Free Horrible Harry Goes to Sea by Suzy Kline Page B

an African-American. My ancestors are from India and Africa.”
    Harry left his seat without permission and got the T encyclopedia. I knew he was looking up the Titanic.
    â€œWhen she was on the lifeboat, she sang a lot,” Ida added. “Mom told me it helped calm the people.”
    Five minutes later, when we were still talking about the Titanic, Harry found what he was looking for. “Here it is!”

    Everyone shot out of their seat and ran over to Harry. Miss Mackle didn’t say anything. She came over too.
    â€œLook at that big baby!” Harry exclaimed. “It covers two pages. It says the Titanic was as long as four city blocks. Hey, Doug, that’s how far it is from my house to your house.”
    â€œWow,” I sighed.
    While some of us gathered around Harry, others gathered around Ida to look at the postcards, menus, and telegrams.
    â€œWho would like to go to the library and check out some books on the Titanic ?” Miss Mackle asked.
    Six of us darted over to her desk for the green library passes. Little did we know that Ida’s box would take us to sea, ourselves!

All Aboard!

    T hat morning six of us rushed to the library and checked out books on the Titanic. When there were no more, our librarian, Mrs. Michaelsen, suggested Harry and I look at a book on the Mayflower. “That’s a great ship too,” she said. Then she helped Sidney find one about a pirate ship.
    â€œThanks!” we replied, and we took the books back to class.
    The rest of that morning we drew pictures of ships and collected facts about them. Song Lee and Mary and Ida used Magic Markers to make a giant Titanic ship. They used a map from Ida’s box to draw the rooms. They even made the Turkish bath room and the smoking room. Song Lee used a ruler.

    Sidney kept singing yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Then he made up his own verses:
    A pirate’s tough but he can sing.
    He wears a patch and a gold earring.
    He climbs up rope and sails the sea
    With a yo ho ho and a yo ho hee!

    Harry and I clapped. “Not bad, Sid the Squid,” Harry said. Then we got back to work.
    â€œLet’s make a list of numbers about the Mayflower,” I suggested.
    â€œNeato,” Harry said, taking a stub pencil from behind his ear.
    â€œHere’s two,” I said. “The Mayflower set sail in 1620, and there were 102 passengers on board.”
    â€œHere’s another: a storm lasted 14 days,” Harry said.
    â€œThe Pilgrims were on the ship for 65 days,” I added.
    â€œHere’s the poop deck,” Harry said. “See? It’s this top deck. That’s probably where they went to the bathroom.”
    â€œNope. Not there,” I said. “I read about it. When they had to go to the bathroom, they did it downstairs in chamber pots.”
    Harry thought about it for a minute. Then he called out, “Hey, Ida! Did your great-great-grandmother have a chamber pot!”
    Ida stopped coloring. “Yes, she did. It looked like a big porcelain vase with a lid, and had flowers on it. It was a beautiful potty.”
    As soon as Song Lee started giggling, Ida and Mary did too. Then they added a chamber pot to their drawing.
    â€œHey Sid!” Harry hollered. “Where did pirates go to the bathroom?”
    Sidney pointed at something in his pirate’s book. It looked like a see-saw, but half of it was hanging over the water.
    â€œSee this wooden plank with big holes in it?”
    We nodded.
    â€œThat’s it!” Sid replied. “Pirates sat on it. They went to the bathroom right into the ocean.”
    â€œEeyeew!” most of us groaned.
    Suddenly Harry jumped up. “You know what we should do?”
    No one said anything.
    â€œWe should set sail on the sea!” Harry held his hands up high and then made a three-finger salute.
    Mary stopped drawing the library room of the Titanic. “What? Room 3B go to sea?”
    Harry shrugged. “Why