The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

been a true friend to the Bob-Whites when they were planning their antique show for UNICEF. She had not only lent them many of her priceless antiques for use in the show, but she had also persuaded many of her friends among the old Dutch families to do so.
    Since Crabapple Farm was only a short distance from the quaint yellow brick home where Mrs. Vanderpoel’s family had lived for generations, Brian, Mart, Trixie, and Bobby visited her often. She liked them and they liked her. Fat, jolly, grayhaired, and hospitable, she had a bottomless jar filled with spicy Dutch windmill cookies, kept just for the Beldens and their friends in the Bob-White club.
    “Before I can go anyplace or do anything, I have to go home and help Moms,” Trixie said. “I was gone yesterday and last night, and—jeepers, I just remembered! Moms has to go to the dentist this morning, and I promised to take care of Bobby. If he’s turned loose alone in the house, he’ll tear everything apart to see what makes it work.”
    “Psychiatrists say that children must be encouraged to find out things for themselves,” Mart said. “They don t know Bobby.”
    “I'll say they don t,” Brian agreed. “Last week he opened my butterfly collection and put all the specimens out on the porch ‘to see if they’d fly.’ They were broken to pieces, of course, and no good after that. You’d better get home right away, Trix, before Moms gets away and the little fixer is turned loose.”
    “How about you and Mart coming home with me? It seems to me Dad had his ‘now or else’ voice last night when he talked about cutting the lawn.”
    “I’ll help,” Jim said quickly, “as soon as I finish this lettering on the station wagon. If we’re going to get our weekly allowances and chip in on the Bob-White club fund, we’ll all have to get to work, I guess. The fund sure looked sick after we shelled out for the movie last night.”
    Honey put her hand over her mouth. “I just remembered. Last night I brought all that mending home to do for your mother and then forgot all about it. I can’t expect her to pay me if I don’t keep it up. Buttons, buttons, buttons! Sometimes I think Bobby pulls them off just to keep me busy. Well, if he didn’t, I wouldn’t get a chance to do mending, and it’s the first money I ever earned in my life.”
    “It’s not a bad rule we made about club funds— that we have to earn the money we put up,” Mart said. “Lets get going and get the lawn mowed. Then we can go sleuthing with Trixie. I want to hear, myself, what Mrs. Vanderpoel has to say about this Betje what’s-her-name.”
    “How about taking the horses?” Jim suggested. “Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house is back in the woods, you know, and Regan will be wanting us to exercise the horses if he knows we’re going.”
    “I’ll call Di,” Honey said. “Then I’ll see you later. She can ride Sunny down to your house, and we’ll put her to work, too.”

The Faded Snapshot • 3

    ATCRABAPPLE FARM, Mrs. Belden was just leaving when Trixie and the boys arrived.
    “Heavens, I’m glad to see you,” she said. I didn't know where you were, and I was going to have to take Bobby with me to the dentist. I know how Dr. Morrison would like that!”
    Trixie laughed. “The last time he was there, he tried to make a deal with Dr. Morrison, didn't he? Bobby wanted him to save all the teeth he pulled, so he could put them under his own pillow and collect for them from the Tooth Fairy.”
    “Say, that’s a good deal!” Mart said and ruffled Bobby’s hair. “I wish I’d thought it up.”
    “You thought up plenty at his age,” his mother reminded him. “Trixie, I had to leave the breakfast dishes for you to do; then there’s the dusting. And, boys, how about the lawn? I’d advise you to finish it before your father comes home from the bank.”
    “We’re on our way, Moms.” Mart went to get the can of gasoline for the mower. Then he called through the screen door, “When your slaves get all this work done, they’re going to ride over to Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house. Is that okay? Moms, don’t race the motor when you start the car. You’ll scare Strawberry and Susie and Lady.”
    “I learned to drive before you were born,” his mother called. “And I learned to ride and not to scare horses long before Brian was born. It’s all right for you to go to Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house, but you’ll have to take Bobby.”
    Bobby clapped his hands. “I’ll go to see