Surprises According to Humphrey Read Online Free

teacher unhappy. Once, he put a cushion on Repeat-It-Please-Richie’s chair that made a VERY-VERY-VERY rude noise when Richie sat on it. He called it a “whoopee” cushion. My friends laughed so hard (including Richie), they all wanted a chance to sit on it, but Mrs. Brisbane took it away and made Kirk sit in the cloakroom for a while.
    This time, Mrs. Brisbane held out her hand. “Let me see it, Kirk,” she said. Boy, she sure didn’t trust him.
    Kirk reached in his backpack and pulled out something I couldn’t see. All of my friends went “ooh” and “aah,” which made my heart thump faster and faster.
    “Can you see it, Og?” I squeaked to my tablemate.
    There was no answer.
    “It’s a hamster ball. We can put Humphrey inside, and he can roll around the classroom. See, there are air holes in it. It’s good exercise,” Kirk explained. “Can we try it?”
    The thought of rolling around the classroom during the day was so exciting, I climbed up on my ladder to get a closer look.
    Mrs. Brisbane held the clear yellow ball in her hand. “Well,” she said. “I suppose it would be nice for Humphrey. But we have to be careful that we don’t step on him or that he doesn’t roll someplace dangerous.”
    My friends all cheered, and I joined in. Og started splashing, so I knew he approved.
    “
And,
we can’t let this interfere with our schoolwork. Testing is coming up, you know,” Mrs. Brisbane said with a frown.
    Kirk had already opened my cage.
    “Don’t hurt him,” said Golden-Miranda, who’s always looking out for me.
    Kirk placed me in the ball, then snapped the top shut.
    “Make sure it’s closed tightly, please,” Speak-Up-Sayeh said softly. She was shy, but she always looked out for me, too.
    It was kind of weird being enclosed in a round object. Since it was yellow plastic, the world looked yellow to me, and Miranda was more golden than ever. I checked to see that there were holes in the plastic. YES-YES-YES! I wouldn’t have trouble breathing.
    “Careful now,” warned Mrs. Brisbane as Kirk set the ball on the floor at the front of the classroom.
    My fellow students crouched down to watch.
    “Go on, Humphrey Dumpty,” said A.J. “Make the ball go.”
    Let me tell you, it’s very strange to be inside a ball. For one thing, there’s nothing flat to stand on, like a floor. So even standing still, the ball felt wobbly.
    “Run, Humphrey,” said Seth. “Get it moving!”
    I hesitated for a little bit, but when I heard Og go “BOING!” I knew I had to move.
    I went slowly at first, just taking tiny steps. My friends moved back to give me room to roll down the center aisle.
    “Go, Humphrey, go!” said Kirk.
    I jogged a little faster.
    “Go, Humphrey, go!” the other students chanted. “Go, go, go!”
    I liked the encouragement and I liked the feeling of going fast, so I began to run. It was like spinning my wheel, only this time, I was actually going somewhere!
    Many times before, I’d scurried across the floor of the classroom, but never when the other students were there. As I zoomed down the aisle between the tables and chairs, my friends followed me.
    The bell rang, which meant school had begun, but once I got rolling, I didn’t know how to stop. As much fun as the hamster ball was, it was SCARY-SCARY-SCARY, too, because I couldn’t control where I was going.
    I heard Mrs. Brisbane say, “Class, we need to begin our work!” But I was on a roll, heading right for—eek!—the wall!
    Someone gasped. I think it was Miranda. “He’ll crash!” she said. “Stop him!”
    I tried to slow down, but it was too late. The ball bounced off the wall and shot back toward the aisle. I was now upside down, and before I could get back on my feet, I came to a stop that was so sudden, I did a double flip inside the ball. I looked up and saw a large foot in a sensible black shoe.
    It was Mrs. Brisbane’s foot.
    “Class, I want you all in your seats. Take out a sheetof paper for the