Betsy and the Boys

by Carolyn Haywood

  "With our dues," said Rudy.

  "Dues?" said Kenny.

  "Sure," said Rudy. "We gotta have dues. Let's see, thirty cents apiece. That will make two dollars and forty cents."

  "That's right," said Christopher. "And if we send for it today, it won't be here until some time next week and we'll all have time to pay our dues and raise the money."

  "Oh, sure," said Rudy. "Come on, let's fill out the coupon. Where shall we have it sent?"

  There was much chatter about whose name and address should be written on the coupon. Finally Rudy said, "Well, as long as we are at your house, Puff, suppose we have it delivered here."

  "OK," said Billy.

  Rudy filled out the coupon as the rest of the boys crowded around him. He wrote down after the word "Name"—Billy. When Billy saw his, he said, "Not Billy! Here! Let me do it."

  Billy took the slip of paper from Rudy and erased the name Billy. Then he wrote down William Porter, Junior, and his address. When he finished, he went upstairs and got an envelope from his daddy's desk.

  When the coupon was sealed in the envelope, Rudy said, "I'll mail it on the way home. I have three cents for a stamp."

  As the days went by the boys forgot all about their dues to pay for the soap when it arrived. They were too busy thinking about the football.

  Once Billy said to his father, "Daddy, our football team is going to get a football."

  And Daddy said, "Is that so? Well, that's great."

  A few days later Mr. Porter said to Susie who was doing the laundry: "I have ordered some tubes of paint and they should be here today. When the expressman brings the package, pay for it out of this five dollar bill."

  "Yes, sir," said Susie.

  That very afternoon the expressman rang the doorbell. Susie went to the door. When she opened it, the expressman said, "What's the name?"

  "Porter," said Susie. "How much is it?"

  "Two-forty," replied the expressman. "Sign here," he said, handing Susie a slip of paper. "Where do you want the box?"

  "Set it right here in the hall closet," said Susie. The expressman carried the box into the house and placed it on the floor of the closet.

  When Billy came home from school he settled down to a jigsaw puzzle.

  Soon Mr. Porter returned.

  Susie said, "Mr. Porter, your package came. It's in the hall closet and your change is on the hall table. It was two dollars and forty cents."

  "Oh, thank you, Susie," said Mr. Porter.

  Billy's daddy went to the hall closet and picked up the box. He carried it upstairs to his studio. Without examining the label, he pried off the lid. There, to his amazement, were two dozen cakes of Surething Flea Soap.

  "What the mischief is this!" exclaimed Mr. Porter. "Who is sending me two dozen cakes of flea soap? Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap!"

  Then he remembered something that Billy had said about soap. Something about soap and a football. This was a pretty mess! The very idea! Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap! What did Billy intend doing with the stuff?

  Mr. Porter went to the head of the stairs.

  "William!" he called.

  "Yes, Daddy," replied Billy.

  "Come up here," said Daddy.

  6. Twenty-Four Cakes of Flea Soap

  Billy knew that something was the matter. Daddy hadn't called him William since the day last spring when he broke the bathroom window with his baseball. He wondered, as he climbed the two flights of stairs, what he had done that would make Daddy call him William.

  As he entered his daddy's room, he saw him standing over a large box.

  "William!" said Daddy in a very stern voice, "do you know anything about this soap?"

  "Soap?" said Billy.

  "Yes. Soap," said Mr. Porter, "Flea soap. In fact, twenty-four cakes of flea soap. Two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap. Plus the worst smell in forty-eight states."

  "Oh!" said Billy. "Oh! That's our soap."

  "Our soap!" exclaimed Daddy. "What are we going to do with it?"

  "No, Daddy," said Billy. "You don't understand. It belongs to our football team."

  "Well, what I do understand is that I paid two dollars and forty cents for it," said Daddy. "So if it belongs to your football team, I would like to have the money returned to me." And then he added, "Promptly."

  "Oh, sure, Daddy. Sure!" said Billy. "I'll call a meeting of the team tomorrow. And I'll bring the money home with me."

  And with this Billy dashed for the head of the stairs.

  "Hold on a minute," said his daddy. "What in the name of all smells does the team intend doing with this flea soap?"

  Billy came back. "Why, we're going to sell it, Daddy, and get a football. We sell it for twenty cents a cake. Then we get the football."

  "Well, get my two dollars and forty cents," said Mr. Porter. "And get rid of this soap as quickly as possible. I'll put it out in the garage. A gas mask should go with each cake."

  The following day Billy met Betsy on the way to school.

  "Hi, Betsy!" Billy called out. "Our soap has come."

  "What soap?" said Betsy.

  "Why, the flea soap that the team is going to sell to get the football," said Billy.

  "Oh!" replied Betsy. "That soap!"

  When the children reached the school, Billy sent word around that there would be a meeting of the football team at recess.

  After the opening exercises Miss Pancake put some arithmetic problems on the blackboard and gave each child a piece of paper. Everyone set to work and the room was very quiet. In a few moments Sally, who sat across the aisle from Billy, looked up with a very strange expression on her face. She sniffed. And then she sniffed again.

  In a few moments she tiptoed up to the front of the room and spoke to Miss Pancake in a very low voice.

  Miss Pancake said, "Just sit here, at this table by the door."

  Sally returned to her seat and got her paper. In a moment she was quietly working at the table by the door.

  Very shortly Mary Lou, who sat across the aisle on the other side of Billy, raised her hand.

  "What is it, Mary Lou?" asked Miss Pancake.

  "May I please sit by the window?" said Mary Lou. "I think I need a little more air."

  "Certainly," replied Miss Pancake. And Mary Lou carried her paper over to the desk by the window.

  In a few minutes Ellen, who was sitting behind Billy, raised her head from her work. She put her handkerchief to her nose and held it there while she did her problems.

  When Miss Pancake looked at her, she said, "Is there anything the matter with your nose, Ellen?"

  "I think maybe it would be better if I sat by the window too," replied Ellen.

  "Very well," said Miss Pancake. And Ellen moved.

  It wasn't long before Betty Jane, who sat in front of Billy, held up her hand.

  "What is it, Betty Jane?" said Miss Pancake.

  Betty Jane got up and walked up to the teacher's desk. She whispered something to Miss Pan-cake. Miss Pancake moved a chair over to the table beside Sally and Betty Jane sat down.

  By this time Billy, who was busy working out his problems, looked like an island completely surrounded by empty seats.

  Miss Pancake stood up and walked down the aisle. She stopped beside Billy's desk. She sniffed. Then she walked to the back of the room and up the other aisle. When she reached Billy's desk, she stopped again. Then she took out her handkerchief. She looked puzzled.

  Just then Christopher looked up from his paper. He wrinkled up his nose and looked around. Then he said, "Gee, Miss Pancake! Something stinks!"

  "Christopher!" said Miss Pancake. "I'm surprised at you. That is very vulgar."

  "Well, it does, Miss Pancake," said Christopher. "It sure does st—I mean, smells awful. Worse than Limburger cheese."

  By this time all of the children were sniffing. "Whew!" they exclaimed.

  "Be quiet, children," said Miss Pancake. "Does anyone know what this s
trange odor is?"

  "Oh!" cried Billy, his face as bright as a dollar. "Maybe it's my soap. It's a new kind of flea soap, Miss Pancake. The football team is selling it. Only twenty cents a cake. It makes dogs happy."

  "Well, perhaps," said Miss Pancake. "But it certainly is not making this room happy. So suppose you put the soap on the windowsill outside the window."

  "All right," said Billy.

  "Say!" said Christopher. "I'm not going to sell anything that st—I mean, smells like that. Skunks!"

  "Aw, the dogs will like it," said Billy.

  Billy put the cake of soap on the windowsill and the little girls returned to their seats around Billy.

  "Sissies!" said Billy. "That soap smells good. I would like to take a bath with it myself."

  "Well, if you do I hope you'll take it Saturday night," said Ellen.

  The soap sat on the windowsill until recess. Then Billy took it and ran off to meet the football team. Soon the boys were gathered together.

  "The soap came," cried Billy as soon as Rudy appeared. "I have a cake here. The rest of it is in our garage. My daddy paid for it."

  "Gee! That's great!" interrupted Rudy. And the faces of the team lit up.

  "But my daddy wants the two dollars and forty cents," said Billy. "So you'll have to collect the dues, Rudy."

  The faces of the team grew long.

  "OK, OK," said Rudy. "Fellas, hand over your dues."

  Eight hands went into eight pockets and all kinds of things came out. Marbles, screws, nails, bits of string, bottle tops, thumbtacks, rubber bands, bits of colored glass, pebbles, seashells, balls of tinfoil, golf balls, wheels from broken toys, and seventeen cents in all.

  "Seventeen cents isn't enough," said Billy.

  "Well, I don't think we can sell that soap anyway," said Christopher. "It st—you know."

  "That's right," said Henry. And Richard, who was Henry's twin, said, "That's right."

  "My father says I can't sell soap," said Kenny. "He says he won't allow it."

  "Well, say! What am I going to do with all that soap and what about my father's two dollars

  and forty cents?" said Billy. "What about that?"

  "And what about our football?" said Rudy.

  Just then little Eddie appeared. "Whatcha doin'?" said Eddie. "What's up?"

  As usual nobody paid any attention to Eddie, so Eddie just hung around trying to pick up the news. It wasn't very long before he understood that Billy was stuck with two dollars and forty cents' worth of flea soap.

  Nothing had been settled when the bell rang for the children to return to their classrooms. But it didn't look as though the boys were going to sell any soap.

  Billy returned to his room looking very gloomy indeed. When Miss Pancake saw him, she said, "Goodness gracious, Billy! What is the matter?"

  Billy told Miss Pancake the whole story about the soap.

  "How many boys in the room are on the team?" said Miss Pancake.

  A half dozen hands went up.

  "Who is captain?" she said.

  "Rudy Wilson," replied Billy.

  "You boys stay after school for a meeting," said Miss Pancake. "I'll send word to Rudy."

  Rudy arrived as soon as the class was dismissed.

  "Now," said Miss Pancake to the little boys, "you must work out a way to pay Billy's father the money that you owe him."

  "But what about our football?" asked Rudy.

  "Most of the boys tell me that they don't want to sell the soap," said Miss Pancake. "So you will have to get your football in some other way."

  Just then little Eddie appeared in the open doorway. "What's the matter?" asked Eddie.

  "Are you on the team too?" asked Miss Pan-cake.

  "Yes, ma'am," answered Eddie.

  "No, he isn't," said Rudy.

  "Am," said Eddie and sat down.

  "Well now, boys, you will have to think of some way to raise the two dollars and forty cents. I'll write your ideas on the blackboard."

  The team sat very still. They were all thinking hard.

  Finally Eddie spoke up. "We could wash dogs," he said.

  Miss Pancake wrote on the board, "Wash dogs."

  "That is a very good idea," she said. "If you charge twenty-five cents each, how many dogs would you have to wash? Billy?"

  "Ten," said Billy.

  "That's an awful lot of dogs," said Rudy.

  The boys sat still for five more minutes. Nothing was added to the blackboard.

  At last Miss Pancake said, "Well, is this the only idea?"

  The boys looked at each other. "Guess so," they murmured.

  "All right!" said Miss Pancake. "Tomorrow is Saturday. You can all spend the day washing dogs."

  "Where will we get the dogs?" asked Christopher.

  "You will have to go out and find them," said Miss Pancake. "There must be plenty of people who would like to have their dog washed on Saturday morning."

  "Where will we wash them?" asked Kenny.

  "You will have to decide that," replied Miss Pancake.

  "I guess we can wash them in our garage," said Billy. "That's where the soap is."

  "Very well," said Miss Pancake. "You can go now, and on Monday morning I want to hear that your debt is paid and that every boy helped. And let this be a lesson to you, Billy. Never sign your name to anything you can't pay for."

  "I'll remember, Miss Pancake," said Billy.

  The following morning the boys were up bright and early. They scoured the neighborhood for dogs to wash. By nine o'clock Billy was busy washing the next door neighbors' Airedale.

  He had just finished when Rudy arrived with a Scottie.

  In the middle of the Scottie's bath Kenny came in with an Eskimo dog. Later Christopher brought in a fox terrier.

  The dogs behaved very well. It was just as Billy had said. They liked the odor of the soap.

  Late in the morning Richard and Henry arrived with their own red setter, Chummy. They set to work on him together.

  Just as they finished Billy cried out, "Look what Eddie's bringing!" Billy pointed up the street. The boys looked. Then their mouths fell open. For there, moving majestically beside Eddie, was the biggest dog the boys had ever seen. It was a Saint Bernard.

  "Take it away," yelled Rudy.

  "We're not washing that dog for twenty-five cents," called out Billy.

  "Nix!" yelled Christopher. "Not for two bits."

  Eddie was looking proud enough to burst. "The

  lady says she'll pay a dollar," said Eddie, waving a dollar bill.

  "Oh, boy! Oh, boy!" cried Billy. "Bring him right in."

  All the boys crowded around to pat the Saint Bernard dog. He was as good as gold. He stood still while Billy washed his big head and Rudy washed his back. Joe worked on his back legs and Kenny washed his front legs. It was a big job, but when the boys had finished, the Saint Bernard looked beautiful with his shining white and gold coat.

  When Eddie and the dog departed, Billy said, "Oh, boy! Just one more dog and we can quit."

  "Yeh!" said Rudy. "But we haven't any football." And when he said this the team looked very sad.

  "Oh, well! Maybe we can wash more dogs next week and buy a football," said Billy.

  Just then Betsy appeared. "Hello!" she said. "What are you doing?"

  "We're in business," said Rudy. "We wash dogs. Only twenty-five cents."

  "Yes," said Billy. "Just one more dog and we have enough money to pay my daddy for the soap."

  "But we have to wash more next Saturday," sighed Rudy, "to earn money to buy a football."

  "Oh!" said Betsy. "That's too bad." And she trotted off.

  The boys sat down to rest.

  Just as the Wilson twins were about to set off to find the last dog, Betsy appeared. She had Thumpy on a leash. "Here you are," she said. "It smells awful but you can wash him."

  The boys just stared, but not at Thumpy. They were staring at the object under Betsy's arm. They couldn't believe their eyes. For
under Betsy's arm was a football! She held it out to them. "Would you like to play with my football?" she said.

  "Oh, Betsy!" cried Billy. "Do you mean it? Is it a real football?"

  "Sure," said Betsy.

  "Wheee!" cried the team.

  "What a pal! What a pal!" cried Rudy, patting Betsy on the back. "You're on the team, Betsy. You're on the team."

  Then he turned to the boys. "Come on, fellas," he said, "give her a cheer."

  And they all cried, "Rah! Betsy! Rah! Rah! Rah! Betsy!"

  And Billy rubbed Surething Flea Soap on Thumpy.

  7. Just-for-Instance Presents

  The football team had a wonderful time playing with Betsy's football. Little Eddie turned out to be one of the best players. Betsy wasn't so very good, but the boys were patient and encouraging. After all, it was her ball. Then one day she tore a big three-cornered tear in one of her best school dresses and skinned the toes of her new shoes. When she returned home, Mother decided that Betsy had played enough football.

  The following night Father came home with a package under his arm. Betsy ran to meet him. "What's in the package, Father?" said Betsy, full of curiosity.

  "It's a present," said Father.

  "For me?" said Betsy.

  Father nodded.

  "A just-for-instance present?" said Betsy, dancing up and down.

  "Righto," said Father.

  "Oh, Father!" cried Betsy. "I think just-for-instance presents are the nicest presents of all, because they are the surprisiest surprises. When it's my birthday or Christmas, I know that I'm going to get a present, so the only surprise is what the present is. But a just-for-instance present is two surprises. The present is a surprise and getting it is a surprise."

  Mother, who had been listening, said, "Oh, Betsy, I know just what you mean, darling." And Father threw back his head and laughed.

  Betsy untied the package. She wondered why knots were always tighter on surprises. Things you didn't care about always fell open. At last the string was off. Betsy felt the weight of the package as she removed the wrapping paper. When she lifted the lid of the box, there, to her delight, was a pair of shiny ice skates fastened to beautiful snow-white boots.