The Mystery of the Phantom Grashopper

head.
    What’s he looking for? Trixie wondered, watching as the man returned to his car.
    It was quite dark now. Trixie cupped her hand around her flashlight and climbed down from the tree. As her feet touched the ground, she slipped on the leaves and fell with a clatter of breaking twigs. Her flashlight flew from her hand, shooting a beam of light out to the trees near the road.
    “Hey! Who’s there?” the man beside the car shouted.
    Without looking back, Trixie grabbed her flashlight, scrambled to her feet, and raced down the path toward Crabapple Farm.
    Mrs. Belden was at the stove, stirring her special sauce for the turkey cutlets, when Trixie entered the warm, bright kitchen.
    “Is that you, Trixie?” her mother asked, without looking up from her cooking. “You’re just in time to drain the vegetables and butter them. I can’t leave the sauce now.”
    “Okay, Moms,” Trixie said, hoping she didn’t sound out of breath and frightened.
    “Did you find the button you were looking for?” her mother asked.
    “Yes, I did,” Trixie answered. “And I’m going to sew it on right after dinner, before Bobby has a chance to collect’ it again.”
    “Let’s hope he hasn’t collected all of my thread,” Mrs. Belden said with a chuckle.

    After helping clean up the dinner dishes, Trixie got a needle and some red thread from her mother’s sewing box and sat on the living room floor beneath a lamp. After several tries at threading the needle, she finally succeeded and went to work sewing the button into place on her jacket sleeve.
    Brian was stretched out on the floor nearby, reading a magazine. “It’s a good thing Honey volunteered to make our jackets,” he remarked. “If Trix was doing it, I’m afraid we’d all get pretty chilly waiting for them.”
    “She’s merely heeding what Ben Franklin said about sewing,” Mart said.
    “And what was that, young man?” Mr. Belden asked with a raised eyebrow.
    “Haste to baste makes waste,” Mart recited with an impish grin.
    Everyone winced.
    “Well,” Trixie countered, “I’ll bet that Ben Franklin could eat a hamburger without getting catsup on his jacket!”
    “Touché,” Mart said. “I forgot about that. Moms, how do I get a catsup stain out of my jacket?”
    “The same way I get the catsup stains out of all your clothes,” Mrs. Belden advised. “Use some spot remover first, and then soap and water.”
    Mart hurried off.
    “Speaking of Honey,” Trixie said, “I’m going to call her and ask how her social studies report is coming.”
    Actually, Trixie couldn’t wait to tell Honey about what she had seen at the tree house. Dialing quickly, she soon heard Hone/s voice at the other end of the line. “Do you remember Tuesday night, when I saw a car following you?” she asked.
    “I remember you said something about a car... someone not knowing his way around Sleepyside,” Honey said.
    “You said it was somebody who didn’t know his way around,” Trixie said. “But I’m sure that car was following you. And I saw that very same car again tonight.”
    “Really?Where?”
    Trixie told about going to Bobby’s tree house to look for her jacket button. “The man got out of the car and looked around,” she said. “What do you suppose he was doing poking around that old dead-end road?”
    “Maybe he still doesn’t know his way around,” Honey said.
    “Hmmm,” Trixie said skeptically. “Well, I think something is up. I’m going to keep an eye out for that car. See you tomorrow afternoon?”
    “Right,” Honey said.

    Saturday was overcast and windy. When the Bob-Whites went riding, the horses seemed unusually nervous and skittish.
    On Sunday, the young people met at the clubhouse to make more plans for the walk-a-thon. The wind had been growing stronger all day, and though it was only early afternoon, the threatening sky was almost black.
    “I think we’d better adjourn early,” Jim said as the first big raindrops began to spatter on the windows. “It looks like this is going to be a pretty good storm. See you on the bus tomorrow.”
    Jacket collars turned up against the wind, Trixie, Brian, and Mart hurried home. Their father was waiting for them at the back door. “I was just about to come and get you!” he shouted against the force of the wind. “There’s been a severe storm warning posted. Everyone is to stay indoors and have candles ready in case of a power failure.”
    “Let’s have dinner before the lights go