The Mystery at Maypenny's Read Online Free PDF

today you’re behind him all the way. Maybe he’ll give you the same snow job next time.”
    “Dan—” Honey’s voice was pleading, and she put a restraining hand on the boy’s arm.
    “I’m sorry,” Dan said. “I just—” He broke off in mid sentence, the look in his eyes begging his friends to understand.
    “I can see your point of view,” Jim said quietly. “But I can see my father’s—Sleepyside’s—too. I have to back him in selling the land.”
    “And I have to back Mr. Maypenny in trying to stop him,” Dan replied.
    The two boys looked at each other steadily for a long moment. Then Dan abruptly gathered up his things and walked away.
    Trixie watched him leave. Now the factory expansion is dividing the Bob-Whites , she thought. She looked around at her circle of friends and found them all looking uneasily at one another. She knew that they were all echoing her own troubled thoughts: Who’s next?

Dan’s Surprise ● 4

    DURING THE FOLLOWING week, the news about International Pine’s offer spread throughout Sleepyside. And wherever the news spread, it touched off the same arguments that had already begun among the Bob-Whites.
    To many of Sleepyside’s worried businessmen, who had seen their sales fall off because of rising unemployment, the possibility that International Pine might expand, creating new jobs and bringing new money into the community, seemed like a dream come true.
    But to many of the older people in town, who had grown up in a Sleepyside that was quiet and rural, the expansion was more like a nightmare. They worried not only about the increase in pollution that the expansion might cause, but also about the change in their community. If their sons and grandsons left .farming and shopkeeping behind to work in a factory, would they leave the old customs and traditions behind, too?
    To Trixie, it began to seem as though talking about International Pine was as much a part of everyday life as eating and sleeping. Interviews with the company president and with environmental experts filled the front page of the Sleepy-side Sun. The paper received so many letters to the editor on the expansion issue that it had to devote a full page, instead of the usual half page, to them each day.
    Many of the store owners in town hung signs in their windows, either in support of or against the factory expansion.
    Even in school, as she walked down the hallways, Trixie could hear her classmates arguing about the issue. In class, too, the expansion was worked into history, social studies, and science classes.
    It seemed to Trixie that the only place in town where the International Pine controversy was not discussed was at the Bob-Whites’ lunch table at school and in their section of the school bus.
    After the argument between Jim and Dan, the Bob-Whites had agreed not to discuss International Pine, the proposed expansion, Mr. Wheeler’s decision to sell, or Mr. Maypenny’s decision not to. In the end, they had realized, their own opinions would have very little effect on what happened. It would be better to keep those opinions to themselves so that, whatever the outcome, the Bob-Whites would still be friends when the controversy was over.
    Trixie did talk things over with her brothers when they were away from the other Bob-Whites, but she found that they continued to be as confused about the issue as she was. Because of the things their father had told them, they realized that more jobs were necessary; on the other hand, they all loved the preserve. They loved Mr. Maypenny, too. It was impossible for any of them to take a firm stand one way or the other.
    On Thursday, Brian announced at the dinner table that his social studies class was going to have a debate the following week.
    “The subject is International Pine, of course,” he said. “I’m on the affirmative team. Dad, would you help me put together some facts and figures?”
    “I will,” Peter Belden said.
    “What made you finally decide