Read Online Adventure According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney - Free Book Online

being fair to him, but I was feeling down in the dumps.
    Even when Mrs. Brisbane read from Jolly Roger’s Guide to Life, I wasn’t very cheered up.
    I thought I couldn’t feel any lower, until school was over and Mrs. Wright came in. She was carrying a clipboard and had her shiny whistle around her neck. It’s hard to relax around a woman who always wears a whistle!
    “Mrs. Brisbane, here are a few more forms you’ll need for the field trip,” she announced abruptly.
    I was surprised to see that Mrs. Brisbane just smiled and said, “Fine. I’ll make sure they’re taken care of.”
    “By the deadline,” Mrs. Wright snapped back.
    “Of course,” Mrs. Brisbane replied. “Now, Ruth, I have an idea. To make sure that our field trip is safe and orderly and everything goes smoothly, I was wondering if there was any chance you could come along and help supervise.”
    I think if I’d been on my wheel, I would have fallen off.
    Mrs. Wright looked about as startled as I felt. “Well, I don’t know,” she said. “I mean . . . yes, it would make sense. Perhaps I can rearrange my schedule that day.”
    “You’d be a big help,” Mrs. Brisbane said (although I didn’t agree). “And you’d have a lot of fun.”
    Mrs. Wright looked even more startled than before.
    “Oh, well, of course, that wouldn’t be my purpose in being there,” she said.
    Mrs. Brisbane flashed her a big smile. “Of course not. But it wouldn’t hurt to have some fun, would it?”
    So that was Mrs. Brisbane’s idea! She wanted to help Mrs. Wright have some fun. I didn’t think that even a wise teacher could make that happen. The only fun Mrs. Wright had was when she blew her whistle, which wasn’t fun for small creatures with sensitive ears like mine.
    “Good luck,” I muttered as Mrs. Brisbane left the room.
    “Good night!” she answered cheerily.
     
    That evening, I had to listen to the splishing and splashing coming from Og’s tank, which only reminded me that he could swim as much as he liked, while I was forbidden to be in water. Ever.
    I guess Aldo didn’t know that I wouldn’t be joining the class at Potter’s Pond. He continued to whistle and dance the hornpipe and say things like, “Arrgh,” and, “Me hearty.”
    When he called me a “salty dog,” I felt SAD-SAD-SAD, because if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s an unreasonable creature like a dog.
    On Thursday night, Aldo said a very strange thing. “Maria has made me a pirate’s outfit. She says I look handsome in it!”
    Maria was Aldo’s very nice wife, and I could hardly believe that she wanted him to be a pirate, too.
    “I tell ye, me buckos, this pirate life agrees with me!” he added. Then he pushed his cleaning trolley out of Room 26, turned off the light and closed the door.
    “Og?” I squeaked.
    I could hear the faint splashing of water. “Og? Do you think Aldo is going to be a pirate and sail away and we’ll never see him again?”
    “BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og responded in a very alarming way.
    “I hope not, either,” I answered, although I’m usually only guessing what Og is trying to say.
    Aldo had left the blinds open, so that the streetlight outside lit up Room 26 and bathed it in a soft glow. The tables were pushed together so the boats were all in a row.
    “I’m taking a little walk, Og,” I suddenly announced, flinging my cage door open.
    I was able to drop down from the table where Og and I live directly onto the table with the boats. It was grand seeing them up close. There was the beautiful swan boat, with real feathers that Sayeh and Miranda brought in. The pirate flag looked wonderfully menacing on the boat Garth and A.J. built. I had nothing but admiration for the colorful Chinese junk that Tabitha and Seth designed. The Viking boat that Art and Mandy created tilted a bit too much to one side, but they still had time to fix it.
    The tall ship was missing because Kirk had taken it home to test it.
    Gail’s boat (and it