Disappearing Staircase Mystery Read Online Free Page A

playhouse soon filled with sounds of sleeping bag zippers being unzipped and clothes being zipped,
    “Brrr,” Henry said. “It’s always hard to get out of my sleeping bag. Let’s hurry to the main house. Brian told Nan that they got the furnace working yesterday.”
    “I hope they got the hot chocolate working, too,” Benny added.
    The Aldens got dressed and hurried from the playhouse to the main house. It was cold and damp outside.
    When they arrived, the kitchen table was piled high with good things to eat and drink for breakfast.
    “Help yourselves to whatever you want,” Mabel told the volunteers. “Don’t be shy.”
    “We won’t be,” Benny said when he came to the table. “Yum, these look just like Mrs. McGregor’s corn muffins.”
    “Those are Mrs. McGregor’s muffins,” Grandfather said with a laugh. “I brought them with me along with Soo Lee this morning. Mrs. McGregor and Watch miss you.”
    “Finish up, everyone,” Mabel called out. “You’ll find our job assignments on the work list.” She turned to the Alden children. “I have a special job for all of you.”
    “What is it?” Benny and Soo Lee asked.
    “I saw what a tidy job you did in the playhouse. Now I need helpers on the top floor of the nursery wing,” Mabel said. “There are odds and ends to clear out before the electricians get to work. The third-floor nursery rooms are small. You children are just the right size for the job.”
    Soo Lee stood on her tiptoes. “But I’m big. My mommy said so.”
    Mabel smiled. “Yes, you are just the kind of big girl I need as a helper. Here are some cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner. Now off you go.”
    The Aldens were just gathering up everything when Nan came over.
    “Did I hear you say the Aldens are to clean out the nursery wing?” Nan asked Mabel.
    Mabel nodded.
    Nan’s mouth tightened into a frown. “But, but I heard the Gardiners say they need help outside.”
    “Fine,” Mabel said. “The children will help them after the nursery rooms are cleaned. See you later, Aldens.”
    The children climbed several sets of creaky, winding stairs before they finally reached the third floor. Each of the small nursery rooms was decorated with painted figures on the walls, though most of them were faded away. Some broken pieces of child-sized furniture stood in the corner along with a few torn children’s books yellowed with age. Everything lay under a thick coat of dust.
    The children spent the next couple hours sweeping, scrubbing, and gathering the odds and ends scattered about.
    “It must have been so pretty when the Bugbee children lived here,” Violet said as she swept some paper scraps into a dustbin. “Someone hand-painted all these clowns and animals on the walls. Now it’s all going to be covered over. Let’s save the different things we’ve found just in case the Bugbee children come back someday.”
    “Even if they did,” Henry told Violet, “they’d be all grown up by now.”
    Jessie swept some cobwebs from the ceiling with a broom. “But guess what. Mabel told Grandfather that these will be kept as playrooms. When children come to visit their grandparents after House and Hands fixes up the house, they can play up here and in the playhouse.”
    “I hope so,” Violet said. “Grandfather kept rooms for us at his house.”
    The children were quiet as they gathered up some items they had found. They searched around for Violet’s music box with the dancing bear but didn’t find it. As they quietly went about their work, the Aldens heard something. Footsteps!
    “What’s that?” Benny looked up. “Is somebody walking on the roof? I hope that ceiling is good and strong.”
    Henry walked over to a window. “Ugh. These windows are hard to open. Oh, good, I got it. Anybody on the roof?” he yelled.
    The footsteps stopped, but no one answered.
    “That’s weird,” Henry said. “It sounds as if somebody was around here somewhere. But I don’t see anyone.”