The Garden Thief

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  Mr. Yee then explained to Benny that strawberry plants had to be watered before the ground became totally dry. He showed both Benny and Henry where the water spigots were, one spigot outside each section, and he showed them where he kept his buckets and watering cans.

  Henry looked at the water spigot, which was on a pipe that came up from the ground. “Do all community gardens have a water supply?” he asked.

  “No,” said Mr. Yee. “Many depend on the rainfall, and sometimes on water that people bring in trucks. But Mr. Kirk had an irrigation system in this field, and after he loaned the field to the town of Greenfield, the town paid to install the upright pipes and spigots.”

  “It’s wonderful of Mr. Kirk to loan his land for a community garden,” Henry said.

  Mr. Yee agreed.

  “Now let me show you my tomato plants,” he said. “Last year I won a blue ribbon for my tomatoes.”

  Henry and Benny followed Mr. Yee back into the garden, past the peas and beans, past the strawberry plants, and around a corner.

  As they rounded the corner, Mr. Yee cried out, “No! No! What has happened? Somebody has broken my tomato stakes!”

  Indeed, Mr. Yee had a long row of tomato plants, each tied to a strong wooden stake that had been pounded into the ground. But Henry could see that somebody had come along and whacked each stake near the bottom, cracking it. Now the weight of the tomato plants was pulling the stakes outward. Soon the stakes would crack and topple over. And so would the tomato plants.

  “Who would do such a terrible thing?” asked Henry.

  “The vandal!” shouted Mr. Yee. “The vandal who is trying to destroy the community gardens!” He paced back and forth and ran his hand over his gray hair. “What am I going to do?” he cried. “What am I going to do? My tomato plants are ruined!”

  Suddenly a man stood up in the next garden. Henry hadn’t seen him before. He must have been kneeling down, weeding, thought Henry.

  The man rushed over to Mr. Yee.

  “Albert, what’s wrong?” asked the man.

  Mr. Yee just shook his head sadly and pointed at his tomato plants.

  “Oh, no,” said the man. “This is terrible.” He looked at the plants, then looked at Mr. Yee. “It’s the vandal again,” he said. “The same person who’s been riding his ATV through the gardens.”

  “Yes,” said Mr. Yee.

  “Hi,” said the man to Henry and Benny. “I’m Roger Walski. You can call me Roger. That’s my garden plot.” He pointed to plot number one, right next to Mr. Yee’s plot number two.

  “I’m Henry Alden,” said Henry. “And this is my brother Benny. Our sisters Jessie and Violet are here, too, over by the carrots and lettuce.”

  Roger Walski nodded. “I’m sorry this happened to your plants, Albert. But I’ve been telling you, this isn’t a good site for the community gardens. We should move further down the road, to new land.”

  Mr. Yee shook his head back and forth. “No, Roger, I disagree. We Chinese believe in luck, and this is just bad luck. It will go away. This is a wonderful spot to garden.”

  “You’ll have to give up on your tomatoes,” said Mr. Walski. “With your broken arm, you won’t be able to replace these stakes.”

  “I’ll replace the stakes,” said Henry. “Mr. Yee will show me how to take out the broken ones without hurting the plants.”

  Mr. Yee looked at Henry gratefully. “Thank you, Henry. We can do that tomorrow.”

  Roger Walski frowned. “Well,” he said, “I’m glad you can save your tomatoes. But you won’t win first prize for them this year, not with this setback.”

  “I suppose you think you will win a blue ribbon with your cucumbers,” snapped Mr. Yee, who did not like the thought of losing.

  “Yes, I will,” said Mr. Walski with a smile.

  “I love cucumbers,” said Benny.

  Mr. Walski looked at Henry and Benny. “Come with me,” he said, “and I’ll teach you something about cucumbers.”

  “First we have to help Mr. Yee,” said Henry.

  “No, no,” said Mr. Yee. “Let us go see Roger’s cucumbers.”

  The four of them walked down a path between rows of plants that Henry didn’t recognize. They stepped across a string marker that separated Mr. Yee’s garden plot from Roger’s, and Roger led them down a path to a row of trellises shaped like teepees.

  Henry liked the way that three poles were pushed into the ground at an angle, tilted toward each other, and tied at the top. “Did you build these?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Roger.

  “They’re very well built,” said Henry. “And they seem to work so well.”

  “They do work well,” said Roger. “The cucumber vines climb up the poles and hang from them. That means they don’t spread on the ground, and that means I have more ground space to grow other vegetables.”

  Benny leaned over backward and tried to look up into the teepee-shaped structure.

  Roger Walski laughed. “Here,” he said, pushing aside some leaves and revealing a cucumber.

  “Wow!” said Benny. “Are they ready to eat yet?”

  “Some will be ready to eat tomorrow,” said Roger. “And others will be ready in two weeks. And I’ll have more cucumbers that will be ready for the Greenfield Fair.”

  Mr. Yee smashed a clump of dirt with the toe of his shoe. “You were going to tell Henry and Benny something about cucumbers,” he reminded Roger. “I hope it wasn’t just bragging that you will win a blue ribbon.”

  Roger looked at the children. “Here’s what I wanted to teach you: the inside of a cucumber is always cooler than the temperature around it. That’s why people say ‘cool as a cucumber’—because the cucumber is cool on the inside.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Benny.

  “To be cool as a cucumber is to be calm,” said Henry. “It means you don’t get angry or flustered.”

  “That’s right,” said Roger. “And I am cool. As cool as a cucumber.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Henry.

  Roger stood straight. “It means that despite the vandalism and despite the fact that somebody might be stealing vegetables, I remain calm.”

  Mr. Yee shook his head at this. “It is easy to remain calm,” he said, “when it is not your garden that has been harmed.”

  “I remain calm,” Roger repeated, “because I’m the one who knows what must be done.”

  Everybody looked at Roger Walski.

  “What must be done?” asked Henry.

  “We community gardeners must move to a new location,” said Roger.

  Just as Roger was speaking, a young woman rode up on a racing bike, dismounted, and walked toward the middle plot—the plot that had a fence all around it.

  “That’s Taylor Harris,” said Roger. He scowled. “She claims her vegetables will win first prize. But she doesn’t want any of us to see them. That’s why she built a fence all around her garden. Not a very friendly thing to do.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Why a Fence?

  Jessie and Violet, who were still thinning and weeding plants, saw a young woman ride her bike almost right up to them.

  “Hi,” she said as she locked her bike to the chain link fence that surrounded plot number three. “I’m Taylor Harris.”

  Jessie stood up and introduced herself and Violet. They shook hands with Taylor Harris, who was dressed in purple and yellow cycling gear. Violet thought the colors looked really good against Taylor’s black skin.

  “Are you helping Mr. Yee?” Taylor asked as she took a pair of dumbbells from her bike pack. Taylor began to do arm exercises with the dumbbells.

  “Yes, we’re helping Mr. Yee. This is our first day. Are you training for a contest?” Jessie asked.

  “No, no,” said Taylor. “I just like to keep fit.”

  Jessie and Violet watched as Taylor put the dumbbells back into her cycle pack. She pulled out something else that looked heavy.

  “Oops,” said Taylor, looking
down at the ground. “Where did it go?”

  “What did you lose?” asked Violet, who thought she saw something fall.

  “A one-pound piece of metal, like a slug. It goes inside a slot in this leg weight, so I can make them lighter or heavier.” She held out a leg weight so that Jessie and Violet could see it.

  “It has five little pockets sewn in,” said Violet.

  Taylor nodded, still looking around. “I can fit one-or two-pound weights into each slot.”

  Jessie spied the dark weight on the ground. It was hard to see because it blended in with the color of the dirt. Jessie bent and picked it up. “Here it is,” she said, handing it to Taylor.

  “Thank you,” said Taylor. She looked at Jessie and Violet, then she looked down at the thinning and weeding they had done. “Hmmmm,” she said, “you girls are doing a very good job.”

  “Thanks,” said Jessie and Violet together.

  “Mr. Yee would like to win more blue ribbons,” said Taylor, “but he won’t. This year, it’s my turn to win, and I’ll do whatever I need to do to win those blue ribbons.”

  Jessie thought Taylor Harris looked very determined as she said this.

  “In fact,” continued Taylor, “I’d better do my leg exercises later. Time for me to garden.”

  “What vegetables do you grow?” asked Violet.

  “Oh, you name it, I grow it,” said Taylor. “But kale is my favorite. I love its color, its crinkly leaves, and its taste. I eat it raw or cooked, hot or cold.”

  “Which vegetables do you hope to win blue ribbons for?” Jessie asked. “Just kale?”

  “All of them,” said Taylor. “I’ve never won a blue ribbon before and I’m tired of not winning. This year I’m growing the best vegetables ever!”

  Jessie and Violet watched as Taylor took a key out of her racing shorts and put it into the heavy lock on the garden gate.

  “I built this fence and gate last month, all by myself,” she told them, “to protect my vegetables.”

  “From rabbits?” asked Violet, who remembered that there had been rabbits hopping around the gardens earlier. They were probably Lucasta’s rabbits, but Violet wasn’t sure.

  Taylor frowned. “No,” she replied. “I want to protect my vegetables from two-legged thieves.”

  “Oh,” said Violet, “Mr. Yee told us somebody was stealing vegetables. What a mean thing to do, to steal the food somebody else has grown.”

  Taylor pressed her lips tight and nodded. She seemed angry just thinking about it. “This is the first year we’ve had a thief,” she said. “Last year and the year before, everything was fine. But this year—this year somebody has been stealing vegetables almost every day! That’s why I built my fence.”

  “Somebody is stealing vegetables every single day?” asked Jessie.

  Taylor Harris nodded. “Just about every day.”

  “From every plot in the community gardens?” Jessie asked.

  Taylor stopped to think. “Mostly Section A,” she said, “though some people in B and C have had vegetables stolen, too.”

  “That’s strange,” said Violet.

  “Maybe,” said Taylor.

  “Our brothers are also helping Mr. Yee,” Jessie told Taylor. “And the four of us are going to find out who is vandalizing the gardens and who’s stealing vegetables.”

  Taylor looked at Violet and Jessie. “Well,” she said at last, “good luck.” Then she stepped into her garden and closed the gate behind herself.

  Jessie and Violet stretched and brushed off their knees. “Mrs. McGregor will be picking us up soon,” said Jessie. “We can give her the thinnings for salad.”

  “I like Taylor,” said Violet. “She looks good in purple and yellow.”

  Just as Jessie stooped down to pick up the basket of thinned lettuce, radishes, and carrots, they heard Taylor Harris shouting loudly.

  “My lettuce is gone!” she shouted. “And my kale! My lettuce and kale are gone!”

  Jessie and Violet opened the gate to Taylor’s garden and rushed in. And Henry, Benny, Mr. Yee, and another man came running in after them.

  CHAPTER 4

  Rabbits Everywhere

  “Lucasta’s rabbits did this!” shouted Taylor. “I know they did! Her rabbits ate all my lettuce and kale!”

  Henry looked down at the ground, where the lettuce and kale had been. He saw small holes where the plants had been. “I don’t think it was rabbits,” said Henry.

  “Who are you?” Taylor demanded.

  Henry explained who he and Benny were, and then Roger Walski told Jessie and Violet who he was. After everybody seemed to know who everybody else was, Taylor said, “It was those rabbits, I know it was. I won’t stand for this!”

  Henry shook his head. “If rabbits ate your plants, there would be some leaves left. We would see teeth marks on the leaves, where the rabbits nibbled them. But there’s nothing left of your lettuce or kale.” Henry pointed to the holes in the ground. “Not even the roots are left. Your plants were pulled out of the ground.”

  “Henry is right,” said Mr. Yee to Taylor.

  “I don’t care what Henry says,” shouted Taylor. “There are rabbits everywhere, dozens of rabbits! Big gray ones! White ones with spots all over! I just know the rabbits did it.”

  Roger spoke up. “Whoever did this, it just goes to show that this is a bad spot for a community garden. There’s good land that’s empty a mile up the road. We can all get together and have the village of Greenfield sign a lease for that land. We can garden in a better place next year. No vandals,” he said, “no thieves.”

  Taylor Harris was so angry that she wasn’t really listening to Roger. “I’m going to march right up that hill,” she said, pointing toward the Kirk farm across the dirt road, “and into that barn. That’s where the rabbits are. They just hippity-hop down here and eat whatever they like.”

  Taylor stomped out of her garden and up the hill. Everybody else followed her.

  “But Taylor,” said Jessie, trying to keep up with the angry young woman, “how could the rabbits get into your garden? They couldn’t open the gate.”

  “They probably dug under the fence,” said Taylor as she strode uphill.

  “But you didn’t look to see if that was true,” said Jessie. “And besides, like Henry said, the rabbits wouldn’t pull your plants out by the roots.”

  “I don’t trust Lucasta,” said Taylor. “She probably dropped the rabbits over my fence and let them eat everything.”

  “But how would the rabbits get out?” asked Henry.

  “Don’t argue with me,” Taylor said. “The rabbits are responsible.”

  By this time Taylor, the Aldens, Mr. Yee and Roger had all crossed the dirt road and were walking toward an old white barn whose wide doors were open.

  Taylor was about to walk through the open doors when Alex Kirk stepped out right in front of her.

  “Have you come to see my father?” he asked.

  “No,” said Taylor.

  Lucasta came up right behind Alex. “Have you come to see my rabbits?” she asked.

  Benny looked past Alex and Lucasta and into the barn. “Look at all the rabbits!” he said.

  “Prize-winning rabbits,” said Lucasta.

  “Sneaky, lettuce-eating rabbits,” said Taylor. “Rabbits who got into my garden and ate all my lettuce and kale!”

  “When?” asked Alex.

  Taylor looked puzzled. “Well, I don’t know when, exactly. Some time between last night and this morning.”

  “Lucasta’s rabbits have been in their cages all that time. They haven’t been out.”

  “Not true,” said Mr. Yee, shaking his head. “There were two rabbits out this morning. We saw them when we saw you.”

  Alex and Lucasta looked at each other and didn’t say anything.

  “The rabbits were white and they had big brown spots and big black spots,” said Benny. “Like a pinto pony.”

  “That’s just two rabbits,” said Alex. “
They were the only ones out, weren’t they, Lucasta?”

  “Yes,” said Lucasta. “Only Petra and Petrino were out. None of the other rabbits were out.”

  “Your leg!” exclaimed Mr. Yee suddenly, pointing at Lucasta’s left leg. “You are not wearing your cast. Has your leg healed already?”

  “No,” said Lucasta angrily. “I was just giving it a rest from the cast. I wasn’t walking around much.”

  Violet watched as Lucasta limped over to a nearby bench and grabbed her bright orange walking cast and strapped it onto her left leg.

  “There!” Lucasta said to Mr. Yee. “Are you satisfied?”

  Mr. Yee just scowled without saying anything.

  “I wish you wouldn’t wear that cast,” Alex told his sister. “Your leg is healed, you don’t need that cast.”

  “Young bones heal quicker than old bones,” muttered Mr. Yee.

  “I need the cast,” said Lucasta.

  “I don’t care about your cast!” shouted Taylor. “And I don’t care what you say about your rabbits being locked up! Somehow or other, your rabbits are responsible for eating my lettuce and kale. I expected to win blue ribbons for my lettuce and especially for my kale, and now I have to start all over again.”

  “My rabbits didn’t eat your lettuce and kale,” Lucasta told Taylor. “Their cages are locked from the outside, so they can’t escape.”

  “So,” said Mr. Yee, “did you let your rabbits out on purpose, so they ran in front of my bike and made me fall and break my arm?”

  “That was an accident,” said Lucasta. “I forgot to lock the cages.”

  “Well, maybe this time was an accident, too,” said Taylor. “I would like to see the cages.”

  “I have nothing to hide,” said Lucasta. “Everybody can look.”

  The small crowd followed Lucasta as she led the way to the back of the barn.

  Henry noticed many rabbit hutches, as many as thirty. Each one had a beautiful rabbit inside. Off in one corner, he noticed an ATV. It had three wheels.

  Benny went right up to one of the lower hutches and put his face against the wire. The rabbit that was inside the cage pressed its nose against the wire.