There was a bulletin board in the store near the lockers where people kept their coats. On Friday morning all the store workers were crowded in front of the bulletin board.
“What’s going on?” asked Benny.
Toni said, “Plenty! Next Wednesday afternoon, when the store is closed, everyone is invited to a picnic lunch. You’ll never guess where.”
“Tell us,” Henry said. “We’ll never get close enough to the bulletin board to read what’s there.”
Doris laughed and said, “At Miss Douglas’s house! Can you imagine that? Why would she do anything like that?”
“And we’re all invited,” said one of the salespersons who worked upstairs. “Everyone.”
“What do you suppose she’ll serve?” somebody else asked. “I’ll bet we go home hungry. But I want to go just to see what it’s all about.”
Even Mr. Fogg read the notice. When Toni asked him if he was going he said he was thinking about it if his back didn’t bother him too much.
Henry and Benny told the story of the picnic to Jessie and Violet at dinnertime.
“It just happens we’ve already been invited,” Jessie said. “Grandfather and Violet and me—we’ve all been asked. We’ll be there, too.”
Benny turned to Grandfather and said, “Something is going on. And I just don’t understand it. I have an idea you know something about this.”
Grandfather looked at Benny and said with just a small smile. “I’m having lunch on Wednesday with some old friends. You remember I’ve known Mr. Furman for years. In fact, I remember when Mr. Furman’s father came to the store each day.”
“But what about Jessie and Violet?” Benny asked. He looked at his sisters. “I didn’t think you knew Miss Douglas that well.”
“We met Miss Douglas at Furman’s,” Jessie said.
“Yes, she helped me buy the blouse I like so much,” Violet added.
“There’s something else, too,” Jessie told her brothers. “Violet and I were at Woodland Path yesterday afternoon.”
“And you never told us?” Benny asked. “Jessie, that isn’t fair. You’ve heard us talk and talk about Miss Douglas and how she comes to Furman’s all the time.”
“Can’t we girls have a little mystery of our own?” asked Jessie. “You aren’t the only one who can uncover a mystery wherever you go, Benny.”
Then Violet looked at the boys’ faces and laughed. “I can’t be mean to you two,” she said. “You won’t be able to wait until Wednesday if we don’t explain some things.”
“We’re listening,” Henry said. “What’s been going on?”
Jessie said, “You know we’ve been working, too. At the park. You never even once came to swim while I was a life guard there. But it’s all right, I know you have been busy. I met some new kids, and one of them knew Benny. He told me how hard you work, Benny—you never have time to talk when you’re on the job.”
Benny said right away, “I know who that is! It has to be Ted Evans. Right?”
“Right,” said Jessie. “Ted likes to know what’s going on. He’s curious, just like you, Benny. He walked around to see what was happening at the different classes in the park. He stopped to watch Violet’s painting class.”
“We were painting flowers,” Violet explained. “Anybody can take a class in the park, you know. There were some children painting and a few older people, too.”
“Did Ted want to take painting?” Benny asked. He couldn’t imagine that.
“No,” laughed Violet. “But he said he knew some ladies who might like to paint. And the next day, guess who came? Miss Douglas and her neighbor, Mrs. Fields.”
“I remember Mrs. Fields,” Benny said. “Ted and I put up the bird feeder for her. She had sprained her ankle.”
“That’s why she said she wanted to try painting,” Violet said. “I was a little afraid to have the ladies in my class. I’m not that good a teacher. But Miss Douglas and Mrs. Fields were so nice that we all had a good time.”
“How did Miss Douglas act?” Benny asked. “Was she really pleasant to you?”
“Oh, yes,” Violet exclaimed. “She asked Jessie and me to come over to her house after we were through with our work at the park. We knew how to find Woodland Path because Benny had told us so much about getting there.”
Jessie said, “Miss Douglas is a lot different in her own home. She’s not at all like the woman who goes shopping at Furman’s. She told us she had just moved here. She likes Greenfield very much.”
“I remembered that Miss Douglas helped me buy my blouse,” Violet said. “I asked her how she had learned so much about clothing. She told us she likes to test different fabrics. She washes samples to see if the color runs. She dries them in the sun to see if the colors fade.”
Benny said, “Miss Douglas told me she’s been testing the different coffeemakers, too.”
While the others talked, Henry had been quiet. Now he asked, “But why is Maggie Douglas asking everyone to come to a picnic next Wednesday? It seems like a lot of work just to be friendly.”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” was all Mr. Alden answered when Henry looked at him. And that ended the talk about Miss Douglas, at least for the day.
Benny and Henry were kept busy at the department store. There was a big back-to-school sale, and so Henry was working upstairs in the boys’ clothing department.
Benny carried up boxes of sweaters, T-shirts, and socks. He began to think every boy in town was going to have new clothes for school.
On the first floor Benny overheard Mr. Fogg talking to a customer. She had twin boys and wanted to buy them school outfits.
“Try to get Henry Alden to help you,” Mr. Fogg said. “He’s just working for us this month. But he tries to please his customers.”
“Well!” Benny thought to himself. “That doesn’t sound like Mr. Fogg at all. Maybe Miss Douglas is right. He growls like a bear, but he isn’t so bad when you get to know him.”
But Mr. Fogg sounded more like his old self when Benny asked, “Are you coming to the picnic?”
“What makes you ask?” Mr. Fogg answered gruffly. “Who cares if I come? But I guess I’ll have to go.”
On Tuesday evening, Benny and Henry were talking together about working at the store. Benny was thinking about the picnic. “You know what?” he asked. “I think I know why the picnic is being given. I think the new owner wants to meet all the store people.”
“What makes you think that?” asked Henry. “The new owner is in New York. Why would the owner want to come to Greenfield to meet people?”
“The owner is supposed to be in New York,” Benny said. “Supposed to be. That’s the part to remember. But we’ll soon see.”
When the buzzer sounded for closing time at noon on Wednesday, everyone at Furman’s hurried. Soon the dust covers were in place over the counters. Toni closed out her cash register. Salespeople made sure their sales books were in order.
This was the last day of work for Henry and Benny. August was over. It made the boys feel good when some of their new friends said, “See you next summer. We hope you’ll be working with us again.”
“I hope so, too,” said Benny.
Most of the workers drove or rode with friends, but Benny and Henry rode their bikes to Woodland Path.
It was a beautiful summer afternoon. The first thing the guests saw on arriving was a long picnic table covered with a red-and-white paper cloth. There were paper plates stacked at one end. There were platters with sliced ham and roast beef. There was chicken, too, and cheese and salads. Baskets were filled with rolls and whole wheat bread. It was a feast!
Standing behind the table, ready to help her guests, was Miss Douglas. But she was not the Miss Douglas most of the store people knew. Her hair was fluffy and no longer done up in a tight bun. She wore a red shirt and a denim skirt. Her new earrings looked fine.
“Help yourselves, everyone,” she called out happily. “I’m so pleased you could all come!”
Jessie and Violet served iced tea and coffee. They ran back and forth to the house to get more platters of meat and fresh salads. Ted Evans passed the baskets of rolls.
Mr. Furman and Mr. Alden found a shady place to sit. Doris and Toni sat nearby.
“Is Mr. Fogg coming?” Doris asked.
“There he is now,” Toni said. “But what’s he bringing with him?”
Mr. Fogg looked around at the guests and the food set out on the picnic table. He frowned, then a smile slowly spread over his face. “I thought this was a picnic where every guest brings something,” he said, holding out his paper bag.
“Oh, no,” laughed Miss Douglas. “I’m giving this picnic. But if you brought something, that’s fine.” She opened the bag and took out a huge jar of pickles, the largest anyone had ever seen.
“They’re sweet pickles,” Mr. Fogg explained.
Miss Douglas laughed, and so did the others. Maybe Mr. Fogg wasn’t exactly sweet, but he was trying hard not to be the sour pickle he’d often been called behind his back.
People laughed and talked. Miss Douglas made everyone feel at home.
After cake and ice cream, Miss Douglas stood up. Someone rapped on a glass, and everyone became quiet.
“Friends,” she said, “you all know me as Maggie Douglas. Now it is time to tell you who I really am. I’m—”
“Maggie Douglas Squires!” Benny exclaimed loud enough to be heard clearly. He clapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn’t meant to let anyone know he’d solved the mystery.
It didn’t make any difference. Maggie Squires laughed and said, “Benny’s right, that’s who I am. I’m the new owner of Furman’s Department Store. I want all of you to know that I’m pleased with the way the store is run.”
Some of the guests turned red. They remembered that they had not wanted to wait on this woman. They had found her questions hard to answer and had been rude.
Mr. Furman came over and shook Miss Squires by the hand. He said, “Until a few days ago, I only knew the name of the owner who had bought Furman’s Department Store. It was M. D. Squires of New York City. Mr. Alden had assured me this was a reliable person who had a lot of experience. He told me the new owner would be fair and not make sudden changes. I was afraid that might happen if someone new took over the store.”
“Benny, how did you know who I was?” Miss Maggie Squires asked.
“I just put a lot of clues together,” Benny said. “Those notes about the kind of work people were doing, you wrote those, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” nodded Miss Squires.
“And the lockets—you put them on the jewelry counter.”
“Yes, but I really should not have done that,” she said and laughed. “I never dreamed it would cause so much trouble. And Henry nearly caught me when I tried to get in the store at night and couldn’t use my key because the lock had been changed.”
Sam, the night watchman, was staring at Miss Squires. “Then I did hear someone in the store,” he said. “I just had a feeling I wasn’t by myself.”
“I was sure you were going to catch me,” Miss Squires said. “There wasn’t time for me to get out of the store. I didn’t know what to do. I stood very still and tried my best to look like a store dummy. I was afraid I’d sneeze or something.”
“That was you?” Sam said. “Well, you fooled me!”
Mr. Fogg came up and shook Miss Squires by the hand. “You really do know all about merchandise,” he said. “Mr. Furman told us the new owner would know what would sell and what wouldn’t. And you really do.”
“Why, thank you,” said Miss Squires. “I moved to Greenfield a while ago, but I didn’t want to take over Furman’s Department Store suddenly. I wanted to learn to know Greenfield people and the workers in the store. It wasn’t easy to pretend I was cross, complaining, plain Miss Douglas. I want to thank Mr. Furman and all of you for being patient with me. Now we’ll all work together and have the best department store anywhere!”
Everyone clapped and one by one came up to greet Miss Squires.
“Benny and Henry, I hope you’ll work with us again,” Miss Squires said. “Maybe I’ll make Benny my store detective.” |