The Stuffed Bear Mystery Read online

  A few minutes later, Jessie checked the Bear Den again. “Okay, now we can look around as much as we like without anybody thinking we shouldn’t. Miss Sayer is out front bothering Doc again. I wonder if he figured out how to fix her bear.”

  “I’mmm Chaaaattter Baaaaar,” the Aldens overheard the bear. “Annnnnd IIIII like toooooo talkkkkkk.”

  Miss Sayer scolded Doc. “You still didn’t fix him. Now his voice is too low and too slow. Nobody will be able to understand what he’s saying. That’s not how he’s supposed to talk.”

  Violet hugged Mister B. He wasn’t saying a word.

  “Please, Miss Sayer,” the children heard Doc say. “I need plenty of light and space to work on Chatter Bear. Why don’t you go work on your booth at the Town Hall and come back here later?”

  Miss Sayer hesitated before finally leaving Doc and Chatter Bear.

  “Whew!” Doc said to the Aldens when they came out to see him. “It’s hard to work when someone stands over you.”

  “Oh, would you like us to leave until you’re done?” Jessie asked.

  Doc smiled. “Some interruptions I enjoy. How do you like all the antique bears in the Bear Den?”

  “I like the one called Herr Bear,” Jessie said. “Whose bear is it?”

  “The owner, Mrs. Withers, isn’t arriving for a few days. That’s when the prize is given for the rarest bear in the Teddy Bear Jamboree,” said Doc. “Herr bear is so rare that he has a good chance of winning.”

  Henry thought about this. “Maybe that’s why the lady with the braid opened the cabinet to look at it.”

  Now Doc looked worried. “With the jamboree about to start, so many visitors stopped by, I lost track of who was here. This is why I always keep the Herr Bear cabinet locked. That particular Herr Bear is extremely rare.”

  “How come?” Benny wanted to know.

  “Well,” Doc said. “He’s the boy twin of a female bear called Fraulein Bear. That means ‘Miss Bear’ in German; Herr Bear means ‘Mister Bear.’ The Swiss designer made only one twin pair for his own children. The only difference between them is the color of their eyes. The girl bear has golden eyes and the boy blue eyes. The designer made other Herr Bears, but they have black eyes, and they are smaller than the twins.”

  “Does the owner own Fraulein Bear, too?” Violet asked Doc. “It’s sad when brothers and sisters get separated from each other—especially twins.”

  “Even if they’re bear twins,” Benny added.

  “I know,” Doc agreed. “Unfortunately, no one has been able to track down the girl twin. I’ve checked all my antique bear books, searched the Internet, and asked every teddy bear collector I’ve met about Fraulein Bear. No luck so far.”

  “We didn’t get a good look at Herr Bear,” Benny said. “The lady closed the cabinet.”

  “Whew,” Doc said, relieved to hear this. “I must have left the key in the lock by mistake when I heard Miss Sayer carrying on before. Well, no harm done. I’ll get Herr Bear from the cabinet so you can get a good look at him.”

  Everyone followed Doc into the Bear Den. When they came to the Herr Bear cabinet, the children stared inside.

  Doc’s key was still in the lock. But there was no bear staring back. The cabinet was empty.

  CHAPTER 3

  Hey! Hay!

  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 stu
ffing.

  “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.

  CHAPTER 4

  Syrup and Suspects

  “I smell maple syrup,” a voice said from under the covers in Benny’s bed.

  Jessie sat up and sniffed. “I smell it, too. It must be coming from the sugarhouse. Peggy said that’s where they boil the sap from their maple trees to get syrup. Mmm. Maybe this morning we’ll get some of those delicious-tasting pancakes Grandfather told us about.”

  “Baa,” the Aldens heard next as they slowly awakened. Smudge looked up from the basket of fleece by Benny’s bed. He wanted breakfast, too.

  Soon more animal sounds joined the chorus. Rudy the rooster was crowing outside. Midnight and Taf were scratching and whining at the Aldens’ door.

  “No use trying to sleep any longer,” Henry said. “It’s a zoo around here. I guess it’s time to get up.”

  In no time, the children had dressed and tidied up Shepherd’s Cottage. Animals trailing, they headed toward the main house, where Peggy and Doc’s famous Woolly Farm breakfast was being served.

  “Oh, look, there goes Miss Sayer with that tote bag of hers,” Jessie said. “Now it doesn’t looked all bulged out the way it did yesterday. But I still have a feeling she’s the one who took the special fleece Peggy set aside.”

  “Should we ask her?” Benny wanted to know. “If she did take Peggy’s fleece, we should tell her to bring it back!”

  Jessie hesitated. “I would, but I don’t want her to know we’re watching her—at least until we find the person who took Doc’s Herr Bear.”

  “I could sit next to her at breakfast and drop a fork or something,” Benny said. “Then I could see if there’s any fleece sticking out of her pocketbook—or maybe even the Herr Bear.”

  Henry picked up Benny by both arms and gave him a whirl. “Good plan, Benny. Just don’t let Miss Sayer take the bacon and sausages from your plate while you’re under the table.”

  “I won’t,” Benny said, very certain of that.

  The Aldens dropped off Smudge in the lamb pen, then came in the kitchen entrance of the main house. Peggy was at the stove, carefully stacking some golden pancakes onto a plate.

  “Mmm. Good morning. Need any help?” Henry asked.

  Peggy looked up. “Good morning, children. You’re just in time to bring this plate to Professor Tweedy. He’s the man at the corner table, with the glasses. Maybe you can keep him company by sitting at his table. He said his pancakes were too dry, so I made him some more.”

  Benny sniffed the air. “These sure
don’t look too dry. We were going to sit next to Miss Sayer, though.”

  Peggy looked over the children’s heads. “Oh, she just sat down with some other bear people here for the jamboree. Professor Tweedy is our only guest this week who isn’t a teddy bear person.” She bent down to whisper to the children. “He’s very serious, but I’m sure he would enjoy meeting four polite children.”

  Jessie looked up at Peggy. “Oh, we already met him at the toy hospital,” she whispered back. “He didn’t seem to think we belonged there.”

  Peggy put down her measuring cup. “Professor Tweedy at the toy hospital? Doc didn’t mention that. I’m surprised. The professor usually avoids bear people.” Peggy dropped a pat of butter on the pancakes. “He told me he’s giving an important talk on American presidents at a nearby college. He checked in late last night, so Doc hasn’t seen him here yet.”

  “There were a lot of people at the toy hospital,” Jessie mentioned. “That man was in the book room reading. Then we saw him looking around the Bear Den. I’m sure it’s the same man.”

  Peggy’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Goodness. You just never know about people.”

  When the Aldens joined Professor Tweedy in the dining room, he didn’t look up from his magazine. He frowned as the children sat down.

  “Peggy asked us to give you these,” Violet said when she set his pancakes on the table. “We’re the Aldens. We saw you at Doc’s toy hospital, remember?”

  The professor finally peered over the glasses perched on his nose. He didn’t seem too interested in the four pairs of eyes staring at him. “Indeed.” Then he went back to stirring his coffee and reading his magazine, as if the children weren’t even there.

  “We’re here for the Teddy Bear Jamboree,” Violet said. “It’s going to be fun. We have a bear we’re going to fix up. Want to see him?”

  Mr. Tweedy speared a bite of pancake, ignoring Violet.

  “Our bear is almost as old as our grandfather,” Violet said.