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Authors: Betty G. Birney

Summer According to Humphrey (16 page)

BOOK: Summer According to Humphrey
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A small crowd gathered around Sam.
“I’ll get the nurse,” Richie said, and he took off running.
Nurse Rose took one look at Sam. “Poison ivy,” she said. “Come with me.”
Still scratching and looking completely miserable, Sam followed her to the infirmary, where the sick kids stayed.
“We’re toast!” Garth told Ty. “The Bobwhites are toast!”
I spent my day with Og (and Lovey and Jake) in the Nature Center, where kids came and went all day to take the nature test. Katie stayed in the center, while Ms. Mac was out on the trail, timing the groups for the trail-reading event.
It wasn’t an easy day.
Part of me wished I could be out there, free of my cage, watching the events and seeing how my friends were doing.
The other part of me remembered that it was dangerous for a small creature to be out in the big woods. In fact, I worried about Goldenrod and her friends every night.
Still, I was anxious to know what was going on. I kept my eyes and ears open for any little tidbits to tell me how the competitions were going.
The first thing I heard was from Garth, when he came in to take the quiz. He looked miserable.
“Nurse Rose gave Sam some lotion, but she says he can’t swim,” Garth told me. “He can try canoeing or softball, but I don’t see how he can hit a home run when he’s scratching all the time. The other teams say he shouldn’t play volleyball because they don’t want to touch the ball after he does.” Garth sighed. “I don’t think he can do anything but scratch.”
“I’m SORRY-SORRY-SORRY,” I told him, knowing he and the Bobwhites had all counted on Sam to win for them. Maybe Sam’s cabin-mates should have put forth a little more effort, but I was too polite to say so, especially when Garth was upset.
Sayeh was a lot more chipper than Garth when she stopped by after taking the nature quiz.
“Oh, Humphrey,” she said. “No one can tie knots like Abby, though Simon did a good job. Marissa’s ahead in archery. We’re going trail reading now. But even if the Chickadees don’t win, we’ll still have a great time tomorrow night.”
I was GLAD-GLAD-GLAD she felt that way!
The next night was when the winning group would sleep over in Haunted Hollow. But how would the Chickadees have a great time if they didn’t get to go?
Sayeh walked away but quickly returned.
“Oh, I forgot,” she said. “Miranda was awesome in volleyball, so the Robins are still in the game. I’m so happy for her.”
I was happy for Miranda
and
Sayeh.
Brad took the nature quiz and I could tell he worked really hard at it. He practically chewed right through his pencil, which would be easy for a hamster but not so easy for a human. When the quiz was over, he called for Gail to wait up.
“A.J. hit a home run,” he said. “Even if we don’t win, it was close.”
“I’m sure you did well on the nature quiz,” Gail said. “And my goofy brother was pretty good at tying knots. Who knew?”
“Did you hear that hammering noise?” he asked.
Then they wandered off, talking about woodpeck ers, which are interesting birds, but they make way too much noise for the sensitive ears of a small furry creature like me!
“Og, have you been keeping track?” I asked. “Because I’ve been listening all day and I can’t tell who’s going to win. Can you?”
Og just sat there. I guess he was still trying to figure it out, too.
When they are nervous, humans bite their fingernails or pace the floor.
When I am nervous, I hop on my wheel. (By the way, I don’t think biting your fingers or paws is a good idea.)
So I gave my old wheel a good spin later in the day, when we were back in the rec room. The counselors had gathered there with clipboards and all kinds of papers. They were going to decide who would spend the night in Haunted Hollow—and they were deciding it right in front of me.
“No doubt about it. The Bobwhites would have won if Sam didn’t have poison ivy,” Aldo said, staring at his clipboard.
“I feel for them,” Hap Holloway agreed. “It was a bad piece of luck.”
“Still, the others had been slacking off,” Mrs. Wright observed. “I think they relied too much on Sam. And their scores just don’t add up.”
The others agreed with Mrs. Wright and amazingly, so did I! Really, she wasn’t so bad, if she’d just lose that whistle!
Katie rummaged through her papers and chuckled. “I’ve never seen anyone tie knots like Abby. She racked up points for the Chickadees on that one. And on trail reading. And Marissa won archery.”
Ms. Mac nodded. “But the Robins had a lot of heart, and Miranda and Gail got second in canoeing. And Lindsey was a big surprise with her volleyball serves.”
Aldo studied his clipboard some more. “A.J. and Simon took the top spots in swimming. And Brad won the canoeing and scored very close to Sayeh on the nature quiz. I think the Blue Jays’ scores are the highest.”
Hap Holloway was busily adding up scores. “Yep,” he said. “It’s the Blue Jays.”
Katie shook her head. “I guess there’ll be a lot of disappointed kids, especially when they don’t get to go to Haunted Hollow.”
“Not necessarily,” Hap said. “No, I don’t think they’ll be disappointed tomorrow night, thanks to Sayeh.”
I had no idea what Hap was talking about.
I was worried about my friends being disappointed when Aldo brought Og and me into the dining hall that night so we could hear the results.
First, Hap congratulated everyone on being great campers.
Then he announced the rankings. There was a lot of cheering when he said that the Robins came in third. There was more cheering when Hap said that the Bob whites and Chickadees
tied
for second place.
When the room quieted down, Hap said, “And in first place, the winners of this year’s Clash of the Cabins competition: the Blue Jays!”
“Blue Jays rule!” A.J. and his cabin-mates chanted.
“Blue Jays rule!” I happily squeaked along.
After the cheering ended, Hap continued. “I have to recognize one camper as being one of the most outstanding athletes I’ve ever seen at this camp.” Hap paused. “That’s Sam Gorman. Today’s scores might have turned out differently if it weren’t for that poison ivy. So let’s give Sam a big Happy Hollow cheer.”
Everybody cheered—even Og and me. Sam stood up and waved, but I still felt itchy just looking at him.
And wonder of wonders, afterward the campers all mingled and were friendly again. A few looked disappointed, but Abby, Miranda and Sayeh chatted away as if nothing had ever happened. And I was happy to see that Brad and Richie were hanging out with Noah.
Humans are pretty amazing. I was sorry Goldenrod didn’t know how VERY-VERY-VERY nice they can be.
That night, I slept in the cabin shared by Ms. Mac, Katie and Mrs. Wright. (Believe it or not, she took off her whistle before she went to bed—but she placed it right under her pillow.)
Still, it was a quiet night and everyone slept well.
Everyone except me.
Because all I could think of that night was what would happen the next night.
The night the Blue Jays would go to Haunted Hollow.
NOTE TO SELF:
Winning is good, but not winning isn’t as bad as most humans imagine.
20
Happy Day, Haunted Night
T
he next day, it was difficult for the Blue Jays to think of anything except their upcoming night with the Howler.
Even if they forgot about it for a few minutes, the other campers would come up to them and go, “Owoooo! Owoooo!”
In fact, they did it so often, I think the Blue Jays were having second thoughts about spending the night in Haunted Hollow at all.
In the Nature Center, however, there was a lot going on. During the first session in the morning, Katie and Ms. Mac brought in a stranger—a very nice stranger, as it turned out. He was Dr. Singleton, the veterinarian from the wildlife refuge who had helped Katie with Lovey’s wing when she was first rescued.
“Dr. Singleton’s here to see if Lovey’s healed enough to be released,” Ms. Mac explained.
The vet was a big, tall man with a full black beard. But he was as gentle as he was big and was a real expert on birds.
While the kids in the first session watched, he examined Lovey carefully.
“She looks completely healed,” he said. “And I imagine she’s getting a little tired of her crate.”
Her crate was rather plain compared to my cage. She didn’t have any fun things to play with, like I do.
“I think we could try her out today,” he said.
Katie looked at her watch. “It’s almost time for a break between sessions. I’ll make an announcement.”
Dr. Singleton stayed and answered questions while she went down to the office.
Then Ms. Mac introduced him to Og and me.
“You’re a fine specimen,” he said to me. “I don’t think you need my help at all.”
I hopped on my wheel to show him he was right.
“Ah,
Rana clamitans,
” he said to Og.
“No, his name is Og!” I squeaked, but he didn’t understand me.
“I guess you kids are used to his interesting twang,” he said.
After living next to Og for months, I was very used to it.
Then Dr. Singleton turned his attention to Jake the Snake. “How did you end up in a cage?” he asked Jake.
Jake stuck his tongue out, as usual. How rude!
Then we heard Katie on the LOUD-LOUD-LOUDSPEAKER.
“Attention, campers,” her voice boomed. “We are going to try to release Lovey into the wild after this session. Anyone who wants to participate, come directly to the Nature Center.”
Within minutes, there was a rush, a dash, no
—
a
stampede—
to the Nature Center as every single camper showed up. Ms. Mac made them form a half circle in front of the building.
Then she asked Sayeh, Brad and Noah to be her assistants. (They had scored the highest on the quiz.)
BOOK: Summer According to Humphrey
9.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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