The Marshland Mystery

both.”
    “What’s happened?” Honey asked eagerly. “Tell us right away!”
    Honey was taller than either Trixie or Di, though she was a few weeks younger. She was slim and athletic and the best swimmer in the club. It was her wide hazel eyes and honey-colored hair that had earned her her nickname.
    “Well, nothing yet,” Trixie had to admit as the three hurriedly made their way through the milling crowd toward the bus stop. “But you can’t tell what might happen!”
    “It sounds exciting!” Di said. “Hurry and tell us!” Di was always ready to follow Trixie’s ideas. She thought there was no one like Trixie. It was Trixie’s love of mysteries that really kept life exciting for all the B.W.G.’s. Sometimes, in fact, life got a little too exciting when Trixie was at work!
    “Well, this afternoon, in botany class—” Trixie began. Then she broke off. “Oh, gleeps! There goes the bus! We’ll have to wait for the next one. And I wanted to tell Brian and ask him to go with us—”
    “Where?” Honey asked. “If you don’t tell us all about it, right this second, I’m going to stand here and scream as loud as I can! And I’ll tell everybody you were torturing me!”
    “And I will, too!” Di giggled.
    But Trixie waited till they were seated on the bench at the bus stop before she continued. “It’s a surprise for Miss Bennett,” she began. “You remember what happened in botany class this afternoon, Di, when one of those goofy kids tripped over his own feet while he was carrying Miss Bennett’s book of pressed herbs to the cabinet.”
    “They spilled all over, and everything got mixed up and broken,” Di told Honey, who wasn’t taking botany that term. “I felt so sorry for Miss Bennett. I thought for a minute she was going to cry when she saw the mess.”
    “But she didn’t,” Trixie said soberly. “She was awfully brave. She just said she knew Joel hadn’t done it purposely, so there was no use getting upset. She let him sweep up all the dried leaves and flowers and throw them into her wastebasket.”
    “She can get new ones, can’t she?” Honey frowned. “There must be plenty around.”
    “I suppose she could if she didn’t have rheumatism and have to walk with a cane. It must have taken her years to get her collection.”
    “But where do the B.W.G.’s come in?” Honey asked. “I’m sure none of us would know an herb from a weed.”
    “Brian does. It was in Miss Bennett’s class that he first got the idea of becoming a doctor. He used to drag home armfuls of all sorts of weeds and swamp plants every weekend and spend most of Sunday cataloging them.”
    “Then if he still has his collection, why can’t he give it
    to Miss Bennett?” Honey asked eagerly.
    Trixie shook her head and looked gloomy. “He doesn’t have it anymore. Practically the same thing happened to it that happened to Miss Bennett’s. Only it was Bobby who got into it and made hash out of it a few months ago.”
    Bobby was Trixie’s six-year-old brother. There were few things he didn’t get into, but there was no use in being angry with him, Trixie had found out. His naughtiness never lasted long, and he was always so sorry that his big sister, who adored him, was quick to forgive him when the little boy’s chubby arms went around her neck.
    “I don’t know anybody who has pressed plants and things,” Di said regretfully. “Could we take some money from the club treasury and buy some for Miss Bennett?”
    “I think Mart, as treasurer, would okay it,” Trixie told her with a sigh, “only there’s no place where you can buy them. You have to gather them up yourself, in swamps and fields and among rocks.”
    “Oh!” Di looked disappointed. “Then what you’re thinking about is our going someplace tomorrow and finding some specimens for her.”
    “That’s it,” Trixie told her with enthusiasm. “Brian could drive us in his jalopy and show us which ones are which. And Mart and Jim could help. And I guess Dan Mangan might get off, for just one day, from all the traps and things he takes care of for Mr. Maypenny.”
    Dan Mangan was the B.W.G.’s newest member. He had come from the city under a cloud of suspicion but, due to Trixie’s detective work, had been cleared and had found a real home with the Wheelers’ gamekeeper.
    “It should be fun,” Honey said, but she had lost a lot of her first excitement. Gathering herbs didn’t sound very thrilling. “I don’t know about