Agatha Parrot and the Mushroom Boy Read Online Free Page A

grams,’ said Bianca’s mum.
    â€˜Miles too big!’ muttered James happily.
    Then we saw Martha pulling an old gentlemen over to see Miss Pingle. ‘This is my grandad,’ said Martha. ‘He used to be a baker so he’ll know.’
    â€˜That cake will be about 43 ounces,’ said Martha’s grandad, handing over his 20p.
    â€˜We don’t measure in ounces these days,’ said Miss Pingle who wasn’t really sure what an ounce was. ‘We use grams.’
    â€˜Oh, righto,’ smiled the jolly old gentleman who was admiring Miss Pingle’s blue hair. ‘Can you convert 43 ounces to grams for me?’
    â€˜Of course,’ said Miss Pingle andshe carefully wrote down
43 grams
.*
    (*Warning! The old bloke who is typing this book out says that ounces used to be the old-fashioned way of weighing things. What’s more 43 ounces is not even close to being 43 grams, so if you say it is then you’ll sound like a bit of a weirdo. Mind you, the old bloke says that the real answer is that 43 ounces = 1,219·03 grams. Gosh, anybody who knows that would have to be a COMPLETE weirdo – just like he is! Ha ha ha . . . oh ok, I’m only kidding. Keep typing please.)
    James was starting to feel confident. Nobody had come close to the number he’d worked out yet, but then Gwendoline Tutt marched over to the table. She’s the one who lives at the top end of Odd Street in the big house with the tree in front and a space to park two cars. She hates school fetes, but her mum toldher that she had to have one go on everything before she could leave.
    â€˜One two three four,’ said Gwendoline Tutt slapping down her 20p coin.Her best friend Olivia Livid was with her and they both sniggered rudely.

    â€˜Do you mean one thousand, two hundred and thirty-four grams?’ asked Miss Pingle.
    â€˜Yeah, whatever,’ said Gwendoline. ‘I don’t want to win the stupid thing anyway.’
    â€˜It looks gross,’ agreed Olivia and then the two of them walked off to make rude remarks about something else.
    Next to me James slumped back against the railings like he’d been thumped by a ghost.
    â€˜Aren’t you going to have your go?’ I asked him.
    â€˜No point!’ he groaned. ‘I spent all night working out the exact weight of that cake, and then Gwendoline Tutt just guessed it. She’ll win and she doesn’t even want to.’
    â€˜Oh dear oh dear what a big pity,’ I said being a lovely sister. ‘But maybeyou didn’t get it exactly right? You could try guessing one gram more than Gwendoline, and then just to be sure, guess one gram less?’
    â€˜But that’s two goes!’ wailed James. ‘That’ll cost 40p.’
    â€˜It’s either that or you’ll get no more pocket money ever,’ I reminded him. ‘So quick, do it now before somebody else guesses those same numbers.’
    James thought about it for amoment, then hurried over to pay his 40p. Miss Pingle carefully wrote down
1233g – J Parrot
and also
1235g – J Parrot
.
    â€˜You seem very sure, James,’ said Miss Pingle suspiciously. ‘I hope you didn’t weigh the cake at home before it got here?’
    Ha ha ha ha! You should have seen James’s face.
    â€˜Oh no, I’d never dream of doing that!’ said James wishing he
had
dreamed of it. It would have saved him a whole night of sitting up doing tricky sums. Poor little James.

Mean Old Mum and Martha’s Milkshake
    A fter the first rush of wild excitement, there’s always about an hour of school fetes which is really boring. That’s because everybody has to hang around until Mrs Twelvetrees gives out the raffleprizes, and she
never
does that until she’s dead certain that we’ve all got tickets.
    Most people are like Martha’s mum who bought loads of tickets for Martha because she always does. Lucky Martha.
    Unlucky me.
    Our