Otis Spofford by Beverly Cleary Read Free Book Online Page B

Ta-a-ay-lor!”
    Hack paid no attention. He leaped into the air with his fruit jar again. The boys got up and walked across the street, where they stood in front of Hack’s house.
    “Let’s try the Zachary P. Taylor football song,” whispered Otis.
    The boys began to sing.
    “Z. P. Taylor, school of honored name,
    Fight, fight, fight along the road to fame
    We’ll win because of might,
    We’ll keep your victory bright!
    Rah! Rah! Rah!”
    This time Hack glanced at the boys and the dog. “Hi, kids,” he said, and went on hunting.
    Otis and Stewy looked at each other. Hack Battleson, Five-yard Battleson, fullback and captain of the Zachary P. Taylor football team, actually had spoken to them. Encouraged, the boys moved closer.
    Otis was first to get up his courage. “What are you doing?” he asked.

    “Trying to catch insects,” answered Hack, in a way that showed he was much too busy to waste time talking to grade-school boys.
    “How come you’re catching bugs when there’s football practice going on?” Stewy asked.
    “I have to,” said Hack.
    “Why?” persisted Otis.
    Hack scowled. “For biology class. We were supposed to hand in a collection of thirty insects last week, and I was too busy with football practice to catch them. Now the teacher says if I don’t hand them in by tomorrow, she’ll tell the principal and then I can’t play on the team.”
    “Gee, and the big game with Benjamin Harrison High is next week,” said Otis. He and Stewy were shocked. To think that a teacher could not only give orders to Hack Battleson but could make him miss football practice!
    Otis recovered first. “I’ll catch them for you, Hack,” he said eagerly. It wasn’t every boy who had the chance to do something for the captain of the team and the best football player in the whole city.
    “Would you?” Hack’s manner toward the younger boys suddenly changed. “Say, that would be swell! Then I could go back to football practice.”
    “I’ll catch them too,” said Stewy.
    “You keep out of this. It was my idea,” said Otis, who did not want any help from Stewy. He wanted to tell people that he alone caught thirty insects for Hack Battleson. Why, it was practically the same thing as saving the big game for the Zachary P. Taylor High School.
    “I thought of it at the same time,” objected Stewy. “You just said it first.”
    “That’s what counts,” said Otis. “Why don’t you go exercise your dog or something?”
    “He doesn’t need exercise,” answered Stewy.
    “Then is it okay if I catch them for you?” Otis asked Hack. He was anxious to have it clearly understood that he was the one to collect the insects.
    “I don’t care who catches them,” answered Hack, who was in a hurry to get to the football field. “Just so somebody has thirty insects here by six-thirty. It can’t be any later, because I’ll probably be up all night trying to identify them, as it is. And they all have to be insects. You can tell an insect because it has six legs. Centipedes and things like that don’t count.”
    Otis was disappointed that Stewy was to have an equal chance, but he didn’t feel that he could say anything to Hack about it.
    “And they have to be in good condition,” continued Hack, as he held up his fruit jar. “See that piece of cotton in the jar? It’s soaked in cleaning fluid—the kind that takes spots off clothes. When I catch an insect I put it in the jar and put the lid on a minute. The fumes kill the insect without hurting it.”
    “Sure. I get it,” said Otis. “How about letting me take your jar?”
    “Hey, that’s no fair,” objected Stewy. “That way you’d have a head start.”
    “Sure I’d have a head start,” said Otis.
    “For Pete’s sake, if you kids are going to stand there fighting all day, I’ll get another jar for you,” said Hack, who was really pleased to have two boys so anxious to work for him.
    Otis and Stewy glared at each other until Hack returned