New here? Just sign up with Google — your account includes Matilda, our gift book, forever.
Walk Two Moons · Garden Heights
Part 6
for Walk Two Moons · Part 6 · Chapters 29–33
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 6
At Yellowstone's edge, Sal's story boils over: the lunatic is Sergeant Bickle's son, and Mr. Birkway is Margaret Cadaver's twin.
Argument About DeathLate at night Gramps steers into Yellowstone and finds a motel, and Gram, too wound up about tomorrow's geysers to sleep, demands the next stretch of Phoebe's story. In English class, Mr. Birkway reads a Longfellow poem about a tide that rises and falls while a traveler never returns, and the discussion becomes an argument about death — Sal insisting, with her own mother in mind, that death is never a normal thing.
Tears and SecretsThe girls take Phoebe's fears to the police station, where Sergeant Bickle listens kindly, opens no case, and phones Mr. Winterbottom to fetch them; that night, when Phoebe swears her mother loves them too much to leave, her buttoned-up father cries. The girls slip into Mrs. Cadaver's darkened house and find blind Mrs. Partridge alone — and she mentions meeting Phoebe's brother, though Phoebe has none. A fifth message follows: the worth of water stays unknown until the well runs dry.
The Lunatic's PhotoAt school Mr. Birkway begins reading the collected journals aloud with the names changed, and secrets spill — Sal's blackberry-kiss memory one day and, the next, Phoebe's suspicions about a murderous neighbor, cut off by the bell. On a second station visit, Sal studies the framed photographs on the sergeant's desk and goes cold: smiling from the Bickle family picture is the lunatic himself — Sergeant Bickle's own son.
Birkway's StoryBefore Sal decides, Mr. Birkway turns up at Mrs. Cadaver's — and proves to be her twin brother. Visiting the Winterbottoms to apologize for the journals, he tells the story nobody knew: his sister's husband was killed by a drunk driver, the same crash that took Mrs. Partridge's sight. Sal tells Phoebe who the lunatic is, the girls plan to find him, and Sal — thinking how suddenly a person can be lost — starts to feel for the neighbor she once feared.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Geysers, secrets, and suspects: geyser, interval, scalding, anonymous, suspicion…
Literary Elements
The red herring that drags suspicion the wrong way, the dry well as a symbol of worth noticed too late, and the dramatic irony of Sal knowing what Phoebe cannot yet see
Cross-Curricular
Yellowstone science and history — the supervolcano under the park, the plumbing that makes Old Faithful erupt on schedule, and the 1872 law that invented the national park
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
Chapter 29
The Tide Rises — Mr. Birkway’s class reads a Longfellow poem about a tide that keeps rising and falling after a traveler is gone, and Sal argues that death is never normal. The girls report Phoebe’s missing mother to Sergeant Bickle, who just calls Mr. Winterbottom for a ride — and that night, Phoebe’s composed father cries.
Chapter 30
Breaking In — Sal and Phoebe slip into Mrs. Cadaver’s house while she works a night shift and find blind Mrs. Partridge alone in the dark with her book. She startles Phoebe by mentioning she has met her brother — though Phoebe has no brother. Sal gently suggests the unthinkable: her mother may not be coming back.
Chapter 31
The Photograph — A fifth message arrives: we never know the worth of water until the well is dry. Mr. Birkway starts reading the journals aloud, and on another visit to the station, Sal studies the pictures on Sergeant Bickle’s desk — and recognizes the lunatic in the family photograph. He is the sergeant’s own son.
Chapter 32
Chicken and the Blackberry Kiss — The travelers roll into Yellowstone at night, and Gram is too thrilled about the geysers to sleep. In the story, Sal discovers Mr. Birkway is Mrs. Cadaver’s twin brother, and in class the journals betray their writers: Sal’s blackberry kiss, then Phoebe’s suspicions about her neighbor, cut off by the bell.
Chapter 33
The Visitor — Mr. Birkway visits the Winterbottoms to apologize for the journal readings and explains everything: Mrs. Cadaver is his twin sister, her husband was killed by a drunk driver, and the crash cost Mrs. Partridge her sight. Sal tells Phoebe who the lunatic is, and the girls start planning to find him.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 29–33, then answer each question.
📚Knowledge Bank · Words That Gush
Linguistics · Word RootsEnglish borrowed the word geyser from Iceland, where a famous hot spring named Geysir — roughly, the gusher — has blasted steam for centuries; it is one of the very few English words taken from Icelandic. Most of this part’s words traveled an older road, through Latin and Greek, and their roots still show. A spectator is literally a watcher, from the Latin spectare, to watch — the same root hiding inside inspect and spectacles. Anonymous is Greek for nameless: an-, meaning without, joined to onyma, a name — exactly what a message with no signature is. An interval was once the gap between the walls of a Roman fort, from inter, between, and vallum, a rampart; only later did the word slide from space over to time. Tragedy reaches back to the Greek tragoidia — literally, goat song, a name scholars still argue about — the word Athens gave its saddest plays. Crack a word open this way and a spelling list turns into a small museum of history.
geysern.Ch.32
A hot spring that shoots water and steam into the air
“Gram had picked out her geyser before they even reached the park.”
scaldingadj.Ch.32
Hot enough to burn
“Boardwalks keep visitors’ feet away from the scalding pools.”
intervaln.Ch.32
The stretch of time between two events
“Rangers post the interval until the next eruption.”
spectatorn.Ch.32
A person who watches an event without taking part
“A good geyser can hold a spectator still for a full hour.”
lunaticn.Ch.31
An old, unkind word for a person who seems out of their mind
“Phoebe still called the nervous young stranger the lunatic.”
anonymousadj.Ch.31
Given or written without a name attached
“The anonymous messages kept arriving on the Winterbottom porch.”
franticadj.Ch.29
Wild with worry or fear
“Phoebe grew frantic when the police would not open a case.”
reluctantadj.Ch.30
Slow to act because you do not really want to
“Sal was reluctant to sneak into a neighbor’s house.”
suspicionn.Ch.32
A feeling that someone has done something wrong
“Phoebe’s journal spilled her suspicion about the neighbor to the whole class.”
tragedyn.Ch.33
A terrible event that brings great sadness
“Mr. Birkway explained the tragedy behind Mrs. Cadaver’s quiet life.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, the word interval originally named ___.Ch.32
2Something ‘scalding’ is cold enough to sting.Ch.32
3An ‘interval’ is ___.Ch.32
4‘Lunatic’ is an old, unkind word for a person who seems ___.Ch.31
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.31
Word choices:anonymousfranticgeysertragedy- some words will not be used
The messages never carry a name.
Phoebe grew when no one would help her.
6‘Suspicion’ is ___.Ch.32
7A ‘reluctant’ person hesitates because they do not really want to act.Ch.30
8A ‘spectator’ is ___.Ch.32
9Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.33
Word choices:tragedyintervallunaticspectator- some words will not be used
Mr. Birkway explained the behind Mrs. Cadaver’s loss.
Rangers chalk up the before the next eruption.
10A ‘frantic’ person is wild with worry or fear.Ch.29
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 29–33.
🔍Knowledge Bank · Missing, or Just Gone?
Civics · Missing PersonsWhen an adult vanishes in the United States, police start from an uncomfortable fact: a grown person is legally free to leave. Officers look first for signs of danger — a crash, a medical emergency, evidence of a struggle — because those are what turn a disappearance into a criminal case. A voluntary departure, however painful for the family, is private business rather than police business. Children are the opposite case: a missing child triggers an immediate search, because a child cannot legally choose to disappear. One famous myth deserves burying here: American police do not make families wait twenty-four hours. Anyone may file a missing-person report at once, and officers can enter the information into a national law-enforcement database the same day. What officers cannot do is drag home an adult who left on purpose. That is the wall Phoebe keeps hitting at the station: to her, the disappearance is an emergency; to the law, so far, it looks like a choice.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, the famous rule that families must wait twenty-four hours to report a missing person is ___.Ch.29
2What does the fifth message on the Winterbottom porch say?Ch.31
3Sal and Phoebe slip into Mrs. Cadaver’s house while she is away at work.Ch.30
4Who first realizes the lunatic is Sergeant Bickle’s son?Ch.31
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events. Number 1 = what happens first.Chapters 29–33
The fifth message about the worth of water appears.
Mr. Birkway apologizes to the Winterbottoms and explains about Mrs. Cadaver.
Sal and Phoebe slip into Mrs. Cadaver’s darkened house.
Sergeant Bickle telephones Mr. Winterbottom to come for the girls.
Sal spots the lunatic in a photograph on the sergeant’s desk.
6Mr. Birkway reads the journal entries aloud using each student’s real name.Ch.31
7Which memory of Sal’s does Mr. Birkway read aloud to the class?Ch.32
8What does Sal learn about Mr. Birkway in this part?Ch.32
9Mr. Birkway explains that Mrs. Cadaver’s husband was killed in a crash caused by a drunk driver.Ch.33
10After hearing Mrs. Cadaver’s story, Sal begins to ___.Ch.33
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Sharon Creech tells the story across Chapters 29–33.
🎭Knowledge Bank · The Trick of the Red Herring
Literary Craft · MisdirectionA red herring is a clue planted to pull your suspicion toward the wrong answer, and the name comes from an actual fish. A herring smoked until it turns coppery red gives off a powerful smell, and sportsmen claimed such a fish, dragged across a trail, could throw hounds off the scent. Mystery writers borrowed the trick: let a harmless detail wear a guilty costume. A stranger who lurks and twitches, notes with no signature, a neighbor with an alarming name — each invites the reader to build the wrong story out of true facts. The craft has a rule, though, often called fair play: the author may misdirect you, but may not lie to you, and the real answer must sit in plain sight the whole time. Sharon Creech (author) plays exactly fair in Part 6 — the truth is literally framed on a desk in a police station. Every fact Phoebe gathers about the young man is true; only the meaning she attaches is wrong. His twitchiness reads as menace, when the truth behind it is nerves.
Red Herring
A clue planted to drag suspicion toward the wrong explanation — the twitchy young man at the door wears a guilt that belongs to nobody.
Symbolism
A well gone dry, water whose worth shows only after it stops flowing: the fifth message hands Phoebe a picture of her own missing mother.
Dramatic Irony
Sal knows whose face is in the photograph; Phoebe does not. The gap between what we know and what she knows builds the ache of these chapters.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1The Knowledge Bank explains that under the fair-play rule, a mystery writer may ___.Ch.31
2In the fifth message, the dry well stands for something valued only after it is gone. The well is ___.Ch.31
3A red herring is a clue meant to lead readers toward the true solution.Ch.30
4Sal knowing the lunatic’s identity while Phoebe stays in the dark creates ___.Ch.31
5Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.31
Word choices:symbolironystanzarhyme- some words will not be used
A well gone dry standing for a missing mother is a .
Sal knowing what Phoebe does not creates dramatic .
6In a mystery, the main job of a red herring is ___.Ch.30
7A symbol is an object or image that stands for a larger idea.Ch.31
8Dramatic irony can make a reader want to warn a character.Ch.33
9Which detail works hardest to mislead the reader in Phoebe’s story?Ch.30
10Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.31
Word choices:herringsuspensestanzasimile- some words will not be used
A clue planted to mislead is called a red .
The wait to learn who the lunatic really is builds .
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Messages Without a Sender
Folklore · ProverbsThe sayings that keep landing on Phoebe’s porch are proverbs: short, polished sentences that pack a lifetime of experience into a dozen words and belong to no single author. The fifth message even has a paper trail. Thomas Fuller, an English writer, printed it in 1732 in his collection Gnomologia: we never know the worth of water until the well is dry. Benjamin Franklin liked it enough to reprint a version in Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1746, and it has been quoted ever since. Proverbs work because they name a pattern rather than a person: nobody in the house is being scolded directly, so everybody is free to listen. That is also why the messages unsettle the Winterbottoms so much. Advice from a neighbor can be argued with; an unsigned truth on the doorstep simply waits to fit whoever reads it. Phoebe reads it and thinks of her mother — because when the well is your own, the proverb stops being about water.
They reach Yellowstone after dark, so Sal cannot see it yet — but somewhere out in the blackness beyond the motel window, ten thousand hot springs are breathing steam at the stars, and Gram is far too excited to sleep. Tomorrow, at last, the geysers. Part 6 works exactly like the plumbing under that ground: pressure building in the dark toward release. A fifth message is waiting on a porch: we never know the worth of water until the well is dry. A teacher is reading private journals out loud to a classroom full of their authors. A photograph is sitting in plain sight on a police sergeant’s desk, holding the answer to the mystery of the lunatic — if anyone thinks to look at it. And a man is about to knock on the Winterbottoms’ door with an apology and a story that will turn the terrifying Mrs. Cadaver into someone worth crying for. Every hidden thing in this stretch of chapters picks its moment to force its way up.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Part 6 argues that hidden truths leak out anyway, one small clue at a time.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Phoebe’s mystery at home, or Sal’s journey west? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Phoebe’s mystery at homeSal’s journey west ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
The fifth message speaks of a well gone dry→
Sal studies the photographs on the sergeant’s desk→
Mr. Birkway reads private journals to the class→
Mrs. Cadaver’s story finally gets told→
🧠Knowledge Bank question
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
According to the Knowledge Bank, a proverb on the doorstep is hard to argue with because it is , so each reader is free to .
Part 5
Standardized Test
A Clock Made of Boiling Water · Reading & Vocabulary · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
Read the passage — the highlighted words are tested — then answer. Tap an answer, then tap it again to confirm.
SATCentral Ideas — the passage's main point
SATWords in Context — a word's meaning in this passage
SATInference — a conclusion the passage implies
SATAuthor’s Purpose — what the author wants to achieve
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated in the passage
TOEFLVocabulary — a tested word's meaning here
TOEFLProse Summary — the three sentences that sum it up
A Clock Made of Boiling Water
Several times a day, spectators fill the benches along a boardwalk in Wyoming to watch the ground keep an appointment. Old Faithful, the most famous geyser on Earth, hurls steam and boiling water over one hundred feet high every sixty to one hundred ten minutes, and rangers post a predicted time for each eruption. The explorers who camped beside it in 1870 named the geyser for that reliability. Two years later, in 1872, Congress made Yellowstone the world's first national park, partly so wonders like this could never be fenced off and sold.
A geyser is rare because it needs three things at once: water, fierce heat, and tight plumbing. Yellowstone sits over a vast chamber of molten rock, so snowmelt trickling deep underground meets stone hot enough to cook it and collects in a natural tube with a tight squeeze partway up. The weight of the column presses down so hard that the deepest water heats far past its usual boiling point yet stays reluctant to turn to steam. When rising bubbles finally shove some water over the rim, the column weighs less, the pressure below drops, and the superheated water flashes to steam — thousands of gallons of scalding spray, just over two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, roar up the tube.
After each frantic burst, the geyser sits quiet while its plumbing refills and reheats, so the show runs in cycles. Rangers cannot control the cycle, but they can read it: a short eruption drains less of the system and earns a brief interval, while a long eruption means a longer wait. Old Faithful is neither the park's tallest geyser nor its most powerful. It is simply the most dependable — and dependability is what turns boiling water into a clock.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the passage mainly about?SAT · Central Ideas
2The passage says a geyser needs water, fierce heat, and ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, reluctant most nearly means ___.SAT · Words in Context
4The explorers of 1870 named Old Faithful for ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
5The passage suggests that if Old Faithful lost the tight squeeze in its plumbing, it would most likely ___.SAT · Inference
6In the passage, frantic most nearly means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
7Why does the author mention that Old Faithful is neither the tallest nor the most powerful geyser?SAT · Author’s Purpose
8Prose Summary (TOEFL).The passage explains how Old Faithful erupts and why people can predict it. This TOEFL task lists six sentences; choose the THREE that best capture the passage’s main ideas. The other three do not belong — they state minor details or ideas the passage does not present.TOEFL · Prose Summary
9In the passage, interval most nearly means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
10The passage suggests that if Yellowstone’s underground heat faded away, Old Faithful would ___.SAT · Inference
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 6 “The Worth of Water”
The fifth message says we never know the worth of water until the well is dry. Write about something — a person, a place, a routine, even a sound — whose value you only understood once it was gone or almost gone. Describe what it was like before, what changed, and what you know now that you did not know then. 6–10 sentences. End with one sentence of advice for someone whose well is still full.
You can start with: “I never thought about it while it was still there...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Sharon Creech. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Sharon Creech’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
