Mrs. Brisbane kept Helpful-Holly hopping. Holly took attendance and carried the report to the office. Later, Mrs. Brisbane asked Holly to tidy up the little library in the back of the room and water her plants.
I think Holly finally got to be as helpful as she wanted.
Hurry-Up-Harry and Slow-Down-Simon made excellent Door and Line Monitors. When it was time for recess, Simon opened the door and Harry led the students down the hall (he couldn’t dawdle if he was first in line!). Then Simon closed the door and made sure there were no stragglers at the end of the line (so there was no way for him to race ahead!).
After lunch, there was free time for Tall-Paul and Small-Paul to work on the bulletin board. This was the pair I was most interested in, since they’d never actually talked to each other before.
It was a little hard for me to see what they were doing. I was in my hamster ball while Mrs. Brisbane watched Just-Joey clean up my cage. Once she got him started, she moved over to Og’s tank to teach Be-Careful-Kelsey how to take care of him.
“I hope she’s careful with you, Og!” I squeaked, knowing that Joey wouldn’t be able to understand me.
“BOING-BOING!” Og twanged cheerfully.
While Joey was working, he talked to me.
“I can’t believe it, Humphrey. I got the best job of all! Good things hardly ever happen to me,” he said.
I’d never seen Joey so happy. As he put me back in my cage, he said, “It’s just like having Giggles back. I can hardly wait until you come home with me.”
“Me either,” I squeaked, before I remembered Joey had that Frisbee-catching dog.
Then I climbed up to the top of my cage to get a better look at the two Pauls. They were taking down papers and old thumbtacks that were still on the bulletin board. Tall-Paul handled the top part of the board while Small-Paul handled the bottom part. They weren’t talking to each other, but at least they were working together.
Near the end of the day, Mrs. Brisbane called Holly up to her desk and told her that she was doing a wonderful job.
“I was thinking, Holly. Being my assistant takes up a lot of time. Maybe it would make sense for Phoebe to be Rosie’s assistant,” she suggested. “After all, they are Homework Collectors together.”
Helpful-Holly looked relieved. “I think that’s a good idea,” she said. “If it’s okay with Rosie.”
“I’ll ask her,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
Of course, when she asked Rosie, it was no problem. And when she asked Phoebe to be Rosie’s new assistant, Phoebe’s face lit up.
Yes, my evening rearranging the Brisbane’s Buddies cards was definitely paying off. And the worst class ever was looking a lot better. I was pretty pleased with myself for a while.
But after school, something happened that shook me down to the very tips of my paws.
Miss Becker paid a visit to Room 26!
I’d never actually seen Miss Becker before. She was a short woman with great big glasses that made her eyes look huge. That might have been a little weird, but Miss Becker also had a great big smile that made me like her.
“I hope you don’t mind, Sue,” she said as she came in the room. “My students are very anxious for us to get a classroom pet, but I’ve never had one before.”
Mrs. Brisbane smiled. “My class was very fond of Humphrey and Og last year.”
“Oh, I know! That’s all I hear. Humphrey this and Og that. That’s just about all they talk about,” Miss Becker explained. “But I don’t know. I never even had a pet as a child.”
“Why don’t you come over and meet them?” Mrs. Brisbane suggested.
My heart sank down to the bottom of my toes. Was Mrs. Brisbane really going to give one—or both—of us away?
“I wasn’t interested in having a hamster last year, either,” Mrs. Brisbane said. I remembered that well.
“Then Ms. Mac brought Humphrey in while I was gone,” she continued. “He added a lot to the classroom. So when Angie Loomis needed to get Og out of her classroom, I was happy to take him. It’s funny, because sometimes I think they’ve actually become friends.”
Sometimes? Og and I are friends all the time.
“But do you have to, you know, touch them?” Miss Becker said. Her big smile had disappeared.
“Sure, I do, but I don’t mind,” she said.
Miss Becker leaned in close to my cage, so close her eyes seemed gigantic.
“They say Humphrey does many cute things,” she said, her voice quivering a little.
Mrs. Brisbane chuckled. “I should say so! Show her, Humphrey.”
I’ve never been shy about showing off my great gymnastic abilities. After all, it seems to please humans to watch me leaping, spinning, rolling and climbing and to hear me say SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK! But I was a little nervous about showing off so much that Miss Becker would want to move me to Room 18. Especially since she didn’t even want to touch me.
But I always try to do what Mrs. Brisbane asks, so with a heavy heart, I hopped on my wheel and began to spin.
“Oh my!” Miss Becker’s big eyes grew even wider. “He’s certainly active.”
She didn’t sound too pleased about that, so I decided to be a little more active. I jumped off the wheel and climbed up my tree branch as fast as my little legs could carry me. When I got to the top, I leaped onto the side of the cage.
Miss Becker gasped. “How does he do that?”
“He’s a very clever guy,” Mrs. Brisbane said proudly. “But Og is no slouch either,” she said.
I had a chance to catch my breath while the two teachers turned their attention to Og’s tank.
“He’s a very handsome frog, isn’t he?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.
Now, I consider Og a very fine fellow, but handsome? With that green skin, no fur at all, the huge mouth and those big googly eyes . . . which suddenly reminded me a lot of Miss Becker’s eyes.
“BOING!” Og twanged. It was a pleasant sort of reply, but Miss Becker jumped back from the tank.
“What was that?” she asked.
“That’s the kind of sound he makes.” Mrs. Brisbane was being very patient.
“And what does he do?” Miss Becker asked.
“He spends part of his time on the dry part of his tank and part of his time in the water,” Mrs. Brisbane explained.
Og must have been listening (with those ears I can’t see), because he suddenly leaped into the water and began splashing wildly.
“Oh, my,” Miss Becker exclaimed. “He’s awfully noisy, isn’t he?”
I’d had it then. We’d been very polite to Miss Becker, but she certainly wasn’t polite to us.
“Not as noisy as you are!” I squeaked.
Miss Becker looked back and forth between Og and me.
“How do you manage it all?” she asked.
“Oh, the children do most of the work,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “Though I do enjoy bringing them home when I can. I think the point is something Ms. Mac told me when she brought Humphrey to Room Twenty-six. You can learn a lot about yourself by taking care of another species. That’s proved to be very true.”
Miss Becker stared at Og and me for a while before she spoke again. “I don’t know what to say. The students love them so much.”
Just then, Ms. Mac came in. “Am I interrupting something?” she asked.
“No! You’re the perfect person to talk to,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
She was right. Ms. Mac was a perfect person . . . at least to me.
“Some of my old students are begging for a classroom pet and Arlene’s trying to decide whether to get one,” Mrs. Brisbane explained. “So she came to look at Humphrey and Og.”
Ms. Mac smiled her wonderful, warm smile. “Any class would do better with those two.”
For once, I was sorry Ms. Mac had come to visit. I didn’t want her to talk Miss Becker into taking me away.
“Thanks for your time, Sue,” Miss Becker said. “I still have a lot to think about.”
After Mis
s Becker left, Ms. Mac wanted to talk to Mrs. Brisbane.
“It’s great to see my students learning to read,” she said. “But some of them are having a hard time, and I want them to see how much fun books can be.”
Mrs. Brisbane nodded. “That gives me an idea. We could work together.”
She glanced at the clock. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll give you a call tonight and we’ll talk.”
Just before Ms. Mac left, she bent down so she was eye level with my cage and Og’s tank.
“Maybe my students need a classroom pet, too,” she said.
Suddenly, I had a sinking feeling that both Og and I would be leaving Room 26!
When Aldo came in to clean that night, it was clear right away that he was still upset.
“Richie called and said he thinks one of you is coming to Miss Becker’s class,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea!”
“Me either!” I squeaked loudly.
“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og agreed.
“Of course, those kids love you,” he said, calming down as he swept the floor. “But the new kids need you, too.”
It was true. Just about everybody seemed to need a helpful hamster.
Later that night, after Aldo left and Og was quiet, I slipped my little notebook out from its hiding place and started a couple of lists.
Reasons to stay in Room 26: • Mrs. Brisbane relies on me
• The new students have a lot of problems and need help
• To stay with Og (I hope)
Reasons for me to move to Room 18: • To be with my old friends: Richie, Heidi, Gail, Kirk, Tabitha, A.J.
• To teach Miss Becker about pets
Reasons for Og to move to Room 18: • To be with his old friends: Richie, Heidi, Gail, Kirk, Tabitha, A.J.
• To teach Miss Becker about pets
I stared at those lists for hours and hours and hours, but I couldn’t decide which would be the best choice for me.
In the end, I wouldn’t make the decision, anyway. But just before I tucked my notebook away for the night, I worked on my poem.
Autumn, oh, autumn,
The golden leaves are blowing.
Autumn, oh, autumn,
I don’t know where I’m going!
HUMPHREY’S RULES OF SCHOOL: Make sure you do your part to make your classroom a better place.
14
Working Together
The next day, I was pleased to see that Phoebe remembered her homework again! I was certainly glad I’d changed the cards to make her a Homework Collector.
Holly seemed really happy being helpful all day long, especially because Mrs. Brisbane kept her BUSY-BUSY-BUSY.
Slow-Down-Simon had slowed down quite a bit because as Door and Line Monitor, he had to wait for the rest of the students to line up. Hurry-Up-Harry was never tardy after recess or lunch because he had to leave when the other students did. (And he was never late in the morning, either. I guess the Itos still hadn’t figured out the living room clock was fast.)
Be-Careful-Kelsey was extremely careful when she handed Og out of his tank.
“Don’t be scared, Og,” she said. “I’d never let anything happen to a special frog like you.”
Just-Joey tidied up my cage again, even though it didn’t really need it. When Mrs. Brisbane came to check on him, she told him he’d done such a good job, she’d let him train all future Animal Handlers.
Joey was overjoyed. “Did you hear that, Humphrey?” he asked me later. “I’m a Trainer now, not just a Handler. Mrs. Brisbane really trusts me.”
I could see Joey’s job was doing him a lot of good. In fact, all of Brisbane’s Buddies seemed happy with their jobs . . . except two of them.
Tall-Paul and Small-Paul had worked together to clear the bulletin board, but they still hadn’t put anything up there. Mrs. Brisbane had taken out boxes full of art supplies and paper, maps and posters, but they just couldn’t seem to agree on what to put up. Small-Paul wanted to make the theme about autumn. Tall-Paul wanted to make the theme about animals. Then Small-Paul wanted the bulletin board to be about airplanes and Tall-Paul wanted it to be about cars.
“How about airplanes and cars? Transportation,” Mrs. Brisbane suggested.
The Pauls didn’t think those went together.
I thought that the two Pauls didn’t go together. I had obviously made an unsqueakably bad mistake when I decided to pair them up.
“Mrs. Brisbane, I don’t think Paul G. and I make very good Brisbane’s Buddies,” Small-Paul told Mrs. Brisbane after lunch on Tuesday. “Maybe you should switch us with somebody else.”
“You have to learn to work with people who aren’t like you,” the teacher explained. “You’ll have to do it many times in your life.”
Small-Paul looked miserable. “He won’t even try.”
“And what about you? Are you trying?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.
Small-Paul didn’t answer.
“You can do it, Paul!” I squeaked from my cage.
Og tried to be encouraging, too. “BOING-BOING!” he twanged.
Mrs. Brisbane looked over at us. “Look at those two. Can you think of two animals who are less alike than Og and Humphrey?”
“That’s right! He’s an amphibian and I’m a mammal!” I agreed.
“And yet, they share that table and actually seem to enjoy each other’s company,” Mrs. Brisbane continued.
“He’s cold-blooded and I’m warm-blooded!” I added.
“So I think two boys who are the same age and in the same class and both like things like planes and cars can learn to work together, don’t you?” Mrs. Brisbane certainly made sense to me.
“I guess,” Paul said. He didn’t sound convinced, though.
“So give it another try,” Mrs. Brisbane told him. “For Humphrey and Og, okay?”
I crossed my toes and hoped they’d try.
They did have a chance to work together later in the day, but they didn’t talk at all. They just stared down at the boxes of art supplies.
Something I hadn’t planned for happened next. Mrs. Brisbane asked Holly to return some playground equipment to Mrs. Wright. There were several bats and a box of balls.
Helpful-Holly had a little trouble carrying them all at one time. The bats crashed to the ground, the box tipped over and the balls bounced all over the floor. She picked them up, then admitted she needed some help.
“Would you like to ask someone else to help?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.
Holly looked around the room, and I almost fell off my tree branch when she picked Rolling-Rosie. The smile on Rosie’s face told me she was pleasantly surprised.
“I can carry the box on my lap,” Rosie suggested. “You can take the bats.”
“Good idea,” said Holly.
After they had left, Mrs. Brisbane told the rest of the class, “That’s what I like to see in my classroom. Working together. That’s why I came up with Brisbane’s Buddies.”
Small-Paul glanced at Tall-Paul when he heard those words.
I couldn’t hear him, but he said something to Tall-Paul, who nodded. Soon, they were actually talking as they pulled things out of the box.
A little later, Small-Paul asked, “Mrs. Brisbane, could we borrow your pictures of the kids in the class and go to the library? We need to scan them into the computer.”
She was surprised, but of course she said yes and wrote a note to Mr. Fitch, the librarian.
The Pauls were both smiling when they came back.
After school, Mrs. Brisbane seemed unsqueakably pleased with herself. Just before she left, she came over to our table to say good-bye.
“Brisbane’s Buddies seems to be working out,” she said. “Even though I’m still not sure how those cards got switched around. Did Aldo do it?” She laughed. “You wouldn’t tell on him if he did.”
Which was true.
The next morning, Small-Paul and Tall-Paul—together—asked Mrs. Brisbane if they could put up their bulletin board
during recess.
“Yes,” she said. “I just hope Mrs. Wright doesn’t find out. She wants all students to get fresh air.”
Tall-Paul laughed, ran over to the window, opened it and took a deep breath. “There. I’ve gotten my fresh air.”
Small-Paul raced over and did the same thing. “Me too,” he said.
Then they returned to the bulletin board.
“I made a plan,” Small-Paul said, showing Tall-Paul a piece of paper. I was glad to hear someone else in Room 26 made plans besides just me.
Tall-Paul studied it carefully. “That should work,” he said. “I guess I’ll take the top part.”
“Okay,” Small-Paul replied. “I’ll take the bottom.”
I climbed up to the tippy top of my cage to watch as the bulletin board magically came to life.
Tall-Paul put up letters across the top reading BRISBANE’S BUDDIES—WE WORK TOGETHER.
Meanwhile, on the lower half of the board, Small-Paul put up pictures of students Mrs. Brisbane had taken on the first day of school. The boys had enlarged them on the computer and printed them out. He put them in pairs according to their jobs.
Next, Tall-Paul put pictures on the upper half of the board.
When they got to the middle, they worked together and didn’t seem to mind one bit.
They worked quickly in order to finish before recess ended.
“Now add the drawings we did last night,” Tall-Paul said.
Soon, the job titles were accompanied by drawings the boys had made depicting each job. For Animal Handlers, there were excellent drawings of Og and me.
Suddenly, I had an awful thought. “They won’t need two Animal Handlers if they move one of us to Room Eighteen,” I told Og.
Og splashed loudly in his tank. They were angry kinds of splashes.
By the time the other students in the room returned, the bulletin board was finished and it looked GREAT-GREAT-GREAT.
All the kids seemed to enjoy having their pictures on the board. I enjoyed having mine up there, too. But what I really enjoyed was seeing that my Plan worked after all!
School Days According to Humphrey Page 10
