Ethel, with legs like tree stumps
and a neck like a baboon.
(So it didn’t rhyme.)
Ethel got in the bathtub.
Ethel pulled the plug.
Oh, my goodness! Bless my soul!
Ethel can’t fit down the hole!
(They didn’t have a finish to this version, and it was probably just as well. However, the song didn’t prevent Ethel from eating three Snickers bars on the way home.)
Anyway, we finally reached Stoneybrook, and was I ever glad to see my father and Tigger again. We had a happy reunion, and Tigger purred practically nonstop all Saturday evening.
* * *
A couple of weeks after we’d been back, the members of the BSC started receiving mail. Here are some of the postcards:
(I’m not sure I would write “I love you” on a postcard where the mailman and your mother could see it.)
Some important things happened after we got home again:
1. Kristy got over losing the Winter War.
2. Kristy stopped feeling guilty about Jay.
3. Kristy and Claudia stopped being mad at each other.
4. Jay got his cast off.
5. My dad and Dawn’s mom went to a formal dance together.
6. I finished my project on time, handed it in, and got an A on it.
7. I collected the notes my friends had been keeping at the lodge and finished my book for Logan.
I guess the most important news of all was that Logan and I were happily reunited the day after us SMS students returned from Vermont. Actually, the reunion was probably more sappy than happy. Dad and I drove to the airport to pick up the Brunos, and as soon as I saw Logan, I ran straight into his arms. He had bought a coral necklace for me in Aruba and had it ready so that while I was hugging him, he fastened it around my neck. Then we held hands all the way home.
Logan’s little brother kept looking at us and saying, “Ew, ew.”
Twelve days later, I finished Logan’s book. It had taken longer to write than I’d expected. I had to do a lot of editing. I realized I needed to take out all the parts about my wondering if Logan had found a new girlfriend, and about the dumb letters I kept writing to him.
At last the book was finished, though. I illustrated it as best I could (I’m not much of an artist), bound it (with Claudia’s help), and presented it to Logan.
He loved it.
Oh, yes. One other thing. This is the dedication in the front of the book:
About the Author
ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.
There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.) In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.
Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.
Copyright © 1989 by Ann M. Martin.
Cover art by Hodges Soileau
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, December 1989
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-63072-6
Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation Page 12
