Read School Days According to Humphrey Online

Authors: Betty G. Birney

School Days According to Humphrey (14 page)

BOOK: School Days According to Humphrey

6.92Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

Of course, I had to spend more time straightening out the cards that Aki had messed up.

By the time I finally got back to my cage, the room was getting lighter. Before long, Mrs. Brisbane and the strange students would be back.

Of course, they'd never know about my exciting adventure. They probably thought that being a classroom hamster was easy.

But even if they didn't know what I'd accomplished,
I
was pleased that I'd done an unsqueakably good job!

I think Og was, too.

HUMPHREY'S RULES OF SCHOOL:
Whatever job you're given in the classroom, always do your best. Even if it makes you unsqueakably tired!

Hickory Dickory Dock

F
riday morning, I was tired and a little jumpy because I thought Mrs. Brisbane might be upset that I mixed up her cards. I was also worried about Harry.

All week long, I'd held my breath after every bell, wondering if Hurry-Up-Harry would be tardy or not. After all, he'd made a deal with Mrs. Brisbane.

He did unsqueakably well at keeping his end of the bargain. But on Thursday, he had been late to school because his mom couldn't find her car keys. (They were under the kitchen table.)

I wasn't sure whether he'd broken his end of the deal or not, so I still didn't know where I'd be spending the weekend.

But I forgot about everything else when Mrs. Brisbane said, “Boys and girls, I'm now going to announce your new classroom jobs.”

She explained Brisbane's Buddies and how the students would work in pairs. Then she described each job. Finally, she began to read off the names of the students who would share each job.

“For Homework Collectors, Rosie and Phoebe.” Mrs. Brisbane looked surprised, and I knew why. The night before, I'd moved Phoebe to the homework job.

Helpful-Holly raised her hand. “Don't you think
I
should do the job with Rosie?”

“No,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “I have another job for you, Holly. Just keep listening.”

Holly looked disappointed, but Mrs. Brisbane continued. “Animal Handlers will be Joey and Kelsey.”

Again, Mrs. Brisbane looked surprised. I just hoped that Be-Careful-Kelsey would be better at taking care of animals than she was at taking care of herself.

Joey and Kelsey both looked thrilled.

“It really is the best job,” I squeaked to Og.

“BOING-BOING!” he agreed.

“Door and Line Monitors will be . . .” Mrs. Brisbane paused. She obviously knew these weren't the names she'd chosen, but she read them anyway. “Harry and Simon.”

I thought that pairing Hurry-Up-Harry with Slow-Down-Simon was a brilliant idea. At least I hoped so.

Mrs. Brisbane kept going. I thought maybe she'd ignore my next idea, but when she read the names, she actually looked pleased. “Bulletin Board Designers: Paul G. and Paul F.”

The two Pauls did
not
look thrilled, but I crossed my toes and hoped my idea would work.

When she got to the very end of the list, there were just two people left.

“These jobs just have one person,” she said. “Thomas, you will be Class Reporter. That means you have to record what we do every day in a class log,” she explained. “What we study, who participates and even what the temperature is. No exaggeration, okay?”

“Okay!” Thomas said as he gave her a thumbs-up.

“Holly, you will be the Teacher's Assistant. That means when I need anything done, from taking a note to the office to answering the phone or cleaning the board, I will ask you. Do you think you can handle that?”

Helpful-Holly did.

Near the end of the day, Mrs. Brisbane made another announcement: Hurry-Up-Harry would be taking me home for the weekend.

“Yes!” Harry shouted. “This is my lucky day.”

I hoped it was my lucky day, too.

I was tired from all that late-night work rearranging the cards, but a classroom hamster sometimes works around the clock. And I was anxious to get to Hurry-Up-Harry's house and meet his family.

I had to wait awhile, though, because Harry's mom was unsqueakably late in picking us up from school.

Yep, I had my work cut out for me . . . again.

Harry's mom was NICE-NICE-NICE. So was his little sister, Suzy. I wasn't surprised. After all, Harry was NICE-NICE-NICE. He was also often LATE-LATE-LATE. And I wanted to find out why.

I got all settled on the coffee table in the Ito family living room.

“Nice mouthie,” Suzy said as she leaned in close to my cage.

“Nice
hamster,
” I politely corrected her.

“Mouth!” she said, twirling in circles around my cage until I felt slightly dizzy.

“He's a hamster,” Harry corrected her, thank goodness.

Suzy twirled around again, but this time she said, “Hamthter!!”

At least that was a little closer than “mouth.”

Usually when I go home with a student, I am placed on a desk or table, admired and played with, and then the family has dinner.

At Harry's house, I was placed on a table, admired and played with. But dinner was a long way off.

I can't say the Ito family didn't have a clock. They had a large gold one in the living room, on the mantel above the fireplace, directly opposite from my spot on the table. I saw the time change from 6:00 to 6:30 and from 6:30 to 7:00. Each time the clock reached the halfhour point, it chimed a lovely, loud sound. Ding-ding! Ding-ding!

“Mommy, I'm hungry!” Suzy said. She stopped twirling and plopped down on the sofa.

“Sorry, honey,” Harry's mom said. “I was hoping we'd all eat together, but I'll go ahead and give you some pasta.”

“Pathta-pathta-pathta,” Suzy said, jumping up and twirling around my cage again.

Harry decided to wait to eat until his dad came home, which was around 8:30.

“Sorry,” Mr. Ito said, giving Harry's mom a kiss. (Which was unsqueakably nice.) “I was clearing up some paperwork and I lost track of time,” he said.

The Itos lost track of time a lot. Harry's mom said it was no problem, and it was nine when she finally said the food was ready. Suzy had fallen asleep on the sofa, but the rest of the family ate together.

After dinner, Harry's mom took Suzy up to bed and Harry and his dad came into the living room.

“Wow, I didn't know it was so late,” Mr. Ito said, looking up at the large, shiny gold clock over the fireplace. “It's bedtime for you, too, Harry.”

“Oh, Dad, it's Friday night. Can't I stay up a little while longer?” Harry asked.

Harry's dad said it was okay, especially since he'd gotten home late and hadn't had much time with his son. They started playing a game together. I decided to entertain them with some hamster acrobatics. I leaped around on my tree branch, then hopped on my wheel and started spinning faster and faster.

“Go, Humphrey, go!” Harry said, and pretty soon he and his father forgot about their game and watched me.

“Tomorrow, we'll put him in his hamster ball,” Harry told his dad.

When Harry's mom came back downstairs, I started my act all over again. I was already tired from the night before, but a hamster's job is never done.

Mrs. Ito glanced up at the clock. “Harry has a soccer game in the morning,” she said with a yawn. “We'd better get to bed.”

Mr. Ito looked up at the clock, too. “My watch is a little slow,” he said, resetting it.

“Are you sure that clock is right?” his wife asked.

“Very sure. It may be an antique, but it keeps perfect time,” Mr. Ito answered.

Mrs. Ito nodded, then adjusted her watch, too.

After Harry and his parents had gone to bed, I was happy to settle in for a nice snooze myself. Like the Itos, I checked the clock.

It was eleven.

The next morning, I sat in my cage in the living room and watched the Itos in action. There was the usual morning commotion of people getting up, eating breakfast, listening to the news.

Harry came into the living room to see me.

“Hi, Humphrey. Did you have a good sleep? Do you like my house?” he asked.

I was about to say yes when Mrs. Ito rushed into the living room, looking frantic.

“Harry, you've got to get dressed. The game is at nine!” she said. It was only fifteen minutes before nine, and Mrs. Ito was still in her robe.

“What time's the game?” Mr. Ito asked, wandering into the living room, still in his robe, too.

“Nine!” Mrs. Ito told him as she headed for the stairs. Mr. Ito was right behind her.

Harry came back down in his soccer uniform at five minutes before nine. I crossed my toes and hoped that the soccer field was close to the house.

Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Ito came back into the living room, both dressed.

“Where's Suzy?” Mr. Ito asked.

Mrs. Ito ran back up the stairs. “I'll get her dressed. Meet you in the car!”

Mr. Ito looked at the clock and shook his head. It was one minute before nine.

“Okay,” he said. “But we're going to be late!”

The last Ito finally left the house at three minutes past nine. They were definitely late . . . as usual.

I was exhausted from watching the family run around like that. But I realized that this was probably what went on in the Ito house every day that Harry was late to school.

Mr. and Mrs. Ito were grown-up human beings and seemed quite smart. How could a small hamster help them change their ways? I thought about that problem all day, between naps in my cage.

Then an idea began to take shape in my brain. The Itos weren't very good at keeping track of the time, but when they did, they seemed to check that clock on the mantel. I couldn't change the Itos, but maybe I could change the clock they trusted so much.

As I stared at the clock a long time, a little rhyme rolled around in my brain.

Hickory dickory dock,

The mouse ran up the clock . . .

Suzy had called me a mouse (at least I think that's what she meant by “mouth”), and hamsters are a lot like mice. (According to Aldo, we're both rodents.) So if a mouse could go up the clock, I guess a clever hamster like me could, too, as long as I had a Plan.

I rested some more while the Itos were gone, knowing I had a busy night ahead of me.