The Mystery of the Phantom Grashopper

still at her desk, reading a letter, but she’ll probably be leaving as soon as she’s finished.”
    Picking up her books, Trixie hurried up the aisle to the front of the room. “Miss Lawler,” she said, “we were wondering if...
    The teacher’s aide looked up quickly, and her eyes were shining with a smile. “Oh, Trixie and Honey. I thought everyone had gone.” She slipped the note she had been reading back inside the envelope. “Did you want something?”
    Trixie explained what they had in mind. “We wondered if we could stay after class someday when you’ll be here,” she finished.
    “That’s a very good idea,” Miss Lawler said. “How about tomorrow afternoon? We won’t be able to open the case, but you can get a good dose look at the coins and the little cards that tell about them.”
    “That would be terrific,” Trixie said gratefully.
    “I’ll have Jim drive in and pick us up at Wimpy’s tomorrow after were through,” Honey suggested to Trixie.
    Outside, the bus driver gave two beeps of the horn, signaling that he was ready to leave.
    “We have to run,” Trixie said. “See you tomorrow, and thanks a lot.”

    The following afternoon, Trixie and Honey remained in their seats as the other students filed out of the social studies classroom. Miss Craven gathered up her papers, nodded to the girls, and left.
    Miss Lawler, seated at her desk, looked up from the papers she was grading. “Take as long as you like,” she said. “The cards beside the coins tell quite a bit about them, but if you need some help, just ask.”
    Trixie and Honey pulled chairs up close to the display case and opened their social studies notebooks in their laps.
    Trixie studied the coins spread out on the velvet-covered shelves for a few minutes, chewing on her pencil while she read the information on the cards beside them.
    Honey was drawing one of the coins. Beside the drawing, she wrote, This Roman coin was found in India, showing that there was trade going on between the Roman Empire and India.
    Trixie’s pencil flew over the page as she drew a fish, a knife, and a small jacket. The first Chinese coins were made in shapes of things used for barter, she wrote beside the drawings.
    Looking in the case again, Trixie saw a small triangular coin with a little bell-like thing dangling in the middle.
    “Isn’t that coin pretty?” Trixie asked, pointing it out to Honey. “It’s called—” she leaned closer to read the card— “tingle-tangle, or sometimes, tingle-dangle.”
    Miss Lawler looked up from her papers. “That’s one of my favorites,” she said. “In addition to using them for money, the Chinese people also used them as musical instruments. They may also have hung them up as musical mobiles, tingle-tangling in the wind.”
    ’Tingle-tangle,” Trixie said softly. “It does sound like music, doesn’t it? My little brother Bobby would sure like to see—”
    Suddenly Miss Lawler seemed to tremble slightly. Her face turned as white as chalk as she picked up her pencil.
    “Are—are you all right, Miss Lawler?” Honey asked quickly.
    The teacher’s aide pressed her fingers against her forehead. “It’s nothing,” she said. “I’m... rather tired. It’s been a long day.”
    Trixie looked at her watch. “Gosh,” she exclaimed, “we’ve kept you for almost an hour. I’m finished. How about you, Honey?”
    Honey nodded. “Just done.”
    The color was returning to Miss Lawler’s face, and she smiled weakly. “I was... uh, ill a while ago,” she said, “and I—I tire easily. But please, don’t tell anyone what I’ve told you.”
    Trixie saw a strange look in Miss Lawler’s eyes. Was it fear? Loneliness? Trixie wondered.
    Honey picked up her notebook. “We won’t mention it to anyone—anyone at all,” she assured the teacher’s aide.
    “That’s a promise,” Trixie said.
    “Thank you,” Miss Lawler murmured. “Good night, now.”
    Still puzzling over the scene in the classroom, Trixie and Honey walked across the lawn to the sidewalk and headed toward downtown to meet Jim at Wimpy’s.
    “I guess Miss Lawler is afraid,” Trixie said after a moment. “She’s afraid of being sick again.”
    “I know how she feels,” Honey said softly. “I used to feel that way, too, until we moved to Sleepyside and I met you and all the other Bob-Whites.”
    “I wish we could help her,” Trixie sighed.
    “How about helping me?” someone asked.
    Startled, both girls looked up to