Free A Surprise for Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger

astonished. That boy was brash.
    â€œThat’s enough, Harvey,” Teacher Judith said. “The first time was funny. The second time wasn’t. I don’t want you to walk on your hands during school hours.”
    Harvey flipped over to his feet and his books crashed on the floor. He picked them up and looked straight at Teacher Judith. “So you don’t want me to use my hands during school hours.”
    â€œThat’s what I said,” Teacher Judith said.
    Harvey sat on the bench with the rest of his classmates. Lily returned to her own lessons and tried to ignore the lively history discussion of the sixth graders. An odd noise broke her concentration. She looked up to see the sixth graders returning to their desks. Harvey was kicking and pushing his books along on the floor in front of him.
    â€œHarvey, pick up your books,” Teacher Judith said.
    Harvey gave her a flippant look. “Sorry. Can’t. You told me not to use my hands during school hours.”
    Teacher Judith was losing patience, which was quite a feat. “I think you know what I meant.”
    Harvey grinned. “So I can use my hands after all?”
    â€œUse your hands to take your books back to your desk,” Teacher Judith said, slowly and clearly, as if Harvey might be very dim-witted.
    Harvey picked up his books from the floor, slipped them under his suspenders, and walked back to his desk on his hands. Everyone burst out laughing again. Lily felt a little guilty about laughing, but it looked so funny! Then she caught Aaron frowning at her and her smile faded.

    It didn’t take Harvey Hershberger long to find his place in school. In fact, Lily thought he felt much too comfortable, too soon. From the first day on, Harvey made all the decisions about which games would be played at recess. He didn’t want the first and second graders to play the same games as everyone else. “The little ones just slow everything down,” Harvey insisted. In a way, it was true. But in another way, it wasn’t very kind to exclude them. But Harvey wouldn’t back down.
    To Lily’s shock, Aaron Yoder stood up to him. “I think we should let the younger grades play with us the way they always did.” He scowled at Harvey. “The way they did before the Hershbergers moved in.”
    Sam Stoltzfus, who normally did anything Aaron Yoder did, sided with Harvey. “No! Harvey’s right. It’s high time those little children should play their own silly little games so the older grades can have more fun.” The boys used up the entire recess arguing. Soon, Teacher Judith rang the bell and all the children had to run to the schoolhouse.
    Lily had never heard so much fussing in the school yard before, even from Effie Kauffman.

    September 28th
    Dear Cousin Hannah,
    It’s been two weeks since you moved away and I still can’t get used to it. I keep looking at your desk, expecting you to be there, but instead there sits a horrible boy named Harvey Hershberger. He is too horrible for words. A different kind of horrible than Aaron Yoder, but horrible all the same. Harvey likes to have everyone laugh at him, all the time. He can be funny, but he doesn’t know when to stop and Teacher Judith is too soft on him.
    I wish you still lived down the road and I wish you still went to school with me, but I do hope you like your new school. Write me soon and tell me all about the girls in your school. No boys, though. I’ve had my fill of boys.
    Something interesting happened in school this week, if you want to call “trouble” interesting. It all started on Monday when Harvey Hershberger brought some long stick pretzels to school. During recess, the boys strutted around, pretending to be smoking them. It took a while for Teacher Judith to notice, and when she did, she didn’t like it. But just as she started to scold them, they quickly ate those pretzels up. They acted like eating