The Noise Beyond the Fence

Chapter 1On the Path

Mendel and Shlomo were walking with Totty beside the community garden. Totty stopped a few steps behind them to greet Mr. Berg.

From beyond the solid wooden fence came a bark.

Then three more.

Mendel stopped. "Something happened to that dog."

Shlomo looked at the fence. They could not see the dog or anybody with it.

Another bark came, loud enough to make both boys jump.

Chapter 2The Latch

"Maybe its foot is caught," Mendel said.

He stepped toward the closed garden gate.

"Wait," Shlomo said. "We don't know that."

"Listen to it!"

"I hear it. We still don't know what happened."

Mendel kept his hands at his sides. The latch was there, but opening it would put them beside a dog they could not see.

Totty was close enough to call.

"Totty, can you come?"

Chapter 3What They Had Heard

Totty came over at once.

"There is a dog behind the fence," Mendel said. "It is hurt."

"Did you see it?"

"No. It keeps barking."

"Then tell me the part you heard."

Mendel tried again. "A dog is barking a lot behind the fence. We can't see why."

Totty listened. He did not open the gate.

"We will stay on the path. I know the neighbor who uses this garden. I can ask him."

Mendel stood back with Shlomo, away from the latch.

Chapter 4A Voice from the Other Side

Totty called Mr. Feld's name from the path.

"One moment!" came an answer.

The barking stopped, then started once more.

Mr. Feld came to the other side of the gate, leaving it closed.

"Is the dog all right?" Totty asked. "The boys heard him barking."

"Yes. My brother brought him today. They are playing with his ball at the far end. He gets noisy waiting for another throw."

A man's voice called, "Wait, Bruno!"

Then came a bark and Mr. Feld's laugh.

Mendel had imagined a trapped paw. There was a ball instead.

Chapter 5Still on the Path

"Could we see him?" Mendel asked Totty.

"We are continuing our walk. We do not need to go inside."

Mr. Feld waved and went back through the garden, closing the inner door behind him.

The boys stayed with Totty. Shlomo did not say, "I told you." He had not known about the ball either.

"I thought it was hurt," Mendel said.

"That was one possibility," Totty replied. "Getting a grownup was the right thing to do. Opening a gate to an unseen dog would not help us find out safely."

Chapter 6The Squeak Ahead

Farther along, they heard a squeak. Around the corner stood Mr. Berg with a wheelbarrow. Its wheel squeaked when it turned.

"That one we can see," Shlomo said.

"Your wheel sounds like a bird," Mendel told Mr. Berg.

"A hardworking bird."

The boys walked on with Totty. This time they knew what had made the sound.