Oddfellow's Orphanage (5 page)

The little bear stared sweetly back, then offered Delia a paw of honey from the jar in his lap.

Delia scolded the cub with her eyes. Then she smiled, took the cub’s less-sticky paw, and led him downstairs.

Dinner was just finishing. One by one, everyone looked up at the white-haired girl in her pajamas and the honey-covered bear cub.

“Hooray!” Headmaster Bluebeard called out. “Delia has found him! Delia, you are our hero.”

As everyone gathered around her, Delia
felt
like a hero. It surprised her that people she had only just met could make her feel so special.

Ava nudged her and said, “Good work! I’m so glad you’re here.”

“We are
all
happy to have you here,” Hank agreed. “And I think that rascal bear’s mama is happiest of all.”

“Now tell us,” said Ollie, “how did you find the baby?”

And everyone at Oddfellow’s Orphanage waited patiently as the newest orphan wrote out her story.

A MONSTER EXPEDITION

T
HE
next morning, on the day of Professor Silas’s expedition, Delia awoke to the sound of birds. She peered out from her blankets and tried to remember just where she was. She looked at the bed next to her and saw two black braids trailing over the pillow.
Ava
, Delia remembered.

Next to Ava’s bed was a big brass cage, which held the chirping finches. Across the room slept two more little girls, each with golden ringlets ruffled messily on their pillows. On the other side of Delia slept Imogen, whose illustrated arm draped off the side of the bed. The other little girls soon woke up, and they all got dressed and headed to the dining room.

Breakfast was little stacks of pancakes that the cooks had
made into different shapes: hearts, stars, and tiny rabbits. After breakfast, Delia’s class put on their sweaters and coats and headed outside. The sun shone brightly and the air was windy and crisp, as was proper for a March morning.

Headmaster Bluebeard was in front of the house with Professor Silas to help the children into a pair of carriages, each with two big bears hitched in front. Before they climbed into a carriage, the students picked up brown paper bags with their lunches from the steps.

Delia, Ava, Daniel, and Tom climbed into the first carriage, along with Professor Silas. Imogen, Lucy, Louise, Hugo (the little hedgehog), and Felix got into the second carriage. Last was Ollie, who ran outside, grabbed the remaining lunch bag, and jumped into the first carriage. Headmaster Bluebeard waved heartily as the carriages rolled away.

The ride went by quickly, and soon they arrived at the Great Green Lake. The children emptied out of the carriages and, led by the professor, walked down a long dock and stepped onto a boat.

The boat was large, but not large enough to dream of being called a ship. It was made of dark wood and was steered by a
captain with a white moustache. The captain’s only helper was his son, a young man with cheeks red from the wind.

The Great Green Lake was true to its name. It stretched far and wide in all directions. The water was the color of a dark emerald, and the waves that churned on the surface were capped in white foam.

The boat rocked as it cut through the water. It reminded Delia of the only time she had been in a boat before, when she was very little. She remembered being rocked by the waves while her papa sang her to sleep. Now she stood alone, the wind whipping her braids against her neck.

Professor Silas gave each student a pair of binoculars, and they spent the morning walking from one end of the windy boat to the other, searching the green waves.

They kept their binoculars held up to their eyes. They were too afraid to put them down for even a moment, in case that was the moment the monster decided to appear.

Professor Silas stood at the front of the boat. The wind blew his hair in front of his glasses. He consulted a map of the lake, which had notes and charts of the monster’s habits and possible whereabouts.

“The lake monster can sometimes be lured in with a snack, such as a basket of fish,” he told his students. “It’s very lucky that I suspected as much and brought some fish with me!”

The professor took out little tins of sardines from his worn
leather satchel. He opened the tins enthusiastically and tossed the contents into a small basket. The children held their noses at the fishy smell. When all the tins were empty, Daniel slowly lowered the stinky basket down to the water.

The children ran to the side of the boat to watch, in case the basket was gobbled up in one giant bite. Delia and Ava peered over the railing, hoping to catch a glimpse of fin or a flash of long neck or a flick of tail in the shiny deep water. They watched and waited, but the only shadows they saw were cast by the boat, and the only glimmers were of their own reflections in the waves.

After a while, they all grew tired. The basket of sardines bobbed up and down, still ungobbled.

“This is boring,” Felix said, wrinkling his freckled nose.

Seeing the frowns and bored faces, Professor Silas cleverly announced a lunch break, saying, “The expedition will be put on hold while we eat our lunch and have hot cocoa downstairs.”

The children cheered! Everyone galloped down the stairs to the boat’s cozy cabin. The captain’s son heated the milk to make their cocoa and ladled it into mismatched cups. Professor Silas
spread out a quilt on the floor, and the students sat on it to eat their lunches. Soon all the passengers were warming their hands with a cup of hot cocoa and munching on a sandwich.

The only person who wasn’t happily munching was Ollie, who sat frowning at his sandwich. “I hate cheese sandwiches,” he said sadly. Without another word, he stood and started back up the stairs.

“Where are you going?” the professor called.

“To throw this sandwich overboard,” Ollie replied.

“I’ll eat it!” cried Hugo, but it was too late—Ollie was at the top of the stairs.