Free Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

boots behind, not when she had waited so long to get them. Somebody might take them, and she would have to go back to shoving her feet into Howie’s ugly old boots.
    â€œDon’t worry, Ramona,” said Miss Binney, looking anxiously toward the rest of her morning kindergarten growing wetter by the minute as they watched through the fence. “Nobody is going to take your boots on a day like this. We’ll get them back when it stops raining and the ground dries off.”
    â€œBut they’ll fill up with rain without my feet in them,” protested Ramona. “The rain will spoil them.”
    Miss Binney was sympathetic but firm. “I know how you feel, but I’m afraid there isn’t anything we can do about it.”
    Miss Binney’s words were too much for Ramona. After all the times she had been forced to wear Howie’s ugly old brown bootsshe could not leave her beautiful new red boots out in the mud to fill up with rain-water. “I want my boots,” she howled, and began to cry again.
    â€œOh, all right,” said Henry crossly. “I’ll get your old boots. Don’t start crying again.” And heaving another gusty sigh, he waded back out into the empty lot, yanked the boots out of the mud, and waded back to the sidewalk, where he dropped them at Ramona’s feet. “There,” he said, looking at the mud-covered objects with dislike.
    Ramona expected him to add, I hope you’re satisfied, but he did not. He just started across the street to school.
    â€œThank you, Henry,” Ramona called after him without being reminded. There was something very special about being rescued by a big, strong traffic boy in a yellow slicker.
    Miss Binney picked up the muddy boots, and said, “What beautiful red boots. We’llwash off the mud in the sink, and they’ll be as good as new. And now we must hurry back to the kindergarten.”
    Ramona smiled at Miss Binney, who was again, she decided, the nicest, most understanding teacher in the world. Not once had Miss Binney scolded or made any tiresome remarks about why on earth did Ramona have to do such a thing. Not once had Miss Binney said she should know better.
    Then something on the sidewalk caught Ramona’s eye. It was a pink worm that still had some wiggle left in it. She picked it up and wound it around her finger as she looked toward Henry. “I’m going to marry you, Henry Huggins!” she called out.
    Even though traffic boys were supposed to stand up straight, Henry seemed to hunch down inside his raincoat as if he were trying to disappear.
    â€œI’ve got an engagement ring, and I’mgoing to marry you!” yelled Ramona after Henry, as the morning kindergarten laughed and cheered.
    â€œYea, Henry!” yelled the big boys, before their teacher shut the window.
    As she followed Miss Binney across the street Ramona heard Davy’s joyful shout. “Boy, I’m glad it isn’t me!”

6
The Baddest Witch in the World
    W hen the morning kindergarten cut jack-o’-lanterns from orange paper and pasted them on the windows so that the light shone through the eye and mouth holes, Ramona knew that at last Halloween was not far away. Next to Christmas and her birthday, Ramona liked Halloween best. She liked dressing up and going trick-or-treating after dark with Beezus. She likedthose nights when the bare branches of trees waved against the streetlights, and the world was a ghostly place. Ramona liked scaring people, and she liked the shivery feeling of being scared herself.
    Ramona had always enjoyed going to school with her mother to watch the boys and girls of Glenwood School parade on the playground in their Halloween costumes. Afterward she used to eat a doughnut and drink a paper cup of apple juice if there happened to be some left over. This year, after years of sitting on the benches with mothers and little brothers and sisters, Ramona was finally going to