Excerpts

Chapter 1: March Misery I didn't hear Mrs. Brisbane's key turn as she opened the door that morning. I was sound asleep, snuggled under the bedding in my cage. It had been COLD-COLD-COLD all night and I was dreaming of summer. Nice, warm, sunny summer. Suddenly, I heard Mrs. Brisbane say, "Be-Careful-Kelsey. Your boots are wet." And then she said, "Simon! Slow down. I don't want anyone sliding across the floor and getting hurt." I poked my head out of the bedding and saw Mrs. Brisbane and most of my fellow classmates in Room 26 coming through the door. They wore caps and gloves, heavy jackets and boots. "Sorry I was late," Mrs. Brisbane continued. "The ice had traffic backed up. I'm glad you all made it here safely." Ice? Just the word gave me a chill. My cage sits near the windowsill, so I decided to peek outside. "Eeek!" I squeaked. "BOING!" my neighbor Og chimed in. For most of the year, I look out at trees and grass and the school parking lot. In the fall, the trees are red and gold. In the winter, they have branches that are either bare or tipped with snow. But on this March day, the trees were silvery icicles, sparkling like diamonds. The brown earth glistened with a thin coating of shiny crystals. "I hate winter!" Daniel said. I turned and saw my friends all seated at their tables. "I like deep snow, when you can make snowmen and go sledding," Helpful-Holly said. "I only like snow when we get a snow day," Do-It-Now-Daniel said. A lot of my friends agreed. "I think ice is cool," Simon said. "I skated down our driveway this morning without any skates!" "Oooh, that's dangerous," Calm-Down-Cassie said. "My mom slipped on the ice and broke her arm a couple of years ago." Mrs. Brisbane nodded. "It is dangerous, Simon." Simon just shrugged and said, "I think it's fun." "I like snow." Not-Now-Nicole shivered. "But I don't like ice. It's so . . . icy. " The way she said it made me shiver, too. Mrs. Brisbane walked over to the windowsill and peered down at my cage. "Are you warm enough, Humphrey?" she asked. "It might be too cold for you next to the window." "I'm all right," I answered. "As long as I have nice, warm bedding and my fur coat." Unfortunately, since I am the classroom hamster, all she heard was "SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK!" Then Mrs. Brisbane turned to Og. He's the pet frog in Room 26. "How are you, Og? I know frogs don't like cold weather." Og hopped up and down and made his usual weird sound. "BOING-BOING!" Mrs. Brisbane turned back to the class. "Well, I don't like snow or ice when it makes me late for school." Tell-the-Truth-Thomas waved his hand and our teacher called on him. "It's the beginning of March! It's not supposed to snow in March," he complained. Mrs. Brisbane smiled. "But sometimes it does snow. Have you heard the saying 'March comes in like a lion but goes out like a lamb'?" "What?" I squeaked. Some of the students sitting close to me giggled. "It means that at the beginning of March, we often have some wild weather roaring in. But by the time April rolls around, the weather is usually mild, like a lamb," she explained. Mrs. Brisbane is unsqueakably smart! How does she know so much? Small-Paul Fletcher raised his hand. "Meteorologists say that extreme winter weather is usually over around the end of February here," he said. "But it has been known to snow in March. Besides, this was a mix of freezing rain and snow." Small-Paul is SMART-SMART-SMART. Maybe he'll be a meteorologist someday. But wait--don't they study meteors from outer space? Mrs. Brisbane nodded. "Meteorologists study weather," she said. "So they would know." Rolling-Rosie raised her hand. "I don't like ice. It's hard to stop my wheelchair sometimes." I was surprised, because Rolling-Rosie is great at handling her wheelchair. She even knows how to pop a wheelie! "Does anybody know when the first day of spring is?" Mrs. Brisbane asked. I glanced out the window again. "It's definitely not today!" I squeaked. "Too far away!" Just-Joey grumbled. Again Small-Paul raised his hand. "March twentieth," he said. Some of my friends groaned. "That's weeks away!" Stop-Talking-Sophie said. I was still feeling cold and shivery, so I jumped on my wheel and began to spin. That always gets my whiskers wiggling again. The door opened and Hurry-Up-Harry Ito walked in. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "We were stuck in lots of traffic." He handed Mrs. Brisbane a piece of paper. "I have a note from the office." Mrs. Brisbane nodded. "Go take off your wet jacket and boots," she said. Harry strolled to the cloakroom. I think he could have hurried up a little more, but that's just the way he is. "Maybe spring will come faster if we pay attention to the signs that the season is beginning," Mrs. Brisbane said. "And I also want to tell you about something to look forward to." There were murmurings around the room. I could tell she'd gotten my classmates' interest. Mrs. Brisbane always does! "Tell us--please!" Kelsey said. "We need good news," Felipe added. "PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE!" I begged her. Mrs. Brisbane smiled. "Longfellow School is having a Family Fun Night in April. There will be games, prizes, and pizza, and your whole family is invited." "I like pizza!" Thomas said. "As long as it doesn't have mushrooms." He made a face and everybody laughed. "There will be lots more to do than eat pizza," Mrs. Brisbane continued. "And each classroom has to come up with an activity or game. It will take some work, but it will also be fun." The news seemed to please my friends. I don't know much about Family Fun Nights or pizza or mushrooms, but I do know about having fun. I like it! Tall-Paul raised his hand. "What night of the week is it?" he asked. "It's a Thursday," our teacher answered. Tall-Paul moaned. "I figured." "What's wrong?" Mrs. Brisbane asked. "My mom's a nurse and she works Thursday nights. She could come on Wednesday, though," he replied. "I don't think we can change the date at this point," Mrs. Brisbane said. "Maybe she can switch with somebody." Paul shook his head. "It's hard to change days. She's going to be disappointed." I think everybody in Room 26 was disappointed for Paul G. I certainly was! "Well, my dad probably can't come. I only see him on weekends," Just-Joey said. "I know it's hard when not everyone can make it, but I promise you'll still have fun," Mrs. Brisbane said. "Yeah," Thomas agreed. "You can still eat pizza! Unless it has mushrooms." Then Mrs. Brisbane went back to talking about spring and assigned all of us in her class to start looking for signs of the season and writing our observations. "Don't forget to use all of your senses," she said. "Sight, smell, taste, feel, touch. When you find a sign of spring, write down the date and what you observed. Then either attach a photo or make a drawing of it. I'll be posting them on the bulletin board." Slow-Down-Simon waved his hand and Mrs. Brisbane called on him. "You can't take a picture of a smell," he said. Mrs. Brisbane agreed. "Then use your words to describe it. But if you can get a picture of the thing that smelled, that would be great." "Simon's feet!" someone said. I'm not sure, but I think it was Tall-Paul. I think he meant it as a joke, because everybody giggled, including Simon. "BOING-BOING!" Og said in his twangy voice. I guess he got the joke, too. Then Mrs. Brisbane moved on to talking about math and carrying numbers. I was way too sleepy to carry anything, so I crawled into my little sleeping hut for a morning nap. While I dozed, I had a dream. All my friends from Room 26 were coming up to my cage and introducing me to their family members. Of course, because I spend each weekend at a different student's house, I knew most of them. "Humphrey, here's my mom," they said. Or "Humphrey, this is my dad." I met everybody in my dream from brothers and sisters to aunts and uncles and grandparents of all shapes and sizes. Humans have so many relatives, I don't know how they keep them all straight! And each family is different in a special way. When I woke up, I had a funny feeling. Where were my mom and dad, my sisters and brothers? Did I have aunts and uncles and cousins? As far as I could tell, all I had were my human friends and Og the Frog. I consider him a good friend, but I'm pretty sure we're not related. We certainly don't look alike. I have beautiful golden fur. He is green and has no fur at all. How does he stay warm? I have a tiny mouth and tiny eyes. Og's eyes are HUGE and so is his mouth. I say, "SQUEAK." He says, "BOING!" No, we're definitely not related. During recess, my friends didn't go out to the playground as usual. They stayed inside and played FUN-FUN-FUN board games and card games. While they were playing, I glanced out the window again and was amazed to see the sun shining brightly. The tree branches dripped as the ice melted. Maybe spring was on the way after all. I crossed my toes and hoped. By the time Aldo arrived that night to clean Room 26, all of the ice had melted. (There are streetlamps that help me see the street and parking lot.) " Mamma mia, " he said. "What a day! I was late to class because of all the ice. And I can't afford to be late to class. After all, I'm about to graduate from college!" Aldo always does an amazing job of keeping Room 26 clean. Of course, since he was going to college so he could become a teacher like Mrs. Brisbane, he wouldn't be cleaning classrooms once he graduated. "It won't be long now, Humphrey, and I'll be the father of twins!" he said. I was happy that Aldo was having twins and going to college, but I wasn't so happy for me. After all, Aldo brought Og and me treats every night. That night, he brought little zucchini sticks--crunchy and sweet! Og got some Froggy Fish Sticks. He loves them--which is another reason I know we're not related. Ick! Aldo sat down and unwrapped his sandwich. "I wonder if my twins will ever realize how hard I've worked to get ahead." "Of course they will," I squeaked. "They'll be proud!" "I'm already applying for teaching jobs in the fall," Aldo said. "But I have to say, every time I think about leaving Longfellow School, I think of how much I'll miss you two." My heart did a little flip-flop. "I'll miss you, too," I squeaked. "BOING-BOING-BOING!" Og agreed. Aldo finished his sandwich in silence. And when he was gone, I felt a teeny-tiny bit sad. I didn't care that much about the treats, but I would MISS-MISS-MISS seeing Aldo--and his amazing mustache! HUMPHREY'S SPRING THINGS I'm REALLY-REALLY-REALLY happy that soon there will be spring. But I don't know what to think about this family thing! Chapter 2: The Waiting Game After Aldo's car had left the parking lot, I decided to go see Gigi. She's the guinea pig in Ms. Mac's first-grade class. "Og, I'm going to check on Gigi," I said. "But I won't be gone long because she has to get to sleep." I'm HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY that hamsters don't sleep all through the night, because that's the time I have my biggest adventures! I'm only sorry that Og worries about me when I'm gone. I jiggled my lock-that-doesn't-lock and scurried across the table. I took a deep breath and slid down the table leg to the floor. I scrambled across the room and crawled under the door, then raced down the darkened hallway to Room 12. Once I was inside, I hurried to the table by the window. I wasn't sure if Gigi was awake or not, so I quietly squeaked, "Gigi? Hi, it's me, Humphrey." "Hi, Humphrey," she replied in her soft voice. I'm pawsitively thrilled that I can understand Gigi. I can understand humans, but they can't understand me the way Gigi does. And I still haven't figured out frog language. "I was hoping you'd visit," she said. "Can you come up here?" Getting up to the tabletop is always dangerous, but I grabbed onto the blinds cord, which hung almost on the floor, and slowly swung higher and higher until I could let go and leap onto the table near Gigi. "Did you see the ice this morning?" I asked. "Here it is March and we had an ice storm! All my friends in Room Twenty-six can't wait for spring to come." "What's spring?" Gigi asked. She's a little younger than I am and hasn't been in school very long. "It's what comes after winter," I explained. "It gets warmer and greener and things start to grow again." "Oh," Gigi said. "I don't know about those things." "You will," I assured her. "Just pay attention in class. Ms. Mac is a great teacher." "I know," Gigi said. "I love Ms. Mac." I love Ms. Mac, too, even though she broke my heart once and moved away. Luckily, she came back. She's not my teacher anymore, but she still visits me sometimes. Gigi suddenly yawned. "Sorry, Humphrey," she said. "You know I go to bed early." "I know," I replied. "And I like to stay up late." "It's not easy to sleep with the blinds open," she said. "The streetlight shines in my cage and wakes me up." Mrs. Brisbane used to close the blinds at night, but Aldo started opening them so I could see outside. I guess Aldo opens them for Gigi, too. "Maybe I can close them," I said. I examined the blinds. Up until that moment, I'd only used the cord as a way to make my way up to the tables in Room 26 and Room 12. I usually gently swing myself up to table level. I don't weigh very much and I've never had a problem. But in order to make the blinds come down, I gave the cord a hard yank. Nothing happened, so I pulled it to the left. Suddenly the blinds crashed down and the cord lifted me up off the table. I was hanging in midair! "Humphrey! What are you doing up there?" Gigi asked. "I'm stuck," I said. I was feeling SCARED-SCARED-SCARED. If I let go, I'd fall down on the table and I might hurt myself. If I pulled harder, the cord might lift me up even higher! I knew I couldn't hang on forever. I needed a Plan and I needed it quickly! I looked around to see if there was something soft on the table. There were stacks of papers and a few books, as well as Gigi's guinea pig food. Then I saw it: a box of nice, soft-looking tissues. Un-fortunately, they were too far away for me to jump on. "Gigi, have you ever tried jiggling your lock open?" I asked. "No," she said. "Why?" "If you have a lock-that-doesn't-lock, like mine, then you could help me," I said. "Oh, I want to help! What should I do?" Gigi asked. I told her to push up, push down and JIGGLE-JIGGLE-JIGGLE the lock. Nothing happened. "Try leaning against the door with all your weight," I suggested. "Then jiggle the door. "Gigi put her body against the door and then she wig-gled and jiggled and--oh, my! The door swung wide open! Gigi gasped. "Now what?" I asked her to push the tissue box until it was directly under me. She didn't waste any time. She slid the box toward me until it was right under my legs. "That's it," I said. I closed my eyes and let go, dropping down onto a very soft bed of tissues. "Are you okay?" Gigi asked. I sneezed because a little tissue fluff got in my nose. "I'm fine," I said. "Thanks for saving me." I climbed out of the box and hopped onto the table. "I was scared," Gigi whispered. "But you're very brave." "I was a little bit scared, too," I said. "Thanks for helping me. I promise I'll never make that mistake again!" Then I realized that we had another problem. The top tissue where I landed wouldn't be clean. (Even though I'm a very clean hamster.) I wouldn't want one of my human friends to use it. Luckily, I had another Plan. Gigi and I pushed the tis-sue box on its side and I gently removed the top one. "Won't Ms. Mac notice that the box is on its side?" Gigi asked. "Yes, but she won't know that we did it," I explained. I was going to push the used tissue onto the floor, but I didn't want Aldo to get in trouble. I pushed it under the bag of food instead. "So now that you're out of your cage, would you like to go on an adventure?" I asked. "We can just slide down the table leg." Gigi looked horrified. "Guinea pigs don't slide or climb. It's too scary." That seemed strange, because hamsters like me LOVE-LOVE-LOVE adventures. My friend yawned. "Sorry, Humphrey, but it's my bedtime. Nighty-night." She crawled into her cage and I pushed the door shut. Yep, the lock looked locked, just like mine. When I got back to Room 26, Og greeted me with a series of BOINGs. I was used to the strange sound he makes, but he was unusually loud. "Sorry I was gone so long. I was just, um, hanging around," I said. I tried to make a joke, but dangling in midair hadn't been funny at all. I'd never look at a blinds cord the same way again! Later, I got out my little notebook to write about my fur-raising experience. I loved writing by the warm glow of the streetlight. Hamsters and guinea pigs may under-stand one another, but we're different in so many ways. My classmates and I spent a lot of time looking for signs of spring, but we didn't come up with much. "My mom ordered seeds for her garden," Felipe said one day. "But she can't plant them yet." "I'd still say that was a sign of spring," Mrs. Brisbane said. March was a funny month. We'd have sunshine and warmer weather for a few days. Then suddenly, it would rain and turn cold and gloomy. "Og, have you seen one single sign of spring yet?" I asked after two weeks of feeling frustrated. He replied with a very bored-sounding "BOING." "Me either," I said. My friends were as frustrated as I was. "You'd think the leaves would be budding," Holly complained. Not-Now-Nicole sighed. "You'd think the flowers would be blooming." "Where are the robins?" Rosie wondered. Mrs. Brisbane smiled. "They'll be here soon. The first day of spring is coming up." Small-Paul raised his hand. "I was reading up on the average temperatures for March here, and this is com-pletely normal." There were several loud groans. "It's not my fault," Paul said. "It's a scientific fact." "We don't blame you, Paul," Rolling-Rosie said. "But why does science have to be so...scientific?" At least she made everybody laugh. A few days before the first day of spring, it snowed . . . again. "This is not fair!" Harry groaned. Daniel agreed. "At least it could have snowed enough for them to call off school! "Mrs. Brisbane went on to talk about math problems and I gazed out at the snow. It wasn't very deep and there were patches of brown showing through. White and brown. Brown and white. White and . . . purple? "Look!" I squeaked. "LOOK-LOOK-LOOK!" I knew that the purple thing could be a wrapper from somebody's lunch. Or anything someone might have dropped. I climbed to the tippy top of my cage for a bet-ter look. "Humphrey seems excited," Mrs. Brisbane said, hur-rying to the table. "Is something wrong?" "NO-NO-NO!" I squeaked. "It's a sign!" She didn't understand me, of course, but Og joined in with a "BOING-BOING!" "They're looking outside," our teacher said. "But what are they looking at?" The students rushed to the window to look. Og and I continued to make a lot of noise. "It's purple! It's spring!" I squeaked. "BOING-BOING-BOING!" Og added. Rosie leaned forward in her wheelchair and pressed her nose against the window. "Look!" She pointed. "It's a purple flower coming through the snow!" The classroom buzzed with excitement. "Where?" Thomas asked. "Yeah, where?" Sophie said. "I see it." Mrs. Brisbane pointed, too. "Over there, near the base of the tall tree. "I heard lots of oohs and aahs. "I think we should go out and see for ourselves," Mrs. Brisbane said. "Yes, we should!" I squeaked.It seemed to take them forever to put on coats and hats, boots and gloves, and then tramp outside to see the flower. My friends were excited and so was I--until I realized that Og and I weren't going outside with them. The cold isn't good for either one of us. I knew that, but I couldn't help but wish that I could put on a coat and hat and boots and gloves and join them! Og and I silently stared out the window until we saw Mrs. Brisbane lead my friends to the little spot of purple. Everyone crouched down to stare at the purple bloom. Mrs. Brisbane snapped a photo. And then she did something wonderful. She looked right up at our window and waved. I don't think she could see me, but I waved back. "BOING!" Og twanged. "BOING-BOING!" I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Mrs. Brisbane. And at that moment, I knew that she LOVED-LOVED-LOVED me. And Og, too, of course. When my friends returned to Room 26, their cheeks were rosy and their eyes sparkled with excitement. "What did you call that flower, Mrs. Brisbane?" Tell-the-Truth-Thomas asked. "I believe it was a crocus," she said. "Let's look it up." Once the gloves and hats and boots and scarves were off, Mrs. Brisbane opened a big book and turned page after page. "Here," she said. "What do you think?"My friends all leaned in around her desk, where she had opened the book. "I wish I could see it," I told Og. "BOING-BOING!" he replied. "It's definitely a crocus," Helpful-Holly said. "And to think, it poked its little head up through the snow." The door to Room 26 swung open and in walked the Most Important Person at Longfellow School, our prin-cipal, Mr. Morales! "I saw you all tramping through the snow," he said. "I wondered what you were looking at. "He was smiling, so I knew he wasn't upset. "There's a purple crocus in the snow!" Stop-Talking-Sophie said. "It's the first sign of spring--and it was beautiful! I'll show you!" She led Mr. Morales to the window and pointed. "It's that little bit of purple near the tree. "Mrs. Brisbane was behind us. "Humphrey and Og seemed to spot it first," she said. "Because they are very wise and observant," Mr. Morales said. "Thank you," I squeaked. "BOING!" Og said. Then I heard voices chanting, "It's spring! It's spring! It's such a wonderful thing!" I looked over and saw Rosie, Holly, Nicole and Kelsey joining hands and repeating, "It's spring! It's spring! It's such wonderful thing!" Mr. Morales smiled and said, "I agree. I sit in my of-fice and work at my desk and talk on my phone, and sometimes, I never even look out the window. Thank you for showing me a wonderful thing." It's funny how a little purple flower in the snow can make people so happy. Hamsters and frogs, too! After Mr. Morales left, my classmates started writing about the first sign of spring. Mrs. Brisbane wrote crocus on the chalkboard. She also passed around purple crayons for my friends to share. They were VERY-VERY-VERY quiet until they left for lunch. While they were gone, I took out my notebook. I didn't have a purple crayon, but I think I did a pretty good job of drawing a crocus without one! HUMPHREY'S SPRING THINGS It almost took forever to see a sign of spring, But now that it has happened, it's such a thrilling thing! Chapter 3: The Humster At the end of the day, Mrs. Brisbane handed out flyers to all my friends. "This is the information about Family Fun Night. Please share it with your family so they can mark the date on their calendars." As soon as the papers were in my friends' backpacks, the bell rang and they raced out of the room. Slow-Down-Simon was the first student out, as usual. Hurry-Up-Harry was the last student to gather up his coat and hat and leave Room 26. Mrs. Brisbane straightened the papers on her desk. Then she came over to the window and looked out. "I hope we see more signs of spring soon," she said. "We usually do by now." "We saw the crocus!" I reminded her. Mrs. Brisbane looked at me and smiled. "I imagine that you're ready for spring, too." She looked over at Og. "How about you, Og?" Og didn't answer. He just dived into the water side of his tank and started swimming. Mrs. Brisbane chuckled. "At least you have a swim-ming pool year-round." Hamsters like me don't like swimming, but I guess humans and frogs do. After Mrs. Brisbane was gone for the day--and be-fore Aldo came in to clean--I told Og I was going to visit Gigi. I wanted to make sure she saw the flower in the snow before it was dark. "Hi, Humphrey!" Gigi happily squeaked as I slid under the door. I scurried over to the table and swung myself up. I was a little out of breath when I said, "Did you see the first sign of spring?" "No," Gigi said, looking around her cage. "Where is it?" "Outside," I replied. Luckily, the blinds were open. Gigi looked toward the window and twisted her head from side to side. "I don't see anything but a little snow on the ground." "Open your door," I said. "Remember how?"Gigi leaned against the door, wiggling and jiggling until it popped open. "I can't believe that really works," she said. The two of us moved close to the window and looked out. "Look over to the right, near that tall tree. There's something purple on the ground," I explained. Gigi squinted and stared, and then she said, "What is that?" I explained about the crocus being the first flower of spring, pushing through the snow. "I didn't think flowers grew when it was cold," Gigi said. I explained that they usually don't, but sometimes they pop up right through the snow. "It's beautiful," Gigi whispered. We sat for a while, staring out at the little speck of purple in the white snow. Finally, I asked, "Did Ms. Mac tell the class about Family Fun Night?" "Uh-huh," Gigi said. "It sounds like fun, but will there be a lot of people there? And will it be noisy?" "Yes." I laughed. "I think there will be a lot of people, and when people are having fun, they're usually noisy." Gigi giggled. "That's true." She paused for a while, and then she said, "Families are awfully nice." I nodded. "I've been to homes with lots of wonderful families. I always get a warm feeling in my toes when I see families together." "Me too," Gigi agreed. "Of course, I don't have a family." "I don't have one, either," I said. "But I must have had a family sometime. I mean, as mammals, we had a mother and a father and probably brothers and sisters." "I can't remember." Gigi sounded sad. "Neither can I," I said. "But everybody has a family somewhere. "Gigi went back into her cage. I helped her shut the door so it looked as if it hadn't been opened. "I'm sorry the blinds are open," I said. "At least I saw the crocus," she said. "And Ms. Mac said she left a note for Aldo to close the blinds when he's done cleaning. She knows I need my sleep." Leave it to Ms. Mac to understand a classroom pet. "Sleep well," I told her. When I got back to my cage in Room 26, I told Og all about my visit. "BOING-BOING-BOING!" he twanged when I talked about families. "Do you remember your family?" I asked him.He didn't answer. He just dived into the water with a huge splash. "I'm sure you had a nice one," I said as I returned to my cage. "I'm sure we all did, if we could only remember." When Aldo cleaned the classroom that night, he was restless. As he swept the floor, he muttered to himself, but, of course, Og and I could hear him. "It's all happening at once," he said. "Final exams, grad-uation, job hunting and two new babies! It's too much." My whiskers wiggled as I heard him talking. Didn't Aldo want to graduate from college, get a better job and be the father of twins? Aldo emptied the floor sweepings into the trash can. "What if I fail?" he said. "You won't!" I squeaked. "NEVER-NEVER-NEVER!" Og chimed in with a very loud "BOING-BOING!" I was surprised when Aldo laughed. "You two," he said. "You never let a friend down, do you?" "I certainly hope not!" I squeaked back. Even though Aldo couldn't understand me, I was warmly rewarded with a sweet and tender piece of let-tuce from the sandwich he ate on his break. "Thanks, pals," he told us as he threw a Froggy Fish Stick into my friend's tank. "You're welcome, Aldo," I replied. On Friday afternoon, I saw the biggest grin I've ever seen! It was Joey smiling when Mrs. Brisbane announced that I'd be going home with him for the weekend. I was delighted to see him so happy, but I was also a little worried. Sometimes he talked about his dog, Skip-per, who was very good at catching a Frisbee with his teeth. Skipper must have large and sharp teeth to catch something flying through the air at great speed. I'm not fond of dogs with large, sharp teeth because I've had bad experiences with them in the past. "I never thought it would happen," Joey said as he picked up my cage. "I wish we could go home right away, but I have to go to the after-school program. You can come with me." I'd never heard of an after-school program before, but anything that has to do with school is FUN-FUN-FUN to me. Joey carefully carried my cage (and his coat) down the hall. The gym is an enormous room with bleachers and a stage. It wasn't my first time there, but it was my first time there for the after-school program. I was happy to see many of my friends. Calm- Down-Cassie, Tell-the-Truth-Thomas, Hurry-Up-Harry and Helpful-Holly from my class were there. But so were some friends from last year's class: Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi, Don't-Complain-Mandy, Pay-Attention-Art, Speak- Up- Sayeh and Sit-Still-Seth. They all seemed so happy to see me. As soon as Joey put my cage down on a table, everyone gathered around. "Humphrey the Hamster," Art said. "It's Humphrey Dumpty," Mandy said. That was the nickname A.J. had given me. "No, he's the Humster," Harry said. That was a new nickname I'd never heard before. "The Humster! The Humster!" my friends began to chant. I liked my silly new nickname.Their chanting stopped suddenly when a loud whistle blasted and my small hamster ears began to vibrate. "Ow!" I squeaked. Of course, I knew who blew that whistle. I'd seen it--and heard it--many times before. Mrs. Wright, the PE teacher and owner of the whis-tle, leaned over my cage. "What is the hamster doing in my gym?" I hopped on my wheel and squeaked, "Getting some exercise!" I braced myself in case she blew the whistle, but in-stead, she leaned in closer. "Well, at least it's getting some exercise." Then she stood up and looked around. "Who brought this animal to the gym?" Joey stepped forward. "I did. I'm taking him home for the weekend, but my mom won't be here until five-thirty. So I thought he should come with me." Mrs. Wright shook her head. "I wish Mrs. Brisbane would clear these things with me. Couldn't he have stayed in the classroom?" "Yes," Joey answered. "But Mrs. Brisbane locks the door when she leaves, so how would I get him out?" "Yes, how?" I squeaked at Mrs. Wright, even though, to squeak the truth, I'm a bit afraid of her. "No pets allowed in the after-school program," she said. "Can you imagine what this gym would be like with dogs and cats and rabbits and hamsters running loose around the gym?" When she put it that way, I could see her point. I didn't want to be running around with dogs and cats in the gym or anywhere else! Joey looked down at my cage. "What should I do?" Mrs. Wright sighed. "Well, he's here now, so I guess this time he'll have to stay. But never again." Sometimes Mrs. Wright's voice made me shiver and quiver, because I'd worry that she'd blow that loud whistle. "I have an idea," Joey said to Mrs. Wright. She had her hand on the whistle as she looked down at him. "We could build a hamster maze for Humphrey," he said. "He loves that." "A hamster maze?" she asked in a way that made me think she didn't approve of hamsters or mazes. "We put up books or bricks or whatever to make the maze and watch Humphrey run through it. Maybe we could make a human maze, too," Joey said. Mrs. Wright thought for a moment. "I guess that would keep us all active and out of trouble," she said. Keeping active was REALLY-REALLY-REALLY im-portant to her. That's one thing we have in common! Before I knew it, there was a lovely maze on the gymnasium floor, made of gymnastics mats and back-packs and cones and I don't know what! There I was, running through it as fast as my paws would take me. And there were my friends, all cheering me on. It wasn't until I got to the end that Mrs. Wright blew her whistle. Eeek, that was loud! But when my friends shouted, "Yay, Humster! Yay, Humster!" I felt hamster-iffic! Next, my friends all ran through the maze, and I think Mrs. Wright was pretty happy to see them moving. "Faster, Harry! You can do it! Go for it, Mandy!" she shouted. When she wasn't blowing her whistle, she actually seemed like a very nice human. The time passed quickly, so when Just-Joey's mom showed up, I couldn't believe it. It was five-thirty and time to go home. "Wait until you meet Skipper." Joey put a warm blan-ket over my cage as we headed to the car. Meet a dog? With sharp teeth? I could wait! HUMPHREY'S SPRING THINGS It's fun to be with friends and run a maze, But when it comes to dogs, I'd like to wait a few more days! Excerpted from Spring According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.