B Is for Betsy Read online

  Mr. Kilpatrick was the policeman who took the children across the street before and after school. He was a big man with a merry, red face and he loved little boys and girls. He would blow his sharp whistle and all the automobiles and wagons would stop. Then he would gather a group of boys and girls around him, and, like a hen with her chickens, hurry them across the wide street. "Hurry up, Bobby," he would say. "Mind you get a hundred today, Bill. Come along, Betty Lou, pick up your feet; sure I can't keep the traffic waiting all day."

  Mr. Kilpatrick's bright red police car was always parked near the corner. Betsy thought it was a beautiful car. It was so red and shiny. Father's automobile was black and only the wheels were red. She wished that Father was a policeman; then she could ride in an automobile that was all red.

  One morning, when Mother and Betsy were crossing the street, Mr. Kilpatrick called out, "Good morning, Little Red Ribbons; sure that's a pretty plaid schoolbag you've got over your shoulder."

  Betsy liked Mr. Kilpatrick. She looked forward to seeing him every morning and every afternoon. Rain or shine he was always there. Mother told Betsy that she must never, never cross the wide street without Mr. Kilpatrick, and Betsy said she never would.

  One evening, Betsy said, "Mother, I am sure I can go to school alone now. I know the way."

  "Very well," said Mother. "You may go alone tomorrow."

  Betsy felt very big indeed as she walked out of her front gate alone the following morning. Mother stood at the door and watched Betsy go up the street. When she reached the corner she looked back and waved her hand. Mother threw her a kiss.

  Betsy followed the cartracks. After she passed the turn in the road, she could see the railroad bridge by the station. It was easy to go to school alone, thought Betsy. She walked along as quickly as her short little legs could carry her. Sometimes she skipped and her schoolbag bounced up and down.

  As she passed the flower shop, she stopped to look in the window. Betsy loved flowers and these were beautiful. Soon she was so busy choosing the flowers she liked best that she forgot Mother had told her never to look in the shop windows on the way to school because she might look too long and be late. When she remembered Mother's warning, Betsy began to run. It would be dreadful to be late the very first morning that Mother had let her go alone! Now she was at the railroad station. Under the bridge and around the corner she ran. Soon she would reach Mr. Kilpatrick. She was out of breath from running. She would have to walk for a while. Betsy trotted along.

  It was strange not to see any other children. She usually saw them after she passed the railroad station. Perhaps they were already in school. Betsy began to run again. Everything looked strange. She didn't remember this big open field. Where, oh, where were the wide street and Mr. Kilpatrick! Perhaps he would be gone when she got there and how would she ever get across alone? Oh, why did I stop to look at those flowers? thought Betsy.

  She wanted to cry, but she knew that it wouldn't help a bit; so she hurried on. There were some little houses in the next block. She could see a large lady sweeping the pavement. Perhaps she could tell me how to get to school, thought Betsy. Betsy remembered that Mother had told her never to speak to anyone on the street but a policeman, but there was no policeman.

  When Betsy reached the lady with the broom, the lady stopped sweeping. She leaned on her broom and looked down at Betsy. "Well, darlin'," said the lady, "and where are you goin' this bright mornin'?"

  "I'm going to school," said Betsy, "but I can't find it. I'm all mixed up."

  "Well, sure," said the lady, "you're way off. You must have taken the wrong turn."

  Tears came into Betsy's eyes.

  "Now don't you fret," said the lady. "It will be all right. If it weren't for my feet bein' that bad, I'd take you myself. But my Patrick will be here soon, for it's nine o'clock and he'll be

  wantin' his breakfast. Patrick will have you there in a jiffy. Come sit on the porch step and wait for him," said the lady.

  She opened the front gate, and Betsy went into the little yard and sat down on the porch step. It was a pretty yard with chrysanthemums growing all along the fence and borders of petunias. "And now while we're waiting for Patrick, I'll pick some flowers for your teacher. It will help her to feel a mite better about you bein' late for school."

  Betsy watched her pick the chrysanthemums. She had gathered a large bunch when a bright red police car drove up and stopped in front of the house. "Here's Patrick now," said the lady.

  The door of the car opened and out stepped Mr. Kilpatrick. Betsy rushed to meet him. "Well, if it isn't Little Red Ribbons," cried Mr. Kilpatrick.

  "Oh, Mr. Kilpatrick," cried Betsy, "I got lost going to school. I couldn't find you, Mr. Kilpatrick."

  "Well, sure it's good you found my wife, Katie," said Mr. Kilpatrick, picking Betsy up in his big strong arms.

  "And now, Pat, run her over to the school and hurry back for your breakfast," said Mrs. Kilpatrick.

  Mr. Kilpatrick put Betsy in his bright red automobile and his wife gave her the big bunch of chrysanthemums. Mr. Kilpatrick climbed into the driver's seat and in no time at all they reached Betsy's school.

  "I'll take you into your room," said Mr. Kilpatrick.

  "Oh, thank you," said Betsy.

  Betsy was glad to have him go into the room with her, for she didn't like to go alone. When Mr. Kilpatrick opened the door and Betsy walked into the room, all the children called out, "Here's Betsy," and some of the little boys called out, "Hello, Mr. Kilpatrick."

  Miss Grey said, "Why, Betsy, I am so glad to see you. We were wondering where you were."

  "I'm sorry I got lost," said Betsy as she handed the big bunch of chrysanthemums to her teacher. "Mrs. Kilpatrick said they would make you feel a mite better about my being late," she added.

  Miss Grey laughed and said, "Oh, they do, Betsy; they do."

  "Miss Grey," said Betsy, "I rode in Mr. Kilpatrick's red police car."

  4 How Wiggle and Waggle Grew Up

  One morning when Betsy was walking to school, she saw Billy Porter trotting along ahead of her. Billy was also in the first grade, and his desk was right near Betsy's. Billy was a pudgy little boy with a round, merry face. He had thick, bushy, brown hair that stood up all over his head. It looked as though it had been cut with a lawn mower. Billy was carrying a cardboard box by its wire handle. One by one little drops of water were dropping from the bottom of the box.

  "What's in the box?" asked Betsy, as she caught up to Billy.

  Billy grinned. "Oh, wait 'til you see," said Billy. He set the box down on the pavement and opened the lid. Betsy stooped down and looked in the box. It was filled with water. Swimming in the water were what looked like two little gray fish.

  "What are you going to do with those fish?" asked Betsy.

  "They're not fish," said Billy, "they're tadpoles. I am going to give them to the teacher."

  "Oh!" said Betsy. "You'd better hurry before all the water leaks out."

  Soon Billy and Betsy reached Mr. Kilpatrick. He had a group of children around him. "Billy has tadpoles in a box," shouted Betsy.

  "Have you, Bill?" cried one the boys. "Let's see them," said another. "What are you going to do with them?"

  "Come along, come along," said Mr. Kilpatrick, as he hurried the little group across the street. "We don't want the tadpoles to be late for school."

  The whole group rushed into the classroom. "Look, Miss Grey," they cried, "Billy has brought some tadpoles." Billy felt very proud and important as he set the box down on Miss Grey's desk.

  "How lovely of you, Billy!" said Miss Grey.

  The children gathered around her as she opened the box. "Oh, look!" they cried. "One is bigger than the other." "What are you going to do with them, Miss Grey?"

  Miss Grey took a large glass bowl from the shelf in the corner and poured the contents of the box into the bowl. "Now," she said, "we'll add some water and put them on the windowsill. Something very interesting will happen to these tadp
oles. We will watch them grow every day."

  "We should name them," said Betsy.

  "Oh, yes!" cried the children.

  "Let's call the little one Wiggle," said Billy.

  "Yes," said the children, "let's call him Wiggle."

  "And the big one can be Waggle," said Ellen.

  So the tadpoles were named Wiggle and Waggle, and the children were delighted.

  Every morning they crowded around the bowl to see how the tadpoles were growing. One morning when Betsy reached school she ran to the windowsill. "Oh, Miss Grey," she cried, "something has happened to Waggle. He has two little bumps on each side of his tail." The children came running to look at Waggle. He had, indeed, two little bumps on each side of his tail.

  When school began, Miss Grey told the children that the two little bumps were going to be Waggle's legs and that they would grow larger and larger.

  "Will Waggle get any more legs?" asked a little boy.

  "You wait and see," said Miss Grey.

  "I think he will," said Ellen.

  "I do too," said Billy.

  Sure enough, some time later, two more little bumps appeared and Waggle began to grow two front legs. Wiggle was very busy growing his back legs and trying to catch up with Waggle.

  While the tadpoles were growing their legs, the children were busy learning about the Indians. They learned that there were some Indians who had lived in wigwams made of the skins of animals and some who had lived in wigwams made of birch bark. Miss Grey also told them of Indians who had lived in caves cut in the side of the rocks. The children spent days at the sand table, building an Indian village. They decided to build a wigwam village at one end of the table and a cave village at the other end. They built the wigwam village first. They made the little wigwams of twigs covered with brown paper. They brought little dolls, which they colored with paint.

  Betsy thought the Indian village was beautiful. There was even a forest. The trees were made of pieces of sponge painted with green paint. In the middle of the forest there stood a little toy deer. "Because," said Billy, "if there isn't any game the Indians will starve." Billy had learned that animals that are hunted are called "game." He felt very big when he used

  this new word because the other children thought that game was just something that you played and sometimes won and sometimes lost.

  One morning when the children looked in the bowl to see how Wiggle and Waggle were growing, Waggle looked very strange indeed. "Waggle has lost almost all of his tail," cried Betsy.

  "Yes," shouted the children, "look at him, Miss Grey."

  "Why, Waggle looks like a frog," said Ellen.

  "Waggle is a frog," said Miss Grey. "All this time, Waggle has been turning into a frog." The children laughed. They thought Waggle was wonderful to have turned into a frog.

  "He should have a stone to sit on," said a little boy. "Frogs like to sit on stones."

  "Yes," said Miss Grey, "and I have had a stone waiting for Waggle." Miss Grey let Billy put the stone in the bowl because Billy had brought the tadpoles to school. The top of the stone stuck up above the water. Later that day, Betsy looked in the bowl and there was Waggle sitting on the stone.

  One morning when Miss Grey came into her classroom, Kenny Roberts was alone in the room. He was sitting at his desk busily pasting pictures

  in his scrapbook. Kenny had been absent for several days and Miss Grey had asked him to come to school early and paste his pictures so that he would catch up with the other children.

  "Good morning, Kenny," said Miss Grey, "you are a very good boy to get here so early to paste your pictures."

  Kenny said "Good morning" and pounded very hard on a picture of a horse.

  "Do it quietly, Kenny," said Miss Grey.

  Kenny was a very small boy. He was like a little eel for he was never still. His black eyes were always dancing in his head. When he knew the answer to one of Miss Grey's questions, he would lean way over his desk and shake his hand so hard that Miss Grey thought that some day he would surely shake it off. Kenny always knew the answers. When there was an errand to be done, Miss Grey sent Kenny because he always came back with the right thing.

  In a few moments Betsy and Ellen came into the room. "Oh, Kenny," cried Betsy, "did you see Waggle?"

  "He is all grown up," said Ellen.

  "I'm busy," said Kenny. "I have to paste my pictures."

  Betsy and Ellen went to the windowsill and looked in the bowl. "Oh, Miss Grey," cried Betsy. "Waggle is gone!"

  Miss Grey left the blackboard where she was drawing a clock and came to the children. Sure enough, Waggle was gone. "He must have jumped out of the bowl," said Miss Grey. The children began looking all around. They looked on the windowsill and on the floor. Kenny stopped pasting pictures and joined the search. As more children arrived they looked for Waggle. They looked on the nearby table and they looked be hind the books. They even looked in the wastepaper basket, but Waggle was nowhere in sight. "Oh, dear," said the children, "where could he have gotten to?"

  The bell rang for school to begin and the children sat down at their desks. Miss Grey thought she had never seen so many sad little faces before. "Never mind," said Miss Grey, "we won't worry about Waggle. We shall find him for he must be in the room somewhere."

  Later in the morning the children went to the sand table to build the Indian cave village. Ellen dipped some water out of the bucket which was under the table. She poured it on the sand. The children began to build the wet sand into a pile. "First we have to make the big rock," said Billy.

  "Yes," said Mary Lou, "because the Indians cut the caves out of the rock."

  "I'm going to be an Indian when I grow up," said Richard.

  "You can't be an Indian," said Ellen.

  "Yes, I can," answered Richard.

  "You can't be an Indian, because your mother and your daddy are not Indians," said Betty Jane.

  "Well, I don't care, I am going to be an Indian anyway," said Richard, and he patted the sand very hard.

  Suddenly one of the little wigwams at the other end of the table jumped up and landed in the middle of the table. "Oh!" squealed the children, and the wigwam jumped again and knocked down an Indian brave and two girls. "Oh! Oh!" squealed the children.

  Miss Grey picked up the wigwam and there was Waggle. He hopped all around the village, knocking over more Indians.

  Miss Grey caught him and put him back in the bowl. She looked at all the children. When she looked at Kenny, his face grew very, very pink. "Kenny," said Miss Grey, "did you put the little frog under the wigwam?"

  Kenny shook his head up and down and wondered how Miss Grey knew that he had hidden Waggle.

  "That wasn't like you, Kenny," said Miss Grey.

  Kenny's eyes filled with tears, as all of the children looked at him.

  "I think Kenny had better sit in the little chair in the corner and do some quiet thinking," said Miss Grey.

  Kenny walked to the corner and sat down with his back to the room.

  The children were very quiet as they stood the Indians up again and straightened the wigwams. Kenny sniffled and gulped hard. Ellen looked in the bowl. "Oh, Miss Grey," she cried, "Wiggle is sitting on the stone too. Now we have two little frogs."

  5 Ellen Has a Birthday

  Ellen and Betsy were very best friends. They always played together in the schoolyard. Sometimes Ellen would go home with Betsy after school and sometimes Betsy went with Ellen. Betsy lived in a bigger house than Ellen and Betsy had more toys, but Ellen had a baby sister. She was just like a real live doll. Ellen had a grandmother too. She lived at Ellen's house. Grandmother knew how to make cinnamon buns and always remembered that children like cinnamon buns to be very sticky. So Betsy loved to visit Ellen just as much as Ellen liked to visit Betsy.

  One day Betsy and Ellen met at the Good Lady's store. Betsy was buying a red pencil and Ellen was buying a blue one. The Good Lady kept a tiny store right near the school. She sold ice cream and candy, pencils an
d notebooks, erasers, crayons, and toys. Her name was Mrs. Good, but she was called the Good Lady by all the children because she always made the ice-cream cones stand up like mountains. No child ever bought a pencil or a notebook from her without receiving a peppermint drop or a jelly bean.

  The two little girls left the shop together. They were each sucking a peppermint drop. Outside, they stopped to look in the window. The Good Lady's window was always shiny and clean. "Oh, Betsy," cried Ellen, "look at the dear little set of doll's dishes." Right in the center of the window there was a box filled with the prettiest dishes Betsy had ever seen. There were six tiny cups, no bigger than thimbles, and six tiny sau-

  cers. There was a little teapot, a sugar bowl, and a cream pitcher. Each piece had a bright pink rose painted on it. They were all carefully packed in pink cotton. "I would love to have those dishes for my birthday," said Ellen.

  Ellen's birthday was only two weeks off.' Ellen had been talking about her birthday for a long time. It was a very important birthday because Ellen would be six years old. She wished that she could have a party, but Ellen's father worked at night and he had to sleep in the daytime. So the children could never have parties. You couldn't have a birthday party without a donkey game, and you couldn't play a donkey game without making a noise. So Ellen would not be able to have a party. But there would be presents. Ellen said there were always presents even if you didn't have a party.

  After school, Betsy stopped at the window again to look at the dishes. How she would love to give those pretty little dishes to Ellen for her birthday! Betsy decided that she would take all of her money out of her bank. She would buy the dishes with the money. Betsy's little bank was a round, fat, yellow duck. He opened his wide bill and swallowed pennies. Betsy called him Big Bill. She wondered whether Big Bill had swallowed enough pennies to pay for the dishes. Father gave Betsy ten brand-new pennies every week. She had been putting half of them in Big Bill. "But now I will put all of them in," thought Betsy. She fed every one of Father's ten pennies to Big Bill. When Mother gave her a penny for candy or a pretzel, Betsy dropped it in her bank. Big Bill grew heavier and heavier. When Betsy shook him he rattled loudly and made Betsy feel very rich. She was sure that she would be able to buy the dishes very soon.