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

record player. George was curious: If he climbed on the record player and turned the switch,

    would it go round
and round like a
real merry-go-round?
    It did!
    It started slowly, then it went faster and faster, and whoopee! George had lost his balance and was sailing through the air...

    Luckily George landed on a soft cushion. The children cheered, and Betsy smiled again. George was SO funny.
    But then the play lady picked George up. "That's enough for now," she said. "You'd better take a nap before lunch. We have a big day ahead of us. The mayor is coming to visit the hospital today, and later on you will be going home, George."

    When George woke up, Steve was just taking his first steps. A nurse was helping him, and the children were watching.
    The go-cart was standing there empty. George was curious. He looked at it. Then he climbed into it.

    Then he grabbed the wheels and then, while nobody was looking, he wheeled the go-cart right out of the room.

    George could make the go-cart go very fast. This was fun! Down the hall he went. By now the nurse had noticed that he was gone and came running after him. "George! George!" she shouted.

    But George was too excited to listen. He wheeled around the corner and down the ramp to the floor below, where some men were busy pushing lunch carts, and a lot of doctors and nurses were showing the mayor around.

    George tried to stop, but it was too late. WHAM!—the go-cart landed right in the middle of everything. Lunch carts tumbled. Spinach and scrambled eggs and strawberry jam were all over the floor. People fell over each other, and George was thrown out of the go-cart and landed right in the mayor's arms.

    What a mess it was!
    "You broke all my dishes!" someone cried.
    "He ruined the go-cart!" complained another.
    "What will the mayor think of it?" whispered someone else. And so it went.

    Suddenly everybody looked up and listened. From above came happy laughter—and there stood Betsy, laughing, laughing, laughing. Then the children joined in, then the mayor started laughing, and finally everybody just laughed and laughed. Everybody, that is, except George.

    Betsy came running down the ramp, threw her arms around George, and kissed him. "Don't be sad, George," she said. "The whole thing was SO funny! I never laughed so much in my life. I'm so glad you were in the hospital with me."
    Now the director of the hospital spoke: "I am sorry this happened, Mr. Mayor," he said, "but I think we'll just clean up the mess and be done with it."

    "George," he went on, "you've made a terrible mess. But you also made our sad little Betsy happy again, and that is more than any of us has done.
    "And now I see your friend has just come to take you home. So, goodbye George, and take good care of yourself."

    The children crowded around the windows waving goodbye when George and the man with the yellow hat were finally leaving the hospital.

    As the car was turning into the driveway Nurse Carol came running after them. "Here's a little package with something that belongs to you, George," she called. "But don't open it before you are home!"

    George was curious—well, who would not be? The moment he reached home he ripped the paper off, tore open the box—and THERE
    was the piece of the puzzle that had caused all the trouble!

    "How nice of the doctor to save it for us!" said the man with the yellow hat. "And NOW we can finish the puzzle."

    The End

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    Retrospective Essay
    by Dee Jones
WITH A P HOTOGRAPHIC A LBUM OF
M ARGRET AND H. A. Re Y
    Early Life
    Both Hans and Margret Rey were born in Hamburg, Germany—Hans Augusto Reyersbach on September 16, 1898, and Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein on May 16, 1906. Hans received an old-style humanistic education and studied Latin, Greek, French, and English. Although art was not a part of his studies, he loved to draw and did so from a very young age. A drawing of horses in the park was done when he was just eight years old.
    Hans, better known