The Mystery of the Phantom Grashopper

while.”
    Brian shook his head. “Sammy seems kind of odd at times,” he said. “I can’t quite figure him out He’s almost like two different people.”
    “Know what?” Trixie spoke up. “Sammy lied to us. He told me and Honey that he was a ’rock music freak.’ But I think he’s listening to WSTH right now, and they’re playing old-fashioned music.”
    Jim turned on the radio in the station wagon, already tuned to WSTH. The melody playing was the same one that Sammy had been whistling.
    “See?” Trixie said. “What’s that tune?”
    “I’m not sure,” Jim said. “But it isn’t rock music.”
    “Try to remember the tune,” Brian prompted. “We’ll ask Moms what it is when we get home”
    “Speaking of getting home,” Jim said, “that’s what we’d better be doing.” He started up the engine, looked over his shoulder, and pulled the station wagon back onto the street.

    A few minutes later, Jim dropped Trixie and her brothers off at Crabapple Farm.
    “Hey, everybody, come and look at me,” Bobby called from upstairs when he heard the door open. “I’m a invalid!”
    “Jeepers!” Trixie hurried up the stairs, with Mart and Brian right behind her.
    Bobby was propped up in his bed, wrapped in a blanket. One of his eyes was bruised and swollen almost shut, and he wore two bandages on the side of his face. He grinned, enjoying the opportunity to surprise the big kids.
    Mrs. Belden was sitting in a chair beside the bed. “Bobby could hardly wait for you to get home and see his bruises,” she said with a shake of her head.
    “Bobby!” Trixie exclaimed. “What in the world happened to you?”
    Brian touched the skin around his little brothers eye with gentle fingers. He whistled softly. “Wow! That’s quite a black eye you’ve got there,” he said.
    “Yup,” Bobby agreed. “Mr. Pony got scared and runned away—and he tossed me off just like that!” Bobby tried to snap his fingers but gave up. “I didn’t cry, though,” he boasted. “I just got up and caught Mr. Pony, the way you did, Trixie, when he got scared before.”
    Trixie gently mussed her small brother’s tousled curls. “Good for you,” she praised.
    Mrs. Belden stood. “Stay here and talk with him while I go put his dinner on a tray,” she told Trixie and her brothers.
    Trixie sat down beside Bobby. “Tell us all about it,” she urged.
    “Well—” Bobby drew a long breath—“Mr. Pony and I were riding along near my tree house,” he began, forgetting to keep his secret from the boys. “Regan was there, too, but he was working over by that old road. All of a sudden, the wind blowed real hard, and a big pile of leaves went flying all around—” he waved his hands in an arc—“and... and a big critter scared Mr. Pony! Mr. Pony went ’EEEEE-eeee!' and jumped up in the air, and I fell off.”
    “Wow,” Trixie said. “Did it hurt?”
    “Yeah!” Bobby’s eyes clouded with a hint of tears, which he blinked back. “But I was worried about Mr. Pony, so I chased him, and I caught him! I talked to him, like you did, Trixie, till he wasn’t scared anymore. Then I took him over to Regan. Regan washed all my cuts and put on these bandages and brought me home to Moms. He told her he was real proud of me.”
    Trixie smiled. “I’m proud of you, too, Bobby,” she said. “And I’m sure glad you aren’t badly hurt.”
    “Moms says I have to go downtown to the doctor tomorrow before I go back to school,” Bobby declared, feeling very important. “That’s to make sure I’m not broken. And then,” he added, beaming with delight, “Moms says we can get hamburgers at Wimpy’s, just like you big kids do.”
    Brian laughed. “You’re getting to be a ’big kid’ yourself,” he said.
    “Moms said she’d bring the radio up here so I can hear you on the radio tonight,” Bobby announced. “Are you gonna sing?”
    Trixie fluffed his pillow and tucked his blanket around him. “No, silly,” she said. “We’re going to talk about Hoppy, remember? I’ll go down and help Moms with your dinner now, okay?”
    “Don’t forget the chocolate milk,” Bobby reminded her.
    Down in the kitchen, Trixie helped her mother prepare a tray with Bobby’s dinner.
    “How did the announcement turn out?” Mrs. Belden asked.
    “We were all pretty nervous at first,” Trixie admitted. “But Mr. Perkins is so nice, he made it seem easy.”
    Mrs. Belden poured chocolate milk into Bobby’s glass. “I’m sure