Ralph S. Mouse - Beverly Cleary [18]
Ryan muttered to Brad, “Just because you get to come to school in a tow truck you think you’re so big.”
“Just because you get to live in a hotel you think you’re better than anybody,” mumbled Brad.
These remarks were lost to the class because the girls, bored with the scuffle discussion, were waving their clippings from the Cucaracha Voice. “Miss K,” said Gloria, “I think that reporter was unfair. What she said about us was all wrong.”
Some members of the class, protesting that their families did not subscribe to the Voice, demanded to know what the article said.
Miss K read the headline aloud. Class Nabs Sneed Invader.
What’s she talking about? wondered Ralph, moving from the mitten to Melissa’s overturned boot for a better view. What invader?
Miss K continued. “Under Ralph’s picture, the story reads, ‘Friday afternoon the fifth-grade class of Miss Bambi Kuckenbacker at Irwin J. Sneed Elementary School exhibited a mouse, thought to be one of many mice overrunning their school. They also discussed the harm rodents do to crops and food supplies and the rapidity with which they multiply.’”
There was a murmur of disapproval from the class as Miss K read on. “‘When informed of the mouse plague at the monthly meeting of the school board Friday evening, Superintendent Clyde R. Crossman promised a full investigation of conditions at Sneed.’”
The class sat in outraged silence. Ralph was aghast. One tiny mouse an invader overrunning the whole school all by himself?
Suddenly everyone had something to say. “Our exhibit wasn’t like that at all.” “We were having fun, and she made our school sound terrible.” “Poor little Ralph didn’t invade us. Ryan brought him to school.” “She made our school sound dirty, and Mr. Costa works hard.” “She was mean not to put our picture in the paper.” “She stayed about two minutes and didn’t understand what we were doing.”
Gordon felt he was to blame for the story. “I didn’t mean to get Ralph investigated,” he said. “I just wrote facts I found in library books. I didn’t mean that Ralph personally ran around harming crops.”
Just how am I going to be investigated? Ralph was beginning to wonder.
Brad was pleased that someone else was in the wrong. “I think that reporter is a rat fink,” was his contribution to the discussion.
Miss K asked if he couldn’t find a better way of expressing himself.
After a moment, he said, “I think that reporter just said what she wanted to say and didn’t care about us.”
One boy said, “My father says bad news sells more papers than good news.”
Everyone agreed that the reporter’s saying bad things about their school in order to sell more copies of the Cucaracha Voice was mean, unfair, and just plain sneaky. They did good things at their school, and she should have said so.
Melissa said, “I think we should all write letters to the paper and say the story wasn’t true and that there is, or was, only one mouse here.”
“A splendid idea, Melissa,” said Miss K, always eager for a new project. “We can write letters for our Language Arts class. However, I think we should be careful that we tell the truth.”
Of course, Room 5 would tell the truth. Room 5 always told the truth, except when they fibbed a little.
Miss K continued. “Can we be sure that Ralph was the only mouse in school? Our principal told me that this morning, after reading the article in last night’s Voice, the cafeteria workers reported a hole in a bag of sugar and tail tracings in the spilled sugar. The fourth-grade teacher reported that seeds had disappeared from the mosaics her class had made, the librarian said the shredded material from the bags that books are mailed in has been scattered on the carpet, and the first-grade teacher said she found tooth marks in a jar of paste.”
This information silenced the class but left Ralph burdened with guilt. He was just a little mouse trying to get along in the world. He had not meant to cause so much trouble.
Melissa spoke out. “Maybe if there