"B" Is for Betsy (11 page)

"It has been a long time since school closed," said Mother; "perhaps Miss Little has bought herself some new clothes."

"Well, I hope so," said Betsy.

"Run along now," said Mother, as she helped Betsy down from the chair.

Betsy ran along, but she kept thinking about Miss Little. She began to feel sorry that she had been promoted.
Perhaps I could go back to the first grade,
she thought. But she knew that she wouldn't like that either because she wouldn't know anyone in the first grade. All of her friends were in the second grade. There was her best friend, Ellen, and there was Billy Porter. Betsy chuckled when she thought of Billy. He was such a funny little boy, always calling out from his seat and getting into trouble. Then there were Kenny Roberts and Betty Jane and Mary Lou and the twins, Richard and Henry. She would be so glad to see them all. She would even be glad to see Christopher who sometimes pulled her braids. Betsy could see that she could never give up being in the second grade. She would have to be in Miss Little's room and put up with the black dresses.
Perhaps she hasn't any money to buy pretty dresses,
thought Betsy. And then
she began to feel very sorry for Miss Little because she didn't have any money to buy pretty dresses.

One afternoon, Mother cleaned out her closets. She had decided to give away all of her old dresses that she did not wear any longer. At the end of the afternoon she had a big pile of dresses on the bed. She decided to give them to Milly, the laundress. When Betsy saw the pile of dresses, she said, "Mother, may I have some of these dresses to play 'Dress-up Lady'?"

"I think you may," said Mother.

"Oh, Mother," cried Betsy, "may I have this flowered one?" Betsy picked up a flowered silk dress that had been her favorite dress of Mother's.

"Yes," said Mother, "and you may have the red one with the long train. You will be a very grand lady in that dress."

Betsy carried her new treasures off to her own room. She tried them on and paraded up and down the hall. Every few minutes she stopped to look in the mirror. This was a lovely new game and for several days she wore Mother's old dresses almost all of the time. When Ellen came to play with her they each put on one of the
dresses. They played that they lived in separate corners of the playroom and they paid calls on each other, and talked about their children.

The day before school was to open, Betsy was wearing the red silk dress. All of a sudden, she thought of Miss Little and her black dresses. Then Betsy had an idea. She took off the red dress and laid it on the bed. Then she pulled the flowered silk one out of the bottom drawer of her bureau. She looked at them very carefully. They were a little mussed and a little soiled around the bottom, but Betsy thought they really looked very nice. She tried to smooth out the wrinkles and all the time she had wrinkles in her forehead, for it was very hard to decide which dress she could part with. She loved them both very much, but she had decided to give one of the dresses to Miss Little. First she thought she would give her the flowered one, but she ended by thinking the red one would be best. Miss Little would look nice in the long train. Betsy folded the dress as carefully as she could and put it in her schoolbag.

The next morning, just as she was leaving for school, Mother said, "Betsy, whatever is in your schoolbag that makes it look so fat?"

"Oh, that is your red dress," replied Betsy.
"I am going to give it to Miss Little so that she will have a pretty dress to wear to school."

"Betsy, darling!" cried Mother. "You can't give that dress to Miss Little."

"Why not?" asked Betsy, looking very crestfallen. "It's a present for her."

"You can't give dresses to your teacher, dear," explained Mother. "You can give her flowers or candy or fruit and many other things, but not dresses."

Betsy looked puzzled but she opened her schoolbag and pulled out the dress. Mother hugged her little girl very tight when she kissed her good-bye.

Betsy trotted off to school thinking it was very strange that dresses couldn't be presents. Soon she met some of her little friends. They chattered about their summer vacations all the way to school.

When they reached the big wide street, there was Mr. Kilpatrick, the policeman. When he saw the group of children, he blew his whistle and all of the automobiles stopped. The children ran toward the big policeman, calling, "Hello, Mr. Kilpatrick."

Mr. Kilpatrick laughed and shouted, "Hello, there, everybody! Hello, Billy. How are you, Teddy? Why, there's Little Red Ribbons!" Mr. Kilpatrick always called Betsy "Little Red Ribbons" because she often wore red ribbons on her braids.

The children swarmed around the policeman.

"Mr. Kilpatrick," shouted Betsy, "I can milk a cow!

"You don't say so!" said Mr. Kilpatrick.

"Our cat has kittens, Mr. Kilpatrick," said Teddy.

"Look, Mr. Kilpatrick," cried Billy, "I have a loose tooth."

"Run along, run along," shouted Mr. Kilpatrick, as he hustled the children on.

When the children reached the school they trooped into the second-grade room. To Betsy's surprise, Miss Little wasn't there. Instead, the school secretary was standing at the front of the room. "Just take your seats quietly, children," she said. "Your teacher will be here in a few minutes. Miss Little is not coming back to school."

Betsy wondered who her teacher would be. She saw Miss Grey pass the door. She was so glad to see Miss Grey again. It was all she could do to keep from running after her. She began again to wish that she could go back to the first grade with Miss Grey. Betsy could feel a little lump in her throat. She swallowed hard but it didn't do any good. Just as the tears were beginning to come into her eyes, the door opened and in came Miss Grey. "Good morning, boys and girls," said Miss Grey.

"Good morning, Miss Grey," the children said.

"I have a surprise for you," said Miss Grey.

The children's eyes were very wide, for they loved nothing better than surprises.

"I have been promoted," said Miss Grey. "I am in the second grade, too."

"Whoopee!" shouted Billy Porter.

C
AROLYN
H
AYWOOD
(1898-1990) was born in Philadelphia and began her career as an artist. She hoped to become a children's book illustrator, but at an editor's suggestion, she began writing stories about the everyday lives of children. The first of those, "
B" Is
for
Betsy,
was published in 1939, and more than fifty other books followed. One of America's most popular authors for children, Ms. Haywood used many of her own childhood experiences in her novels. "I write for children," she once explained, "because I feel that they need to know what is going on in their world and they can best understand it through stories."