Read Online Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary - Free Book Online

looked at Uncle Hobart with real respect. He understood about performance reports. Perhaps he would not make such a bad uncle after all.
    Mr. Quimby, who had been quiet, spoke up. “I’ll donate my frozen-food warehouse socks to cut down on shopping. As soon as school is out, I am leaving the frozen-food warehouse forever. The temperature in there is about the same as Alaska in winter, and you are welcome to my socks. If the markethadn’t furnished the rest of my cold-weather gear, I’d give that to you, too.”
    This news produced silence, broken by Ramona. “Daddy, did you hear from another school that wants you to teach?”
    â€œNo, Baby, I didn’t,” he confessed, “but I was offered a job managing one of the ShopRite Markets. The pay and fringe benefits are good. I accepted, and start as soon as school is out.”
    â€œDaddy!” cried Beezus. “You mean you’re going back to that market and won’t teach art after all? But you don’t like working in the market.”
    â€œWe can’t always do what we want in life,” answered her father, “so we do the best we can.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said Mrs. Quimby. “We do the best we can.”
    â€œIt’s not the end of the world, Beezus. Being manager is better than being a checkerand much better than filling orders in the frozen-food warehouse.” Mr. Quimby’s smile could not hide the discouraged look in his eyes. “Now let’s get on with plans for the wedding.”
    Relief flowed through Ramona. No strange child would mark her walls with crayons. She would not have to leave Howie, her school, her friends. Only Aunt Bea would be missing.
    Uncle Hobart broke the silence that followed Mr. Quimby’s news by saying, “Yes, about our wedding. Women get all worked up and exhausted when there’s a wedding in the family, but not this time. You invite your friends by telephone, and I’ll take care of the rest. There’s nothing to it.”
    The adult sisters looked at one another with amused “he’ll-see” smiles. “Great!” said Aunt Bea. “I’ll be perfectly happy with any wedding you plan. Now all I have to do ispersuade Dad to leave his shuffleboard, bingo, and sunshine and come up from Southern California to give me away.” The family had seen little of Grandpa Day since he had retired and moved away from Oregon’s rainy winters.
    â€œHe’ll come,” said Ramona, who loved her grandfather. “He’s got to come.”
    â€œFirst thing Saturday morning,” said Uncle Hobart, “I’ll gather up you girls, along with Willa Jean, and we’ll go shopping for your dresses while Bea dashes off those progress reports.”
    â€œIt sounds like the fastest wedding in the West,” said Mr. Quimby.
    Ramona and her sister exchanged a look that said each was wondering what shopping with a bachelor petroleum engineer would be like.

7
The Chain of Command
    S aturday morning, Willa Jean and a very cross-looking Howie arrived with Uncle Hobart in his van to collect Beezus and Ramona to go shopping for wedding clothes.
    â€œHow come you’re going shopping with us?” Ramona demanded of Howie.
    Howie did not answer Ramona, but instead complained to his uncle, “I’ve said amillion times I don’t want to be a ring bearer. I don’t care what Grandma says. I’m too big. That stuff is for little kids. Carrying a ring on a pillow is dumb. Besides, it will fall off.”
    â€œI’m on your side, kid,” said Uncle Hobart. “But let’s humor your grandmother. She’s busy making a fancy pillow for the ring, and says she will fasten the ring in place with a couple of loose stitches. And don’t blame me if my favorite nephew’s a big kid instead of a little kid.”
    â€œI’m not your favorite nephew,” said Howie. “I’m your