Henry and the Paper Route Read Online Free

interest in Ribsy’s problem and began to bark with him.
    â€œI said ‘quiet’!” Henry shouted through the glass, plucking a kitten from the curtain at the same time.
    â€œOuch,” exclaimed Mrs. Huggins, unhooking a tiny claw from her stockings. “There go my nylons.”
    Ribsy scratched at the glass and gave several short yelps, as if he were trying to tell Henry how much he needed to get inside and clear out those kittens.
    â€œQuiet!” ordered all three Hugginses at the same time.
    â€œWell, anyhow, Dad,” said Henry, andexplained to his mother and father about finding the kittens at the rummage sale. He did not mention the paper route or how hehad happened to be at the rummage sale. From the way his parents were looking at him, he could see that the kittens were going to be a problem, and one problem at a time was all he could handle.

    â€œAnd so you can’t take the kittens back where you got them,” concluded Mr. Huggins, picking a kitten from his trouser leg.
    â€œNo,” admitted Henry.
    â€œBut Henry,” said Mrs. Huggins, “you can’t keep four kittens.”
    â€œNo,” said Mr. Huggins. “You can’t keep even one kitten. A dog is enough—too much sometimes, with his fleas and muddy paws. Besides, Ribsy would never stand for it. Tomorrow morning you take all four kittens down to the pet shop and give them to Mr. Pennycuff.”
    â€œAw, Dad,” protested Henry, who did not like the idea of his kittens’ being sold tostrangers. He looked at the four of them frisking around the room and sighed. If he could not keep them himself, he wanted to know that they had good homes. He would rather sell them to the neighbors—the nicest neighbors, of course.
    â€œCan’t I sell them around the neighborhood myself?” Henry asked.
    â€œIf you want to. Just so you get rid of them,” said Mr. Huggins. “You know, there is just one thing wrong with kittens.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Henry.
    â€œThey grow up to be cats,” answered Mr. Huggins with a grin.
    Henry knew his father thought this was funny, but he did not. Of course kittens grew up to be cats. Puppies grew up to be dogs. Boys grew up to be policemen or pilots or something, but this took a long time.
    Henry felt that he had one thing in hisfavor. He did not have to take the kittens to the pet shop until the next morning, and perhaps something would happen in the meantime to make his mother and father change their minds. Maybe Ribsy would make friends with the kittens, and then his mother and father would see how nice it would be to have a kitten around the house.
    The way things turned out, Henry had a busy evening. The first thing to do, he decided, was to feed the kittens and get them out of the way before he fed Ribsy. Feeding them was easy enough, but getting them out of the way was not so easy. Henry put an old towel in a box beside the stove and lifted the kittens into it. They climbed right out and scattered over the kitchen floor.
    â€œHey, come back here,” said Henry, while Ribsy, who had come around to the back of the house, barked and scratched at the backdoor. All the other dogs on Klickitat Street barked in sympathy.
    â€œQuiet!” yelled Henry, out of the kitchen window.
    Mrs. Huggins, who was trying to make gravy, stepped on a kitten. The kitten screeched, and Mrs. Huggins was so startled that she dropped her spoon, spattering gravy on the linoleum. She did not need to wipe it up, though. The kittens took care of that.
    â€œSee how useful they are,” Henry pointed out.
    â€œI know there are only four kittens,” said Mrs. Huggins, “but they seem like a dozen.”
    Ribsy barked. He told the whole neighborhood that he was hungry and neglected out there, all alone on the back porch.
    â€œI’m coming, Ribsy,” Henry called, as he scooped up the kittens and put them in the box once more. Because