Little Britches Read Online Free Page B

out at noon, she divided our lunch and went off with the other girls to hunt for the right-sized stones. Mother had baked us each a cup custard. I laid my two sandwiches and piece of cake on top of my cup and went to look for a place to eat it. When I was halfway out to the carnage shed, Freddie came running with another stick to put on my shoulder. I spilled my sandwiches and cake trying to get away, and he knocked the cup out of my hands, yelling, "Fight, Molly!" All the other boys laughed at me. Some of them yelled, "Hit the little sissy, Freddie, make him fight." I had to run away to the far corner of the yard.
    All the other youngsters either rode to school or drove in old buggies. There was an open shed where they backed the buggies in at one end and tied the horses at the other. Willie Aldivote rode a funny-looking grayish-white donkey with big yellow splotches. After they had eaten their lunches, the other boys got the donkey out and started to ride him. They would hold him by the ears until some boy got on, then they'd let him loose and tickle him with a switch. He would buck like sixty. Sometimes the boys stayed on and sometimes they fell off.
    I had come back to the corner of the shed where I could watch. When Freddie saw me, he hollered, "Let's put Molly on him," and they did.
    I wasn't very much afraid. I hadn't fallen off the cowboy's horse, and thought I could cut the mustard. Anyway, I was willing to take the chance. Mother hadn't said I couldn't ride a donkey, and I wanted to show the boys I wasn't a sissy. My ride lasted about half of the donkey's first buck jump. He kicked his heels up, and I pitched off between his ears. I landed right on my face in the gravel. I skinned my nose and bit my tongue. I couldn't help crying a little, but I didn't make any noise.
    Mother nearly went frantic when we got home from school. My Buster Brown suit was pretty well messed up from the bloody nose I got when I fell off the donkey, and Freddie had given me a good working over after school. I guess it hadn't helped my looks very much. Grace was so busy telling Mother about my being a good boy and not fighting that, until after I was all cleaned up, she forgot to give her the note Miss Wheeler had sent.
    Mother's eyes got all full of tears when she was washing my face and putting court plaster on my nose. She told me that she was proud of me for being a little gentleman, and that she would see to it that those ruffians didn't attack me again. Grace hadn't seen me try to ride the donkey, and I thought it would be best not to mention it to Mother.

    Father came in from digging post holes just after Grace had remembered about the note. Mother was madder than ever and read it aloud to him. The teacher said that Grace had adjusted herself very nicely with the other girls and she was sure I would soon make my adjustment, but she would suggest that I wear overalls to school like the other boys.
    Mother tossed the note down on the table and slapped it with her hand. Her lips were pinched together and she said, "The fact that I am going to bring my children up on a farm isn't going to prevent me from bringing them up to be ladies and gentlemen. Ralph wearing overalls to school! The very idea! I shall see that teacher the first thing in the morning."
    Father shut his eyes and scratched the back of his head. Then he said, "There might be some reason in what she says, Mame. And, you know, there have been some gentlemen in overalls." Mother's lips pinched tighter than ever, and she never said a word.
    Father and Mother sat up in the kitchen till after I went to sleep. I don't know what they talked about, but the part that was about me must have ended in a compromise. Mother didn't go to see the teacher, and I didn't wear overalls to school.
    My time at school wasn't happy. Freddie Sprague made it miserable, and I got so I was scared to death of the yellow-spotted donkey. Freddie thought it was a lot of fun to grab me by the back of my