The Complete Adventures of Curious George by H. A. Rey, Margret Rey Read Free Book Online Page A

George!" Betsy looked up for a moment, but she did not even smile. Betsy had never been to a hospital before. She was scared.

    Finally it was George's turn.
    A pretty young nurse took him to the next room—my, how many rooms and how many nurses there were! One nurse wrote down a lot of things about George: his name and his address and what was wrong with him. Another nurse put a bracelet around his wrist. "It has your name on it, George," she said, "so that everybody knows who you are."

    Then the pretty young nurse came back. "My name is Carol," she said. "I am going to take you to your room now—we call it the children's ward—and put you to bed. There will be lots of children to keep you company."

    And so it was. There were a lot of children in the room. Some were up and around; others were in their beds, with a doctor or a nurse looking after them.
    Dave was having a blood transfusion. Steve had his leg bandaged and was sitting in a go-cart. Betsy was in bed looking sad. George got the bed next to Betsy.

    George was glad when he was in his bed at last. His tummy was hurting again.
    The man sat with him for a while. "Now I have to leave you, George," he finally said. "I'll be back first thing in the morning before they take you to the operating room. Nurse Carol will tuck you in when it's time to sleep."
    Then he left. George just sat there and cried.

    As he had promised, the man was back early next morning. The nurses were keeping George very busy. One nurse was taking his temperature; one was taking his blood pressure; one was giving him a pill ("To make you sleepy, George," she said), and one was getting ready to give him a shot.

    "It's going to hurt, George," she said, "but only for a moment."
    She took his arm, and George let out a scream.
    "But the needle hasn't touched you yet," said the nurse, laughing. "There—now it's done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" No, it really was not. And anyway, it was over now.

    By the time the attendant came with the stretcher to wheel him to the operating room, George was getting sleepy. He tried hard to stay awake. He was curious to see what would happen next.

    He could see a big table with bright lamps over it and doctors and nurses all around. They had caps on their heads and masks over their faces; only their eyes were showing.
    One of the doctors winked at George and patted his head. It was Doctor Baker, who had been to the house when it all had started. He looked funny with his mask on ... And then George was fast asleep.

    When George woke up he did not know what had happened. He did not even know where he was. Then he saw Nurse Carol. "It's all done, George," she said. "They got the piece out. In a day or two you will be running around again."
    The man had brought him a picture book. But George felt sick and dizzy. His throat was hurting, too. He was not even curious about the new book. He closed his eyes again. "We'll let him sleep," said Nurse Carol. "The more he sleeps, the better."

    The next morning George felt better. He even ate a dish of ice cream. Dr. Baker came to see him, and the man, of course, came too.
    Betsy was watching him from time to time. She seemed a little less sad, but she still did not smile.
    Steve wheeled his go-cart over to George's bed. "Tomorrow I can get up and try to walk," he said. "Boy, I can hardly wait."

    "I'll take you to the playroom now, George," Nurse Carol said the next morning, "and in the afternoon your friend will come and take you home."
    The playroom was full of children. A lady was showing Betsy how to use finger paint. There were all sorts of things to play with, even a puppet theater—and that was just the thing for George. He had four hands so could handle four puppets at the same time.

    George gave
a real puppet show,
with a dragon
and a clown
and a bear
and a policeman.
    The children laughed
and shouted,
and even Betsy
for the
first time
smiled a little.

    There was a TV set in the playroom and also a