Runaway Ralph - Beverly Cleary [31]
“A hat!” someone shouted. “Where’s a hat?”
In his panic Ralph ran up and over a foot in a white sock. Its owner screamed. Sam, alerted by the scream, began to bark.
A straw cowboy hat plopped down on the concrete floor, making a dark dome over Ralph. The daylight that shone between the straws seemed like starlight to a mouse.
“Look!” shrieked Karen. “A hole in my sleeping bag! He chewed a big hole right in my sleeping bag!”
Sam, frantic to protect the girls, scrabbled his paws against the screen door.
“It’s only me,” squeaked Ralph, but no one could hear him.
Ralph was alert, waiting for someone to lift the hat so that he could make a dash, if not for a knothole, at least for the shelter of a bunk.
“There’s something in the hole in my sleeping bag,” cried Karen. “My watch. Look! It’s my missing watch!” Feet went padding to Karen’s bunk.
The screen door opened. One set of dog footsteps and two sets of human footsteps entered, those of the girl who had gone for the washbasin and those of someone else. “Girls, what is going on in here?” asked Aunt Jill. “This is supposed to be rest time.”
Ralph could hear Sam snuffling around in circles with his nose to the floor.
The girls all tried to speak at once, but Karen managed to tell about the finding of the watch. “So Garf couldn’t have taken it,” said another girl.
“And we have the mouse in person right here under that hat,” said another.
Sam’s nose came to a halt at the hat brim.
“Hey, Sam. It’s only me,” squeaked Ralph in alarm. He was relieved to have Sam sit and begin to pant. Ralph pressed his eye to a crack in the straw and saw Sam’s long pink tongue hanging out.
“But what I don’t understand,” said Karen, “is how the watch got inside the hole. A mouse couldn’t put it there.”
You’ll never know, thought Ralph in grim amusement.
“Aunt Jill, what shall we do with the mouse?” Ralph heard one of the girls ask. “We’re going to scoop him up in this washbasin.”
Not if I can help it, thought Ralph.
“Why don’t we give him to Garf?” suggested Aunt Jill. “I’m sure he misses his mouse, and I know his feelings were hurt because some people thought he had taken the watch.”
“Good idea!” agreed Karen.
Well, thought Ralph, that takes care of a lot of things. When the brim of the hat was lifted and the rim of the plastic washbasin scraped against the floor, Ralph hopped into the basin and, with hat still held over him, felt himself being lifted. Then the hat was raised a few inches on one side of the basin, and Ralph saw a row of eyes staring at him. Ralph could not help trembling, even though he was sure he had nothing to fear.
“He’s so little!” said one of the girls, marveling.
“Aunt Jill, he looks an awful lot like Garf’s mouse,” said Karen. “You don’t suppose—”
“One mouse looks pretty much like another,” said Aunt Jill briskly. “Now girls, back to your bunks. I’ll take the mouse to Garf.” Darkness fell on Ralph as she replaced the hat over the basin.
Ralph felt himself being carried out of the girls’ lodge and past the craft shop, where he could hear Chum gnawing at the bars of his cage. Poor old Chum. He heard the door of Garf’s lodge being opened. “Garf,” whispered Aunt Jill. “Wake up. Wake up! I have something for you.”
“Huh?” said Garf sleepily. Waking a sleeping boy on a hot summer afternoon is not easy.
“I have a mouse for you,” said Aunt Jill.
“A mouse!” Ralph could tell Garf was wide awake now. “Let me see.”
Ralph sat quietly in the basin while the hat was cautiously lifted. He could see the other boys and their counselor sprawled in sleep on their bunks, and on a ledge over Garf’s lower bunk he saw his crash helmet. “Karen found him in a hole in her sleeping bag,” Aunt Jill explained. “And it was the strangest thing. She found her missing watch inside the hole.” Ralph saw that Aunt Jill was studying him thoughtfully.
“No kidding!” exclaimed Garf, forgetting to keep his voice down.
“Yes,” whispered Aunt Jill, “and the girls thought you might like to have the mouse.