The next morning after breakfast, the Aldens dressed in their old work clothes. They had important chores to do in the barn. Peggy and Doc had asked them to help with the sheep shearing and said it was a fuzzy, messy job.
“There you go,” Jessie said, when she helped Benny untangle his overalls straps. “Now you look like a real shepherd boy. Maybe the sight of you will cheer up Doc. He’s pretty upset about the missing Herr Bear.”
“I know how to cheer him up, Jessie,” Benny said. “We’ll just tell him we always find things for people. So I know we can find a bear.”
“Thanks,” Doc said, when Benny told him this. “Finding that bear would be a big relief. I’ll keep searching, but I only have one set of eyes. You children have four sets.”
“Plus Mister B. has one,” Benny reminded Doc. “That makes four-and-a-half pairs of eyes.”
As the children made their way to the barn, a few cars arrived with even more guests.
“Now we’re not the only ones staying here with Miss Sayer,” Jessie said. “There’s her van next to the barn, right where Peggy doesn’t want her to park it.”
“Did you kids call me?” Miss Sayer screeched when she heard her name. “Doctor Firman isn’t letting you in here, is he? You could scare the sheep. They have to be calm when they get sheared, you know.”
Jessie tried hard to be friendly. “Peggy invited us to help out.”
“Help out?” Miss Sayer cried. “She won’t even allow me to help out. What do a bunch of kids know about sheep shearing, anyway?”
“Peggy told Grandfather she’s going to teach us how,” Benny said.
“Children shearing sheep?” Miss Sayer said angrily. “I’ve never heard of such a thing!” She turned and stalked away, muttering to herself.
When they entered the barn, the Aldens heard bleats and baas from the Firmans’ small flock.
“Hey, Smudge,” Benny said when he passed the lamb pen. “I guess you’re too little to get a haircut.”
Smudge came right up to the chicken wire that enclosed the pen. “Baa!”
“See you later.” Benny patted Smudge’s warm head. He joined his brother and sisters gathered around Doc and Peggy. Doc was carefully shearing a sheep with electric clippers.
“That’s a good girl,” Doc crooned, holding Daisy, a large ewe. He gently cradled her head with one arm as he clipped her fleece with the other. Every few seconds he stopped to stroke Daisy’s neck or ears, talking to her the whole time. Daisy seemed to melt in Doc’s hands while he clipped her.
“Any of you children want to help me with Snowflake?” Doc asked when Daisy scampered off with her new short hairdo. “Just hold him gently while I clip.”
Jessie knew what to do right away. “Watch likes it when we stroke him under his chin like this.”
Snowflake relaxed in Jessie’s arms while Doc finished the haircut. After that, Doc let each of the children take turns holding the ewes and rams during the shearing.
“You Aldens are very good with animals,” Doc said when he finished the shearing.
“Look at all this fleece!” Benny cried afterward. The barn floor was covered with huge puffs of fleece. “You could stuff a hundred bears with all this wool, even big gigantic ones like Chatter Bear.”
Peggy laughed. “We’re not done yet, Benny, not even close,” she said. “You can help me carry all this fleece to the skirting table in the next room.”
“Is that where you make wool skirts?” Benny asked.
Doc laughed. “It’s a special kind of table where we examine the wool. We pull out any parts that are tangled or dirty. Peggy and I need plenty of helpers to carry in all this fleece.”
The Aldens each took great heaps of wool in their arms. They carried them into a little room attached to the barn. The puffs were so big, the children looked like sheep themselves.
“Okay, toss an armful on the skirting table,” Doc told Henry. “I’ll show you how to make sure it’s smooth and clean. Peggy only uses the finest fleece to cover her bears. The other clean parts are used for stuffing.”
“Save some stuffing for me!” Benny said. He laughed. “That’s what I always say at Thanksgiving!”
“Benny means save some stuffing for Mister B.,” Violet explained.
“And some for the Herr Bear,” Benny said to Doc. “We’re going to find him for you.”
Doc looked a little worried. “I sure wish you would. If I don’t find him soon, I’ll need to contact the owner. But I’d like to avoid that if I can.”
After Doc left, Peggy showed the Aldens how to sort the wool. The children soon figured out which wool to set aside for spinning and which wool would make good bear stuffing.
“See this pile?” Peggy asked. “It’s for Mister B.” She patted a big clean puff of fleece. “We’ll wash it later to get out some of the oils. After it dries, we can plump up Mister B.”
“Mister B. would like that,” Violet said. “Thank you for teaching us so much.”
Benny looked up at Peggy. “Miss Sayer said kids shouldn’t help the sheep get sheared and that she isn’t even allowed to do anything.”
Peggy bit her lip. “Oh, dear. I do wish she would appreciate that Doc and I have helped her so much over the years with her bear business. But I can’t let her in on all my secrets. My Peggy Bears are special because we use wool from our own sheep. Not many teddy bear designers do that.”
“Is Miss Sayer a copycat?” Benny asked.
Peggy laughed. “Let’s say more like a copybear. She’s tried to copy other bears, too. Now she’s working on a talking bear, even though there are already talking bears available. Every year, Doc and I try to convince her to design a brand-new kind of bear instead.”
“Guess what, Peggy,” Benny announced. “We’re going to find out who took Doc’s missing Herr Bear.”
Peggy put down the wool in her hands. “Really? Now, how do you plan to do that?”
“We can keep an eye on people,” Benny said. “Like everybody who was in Doc’s hospital yesterday. And at the jamboree, we’ll see if anyone’s snooping around old bears too much.”
“Hmmm,” Peggy said. “You may get a chance to do that tomorrow. I was hoping you would help me set up my Peggy Bear booth at the Town Hall. Have you any suspects yet?”
Benny looked up at Peggy. “A few, but we’re not telling until we catch them.”
Peggy sighed. “I see. It would certainly put Doc’s mind at rest to find that Herr Bear soon. This mystery has him so upset.”
“Don’t worry,” Benny said. “We like solving mysteries.”
Peggy brushed all the wool fuzz from her coveralls and jacket. “Then good luck. Now I hope you don’t mind if I leave you for a while. I need to pack the station wagon for the jamboree. You’ve learned so quickly, I know you can finish up on your own.”
The Aldens worked quietly after Peggy left. They wanted to pay close attention and do a good job for Peggy and Doc.
“What’s that creaking?” Henry said a few minutes later.
“Hey, who just dropped hay on my head?” Benny asked when he felt some hay land on his hair. He started wiggling and scratching himself. “Some of it went down my neck, too.”
When the children looked up, they saw more strands of hay drifting down.
“The wind must have blown open the hayloft door,” Jessie said.
“I’ll go up and shut it,” Henry said. “We have to keep the barn warm for the sheep.”
“The ladder is outside,” Jessie reminded Henry.
The children followed Henry out. While Jessie held the ladder, Henry climbed up and shut the hayloft door. “There,” he said when he came down. “Now we’re safe from any more unexpected flying objects.”
The children decided to take a short break to visit the sheep in the main part of the barn. Soon they were surrounded by the Firmans’ flock with their new short hairdos.
“They like to cuddle with us because we’re warm,” Jessie said as one sheep after another nudged her and the other children with their noses. “They all want to be stroked and petted.”
“Okay, guys, that’s enough,” Henry told the nuzzling sheep. “We have to get back to work. Stop crying now.”
But the sheep didn’t stop crying. The Aldens could hear them bleating while they worked.
When Jessie returned to the skirting table, something was missing. “Where’s that nice big clean pile of fleece Peggy left for Mister B.? It was right here.”
Henry checked under the table. “It’s getting weird in here. First the door blows open for no reason. Now some of the fleece we cleaned just disappeared. Pretty strange, if you ask me. Listen, now the dogs are barking outside.”
“Maybe they want to come in where it’s warm,” Violet said.
The children ran out. They found Taf and Midnight growling at Miss Sayer’s yellow van.
Henry ran ahead and came back laughing. “Guess what they’re barking at? Chatter Bear! Miss Sayer has him in the van, but she can’t turn off his voice box. It’s pretty funny.”
The other children ran over to the van. Chatter Bear’s voice wasn’t low and slow now but as chirpy and fast as a chipmunk’s. “Imchatterbearandiliketotalk.”
“Stop that barking!” Miss Sayer told the Firmans’ dogs. “Goodness, children, take those dogs away before Chatter Bear gets any more upset. I went over a big bump, and that made his voice box break again.”
The Aldens tried hard not to burst out laughing. Instead they clapped and whistled to get the dogs away from Miss Sayer’s van. Only they weren’t quick enough. Midnight decided he wanted to sniff Chatter Bear and leaped up to the front seat.
“Down! Get down!” Miss Sayer screamed. “Get this dog down before he hurts my bear!”
Jessie ran over and grabbed Midnight’s collar. “Come on, Midnight. Let’s go for a walk.”
Those were the magic words. Midnight backed out of the van. Jessie reached in to straighten out Chatter Bear, who had tipped over sideways. “There,” she said after she fastened the seat belt over him. That’s when she noticed Miss Sayer’s big orange tote bag. Stuffed inside was at least enough clean silky fleece to fill a few nice bears. |