Free Haunted Cabin Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page A

present for me to give you. Would you like to keep it to remember Owl’s Glen by?”
    Benny smiled and closed his fingers around the tiny toy. “Oh, yes,” he cried.
    The meal was beautiful. The canned ham was glazed with rings of apples dyed red with cinnamon candies. Tiny new potatoes swam in butter beside a bowl of ruby-red beets.
    Mrs. Hodges finally put down her fork with a sigh. “What a wonderful meal,” she said.
    â€œAnd every single thing except the canned ham is from Cap’s garden and orchard,” Jessie told her.
    â€œWe have dessert, too,” Benny said.
    â€œI don’t know where I’ll find room for it,” Jason said.
    Cap took a spoonful of Violet’s apple bread pudding with caramel sauce and grinned at his son. “Don’t even try to eat this, Jason,” he said. “Just pass it right over here. One serving of this isn’t going to be near enough for me.”
    â€œYou and I are a lot alike, Cap,” Benny said, smiling at him. “We both like good things in our mouths, don’t we?”
    The grown-ups sat over coffee while the children cleaned up the dishes, then played games in the backyard. Before they left, Mrs. Hodges asked Violet for her recipe for apple bread pudding and caramel sauce. “It’s just delicious,” she told Violet. “I’ll want to make it for Cap to remind him of you. I just wish you could stay.”
    â€œWe might come back,” Benny said. “I like it here.”
    As Mr. Alden’s car pulled away, Cap waved back with his rooster on his shoulder and his son at his side. “This may have been our best mystery adventure ever,” Jessie told her grandfather thoughtfully.
    Benny said, “Yes, but I want to get home and see Watch and our boxcar.”
    Jessie grinned at him. Funny little boy. But Jessie knew Benny was only saying what each of them felt.

About the Author
    G ERTRUDE C HANDLER W ARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
    Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write each mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
    When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
    While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.
    Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries
    T HE B OXCAR C HILDREN
    S URPRISE I SLAND
    T HE Y ELLOW H OUSE M YSTERY
    M YSTERY R ANCH
    M IKE’S M YSTERY
    B LUE B AY M YSTERY
    T HE W OODSHED M YSTERY
    T HE L IGHTHOUSE M YSTERY
    M OUNTAIN T OP M YSTERY
    S CHOOLHOUSE M YSTERY
    C ABOOSE M YSTERY
    H OUSEBOAT M YSTERY
    S NOWBOUND M YSTERY
    T REE H OUSE M YSTERY
    B ICYCLE M YSTERY
    M YSTERY IN THE S AND
    M YSTERY B EHIND THE W ALL
    B US S TATION M YSTERY
    B ENNY U NCOVERS A M YSTERY
    T HE H AUNTED C ABIN M YSTERY
    T HE D ESERTED L IBRARY M YSTERY
    T HE A NIMAL S HELTER M YSTERY
    T HE O LD M OTEL M YSTERY
    T HE M YSTERY OF THE H IDDEN P