Back to School with Betsy (4 page)

"Don't you have anything that is cheaper?" asked Billy.

"Well, we have some nice Persian kittens for five dollars," replied the salesman.

"Anything cheaper than that?" asked Billy.

"How would you like to have a nice rabbit?" asked the salesman, as he led the way to a corner of the shop. "The rabbit is only a dollar."

"That's too cheap," said Betsy. "We have two dollars and ten cents."

"I see!" said the salesman. "Is it for yourselves?"

"Oh, no!" cried the children. "It's for a wedding present for our teacher."

"Well, well!" said the salesman. "Now let me see. We have some canary birds for two dollars, but you would need a cage. You haven't a cage, I suppose?"

The children shook their heads. They hadn't any cage.

"How about some goldfish?" said the salesman. "We have some beautiful goldfish." He led the way to a large tank filled with goldfish. "You could give her three goldfish and you could each pick one out," he said.

"Oh, that would be nice," said Betsy.

"How much would that cost?" asked Billy.

"You could have three for one dollar and a half," said the salesman.

"What would we put them in?" asked Ellen.

"I can let you have a nice bowl for sixty cents," he replied.

"How much would that come to?" asked Billy.

"Two dollars and ten cents," replied the salesman.

The children beamed. They were delighted. Now they could each pick the fish they liked best and the price was just right.

Betsy picked out a bright orange goldfish. Ellen selected a silvery one with a beautiful fan-tail.

The salesman looked at Billy. "Which one do you want?" he said.

"I'll take the one in the bathing suit," replied Billy.

The salesman and the girls laughed. "Which one do you mean?" said Betsy.

"That one with the stripes," said Billy, pointing to a lovely striped fish.

The salesman laughed very hard as he scooped up the striped fish.

When the three little fishes were safely in a cardboard box filled with water, the salesman wrapped up the glass bowl.

"Now be careful you don't drop these things," he said, as he took the two dollars and ten cents from Billy.

Billy carried the box of fish, Ellen carried the bowl, and Betsy carried Father's umbrella.

When they arrived at Betsy's house, the children unwrapped the bowl and emptied the water and the fish into it. They were delighted with the present. When they showed it to Betsy's mother, she said, "It is a very nice present indeed."

The children wrote their names on a card and tied it around the bowl with a piece of white ribbon.

"Do we take it to the wedding with us?" asked Billy.

"Oh, no!" replied Betsy's mother. "It must be delivered before the wedding."

Just then Betsy spied Mr. Jackson. He was walking around the outside of his house. "There's Mr. Jackson now!" cried Betsy. "He will take it over to Miss Grey's house for us."

Betsy rushed out into the garden. "Mr. Jackson!" she shouted. "Mr. Jackson!"

Mr. Jackson came over to the garden wall. "Mr. Jackson," said Betsy, "come over and see Miss Grey's wedding present. We just bought it."

Mr. Jackson leaped over the wall. When he went into the house and saw the bowl of goldfish, he said, "Well, isn't that great! We have received a lot of presents but no one else has given us goldfish."

"I guess we were pretty smart to think of goldfish, weren't we?" said Billy.

"You certainly were," replied Mr. Jackson.

"Miss Grey will be just as pleased as I am."

"It's your present too, isn't it?" said Ellen. "Because you are marrying Miss Grey."

"That's funny," said Billy. "We told you that we couldn't buy you a present and now you are getting a present after all."

"And we didn't have to spend any more money," said Betsy.

"Well," said Mr. Jackson, as he went out with the bowl, "we will name the goldfish after the three of you—Billy, Betsy, and Ellen."

"Well, I'm the one in the striped bathing suit," shouted Billy.

Betsy and Ellen could hardly wait for the wedding day to arrive. Betsy's mother made Betsy a pink taffeta dress and Ellen's mother made Ellen one just like Betsy's. The little girls had never had long dresses before and they felt very important and grown up in their long full skirts.

Betsy's dress was finished just two days before

the wedding. When Betsy tried it on with her silver slippers, Father said she looked like a fairy. When she put on her pink bonnet that tied under her chin with blue velvet ribbons, Father said she was almost as beautiful as Mother.

"Well, at the wedding," said Betsy, "I guess I'll be just as beautiful as Mother, 'cause I'm not going to wear my hair in braids. Mother's going to brush it all out, fluffy-like."

When Betsy took her dress off, Mother laid it on the guest room bed. "Betsy," said Mother, "will you get a hanger, please, and hang your new dress in the closet?"

"Yes, Mother!" replied Betsy.

Mother went off to put the baby to bed and Betsy went to her own room to get a hanger. When she reached her room, she heard Billy calling to her from the garden. Betsy went to the window.

"Hello, Billy!" she called.

"Hey, Betsy!" shouted Billy. "Come on down and see what I just found."

Without thinking of the hanger, Betsy ran downstairs and out into the garden. Billy was stooping down in the garden path.

"What is it?" said Betsy.

"It's a great big worm," said Billy.

Betsy stooped down to look at the worm. It was big and fat and bright green. There were colored spots, like jewels, all over it.

"Oh," said Betsy, "that will be a beautiful big butterfly some day."

"How do you know?" asked Billy.

"I had one once and kept it in a box and it wove itself inside of a cocoon. Then one day it came out of the cocoon and flew away. It was beautiful."

"Do you think if I kept this one it would do the same thing?" asked Billy.

"I guess it would," replied Betsy.

"Have you a box that I could put it in?" asked Billy.

"I'll go see," said Betsy, running off to the house.

In a few moments she returned with an empty candy box. "You can have this," she said.

With a little twig Billy guided the worm into the box.

Just then Thumpy trotted past the children. He was carrying a bone in his mouth and he was covered with soft earth. "Oh, Thumpy!" cried Betsy. "You've been digging!"

"And he has dug up a bone," said Billy.

Thumpy started off on a run. He was afraid the children might take his bone away from him. He had dug deep for that bone and he didn't mean to lose it now.

But the children were too much interested in the worm to bother about Thumpy and his bone.

"You don't mind if I take this worm home, do you, Betsy?" asked Billy.

"No," replied Betsy, "but I would like to see it when it turns into a butterfly."

"Oh, sure!" said Billy, as he put the lid on the box.

After about a half hour Billy went home. He carried the box very carefully.

Betsy played in the garden until dinner time. When Mother called her, she went upstairs to wash her hands. Suddenly she remembered her lovely dress. She had forgotten to hang it up.

She went to her closet and took out a hanger. Then she went into the guest room. Betsy took one look at the bed. Then she screamed. "Thumpy! Thumpy!" For there lay Thumpy, sound asleep, in the very middle of Betsy's pink taffeta dress.

Thumpy jumped from the bed and dashed out of the room. To Betsy's horror, there lay the bone, right in the center of her pink skirt. The marks of Thumpy's paws were all over the dress.

"Oh, Mother! Mother!" she screamed. "Mother, come quick!"

Mother came running up the stairs. When she saw Betsy's dress, she said, "Oh, Betsy! Why didn't you hang it up as I asked you to?"

Betsy began to cry. "I forgot, Mother," she sobbed. "I went out into the garden to see Billy. And now my dress is spoiled and I won't be able to be a flower girl."

By this time Father had arrived. He had come upstairs to see what was the trouble.

Mother picked up the bone and handed it to Father. "Here," she said, "do take this awful bone."

Father took the bone downstairs and Mother picked up Betsy's dress. "Well, it certainly is a sight," she said. "What will I ever do with it?"

Just then Father came dashing up the stairs, two steps at a time. "Give it to me, right away," he said. "It's five minutes of six. If I can get it to the cleaner's by six o'clock, it will be back by six o'clock tomorrow night."

Father flew down the stairs with the dress under his arm. Betsy tore after him. "Let me go with you, Father," she cried. "Please let me go with you."

Father jumped into the car and Betsy climbed in after him.

"I couldn't stand waiting for you to come back," said Betsy, as Father started the car. "I have to see if the cleaner is still open."

Father drove as fast as he could. Soon they were on the main street. There was a good bit of traffic and Father had to slow down. At the next corner there was a traffic light. Father had to stop. "At this rate we won't make it," he said.