PIECES OF LAUGHTER AND FUN Read Online Free PDF

lying here on the ground."
    By this time I was able to pull myself up and lean against the tree. I was sure my arm was broken, and I knew my knee was too sore to walk. But I was confident that Pep would get the message home, and help would be on the way.
    When Pep dashed up on our porch at home, ma was working at the stove. He scratched on the door, but ma didn't turn around.
    "You don't come in at this time of day," she said to him. "Go on about your business."
    Pep turned and ran to the barn. Reuben met him at the door.
    "What are you doing with Mabel's doll? You're going to be in trouble if you lose that. Here, give it to me."
    Pep refused to give up the doll. Instead he turned and ran a short way, and then stopped. When Reuben started after him, he kept just a few feet ahead, looking back to be sure he was being followed.
    "Pa," Reuben called, "I think something has happened to Mabel. Pep has her doll in his mouth, and he acts like he wants us to follow him."
    It wasn't long before we heard Pep's familiar bark and pa and Reuben calling our names.
    "See what I told you?" I said to Sarah Jane.
    She was so happy to see pa and Reuben coming toward us, she didn't even answer me. Instead she jumped up, waving her hands in the air. "Over here, Mr. O'Dell."
    Soon pa was scooping me up in his arms, and I was on my way home.
    That evening after the excitement was over, ma bent down and hugged Pep.
    "I guess you're good for something after all, old fellow," she said. "I won't doubt your intelligence again. And the next b-o-n-e you get will have some m-e-a-t on it!"
     
The Wrinkled Stockings
    "OH, IT'S COLD! I shivered as I stomped the snow from my overshoes and came into the kitchen. "I was glad I had something over my ears today!"
    "It is cold," grandma agreed. "Take off your snowsuit and hang it here by the fire. I've got some nice hot chocolate ready for you."
    I sat down at the table and warmed my hands on the cocoa cup. "It seems like winter is awfully long this year," I complained. "I can't remember when there wasn't snow on the ground.... Here it is almost April. It ought to be spring pretty soon."
    "It will be," grandma assured me. "A few weeks will make a lot of difference. Just don't start out without your warm clothes, even in April. That can be a very deceptive month around here. I surely recall one that was."
    "Tell me about it, grandma. How old were you then?"
    "Old enough to know better," Grandma laughed. "I suppose I was eight years old, at least. It's a wonder Sarah Jane and I both didn't die of pneumonia that year... .
    It had been a long, cold winter, and the snow had stayed on the ground from the time it first fell. We were walking home from school one afternoon in late March.
    "I'm sure sick of this stuff," Sarah Jane exclaimed. She kicked a blob of snow out of her way. "I'm tired of all these heavy old clothes, and getting to school all wet and . . ."
    "So am I. My mittens are stiff from being soaked and dried out so many times. I'll sure be glad when spring gets here." I reached down to scratch my leg. "And another thing I'll be glad to get rid of is this horrid old long underwear. It gets itchier every day!"
    "That's not all I hate about it. I can't stand the way it twists around my legs and makes big bumps in my stockings. How can we look
    neat and pretty with all these lumps showing?"
    "We can't," I answered. "And we can't even wear long dresses to cover them up. Anyway, I think it's close enough to spring so we don't need them any longer."
    "Try to tell our mothers that," Sarah Jane said. "We'll be wearing these horrid things until the end of April."
    We walked on in silence for a few moments. The more I thought about the long underwear I was wearing, the itchier it became.
    We wore the long, ribbed underwear beneath our stockings. The older the underwear was, the more it stretched and the bumpier our stockings looked.
    Suddenly Sarah Jane stopped in the middle of the road.
    "I know what we can do!" she