Free Camp Ghost-Away by Judy Delton

CHAPTER 1
A Mountain of Donuts
    A t last it was Tuesday. Tuesday was Pee Wee Scout Day. It took forever for Tuesday to come, thought Molly Duff.
    Soon Troop 23 stood around the Scout table at Mrs. Peters’s house. On the table were boxes and boxes of Scout donuts.
    They were piled up like a mountain. A mountain of donuts. They had powdered sugar on them, like snow. Snow on the mountain, thought Molly.
    Molly rubbed her stomach. She wished the Scouts could eat them. Eat the whole mountain.
    “Now pay attention!” called Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Peters was their troop leader.
    “Today we begin to sell our donuts. You’ll go door to door on your own block. We must be very polite to people,” said Mrs. Peters. “Even if they don’t want to buy our donuts.”
    But they all will, thought Molly.
    “We must count the money and give them the right change. And you have to be careful not to lose the money.” Mrs. Peters explained everything to the Scouts so that they would know what to do. They all listened carefully. They were eager to get started.
    “How much do they cost?” asked Sonny Betz.
    “The donuts are one dollar a box,” said Mrs. Peters. “Tell the people the money is for our trip to camp. If we sell enough donuts, our whole troop will go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”
    All the Scouts cheered, “Yeah!”
    “And the one who sells the most donuts will get an award,” said Mrs. Peters. “It will be a special Scout badge. Are there any questions?”
    Molly crossed her fingers. She didn’t like questions. Questions took forever.
    Rachel’s hand went up. She always asked questions. Mrs. Peters called on Rachel. “Mrs. Peters, my mom says we should sell something that is more healthy. Donuts have sugar. Sugar isn’t good for your teeth.”

    A hex on Rachel’s mother. Rachel’s father was a dentist. Molly loved donuts.
    “Donuts are all right if you don’t eat too many, Rachel,” said Mrs. Peters.
    Before Rachel could say anything else and before any more questions, Mrs. Peters said, “Let’s get out there and sell donuts! Let’s sell enough to go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”
    Troop 23 dashed for the door. Each Scout held a mountain of donuts. “I am going to sell the most!” said Molly.
    “I am,” said Lisa Ronning. “I am going to ask my grandma to buy some.”
    Molly wished that her grandma lived nearby. It was too far to go to sell donuts to her grandma. She would have to sell donuts to her own block.
    “I’m going to sell a million donuts,” said Rachel. Rachel always had to do better than anyone else. Even if donuts were bad for your teeth.
    “You can’t sell a million,” scoffed Roger White. “Nobody can sell a million.”
    “I can,” said Rachel.
    “I’m going to go around a lot of blocks,” said Sonny Betz. “Not just my own.”
    “Is your mama going with you?” Rachel called out.
    Everyone knew Sonny was a mama’s boy. He couldn’t even walk to schoolalone. Lots of kids called Sonny a sissy. “So what if she is?” said Sonny.
    “Mama’s boy, mama’s boy!” shouted Rachel.
    “Stuck up, stuck up!” returned Sonny.
    “Let’s sell donuts together,” said Mary Beth Kelly to Molly. “It would be more fun, and we could go to more houses.”
    “Okay,” said Molly.
    When they got near their own block, Molly said, “Let’s start here.”
    Mary Beth looked at the old house. A window was broken, and the paint was peeling.
    “Mrs. Olson lives there,” said Mary Beth. “She’s mean. She doesn’t like kids in her yard.”
    They kept walking to the next house. “Mrs. Cox is mean too,” said Mary Beth.

    *   *   *
    “I’m going to the door anyway,” said Molly bravely. She marched up to the door and knocked. An old lady came to the door.
    “Do you want to buy some Scout donuts” asked Molly, “so we can go to camp?”
    “I don’t like donuts,” said Mrs. Cox, slamming the door. Molly wanted to put a hex on Mrs. Cox, but she remembered what Mrs. Peters had said. Be