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09 - The Box Car Children - Gertrude Warner · Adventure Books Collection

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  Chapter nine, cherry picking. Henry meditated a while all to himself early the
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  next morning as to whether he ought to take any one with him for the
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  cherry picking. He certainly said he could use more than one, he mused.
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  Failing to decide the question, he laid it before his sisters as they
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  ate bread and milk for breakfast. I can't see any reason except one why
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  we shouldn't all go, said Jess. What's that, asked Henry. Well,
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  you see, there are four of us, and supposing grandfathers looking for
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  us, it will be easier to find four than one, true, agreed
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  Henry. But supposing we went down the hill and through the streets two by
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  two, and you took watch. It was finally agreed that Henry and Benny
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  would attract very little attention. Together, Violet and Jess would follow with the
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  dog who would trace Henry. And so they set out. They took down
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  the clothes line and closed the car door. Everything instantly looked as lonesome as
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  heart could wish. Even the merry little brook looked deserted. When the children
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  arrived at the McAllister orchard, they soon saw that they were not the only
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  workers. Two hired men and the young doctor himself were carrying ladders and baskets
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  from the barn, and the Irish cook was bringing piles of square baskets from
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  the house, the kind that strawberries are sold in. The girls can pick
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  cherries as well as I can, said Henry, introducing his sisters. Benny
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  ought not to climb very tall trees, but we had to bring him.
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  Benny can carry the baskets, perhaps, suggested the doctor, much amused.
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  You see, this is a cherry year, and we have to work quickly
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  when we once begin. Perhaps he could fill the small baskets from the big
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  ones. It was a cherry year, certainly. There were two varieties in
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  the orchard, the pale yellow kind with a red cheek, and the deep
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  crimson ones, which were just as red in the center as they were on
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  the outside. The red ones were huge, bursting with juice, and the
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  trees were laid in full with the luscious fruit. Even the air was perfumed.
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  It was a pretty sight that the doctor finally turned his back upon when
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  he went on his calls. Henry, slim, tanned and graceful, picked
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  rapidly from the tallest ladder in the largest tree. The two girls, in
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  their sensible bloomer suits could climb like cats. They leaned against the ladders easily
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  about half way up, their fluffy short hair gleaming in the sun. Benny
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  trotted to and fro, waiting upon the busy pickers, his cheeks as red
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  as the cherries themselves. Eat all you want, doctor mc allister called back.
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  They did not really obey this command, but occasionally a set of white
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  teeth bit into one of the glorious ox hearts. In less than an hour,
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  Benny had made five firm friends. The hired men joked with him,
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  the cook petted him, the young doctor laughed at him delightedly, and sweet
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  missus mc allister fell in love with him. Finally, he seated himself comfortably
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  at her side under the trees, and filled square boxes with great care under
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  her direction. I never had such a cheerful crowd of cherry pickers before,
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  missus mc allister said, at last, I'd much rather stay out here than
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  go into the house where it is cool. Evidently Mary the cook felt the
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  same way, for she kept coming to the orchard for some reason or other.
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  When the doctor returned at lunch time, his orchard was ringing with laughter
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  and good natured barks from Watch, who could not feel easy in his mind
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  with his mistress so high up in a tree where he couldn't follow. Doctor
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  mc allister paused in the garage long enough to give a sniff to the boiling
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  cherries in the kitchen, and then made his way to the orchard, where
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  he received a warm welcome. There's no use in your going home to lunch,
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  he smiledly observed, at the same time watching Henry's face carefully, you
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  can eat right here in the orchard, unless your mother will be worrying about
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  you. This remark met with an astounding silence. Henry was the first to
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  collect his wits. No, our mother is dead, he said evenly,
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  without embarrassment. It was the doctor who hastened to change the subject he had
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  introduced. I smelled something when I came in, he said to Benny.
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  What did it smell like, inquired Benny. It smelled like cherry slump,
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  replied the doctor with twinkling eyes. Cherry what, asked Jess, struggling down
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  her ladder with a full basket. I think that's what they call it.
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  Slump, repeated doctor mc allister. Do care to try it. At this
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  moment Mary appeared in the orchard with an enormous tray, and at first sight
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  of her cookery, nobody cared the least what its name was. It was
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  that rare combination of dumpling beaten with stone cherries and cooked gently in the juice
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  of the ox heart cherries in a real cherry year. It was steaming in
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  the red juice with the least suspicion of melted butter over the hole. Do
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  get two more, Mary begged missus mc allister, laughing. It tastes so
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  much better under the cherry trees. This was another meal that nobody ever forgot.
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  Even the two hired men sitting under another tree devouring the delicious pudding paused
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  to hear Benny laugh. Nowadays those two men sometimes meet Henry, but that's
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  another story. Anyway, they never will forget that cherry slump made by Irish
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  Mary. Almost as soon as lunch was over, Benny rolled over on the
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  grass and went to sleep, his head as usual on the dog's back,
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  But the others worked on steadily. Missus mc allister kept an eye on them
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  from the screened porch without their knowledge. Just see how how those children.
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  Keep at it. She said to her son, there's good stuff in them.
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  I should like to know where they come from. Doctor mc allister said
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  nothing. He sauntered out into the orchard. When he thought they had worked
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  long enough, he paid them four dollars and gave them all the cherries they
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  could carry. Although they tried to object. You see, you're better than
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  most pickers because you're so cheerful. He noticed that they did not all leave
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  the yard at the same time. When the cherry pickers returned to their little
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  home, they examined everything carefully. Nothing had been disturbed. The door was
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  still shut, and the milk and butter stood untouched in the refrigerator. They
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  made a hilarious meal of raw cherries and bread and butter, and before the
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  stars came out, they were fast asleep, happy and dreamless. That evening,
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  very much later, a young man sat in his study with the evening
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  paper. He read the news idly and was just on the point of tossing
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  the paper aside when this advertisement caught his eye. Lost four children, aged
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  thirteen, twelve, ten and five, somewhere around the region of Middlesex and
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  Townsend, five thousand dollars reward for information. James Henry Cordyce. Whew,
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  whistled the young man, James Henry Cordyce. He sat in perfect silence for
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  a long time, thinking, Then he went to bed. But long after
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  he had gone upstairs, he whistled again, and could have been heard to
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  say, if any one had been awake to hear it, James Henry Cordyce,
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  of all people, end of Chapter nine