Surprises According to Humphrey Read Online Free PDF

but all I could think about was getting back to my cage on time. I heard the bell ring as I skittered across the table and swung the cage door behind me.
    Every muscle in my small body ached.
    “BOING!” Og twanged.
    “The paper…says…
Dirty Rat,
” I told him, panting from all my effort. “But don’t…ask me why.”
    All that work and I still didn’t know what was going on!
    My classmates began to trickle in from lunch. As usual, Miranda was with her best friend, Sayeh, and other best friends were together: Heidi and Gail, Seth and Tabitha, A.J. and—whoa! It was very unusual to see A.J. without Garth.
    A.J. slid into his seat first. When Garth sat down, A.J. leaned over. I strained my small furry ears to hear.
    “What was that about? That ‘dirty rat’ thing?”
    Garth glared at A.J. “Friends don’t pick their best friends last. Rats do.”
    “You’re my friend,” A.J. protested. “You’re just not very good at sports.”
    “Like I need you to remind me,” muttered Garth.
    Right then, Mrs. Brisbane started to talk about seeds sprouting, and there was no chance to learn more about the trouble between Garth and A.J.

    “Wait-After-Class-Garth,” Mrs. Brisbane said when the bell rang at the end of the day.
    “Og, did you hear that?” I asked. “She didn’t say Wait-for-the-Bell-Garth. She said Wait-After-Class-Garth.”
    Og splashed a bit, but I’m pretty sure he heard, too.
    The room emptied out quickly, and soon Garth was alone with Mrs. Brisbane. Being kept after class is never a good thing, at least in my experience. And in my months in Room 26, a number of my friends had been kept after school.
    Mrs. Brisbane went to her desk and picked up the crumpled paper. “Did you write this, Garth?”
    Garth shrugged.
    “It looks like your writing,” the teacher continued.
    “I was just fooling around,” answered Garth.
    “I found it under A.J.’s desk,” Mrs. Brisbane explained. “I thought the two of you were friends.”
    “We’re not friends.” Garth wrinkled his nose. “Not anymore.”
    Mrs. Brisbane sat down and looked thoughtful. “Would you tell me what happened?”
    “I’ve got to catch my bus,” Garth answered, looking toward the door.
    “Think about it and we’ll talk tomorrow.” Mrs. Brisbane folded up the piece of paper and dropped it in her purse. “I’ll just hold on to this.”
    Garth raced out of the door without looking back. Mrs. Brisbane stayed sitting in the chair. She stared at the student tables, the bulletin board, the chalkboard. She looked at the room as if she’d never seen it before.
    After a while, she picked up her books and her purse and came over to adjust the blinds. “I hope you two can get along for the rest of the night,” she told Og and me.
    “We’ll TRY-TRY-TRY!” I assured her, and I meant it.
    Og didn’t say anything, but I don’t think he was mad at me or anything like that.
    Maybe he just had spring fever.
    RAT: A perfectly nice rodent with a bad reputation. Some rats make nice pets. There are rats of all shapes and sizes, but when one human calls another human a rat, it’s never meant as a compliment.
    Humphrey’s Dictionary of Wonderful Words

Surprise from Outer Space

    I don’t know if I had spring fever, but I did have aching muscles following my adventure that afternoon. Besides that, I had a funny feeling in my tummy after I read the note that said
Dirty Rat
.
    I ate a good helping of Nutri-Nibbles, but my stomach still felt weird.
    Later, Og and I were both in a somewhat dreamy state when the door opened, the lights came on and I heard a familiar squeaking sound.
    “It’s Aldo!” I rushed to the front of my cage to greet my friend. I was hoping he would be a little easier to understand than he had been the night before.
    “BOING!” Og sounded quite alarmed, and I could see why.
    There was Aldo’s cart, piled high with his broom, his mop and pail, lots of spray bottles and cloths and trash bags to be filled.
    And