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

charge of opening and closing the door at recess, lunch and the end of the day,” she said. “Miranda, you may go to the rest-room and wash your face.”
    Miranda raced out of the room, sobbing.
    My heart was aching. I was afraid it was breaking. Because of me, Miranda was crying. Because of me, her grade had gone down.
    I was nothing but Trouble.

    Usually while my classmates eat lunch, I take a good nap. Today, I paced back and forth in my cage until Mrs. Brisbane came over. “Humphrey, let me check this lock.” Thank goodness, she unfastened the paper clip, unlocked my cage, then closed it again. She tested the door to make sure that the lock was securely fastened. As usual, it seemed to be locked.
    Mrs. Brisbane sighed. “I was hoping I was wrong. I was hoping the lock was broken. It’s not like Miranda to forget.”
    “You are making an unsqueakable mistake!” I yelled.
    The teacher chuckled. “Obviously you agree.”
    I did not!
    Just then, Miranda returned. Her eyes were red from crying. “Mrs. Brisbane, I’d like to apologize,” she said.
    “Thank you, Miranda. But I still have to switch your job.”
    “I know. I’d just like to say I’m sorry to you and to Humphrey. If anything ever happened to Humphrey …” Her eyes filled with tears again.
    “Everybody makes mistakes. Let’s move on from here, okay? You go on to lunch.”
    Miranda nodded and went to get her lunch bag. When she returned from the cloakroom, she stopped by my cage and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Humphrey.”
    What Mrs. Brisbane said was true: Everybody makes mistakes. Only in this case, it was the teacher making the mistake, not Miranda. All because of ME-ME-ME.

    Somehow we got through the rest of the day, although it was hard to look at Miranda, with her red eyes and her shiny nose. I saw Mandy staring at her. When it was time for afternoon recess, she hurried over to Miranda’s table.
    “I know that losing your job feels really bad. I’m sorry about it,” she told Miranda. “Want to play tetherball with me?”
    Miranda seemed surprised. She and Mandy had never been close friends, but by the time they had their coats on and were headed out the door, they were chattering away.
    Art stayed in during recess to retake his spelling test. I’d been worrying about Miranda so much, I had forgotten about Art’s problem. He hadn’t done a good job as Energy Monitor, but Mrs. Brisbane didn’t know aboutthat. I was worried that Art had forgotten to study for his test … again. I had to hide in my sleeping hut so I couldn’t hear Mrs. Brisbane read out the words for him. PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE, I thought. Please let Art pass the test!
    I couldn’t hear Mrs. Brisbane very well, but I certainly did hear Og when he let out a long series of BOINGs! Four or five at least. I darted out in time to see Mrs. Brisbane smile at Art. She was holding his test in her hands.
    “A 95%. Art, that’s the best you’ve done all year. Now that I know what you’re capable of doing, I expect this kind of grade from now on. Think you can do it?”
    Art squinched up his face. “I guess.”
    “Just remember to study. And pay attention, okay?”
    Art nodded and got out of the classroom as fast as he could.
    Whew! “Well, Og, he did it,” I told my neighbor. He took a deep and splashy dive into the water of his cage, which meant he was feeling as happy about Art as I was.
    Late that afternoon, Kirk took charge of Og and me. In his usual clowning way, he pretended to eat a cricket before he gave it to Og and he also made icky gagging noises when he cleaned up my poo. But he laughed, so I knew he really didn’t mind.
    When he was finished and the students were doing silent reading, Mrs. Brisbane quietly slipped over to my cage and checked again to see that it was locked. It was … or at least it seemed to be.
    At last, the long and difficult day was over. I wasgreatly relieved when Miranda waited until everyone had left the classroom and carefully