Read The Mystery at Mead's Mountain for Free Online Page B

like?”
    “Bacon and scrambled eggs?” Jim suggested.
    “How about adding hashbrowns, toast, and juice?” Mart put in quickly. “Mountain air, you know.”
    Miss Trask laughed. “Katie, I’m afraid you’ll get to know Mart’s appetite all too well by the end of the week.”
    Katie disappeared into the kitchen, and the Bob-Whites and Miss Trask sat down at one of the long tables covered with a bright tablecloth. In came a petite, brown-haired girl carrying a tray of mugs of steaming hot chocolate.
    With a friendly smile, she introduced herself as Linda Fleming. “Katie thought you might want some hot chocolate .after your early morning swim. How do you like the pool?” she asked, passing around the tray.
    “What a way to start the day!” Brian rhapsodized.
    “You just liked it because you were able to swim and have a snowball fight at the same time,” said Trixie sourly.
    “And you, Beatrix, are just mad because you kept forgetting to duck,” chuckled Mart.
    “Just wait till later. You’ll get yours,” threatened Trixie, pretending to throw a snowball.
    “You certainly know how to strike terror into the heart of a young boy,” Mart said, not bothering to duck.
    “Don’t mind them,” Brian told Linda. “They’re still going through sibling rivalry. I take it you work here?”
    “Yes, with my twin sister, Wanda. We’re taking a semester off from college to earn money for expenses. Since we love to ski, working here is really ideal for us. Here comes Wanda now.” She pointed to a girl coming toward them with another tray.
    Wanda was a little taller than her sister and had a sturdier build. She had long dark hair that flowed all the way down her back and, like her sister, had the healthy, glowing complexion that goes with outdoor living.
    “This is only the beginning,” Wanda said cheerfully as she passed around the large pottery bowls of scrambled eggs and hashbrowns and the platter of bacon.
    “Wow! Food service wins the prize for high ratings,” said Mart. Before he even took a bite, he took out his notebook and quickly scribbled down a few words.
    Di looked knowing. “I can guess what’s on Mart’s like list.”
    “Just wait till you taste the food,” mumbled Mart between mouthfuls. “It will end up on yours, too.”
    “Pat told us about your father’s plan for this lodge,” said Wanda to Honey and Jim. “Linda and I are delighted. We grew up in Groverville and have been coming to these mountains since we were little kids. We have a lot of memories of fishing and camping with our parents here, and we were hoping this wouldn’t be turned into a large commercial ski area. It’s hard to find this kind of solitude, freedom, and peacefulness anywhere else, so it would be a terrible waste to ruin the area with another ski resort. Vermont has so many.”
    “This does seem like the ideal place for a natural resort area,” Jim agreed.
    “Mead’s Mountain is a private, personal kind of place,” Linda said emotionally. “I know in the week you’re here you’ll get to love it the way Wanda and I do.”
    Katie came in with still another tray, this one with big pitchers of orange juice and milk and baskets of homemade sweet rolls.
    “Katie,” Honey said, looking at her appreciatively, “I’m surprised to see you in a long skirt, instead of in ski pants like Linda and Wanda. Don’t you like to ski?”
    “Honey, I’ll let you in on my secret.” Katie lifted her gaily colored skirt to her knees, revealing a pair of ski pants underneath. “I love to ski! I’d rather ski than just about anything, but I do have other duties. When I’m just wearing ski pants, I want to be out on the slopes, but somehow in a long skirt I feel more like an indoor-type pioneer woman. So I wear the skirt while I work inside, but I keep the ski clothes on underneath so I’ll be ready to go instantly.”
    “How clever,” said Trixie, glad that she herself hardly ever had to wear a long skirt.
    There