Grandfather took the letter and chuckled. “I sure hope not,” he said. “How about I open it at the table?”

  He and the children washed up for lunch, and Mrs. McGregor carried a platter of turkey sandwiches and a fruit salad to the table. Henry poured lemonade, and they all sat down.

  Grandfather put on his reading glasses, opened the envelope, and scanned the letter. After a moment, he grinned. “Well, would you look at that.”

  “It’s not trouble, then?” Jessie asked.

  Grandfather shook his head. “Nothing to worry about, but it is important. This is an official jury summons.”

  “What’s that?” Violet asked.

  Grandfather took off his glasses. “Every citizen in our country who is over the age of eighteen has a responsibility to serve on a jury when he or she is called. A jury is just a group of regular people who play an important role in court cases. They listen to the facts and make a decision about whether someone who has been accused of a crime is guilty.”

  “Wow,” Henry said. “That sounds like a big job.”

  “It can be,” Grandfather said. “But I have never done it before. Even as old as I am, I’ve never been called for jury duty. My friend Sam, on the other hand—that young man who owns the car wash downtown—he just told me last week that he’s been called five different times!”

  Violet popped a strawberry into her mouth. “Why do they keep calling him instead of you?” she asked.

  “They aren’t doing it on purpose,” Grandfather said. “People are chosen for jury duty at random. So it’s just a coincidence that he has been called so many times.”

  Benny’s forehead wrinkled, and he twisted up his mouth. Jessie could tell that he was confused.

  “Benny,” Jessie said, “a coincidence means something that happens by chance, not for any reason. The people in charge didn’t call Sam so many times on purpose.”

  “Hmm,” Benny said. “Well, either way, jury duty sounds pretty boring if you have to sit in a room and listen to a lot of people talk. Unless they have snacks.”

  Grandfather laughed. “Actually, they do sometimes, if the case goes on a long time. The judge makes sure the jury gets to take breaks for meals, and sometimes they even order food for the jurors to eat if they can’t leave the courthouse.”

  “Like pizza?” Benny asked, his eyes brightening.

  “Probably,” Grandfather said. “But even without pizza, I am happy to do my duty now that it’s my turn. I have to go to Silver City to do it.”

  “I love Silver City!” Jessie said.

  “Yes, me too,” said Grandfather, “and come to think of it, this jury summons might be a good coincidence. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to get to Silver City to visit my friend Gwen. We went to high school together, but I haven’t seen her in years. She has been going through a bad few months. This could be excellent timing.”

  Violet looked concerned. “What happened to her?”

  “There was a fire in the apartment building Gwen owns—the Bixby,” Grandfather said. “Fortunately, no one got hurt. But the building was damaged. It’s almost one hundred years old, and it’s built in a style called art deco, which was popular in the 1920s.”

  “What’s art deco?” Henry asked, taking the last bite of his sandwich.

  “That means the design contains all kinds of interesting decoration,” Grandfather said, “like silver and gold and tiles in bright patterns. The whole building is a work of art. It’s going to take a lot of careful work to bring it all back to the way it used to be.”

  “Maybe we could help,” Henry said.

  Grandfather thought this over. “I’m not sure,” he said. “That kind of work can be really difficult. Lots of dirt. Lots of heavy lifting.”

  “But Grandfather, you saw how much work we did in the front yard today,” Jessie said.

  “That’s right,” Henry added. “The Aldens don’t shy away from hard work. I think we could handle this job. And don’t forget, school is closed on Monday and Tuesday.”

  Grandfather smiled. “You know, you’re right. I would love to introduce you to Gwen, and she sure could use a few extra sets of hands. Let’s take a long weekend in Silver City.”

  Violet clapped her hands. She remembered that she had a book in her room about architecture. She wanted to look in the index to see if it said anything about the art deco style Grandfather had described. It sounded beautiful.

  Just then, a large clap of thunder interrupted the conversation, and fat drops began to plink against the window.

  “Oh no,” Benny said. “The bad sign! Just like Ms. Singleton said.”

  “Or,” Henry said, “it is just a coincidence.”

  Check out the Boxcar Children Interactive Mysteries!

  Have you ever wanted to help the Aldens crack a case? Now you can with these interactive, choose-your-path-style mysteries!

  GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.

  Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car—the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

  While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible—something else that delights young readers.

  Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

  GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER grew up in Putnam, Connecticut. She wrote The Boxcar Children because she had always dreamed about what it would be like to live in a caboose or a freight car—just as the Aldens do. When readers asked for more adventures, Warner wrote more books—a total of nineteen in all.

  After her death, other authors have continued to write stories about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, and today the Boxcar Children series has more than one hundred and fifty books.

 

 

  Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Power Down Mystery

 

 

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