Back to School with Betsy

by Carolyn Haywood

  When they got outside, Mr. Jackson made certain that the door was locked. "All locked up tight," he said.

  "Thank you for letting us see the house," said Betsy.

  "Yes," said Ellen, "it's very pretty."

  "They're swell attic stairs," said Billy.

  "Glad you like it," said Mr. Jackson. "Wait until you see the future Mrs. Jackson. She's even nicer than the attic stairs."

  "Gee, she must be great!" said Billy.

  "I say!" said Mr. Jackson. "How would you all like to come to my wedding?"

  "Oh! I'd like to very much," said Betsy.

  "I love to go to weddings," said Ellen.

  "Oh, boy!" said Billy. "More cake! And is there ice cream too?"

  "Yes, indeed," said Mr. Jackson.

  The children said good-bye and ran back to Betsy's garden.

  Mr. Jackson gathered up some old wood and piled it up on the porch. He thought it would make good kindling.

  Just as he was getting into his automobile, Betsy came running toward him. "Mr. Jackson!" she called. "Mr. Jackson!"

  "What's the matter?" said Mr. Jackson.

  "Mr. Jackson," said Betsy, "Billy and Ellen and I don't think we can come to your wedding. But thank you for asking us."

  "Why not?" asked Mr. Jackson.

  "Well, you see," said Betsy, "we only have enough money to buy one wedding present."

  "Oh, that's all right," said Mr. Jackson, as he started the car. "After all, you haven't known me as long as you have known your teacher."

  Betsy ran back to Ellen and Billy. "It's all right," she called. "Mr. Jackson says we can come to his wedding anyway."

  The children decided that by the end of the following week they would have a little more than two dollars, altogether. The next question was to decide upon the present for Miss Grey.

  They were all sitting on the garden wall, thinking about Miss Grey's present. Suddenly Betsy thought of Thumpy.

  "Where's Thumpy?" she asked.

  "I don't know," said Billy. "I haven't seen him."

  "He was over in Mr. Jackson's with us," said Ellen.

  Betsy got down off the wall. "Here, Thumpy!" she called. "Here, Thumpy!" Thumpy didn't appear.

  Betsy looked in the house but he was not there. Billy and Ellen called and called but there was no Thumpy.

  Betsy began to feel frightened. "Where do you suppose he is?" she said.

  The children climbed over the wall and ran back to Mr. Jackson's house. Thumpy was nowhere to be seen.

  "Oh, where do you suppose he is?" cried Betsy.

  Just then Betsy heard a sharp bark. It sounded far away. She listened. There it was again. "That's Thumpy!" she said. "That's Thumpy's bark."

  The children stood very still. There was the sound again. "Where do you suppose he is?" said Ellen.

  "Sounds as though he was locked in somewhere," said Billy.

  "Oh, Billy!" cried Betsy. "Do you suppose he's locked in Mr. Jackson's house?"

  "Betcha I know where he is," said Billy. "Betcha he's locked up in the attic."

  "Oh, Billy!" cried Betsy. "Thumpy can't stay in the attic all night. It's getting dark now and he'll howl terribly."

  "We'll have to rescue him," said Billy.

  "Well, how are we going to rescue him?" asked Ellen.

  "Wait till I do some exploring," said Billy. Billy went around the house and tried all of the windows. They were all locked. At last he found a little cellar window that opened when he pushed it.

  "Hi!" he called out. "I can get in this window. Then I can unlock the front door for you girls."

  Billy tried to see into the cellar but it was all dark. However, he crawled through the window and began to let himself down very carefully. Suddenly his grasp slipped and he went down, kerplunk! There was a terrific splash. Billy had gone right down into a barrel of whitewash.

  "Help!" yelled Billy. "Help!"

  The two little girls stuck their heads through the window. There was Billy, up to his shoulders in the barrel of whitewash.

  Betsy took one look and ran as fast as she could, crying, "Father! Father! Come quick! Billy's in a barrel of whitewash."

  Betsy's father dropped his evening paper. In a few seconds he had covered the ground from his house to Mr. Jackson's cellar window.

  "Now don't cry, Billy," said Father. "We'll have you out of that in a minute."

  The cellar window was too small for Father to get through but Betsy crawled through it. Father lowered her down beside the barrel. Then Betsy ran up the cellar stairs and through the house to the front door. She opened the front door and Father came into the house. He hurried down the cellar stairs. Then he lifted Billy out of the barrel of whitewash.

  By this time Betsy's mother had arrived. She had brought a pair of Betsy's overalls with her and an old towel. While Father and Betsy and Ellen went up to the attic to get Thumpy, Mother took off Billy's clothes. There was a hose in the cellar so she turned the hose on Billy and washed off the whitewash. When he was dry, he put on Betsy's overalls.

  "I'm afraid your clothes are ruined," said Mother.

  "It's a good thing I had on my old shoes," said Billy.

  Just as Betsy and Ellen and Thumpy were coming down the front stairs with Father, the front door opened and in walked Mr. Jackson.

  "Well," he cried, "I was just driving past and saw the lights. I thought I had better come in and see who the bandits were in my house."

  Betsy and Ellen both began to tell Mr. Jackson about Billy and how he fell into the barrel of whitewash. By this time Mother and Billy had come up from the cellar.

  Mr. Jackson laughed. Then he went out on the porch and called to someone in his car. "Come on in and meet the bandits," he cried.

  To the children's amazement, who should walk through the door but Miss Grey.

  The three children rushed to her. "Miss Grey!" they shouted. "Miss Grey! Miss Grey!"

  Miss Grey put her arms around the children. "Goodness gracious!" she said. "I wonder if they will ever learn to call me Mrs. Jackson?"

  "They just better," said Mr. Jackson, "for that is who you are going to be."

  "Oh, Mr. Jackson!" cried Betsy. "It's the wonderfullest thing that ever happened! Now I'll see Miss Grey every day."

  "And now we're only going to one wedding after all," said Billy.

  "Yes," said Mr. Jackson, "but you can have two pieces of cake, Billy, and two plates of ice cream."

  3. The Wedding Present

  One afternoon Betsy and Ellen and Billy all met at Betsy's house. Billy and Ellen had brought the money they had earned to buy the wedding present for Miss Grey. Each of the children had seventy cents. It was all in nickels and dimes. When they put them together in the center of the table, it looked like quite a pile of money.

  "Boy!" said Billy. "That's a lot of money. We can buy Miss Grey a dandy present with all that money."

  Just then Betsy's mother came into the room. When she saw the money, she said, "I think I had better give you two one-dollar bills. You might lose some of that change."

  "Can I carry the money?" asked Billy.

  Betsy and Ellen were not sure whether they wanted Billy to carry the money.

  "The man always carries the money," said Billy. "See, I can put it in my pocket. It's safe in my pocket."

  "Well, all right," said Betsy.

  "Be careful of the ten cents," said Ellen.

  Billy poked the two one-dollar bills and the ten cents into his coat pocket.

  "Have you decided what to buy?" asked Mother.

  "Not yet," replied Betsy. "We thought we would look in the store windows first."

  "That's a good idea," said Mother as the children started off.

  They walked toward that part of the town where the shops were.

  "Billy," said Betsy, "did you know that Ellen and I are going to be Miss Grey's flower girls?"

  "What do you mean, 'flower girls'?" asked Billy.

  "We're going to walk in front of Miss Grey at
the wedding and carry baskets of flowers," said Ellen.

  "Sounds crazy," said Billy.

  "And we're going to wear long pink taffeta dresses," said Betsy.

  "Gee! I'm glad I'm not a girl," said Billy, jumping over a fireplug.

  "Billy, you've still got the money, haven't you?" shouted Betsy.

  "Sure," said Billy.

  "Well, you better look and see," said Betsy.

  "Aw, I've got the money," said Billy, pulling it out of his pocket.

  Out flew the ten-cent piece to the pavement. Before the children could pick it up, it rolled toward an iron grating and fell between the bars. The children rushed to the grating. They went down on their knees and peered through the bars. There lay the ten-cent piece, three feet below.

  "Now look what you did!" said Betsy.

  "It was your fault," said Billy. "If you hadn't made me look to see if I had the money, it wouldn't have fallen out."

  "How will we get it up?" said Ellen.

  "I could get it up with some chewing gum on the end of an umbrella," said Billy. "My daddy got a nickel up that way once. I saw him do it."

  "Well, where are you going to get the umbrella?" asked Ellen.

  "And the chewing gum?" asked Betsy.

  Billy felt in his other pocket and pulled out a penny. "Now, I'll stay here and guard the dime," he said. "Ellen can take the penny and buy the chewing gum and, Betsy, you run home and get an umbrella."

  The two little girls ran off.

  "Hey, Ellen!" cried Billy. "Bring the chewing gum back to me. It's my penny and I'm going to chew the gum. Get spearmint."

  "All right," shouted Ellen.

  Ellen was back with the chewing gum first. By the time Betsy arrived with the umbrella, Billy had the gum chewed up.

  "Here's the umbrella," said Betsy. "I brought Father's 'cause it's longer."

  Billy took the chewing gum out of his mouth and put it on the end of the umbrella.

  "Wait a minute," cried Betsy. "Don't put all of it on the umbrella, 'cause if it falls off we won't have any more chewing gum."

  "OK," said Billy.

  He took half of the chewing gum off. Then he poked the umbrella down through the bars. Just as it was about to touch the ten-cent piece, the gum fell off.

  "See!" said Betsy. "Now aren't you glad you saved some?"

  "Yep!" said Billy, as he pulled up the umbrella.

  He put the other piece on more carefully. Once more he poked it down.

  "Now be careful," said Betsy.

  "Hold your breath," said Ellen.

  "Oh, leave me alone," said Billy. "You give me the jitters. I'm going to get it up."

  Very carefully Billy moved the umbrella nearer and nearer the ten-cent piece. At last the umbrella touched it.

  "Is it going to stick?" asked Betsy.

  "Be quiet, won't you?" said Billy.

  Billy lifted the umbrella.

  "It's stuck!" shouted Ellen.

  The children held their breath as Billy slowly raised the money. Nearer and nearer the grating it came. At last Billy could reach it. He pulled the coin off the chewing gum and quickly put it in his pocket.

  "Now, let's hurry," said Betsy, "or we'll never get the present."

  The children bustled along. Betsy carried Father's umbrella. Before long they came to the pet shop. The children always stopped to look in the window of the pet shop. Today there were some Airedale puppies in one window and a monkey in the other.

  "Oh, let's buy Miss Grey a puppy!" shouted Ellen.

  "Oh, no!" cried Billy. "Let's get her the monkey."

  "No!" said Betsy. "What would Miss Grey do with a monkey?"

  "She would like a monkey," said Billy. "I know she would."

  "But only organ-grinders have monkeys," said Ellen.

  "That's not true," cried Billy, "but I would love to be an organ-grinder if I could have a monkey like this one. Let's see how much it is!"

  "Now, Billy, we're not going to buy Miss Grey a monkey," said Betsy.

  Billy pushed the two little girls into the store. A salesman came toward them.

  "How much is the monkey?" asked Billy.

  "I don't think we are going to buy it," said Ellen.

  "The monkey is twenty-five dollars," said the salesman.

  Billy's face fell. "I guess we won't buy it," he murmured. "How much are the puppies?" asked Ellen.

  "The puppies are ten dollars each," replied the salesman.

  "Guess we won't buy a puppy either," said Ellen.

  "Don't you have anything that is cheaper?" asked Billy.

  "Well, we have some nice Persian kittens for five dollars," replied the salesman.

  "Anything cheaper than that?" asked Billy.

  "How would you like to have a nice rabbit?" asked the salesman, as he led the way to a corner of the shop. "The rabbit is only a dollar."

  "That's too cheap," said Betsy. "We have two dollars and ten cents."

  "I see!" said the salesman. "Is it for yourselves?"

  "Oh, no!" cried the children. "It's for a wedding present for our teacher."

  "Well, well!" said the salesman. "Now let me see. We have some canary birds for two dollars, but you would need a cage. You haven't a cage, I suppose?"

  The children shook their heads. They hadn't any cage.

  "How about some goldfish?" said the salesman. "We have some beautiful goldfish." He led the way to a large tank filled with goldfish. "You could give her three goldfish and you could each pick one out," he said.

  "Oh, that would be nice," said Betsy.

  "How much would that cost?" asked Billy.

  "You could have three for one dollar and a half," said the salesman.

  "What would we put them in?" asked Ellen.

  "I can let you have a nice bowl for sixty cents," he replied.

  "How much would that come to?" asked Billy.

  "Two dollars and ten cents," replied the salesman.

  The children beamed. They were delighted. Now they could each pick the fish they liked best and the price was just right.

  Betsy picked out a bright orange goldfish. Ellen selected a silvery one with a beautiful fan-tail.

  The salesman looked at Billy. "Which one do you want?" he said.

  "I'll take the one in the bathing suit," replied Billy.

  The salesman and the girls laughed. "Which one do you mean?" said Betsy.

  "That one with the stripes," said Billy, pointing to a lovely striped fish.

  The salesman laughed very hard as he scooped up the striped fish.

  When the three little fishes were safely in a cardboard box filled with water, the salesman wrapped up the glass bowl.

  "Now be careful you don't drop these things," he said, as he took the two dollars and ten cents from Billy.

  Billy carried the box of fish, Ellen carried the bowl, and Betsy carried Father's umbrella.

  When they arrived at Betsy's house, the children unwrapped the bowl and emptied the water and the fish into it. They were delighted with the present. When they showed it to Betsy's mother, she said, "It is a very nice present indeed."

  The children wrote their names on a card and tied it around the bowl with a piece of white ribbon.

  "Do we take it to the wedding with us?" asked Billy.

  "Oh, no!" replied Betsy's mother. "It must be delivered before the wedding."

  Just then Betsy spied Mr. Jackson. He was walking around the outside of his house. "There's Mr. Jackson now!" cried Betsy. "He will take it over to Miss Grey's house for us."

  Betsy rushed out into the garden. "Mr. Jackson!" she shouted. "Mr. Jackson!"

  Mr. Jackson came over to the garden wall. "Mr. Jackson," said Betsy, "come over and see Miss Grey's wedding present. We just bought it."

  Mr. Jackson leaped over the wall. When he went into the house and saw the bowl of goldfish, he said, "Well, isn't that great! We have received a lot of presents but no one else has given us goldfish."

  "I guess we were pretty smart t
o think of goldfish, weren't we?" said Billy.

  "You certainly were," replied Mr. Jackson.

  "Miss Grey will be just as pleased as I am."

  "It's your present too, isn't it?" said Ellen. "Because you are marrying Miss Grey."

  "That's funny," said Billy. "We told you that we couldn't buy you a present and now you are getting a present after all."

  "And we didn't have to spend any more money," said Betsy.

  "Well," said Mr. Jackson, as he went out with the bowl, "we will name the goldfish after the three of you—Billy, Betsy, and Ellen."

  "Well, I'm the one in the striped bathing suit," shouted Billy.

  4. How Mr. Kilpatrick Blew His Whistle

  Betsy and Ellen could hardly wait for the wedding day to arrive. Betsy's mother made Betsy a pink taffeta dress and Ellen's mother made Ellen one just like Betsy's. The little girls had never had long dresses before and they felt very important and grown up in their long full skirts.

  Betsy's dress was finished just two days before

  the wedding. When Betsy tried it on with her silver slippers, Father said she looked like a fairy. When she put on her pink bonnet that tied under her chin with blue velvet ribbons, Father said she was almost as beautiful as Mother.

  "Well, at the wedding," said Betsy, "I guess I'll be just as beautiful as Mother, 'cause I'm not going to wear my hair in braids. Mother's going to brush it all out, fluffy-like."

  When Betsy took her dress off, Mother laid it on the guest room bed. "Betsy," said Mother, "will you get a hanger, please, and hang your new dress in the closet?"

  "Yes, Mother!" replied Betsy.

  Mother went off to put the baby to bed and Betsy went to her own room to get a hanger. When she reached her room, she heard Billy calling to her from the garden. Betsy went to the window.

  "Hello, Billy!" she called.

  "Hey, Betsy!" shouted Billy. "Come on down and see what I just found."

  Without thinking of the hanger, Betsy ran downstairs and out into the garden. Billy was stooping down in the garden path.

  "What is it?" said Betsy.

  "It's a great big worm," said Billy.

  Betsy stooped down to look at the worm. It was big and fat and bright green. There were colored spots, like jewels, all over it.