Summer According to Humphrey Read online

  Everything was made of bare wood, except for the red plaid curtains on the windows and the white sheets on the beds. “Enjoy the quiet,” Ms. Mac said after she had Og and me settled on a table by the window (she’s thoughtful that way) and had given us both fresh water. “It won’t last long.”

  Ms. Mac cleaned up and left us alone.

  There we were: one frog, one hamster, one bare wood cabin. No desks, no ringing bells, no shouting children. I missed them all: Kirk’s corny jokes, Seth and his sports scores, Aldo’s sweeping, Mrs. Brisbane’s stories. I was even starting to miss Mrs. Wright. (But not her whistle.)

  “What do you think of this place?” I asked Og.

  Og splashed around in the water but said nothing.

  I hopped on my wheel and began to spin. There was really nothing else to do. I tried looking out the window, but it was unsqueakably frustrating. All I could see was green wherever I looked. Green tree branches when I looked up. Green grass when I looked down. Green bushes straight ahead.

  Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. “There must be something else to see,” I told Og.

  He splashed agreeably. So I jiggled the lock-that-doesn’t-lock and the door swung open. I knew it would be difficult (and dangerous) to get down to the floor and outside. So for the first time ever, I climbed up the outside of my cage to get a little higher.

  I guess I surprised Og with this new behavior, because he let out an alarmingly loud “BOING!”

  Standing on top of my cage, I could look above some of the bushes blocking my view and see a teeny-tiny bit more. There were several other cabins in sight—all of them just like the one I was in.

  And there were many paths that crisscrossed through the grass.

  Mostly, though, there were trees. And more trees.

  I was pretty sure there had to be more out there than trees. I knew there were birds, because I could hear them singing. (Thank goodness Ms. Mac left the windows open.)

  Then I heard people singing, way off in the distance. I’m pretty sure I heard bongo drums playing, too.

  Ms. Mac came in at night, but she went right to bed and got up very early in the morning. She did this a few days in a row. Eight beds. One human. Nothing much to do.

  Sometimes I would hear SKITTER-SKITTER-SKITTER and SCRITCH-SCRITCH-SCRITCH.

  “Who’s making that noise?” I asked Og one day when my curiosity got the best of me. “Is it inside or outside?”

  “BOING-BOING!” said Og, leaping around his tank.

  “I should probably check it out,” I said, but I was almost wishing Og would talk me out of it.

  Skittering or scritching could be made by a number of different creatures and some of them might not be too friendly. Still, I am a very curious hamster. Perhaps just a peek would ease my mind.

  With a lump in my throat, I jiggled the lock-that-doesn’t-lock. I was about to swing the door open when I heard footsteps approaching. I pulled the door back just as Ms. Mac came into the cabin. She was wearing shorts and a shirt that had the words Camp Happy Hollow printed on the front.

  “You must think I abandoned you,” she said.

  The thought had crossed my mind, especially when I heard that skittering sound, but I was too polite to mention it. But I was glad to have a reason to stay in my cage.

  “I’ve been in training,” she said. “Things are about to start popping.”

  My mind raced, thinking about what kinds of things popped. Popcorn did and sometimes balloons, which are a little scary for a small furry creature.

  Ms. Mac lifted my cage ever so gently.

  “I need to get you guys up to the hall to meet the rest of the crew,” she said. “I think you already know a couple of them.”

  I was relieved to get out of the quiet cabin. Ms. Mac carried first me, then Og down a winding path. We passed other cabins like the Robins’ Nest, then entered a much bigger wooden building with an even bigger porch and a big sign that said HAPPY HOLLOW HALL.

  Inside was an unsqueakably big dining room with long tables and benches. There was even a stage up front with heavy curtains on either side of it. We went through the dining hall, past the kitchen and into a large room behind it.

  Ms. Mac put Og and me on a table in front of huge windows that looked out on even more trees and grass.

  “Sorry you’ve been cooped up in that lonely cabin.” Sometimes Ms. Mac seemed to read my mind. “You’ll like it better here in the rec room. And you’ll be busy from now on.”

  “Doing what?” I squeaked. But she had moved to the door, where she was talking to someone.

  “Busy doing what, Og?” I asked my neighbor. He wasn’t paying attention. He was enjoying the waves in his tank created by our move. They made me feel a little seasick.

  I looked around the wreck room. It didn’t look like a wreck at all. There were couches and tables and chairs and a fireplace and bookshelves and cabinets—oh, it was a cozy place.

  “Meet our first campers,” Ms. Mac told whoever was at the door.

  I scampered up the tree branch in my cage to see who was coming in. And I almost fell right off again when I saw—well, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Aldo! He was wearing shorts and a shirt with Camp Happy Hollow written on it just like Ms. Mac.

  “Never fear ’cause Aldo’s here,” he said as he rushed over to see Og and me.

  “Aldo! What are you doing here?” I squeaked in disbelief.

  “I told you I was leaving town,” he said. “I didn’t tell you I was coming here to be a counselor. And guess who else is here?” He turned and gestured toward the doorway. “Come here, honey!”

  Suddenly, Aldo’s wife, Maria, was standing in front of me, smiling happily.

  “Maria’s taking a break from the bakery to cook here for the summer,” Aldo said. Maria worked nights in a bakery while Aldo worked nights at Longfellow School. And I’m happy to say, I helped them get together in the first place.

  “It will be the best camp food ever,” Aldo assured us. “You guys are lucky this recreation room is so close to the kitchen.”

  Oh, so the “wreck” room was really a “rec” room! A place for games and fun.

  “And I’m lucky that Humphrey and Og are close to me,” Maria said with a twinkle in her eye. “I have to do something with the extra fruits and veggies.” Yum. I do love fruits and veggies. Og, on the other paw, likes ickier things, like crickets.

  More people came in. Ms. Mac called them counselors. Some were grown-ups like Aldo. Some were college students, and there were junior counselors, who were high school age. Ms. Mac brought some of them over to meet me. It was hard to tell them apart because they all had on shorts and identical shirts.

  One of the college students, a young woman with short blond hair called Katie, rushed over to see me. “Oh, Morgan, he’s so cute! He’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”

  I liked Katie a lot.

  And there was Hap Holloway. He leaned down and put his big red face right next to my cage.

  “Glad to have you aboard at my camp,” he said in his loud voice.

  His camp?

  “Just try not to get eaten by a bear,” he added, roaring with laughter.

  I didn’t dare tell him that wasn’t one bit funny. After all, it was his camp.

  It was VERY-VERY-VERY noisy in the room with everyone laughing and talking.

  Then suddenly, it got VERY-VERY-VERY quiet. The quiet was broken by footsteps, heading toward my cage.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to have him here?” a voice boomed.

  The way the voice said “him” was very familiar.

  I raced to the side of my cage to get a closer look. I knew it. It was Mrs. Wright, the physical education teacher who liked rules more than hamsters. (Let’s face it, she loved rules and she didn’t like hamsters at all. I don’t think she was very fond of frogs, either.)

  “The kids will love them,” Ms. Mac said. I was proud of how brave she was, standing up to Mrs. Wright.
/>   I braced myself, waiting for Mrs. Wright to blow her loud whistle. But she didn’t.

  “There are health issues. Allergies. Disease,” she said.

  “We’re in the woods,” Ms. Mac said. “There’s lots of stuff to be allergic to.”

  Then, to my surprise, Hap Holloway stepped forward. “We’ve got medical histories and releases,” he said firmly. “We’ve got a nurse, too. She arrives tomorrow and she’ll sort out any health issues. You can concentrate on being activities director.”

  Mrs. Wright was speechless, which was a first.

  I knew I was going to like Hap Holloway.

  “Now it’s time for pizza and singing,” Hap told the group. “And in the morning, the fun begins!”

  Actually, I had a lot of fun that evening. Aldo and Ms. Mac slipped me bits of lettuce and carrots from the salad and I even got a teeny piece of pepper from the pizza.

  Katie played the guitar while Ms. Mac pounded the bongos, and all of the other counselors sang amazing songs I’d never heard before. There was a song about a peanut on a railroad track and another one about an alligator. There was something about ears hanging low, which Og probably didn’t understand because he doesn’t have ears (that I’ve seen so far).

  And my very favorite song was about a bucket with a hole in it. It got sillier and sillier and faster and faster, and silly old me, I was spinning on my wheel and almost fell off, the song was so funny.

  If the real fun was beginning tomorrow, I knew that I was going to like Camp Happy Hollow a lot.

  Even if I didn’t know who would be sleeping in all those beds.

  NOTE TO SELF: Humans tend to pop up where you least expect them-and some of them have whistles.

  5

  Happy Campers

  After breakfast the next morning (Maria kindly slipped me some yummy strawberries), Og and I watched through the sunny open windows of the rec room as Ms. Mac and the other counselors headed outside and began to set up tables and put up banners reading Welcome to Camp Happy Hollow. Believe me, they were BUSY-BUSY-BUSY.

  “The fun’s beginning soon,” I said to Og, although what I was watching looked more like work than play.

  And then a line of cars came up the bumpy road, parking near the hall. The car doors opened and out poured moms and dads and kids of all shapes and sizes. Suitcases, boxes, backpacks and duffel bags came out of car trunks and started piling up near the tables.

  “Og, look at all the people! Moms and dads and whole families coming to camp!” I told my neighbor.

  Og leaped up. “BOING-BOING-BOING!” he twanged.

  Then it came. I should have expected it, knowing Mrs. Wright was around. But the piercing blast from a whistle that is very painful to the small, sensitive ears of a hamster surprised me so much I squeaked, “Eeek!” rather loudly. Not that anyone could hear me, since Mrs. Wright blew the whistle again!

  “Line up at the tables and get your packets,” Mrs. Wright ordered the families. “Line up, please!”

  I crossed my paws and hoped the families would line up before she could blow her whistle again. She did it anyway.

  “In an orderly fashion, please,” she insisted.

  Once the families were in line, I noticed something. While many of the faces were new to me, I recognized some of the people in line.

  “Look, Og! There’s Repeat-It-Please-Richie!” I squeaked. “From Room 26!”

  Og splashed wildly. “BOING-BOING! BOING-BOING!”

  I climbed higher up in my cage to see what Og was so excited about.

  “It’s Stop-Giggling-Gail!” I squeaked. There was a flash of blue next to her. “And her brother, Simon.” Simon was always on the move.

  “BOING-BOING!” Og said before diving to the bottom of his tank.

  As I peered out the window at the growing crowd of kids and parents, I saw another familiar face. It was Sayeh. She and her father looked a little bit lost among the bustle of excited families.

  “Hi, Sayeh! It’s me—Humphrey!” I squeaked at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately, my small voice didn’t carry above the hubbub of the crowd.

  Luckily, her friend, Golden-Miranda, appeared behind her. The girls hugged and Sayeh’s dad shook hands with Miranda’s dad. There were two other familiar faces with Miranda. I was glad to see Abby, Miranda’s stepsister. She didn’t go to Longfellow School, but I’d met her at Miranda’s house.

  I was not glad to see the other familiar face.

  My heart skipped a beat when Miranda’s dog, Clem, hopped out of the car. After all, Clem is bent on my total destruction! I’ve always managed to outwit him—so far. Luckily, Miranda’s dad quickly put him back into the car, much to my relief.

  “Richie! Hey, Richie!” That booming voice could only belong to Lower-Your-Voice-A.J., who had arrived with his friend, Garth, and Garth’s parents.

  “A.J. It’s me—Humphrey Dumpty!” I shouted, using A.J.’s favorite name for me. Again, he couldn’t hear me above the noise. Neither could his brother, Ty, who was standing next to him.

  Mrs. Wright gave her whistle another mighty blast and Aldo helped her get the people to line up at the tables. Then, one by one, the families hurried off on paths going in many directions and disappeared. They headed toward the cabins, and I figured that each cabin would house a different family.

  I figured wrong, because to my amazement, after a while, the parents all returned to their cars and drove away, leaving their children behind at Camp Happy Hollow!

  “Og, they can’t leave their children here all alone,” I told my neighbor.

  “BOING-BOING,” Og twanged in agreement.

  But they had. I thought for a while and realized they actually weren’t all alone. Aldo and Ms. Mac were at camp, and Mrs. Wright and the other counselors. They could help the kids.

  And so could I. Maybe—just maybe—a camp needed a pet hamster as much as a classroom did.

  It was so peaceful and quiet after the ruckus at the tables that I had a nice little nap. But I was rudely awakened by the ding-donging of the loudest bell I have ever heard. It was even louder than Mrs. Wright’s whistle.

  Og must have heard it (even if I can’t see his ears), because he leaped up so high, he almost hit the top that covered his tank.

  Suddenly, the paths were filled with kids wearing shorts and T-shirts, all heading straight for Happy Hollow Hall. Some were laughing and joking, and some looked as if they had been crying. My friend Gail definitely wasn’t giggling anymore.

  There were yummy smells coming from Maria’s kitchen, so I didn’t think anyone would be crying for long.

  Once they were in the hall, I couldn’t see the campers, but I certainly could hear them. My friends in Room 26 got pretty noisy sometimes, but there were MANY-MANY-MANY more kids at camp and they were all talking at once.

  “Goodness, Og,” I squeaked over the racket. “If Mrs. Brisbane were here, she’d quiet them down.”

  Og splashed around agreeably until there was a loud, shrill blast. Things settled down then and for once, I was almost glad Mrs. Wright was there with her whistle.

  I couldn’t make out everything that was being said, but I heard Hap Holloway welcoming the campers. Then Ms. Mac taught the kids a song about chewing—I am not kidding! Since hamsters are excellent chewers, I enjoyed the words a lot.

  Chew, chew, chew your food,

  Gently through the meal.

  The more you chew, the less you eat,

  The better you will feel.

  Then the hall got noisy again with talking and the clinking and clanking of forks and spoons. I was getting unsqueakably curious about what was happening in the hall, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to slip out of my cage while it was still light outside.

  After a while, the whistle blew and things quieted down again. Hap Holloway said something about “campfire” and “games.” And then he said, “You’ll be getting to know your new friends over the next few days, but I want you to meet two more Happy Hollow Campers.”<
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  Just as I was wondering who they might be, Aldo came into our room and picked up Og’s tank while Ms. Mac picked up my cage.

  Things were really buzzing when we came into the room!

  “Humphrey Dumpty!” A.J. shouted, and some of my friends cheered.

  “Og the frog!” Garth shouted, and other friends cheered.

  Mrs. Wright had to blast her whistle several more times until things were quiet again.

  I looked around and oh, my! The tables were filled with enthusiastic boys and girls. Even the ones like Gail who’d looked weepy before had perked up quite a bit.

  Hap Holloway introduced us and explained that we’d be staying in different cabins every night and that each cabin would have a chance to earn us for the night by keeping their cabins neat and obeying the rules.

  The kids clapped and stomped their feet and I did, too.

  Then Hap told them that for the first night, while they were at the campfire, the counselors would be checking out the cabins to see how well everyone had unpacked and made their beds.

  There were a few groans, which probably meant there were some unmade beds.

  But I wasn’t groaning. I was squeaking with joy because Og and I weren’t going to be stuck in some wreck of a room from now on.

  Og and I were REALLY-REALLY-REALLY going to camp!

  NOTE TO SELF: Nothing can cheer a person or hamster up faster than seeing an old friend.

  6

  Cabin Fever

  The dining hall emptied as quickly as it had filled up. Some of my old friends, like A.J. and Miranda, tried to come up to say hi to Og and me, but a few shrill blasts of you-know-who’s whistle kept them moving.

  I looked around at the empty tables, the overflowing bins of trash, the stacks of dirty trays and dishes that a teenage boy and girl were collecting.

  “What next?” I asked Og.

  Og was silent. I guess he was a little confused about what had just happened and what was going to happen next. So was I.

  I hopped on my wheel for a little spin and I started thinking of that song that went, “Chew, chew, chew your food.” That got me thinking about food, so I hopped off the wheel and rummaged around the bedding of my cage to see what I’d stored there. I found a bit of crunchy carrot, which kept me busy for a while.