Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online Page A

wife’s been baking zucchini cookies, zucchini cakes, zucchini sweet rolls—you name it, she bakes it. Zucchini is growing wild all over town. Watermelons, too, and cantaloupes, cucumbers, tomatoes.”
    Violet nibbled a cookie thick with raisins. “We saw your friend Cesar Canton and his daughter at The Applewood Café,” she said. “His daughter says he misses his farm. She is very happy you and Cesar play chess every day.”
    “Not every day,” said the Chief. “We just play Saturday and Sunday.” He emptied the rest of the cookies into a bag. “Here, take them all. If I eat one more cookie, I’ll turn into a zucchini.”
    As the children unlocked their bikes, Jessie said, “The chief said he plays chess with Cesar twice a week. But Cesar’s daughter thinks Cesar is playing chess every day.” She smiled. “What do you think Cesar is doing the other five days of the week?”
    All around them, vegetables grew around lampposts and parking meters and trees and fences. “I think Cesar does what he loves to do most,” said Violet. “Planting, planting, planting.”
    “Did he plant the hill around Sam’s Scrap Yard?” asked Benny. “And the tomatoes outside the wig shop?”
    Violet nodded. “He’s planted this whole town.”
    “I’ll bet Cesar staked our sunflowers,” Jessie said. “And he got poison ivy on his hands when he cleaned up those weeds behind The Applewood Café.”
    Violet looked troubled. “His daughter said farming is too hard for him. Do you think we should tell her what he’s been doing?”
    The children didn’t want Cesar to hurt himself by working too hard. But they also did not want to give away the old farmer’s secret. “Let’s ask Grandfather tonight,” said Jessie. “He’ll know the right thing to do. And he will keep Cesar’s secret.”
    They biked through the park, where the Heart Healthy Run had been the day before. The yellow-shirted Events Committee members were working to take down the tents. Empty water bottles littered the finish line.
    The man with the metal detector was there, too, searching the ground nearby.
    “Hi,” Benny called. The man looked up, startled. “I tried one of those,” Benny told him. “I heard the clicking sounds that metal makes and—”
    But the man did not want to talk. He hurried away, kicking aside water bottles, stomping over cardboard signs.
    Violet stared at the man’s boot prints. They left a V shaped pattern. One of the Vs had no point on the bottom. “That’s the same bootprint we saw in our garden,” she said. “That’s the man who dumped our worms.”
    The man was running now. “Hey,” yelled Henry. The man ran faster. “We want to talk to you!”
    They started to ride after him.
    But suddenly, a scream stopped them cold. “Look out!” cried a voice across the park.
    The children turned to look. The top of a big tent rocked back and forth. The sides started falling in. The volunteers were inside! The children raced over and jumped off their bikes.
    Henry grabbed one of the tent poles. “Jessie, grab another pole,” he called. Benny and Violet helped, too. Together they held the tent steady enough for the trapped workers to escape.
    “Thank you,” said a man. “We … we thought we could take the tents down by ourselves. But we really needed one more worker.”
    “It’s just like Fenster to disappear when there’s hard work to be done,” said an angry woman. “Why did he volunteer for the Events Committee? He knew we needed his help with the tents.”
    “We’ll help,” said the children. And, with everyone working together, they took down all the tents and packed them away. By the time they finished, the man with the metal detector was gone.
    “That’s all right,” said Henry, “I have an idea how we can track him down. Let’s go to Mr. Hamu’s hardware store.”
    At the hardware store, Mr. Hamu switched on his computer. “I hope I can help you find the person who has been trespassing in your