Surprises According to Humphrey Read Online Free Page A

dictionary drill. I’ll take attendance while you get started.”
    I was catching my breath when she leaned down over me. “And you, young man, will settle down.”
    When Mrs. Brisbane talks like that, nobody argues with her, especially not a small golden hamster enclosed in a ball. Once she removed her foot, I cautiously headed back down the center aisle between the desks.
    Mrs. Brisbane kept a close eye on me while my friends took the test. Usually, I took the test along with them, writing the answers in my notebook. But I was enjoying my freedom a little too much for that. I kept on jogging up and down the center aisle, but now, I was careful to slow to a stop before hitting a wall. That way, I just tapped it, rolled backward, then turned my body inside the ball and jogged toward the opposite wall again.
    My friends wrote quietly while Mrs. Brisbane gave out the words. I tried not to make too much noise as I sailed past Mandy’s shiny red shoes, Art’s black high-tops and Garth’s scuffed white sneakers. Sit-Still-Seth’s feet TAP-TAP-TAPPED as he wrote.
    I don’t know how many times I went back and forth, but it was getting a little boring. If only I could turn the thing! After the test papers were collected, Mrs. Brisbane said it was time to finish the Spring into Numbers project. I think my friends forgot about me while they cut and pasted, colored and stapled their papers.
    By recess time, Room 26 looked completely different.The bulletin board was covered with cutouts of flowers, rabbits and robins—but they all had math problems on them. Plus and minus numbers, multiplying and dividing problems peeked out from the leaves of the blossoms and ran up and down the rabbit ears and robin wings.
    Tabitha and Richie made clouds in all kinds of shapes—even triangles and squares. Gail and Sayeh tacked a row of colorful flowers all around the chalkboard. There was a pattern to the colors, and it took me a while to figure it out. Garth and A.J. made a huge kite with a LONG-LONG-LONG tail that had a LONG-LONG-LONG problem on it.
    I began to jog with joy. Spring was bright! Spring was happy! Spring was fun!
    While Mrs. Brisbane helped hang the kite, I suddenly hit the leg of Seth’s desk and veered off toward the door, which was open to let in the spring breeze.
    I sailed out of Room 26, and not one of my friends noticed.
    “HELP-HELP-HELP!” I squeaked. In the distance, I heard Og’s “BOING!” but everything was completely silent in the hall. As I rolled out of Room 26, toward the side door, I wondered if I’d end up on the playground again. I frantically tried to guide the ball away from the door, but it wouldn’t turn quickly enough.
    Luckily, the door was closed tightly, so I bounced off of it. Now I was heading toward another door. It was FAR-FAR-FAR away, past a long row of classrooms. Suddenly, I wished Aldo hadn’t polished the floor quite sowell. I also wished the hamster ball had brakes. The best I could do to slow it down was to stop moving my legs.
    What an unsqueakably dangerous situation for a small hamster! At least my cage had that lock-that-doesn’t-lock. But there was no way for me to get out of the ball.
    “Good-bye, Room 26!” I squeaked.
    Suddenly I heard a piercingly loud noise. (Hamsters are very sensitive creatures, and we don’t appreciate loud noises.)
    “Stop right there,” a voice firmly ordered me. The ball stopped abruptly, and this time I did a triple flip. But I recognized the voice…and the shrill sound. It was Mrs. Wright and her whistle. She was standing directly in front of me with one of her huge, white, puffy shoes resting on top of the ball.
    Just for fun, I guess, she blew her whistle again.
    “Mrs. Brisbane!” she bellowed.
    Mrs. Brisbane rushed out into the hallway and hurried toward us. “What’s wrong, Mrs. Wright?”
    That sounded funny, but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. I was afraid Mrs. Wright might blow her whistle again.
    “I just happened to be