Camp Ghost-Away

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Patricia Reilly Giff

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Helena Clare Pittman

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Éric Sanvoisin

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NATE THE GREAT,
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

A
t last it was Tuesday. Tuesday was Pee Wee Scout Day. It took forever for Tuesday to come, thought Molly Duff.

Soon Troop 23 stood around the Scout table at Mrs. Peters’s house. On the table were boxes and boxes of Scout donuts.

They were piled up like a mountain. A mountain of donuts. They had powdered sugar on them, like snow. Snow on the mountain, thought Molly.

Molly rubbed her stomach. She wished the Scouts could eat them. Eat the whole mountain.

“Now pay attention!” called Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Peters was their troop leader.

“Today we begin to sell our donuts. You’ll go door to door on your own block. We must be very polite to people,” said Mrs. Peters. “Even if they don’t want to buy our donuts.”

But they all will, thought Molly.

“We must count the money and give them the right change. And you have to be careful not to lose the money.” Mrs. Peters explained everything to the Scouts so that they would know what to do. They all listened carefully. They were eager to get started.

“How much do they cost?” asked Sonny Betz.

“The donuts are one dollar a box,” said Mrs. Peters. “Tell the people the money is for our trip to camp. If we sell enough donuts, our whole troop will go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”

All the Scouts cheered, “Yeah!”

“And the one who sells the most donuts will get an award,” said Mrs. Peters. “It will be a special Scout badge. Are there any questions?”

Molly crossed her fingers. She didn’t like questions. Questions took forever.

Rachel’s hand went up. She always asked questions. Mrs. Peters called on Rachel. “Mrs. Peters, my mom says we should sell something that is more healthy. Donuts have sugar. Sugar isn’t good for your teeth.”

A hex on Rachel’s mother. Rachel’s father was a dentist. Molly loved donuts.

“Donuts are all right if you don’t eat too many, Rachel,” said Mrs. Peters.

Before Rachel could say anything else and before any more questions, Mrs. Peters said, “Let’s get out there and sell donuts! Let’s sell enough to go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”

Troop 23 dashed for the door. Each Scout held a mountain of donuts. “I am going to sell the most!” said Molly.

“I am,” said Lisa Ronning. “I am going to ask my grandma to buy some.”

Molly wished that her grandma lived nearby. It was too far to go to sell donuts to her grandma. She would have to sell donuts to her own block.

“I’m going to sell a million donuts,” said Rachel. Rachel always had to do better than anyone else. Even if donuts were bad for your teeth.

“You can’t sell a million,” scoffed Roger White. “Nobody can sell a million.”

“I can,” said Rachel.

“I’m going to go around a lot of blocks,” said Sonny Betz. “Not just my own.”

“Is your mama going with you?” Rachel called out.

Everyone knew Sonny was a mama’s boy. He couldn’t even walk to school
alone. Lots of kids called Sonny a sissy. “So what if she is?” said Sonny.

“Mama’s boy, mama’s boy!” shouted Rachel.

“Stuck up, stuck up!” returned Sonny.

“Let’s sell donuts together,” said Mary Beth Kelly to Molly. “It would be more fun, and we could go to more houses.”

“Okay,” said Molly.

When they got near their own block, Molly said, “Let’s start here.”

Mary Beth looked at the old house. A window was broken, and the paint was peeling.

“Mrs. Olson lives there,” said Mary Beth. “She’s mean. She doesn’t like kids in her yard.”

They kept walking to the next house. “Mrs. Cox is mean too,” said Mary Beth.

*   *   *

“I’m going to the door anyway,” said Molly bravely. She marched up to the door and knocked. An old lady came to the door.

“Do you want to buy some Scout donuts” asked Molly, “so we can go to camp?”

“I don’t like donuts,” said Mrs. Cox, slamming the door. Molly wanted to put a hex on Mrs. Cox, but she remembered what Mrs. Peters had said. Be polite even if they say no.

They went to the next house. Mary Beth went to the door. “Do you want to buy some Pee Wee donuts?” she asked.

“I have no teeth,” said the old man who came to the door.

“You don’t need teeth to eat these,” said Mary Beth politely.

But he closed the door and did not answer.

The next person was not home. And the next man told them that he makes his own donuts.

“This is not as easy as I thought,” said Molly. “We may never get to camp.” She sighed.

Mary Beth sighed too.

They went to the last house on the block. A mother with three children came to the door. “Why, I’ll take four boxes!” she said. “Two from each of you. We love donuts for dessert.”

She gave the girls four dollars. “Have fun at camp!” she called.

M
olly and Mary Beth sold donuts all week long. They sold ten boxes each, and then they went back to ask Mrs. Peters for more donuts. By the next Tuesday they had each sold twelve boxes.

At three o’clock Molly went to Mary Beth’s house. Then they walked to the Scout meeting together.

Everyone was turning in their donut money. Lisa Ronning turned in five dollars. Tim Noon turned in one dollar. Roger
White had sold sixteen boxes! But Sonny Betz and Rachel Myers had sold over one hundred boxes each!

“Wow!” said Molly. “There aren’t even one hundred people on a whole block.”

“That is really the Pee Wee spirit,” said Mrs. Peters. “I think we should all clap for Sonny and Rachel!”

Everyone clapped their hands together, and shouted and whistled. Roger blew into his brown lunch bag. Then he punched it and the bag exploded. Pow!

Molly did not clap. She did not feel like cheering. She wanted to win.

“Maybe Rachel and Sonny will tell us how they sold so many donuts,” said Mrs. Peters.

“My mom sold about eighty boxes at work,” said Sonny proudly.

“Your mom!” shouted Roger. “That isn’t
fair. You’re supposed to sell them yourself!”

Leave it to Sonny, thought Molly, to let his mom do it. Big baby!

“What’s the matter with my mom selling them?” asked Sonny. Mrs. Peters said it was all right to have your mother sell your donuts.

“It doesn’t matter who sells them,” said Mrs. Peters. “The more boxes that are sold, the more money for Scout camp.”

“Baby Sonny,” muttered Roger.

“Now, Rachel, how did you sell so many donuts?” asked Mrs. Peters.

“I sold them to my relatives,” said Rachel, with her chin in the air. “We went to a wedding, and my aunt and my grandma bought twenty boxes each.”