Back to School with Betsy (5 page)

"Oh, Father! We have to make it," said Betsy.

Just then Betsy spied Mr. Kilpatrick, the policeman who always took the children across the street.

When Mr. Kilpatrick saw Betsy, he called out, "Hello, Little Red Ribbons. How are you?"

"Just awful," replied Betsy.

"What's that?" said Mr. Kilpatrick, walking over to the car.

Betsy began to cry again, so Father told Mr. Kilpatrick that they were rushing to the cleaner's with Betsy's flower girl dress.

Mr. Kilpatrick jumped on the running board. He blew his whistle. "Step on it," he said to Betsy's father.

Father stepped on the gas and the car shot ahead. Mr. Kilpatrick kept blowing his whistle and Father drove like the wind, right down the middle of the main street. In no time at all they reached the cleaner's shop. Mr. Kilpatrick took the dress from Father. Before Father had come to a full stop, Mr. Kilpatrick was at the door of the shop. But the door was locked. The policeman pounded on the door with his great big fist. It made a terrific noise.

In a moment the door was opened. Betsy was on the step now, beside Mr. Kilpatrick.

The storekeeper looked frightened when he saw Mr. Kilpatrick. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"This little girl has to have her dress cleaned by this time tomorrow," said Mr. Kilpatrick, handing over the dress. "It's for a wedding."

"All right," said the cleaner. "I'll see that it is ready for her."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Kilpatrick," said Betsy.

"That's all right," replied Mr. Kilpatrick. "We can't have Miss Grey's wedding spoiled."

When Betsy finally sat down to eat her dinner, she said, "Oh, Mother, I don't believe I will ever forget to hang up a dress again."

"I certainly hope not," said Mother.

"I hope Thumpy has learned not to get on the beds," said Father.

"Well, I gave him something that should help him to remember," said Mother.

When Betsy's dress came back from the cleaner's, it looked as good as new.

The next day was the wedding. Betsy could hardly wait until the time came to get dressed. She kept looking at the clock and the hands of the clock seemed to move more slowly than ever before. At last the time came. When she was all ready, Father drove Betsy and Mother to the church.

When Betsy saw Miss Grey, she thought she had never seen anyone so beautiful. When Ellen arrived, Betsy said, "Miss Grey looks just like a fairy princess in that white veil."

Betsy and Ellen stood listening to the music of the organ. When they heard the wedding march, they began walking up the aisle.

Betsy could see Billy sitting on an end seat, up front. He was watching them and grinning from ear to ear.

After the wedding was over, the little girls rode back to Miss Grey's house in the big automobile with the bride and groom. Betsy and Ellen had never felt so important in all of their lives.

When they reached the house, they went upstairs to look at the wedding presents. The presents were all spread out on a big table. Betsy and Ellen were pleased to see their bowl of goldfish sitting right in the center of the table.

Soon Billy arrived and he came up to look at the presents.

"I think our present is the nicest," he said to Betsy and Ellen.

Before long the house was full of people. They were laughing and chattering. The dining room table was covered with plates of sandwiches and cakes. The great big wedding cake stood in the center of the table. It was the biggest cake Billy had ever seen. A waiter stood by the table, cutting brick after brick of ice cream. When Billy took his plate of ice cream, he said to the waiter, "Mr. Jackson said I could have two plates of ice cream."

"Very well," said the waiter. "Will you have them both at once or one at a time?"

Billy thought this over for a moment and then he said, "I guess I'll have one at a time."

"OK," said the waiter.

Billy thought it was very funny that everyone stood up and ate. He always sat down at parties. So he and Betsy and Ellen carried their plates into the hall and sat on the stairs.

When Billy was in the midst of eating his second plate of ice cream, he heard a noise upstairs. He put his plate down and ran up the stairs and into the room where the presents were. What did he find but Miss Grey's Persian cat in the center of the table. To Billy's horror, he had upset the fishbowl. Just as the cat was about to snatch up the striped fish, Billy shouted, "Scat! Get out of there!"

The cat jumped to the floor and flew out of the room.

Billy set the bowl up again and put the goldfish back. He got a towel from the bathroom and mopped up the water. Then he put more water in the bowl. When everything was in order again, he went downstairs.

"What was the matter?" asked Betsy and Ellen.

"Oh, boy!" cried Billy. "The cat upset the bowl of goldfish and he almost ate up Billy in the bathing suit."

"Oh!" cried Betsy. "Are the fish all right now?"

"Sure," said Billy. "I rescued 'em."

Just then Mr. Jackson came along. He had three little white boxes tied with white ribbons. He gave one to each of the children. "Here are your boxes of wedding cake," he said. "If you put them under your pillows tonight, you will marry the person you dream about."

The children took their boxes and said, "Thank you."

The next morning Billy came running into Betsy's house. "Hey, that wedding cake didn't work," he cried. "I dreamed about my grandmother all night. Who ever heard of marrying your grandmother?"

"And I dreamed about goldfish," said Betsy. "I'm not going to marry goldfish."

When Ellen arrived, Betsy said, "Ellen, who did you dream about?"

Ellen looked at Billy. Then she looked down at her shoes and said, "I'm not going to tell you. It's a secret."

When the day came for school to open, Betsy was bright and early.

She had new brown oxfords to wear. Betsy had worn sandals all summer. As she looked at them now, lying beside her chair, she thought they looked much older than they had looked when she took them off the night before. They were old and brown and curled up like two au-

tumn leaves. As Betsy looked at them and then looked down at her new oxfords, she knew that the summer was over. It was autumn and she was going back to school to be in the third grade.

On her way to school, Betsy met Billy. Billy was carrying a candy box. "Hi, Betsy!" shouted Billy. "I'm taking the green worm to school. He's inside the cocoon now."

In a few minutes Betsy and Billy met Christopher. Christopher was wearing a great big hat. It was the biggest hat Billy had ever seen. "Gee, Chris!" shouted Billy. "Where did you get the hat?"

"I got it in Mexico," said Christopher. "And you don't call it a hat. It's a sombrero."

"Well, it looks like a hat," said Billy.

As the children came nearer the school, the crowd grew larger. There were Ellen and Sally and Betty Jane and the twins, Richard and Henry.

The twins had a new dog named Chummy. He was a big red setter. Chummy was following the boys to school. They kept telling him to go back home but Chummy wouldn't go. He had followed the twins everywhere all summer and he had never been told to go home before. He couldn't believe that he wasn't wanted.

"Go home, Chummy," Richard would say, chasing the dog back. "Go home." Chummy would run back a little way. But by the time Richard caught up with the other children, Chummy would be right by the twins' heels again.

Then Henry would try to drive Chummy home. It was no use. Chummy was going where the twins went and nobody was going to stop him.

Before long the children reached the big wide street where Mr. Kilpatrick directed the traffic. Mr. Kilpatrick was taking a group of first grade children across the street.

"Hello, Mr. Kilpatrick," the children shouted.

"We're big enough to go across the street by ourselves now, aren't we, Mr. Kilpatrick?" said Billy.

"Don't be so cocky," said Mr. Kilpatrick, "or you'll go a-ridin' off on somebody's bumper."

"We're in the third grade now," said Betsy.

"Well, you've still got plenty to learn," said Mr. Kilpatrick. "So don't get your head swelled up."

When Mr. Kilpatrick saw Christopher's sombrero, he said: "And sure your head must have begun to swell already, if you have to wear a hat as big as that."

"It's a sombrero," said Christopher. "I got it when I went to Mexico with my daddy. And I rode on a donkey too."

"Mr. Kilpatrick," said Richard, "our dog won't go home."

"His name's Chummy," said Henry.

"Well, what do you expect from a dog named Chummy?" said Mr. Kilpatrick.

"What will we do with him?" asked Richard. "We can't take him in school."

"If we take him home, we'll be late," said Henry.

Mr. Kilpatrick looked at Chummy. Then he took off his hat and scratched his head. "Guess I'll have to take him home myself," he said. "Have you a collar on him?"

"Yes," said Henry, "and it has our address and telephone number on it."

Mr. Kilpatrick took a piece of rope out of the pocket of his car. He tied it to Chummy's collar. Then he boosted the dog into the red police car and tied the end of the rope to the brake. A great crowd of children had collected around the car.

"Now," shouted Mr. Kilpatrick, "skedaddle, all of you."