Shenanigans at Sugar Creek

the time for different kinds of trouble. We'd certainly had plenty with Big Bob Till,

hum around together, we never knew whether we'd get through even one day without something happening to start a fight, or get one of the gang into trouble wit

acher, whom not a one of us liked very well, on account of not wanting a new teacher whe

k Gang had the

his named

ace had the home

and forty

a new poem or always quoti

ite sure, but the very minute my pal, Poetry, and I saw the picture in a book called The Hoosier Schoolmaster,

n his big bed for awhile, looking at the picture which was a full-paged glossy picture of a man school teacher away up on the roof of a country schoolhouse, and he wa

y was about a man teacher whose very bad boys in the school had locked him out of the building, and he had climbed up on the roof of the

ot us into trouble.... Then just like a time-bomb exploding, all of a sudden that innocent idea whic

for a drying towel when Mom said, "Better wash your hands first, Bill," which I had forgotten to do like I once in a while do. Right away I washed my hands with soap, in our bathroom, came back and grabbed the towel off the rack by the range, and started in carefully wiping the dishes, not exactly wanti

those dishes fly-that

and meant it. "Those are

ping.... In fact, there wasn't any sense in washing them anyway, 'cause they weren't the ones we had used that day at all

o wash them," I said, "whe

r dinner tomorrow," Mom explain

... Why that very minute the gang would be hollering and scre

n't been washed yet in her hot sudsy water nor rinsed in my hot clear water nor wiped and polished with my dry clean towel, which Mom's tea towels always were anyway, Mom being an extra clean housekeeper

r to wrap her finger up or something, the queen said, "Oh no, I haven't pricked it yet"-meaning it was bleeding before she had stuck a needle into it-which was a fairy story, and was crazy, so I said to Mom, "Seems funny to

re always interesting, don't you think?" which I didn't, right then, but there wasn't any use arguing. In fact, Mom said it wasn't ever polite, so I quit, and said, "Who's coming for dinner tomorrow?"

rprise,"

, who lived in the city, who had a new baby sister. Mom had been to see the baby, and also Pop, but I hadn't, and didn't want to, and certainly didn't exactly wa

y stack of steaming dishes out through a clear place in the frosted window, and saw a fat-faced barrel-shaped boy standing with one hand w

ragonfly was always getting the gang into trouble, on account of he always was doing such crazy things without thinking. He also was allergic to nearly everything and was always sneezing at the wrong time, just when we were supposed to be quiet

ate's frame and give the gate a shove, and jump on with the other foot and ride on the gate while it was swinging open, which was something Pop wou

m was beside me, and also that my baby sister, Charlotte Ann, was asleep in Mom's bedroom in her b

f mom told me and also on account of Charlotte Ann woke up and made the k

ragonfly who didn't have a very good hold with his hands-and the gate being icy an

calling from our barn, yelling something that sounded like he sounds when somebod

d out on our back board walk and yelled to Poetry and Dragonfly, and said, "I'll be there in about an hour! I've got to finish tomorro

ed, "We'll come

he very idea! I can't have those boys coming in with all that snow. I've just scrubbed the floor!" which is why they didn't come in, and also why barrel-shaped

as warm enough for the snow to pack good and for making snow balls and snow men and everything. I put on my boots at the door, said "Good-bye" to Mom and went swishing out through the snow to Poetry and Dra

y had been too heavy for it, and just as we left, he sai

Dragonfly; then he looked at me and winked, and I knew he wasn't mad b

sled rope and started on the run across the road to a place in th

e!" Pop said,

your new teacher, Mr. Black, is going to keep on teaching the Sugar Creek School-that the board can't ask him to resign just because the

gs, just when we had been think

emembering the beech switch

Poetry sa

him from the rail fence where h

d panting, we dragged our sleds through the woods to Bumbleb

en all of a sudden Circus who had rolled a big snowball down the hill, said, "Let's make a snow man-let's make Mr. Black"-which sounded like more fun, so we all started in, not knowing that Circus was goin