Summer According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney Read Free Book Online Page A

best friend in Room 26. The teacher always called her Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi Hopper, and by the end of the year she did remember to raise her hand most of the time. She wasn’t here at camp, but I noticed that Gail certainly brought up her name a lot.
    A little later, while the other Robins followed me around, I glanced up and saw Gail staring down at her notebook with tears in her eyes. Was she sad because Heidi wasn’t here at camp? I managed to roll the ball right up to her bunk, hoping to get her mind off of home.
    “Oh, Humphrey! You’re so funny!” Gail reached down to pick up the ball. “When I finish writing Heidi, I’ll write my mom and dad to tell them you’re here.”
    Okay. So my idea didn’t work.
    Later, after Ms. Mac checked in to make sure the lights were out, it was finally quiet in the Robins’ Nest. But it wasn’t dark for long. There was an eerie light coming from Gail’s bottom bunk.
    “Hey, what’re you doing down there?” Miranda asked in a sleepy voice.
    “Just finishing my letter home,” Gail answered.
    I could see that the light was coming from a teeny-tiny flashlight.
    “Lights-out,” Miranda said in a very firm voice. “We can’t afford to get into trouble. We want to spend the night in Haunted Hollow.”
    “Okay,” Gail answered. I thought I heard a little sniffling, but the light went out.
    After the sniffling stopped, it was quiet again and I relaxed in my sleeping hut. A little later, I heard an even more disturbing sound. Again.
    “Who-who? Who-who?”
    It was coming from outside the cabin, and the voice was strange and mysterious.
    “Who-who? Who-who?”
    I was tempted to say, “Me-me! Me-me!” but I managed to keep quiet.
    I heard one of the girls roll over on her bed.
    “Who-who? Who-who?” the voice called again.
    The girl got up and went to the open window. “For Pete’s sake, be quiet, you old hootie owl!” She clapped loudly and it was quiet again.
    “Thanks, Kayla,” Miranda said.
    “No problem,” Kayla answered.
    Even though I didn’t hear “who-who?” again, I heard other words rolling around in my brain.
    Hootie owl! That morning in the Nature Center, Katie had talked about owls. They were strange creatures of the night who like to prey on very small furry creatures—gulp—like me!
    Slithering snakes, skittering, scratching sounds, haunting, howling and now hooting.
    The wonders of nature were starting to get on my nerves.

    When I lived in Room 26, I spent weeknights in the classroom and each weekend, I went home with a different student. But at Camp Happy Hollow, I slept in a different cabin every night of the week—and so did Og. But the two of us never ended up in the same cabin.
    The night after I slept in the Robins’ Nest, I ended up staying with the Bobwhites. They had taken to imitating the bird they were named for and liked to get in a group and shout, “Bob- white ! Bob- white !”
    My old friend Garth was in this cabin as well as A.J.’s brother, Ty, who was only a year younger. It was funny, but A.J. and Garth were best friends and now Ty and Garth were hanging out together.
    Then there was Noah. It was a good name for him because he seemed to Know-a-Lot, at least about nature.
    “I wish they let us sleep outside,” he said, looking out the window.
    “Ouch! Mosquitoes.” Garth swatted an imaginary insect. “I’ll take the cabin.”
    “I’ll bet there are caves out there,” Noah said. “I’d sure love to see some bats.”
    “ Vampire bats?” Garth asked in a shaky voice.
    “Oooh,” the other boys said.
    I shivered. I’d learned a little bit about bats in school and I’d seen a vampire movie at Kirk’s house once. So I knew that a vampire bat was something I NEVER-EVER-EVER wanted to see.
    “Not around here,” Noah explained. “Just regular bats. They won’t hurt you. They’re good for the environment.”
    “The only bat I want to see is a baseball bat,” a boy named Sam said.
    “Me too!” I