Summer Camp Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page A

go,” Henry said, speaking through his shark head. “The rest of my cabin is outside.”
    “Hey, where’s your costume, Lizzie?” Benny asked. “Aren’t you going to be a sea turtle like Jessie told me?”
    The sea turtle costume lay on Lizzie’s bed, untouched. Instead, she grabbed her astronaut helmet. “I’m not going to Costume Night as a sea turtle. This is my costume.”
    The campers entered Evergreen Lodge cabin group by cabin group. Kim led her Seals at the front of the costume parade. She had a big confident smile when the audience cheered the space aliens. The Birch Cabin campers stepped to the side to watch the rest of the parade.
    Pirates and goblins and even a couple of campers dressed as Monster Rock paraded in. Campers cheered for one another.
    When Henry’s and Jessie’s Dolphins came in, the cheers were the loudest of all.
    Then Benny tapped Jessie’s dolphin fin to get her attention. “Look at Kim. Her face is all red. She’s not clapping anymore. She’s too mad to clap.”
    “What’s going on, Lizzie?” Kim asked when the Dolphins passed the Seals. “You told me the kids in your cabin were coming as space aliens!”
    The Dolphins turned around. Lizzie had joined the parade, after all — not as an astronaut but as a sea turtle! She actually liked the sea turtle costume better.
    Ginny and Rich had been standing near Kim’s group and had overheard her question to Lizzie.
    “What do you mean, Kim?” Ginny asked. “Did Lizzie tell you what the Dolphins were planning to wear? Please explain yourself.”
    Kim’s space alien headpiece fell sideways on her head. She sputtered and tried to straighten it out.
    “Does anyone know what’s going on?” Ginny asked. “I’m going to have Rich make an announcement to the audience that we are serving refreshments first. In the meantime, I want to get to the bottom of this.”
    Jessie stepped away from her campers. “Did you find the letter we put in your mailbox, Ginny? It might explain this mix-up better than what anyone tells you.”
    Rich overheard this. He handed Ginny the Aldens’ letter. Ginny read it over and looked at Henry and Jessie, puzzled. “You mean you knew Birch Cabin was going to copy your costumes? Why would you think that?”
    “Because they copied Jessie’s Big Idea,” Benny blurted out.
    Kim seemed to shrink back when Benny said this.
    “Was Me and My Buddy really Jessie’s idea, Kim?” Ginny asked.
    Kim nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t think of anything good for that or for the costumes, either. I’m just good at sports, not the new things you and Rich want us to do. Everything is different from the way Camp Seagull used to be. Lizzie told me about Me and My Buddy, so I raced to your office to make sure I submitted it before Jessie got hers in.”
    “What about you, Lizzie?” Ginny asked. “Did you have anything to do with that — and with telling Kim about the Dolphins’ costumes?”
    Lizzie looked like a very unhappy sea turtle. “I did tell Kim about Me and My Buddy so her group would win, not the Aldens’. And I told her about the Dolphins being space aliens, too. But the Aldens fooled everybody.”
    Jessie looked at Lizzie. “We can’t figure out why you don’t seem to want us to have a good time at Camp Seagull.”
    Lizzie stood there, not saying anything. That’s when Zach Pines stepped forward from the crowd of campers. “It’s not hard to figure out. Lizzie and I were supposed to be overnight campers. Then, at the last minute, Ginny and Rich gave our overnight places to you. My dad’s family owned Camp Seagull for a long time, and now Ginny and Rich have taken it over.” Zach put his arm around his sister, which wasn’t too easy to do because of her turtle shell.
    “I was worried I’d never get to be an overnight camper,” Lizzie said. “There are four of you and only two of us. So I did things that would make everybody think you shouldn’t be counselors. Then maybe you wouldn’t be asked