Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater, Florence Atwater Read Free Book Online Page B

and got dreadfully excited. They would all begin shoving at once to see which could be the first to climb the ladders. However, the children had always told Mr. Popper that the act was all the funnier for all this pushing and scrambling, and Mr. Popper supposed it was.
    So now with a great deal of squawking the penguins fought and climbed the ladders and ran across the board in complete confusion, often knocking each other entirely off to the floor below, and then hurrying to toboggan down the other ladder and knock off any penguins who were trying to climb up there.
    This part of the act was very wild and noisy in spite of Mrs. Popper’s delicate music. The manager and the audience were all holding their sides, laughing.
    At last Mrs. Popper got to the end of the music and took off her gloves.
    “You’ll have to get those ladders off the stage, or I’ll never get these birds under control,” said Mr. Popper. “The curtain is supposed to fall at this point.”

    So the manager gave the signal for the curtain to go down, and the audience stood up and cheered.
    When the ladders had been taken away, the manager had twelve ice-cream cones brought in for the penguins. Then Janie and Bill began to cry, so the manager ordered several more, and everybody had one.
    Mr. Greenbaum was the first to congratulate the Poppers.
    “I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Popper, that I think you’ve got something absolutely unique in those birds. Your act is a sensation. And the way you helped out my friend the manager, here, shows that you’re real troupers — the kind we need in the show business. I’d like to predict that your penguins will soon be packing the biggest theaters from Oregon to Maine.
    “And now to come to terms, Mr. Popper,” he continued. “How about a ten-week contract at five thousand dollars a week?”
    “Is that all right, Mamma?” asked Mr. Popper.
    “Yes, that’s very satisfactory,” answered Mrs. Popper
    “Well, then,” said Mr. Greenbaum, “just sign these papers. And be ready to open next Thursday in Seattle.”
    “And thanks again,” said the manager. “Would you mind putting on your gloves again for just a minute, Mrs. Popper? I’d like you to start playing that ‘Military March’ again and let the penguins parade for a minute. I want to get my ushers in here to look at those birds. It would be a lesson to them.”

Chapter XVI
On The Road
    D URING THE NEXT day there was much to be done at 432 Proudfoot Avenue. There were new clothes to buy for all of them, and the old ones to pack away in moth balls. Then Mrs. Popper had to scrub and polish and straighten the whole place, for she was much too good a housekeeper to leave everything at sixes and sevens while the Poppers were away.
    Mr. Greenbaum sent them their first week’s pay in advance. The first thing they did was to pay off the man who had installed the freezing plant in the basement. He had been getting rather uneasy about his money; and after all, without him they could never have trained the penguins. Next they sent a check to the company who had been shipping the fresh fish all the way from the coast.
    At last everything was done, and Mr. Popper turned the key in the door of the little house.
    They were a little late in arriving at the railway station on account of the argument with the traffic policeman. The argument was on account of the accident to the two taxicabs.
    With four Poppers and twelve penguins, not to mention the eight suitcases and pail of water with the live fish for the penguins’ lunch, Mr. Popper found that they could not all fit into one cab; so he had to call a second one.
    Each of the taxi-drivers was eager to be the first to get to the station and surprise the people there by opening the door of his cab and letting out six penguins. So they raced each other all the way, and in the last block they tried to pass each other, and one of the fenders got torn off.
    The traffic officer naturally got very much