Free Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary Page B

“Where is everybody?” Ralph asked Chum.
    â€œThey’ve all gone down to the river for a swim and a picnic supper,” answered Chum. “Peaceful isn’t it? I finally got some sleep in the daytime.”
    In the distance Sam barked and campers shouted and laughed. Ralph felt so stodgy from overeating that he went for a run onhis wheel before he scuttled around the edges of his cage. His search was futile. Garf had replaced the bottom and fastened the door securely.
    Suddenly the hair along Ralph’s spine began to tingle. Catso! Ralph huddled in the corner of his cage and tried to make himself invisible. Catso squeezed through the hole in the screen and landed with a soft thud on the workbench beneath Ralph’s cage. Ralph squeezed himself into a tighter ball. He felt as if the beat of his heart was as loud as the tick of the missing watch. Why couldn’t Sam stay home and guard the camp the way he was supposed to? This time there was no watch to distract Catso. Catso stood with his front paws on Ralph’s shelf and sniffed the cage. Then he sat down and calmly began to wash. First his right ear, then his left. The suspense was more than Ralph could bear. Catso stretched out his left hind leg andbegan to groom his left hind foot. He licked with long careful licks, combing his fur neatly toward his toes.
    Suddenly Ralph had an inspiration. He was about to take a terrible chance, but with no one to protect him from a sneaky cat, he had nothing to lose. Anything was better than cringing in a corner waiting for that beast to wash and comb every hair on his body.
    Ralph took charge. He left his corner, sprang on his wheel, and raced so fast he looped the loop. That activity caught Catso’s attention all right! The cat sat there with his hind leg in the air looking surprised.
    Ralph leaped from his wheel and faced Catso through his bars. The cat forgot about his grooming and, jumping to his feet, placed his front paws on the shelf and stared into Ralph’s cage. Hiding his terror, Ralph stared back.
    â€œIf there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s adisrespectful mouse,” said Catso, and with a swipe of his paw sent the cage flying.
    Ralph was prepared. He hung onto the bars and braced himself. Water splashed and seeds flew. One corner of the cage struck the worktable, jarring the bottom loose, exactly as Ralph had planned. The cage bounced and landed on its side. Ralph sprang out through what had once been the bottom. This accident was his chance!
    Catso pounced, but before his paws could land on Ralph he was thrown off his aim by a sudden hissing sound from above. Startled, he missed Ralph’s tail by the width of a whisker. Ralph was startled too, but the unexpected noise did not prevent him from scrambling behind a jar of nails on the worktable.
    When Ralph got up the courage to peek around the jar of nails, he saw Catso staring up at Chum’s cage. He heard the hissingsound again and knew that it must be coming from Chum. Good old Chum! Ralph hadn’t known that a hamster knew how to hiss.

    When Catso recovered from his surprise he was after Ralph, who dashed from behind the nails as the jar was sent rolling across the table. Crash! It landed on the floor and broke, scattering nails across the craft shop. Ralph leaped behind the supplies of beans and peas and hamster food with Catso after him. Jars crashed, bags tumbled and split as they fell. Crash! Bang! Smash! Noise and flying glass did not stop Catso. Ralph leaped behind the big spools of lanyard plastic. Catso knocked over the spools and the plastic unreeled, tangling about his feet.
    While Catso freed himself from the plastic, Ralph found behind the worktable a slanting piece of wood that was a brace between the studs of the rough walls of the craft shop. Ralph ran down the brace asCatso tried to squeeze his head between the edge of the worktable and the wall. He could get his head in the space but not