Mystery Behind the Wall by Gertrude Warner Page B

also a great talker.
    Henry drove, and Rory sat beside him. Rory said, “You’re a good driver, Henry. I’m too young to drive a car, but I drive the tractor on our farm.”
    Benny leaned over the front seat. He said, “How can you drive if you are only ten?”
    “It’s only at home I drive. Just in the fields. I can’t drive a car. I. can drive and pull the power-disc harrow and the seeder. But I can’t drive a plain car.”
    Benny laughed. He said, “I should think a plain car would be easy for you.”
    “Likely it would,” agreed Rory. “But I could not run it on the highway. I don’t know how to drive in traffic.”
    The Aldens did not ask about Rory’s Canadian speech. It was the other way around. Almost the first thing Rory said was, “Benny, you talk funny. You say ‘about the house,’ and I say ‘aboot the hoose.’”
    The Aldens laughed. It was true they and Rory said some words differently. But that just made it more interesting to have a Canadian friend.
    “What else do you do on the farm?” asked Benny.
    “I help Dad when he has to cut down a tree. After the tree has fallen, I chop off small branches. Then I work with Dad to get the stump out.”
    “Why?” Benny asked.
    “Well, we cut the tree down to make our garden bigger. The stump is in the way. We have a flower garden and a grand vegetable garden, too.”
    Henry said, “That sounds like hard work.”
    “Aye, it is,” replied Rory. “I mean yes,” he added. “My dad is Scottish, you know.”
    “Like Mrs. McGregor,” said Jessie. “She used to call Violet a wee bit of a girl.”
    “Here we are!” Benny said. “This is where we live, Rory. Everybody out!”
    Grandfather said, “Have a good time, Rory. I’ll see you at dinner.”
    Henry and Benny carried Rory’s things upstairs.
    Benny said, “Want me to help you hang up your clothes?”
    “Aye, that I do,” replied Rory. He sat down in a big rocking chair and began to rock. He looked around his new room.
    “Nice wallpaper,” he said. “I like roses. And I like that red bedspread. That is a jolly big closet for one boy. And what’s the picture of the house and that pretty little girl?”
    Benny laughed. “Rory, you’re interested in everything, aren’t you? Probably Grandfather can tell you the answers. I don’t know.”
    “Really, I am interested in almost everything,” Rory said thoughtfully. He didn’t mind having Benny laugh. “I like to know about things,” he added.
    “Yes, that’s what Mrs. McGregor said,” Benny replied. Benny took one of Rory’s jackets and hung it in the closet. He took a coat and put it in the closet, too.
    “That closet looks funny to me,” Rory said. “I don’t understand it.”
    “What’s wrong with it?” asked Henry, who was going down the hall.
    “Well,” Rory said, “I thought that closet would be long and go way back. But it doesn’t. It’s almost square inside.”
    Benny knocked on the back wall of the closet. It was a wooden wall, not a plastered one.
    “I can tell you about that myself,” Benny said. “You see my room is next door. My closet backs up to yours. This wooden wall divides the space. Here, I’ll draw you a little map.”
    “I see,” said Rory. “The R is for my room and the B is for your room.”

    Benny said, “Come in my room and I’ll show you.”
    The two boys ran into Benny’s room. Benny opened the closet door and pushed his clothes out of the way.
    “See? It’s the same wall,” Benny said. He knocked on it.
    Rory said, “Let me run back to my room. I’ll knock on my side.”
    “OK,” Benny said. Soon he heard Rory knocking. But it wasn’t as loud as he had thought it would be. He knocked, and in a minute Rory was back.
    “Benny, did you hear me?” he asked. “I could hear you knock, but it wasn’t very loud.”
    “Too bad,” Benny said. “I was thinking we could signal to each other in the morning.”
    Rory looked thoughtful. Then he asked, “Do you think we