Outside in the woods, a cool breeze stirred. Inside the boxcar, the four Alden children were hot from their hard work. Finally twelve-year-old Jessie stood up.
“Now that is what I call clean,” she said, smiling at her two brothers and her ten-year-old sister, Violet.
“And neat,” her older brother, Henry, said. “I’m glad you thought of this,” he added, turning to Violet as she gave the pillows a final pat.
“It’ll be fun to come home from an adventure and find our wonderful boxcar so shiny and nice,” Benny said. “Look, even Watch is hot and tired from our work.”
“Watch is a lazybones,” Jessie said fondly. “He didn’t do anything but watch.”
“That’s his job, but he loved our boxcar from the first,” Violet said, smiling down at him. “Remember how we found him when we came to live here after our mother and father died? Watch is really one of us.”
“Then why can’t we take him on this adventure with us?” Benny asked.
“Come on, Benny,” Henry said, patting his little brother. “Who ever heard of a dog traveling on a paddle-wheel boat up the Mississippi River? Anyway, Watch has stayed home to guard Grandfather’s house before.”
“I know,” Benny said, nodding. “But I’m going to miss him anyway.”
Outside, the children stretched in the cool New England air. “Now we’d better go back to Grandfather’s house and pack,” Henry said. Then he laughed. “Can you believe that once we ran away and hid from our own grandfather because we thought he was mean? I don’t know how we could have been more wrong.”
“Maybe by taking lessons,” Benny said soberly, who thought a lot about lessons and school now that he was six.
Violet laughed. “Who ever heard of taking lessons to be wrong? It’s more fun to learn to be right!”
Jessie said, “Grandfather says his friend Cap Lambert was a riverboat pilot for years. He knows all sorts of wonderful stories about the Mississippi River.”
“And his log cabin where we’ll visit is a hundred years old,” Henry added. “Staying there will be a real treat.”
“Cap Lambert has to be a wonderful man,” Violet said, “to invite us to visit him when he hasn’t even met us. I like him already.”
“And I like the trip up the river to his house, too,” Benny said, breaking into a run. “Let’s go pack!”
That next morning their grandfather glanced at the four brightly colored suitcases in the back of the car. “I wish I could go along on this trip with you,” he told them. “But business is business, and I know you’ll enjoy my friend Cap.”
“I hope he’ll enjoy us, too,” Jessie said quietly. “Didn’t you say he has a son of his own?”
Mr. Alden nodded. “A very nice boy named Jason. Of course he’s a grown man by now. But he and his father had a big disagreement when Jason was quite young. They haven’t even seen each other for many years.”
“What did they disagree about?” Jessie asked.
“Cap wanted Jason to be a doctor or lawyer. Jason only wanted to be a sailor like Cap himself,” Mr. Alden replied. “Jason ran away and did what he wanted and never came back.”
Benny snuggled against his grandfather. “I’m never going to leave you,” he told him.
“Except for adventures,” Henry put in, grinning.
“At least you’ll fly with us as far as St. Louis, Grandfather,” Violet said. “Will you come right back home from there?”
Mr. Alden shook his head. “I have business in the SOUTH. But I’ll be in touch with you by phone. Of course, Mrs. McGregor will be here taking care of the house and Watch. I’ll call and check on them, too, as I always do.”
The Mississippi River was only a quick taxi ride from the St. Louis airport. Benny, holding his bright-red suitcase, stared at the huge paddle-wheel steamer.
“Did you ever see so many flags?” Violet cried. “And listen to the music!”
Her grandfather laughed. “What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than on America’s longest river?”
“And the third-longest river in the world,” Jessie added. Then she smiled. “I only know that because I looked it up.”
A stream of people were moving up the decorated ramp. At the top, a group of ship’s officers stood waiting.
“Can you come aboard with us?” Jessie asked Mr. Alden. “Just for a while?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” he said, smiling down at her. “I like being able to imagine where you are in my mind.”
Henry, feeling very grown-up for fourteen, handed their tickets to the blond officer at the desk.
“Welcome aboard!” the man said, nodding at the children. Then he turned to their grandfather. “Greetings to you, too, sir. The captain’s assistant asked to see you as soon as you came aboard. He has a message for you.” He turned to lead the way. The children and their grandfather followed him.
A man in uniform met them as they neared his office. “This telegram arrived for you,” he said. “I was asked to see that you got it before you left the ship.”
The children watched their grandfather’s face as he read the telegram. When he frowned, Benny slid his hand into Henry’s.
Mr. Alden looked up and put his arm across Jessie’s shoulders. “Thank you again,” he told the ship’s officer. “I need a quiet place to talk to my children for a moment.”
“You’re welcome to my office,” the man said. “I’m needed on deck.”
When the door closed behind him, Mr. Alden looked around at the children. “This is disappointing news,” he said. “It’s from Cap. Let me read it to you.”
“Dear Friend. Stop,” Mr. Alden read. “I can’t tell you how unhappy I am to write this. Stop. I have looked forward very much to having your fine children here. Stop. But I have to ask you not to send them due to an injury to my ankle that makes me unable to get around. Stop. Regards always. Cap Lambert.”
“Why does he keep telling you to stop?” Benny cried. “We don’t want to stop. We want to go there.”
His grandfather chuckled. “That’s just the way telegrams are written. Stop is like a period. Poor Cap! I know he hates having to call off your visit. I’m sure that he’s just as disappointed as you children are.”
“Oh, but, Grandfather,” Jessie said. “If he’s having trouble getting around, that’s an even better reason for us to go. We can take care of him and help him with his work. Remember what a good nurse Violet is? And we can see that he eats right so his ankle will heal. Didn’t you say that he lives all alone?”
“Except for his pet rooster, Doodle,” Benny put in.
“Jessie’s right,” Henry said. “Your friend doesn’t know that we have the best time if we have real things to do.”
Their grandfather listened thoughtfully.
“You see, Grandfather,” Henry said, “your friend doesn’t know us. He thinks he’ll have to take care of us. Instead, we can take care of him. And we’d really like to do it.”
Mr. Alden hesitated, still looking doubtful. “He won’t be expecting you when the boat reaches Hannibal,” he pointed out. “There’ll be no one there to meet you and take you out to his place. His cabin is at least three miles from town.”
“We’ve had worse problems than that,” Henry reminded him. “Remember the time we got snowbound in a cabin? The store was almost that far away from us.”
Violet took her grandfather’s hand and looked up into his face. “Don’t you know that we like doing things for people more than anything?” she asked. “Surely he won’t mind our coming if he knows how much we want to help.”
Mr. Alden smiled and caught the four of them against him in a big hug. “You win, and so does Cap. I’ll call him from shore and let him know you’re coming. And I’ll depend on you, as always, to come through with flying colors.”
Within minutes, they were waving from the deck to the tall, white-haired man who saluted them from shore.
|