Pet Shop Mystery Read Free Page A

square of gingerbread on the table. Henry carried in a bowl filled with whipped cream.
    After the grown-ups took their servings, Benny passed the cake plate to Soo Lee. “I know Mrs. McGregor’s gingerbread isn’t the surprise.”
    Soo Lee took a tiny piece. She didn’t like sweets nearly as much as Benny did. She watched Benny clean every last crumb from his plate. Finally she whispered to her mother, “Can I show Benny our surprise now?”
    Cousin Alice gave Benny a huge grin. “Yes, now is the perfect time. Everybody out to the boxcar.”
    The three adults and five children trooped to the boxcar.
    Everyone could hear Watch whining from the house. This only made the children more excited about Soo Lee’s surprise.
    “Not another parrot?” Benny cried, hoping it just might be.
    Soo Lee shook her head. “It’s not a parrot.”
    “Hey, you brought your new hamster, Squeaky!” Benny cried when he saw a small animal cage on a table. “That’s a good surprise, Soo Lee.”
    “That’s not the surprise,” Soo Lee said.
    Cousin Joe took Benny by the hand. “Look inside.”
    Benny stood over the cage and looked in. “Hey, Squeaky lost weight!”
    Alice and Joe couldn’t keep from laughing.
    “Not only did Squeaky lose weight,” Alice Alden began, “but we also discovered that Squeaky isn’t a he but a she. She had a litter of hamster pups two weeks ago. That’s Soo Lee’s surprise.”
    Soo Lee opened the cage door. She gently lifted a tiny golden mouselike creature out of the cage. “There were two boy hamsters and two girl hamsters. You can have this boy hamster because you’re a boy, Benny.”
    Benny looked up at Grandfather, who had returned from quieting down Watch. “May I keep the hamster, Grandfather? It doesn’t look like he eats too much.”
    “Hamsters make wonderful pets, Benny,” Mr. Alden said. “Agnes told me what happened a few weeks ago when Mr. Fowler started working there. He mixed up the male and female hamsters. By mistake he sold Alice and Joe a female hamster that was about to have pups, instead of a male hamster.”
    Alice picked up the hamster pup and stroked it. “Imagine our surprise two weeks ago,” she began, “when Soo Lee and I went to feed Squeaky and we found a cage full of little Squeakies! They were quite pink and bald and no bigger than my little finger.”
    “They grow faster than we do, Benny,” Soo Lee told her cousin. “I kept the babies a secret the whole time.”
    Mr. Alden was smiling. “I know it’s not really funny, but Agnes said several people who bought hamsters when Mr. Fowler first started working got the same surprise. Hamsters, hamsters, and more hamsters!”
    Alice returned the pup to the cage. “Some people asked for their money back. But we knew just the place for one of Squeaky’s pups. Some of the neighborhood children will get the others in the litter.”
    Soo Lee looked up at her cousins. “Mrs. Tweedy told my dad I can work at the shop, too.”
    “We know, we know.” Violet hugged Soo Lee. “It will be so much fun taking care of the animals. We can’t wait.”
    Cousin Joe handed Henry a bag with the words PRETTY BIRD PET SHOP on it. “You’ll find hamster food and a water bottle in there, Henry.”
    Henry reached into the bag. “Hey, there’s a mix-up, Cousin Joe. This is turtle food. And I don’t see a water bottle in here, either.”
    Joe Alden shook his head. “Not again! Mr. Fowler took the phone order for the cage and supplies before we came over here. He’s so disorganized, I bet he forgot. There will be hamster babies all over Greenfield with the way he does things. The sales slip is in the bag—unless Mr. Fowler forgot that, too. Maybe when you go to the pet shop you can exchange the turtle food.”
    After the grown-ups went back inside, the younger Alden children took turns playing with Benny’s new hamster. They voted on names for the hamster and decided on “Pipsqueak.”
    Jessie was too busy thinking to play