Read Online Jean and Johnny by Beverly Cleary - Free Book Online

as she could manage, “A boy named Johnny Chessler is coming over to see me tomorrow night.”
    â€œWhy, how nice, dear,” said Mrs. Jarrett. “Chessler? I don’t recall hearing the name. What is he like?”
    â€œWell…” Jean hesitated, wondering how to describe a boy like Johnny to her mother and father. She did not know how to explain that Johnny was handsome and charming and all the things a girl would like a boy to be. “He—he is nice looking, with curly hair, and he wears the most beautiful woolen shirts, the kind that have tobe dry-cleaned, and he is—oh, I don’t know….”
    â€œYou are telling us what he looks like,” said Mr. Jarrett, “but what I want to know is, is he good enough for my daughter.”
    â€œOh, Daddy,” said Jean with a nervous laugh. Her father was teasing, she knew, but she understood him well enough to know that beneath his banter was a serious note.
    â€œAnd what I want to know,” said Sue, “is how she is going to entertain a boy. We can’t all sit around the living room and stare at him.”
    Jean mentally thanked her sister for bringing up this touchy problem.
    â€œNo young whippersnapper is going to drive me out of my house,” said Mr. Jarrett.
    The sisters exchanged a glance that said they understood their father was not entirely joking. “Now, Dad,” said Sue, “don’t start playing the heavy father.”
    â€œWe’ll manage somehow,” said Mrs. Jarrett reassuringly. “Of course the girls will be entertaining boys and we will have to figure out a way for them to do it.”
    â€œI’ll stay in my room and study,” volunteered Sue. “I have to do it sometime this weekend and it might as well be then. That will remove me from the scene.”
    â€œYour father and I will want to meet him,” said Mrs. Jarrett.
    â€œOf course,” agreed Jean. “He would think it was peculiar if I didn’t have any family around at all.”
    Mrs. Jarrett sighed. “I do wish we could buy a larger house. Or at least build onto this one. Perhaps I should enter that contest I saw announced the other day.”
    â€œWhat is the prize this time?” asked Mr. Jarrett. “Not a live kangaroo like you thought you might win for naming that airline.”
    â€œI thought it was rather ridiculous at the time,” said Mrs. Jarrett. “The winner receives his weight in gold. Or rather the equivalent in money for writing the last line of a limerick about a new kind of home permanent.”
    Mrs. Jarrett’s family shouted with laughter. “You don’t have to enter a contest,” said Mr. Jarrett. “You are worth your weight in gold already.”
    â€œHave some more potatoes, Mother,” urged Jean. “Just in case you win.”
    â€œEvery little ounce would help,” said Sue. “How about some more dressing on your coleslaw?”
    â€œJust don’t forget—I won the television set,” Mrs. Jarrett reminded her family.
    â€œBut nobody has said what I am going to do withJohnny,” Jean said, bringing the conversation back to the original problem.
    â€œJust who is the fellow, anyway?” asked Mr. Jarrett.
    â€œA boy at school.” Jean resigned herself to answering questions of this sort from her father.
    â€œIf he wants to call on Jean, I am sure he is a very nice boy,” said Mrs. Jarrett soothingly.
    â€œDo you know him?” Mr. Jarrett asked Sue.
    â€œYes,” answered Sue. “He’s in my English class.” This seemed to mollify Mr. Jarrett. At least he did not ask further questions about Johnny.
    â€œBut nobody has said what I am going to do with him.” Jean cast an anxious glance at Sue, who could be counted on to understand and help out.
    â€œWe could all have a lively game of old maid or lotto,” said Mr. Jarrett.
    â€œDaddy!” Jean could not help