Harriet the Spy

by Louise Fitzhugh

  Ole Golly blushed again, deeply. Flustered suddenly, she got up quickly and went to the refrigerator. “I forgot your milk, Harriet. And would you like coffee or tea, George? I’ve forgotten to give us anything to drink.”

  “Can I have a coke instead?” asked Harriet.

  “No,” said Ole Golly. “You will have milk.”

  “But it’s got radiation in it.”

  “So have you got it in you. You’re having milk.” This was the Ole Golly Harriet knew—stern, uncompromising. It made Harriet feel comfortable.

  “If some danger were to come to the child, I would understand, Catherine, but as it is—a simple movie, a soda perhaps afterward at the drugstore—no harm will come,” Mr. Waldenstein pleaded simply.

  “Oh, boy,” said Harriet and jumped up from the table. “I’ll go get the paper and see what’s playing.”

  She ran upstairs to the library and went through the paper quickly to see what she wanted to see first before they got hold of it. She studied the paper thoroughly. She was torn between a spooky thing about children with funny eyes and a spectacular about the Greek gods. She decided that it was the better part of wisdom to suggest the latter. Anyway, it was in color. She ran to the kitchen, yelling the whole way.

  “Look, look, Ole Golly, look, it’s just perfect. It’s what I’m studying and I like Apollo and Athena the best, look, I can learn all about them.” When she hit the kitchen she noticed a change. Mr. Waldenstein and Ole Golly were looking into each other’s eyes. They both had perfectly ridiculous expressions on their faces. They didn’t even seem to have heard her. Ole Golly looked up dreamily.

  “It’s all decided, Harriet. We’re going to the movies,” she said sweetly.

  “Oh, BOY,” said Harriet and sat down and gobbled up the rest of her dinner.

  “Not so fast”—Mr. Waldenstein laughed—“the movie will be there.”

  Harriet noticed that she was the only one eating. Evidently they both had no appetite that night. “See, here are the starting times,” she said nervously, because she had the feeling that if she didn’t get them out the door they would forget all about it.

  Ole Golly looked at the paper. “I suppose we should go to the early show, just to be safe,” she said.

  “Goody,” said Harriet, and finishing her dinner in a whirl, she jumped up and raced upstairs for her coat.

  When she got downstairs again, they both had their coats on. The three of them went out the back door, around to the front of the house, and there they stood in confusion, confronted by the delivery bike.

  Mr. Waldenstein didn’t seem worried. “Ah,” he said, “it’s very simple. I have washed thoroughly the inside today, and Harriet will just fit. Catherine has already proven her adeptness at riding on the top.”

  “We could just take the bus,” said Ole Golly nervously.

  “Oh, no, let’s do this, Ole Golly, please. I want to ride in it.” Harriet jumped up and down on one foot.

  Ole Golly finally relented and went back and got a blanket with which she lined the inside. Harriet found it very cosy when she got in. When the lid started to come down she said hurriedly, “Can I breathe?” Mr. Waldenstein then showed her the holes for ventilation and she felt better. The lid closed. Harriet heard Ole Golly jump on top. Then Mr. Waldenstein pushed off from the curb and they were off. They whirled down the hill and zoomed around into Eighty-sixth Street. It was terribly exciting. Harriet could hear all the traffic noises and Ole Golly and Mr. Waldenstein’s conversation as they yelled to be heard over the noise.

  “I’m the happiest man alive, Catherine,” he yelled.

  “Look out for that truck,” yelled Ole Golly.

  “Don’t worry! I have precious bundles,” shrieked Mr. Waldenstein.

  “I think that’s it ahead.”

  “Yes, I see,” he screamed.

  “Where can you park?”

  “Oh, anywhere. That is the one advantage of this method of transportation.” They were slowing down. Then they stopped. Harriet popped up like a jack-in-the-box as soon as she heard Ole Golly get off. They all laughed together because it was so much fun.

  Harriet thought the movie was a gas. Zeus was very angry all the time and made a lot of temples fall over every time something displeased him. Paul Newman was Apollo and Shirley MacLaine was Athena. Harriet knew them from movie-star pictures her father brought home for her. She looked over every now and then to see how Ole Golly was liking it, but she didn’t even seem to be watching much. They just kept looking at each other. It occurred to Harriet that maybe that was why Ole Golly didn’t mind going to the movies. She never looked at them, so she might just as well be there as anyplace else.

  Afterward they went to a drugstore across the street, and Mr. Waldenstein said she could have any kind of soda she wanted. She didn’t really like sodas that much, so she had an egg cream, which she loved. They thought this was very funny for some reason, but she didn’t care. They had giant sodas which they didn’t finish, and they took so long that she had another egg cream. Then they went back to the bike and Harriet climbed in again. She felt so delicious that she almost fell asleep on the ride back. She could tell when they were almost there, because Mr. Waldenstein was having a terrible time pushing up the hill on East End. Then they stopped with a jerk and she knew they were home. Harriet heard Ole Golly say, “Oh, no,” in an astonished voice, then she slipped off the cart. Harriet opened the top of the cart, and sticking her head up, saw with amazement that the front door to the house was wide open with light streaming down from the front hall onto the steps and sidewalk.

  The three of them froze in their various positions, staring at the door. “Is it robbers?” said Mr. Waldenstein softly and started looking around for a policeman. He was still astride the bike, Ole Golly was still standing on the sidewalk, and Harriet was still poking her head out of the top of the cart, when suddenly there was a scream and Mrs. Welsch was standing in the front door, the light hitting the glittering stuff of her dress and making it sparkle.

  “What IS this? What is the meaning of this? MISS GOLLY, I AM AMAZED!”

  Ole Golly started toward the door, her arms open in the beginning of explanation. Simultaneously Harriet realized what must have happened. The Welsches had come home early. Oh, dear, she thought, we’re in for it.

  “Where is my child?” Mrs. Welsch was screaming hysterically. “Harriet, where is Harriet?” Ole Golly started to talk, still going toward her. “Is that you, Harriet? What are you doing in that thing?”

  “Mrs. Welsch—” Ole Golly started but got nowhere because Mrs. Welsch turned abruptly back toward the house with a scream. “Come here, come here quickly,” she called toward the open doorway. “They took Harriet someplace!”

  “Mrs. Welsch—” Ole Golly was running now, horrified. She was on the top step by the time Mr. Welsch came to the door. The three of them stood framed in the light while Harriet and Mr. Waldenstein stared in open-mouthed astonishment.

  “What in the world—” began Mr. Welsch, then ran down the steps two at a time and in one move lifted Harriet bodily out of the cart. “Who are you?” He breathed heavily into Mr. Waldenstein’s face.

  “I—I—we went—no harm meant, sir. Miss Golly and I…” Mr. Waldenstein looked terrified.

  “Miss Golly…” Mr. Welsch said this in a terrible voice as he headed for the door with Harriet in his arms. Over his shoulder he said, “And don’t you go away. Come inside here”—and he waited until Mr. Waldenstein had leaned the bike against the curb and was following him. He stood aside and let Mr. Waldenstein go ahead as though he thought he would run away. They went up to the doorway and Mrs. Welsch and Ole Golly moved inside ahead of them. Mr. Welsch closed the door, and then all four of them just stood there.

  Mr. Welsch put Harriet down, pushing her a little behind him as though to protect her, then said, “Now what is this business? Who is this man, Miss Golly?”

  “He—this—” Ole Golly was speechless.

&n
bsp; “I would like to take the trouble to introduce myself, please, sir,” said Mr. Waldenstein, trying out his most winning smile.

  “I wish you would. I don’t like the look of this at all,” Mr. Welsch said huffily.

  “I think there has been some misunderstanding—” began Mr. Waldenstein.

  “There isn’t any misunderstanding. What are we all standing here talking like this for?” Mrs. Welsch was screaming at the top of her lungs. “Who is this man?”

  She turned on her husband. “What are you chatting with him for?”

  “Mrs. Welsch”—Ole Golly had her most dignified voice. “Mrs. Welsch, I would like to explain that no harm has come to Harriet. We simply went—” But she got no further.

  “Harm? Harm!” Mrs. Welsch screamed. “What about the harm to me to come home in the middle of the night? Do you realize that it is twelve o’clock, Miss Golly? Do you REALIZE that?”

  There was something about Mrs. Welsch’s hysteria that made it impossible to combat. They were all floored by it as by a giant wave. She screamed on into the silence.

  “I have NEVER had such a terrifying experience. I don’t care what you did or where you went. This is not going to happen again. I tell you, Miss Golly, you are FIRED.” The last word fell like a dropped tray.

  There was utter silence afterward. Then Harriet burst into tears. Even as she did it she felt slightly ridiculous as though she were calling too much attention to herself. But she couldn’t help it. The world was falling in pieces at her feet.

  “There! There, you see the state of my child.” Mrs. Welsch sounded melodramatic, even to Harriet, as she crossed the room and held Harriet’s head against her side. “That is enough for me. You’re fired and I want you to get out of here immediately.”

  Ole Golly said nothing. Her face registered total astonishment.

  “Now, dear…” Mr. Welsch began, turning toward his wife.

  Ole Golly drew herself up firmly. Her voice was level but Harriet could hear great feeling underneath. Harriet stopped crying to listen. “Mr. Welsch, Mrs. Welsch. I hope that you know me well enough by now to know that as long as this child is in my care not one thing could harm her in any way. If anyone were to try to harm her, they would have to do it over my dead body.”

  Harriet’s eyebrows went up. This was impressive.

  “I don’t CARE. Don’t you understand? You’re FIRED.” Mrs. Welsch stood her ground.

  “Darling, let’s talk about this reasonably,” Mr. Welsch appealed to her.

  “I am taking Harriet up to bed. She has seen enough for one night. If you want to discuss this further with this woman and this strange man you have never laid eyes on before, then go right ahead,” and with that Mrs. Welsch marched Harriet right up the steps. Harriet tried once to twist away, but Mrs. Welsch had such an iron grip on her that she couldn’t even turn. Mrs. Welsch marched her into her room, got her pajamas out, and started to take off Harriet’s clothes.

  “I can undress myself,” Harriet said peevishly, “for heaven’s sake,” and she pulled her pajamas away from her mother.

  Her mother was so distracted she didn’t even seem to notice this rude behavior. She didn’t even say anything to Harriet but rushed from the room and down the steps again.

  Everyone, thought Harriet, has gone nuts. What was going to happen to Ole Golly? Then she realized that she could hide on the steps and hear everything. She proceeded to do this immediately.

  Leaning over the banister, she watched her mother go bounding down the steps. I have never seen her like this, thought Harriet. And she thought of a phrase she had heard her mother use about other people, “outlandish behavior.” Was this outlandish behavior? From where Harriet sat, her head poked between the uprights of the banister, she could see Ole Golly, Mr. Waldenstein, and her father discussing the situation in whispered gestures, which stopped abruptly when Mrs. Welsch dove into the scene.

  “I hope you’ve arrived at something!” Mrs. Welsch’s voice had a most peculiar tremble to it. “I certainly hope you don’t think you’ve done something behind my back, because I want you to know you’re not going to get away with it.” This was addressed to Mr. Welsch, who answered with a blank look.

  “Mrs. Welsch—” Mr. Waldenstein was smiling in a terribly ingratiating manner.

  “I don’t even know who you are,” said Mrs. Welsch rudely.

  “Darling”—Mr. Welsch went over to his wife and put his arm around her—“this is Mr. Waldenstein and he and Miss Golly have something to tell us.”

  Before Mrs. Welsch could get her mouth open, Mr. Waldenstein held up his hand to get attention. He then started, calmly and solidly, to speak in a way that held this attention. “Mrs. Welsch, I know how upsetting this kind of thing can be. I have a child myself.…” His voice spread over them like butter on a burn. “I simply want to say that, unexpectedly for all concerned, this misunderstanding does not have to be a tragedy. If it weren’t for the fact that just this evening I had asked for the hand of Miss Golly in marriage and she has most kindly accepted me, the loss of her very pleasant place here with you would certainly be just that, a tragedy. But, as it is, I do not think that she need have one minute’s unpleasantness about this. She has said to me that she would be leaving next month anyway. I only hoped, and I know I speak for her too in this, that the parting could be more amicable than this.” He stepped back one step and by so doing indicated that he had finished.

  Mrs. Welsch looked at him blankly, her mouth slightly open. Harriet leaned so far out she almost fell to the next floor. Ole Golly looked at the floor. Mr. Welsch moved closer to his wife. “Darling, it seems they only went to the movies anyway. Harriet is safe, you know.” He said this in a warm, soft way, and then they all stood looking at Mrs. Welsch.

  “But, Miss Golly, you can’t leave. What would we do without you?” Mrs. Welsch accomplished this extraordinary about-face without so much as a flicker of embarrassment.

  Ole Golly looked up, and Harriet saw a flush of pride on her face. “I thank you for that, Mrs. Welsch.” She stood looking at Mrs. Welsch for a second before she spoke again. “I think, however, that in many ways the time has come. Not only for me, but for Harriet as well.”

  On the stairs, Harriet felt profound shock. Coupled with this was a tiny thread of excitement which ran through her at the thought that Ole Golly must mean that she, Harriet, was able to take care of herself. Is that true? she asked herself. And she had no answer.

  Ole Golly held the stage. The other three looked at her in wonder. She seized her moment and spoke: “‘“The time has come,” the Walrus said—”’

  “‘“To talk of many thing—”’” Harriet knew the words so well that without a second’s thought she found herself standing at the top of the stairs saying them. All heads turned toward her.

  Ole Golly continued: “‘“Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—”’”

  “‘“Of cabbages—and kings—”’” Harriet found herself laughing down at Ole Golly’s smiling face as they went on, alternating the lines.

  “‘“And why the sea is boiling hot—”’” Ole Golly had the funniest look, halfway between laughter and tears.

  Harriet shouted the last with glee: “‘“And whether pigs have wings”’!” She had always loved that line. It was her favorite.

  Ole Golly didn’t leave until the next afternoon. When Harriet got home from school, Ole Golly was finishing up her packing. Harriet ran pell-mell into the room.

  “When did he ask you? I was there the whole time. When did he ask you to marry him?” Harriet had been waiting all day to ask this.

  “Well, remember when we were having the sodas and you went over to look at the books on the rack?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then. It was then that he asked me.” Ole Golly smiled at her.

  “Well… well, what did it feel like?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what does it feel like to have somebody ask you?” Harri
et was getting very impatient.

  Ole Golly looked toward the window, folding something absently. “It feels… it feels—you jump all over inside… you… as though doors were opening all over the world.… It’s bigger, somehow, the world.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” said Harriet sensibly. She sat down with a plop on the bed.

  “Well, nonetheless, that’s what you feel. Feeling never makes any sense anyway, Harriet; you should know that by now,” Ole Golly said pleasantly.

  “Maybe—” Harriet knew as she said it that it was a baby thing to say but she couldn’t help it—“maybe there’s a lot of things I don’t know.”

  Ole Golly didn’t even look at her, which was reassuring for some reason. “Nonsense. You know quite enough. Quite enough for yourself and a great deal more than some people.”

  Harriet lolled back on the bed and looked at the ceiling. “Will Mr. Waldenstein be working right around the corner?” she asked casually.

  “No. We have decided to visit his mother and father in Montreal. Then if we like it there, we might make our home there.”

  “MON-TREE-AAALLLL?” screamed Harriet. “Where’s that?”

  “Harriet, don’t take on so. It’s unbecoming. Besides, you know perfectly well it’s in Canada. I remember when you found it out.”

  “I know. But I won’t see you then.” Harriet sat up.

  “You’ve no need to see me. You don’t need a nurse now. When you’re big and you sell your first book, I’ll come into the bookstore and get a signed copy. How ’bout that?” Ole Golly gave her old smile.

  “Wow! You mean you’ll ask for my autograph?”

  “I guess you could put it that way. Anyway, I’ll look you up sometime when you’re grown, just to see what you made of yourself, because I’ll be curious. Now help me carry this stuff downstairs.”

  Harriet jumped up and picked up things. “Are you going to be happy with Mr. Waldenstein?”

  “Yes. Very. Don’t forget that little bag over there.” And Ole Golly went through the door.