Free The Secret of Mirror Bay by Carolyn G. Keene

“We’ll continue working on your mystery tomorrow,” Nancy assured the woman as she drank the coffee Aunt Eloise had brought out.
    A short time later the caller got up to leave. After she had gone, the others again discussed the boat episode. Nancy declared she was going to find out the name of the person who had piloted it.
    Bess interrupted. “Let’s go see the sights this afternoon. It’s a lot safer than working on a mystery.”
    Aunt Eloise begged off, saying she had been to all the museums the summer before. “One you’ll love is the Toy Museum. It’s on the west side of the lake and a good distance from town.”
    The girls thought it sounded interesting, and as soon as lunch was over, decided to drive there. They went to Cooperstown, then took Route 80 toward Springfield Center. At last they came to the old farmhouse and barn which were now used as a toy museum.
    Nancy parked and the girls went inside the house. They paid their admission, then a tall, slender, affable man introduced himself as the owner and said he would take them on a tour of the place.
    “You understand,” he said, “that nearly everything here is very old. The toys and other pieces were gathered from this general area and are anywhere from fifty to two hundred years old.”
    First they came to the dolls. Bess declared she had never seen so many altogether. There were men, women, boy and girl dolls made of various material, and dressed in every imaginable kind of costume.
    Some had very pretty faces and lovely lace or embroidered dresses. Most of the boy dolls wore sailor hats and tight-fitting clothes. The amusing ones had grotesque faces, others were happy clowns. Also on display were many kinds of buggies and other vehicles in which children had given their dolls rides.
    Bess whispered to Nancy and George, “I don’t see anything as beautiful as the child’s Russian coach must be.”
    Another room contained mechanical toys, and another a complete antique train set which whizzed around corners and under mountains.
    Finally they came to the room containing old books. The trio was amused by pictures of little girls in pantaloons with disproportionate bodies. Bess mentioned this to the owner.
    He laughed. “Nobody knows the reason for this strange period in art. All old-time pictures of children were the same. The bodies always look stumpy and the head much too large. You’ll even find this to be true in fine antique gallery paintings, even those depicting angels.”
    While he was speaking, Nancy was looking up at a shelf on which stood a row of valentines. They looked old and were very fancy with their imitation lace paper covers and pictures of hearts and cupids.
    Suddenly something special about one valentine caught Nancy’s eye. In the elaborate scroll-work on the cover she could detect a name. It looked like Maud Jayson.
    Excited, Nancy asked the owner if he would mind getting it down to let her see it more closely. She nudged Bess and George and traced the name when the man was not looking.
    The cousins were startled. Could this be the same Maud Jayson involved in the mystery of the missing child’s royal coach?
    Nancy carefully opened the letter-type valentine. Inside, written in precise, old-fashioned script was a message evidently intended for Maud Jayson. It read:
    Ever faithful to thee
And the memory of the little lass
Her lovely pony coach
Lying ‘neath the Glimmerglass
NOE
5 R
    The girls could hardly refrain from exclaiming aloud. Here was a wonderful clue to the mystery they were trying to solve!
    As nonchalantly as she could, Nancy asked the owner, “Is this for sale?”
    The man smiled. “Not really. I need it for my museum. But,” he added with a grin, “if somebody offered me a really good price for the valentine, I might sell it.” His eyes twinkled as he waited for an answer.
    “I don’t know what to offer you but I’d like very much to have it,” Nancy told him, naming a price.
    The owner replied,