again.”
“If only we could have caught them today, the whole thing would be over,” Henry said.
“Maybe not,” Jessie spoke41 up. “There might be other people at Sunny Oaks who are working with them.”
“Like Ms. Jefferies?” Benny asked.
Jessie shrugged. “It could be. Or what about Jed Owens? He said he’s always worked on farms but he sure doesn’t know anything about horses.”
“Why do you say that?” Henry was suddenly interested.
“Violet and I ran into him in the stable and he was surprised to see a goat there. I had to explain that Arnold sleeps in Oliver’s stall lots of times.”
Everyone was quiet, thinking the same thing. There was going to be another attempt on Wind Dancer. But who? And when?
1 sodas | |
n.苏打( soda的名词复数 );碱;苏打水;汽水 | |
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2 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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3 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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4 blurted | |
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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6 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
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7 briefcase | |
n.手提箱,公事皮包 | |
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8 munching | |
v.用力咀嚼(某物),大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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9 ambled | |
v.(马)缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 );从容地走,漫步 | |
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10 casually | |
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地 | |
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11 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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12 constellations | |
n.星座( constellation的名词复数 );一群杰出人物;一系列(相关的想法、事物);一群(相关的人) | |
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13 mumbled | |
含糊地说某事,叽咕,咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14 rumpled | |
v.弄皱,使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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16 trudged | |
vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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17 pickup | |
n.拾起,获得 | |
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18 jugs | |
(有柄及小口的)水壶( jug的名词复数 ) | |
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19 grassy | |
adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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20 aisles | |
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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21 scampered | |
v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22 scrambled | |
v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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23 carnival | |
n.嘉年华会,狂欢,狂欢节,巡回表演 | |
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24 pony | |
adj.小型的;n.小马 | |
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25 squinted | |
斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 ); 眯着眼睛; 瞟; 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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26 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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27 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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28 wriggle | |
v./n.蠕动,扭动;蜿蜒 | |
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29 gulped | |
v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 );大口地吸(气);哽住 | |
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30 zigzagged | |
adj.呈之字形移动的v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 hogs | |
n.(尤指喂肥供食用的)猪( hog的名词复数 );(供食用的)阉公猪;彻底地做某事;自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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32 darted | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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33 popcorn | |
n.爆米花 | |
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34 skidded | |
v.(通常指车辆) 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 );打滑;滑行;(住在)贫民区 | |
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35 sneaked | |
v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状 | |
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36 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 slit | |
n.狭长的切口;裂缝;vt.切开,撕裂 | |
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38 scurried | |
v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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40 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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41 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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