Free Spring According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney Page B

of the window instead, and I noticed the first drops of rain beginning to fall.
    ‘I guess our students will be back soon,’ Mrs Brisbane said out loud.
    Suddenly, a few drops of rain turned to millions of drops of rain.
    My classmates returned to Room 26 quickly, and they were dripping wet. Mrs Brisbane gave them paper towels to dry their arms and faces.
    ‘We still have a few minutes of playtime,’ she said. ‘What would you like to do?’
    ‘See what’s in the aquarium!’ Tell-the-Truth-Thomas shouted.
    Everyone else loudly agreed – including me.
    Even Og said, ‘BOING-BOING!’
    Mrs Brisbane took her chalk and stood by our ‘Signs of Spring’ list on the board.
    ‘What did you find over the Easter break?’ she asked.
    Holly held up a beautiful photo of a tree with white flowers. ‘It’s a dogwood,’ she said.
    Which was strange, because it didn’t look anything like a dog.
    My friends had seen pink trees and red birds and black birds.
    Tall-Paul held up a large drawing of a nose.
    ‘What’s that?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.
    ‘I have allergies in the spring,’ he said. ‘They make my nose run.’
    Everybody laughed, but I didn’t understand.Your nose is attached to your face. How can it run? And where does it go?
    ‘Allergies are very unpleasant signs of spring,’ Mrs Brisbane agreed.
    Calm-Down-Cassie waved her arm until I thought it would fall off. Mrs Brisbane finally noticed her.
    ‘Two birds built a nest right outside my bedroom,’ she said. ‘And there are eggs!’ She held up a sheet of photos. ‘I have a video, too. It was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.’
    ‘I saw it, too!’ I squeaked.
    Small-Paul shared his temperature chart that showed that it was continuing to get warmer and warmer.
    ‘What about the tadpoles?’ Rosie asked. ‘I just can’t wait.’
    At the end of the day, Mrs Brisbane called on Joey.
    ‘I guess it’s time,’ Mrs Brisbane said.
    It was time, all right. Though I was a tiny bit worried about what I’d see in that tank!

11 Uncle Og
    Joey had a huge grin as he walked over to our table and stood next to the aquarium.
    ‘It’s not easy to take care of tadpoles,’ he said. ‘But I followed all of the directions and …’ He pulled the cloth off the tank. ‘They have little legs now, and if you study them closely, you can see their heads are changing!’ Joey looked so proud, I thought he’d burst!
    The rest of our classmates jumped out of their seats and rushed towards the aquarium.
    Mrs Brisbane got them to line up and calm down.
    Og, however, didn’t calm down one bit.
    ‘BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!’he twanged as he jumped up and down.
    I have never seen him so excited.
    Somehow, our teacher made sure my friends looked at the tank one by one.
    ‘Fan-TAS-tic!’ Thomas said.
    ‘Oooh, see those bumps?’ Rosie said. ‘I think that’s the beginning of their arms.’
    Every single classmate said that the tadpoles were the most amazing, spectacular, wonderful, awesome things they’d ever seen in their lives!
    Really? Hadn’t they seen me leap on to my wheel and leap off again without falling? Hadn’t they seen me swing across the top of my cage?
    Of course, they hadn’t seen my adventures outside my cage, but if they had, they’d think I was amazing and wonderful, too! (Not to mention the fact that I can read and write.)
    Growing legs and bumpy arms? That took no work at all.
    Cassie wasn’t quite as excited as the other students. ‘That’s very interesting,’ she said. ‘But have you ever seen birds build a nest?’
    ‘I haven’t,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘But I’d like to. Thanks for sharing your pictures with us.’
    ‘Yes, thanks, Cassie,’ Helpful-Holly said. ‘I’dlove to see the baby birds hatch.’
    Cassie invited Holly over to her house, and I could tell she felt a lot better.
    I would have liked to see the baby birds hatch, too!
    I’d been a little upset with Mrs Brisbane for making us wait for the unveiling of