The footprints in the lime showed that Alex had walked away, back toward the Kirk farm.
“Hmmpph,” said Taylor. “I’m going back to my garden, but I’ll talk to Mr. Kirk later. Alex can’t be allowed to steal our vegetables.”
“I have to apologize to a lot of people,” said Roger. “I’ll get started.”
The children and Mr. Yee watched Taylor unlock her garden gate, go into her garden, and lock the gate behind herself. Then they watched Roger walk to the far end of the community gardens, where he began to talk to a gardener.
Mr. Yee still held the big American blue rabbit.
“Is that your rabbit now?” Benny asked. He liked the way the rabbit’s ears moved back and forth and how its nose twitched.
“No, Benny,” said Mr. Yee. “It is probably Lucasta’s rabbit. And I don’t like rabbits.” He fed the rabbit another lettuce leaf as he said this.
Henry and Jessie and Violet all smiled at one another.
“Come,” said Mr. Yee. “We’ll go to work.”
Once they were inside the garden, Benny went straight to the strawberries and Henry went to the peas and beans.
Jessie and Violet went to the lettuce and carrots. Mr. Yee followed them.
“Oh, no!” cried Violet when they reached the rows of carrots. She pointed to the ground. “The garden thief has been here. He stole all the carrots!”
“What?!” shouted Mr. Yee. “My carrots! I always win a blue ribbon for my carrots!” He was very upset.
Jessie looked around. “Not all the carrots were stolen, Mr. Yee,” she said. “Only some.”
Mr. Yee and Violet looked where Jessie was pointing, and they saw that one long row of carrots had been stolen. But another long row was still growing, the feathery tops standing straight up.
“Ooohhh,” said Violet. “The row of purple carrots is still here. So you can still win prizes for your purple carrots, Mr. Yee.”
Mr. Yee handed the rabbit to Jessie. He stooped down and pulled out a carrot. It was long and straight, with a feathery green top.
Violet could smell the carrot the minute Mr. Yee pulled it out of the ground. “That smells so good,” she said.
Mr. Yee snapped the carrot in half. Then he fed part of the carrot to the rabbit that Jessie was holding.
“We must find out who is stealing our vegetables,” he told the girls. “It is a terrible thing to walk into your garden and find your vegetables missing. I think—” Mr. Yee stopped talking in the middle of his sentence. He pointed.
Jessie and Violet looked to where he was pointing. There, at the far end of the row that once held orange carrots, was a burlap bag. A lumpy burlap bag.
Without speaking, Mr. Yee and Jessie and Violet all walked toward the bag. Mr. Yee took the rabbit from Jessie and held it close. “You look,” he told her.
Jessie knelt down and opened the bag. Inside were carrots: dozens and dozens of orange carrots. She took one out and handed it to Mr. Yee. “Is this one of your carrots?” she asked.
Mr. Yee shook his head. “No,” he said. “I can tell by looking that those aren’t my carrots. The variety I planted grow long and slender. The variety in the bag grows short and chunky. I do not understand,” he said. “Somebody stole my carrots, and then that somebody gave me different carrots.”
Benny and Henry came to see what was wrong, and Jessie told them about the carrots.
Henry picked up the bag of carrots and looked at the burlap bag itself, then at the carrots. “I think we have a lot of clues,” he said, “and we can talk about them at lunch, after we help Mr. Yee with his garden.”
“Good idea,” said Jessie. “I brought my notebook.”
And then the Aldens and Mr. Yee returned to garden work: weeding, thinning, tying up vines and climbing plants, and watering.
* * *
When it was time for lunch, Mr. Yee, still holding the rabbit, went off to see how Roger was doing with his apologies. The children found a shady spot under a big tree that grew nearby. They sat and opened the lunches that Mrs. McGregor had packed for them.
As they ate, they talked.
“I don’t think that Roger is the thief,” said Henry. “He thought that breaking things in people’s gardens would make them want to move. I don’t think he thought about stealing their vegetables.”
Jessie and Benny and Violet agreed.
“Roger was very upset when his cucumbers were stolen,” said Benny. “He was not cool.”
The others laughed.
“No, Benny, he wasn’t as cool as a cucumber,” said Jessie.
“When it comes to the garden thief,” said Henry, “some clues are more important than others.”
“When it comes to the thief, the burlap bags aren’t important,” said Violet as she munched on one of the cucumbers that Mrs. McGregor had packed.
“I agree,” said Jessie. “And when it comes to the thief, the footprints aren’t important, either.”
“Well,” said Benny impatiently, “what is important when it comes to the thief?”
“Green trash bags are important,” said Henry.
“Lucasta has a green trash bag,” offered Benny. “We saw Henry put it away.”
“That’s right,” said Jessie. She paused in the middle of eating her sandwich. “The cobbler’s apron is equally important.”
“We saw a cobbler’s apron hanging in the barn,” said Violet. “But Alex put it away as soon as we saw it.”
“We saw the apron not long after we saw Taylor’s leg weights,” said Jessie thoughtfully. “Her leg weights have pockets, and so does a cobbler’s apron.”
“Are there any more cucumbers?” asked Benny.
Jessie gave him one of hers. “Blue ribbons are also important,” she said.
“Blue ribbons are important to Taylor,” said Henry. “She’s never won one.”
“And to Lucasta,” said Benny. “She wants every one of her rabbits to win a blue ribbon.”
“So,” said Jessie, counting on her fingers, “we have three important clues about the thefts: the green trash bags; the cobbler’s apron; the blue ribbons; and—” She looked at her sister.
“The purple carrots,” said Violet.
“But nobody stole the purple carrots,” Benny argued. “How can they be a clue?”
“Because,” said Henry, “sometimes what isn’t stolen is as important a clue as what is stolen.”
The children got up and brushed the grass and twigs off their shorts.
“I wish the burlap bags were a clue,” said Benny. “I really like the burlap bags!”
Jessie tousled Benny’s hair. “Oh, the burlap bags are an important clue, Benny. They just aren’t a clue to the thief.”
“That’s right,” said Henry. “Where have we seen burlap bags recently?”
“In the Kirk barn,” Benny answered eagerly. “They were hanging on the walls near the rabbit hutches.”
“Taylor was with us,” said Jessie. “She saw them, too.”
“The burlap bags are important,” said Henry, “but what’s inside them is even more important.”
Jessie spoke. “It’s time for another trip to the Kirk barn,” she said. |