Winter According to Humphrey (9781101591222) (3 page)

Next, Aldo got out his broom and started sweeping.

I climbed up to the top of my tree branch so I could have a better look.

He had collected quite a pile of dust and paper trimmings by the time he reached the piece of paper near Kelsey's table.

He bent down and picked it up. “What's this
?
” He studied the paper. “Oh, it's a song. Hey, I'll bet this is the song for the winter show.”

“What's it say
?
” I squeaked loudly.

“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og twanged excitedly.

Aldo started to whistle. I'm not quite sure how he did that, because I couldn't see his mouth under that big floppy mustache.

“I like it,” he said. “That's a nice idea.”

“PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE bring it over here!” I squeaked.

I guess Aldo didn't understand, because he put the paper back on Kelsey's table.

After he finished his work and the tables were in neat rows again, he pulled a chair up next to my cage and took out his dinner. He always eats his dinner with Og and me.

“Richie said his class is going to build a snowman in the gym,” Aldo told us.

Richie is Aldo's nephew. He was in Room 26 with me last year.

Aldo chuckled. “Now that's something, isn't it
?
”

“It certainly is!” I squeaked. It would have to be COLD-COLD-COLD in that gym if they didn't want the snowman to melt. I shivered a little.

“I like that snowflake song, though.” Aldo pushed a crunchy piece of lettuce between the bars of my cage.

“Sing it to us, Aldo,” I said.

He didn't sing but he hummed a little. Then he sang, “Each one is special, just like me and you.”

Aldo chuckled again. “I guess you two snowflakes aren't alike at all,” he said. “And you're both special, all right.”

After he finished his meal, Aldo threw a few Froggy Food Sticks into Og's tank. My friend took a deep dive in the water to catch them.

Before I knew it, Aldo had rolled his cart out into the hallway and turned off the lights.

“Night, night,” he said before closing the door.

The room was dark and quiet. I waited until I saw Aldo's car leave the parking lot a little later. Then I jiggled the lock-that-doesn't-lock on my cage and scrambled over to Og's tank.

“Did you hear that, Og
?
” I asked. “He called us snowflakes!”

“BOING-BOING!” he said.

“And he said we're special. I guess that's what the song says,” I explained.

I glanced at Kelsey's table and saw the paper lying there. “I wish I could go over there and read it,” I said.

Since I've been the classroom pet in Room 26, I've learned to read. I can even write in the little notebook hidden behind my mirror.

And I've learned to open my lock-that-doesn't-lock, get out of my cage and explore Room 26 at night.

But there was no way that I could get from my cage to Kelsey's tabletop, because I can't shimmy up such a tall, smooth leg. And I couldn't leap from her chair to the table because her chair was pushed all the way in.

“I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow,” I squeaked to my neighbor. It was suddenly getting chilly in Room 26. I looked forward to burrowing down in my nice warm bedding.

“BOING-BOING,” Og answered.

It sounded as if he agreed with me, so I said good night and went back to the comfort of my cage.

Hamsters are often wide awake at night, so I had plenty of time to think.

If the students in Room 26 were snowflakes, certainly no two were alike. Slow-Down-Simon was always in a rush, while Hurry-Up-Harry was often late. Do-It-Now-Daniel put things off, while Helpful-Holly did everything right away. One Paul was tall and the other Paul was short. Oh, and Stop-Talking-Sophie was the complete opposite of quiet Speak-Up-Sayeh from last year's class.

Even the classroom pets, Og and I, were as different as night and day.

I have beautiful golden fur. He is green and has no fur at all.

He likes water and I should NEVER-NEVER-NEVER get wet.

I say “SQUEAK” and he says “BOING!”

And those are only a few of our differences.

I guess I wasn't wide awake after all because I drifted off to sleep and dreamed about snowflakes and jingle bells and prancing horses.

HUMPHREY'S WINTER WONDERINGS:
Could there possibly be any two snowflakes as different as Og and me?

3

Jingle Jangle

I
had to wait two days before Ms. Lark came back again. Then, before she arrived, the morning seemed unsqueakably long.

First, we had to do math problems. One was about a train going east and a train going west and as far as I could figure out, those two trains were going in circles!

Then, there was the vocabulary test. I hid in my sleeping hut with my notebook and took the test with the rest of the class. I'm sorry to say I missed three words. First was “drizzle.” I thought it only had one
z
. I should have known it had two. After all, Mrs. Brisbane once gave us a made-up word, “furzizzle,” and
that
had two
z
s.

Next was “frozen.” I thought it had two
z
s. I also missed “icicle.” I got carried away and wrote “icicicicle.” (I guess Mrs. Brisbane was using our spelling to get us in the mood for the Winter Wonderland show.)

“Og, do you think Ms. Lark is really coming back today
?
” I squeaked to my neighbor when we were alone in the room during recess.

Og splashed a little but he didn't answer. I guess he didn't know, either.

But once my classmates were back and in their chairs, the door swung open and Ms. Lark came in. She gave a nervous glance in the direction of my cage, then moved to the front of the classroom. She was carrying a piano keyboard with her. It was just the keyboard part—not the whole piano.

“Did you have a chance to look at the snowflake song last night
?
” she asked, placing the keyboard on the desk.

My friends all nodded, even Forgetful-Phoebe, who sometimes doesn't remember her homework.

“Great,” Ms. Lark continued. “Let's warm up by singing a chorus of ‘Jingle Bells.' Then I'll teach you the new song.”

She flipped a switch and started playing the keyboard. It may have been small, but it was LOUD-LOUD-LOUD.

My classmates began to sing and I squeaked along.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh—ay!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!

It's a happy song and I loved it so much, I kept on going.

Squeak-squeak squeak, squeak-squeak squeak.
Squeak . . .

Just then, I noticed that the rest of the class had stopped singing. My friends sitting near my cage giggled.

I stopped singing.

Ms. Lark looked in my direction and frowned.

But then she forced a smile (it looked forced to me) and told my friends what a good job they'd done.

Next, we sang the verse of the song. I didn't know that part, so I listened.

Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh,

O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way.

Bells on bobtail ring, making spirits bright,

What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight! Oh . . .

When they went back to singing the “jingle bells” part, I joined in again. But this time, I remembered to stop when my friends did.

Ms. Lark explained what some of the words meant, which was quite surprising.

I'd thought that the horse's name was Bob and that he had bells on his tail. That's why the song said “Bells on Bob's tail ring.” But I was WRONG-WRONG-WRONG! The horse's tail was cut short so it wouldn't get caught in the reins, and that was called a bobtail. OUCH!

(I have a small tail myself, but I'm not sure how I feel about putting bells on it.)

“I want you to practice the song on your piano when you get home so we can rehearse with you playing soon,” she told Daniel.

“Okay,” he said.

“You will remember, won't you
?
” Mrs. Brisbane asked. “Tonight.”

Mrs. Brisbane often had to remind Daniel not to put things off.

Then Ms. Lark moved on to the new song about the snowflakes.

I could tell my friends were as excited as I was to hear a brand-new song. They leaned forward in their chairs to listen.

I scrambled up to the tippy-top of my cage so I could watch Ms. Lark sing and play. She had a lovely voice. And I liked the words of the song, too.

No two snowflakes are the same,

Though they're lacy white.

No two snowflakes are alike,

Almost . . . but not quite.

Each one is special,

That is true.

Each one is special,

Just like me and you.

Snowflakes floating through the air

Make a lovely sight.

No two snowflakes are alike,

Almost . . . but not quite.

Each one is special,

That is true.

Each one is special,

Just like me and you.

Snowflakes covering the ground

Make the whole world bright.

No two snowflakes are alike,

Almost . . . but not quite.

Each one is special,

That is true.

Each one is special,

Just like me and you.

By the time she got to the end, the whole class joined in on the chorus. I wanted to, but I managed
not
to squeak because I was afraid I'd upset Ms. Lark.

When she stopped, Mrs. Brisbane applauded and everyone joined in.

“That's a beautiful song,” our teacher said.

“Thank you,” Ms. Lark replied. “But now I'll tell you the best part. Half of the class will be prancing horses for ‘Jingle Bells.' Those students will wear tails, horse manes and bells.”

“I want to be a jingle horse!” Stop-Talking-Sophie blurted out.

By the nods and whispering, I could see that the rest of the class wanted the same thing.

“The other half of the class will be glittering snowflakes whirling around the stage for the second song,” Ms. Lark said.

“Oh, I want to be a snowflake!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Sorry, but you can't be a horse
and
a snowflake,” Ms. Lark told her.

Sophie looked disappointed, but she was quiet for once.

“I don't want to be a snowflake,” Simon said. “I'd rather be a horse.”

All the boys nodded and said they wanted to be horses.

Ms. Lark turned to Mrs. Brisbane. “What do you think
?
”

Mrs. Brisbane thought for a second and then said she thought it would be a good idea if the girls were snowflakes and the boys were horses.

“Did you hear that, Og
?
” I said. “Since we're boys, I guess we get to be horses.”

Being a horse wouldn't be that hard for a hamster. After all, unlike humans, I already have a tail.

“BOING!” Og twanged loudly.

The class practiced the new song several times and then it was lunchtime.

When the classroom was empty again, I burrowed under my bedding to warm up and to think.

I was thinking that Og wouldn't make a very good horse.

I'd never seen a picture of a green horse before.

And horses don't hop.

Still, I was HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY that we boys were going to be horses and I'm sure Og was, too.

For the rest of the day, it was hard to concentrate on our studies, because I kept hearing “Jingle Bells” and the snowflake song going round and round in my brain.

Late in the afternoon, Mrs. Brisbane began talking about real snowflakes again.
That
got my attention.

Our teacher had started to explain how the ice crystals formed when Small-Paul Fletcher raised his hand.

“Mrs. Brisbane,” he said when she called on him, “I did some reading about snowflakes last night and I found out that something we talked about on Tuesday is wrong. And Ms. Lark's song is wrong.”

“Wrong
?
” Mrs. Brisbane looked puzzled.

Paul pushed up his glasses. “Yes, ma'am. The song says no two snowflakes are alike, but that's not true.”

Not true
?
What was Paul saying
?

“Oh, my! Has anyone seen two that are alike
?
” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

“I'm not sure about that,” Paul said. “But it's scientifically
possible
that there could be two identical snowflakes.”

“I see,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “If you'd like to do a little more research on that, I'd appreciate it, Paul. Can you report back to the class tomorrow
?
”

As soon as Paul said he would, more hands were raised.

“Maybe we should change the song,” Helpful-Holly suggested.

Mrs. Brisbane smiled. “I'm not sure that singing ‘Sometimes two snowflakes might be alike' would sound as good, are you
?
”

“You'd have to change all the words,” Thomas said.

“Does this mean we can't have glittery snowflake costumes
?
” Rosie asked. She looked VERY-VERY-VERY disappointed.

“You can still have glittery snowflake costumes,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “And I think we can keep the song as it is. We'll talk to Ms. Lark about it tomorrow.”

All of my friends seemed pleased with her answer.

“Speaking of tomorrow, whose turn is it to take Humphrey home for the weekend
?
” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

I looked around the room. Which house would I be visiting for the weekend
?
Each week it's a different place, which makes my life interesting.

Holly waved her hand wildly. “It's me!” she said.

“Don't forget to bring in the permission slip tomorrow,” Mrs. Brisbane told her.

I was pretty sure that Helpful-Holly wouldn't forget!

Later that night, when Og and I were alone, I opened the lock-that-doesn't-lock and scampered over to his tank.

“Og, since we're boys and we'll be jingle horses, do you think we should practice singing ‘Jingle Bells'? ” I asked.

My friend didn't answer, so I decided to practice by myself. “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way . . . ” I began.

I was happy when Og chimed in. “BOING-BOING BOING, BOING-BOING BOING, BOING-BOING BOING BOING BOING!”