The Haunted House Mystery

Peter and Julie were excited. They were visiting Aunt Mary again in her rambling old house near Mendocino, on the

California coast. The house was surrounded by tall, dark trees and, even in sunny weather, there always seemed to be a fog

swirling around it.

Two years ago, when they were ten, they had spent a week with Aunt Mary. Most of the time they had roamed freely and

had been fascinated by the many dark rooms and closets in the old house. They thought it was haunted and had made up

many stories about the ghosts that lived there.

According to Aunt Mary the house really was haunted. Strange things were happening which had no logical explanation.

There must be ghosts in the house. She wanted the twins to help her discover what was going on. After all, they loved to

solve mysteries. They had helped, two years ago, return a stray dog to its owners and had also found that it was gophers

digging up her garden.

The house must be haunted, it sure looked like every haunted house they had read about or seen in the movies.

Two weeks ago a very valuable earring had disappeared from Aunt Mary’s dresser. She had searched everywhere; on

the floor, in the bathroom, in all the other rooms she had been in that day, all to no avail. Aunt Mary was very upset. Then, a

few days later, a cherished broach went missing. Again, a thorough search turned up nothing. Something spooky was

happening but Aunt Mary couldn’t discover what it was. She was certain that Peter and Julie could.

They were in the same rooms they had occupied on their previous visit, on the second floor, down the hall from Aunt

Mary’s room. These two rooms were theirs any time they wanted to visit. Each room had been furnished especially for them.

In the morning of the second day of their visit a loud exclamation from Aunt Mary’s room brought the twins running. Aunt

Mary was almost in tears.

“I must be getting forgetful in my old age. I could swear I put my diamond ring on the night stand last night, but it isn’t

there this morning. Where can it be?”

At this anguished cry Peter and Julie exchanged a quick glance, then Julie responded, “It has to be in the house, Aunt

Mary. Peter and I will find it. We’ll start looking right after breakfast.”

Peter nodded agreement to this, then all three went downstairs to a sumptuous break- fast of fresh strawberries and

sweet waffles, with real maple syrup. This was the kind of breakfast Aunt Mary loved to prepare.

After breakfast the twins began a thorough search of the house. They started in the attic. If there were ghosts they would

most likely be there. They slowly crept up the stairs and opened the creaking attic door. It was dark and creepy in there.

In no time they were covered with dust as they poked into corners and brushed aside large spider webs that were

everywhere. So many odds and ends were stored in the attic they wondered if they would ever be able to look at everything.

Old lamps, steamer trunks, a dressmaker’s dummy much too slender to accommodate Aunt Mary’s present ample figure

were only a few of the items they looked at and moved aside in their search for signs of the missing jewelry. Nowhere was

there any indication that anything had been disturbed for years.

When Aunt Mary called them for lunch she burst into laughter at the sight of them. They could have easily passed as

chimney sweeps. Before they could come to the table they had to go outside and brush the dirt and dust off each other.

When they saw themselves in the full light of day both of them broke into eye-tearing laughter.

After lunch they continued their search of the attic, without ant success. Nowhere did they find any trace of the jewelry.

Aunt Mary was very disappointed.

The next day they resumed the search. The cellar was much more open than the attic and considerably cleaner. It was

also divided into small rooms which made the search easier to organize.

One room contained an old, seldom used oil furnace. This area was quickly eliminated. Except for the furnace the room

was empty, no dark corners existed.

Another small room had a neatly arranged workshop, with tools and related hardware that had belonged to Aunt Mary’s

late husband. All of these were tidily stowed on shelves or on pegs on the wall. Again, there was no sign of the objects of

their search.

Next to the workshop was a large room in which stacks of wood for the fireplace were stored.

“Are we going to have to move that whole woodpile?” asked Peter.

“If we can’t find what we’re looking for anywhere else,” Julie replied.

As they started to remove wood from one end of the pile they noticed a small, dome-shaped structure behind the pile.

They stopped to examine it closely. It looked as if someone, or something, had swept all the cast-off and broken items one

finds in a house into a pile about three feet across. There were pieces of broken china, short lengths of wire, rags, an old

dish mop, and many other odd bits of interwoven throughout the pile.

The twins were fascinated, but bewildered. What in the world had they found? Quickly, Peter ran to the bottom of the

cellar stairs and called Aunt Mary.

“What is that?” he asked.

Aunt Mary scratched her head before replying, then bent down to take a closer look.

“It looks like a packrat’s nest,” she replied. “This may be the answer to our mystery. Packrats are thieves that collect all

kinds of small, shiny objects and use them to build their homes.”

Aunt Mary reached for a flashlight that was hanging on the wall nearby and shone it into the nest.

“There they are,” she exclaimed and, reaching in, brought out first her broach, then her diamond ring and last, her earring.

“The mystery has been solved. It’s so nice having you two around when something mysterious happens. This calls for a

celebration.”

The rest of the day was festive. Aunt Mary treated the twins to an amusement park, then dinner at their favorite restaurant

and topped off the evening by taking them to a movie. The movie was about a haunted house.