Summer According to Humphrey

by Betty G. Birney

  14

  Problems, Problems and More Problems

  That night, the Chickadees had me back again. The boys were annoyed because the girls had hosted me more than they had. But I had to admit, lately the girls’ cabins were just a little neater than the boys’.

  While the girls were doing well in winning me for sleepovers, the boys—particularly the Bobwhites—were ahead in everything else. Everywhere I went, I heard kids buzzing about the activities outside of the Nature Center.

  “Sam hit a home run, bases loaded—he’s awesome!” I heard Garth say that morning.

  Later, I heard that Sam broke the camp record for swimming laps. And that he’d scored the highest number of points in the volleyball game.

  Wow, it was true. Sam really was super, which made Garth and the other Bobwhites unsqueakably happy.

  Still, the Chickadees were far from giving up. Instead of chatting and relaxing before bed the way most of the campers did, Abby had the girls study their trail skills right there in the cabin.

  I have to say, Abby sure wasn’t lazy. She’d made a big chart showing the signs they’d have to read out on the trail. The counselors would mark the trail, and to score points, the campers would have to follow the markings correctly and reach the end. Whichever group made the best time won.

  It was actually quite interesting. There were arrows and warning signs and even left and right turn signs, all made out of rocks, sticks and leaves. I secretly thought that I would be good at following a trail like that.

  The Chickadees seemed tired from a day of swimming-canoeing-hiking-volleyball, but they tried hard to pay attention. Even so, could anyone beat Super-Sam?

  Just before lights-out, I overheard Abby take Sayeh aside.

  “Listen,” she said. “Listen.”

  I was sure Sayeh was listening, but Abby wanted to make her point.

  “I saw you hanging out with Miranda in arts and crafts. If you spill the beans about any of our plans, you’ll be betraying the Chickadees and all the work we’ve put in. Are you with us?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Sayeh said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not Miranda’s friend.”

  “Fine,” Abby added. “But right now, being a Chickadee comes first.”

  “Did you hear that, Humphrey?” Sayeh asked me the next morning as she took me back to the rec room. “Abby would probably even be mad at me for talking to you.”

  “I’m sorry, Sayeh,” I answered. “I’d never tell a soul.”

  Sayeh sighed a huge sigh. “I am not a tattler,” she said.

  “Of course not,” I agreed.

  “I’d love to be Miranda’s canoeing partner. I’d love to practice volleyball with her.” Sayeh looked very sad. Which made me feel VERY-VERY-VERY sad indeed.

  But I had more than Sayeh on my mind because I’d just seen Brad come into the Nature Center. In the past, Brad looked down at his feet most of the time. But today, he was looking at people. He wasn’t exactly smiling, but he acted more like he was part of the group.

  Gail came in a little later and luckily took the seat next to his, although she didn’t seem to notice he was there.

  I was staring at the two of them and didn’t even notice Noah standing by Og’s tank. Goodness, he startled me.

  “Og, I found your true home,” he said softly. “You need water—lots of it. And other frogs to be friends with. I’ll help you, don’t worry.”

  I couldn’t tell if Og was worried, but I sure was. Og had a friend—me! Did he really need more frogs and water? He did quite a lot of splashing with the water he had. If Og’s true home wasn’t his lovely tank, what was?

  I didn’t have time to think about Og anymore because Ms. Mac started the session. I crossed my paws, hoping that this would be the day for a hike.

  “Okay, campers, who’s up for a nature hike?” she asked.

  “ME-ME-ME!” I squeaked. I was sorry right away because if Noah was around, he might think I wanted to go on a hike into the wild. Alone.

  No one heard me anyway, because everyone was getting up and heading for the door. Luckily, they left their notebooks on the floor.

  “Okay, Og,” I told my friend. “A hamster’s gotta do what a hamster’s gotta do.”

  I grabbed a couple of stickers from my notebook, jiggled open the lock-that-doesn’t-lock and slid down to the floor.

  I chose a sticker with the outline of a hand on it. A New Friend Is Close at Hand! it read. That went into Brad’s notebook.

  A Smile Can Work Magic, said the other sticker. It had a magic wand with a star on it. I tucked that into Gail’s notebook.

  Luckily, that nice tall plant made it easy for me to get back to my table. Now my goal was getting across that oh-so-slippery table without sliding into Jake’s tank.

  I’d thought about it ahead of time and so I leaned my weight to my left and sailed across the table, narrowly missing the cage and coming to a smooth stop next to Og.

  “I made it!” I squeaked.

  “BOING-BOING!” Og replied. He’d obviously been impressed with my moves.

  I scurried back to the safety of my cage and took a nice spin on my wheel. When I’d calmed down a bit, I glanced toward Jake’s cage.

  I thought about what Noah said and wondered if Jake liked living in a tank. I also wondered if he had a way to get out of his tank, like my lock-that-doesn’t-lock.

  I didn’t like what I was wondering. Luckily, it wasn’t long before the campers were back.

  Brad and Gail weren’t exactly smiling, but I crossed my toes and hoped my effort would pay off.

  “Okay, nature lovers,” Ms. Mac said. “Write your observations in your notebooks.”

  Brad grabbed his notebook and quickly saw the sticker there. He stared at it for a while.

  When Gail opened her notebook, she saw her sticker right away. After she read it, I saw her sneak a quick glance in Brad’s direction.

  He must have noticed because he looked back at her. “What?” he asked.

  “I didn’t say anything,” she responded. “I thought you said something.”

  Brad shook his head. “Nope. I’m just writing in my notebook.”

  “Oh,” Gail said. She started making notes, too, then turned to Brad. “Is ladybug one word or two?”

  “One word, I think,” he said. “You saw them, too?”

  Gail nodded. “Red ones and kind of orange ones.”

  “Did you see that purple bird? What was that called?” Brad asked.

  Gail wrinkled her nose. “A purple martin, I think.”

  “I have a cousin named Martin,” Brad said, which sent Gail giggling. It was good to hear her giggling again.

  “Is he purple?” she asked.

  “Nope. He doesn’t have wings, either,” Brad replied. “But he is short.”

  Gail giggled again.

  “Because he’s only three years old,” Brad added, and they both laughed.

  And so it went. Brad never mentioned his old camp, and Gail had a whole conversation without bringing up Heidi or her parents once.

  When the session was over, they were still talking as they walked out.

  “Did you see that, Og?” I asked my neighbor.

  “BOING-BOING!” Og answered.

  Even I was amazed at what we’d just seen. And I still had some stickers left.

  Stickers couldn’t solve every problem, though. Certainly not the problem the Robins were having, which I learned that night after they returned to the cabin after campfire.

  “Listen up,” said Miranda. “All the other cabins have skits planned for the Comedy Club, but we still don’t have a clue.”

  “Yeah,” Kayla said. “And it counts for a huge part of our camp spirit score.”

  The Robins looked very, very gloomy as they slumped on their bunks. (Although, as sad as they looked, I was happy to see that Gail wasn’t writing any letters.)

  I knew a little bit about the skit planning. I’d seen the Blue Jays outside practicing a
funny little play about looking for bear tracks. The ending was a surprise—I couldn’t even tell Og about it.

  And the Chickadees talked about sitting on an invisible bench, which would be impossible, I think. But every time they talked about it, they burst into laughter. Abby was sure it would be a winner.

  But the Robins still had no skit.

  “What about the invisible bench skit?” Lindsey asked. “They did that in Scouts last year.”

  “Ms. Mac said another group was already doing it,” Kayla explained.

  “That’s what we get for being last,” Lindsey said.

  Miranda began to pace. “I wish Humphrey could talk. Maybe he’d have some ideas.”

  “Better than ours,” Kayla agreed.

  I hopped on my wheel for a spin, which is a hamster’s way of pacing. Actually, I didn’t have any ideas, because I hadn’t seen many skits.

  The girls were silent for a LONG-LONG-LONG time. In fact, the only sound in the room was the squeaking of my wheel going round and round.

  “Hey, Humphrey, could you hold it down?” Miranda got up off her bed and came over to my cage.

  “Maybe he wants to help,” Lindsey said.

  Kayla jumped up and came over to my cage. “Yeah! We should put Humphrey in our skit.”

  Me, in a skit? I’d never been on a stage before. And the stage in the hall was very big.

  “Eeek!” I squealed, and dashed into my sleeping hut.

  Then all the girls gathered around my cage and giggled.

  “Come out, Humphrey,” Miranda said in her friendly voice. “We need you.”

  When someone says they need me, it’s hard for me to say no. I crawled back out and looked up at the smiling faces of the Robins.

  “He’s so cute,” Lindsey said. “Who could ever be afraid of a little hamster?”

  Miranda wrinkled her nose. “No one’s afraid of a hamster.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Lindsey replied. “My mom. We had a hamster named Chip and he got out of his cage and my mom started screaming and got up on a chair! Like he was a monster or something. My brother and I laughed so hard we cried.” Lindsey wasn’t crying now. She was laughing and so were her friends.

  “That’d be funny,” Miranda said. “If someone was afraid of Humphrey.”

  Then the most amazing thing happened. The girls started chattering and then they started acting things out. Sometimes they agreed and sometimes they disagreed, but they began to work out a skit that looked pretty interesting. Until they got to the last part.

  “And that’s where Humphrey comes in,” Gail said. She was giggling again and I was glad.

  “You’ll help us, Humphrey? Won’t you?” Miranda asked.

  I could never say “no” to Golden-Miranda.

  By the time Ms. Mac came in for lights-out, we’d rehearsed the skit several times. The Robins begged her to stay so we could act it out for her. She loved it but suggested they needed a few more people.

  “Counselor Katie and I would love to help out,” she said.

  The girls all cheered.

  “So where’d you come up with the idea?” Ms. Mac asked.

  The Robins all pointed to my cage. “Humphrey!” they said.

  Ms. Mac smiled. “Who else?”

  Later that night, I looked up at the moon through an open spot in the curtains. It reminded me of a big spotlight. Like a spotlight shining on a stage.

  A BIG-BIG-BIG stage for a SMALL-SMALL-SMALL hamster. I spun on my wheel for a long time.

  NOTE TO SELF: When you offer to give someone a helping paw, you’d better mean it-because you might end up a lot more involved than you ever dreamed.

  15

  A Taste of Freedom

  Guys, it’s not going to be easy,” A.J. announced the next night in the Blue Jays’ cabin. They’d worked extra hard to win me for the night. “We’re getting mas sacred by the Bobwhites, all because of that stupid Sam. Why’d he have to come to camp?”

  “Yeah,” Richie agreed. “Why didn’t he go to that camp Brad’s always bragging about? The one that’s so much better than Happy Hollow?”

  I glanced over at Brad, who was sitting on his bunk.

  “It wasn’t that great,” he said.

  That got everybody’s attention—especially mine!

  “This camp isn’t so bad,” he admitted. “The pool is smaller, but White Pines didn’t have a lake. I like canoeing. In fact, I tied Sam today in the race across the lake.”

  A.J.’s jaw dropped. “You did?”

  “I was thinking,” Brad continued. “I’ve been spending a lot of time at the Nature Center and I might do pretty well on the nature quiz. And the canoeing would help our score. And what about that knot-tying thing—I mean doesn’t that just take practice?”

  “I forgot about that,” A.J. admitted. “Has anybody been working on it?”

  The other Blue Jays shook their heads.

  “I could practice that,” Simon volunteered. “I practiced burping for months and look how well that turned out.” He let out another thunderous burp, which made everybody laugh.

  Simon was always moving . . . but maybe if he put all that energy into one thing—like knot tying—it just might work.

  “The Bobwhites are depending on Sam,” A.J. said. “But that’s no reason for us to give up. Blue Jays rule!”

  They all cheered and high-fived—even Brad. At least for that night, I thought that even Super-Sam couldn’t defeat the Blue Jays.

  By the next afternoon, I was not as convinced. Sam got a bull’s-eye in archery and pitched the winning softball game. He was amazing, all right. So where did that leave everybody else?

  That night, I heard the noises under the cabin.

  SKITTER-SKITTER-SKITTER.

  SCRITCH-SCRITCH-SCRITCH.

  “Hi, Goldenrod!” I squeaked softly.

  “Hi, Humphrey,” she answered. “Won’t you join me? Someone dropped some lovely peanuts under the floorboards.”

  “Thanks a lot, but I had dinner,” I said.

  She went back to scratching in the dirt. I still wondered what it would be like to live her life.

  But I had too many things to worry about to wonder for long.

  The next morning, Miranda and Kayla stopped by the rec room after breakfast. Ms. Mac was already there, getting her supplies for the day.

  “Ms. Mac?” Miranda said. “Can we ask you something?”

  “Anything at all.” Ms. Mac’s hands were full of markers and glue sticks.

  “We were just thinking, maybe Noah is right,” Miranda continued nervously. “About Humphrey.”

  Ms. Mac looked amazed. “You don’t think we should set him free?” she asked.

  “Eeek!” I had to squeak up before things went too far.

  “No,” Miranda said. “But he hasn’t seen very much of camp. He’s just been cooped up in the Nature Center.”

  It was true. I heard my friends talk about canoeing and swimming and archery, but I hadn’t seen any of that. And where were those horses they talked about? I wanted to see more of camp—but from inside my cage.

  The girls asked Ms. Mac if they could take me out of the Nature Center that afternoon and give me a tour.

  Ms. Mac thought for a while before answering. “You girls are very responsible. Yes, I guess so,” she said. “As long as you absolutely promise not to let him out of his cage.”

  The girls promised and soon, Miranda and Kayla had enlisted Sayeh and Abby to help them show me around Camp Happy Hollow.

  And oh, what a place it was! So much bigger than what I imagined just traveling from the cabins to the Nature Center to Happy Hollow Hall.

  There was the softball diamond, the volleyball court, the archery range. (I was glad no one was around since I wasn’t interested in dodging sharp arrows!)

  There were horses, too—the biggest creatures I’d ever seen—or hoped to see! Their hooves were gigantic and they must weigh a million pounds! And sitting right on top of one huge beast was A.J.
>
  “Hi, Humphrey Dumpty!” he shouted.

  I closed my eyes, hoping his loud voice wouldn’t scare the horse. (It didn’t.)

  We moved on, passing by a deep blue swimming pool. And who was diving off the diving board? Super-Sam, of course.

  Then the girls took me out to the lake.

  “We’ve saved the best for last,” Miranda said. “Welcome to Lake Lavender.”

  Though I’d been sailing once before (quite unexpectedly), I’d never seen such a large and thrilling stretch of water. There was a dock with canoes lined up, and just for one teeny-tiny second, I almost wished I could be a human! But then I realized that being a hamster gave me the chance to do and see things humans never could. And humans seem to have so many problems—I was only glad I’m around to lend a helping paw from time to time.

  “What do you think, Humphrey?” Sayeh asked as we gazed out at the rippling water.

  “It’s breathtaking!” I exclaimed.

  And it was. With the blue of the lake and the blue of the sky and the—what was that circling in the blue sky? I squinted to get a better view of a very large bird.

  “Oh, look! A hawk!” said Abby.

  Oh, no! A hawk! Katie had talked about them, too. They were not friends to small furry creatures.

  “Eeek!” I squeaked, and the girls all giggled.

  But the lake was lovely. How Og would like it! It was hard to see water without thinking of my friend, whom I was beginning to miss.

  Next the girls carried my cage up to the top of a hill. From way up there, I could see the camp nestled into a low spot.

  “There it is, Humphrey. That valley there—that’s Happy Hollow,” Kayla said. So that’s where the camp got its name!

  Miranda swung my cage around to another hollow right next to the camp. “And that’s Haunted Hollow,” she said in an ominous tone of voice. “Where one group will get to spend the night.”

  “Yeah, the Chickadees!” said Abby.

  Miranda looked a little surprised. “Or the Robins,” she countered.

  Abby folded her arms and shook her head. “Sorry, Miranda. We’ve got it nailed. Right, Sayeh?”