Read Online Bus Station Mystery by Gertrude Warner - Free Book Online Page B

guests for a bus station dinner next Wednesday night. What do you say?”
    “A bus station dinner!” Benny exclaimed. “Count me in! I never miss a dinner.”
    Everyone laughed so loud at what Benny said that Grandfather stepped over to see what all the noise was about.
    “Guess what, Grandfather,” Jessie said. “Frank has just invited us for a home-cooked dinner, served right at the bus station. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
    “It certainly does,” Mr. Alden replied with a twinkle in his eye. “I almost forgot you were a cook, Frank. I always think of you as a clean-water man.”
    Frank laughed. “I have to be a cook to run a lunch counter at a bus station.”
    “Right,” Mr. Alden said.
    “You’ll come for dinner, too, of course,” Frank said to Grandfather. “After all, I owe you a great deal. Without your offering to show Mr. Pickett how you made your own factory safe, I might have lost my home. And the river might not have been saved.”
    “Fighting pollution is just good sense and good business,” Mr. Alden said.
    “Then Wednesday night it is, at six o’clock,” Frank said. “There are no buses passing through at that hour, so I can put my mind on my cooking. I would invite you to my little house, but the smell of the river is so bad there close to the factory, you wouldn’t enjoy it. But we can have a good time at the bus station.”
    Benny felt as if he could hardly wait for Wednesday to come. He wondered what Frank would serve for dinner. Hamburgers? That wouldn’t be a treat.
    At six o’clock Henry parked the car beside the bus station door.
    The wind was coming from the north, so there was no bad smell in the air.
    Benny was the first one out of the car. He hardly had a chance to rap on the door when Frank opened it. He greeted all the Aldens.
    “Hello, hello,” he said. “Right on time.”
    “We’ve been looking forward to this all week,” Benny said. “And does it smell good in here!”
    “It’s the fish,” Frank replied with a smile. “I bought it at the best market in town. I stuffed it with soft breadcrumbs mixed with butter and salt and spice—”
    “And everything nice,” Violet finished.
    “Yes, and now it is baking. In a few minutes it will be done to a turn.”
    The Aldens saw that Frank had set his biggest table for six. There were real plates and a tablecloth. No paper plates or cups tonight.
    Grandfather looked around and smiled.
    “Sit right down,” said Frank, going into his kitchen.
    Everyone took a seat, and soon Frank began to bring platters of food to his guests.
    “Everything came from my own garden,” Frank said, putting a plate of baked potatoes on the table. Next came a large dish filled with all kinds of vegetables.
    Benny began to count them up. “Carrots, little onions, beets, parsley. And look! Cowslips!”
    “I canned the cowslips last year,” Frank said proudly. “They came from the riverbank on the other side of the factory. But you can’t see dessert yet. It’s in the refrigerator. It’s a mystery dessert.”
    “A mystery dessert sounds like fun,” said Violet.
    “I bet it’s ice cream,” said Benny.
    “I bet it isn’t,” said Frank.
    This was a new Frank. He was happy and joking. Now he knew Mr. Pickett was going to stop pouring dirty water into the river. He knew that many people wanted to save the river and understood how important it was. He could sit back and enjoy the first company dinner he ever served.
    “Vinegar,” Benny said. “For my cowslips. And lemon juice, too.”
    “Lemon is for the fish,” Frank said. He put the baked fish on the table. After serving the fish with an old-fashioned pie knife, Frank sat down.
    Henry and Frank and Mr. Alden talked together. But Benny kept wondering what the mystery dessert could be. He had guessed who Jud’s and Troy’s father was, but he couldn’t guess what the dessert was. It was in the refrigerator, but it wasn’t ice cream. And Frank wouldn’t tell what it