Yes, you read that right: plants that dance. It’s true. I’ve seen them! Udon Thani is a province in northeast Thailand. There are no big cities there and not as many tourist attractions as there are in other parts of the country. But there is one small plant nursery (苗圃) with one of the most amazing but little-known sights in the world: simple, green plants that look like common weeds (野草).

These special dancing plants area hybrid of the Thani Gyrant and the Chinese Gyrant—the pure parents can’t dance as well as their hybrid child. The scientific name of this type of plant is Codariocalyx motorius (舞草).

Let’s go back to the dancing. Walk through the nursery, and we see many bright, eye-catching plants. Deep in the center of the nursery, is a row of these green weeds. These are the dancing plants. “Stand in front of them and sing,” the nursery worker says.

At first it feels silly to sing to a plant. I sing quietly and shyly, and nothing happens. I think about leaving, but I make myself stay and sing longer. Slowly, the plants start opening and closing their little leaves. The longer and louder I sing, the more they move. When I stop, they stop. I test to see if my breath is making the leaves blow—nope. They’re moving because I’m making a sound. It’s unimaginable to communicate with a plant this way. It makes me think very deeply about the ways all living things are alive. Perhaps we’re more connected with the plant world than we think we are.

Why the plant dances is still a mystery—just another sign that we still have a lot to learn about our world.

At nine o’clock that night Encyclopedia climbed into bed. He lay awake for a long time. He thought over what his mother had said to him about being a detective when he grew up. In the morning he made up his mind.

He would go into the detective business and help people. He wouldn’t wait until he grew up. It was summer and school was out. He could begin at once.

Encyclopedia got out of bed and searched through his closet. He dug out a toy printing press, a Christmas gift from his Uncle Ben two years ago.

As soon as Encyclopedia finished breakfast, he printed fifty leaflets. When the ink (墨水) was dry, he put the leaflets in all the mailboxes in the neighborhood.

Then he went home and asked his mother for a big piece of cardboard. She gave him a dress box from the Bon Ton Store, which she had been saving. Encyclopedia borrowed the kitchen scissors and cut out a square piece of cardboard. He took a black crayon and carefully lettered a sign.

The leaflets and the sign said:

Encyclopedia put up the sign on the door of the Browns’ garage (车库). The next morning, he sat in the garage, waiting for somebody with a problem to drop in. Nobody dropped in. Only the rain. The roof of the garage had a hole in it.

Rain fell all morning, all afternoon, and all the next day.

Encyclopedia looked at the rain and felt lower than a submarine’s (潜水艇) bottom. He thought about taking down the sign and going digging for worms (虫子) with Billy and Jody Turner or fishing off the bridge at Mill Creek.

Suddenly a pair of rubbers (雨鞋) and a raincoat appeared in the doorway. Inside them was a small boy.

“My name is Clarence Smith,” said the boy, “I need your help.”