Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams, Abrashkin Abrashkin Read Free Book Online Page B

wouldn’t have been good-looking. He’d have been just another ugly kid. And you probably wouldn’t have become friends with him. You probably would’ve had a fight. So you never would have helped him with his homework. So then you never would have had the idea of using the computer. So then we wouldn’t be in this jam.”
    â€œYou’re kidding!” Danny said.
    â€œI am, huh? I may be dead, but I’m not kidding. It’s her fault. And believe me, I’m through. I’m not going to have anything more to do with her—I’m liable to find myself doing college homework.”
    â€œIf that’s the way you feel,” Irene said coldly, “you needn’t talk to me again.”
    Danny looked from one to the other, with real pain. This was the worst sort of complication: his best friends quarreling so bitterly. Somehow, it always seemed that when he jumped into something without thinking of the consequences—as for instance when he had jumped into the idea of using the computer for homework—then all sorts of unforeseen and unhappy things resulted.
    â€œIf it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine,” he broke in. “I’m the one who started it. Now, come on. We can’t afford to fight, we’ve got too much to do. Maybe you can stay at my house for dinner, Joe-”
    â€œOh, I’m sure he doesn’t want to work with the computer any more,” Irene said. “It would mean he’d have to be in the same room with me.”
    â€œI’m stuck with this homework,” Joe said, sullenly. “I’ve got to work with the computer.”
    Danny sighed. “Let’s go,” he said. “And I wish you two would quit snapping at each other.”
    Irene turned to him. “You can tell your friend,” she said haughtily, “that I’ll work with him. But until he learns to be polite, I don’t have to talk to him.”
    The atmosphere in the Professor’s laboratory that afternoon was definitely strained as a result of this quarrel. Joe stayed for dinner, and he and Danny didn’t have much to say to each other during the meal. Afterward, Irene came back to the lab and they continued with their work, speaking only as much as was necessary.
    They had to feed the history and algebra facts into the machine’s memory banks, and then give all this material code numbers so that the machine could find it when they asked for it. They had to coach each other on the information contained in the books so that they’d understand the nature of the questions and problems involved, and be able to give Minny the proper instructions when they wanted answers to questions.
    They grew sulkier and gloomier and wearier, as it got later. They could not finish both books but had to be content with doing about twenty pages of each. They decided to leave the rest for future sessions. Then they programmed the homework Miss Arnold had given them—the first five examples in algebra and the first eight questions in the history book—and flopped into chairs to rest while Minny ran off three copies of each.
    Irene and Joe took their copies.
    â€œSo long, Danny,” Joe said. “I’ve got to get home. Tell your friend, Irene, that I said good night.”
    â€œOh, Joe. This is silly.” Irene burst out. “Let’s make it up. I will if you will.”
    But Joe was very tired and grumpy. And he was more than a little jealous that Irene had become such a good friend of Danny’s.
    So he said, “There’s nothing to make up about. I still say if you’d never moved in around here, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
    Irene pressed her lips together. She felt, for a moment, as if she were going to cry. Then she blurted, “You keep talking about how bad girls are. Ha! You’re nothing but a sorehead. Good night, Danny.”
    And she stalked out. Joe sighed. He felt that he