It was a beautiful summer night. When the meeting was over many people stopped to talk before starting their cars. There was a light wind, fresh and clean.
One man said, “This is the way it should always be. There should be clean air everywhere. I’m glad we had the meeting tonight.”
An older man said, “It was time something was done. I don’t know how the people living near the river have been able to stay there.”
“My kids don’t want to play outside,” replied another man. “But we never dared to say anything to that Mr. Pickett. He’s too powerful.”
“Well that Mr. Alden isn’t afraid,” a woman said. “He got things straightened out in a hurry. But it was really Mr. Alden’s grandchildren that gave Frank Timmons courage to face Mr. Pickett. I have a feeling that with Mr. Alden to help, it won’t take much time to get the air fit to breathe.”
The four grandchildren heard this with a smile as they watched the people drive away.
“I guess the public is with us,” said Jessie. “What a surprise it was to learn that Jud and Troy were Mr. Pickett’s sons!”
Frank said, “I guess I thought you knew.”
Henry asked, “Did you call them troublemakers yesterday because they were Mr. Pickett’s boys?”
Frank smiled. “Yes,” he said. “Well, at first I thought that Mr. Pickett’s own sons would of course be on his side. When I got to know Jud and Troy a little better, I liked them because they were interested in plants and animals. I knew they wanted their father to do something about his factory. But I didn’t agree with what they were doing.”
“Picketing their own father wasn’t such a smart idea,” Henry admitted.
“There was something else, too,” Frank said. “I was having a lot of trouble with Mr. Pickett. He thought I was the troublemaker. He wanted to make me move away. It didn’t help to have the boys around the station. It was bad, no matter how I looked at it.”
“But now everything will be different, won’t it?” asked Violet.
Benny looked around. The Aldens and Frank were the only people left standing in the moonlight in front of the town hall.
“Well,” Mr. Alden said, “I think we must be leaving. Perhaps you can come along when my men come to talk with Mr. Pickett. A good chemist can be a real help.”
“I’ll be glad to,” Frank said. “I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you.”
“I guess this is good-bye then,” Jessie said soberly.
“We’re always saying good-bye to bus stations and islands and boxcars and things like that,” Benny said with a laugh.
But the Aldens hadn’t counted on what Frank would say next.
“Good-bye?” he said in a surprised voice. “I won’t hear of it.”
The Aldens looked at Frank. What was he thinking of now? They did not have to wait long to find out.
“Good-bye for tonight, maybe,” Frank continued. “But I’d like you all to be my guests for a bus station dinner next Wednesday night. What do you say?”
“A bus station dinner!” Benny exclaimed. “Count me in! I never miss a dinner.”
Everyone laughed so loud at what Benny said that Grandfather stepped over to see what all the noise was about.
“Guess what, Grandfather,” Jessie said. “Frank has just invited us for a home-cooked dinner, served right at the bus station. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“It certainly does,” Mr. Alden replied with a twinkle in his eye. “I almost forgot you were a cook, Frank. I always think of you as a clean-water man.”
Frank laughed. “I have to be a cook to run a lunch counter at a bus station.”
“Right,” Mr. Alden said.
“You’ll come for dinner, too, of course,” Frank said to Grandfather. “After all, I owe you a great deal. Without your offering to show Mr. Pickett how you made your own factory safe, I might have lost my home. And the river might not have been saved.”
“Fighting pollution is just good sense and good business,” Mr. Alden said.
“Then Wednesday night it is, at six o’clock,” Frank said. “There are no buses passing through at that hour, so I can put my mind on my cooking. I would invite you to my little house, but the smell of the river is so bad there close to the factory, you wouldn’t enjoy it. But we can have a good time at the bus station.”
Benny felt as if he could hardly wait for Wednesday to come. He wondered what Frank would serve for dinner. Hamburgers? That wouldn’t be a treat.
At six o’clock Henry parked the car beside the bus station door.
The wind was coming from the north, so there was no bad smell in the air.
Benny was the first one out of the car. He hardly had a chance to rap on the door when Frank opened it. He greeted all the Aldens.
“Hello, hello,” he said. “Right on time.”
“We’ve been looking forward to this all week,” Benny said. “And does it smell good in here!”
“It’s the fish,” Frank replied with a smile. “I bought it at the best market in town. I stuffed it with soft breadcrumbs mixed with butter and salt and spice—”
“And everything nice,” Violet finished.
“Yes, and now it is baking. In a few minutes it will be done to a turn.”
The Aldens saw that Frank had set his biggest table for six. There were real plates and a tablecloth. No paper plates or cups tonight.
Grandfather looked around and smiled.
“Sit right down,” said Frank, going into his kitchen.
Everyone took a seat, and soon Frank began to bring platters of food to his guests.
“Everything came from my own garden,” Frank said, putting a plate of baked potatoes on the table. Next came a large dish filled with all kinds of vegetables.
Benny began to count them up. “Carrots, little onions, beets, parsley. And look! Cowslips!”
“I canned the cowslips last year,” Frank said proudly. “They came from the riverbank on the other side of the factory. But you can’t see dessert yet. It’s in the refrigerator. It’s a mystery dessert.”
“A mystery dessert sounds like fun,” said Violet.
“I bet it’s ice cream,” said Benny.
“I bet it isn’t,” said Frank.
This was a new Frank. He was happy and joking. Now he knew Mr. Pickett was going to stop pouring dirty water into the river. He knew that many people wanted to save the river and understood how important it was. He could sit back and enjoy the first company dinner he ever served.
“Vinegar,” Benny said. “For my cowslips. And lemon juice, too.”
“Lemon is for the fish,” Frank said. He put the baked fish on the table. After serving the fish with an old-fashioned pie knife, Frank sat down.
Henry and Frank and Mr. Alden talked together. But Benny kept wondering what the mystery dessert could be. He had guessed who Jud’s and Troy’s father was, but he couldn’t guess what the dessert was. It was in the refrigerator, but it wasn’t ice cream. And Frank wouldn’t tell what it was.
Benny thought, “I’m sure it isn’t a pudding, and I don’t think it could be a pie or a cake. I guess I’ll just have to wait.” That was hard to do. But he enjoyed every bit of Frank’s fish and stuffing.
All the Aldens enjoyed the delicious dinner Frank had cooked. Soon their plates were clean.
“Let me help you clear off the table,” said Jessie.
“I’ll clear,” said Frank, “and you can pile the dishes up. You’ll see where they go in that sink.”
Then the moment came when Frank opened the refrigerator to get dessert. Benny twisted around in his seat to see what it was.
“A watermelon!” he exclaimed. “But you never raised that, Frank.”
“Oh, yes, I did!” laughed Frank. “You can go down to my garden and pick one any time now. I’m going to sell some of them.”
“We’ll buy one, for sure,” Violet said. “We just love watermelon.”
Everyone took a slice of watermelon, and soon it was gone, except for the green rind. “I save that,” said Frank. “I make watermelon pickle out of it.”
“What about that!” said Benny. He snapped a watermelon seed across the room.
“I wouldn’t do that, Ben,” said Mr. Alden in a low voice. “This is really Frank’s bus station, and he’ll have to sweep it up.”
“I don’t mind,” said Frank, snapping a seed in Benny’s direction.
Soon even Grandfather was snapping watermelon seeds!
“What a party,” thought Jessie. “I don’t know when I have seen Grandfather having such a good time.”
When everyone was tired of snapping seeds, Frank swept them up. Jessie and Violet said they would wash the dishes. But Frank had a dishwasher, so the work was soon done.
“We ought to have a fish party next year,” said Benny. “Maybe at our house.”
“Maybe at my house,” said Frank. “By next year it will be lovely down there by the river. We might even catch our own fish.”
“Hooray!” said Benny. “Grandfather and I love to go fishing. Let’s make it a real date. What about my birthday? That’s the fifteenth of July.”
“I’ll write it right down in my book,” said Mr. Alden, taking out his wallet. In a small notebook he wrote, “July 15. Fishing with Benny and Frank.”
“I can remember that,” said Frank. “I don’t need to write it down.”
A little later the Aldens said good-bye to Frank and drove home in their station wagon.
“Everything turned out right,” said Benny. “Don’t you think so, Grandfather?”
“Yes, Ben, it did,” Mr. Alden answered. “I think the river will be saved. And I think Mr. Pickett will be able to make the changes in his factory. He’ll be Frank’s good neighbor after all.”
“I never guessed those two boys were Picketts,” said Jessie. “Frank didn’t trust the boys because he thought they were on their father’s side. But really, they picketed their own father’s business.”
“Pickett’s pickets,” said Benny with a laugh. “You know, most of this adventure was just an accident. We would never have known Frank or the Pickett family or learned about the paint factory or started to clean up the river ...”
“If the bus hadn’t been late,” finished Henry.
“Right,” said Benny. |