Jasper John Dooley, Left Behind by Caroline Adderson, Ben Clanton Read Free Book Online

mountain of wood and counted it out. There were eight dollars, seventeen pennies, three nickels and twelve dimes. “Wow,” Jasper said, sweeping it all into the hem of his shirt. “This will be a big help.”
    â€œYou’re taking it all?” Ori asked.
    â€œYes. A cruise ship is expensive to build.”
    â€œThe thing is,” Ori said, “it’s my wood. So you have to pay to build the ship.”
    Jasper let the money fall from his shirt into the grass. “No fair!”
    He stormed off across the alley and one house down.

Chapter 10

    Except at the very end, when Ms. Tosh gave Hammy to Jasper to take home, nothing happened at school the next day. Ori did whisper, “Faster!” when Jasper was trying to finish his math worksheet. And then Jasper wasn’t fast enough and had to stay in at recess to get it done. Recess wasn’t even enough time to finish the worksheet, not when Jasper spent half of it coloring his thumb black with a pen from Ms. Tosh’s desk. And Jasper did march right up to Ori when he came in from recess and waggle his black thumb in Ori’s face. Ori staggered over to his desk and put his head down. When Ms. Tosh noticed, she asked if he was all right. Ori said he felt sick and was going to throw up, so Ms. Tosh sent him home, which was too bad because then Ori couldn’t walk home with Jasper and his mom and Hammy.
    But other than that, nothing happened.
    At the end of the day, Ms. Tosh gave Mom a bag of hamster food and some wood chips for the bottom of the cage. She gave Jasper the cage. “Now, Jasper. Make sure you don’t feed Hammy too much. Because — look at him.”
    â€œHammy is hammy,” Jasper said.
    â€œHe sure is,” Ms. Tosh said. “Make sure he gets some exercise.”
    Mom said, “Ms. Tosh, Jasper’s Nan has been away. He misses her so much. Could he keep Hammy an extra day to surprise her when she gets back?”
    Ms. Tosh said yes.
    Jasper and Mom walked home with Hammy in his cage. Hammy looked out through the bars. He wiggled his nose. “He thinks he’s on an airplane,” Jasper said. He walked three steps before asking, “Can I please get my own hamster?”
    â€œWe’ll see,” Mom said. Then she asked where Ori was.
    â€œHe went home sick,” Jasper said.
    â€œThat’s too bad. I hope it’s not catching. You’ve been over there a lot.” Then she noticed Jasper’s thumb. The ink he had colored it with had smeared all over his other fingers. “Jasper John Dooley, your hands are filthy!”
    First thing when they got home, after he washed his hands, Jasper went around the house collecting cardboard tubes. He got tubes from paper towels. He got tubes from toilet paper. Mom let him unwind a roll of toilet paper just to get the tube out. Jasper put all the loose toilet paper in a box. The box was in the bathroom now. Mom said they had to use up that paper before they started a new roll.
    When Dad came home he asked, “Why is there a box of loose toilet paper in the bathroom?”
    Jasper ran with the cage to show him Hammy.
    â€œWow,” Dad said. “That is one plump hamster.”
    After Jasper finished joining all the cardboard tubes together with tape, he took Hammy out of his cage to get some exercise. He put him in one end of the long, long tube and quickly crawled around to the other end. “Come on, Hammy! Come on, boy!” he called down the tube.
    Hammy came. He came halfway. Then he got stuck. Luckily, it was easy to rip the tube open. Hammy didn’t seem too bothered. He looked at Jasper and wiggled his nose.
    That night Hammy slept in Jasper’s room. In the middle of the night, Jasper woke to a sound.
Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
It was Hammy running around the wheel in his cage.
Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
Jasper put his pillow over his head.
    Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
    He asked, “Hammy? Are you going to do that all