I was unsqueakably excited about what I’d heard and seen.
“Og, did you hear it? Did you see what happened?” I asked my neighbor.
“BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!” he answered.
Og didn’t sound anything like a horse. But he did sound like a very excited frog!
HUMPHREY’S WINTER WONDERINGS: If Og ever played the piano, would the music make everyone hoppy?
12
Keep Calm and Focus
Class, as you know, today we’re having a dress rehearsal for the Winter Wonderland show,” Mrs. Brisbane said later in the morning.
Dress rehearsal? Not only did I not know we were having one, I didn’t know what a dress rehearsal was.
“Ms. Lark will take us into the gym so we can practice onstage. We’ll take all our props with us,” Mrs. Brisbane explained.
Rolling-Rosie raised her hand. “How can it be a dress rehearsal? We girls aren’t wearing white. And we haven’t finished decorating our snowflakes.”
“I know,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “But at least we can try the song on the stage and you can wear your snowflakes as they are. We’ll finish decorating them this afternoon. Daniel, are you ready to play the piano?”
Daniel looked pleased as he said, “Yes, Mrs. Brisbane. I practiced this weekend.”
“Yes, he did!” I squeaked.
Everybody giggled.
Then Mrs. Brisbane had my classmates line up. They took their snowflakes, bells, tails and ears with them.
Just as she reached to open the door, Forgetful-Phoebe said, “We forgot Humphrey and Og!”
For someone who can be forgetful, Phoebe was good at remembering important things—like us!
“Humphrey and Og are staying here,” Mrs. Brisbane told her.
“But . . . then they won’t get to see us onstage,” Phoebe protested.
Daniel looked truly upset. “I don’t know if I can play it without Humphrey,” he said. “He helped me play the song!”
“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
“I want Humphrey and Og to see us,” Thomas said. “After all, they saw us learn the songs and make our costumes.”
“They should be there,” Holly added.
Suddenly the class was abuzz with my friends begging Mrs. Brisbane to bring us along.
“But what will we do with them?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.
Daniel had a suggestion. “We can put them on top of the piano. That’s where Humphrey was at my house.”
“Please! Please!” my friends begged.
Mrs. Brisbane shook her head, which was bad. But then she smiled, which was good.
“Oh, I guess it won’t hurt,” she said. “But let’s be careful with them.”
Then she carefully put my cage and Og’s tank on a book cart she keeps in the room. “Who’s going to push?” she asked.
Of course, every single student wanted to push.
Mrs. Brisbane chose Phoebe, because it was her idea.
Phoebe gave us a nice easy ride down the hallways of Longfellow School, right past Mr. Morales’s office.
He was standing in the doorway as we approached. “Whoa, looks like a parade,” he said.
Mr. Morales was wearing a tie with little stars on it.
“We’re on our way to dress rehearsal,” Mrs. Brisbane explained.
“And what are Humphrey and Og going to do?” he asked.
“They’ll be the audience,” Sophie said.
Mr. Morales leaned down to look in my cage. “I hope you like the show.”
“I’m pawsitive that I will!” I squeaked back.
As we rolled along some more, I heard a familiar voice say, “Hi, Humphrey-Dumpty!” That was A.J., one of my favorite friends from last year’s class. He was the first human to give me a nickname.
And then we arrived. The gym is huge! I was only there once before and I hadn’t even noticed that there was a stage.
Ms. Lark was waiting there for us. When Phoebe rolled the cart past her, Ms. Lark looked SHOCKED-SHOCKED-SHOCKED.
“What are they doing here?” she asked.
“The children wanted to bring them and I thought it couldn’t hurt,” Mrs. Brisbane replied.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Ms. Lark was looking pale.
“You won’t even know they’re here,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
“Oooh, look at the stage!” Harry shouted.
What a sight! The back wall of the stage was all white with bright green pine trees made out of paper. In front of that was a low fence with snow on top. I guess it wasn’t real snow, because it was warm in the gym and snow would melt. But it looked hamster-iffic.
The piano was at one side of the stage. Mrs. Brisbane helped Phoebe put my cage and Og’s tank on top.
Ms. Lark’s keyboard was on the opposite side of the stage, on a stand.
“All right, class. Let’s get organized. Put on your costumes quickly.” Ms. Lark looked around nervously.
There was a lot of talking, giggling and jingle-jangling as the girls put on their snowflakes, and the boys held their jingle bells as they put on their tails and ears.
“Take your places!” Ms. Lark said.
It took a while, but they managed to get lined up with the boys on the sides so they couldn’t be seen by the audience (there wasn’t an audience yet, except for Og and me). The girls lined up in the center of the stage.
“Okay—so first the girls will begin the snowflake song. As soon as they finish, I’ll signal you, Daniel. You start playing the introduction to ‘Jingle Bells.’ Then the boys prance onstage singing,” Ms. Lark explained.
“And then the girls will sing a chorus of the snowflake song while the boys are still singing ‘Jingle Bells,’” she said.
It sounded confusing to me, but I knew what Ms. Lark wanted. I only hoped my classmates knew, too.
Ms. Lark stood at the keyboard and raised her hand.
“One, two, three . . . ,” Ms. Lark said, and the music began.
Then the most amazing thing happened. The girls twirled around, spinning like snowflakes in a flurry. (That was one of my spelling words, remember?) The tinfoil on their costumes twinkled like stars. Mrs. Brisbane was right—they didn’t need glitter!
No two snowflakes are the same,
Though they’re lacy white.
No two snowflakes are alike,
Almost . . . but not quite.
Each one is special,
That is true.
Each one is special,
Just like me and you.
Even though they weren’t wearing white, I thought the girls looked wonderful whirling like snowflakes across the stage.
“And one, two, three . . . ,” Ms. Lark said. “Go, Daniel!”
She pointed at the piano. I saw a look of panic on Daniel’s face, so I was relieved when he started to play “Jingle Bells.”
With each note he hit, my heart went THUMP-THUMP-THUMP, but I didn’t have anything to worry about. This time, Daniel hit all the right notes.
The boys came prancing in from both sides of the stage. Bells were jingling and the boys looked a lot like horses.
I loved it when they started to sing.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh—ay!
I didn’t love it when I noticed that Joey wasn’t singing along.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!
I have to admit, I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. Ms. Lark pointed at Joey.
And Joey let out an earsplitting “Wheeehngeeeeh!”
So th
at was Mrs. Brisbane’s idea!
It was a very fine whinny. And he repeated it at the end of the next verse.
The girls started twirling again and sang their song at the same time the boys sang their song. Instead of sounding mixed-up and confusing, it sounded great!
There were a few teeny-tiny problems, though.
The swirling snowflakes got a little carried away. I think Be-Careful-Kelsey imagined that she was dancing in The Nutcracker and whirled right into Rolling-Rosie’s wheelchair. Rosie spun into Phoebe and, well, let’s just say instead of twirling, the snowflakes were stumbling across the stage.
Meanwhile, the boys pranced like frisky horses . . . until Slow-Down-Simon took a wrong turn and the line of boys toppled like a row of falling dominoes!
“Stop!” Ms. Lark shouted.
She stopped playing her keyboard, but Daniel was concentrating so hard on his playing, he didn’t even notice. He kept on jingling all the way.
When the jingling-jangling twirling-swirling stumbling-tumbling stopped, Ms. Lark asked, “Is everyone okay?”
My classmates all nodded. That was a big relief!
“You were doing very well,” Ms. Lark said. “Just stay calm and focus on what you’re doing.”
“You can do it!” I squeaked.
“BOING-BOING!” Og agreed.
“Ms. Lark, we’ll work really hard,” Sophie said. “Won’t we, everybody? We did well in rehearsal and our costumes look so good, I know we can do it! I think if we all pull together and—”
“Thank you, Sophie,” Ms. Lark interrupted. Not that I blamed her. Sophie did tend to, well, talk a lot!
“Joey, you were great,” Ms. Lark said. “You made the song so much better.”
Joey’s smile filled his whole face.
“We’ll practice one more time before the program,” Ms. Lark said. “But I need you to focus.” She added, “Oh, and Sophie, Mrs. Brisbane will talk to you later.”
I was a little worried that Sophie was in trouble for talking . . . again.
Then, right before Phoebe wheeled us back to Room 26, Daniel leaned in close to my cage and said, “Thank you, Humphrey.”
“You’re welcome, Daniel,” I squeaked back.
“You’re my lucky charm,” he said. “You make me play better.”
I know he meant it as a compliment, but I wished I could tell him that he didn’t need a lucky charm or a magic backpack to play better.
He played better because he practiced!
HUMPHREY’S WINTER WONDERINGS: If a horse lived next door to you, would he be your neigh-bor?
13
Helping Hands
When Holly arrived the next morning, her dad was with her. And he was carrying a HUGE-HUGE-HUGE box.
Slow-Down-Simon rushed up and asked, “What’s that?”
Soon, Holly and Mr. Hanson were surrounded by curious classmates.
“Please, class . . . let Mr. Hanson get through so he can put the box down,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
They backed away and Mr. Hanson set the box down on a table that Mrs. Brisbane had cleared for him.
“But what is it?” Simon asked.
“It’s a present for the whole class,” Holly said. “And I made it.”
“And we’re going to wait until everyone is here before we open it,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
Simon and the others groaned. “We’ll have to wait forever for Harry!”
Harry and Simon were good friends, but Simon got annoyed when Harry was late, which was often.
All my classmates were eager to find out what was in the box. Even though I thought I knew what it was, I couldn’t wait to see it, either.
Thankfully, by the time the bell rang, Harry was in his chair.
After Mrs. Brisbane took attendance, she said, “Class, Holly has brought something special for everyone. I’ll let her tell you about it.”
Holly stood next to the box on the table. “I wanted to make each of you a gift to celebrate the season. But I ended up making one gift for the whole class.”
“Open it already—please!” Simon said.
Holly carefully lifted the big lid and my classmates gasped. “It’s a gingerbread house and I made it myself. Well, with some help from my mom.”
“Wow! Can we eat it?” Thomas asked.
Holly looked horrified. “No! Mom sprayed something on it that would keep it from spoiling. It’s not good to eat.”
“There will be no nibbling, class. Besides, we wouldn’t want anything to ruin this beautiful house,” Mrs. Brisbane said. “You did a wonderful job.”
“Can we see it closer?” Rolling-Rosie asked.
Mrs. Brisbane said that the students could come closer. “But you must be very careful not to touch the house or shake the table.”
When they moved up, my friends blocked my view.
“I’d like a better look, too,” I squeaked, but I’m sure no one heard me over all the talking.
“BOING!” Og splashed wildly in his tank.
“I want to live there,” Kelsey said, leaning in.
“Me too,” Tall-Paul agreed.
“It reminds me of the witch’s house in ‘Hansel and Gretel,’” Phoebe said. “But much nicer.”
“There’s a card that goes with it,” Holly said. “It says, ‘To all my friends in Room Twenty-six, from Holly.’”
“Thanks, Holly,” Rosie said.
“Thanks!” all my friends chimed in.
“Could you tell us how you made it, Holly?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.
“Og, I wish I could get a better look,” I squeaked.
“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og agreed.
I climbed all the way up to the tippy-top of my cage and got a glimpse of the little house. It looked SWEET-SWEET-SWEET.
“My mom and I made the gingerbread,” Holly explained. “Then we cut it in different shapes. We followed a pattern my dad made. Then we put it all together, using icing as the glue.”
“Yum!” Rosie said.
“I needed my mom and dad to help with that. Then I put icing on the roof and put cookies on it to look like—what do you call those?”
“Shingles,” Mrs. Brisbane said.
“Then I put all kinds of candy all over the house, with candy canes on the chimney and around the door,” Holly continued.
“Oh, and there are chocolate drops!” Harry said.
Kelsey pointed to something. “And candy cane trees with gumdrops hanging from them!”
By this time, my friends were leaning over the little house. Mrs. Brisbane asked them to step back and not touch the table.
“After all, Holly worked hard on this,” she said.
Everybody moved back while they admired the house.
“I like the licorice stick fence,” Small-Paul said.
“I like the cotton candy smoke coming out of the chimney,” Phoebe said.
They stood silently for a moment. Then Simon pointed and said, “Oh, look in the window!” He leaned forward and pointed. “A gingerbread man!”
“Where?” my friends shouted.
My whiskers wiggled with excitement.
But my excitement turned to shock when all at once, my friends leaned forward to get a closer look.
“Stop!” Mrs. Brisbane shouted.
But it was too late. The table shook, the little house swayed from one side to the other and then—
CRASH! The gingerbread house collapsed into a heap.
“Og, it’s fallen to pieces,” I squeaked to my neighbor.
“SCREE-SCREE!” he replied. That’s a sound he only makes in case of emergency.
Og was right—this was definitely an emergency.
“Oh, no!” Holly moaned. �
�No!”
Mrs. Brisbane made everyone stand back. “Stay calm, everyone.”
Holly was not calm. Her face was red and tears started running down her face.
“I’m so sorry this happened,” Mrs. Brisbane said, giving Holly a hug. “You worked so hard on it. I should only have let one student at a time come up to look.”
“I’m sorry, Holly,” Rosie said.
“Me too,” Thomas added. “It was the most beautiful house on earth.”
Small-Paul stepped forward to look at the wreck of a house. “It’s broken, but it’s not smashed,” he said.
“Waaah!” Holly wailed.
Mrs. Brisbane asked Small-Paul what he meant.
“It might be possible to rebuild it,” he said.
Holly was sniffling so loudly, I’m not sure she heard him.
“Let’s think about it,” Mrs. Brisbane said, handing Holly a tissue. “Right now, it’s time for math. Please go back to your seats.”
Then she began talking about multiplication.
“Doesn’t she care?” I asked Og.
“BOING!” Og seemed as surprised as I was.
Tears were still flowing down Holly’s cheeks and she began to hiccup. Sometimes it’s funny to hear a human hiccup, but this time it wasn’t funny at all.
“Holly, why don’t you go to the nurse’s office and lie down for a while?” Mrs. Brisbane said. “I’ll call her and tell her you’re on the way.”
Holly nodded and left the room, loudly blowing her nose.
Mrs. Brisbane wrote some math problems on the board, but I’m sure my friends weren’t paying attention.
“Can’t we help her?” Kelsey whispered to Small-Paul.
He nodded.
“There must be something we can do,” Sophie whispered.
Mrs. Brisbane turned to face the class.
“What’s going on?” she said. “This isn’t time for talking.”
Small-Paul raised his hand. “We’d like to put that house back together,” he said.
Everybody agreed. “Yes,” they said. “We want to help Holly.”
“Me too! Me too!” I squeaked.
Mrs. Brisbane glanced at the clock. “All right, let’s try. It’s almost time for recess,” she said. “Those of you who would like to work on the gingerbread house may stay in. But just this once.”
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