This story is about Henry, Benny, Violet, Jessie, Joe and Alice. The boxcar children were Henry, Benny, Violet and Jessie. Joe and Alice were the boxcar children's cousins.
Henry told Benny to wake up. They were there at the guest home. They were there to see their cousins, Joe and Alice. The boxcar children had their own guesthouse. When they arrived, they looked all around the guesthouse. Then, Joe showed them around the city.
The boxcar children and their cousins rode their bikes to the amusement park. They rode the Merry Go Round and the Tilt-a-whirl. Benny ate cotton candy, that was almost as big as him. They wanted to go in the house of mirrors but it wasn't opened. They were ready to go home.
The man who owned the amusement park, Joshua, came to the house to eat dinner. They talked about the merry-go-round horses. The horses looked different because they were carved out of wood. Karen, his daugther, said they could sell the horses so they could get more exciting rides and maybe even a rollercoaster. Joshua told Benny they would keep the horses.
The next morning, they got up and ate breakfast. Joe, Henry and Alice went to the store to buy groceries. Then they decided to go on a picnic. The rode their bikes to the meadow. Jessie laid down a table cloth on the grass. Violet and Henry set up the picnic.
After they ate, they rolled up their jeans and waded into the water. Next, they went to look at the deserted barn. They left the barn because it was giving them the creeps.
The next morning, the children woke up and went to the lake. Before they went swimming they overheard Karen talking to a man and woman about selling the merry-go-round horses so they could earn money to buy a roller coaster. They went swimming. They got out in the green grass and dried off. After they went home for lunch, they went back to the amusement park. Peter was sketching the horses from the merry-go-round. The other kids wanted to see what he sketched. He did not let them see his sketches. Jesse wondered why he didn't want them to see Peter's sketchings.
Next after riding the merry-go-round they went to the house of mirrors. While there Jesse got lost. The other kids looked for Jesse but they could not find her. When the found Jesse, the found the exit. When they got out, Violet wanted to know if the other kids were ready to go home. But, Benny wanted to ride the merry-go-round one more time. This time he wanted to ride a different one instead of the dapple gray one. He wanted to ride the torquise one instead. But Benny's horse didn't do anything. It did not go up and down. They thought they should tell Joshua.
They went to see Joshua and told him that the horse didn't go up and down. They also told him that another horse had a bad scratch. They tried to solve the mystery. Then Benny found that one of the horse's stomach wasn't painted. It was plain, old wood.
The boxcar children recieved a phone call from a man who said, "Never come to the amusement park again!" That afternoon the children played monopoly. Jesse won. Then the doorbell rang. Joe and Alice were at the door. Violet told them about the frightening phone call. Joe and Alice suggested they go out to Mike's Speggetti resturant, then go to a movie called "A Robot who had a Heart", and then they went to get caramel sundaes. On the way home they all saw lights flashing at the amusement park. Joe and Alice decided to go tell Joshua first thing in the morning what they saw. The children had a hard time going to sleep because they were thinking about the flashing lights and the messed up horses.
After the late night out, the children slept later than ever. Henry mixed up a batch of pancakes, Violet made sausages and Benny set up the table. They ate breakfast. They saw Josh. The phone call was a secret. When they arrived at the park, they parked their bikes. They were going to tell Joshua about the flashing lights they saw the night before. They also told Karen about the picture flashes. Karen didn't think it was serious but Joshua did. He called an expert to come see if the Dentzel horses were real. He found out they were real.
The boxcar children received a letter. The letter said, "Aldens go home! You are snoopy and don't belong. Don't return to the amusement park. Signed the watcher." They went to the drugstore to buy sneakers for Alice. While they were at the drugstore they saw Frank and Sheila talking to Ms. Margaret Macy. They saw Sheila give Margaret Macy an envelope. There was money in the envelope. They thought it was a card saying hope you had a good trip. She took money out of the envelope and began to count it. They were wondering why Joshua couldn't pay Maragret himself. It didn't make sense.
The children realized that Margaret said the Dentzel horses we real but really she had been paid to just say that. They wanted to tell Joshua. They went to the amuzement park and acted natural so Sheila and Frank wouldn't think that the children saw them. Benny wanted to buy cotton candy so he could look natural. Then they rode the Farris Wheel. Sheila took over the Farris Wheel worker. The worker when to the coffee stand. The children realized that everyone was off except them. They though that Sheila would keep them up there. Then it came to a abrupt stop.
