Gib Rides Home by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online

Then she asked them to give her a moment to compose herself, so they did, but as soon as she’d wiped her eyes they all started in again.
    Herbie Watson asked if Miss Offenbacher was sick, too, and if that was why she had to be prayed for, and dumb old Frankie asked what kind of a board Mr. Garrison was president of. Like, did it have to be some real special kind of board, or would an ordinary old plank do?
    Gib could tell that Miss Mooney was having a hard time answering all the questions, so he decided to wait until later to ask his. Particularly since his first one was the kind she might not want to answer in front of everybody. His first, and most important, question was why Miss Mooney wasn’t going to be the new headmistress, instead of Miss Offenbacher.
    And the second one wouldn’t be easy, either. It was the one he’d been waiting to ask for a long time, about whether there was some kind of a rule against allowing Junior Hall boys to be adopted.
    So he didn’t get to ask either of his questions that day, but about a week later one of them answered itself when a Junior Hall boy got adopted after all.
    It happened one day at breakfast—at least the only part Gib got to see, happened then. He had almost finished his oatmeal when he heard Miss Offenbacher’s voice and looked up in time to see her come into the dining hall with a tall man dressed in a long, dusty black overcoat. The tall stranger had a large nose, a stringy dark gray beard, and deep-set, flickery eyes.
    Instead of introducing the stranger and asking everyone to say hello, the way Mrs. Hansen had always done when a possible adoptive parent came to visit, Miss Offenbacher just led the way up and down the aisles, stopping now and then and asking a boy to stand up and say hello to Mr. Bean. Afterward, when he knew more about the man, Gib shivered when he remembered how he and Jacob had grinned at each other about the name. “Bean?” Gib mouthed, and Jacob mouthed back, “Beanpole.”
    Miss Offenbacher led the man named Bean through the seniors first, but then, when the visitor pointed, she started down the first table of juniors.
    The first boy at the juniors’ table was fat old Fred MacDonald, but the visitor just shook his head and went on. Gib was next. He’d been planning what he’d do if he ever had a chance to meet someone who’d come to adopt. He’d even practiced it now and then, when no one was looking. Practiced standing up straight and showing his teeth in a big smile—Miss Mooney had told him he had a good smile—and speaking out clearly if he was asked any questions. So he stood up quickly and smiled, even though he was already beginning to feel that there was something about the visitor that made a smile hard to come by.
    But the man only nodded and moved on, and on, until he came to, of all people, wheezy little rabbit-faced Georgie Olson. And then, after Georgie had stammered out his name, “George Olson,” and his age, “Almost nine, sir,” the black-coated man nodded at Miss Offenbacher, turned on his heel, and tromped out of the room. And then she left too, right after she’d told Georgie to report to her office as soon as the bell rang for classes.
    Gib always remembered Georgie’s face that day as he left the dining room. The usual Georgie was there, the nervous, jumpy, rabbity one, but there was something new, too. Some little bit of hopefulness, maybe, and even a little bit of pride that out of all the juniors he’d been the one chosen.
    And sure enough, by the next day Georgie was gone. Scared little rabbit-faced Georgie Olson had been adopted.

Chapter 9
    O F COURSE THERE WAS a lot of talk in Junior Hall in the days that followed Georgie’s adoption. Talk and wishful thinking and a certain amount of envy. At least Gib felt a little bit that way, picturing Georgie living in a real house with the kind of family Gib’s daydreams had created. A farming family in a big, shady, everlasting kind of house out in the