Betsy-Tacy and Tib Read Online Free PDF Page A

dee dee dee dee
dee.”
    She smiled at the people as she flew.
    “Dee,
dee
, dee,
dee,
dee dee dee dee dee dee
dee.”
    Up and down she went, in time to the music.
    And not only up and down, but from side to side of the stage. Betsy squeezed Tacy’s hands, and Tib’s, and Tacy and Tib squeezed back. Their eyes strained through the darkness in order not to miss a movement of the glowing airy figure flying up and down, back and across, to that tune which Julia could play.
    They could have watched for hours, but the show did not last very long. In no time at all the curtains were drawn, the music had stopped, and people were clapping their hands and pushing out of the tent. Mrs. Muller, with Betsy, Tacy and Tib, came out last of all.
    “Did you like it?” Mrs. Muller asked.
    “Oh, yes!” said Betsy and Tacy and Tib. At first that was all they could say.
    Mrs. Muller took them across the street to Heinz’s Restaurant, and each one had a dish of ice cream. It was vanilla ice cream, and they had vanilla wafers with it. They talked about the Flying Lady as they ate.
    “She looked like Tacy, Mamma,” Tib said.
    “Yes, she did,” said Mrs. Muller.
    That made Tacy bashful.
    “I wish it hadn’t been quite so dark,” Betsy said.
    “I think they made it dark on purpose,” Mrs. Muller answered, smiling.
    “I wish they hadn’t,” Betsy said. But she didn’t say why.
    Of course the reason was that if it hadn’t been so dark she and Tacy and Tib could have learned more about flying. Tacy and Tib were thinking the very same thing. But they didn’t discuss that with Mrs. Muller. They doubted that a grown-up would understand.

    They told Mrs. Muller that they had had a nice time, and she took Betsy to her father’s shoe store and Tacy to the office where her father sold sewing machines. Betsy and Tacy and Tib all rode home with their fathers, and they didn’t have a chance to discuss the show with each other, until after supper. Then they met on the bench at the top of Hill Street.
    They had changed out of their best dresses and taken off their shoes and stockings. It was pleasant to sit with their feet in the dewy grass and talk about the Flying Lady.
    “If we look hard,” said Betsy, “maybe we’ll see her flying through the sky.”
    “I’ll bet we will,” said Tacy. “If I could fly, I wouldn’t fly just in a dark old tent.”
    “Neither would I,” said Tib. “I’d go up in the sky and do tricks.”
    They looked all over the sky, but they didn’t see a sign of her. There were no white draperies floating among the pink clouds in the west.
    “That’s funny,” said Betsy, “for a sunset would be such fun to fly in.”
    The Flying Lady did not come, and the sunset faded. It was almost time to go home when they noticed color in the northern sky, far down over the town. Faint music drifted from the same direction. They knew that it came from the Street Fair.
    “My papa and mamma are going there tonight,” Tib said. “My mamma wants my papa to see the Flying Lady.”
    Betsy and Tacy looked at each other in sudden understanding. They spoke almost at once.
    “Of course!” cried Betsy.
    “She’s down there making money!” cried Tacy.
    “She couldn’t be flying up here on the hill,” they explained to Tib, “when she’s flying down there in the tent.”
    “That’s right,” said Tib. “Well, maybe she’ll fly in the sky tomorrow morning.”
    “Let’s come up here early to look,” Betsy said.
    And they all ran home.
    Betsy and Tacy met on the bench right after breakfast and started looking for the Flying Lady. It was a sunshiny sweet-smelling morning, just the kind of a day it would be fun to fly in. The sky was full of little fat chunks of cloud.
    “Marshmallows probably,” said Betsy, “in case she gets hungry.”
    “Or cushions in case she gets tired,” said Tacy.
    They stared faithfully upward.
    They were staring upward so hard that they didn’t see Tib until she called out to them.