Back to School with Betsy (3 page)

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."

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.