The Mystery at Maypenny's

School. The friends parted inside the door to hurry to their lockers and then on to their first classes.
    First it was Mr. Maypenny and Mr. Wheeler. Then it was Mr. Maypenny and Jim. Now it's Jim and Mr. Wheeler , plus Dan and Mr. Maypenny. All oj them are having problems because of International Pine. Who'll be next? Trixie wondered to herself.
    She soon found out. That noon, the three Beldens, Honey, and Dan assembled at their usual table in the cafeteria. They were just beginning to eat when they heard a familiar voice say, “May I join you?”
    “Jim!” Trixie exclaimed, looking joyously at her redheaded friend.
    Honey looked as though she wanted to throw her arms around her brother, even though it would embarrass him no end.
    Brian, Mart, and Dan looked just as relieved as the girls did, and Jim started to laugh. “You’d think I’d dropped out of sight for a week instead of just missing one morning of school,” he said teasingly.
    “I told the others about your argument with Daddy this morning,” Honey confessed. “We didn’t know what might have happened after I left.”
    Jim’s face turned serious. “Dad said he was going to show me a thing or two, and that’s exactly what he did. I learned more this morning than I could in ten years of school.”
    “What did you learn about?” Trixie asked.
    “You could call it ‘applied economics,’ I guess,” Jim said, “with some political science and even a little philosophy thrown in.
    “Basically, Dad showed me how he’d come to his decision to consider the offer from International Pine. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing, believe me. He has reams of information about it.” Jim looked around the table. “Did you know that the population of Sleepyside has been declining at the rate of two percent per year for the past ten years?” he asked.
    The other Bob-Whites shook their heads.
    “Well, it has,” Jim said. “At the same time, the number of jobs has decreased five percent. That means the number of people on welfare is up.”
    “What does all this mean, Jim?” Honey asked.
    “It means a lot,” Trixie said. “We talked about this with our parents last night. Sleepyside needs the jobs that the International Pine expansion can provide.”
    “That’s it, in a nutshell,” Jim said.
    “So now you agree with your father about letting International Pine have the land. Is that the rest of it?” Dan asked.
    “It isn’t very much land—only about ten acres. Only three of those acres are Mr. Maypenny’s,” Jim pointed out. “Dad explained that to me, too. The ten acres they want have the best stand of virgin timber anywhere around. They’d be getting valuable raw materials along with expansion area. That’s the only way they can afford to expand right now. The animals would still have hundreds of acres left, and Sleepyside would have hundreds of new jobs.”
    “That seems like a good solution for everyone,” Honey said hopefully, looking from Jim to Dan.
    Dan shook his head. “You can say that because you won’t be living right under the new factory’s smokestacks. Mr. Maypenny and I will. And what if the factory decides to expand again? Will another ten acres seem like a good solution someday? And then another ten, and another, until there’s no game preserve left?”
    “Dad won’t let that happen,” Jim said firmly. “How can you be so sure?” Dan asked. “Yesterday you were shocked when you heard he wanted to sell that first ten acres; today you’re behind him all the way. Maybe he’ll give you the same snow job next time.”
    “Dan—” Honey’s voice was pleading, and she put a restraining hand on the boy’s arm.
    “I’m sorry,” Dan said. “I just—” He broke off in mid sentence, the look in his eyes begging his friends to understand.
    “I can see your point of view,” Jim said quietly. “But I can see my father’s—Sleepyside’s—too. I have to back him in selling the land.”
    “And I have to back Mr. Maypenny in trying to stop him,” Dan replied.
    The two boys looked at each other steadily for a long moment. Then Dan abruptly gathered up his things and walked away.
    Trixie watched him leave. Now the factory expansion is dividing the Bob-Whites , she thought. She looked around at her circle of friends and found them all looking uneasily at one another. She knew that they were all echoing her own troubled thoughts: Who’s next?

Dan’s Surprise ● 4

    DURING THE FOLLOWING week, the news