Read Online My Brother Louis Measures Worms by Barbara Robinson - Free Book Online Page A

that!” It was interesting to hear Willard raise his voice, even a little bit, because he never had before. “It isn’t Louis’s money, it’s Louis’s prize.”
    â€œIt is not Louis’s prize! Louis is nine years old. This magazine isn’t going to give Louis the prize, so he can’t give it to you!”
    Willard thought about that for a minute. “I believe you’re right,” he said.
    â€œIn the meantime,” my father went on, “Janine has been out ordering dresses and flowers and cakes, to the tune of three thousand dollars. So she’s either going to have to come up with the money or call off the dresses and the flowers and the cakes.”
    Willard shook his head. “Janine’s not going to want to do that. Why, she doesn’t even like it when people return things at the store because they’ve changed their minds. You know, Janine’s slow to make up her mind, but when she does . . .”
    â€œNow, Willard,” Mother said. “Listen to me, because I’m all out of patience with Janine’s cautious ways. You just tell her that she doesn’t need to drag us all thirty miles to a country club to hear eight perfect strangers play fiddles . . . and she doesn’t need to drape the church from stem to stern with orchids, which Mr. Herms the florist doesn’t know where he’s going to get them all, anyway. She doesn’t need any limousine to ride two and a half blocks, either. She doesn’t need any of those things . . . now, you just tell her so.”
    To everyone’s surprise (including his own, I guess) that was just what Willard did.
    He told Janine to cancel the reception and the orchestra and the orchids and the cake, and to find some dress closer to home.
    He never did tell her what happened to Louis’s prize.
    â€œDon’t know why I didn’t,” he told my mother. “That would have been the place to start. But it seemed like when I left here I was mostly worried, and by the time I got to Janine’s I was mostly mad. And then, right off the bat, she told me we had to have a lot of white doves to fly around outside the church. Had to have them, she said. So I knew right then that this whole circus was a big mistake, and I just told her we weren’t going to have any part of it.”
    He did give in about one thing, though. He told Janine that she could go ahead and get her wedding dress if she would give up forever all thoughts of changing her name, because he didn’t want that hanging over him for the rest of his life—and Janine, astonished, perhaps, by the demonstration of strength and purpose, agreed to everything.
    It all turned out so well that my father had a hard time getting Louis to see the error of his ways, and Mother was no help.
    â€œIf Louis hadn’t won the wedding,” she said, “they probably wouldn’t be getting married.”
    â€œExactly,” my father said. “Is that a reason to get married?”
    â€œNo. That’s why it’s such a good thing that Louis didn’t really win the wedding. Willard would always wonder if that was why Janine married him, and now he knows it isn’t.”
    My father sighed. “Now, this is typical,” he said. “Louis has done a foolish thing and caused everyone a lot of trouble, and you seem to be saying that we should congratulate him. But just because this turns out all right doesn’t mean that he can go on doing foolish things. When Ralph left that baby on the bus, it turned out all right, but . . .”
    â€œWell, it did and it didn’t,” Mother said. “We got him back, of course—but I don’t know how much babies remember. Maybe somehow he always remembered that he got left on a bus and taken to Columbus, and it affected his personality. Maybe he’s never had much get-up-and-go because that scared it out of him.”
    â€œWho?” my father