"Drag me out of bed in the morning, and don"t let me complain, okay?" said Dawn. me out of bed in the morning, and don"t let me complain, okay?" said Dawn.
"Sure," I said.
I went to bed feeling left out. Dawn and her mother had grown closer since Dawn had returned from California and I was glad of that.
But it made me miss my father even more - and I hadn"t expected to miss him at all.
Chapter 7.
Dawn"s brilliant idea had been a hit with all the BSC members and the kids. The morning of the hike was spent talking about visiting the Stones" farm and organic farming and all the animals that might live on the Stone farm and in the woods around their house. After lunch, the campers were going to take a Nature Hike, down the road to the Stones" farm. They were going to walk along an old path in the wooded area behind the fields and houses that lined Burnt Hill Road.
Everybody was excited about the trip.
Except Alicia.
Neither Kristy nor anyone else was surprised.
Kristy announced, "Everybody get a buddy for the hike," and a mad scramble ensued.
Except for Alicia. "No," she said.
"But Alicia, we"ve been talking about this all-day," said Dawn.
Alicia blinked rapidly, as if she might be trying not to cry, and I felt sorry for her.
Dawn didn"t seem to notice. "Your mom knows where you are. She knows we"re going on this trip. Remember? You and Bobby took a note home to your parents that told them about it."
"No," said Alicia.
"You don"t remember taking the note home? Or - "
"She doesn"t want to go," I said, coming to Alicia"s rescue.
"But ..." Dawn"s voice trailed off. She looked at me. "Does that mean you"re not coming? That you"re going to stay here with her?"
"Of course," I said. "I don"t mind. Why make Alicia miserable?"
Kristy said, "Right," briskly, as if she were washing her hands of the problem. She raised her voice. "Okay, everybody, have you got your partners, your buddies?"
Karen said, ."My partner has to be a real real circus person." She was clearly disgusted because Hannie and Nancy had already decided to be partners. circus person." She was clearly disgusted because Hannie and Nancy had already decided to be partners.
Fortunately, before anyone"s feelings could get hurt, Ricky said, "I"ll be your partner, Karen."
"Good," Kristy said. She looked around and saw that Claire"s face was turning red and recognized the signs of a tantrum. (Claire doesn"t have tantrums as often as she used to, but the signs are still the same: a red face, a lower lip jutting out, and then the shriek of "Nofe air" - which means no fair.) "What is it, Claire?" asked Kristy.
"No buddy," said Claire.
"Easy," said Jessi, stepping in. "You can be my my buddy, Claire." buddy, Claire."
Claire"s pout became a frown, then a smile, and another disaster was averted.
"Everybody fall in," shouted Kristy. She waved good-bye to me and led the way across the field behind our house toward the strip of woods that marched up the hills there. Mrs. Towne owned the field, but she leased it to the Stones who lived farther down the road and they kept it mowed for hay. Right now the field was just sprouting new green gra.s.s, and birds were swooping down over it, looking for insects.
They hadn"t gone very far when Kristy stopped and pointed upward. "Look! A hawk!"
Everyone stopped and looked into the sky. A hawk was circling above. The BSC members had borrowed binoculars from their parents, ranging from the big clunky ones that Logan"s father had owned since he was a kid to a lightweight pair belonging to Watson. The campers all took turns looking at the hawk.
"He"s looking at me, he"s looking at me," Karen cried. She pulled back from the binoculars, shoved them at Kristy and ducked down behind her. "Don"t let him catch me! Don"t let him eat me!"
This, of course, provoked panic among the younger campers, until Mal started laughing. "Wouldn"t that hawk look silly if he - or she - came down and tried to pick you up? All the other hawks would laugh at him, because they know that hawks never, ever bother people."
"Do hawks laugh?" asked Claire, forgetting to be scared.
"Well, n.o.body knows for sure, Claire," said Dawn. "But some animals laugh."
"Carrot laughs," said Charlotte Johanssen, talking about her pet schnauzer. "Whenever he"s playing and you hold the ball up, his tongue hangs out and he laughs."
"Hyenas laugh," said Haley.
"And cuckoo birds," said Logan.
"What about monkeys?" asked Becca.
The campers made it across the field without any more frights. And the hawk stayed right where he was.
On the trail the kids saw the hoofprints of deer and talked about the spots on fawns that help disguise them. They saw a chipmunk. Marilyn, who has a very good ear, helped identify the song of a cardinal. They checked out the flowers that were growing and the blooms that were on the trees. And then they reached the gate at the end of the field behind the Stones" farmhouse and barns.
Mrs. Stone was expecting everybody, of course. She came out of the barn, wearing overalls and big boots and holding a pitchfork.
"Have you been mucking out stalls?" asked Mal. Mucking out stalls means cleaning them. As a horse fanatic, Mal knows everything there is to know about horses - and their stalls.
"Just moving a little hay around," said Mrs. Stone. "Welcome to our farm, everyone."
"We"ve been here before," said Carolyn and Marilyn in unison. As usual, they didn"t seem to notice when they spoke at exactly the same time.
"So you have," said Mrs. Stone, smiling. "You came with Mary Anne."
"She had to stay home this time. With one of the babies," said Karen scornfully.
"Karen," said Kristy warningly.
"Sorry," said Karen, instantly contrite.
Mrs. Stone looked at her watch. "Mr. Stone will be back in a little while, but in case he gets delayed, why don"t we start our tour of the farm. We"ll start with the barn. It"s a lot like the barn at Mary Anne and Dawn"s. In fact, the basic structure was built at about the same time. But this barn has changed a bit over the years because it"s been used steadily since the seventeen hundreds, which means that it has to be repaired and repainted and so forth."
The twenty-one campers and seven babysitters stepped into the coolness of the huge old barn behind Mrs. Stone and she showed them the hayloft and explained about storing hay and what it was used for. She let everyone pat the soft noses of two of the cows who were in the barn. "They"re about ready to have their calves and we wanted them dose by to keep an eye on them," she explained. "We"re not a cattle farm, we"re a produce farm, but we keep a few heads of cattle for milk and b.u.t.ter and to sell the calves. We sell the extra milk and b.u.t.ter, too."
"You keep the heads heads of cows?" a voice said worriedly. of cows?" a voice said worriedly.
Mrs. Stone laughed. "Now who asked that question?"
"Me," said Jamie. "Jamie."
"Hi, Jamie. No, not the heads. Head is just a way of referring to the animal. Of counting. Three heads of cattle means three cows."
"Oh." Jamie looked very very relieved. relieved.
Mrs. Stone showed everyone the tractor and the old plow that the tractor had replaced. She explained how hay was baled and how cows were milked.
When we went outside again, she let everyone throw a handful of feed down for the chickens that were scattered around the barnyard.
"We did this before, too," said Marilyn. Carolyn nodded.
"Can chickens be in a circus?" asked Claire.
"Of course not," said Ricky. "Don"t you know anything about circuses?"
"No, she doesn"t," Hannie whispered loudly to Nancy. "She hasn"t been to a real a real circus camp." circus camp."
Mrs. Stone said, "I"ve never seen a chicken in a circus, but I suppose one might be. Pigs have been in circuses, you know."
She led the way to the pigpen, where a mother pig and her babies were lying contentedly in the mud.
"Peeee-uuuuuu," cried Bobby.
"Pigs are really very clean animals," said Kristy. "They lie in the mud to keep cool and to keep flies off."
"Right, Kristy. And they are smart," added Mrs. Stone. "They are considered some of .the smartest animals in the world, and in ancient times were taught tricks and treated as performing animals."
"Maybe we could borrow a pig for our circus," said Haley.
Kristy quickly stepped in and put a stop to that idea, then let the campers tell Mrs. Stone about the upcoming circus as she led them toward the goat pen.
Naturally, the kids who"d been to circus camp remained aloof, after making it dear that they"d been to a "real" circus camp.
However, the circus camp rivalries were forgotten when the group reached Elvira"s enclosure.
Elvira Stone, the world"s cutest baby goat (but growing rapidly) and a former babysitting (goat-sitting?) charge, came bounding up to the fence. She was used to visitors and knew that visitors meant being admired and petted and maybe even fed some treats.
She wasn"t wrong. Everyone crowded around and asked Mrs. Stone a million questions about Elvira. Mal even asked if it was true that goats eat tin cans.
"I"ve never seen a goat eat a tin can," said Mrs. Stone. "But they will take a nibble on almost anythi-"
"Aaaughh! Aaaughh! Help! I"m being eaten by a goat!"
Claire Pike came leaping through the crowd. There was a tearing sound.
"Baaaahhh," said Elvira, trying to follow Claire.
"Save me, save me!" shrieked Claire, ducking behind Jessi.
Dawn reached out and caught Elvira by wrapping one arm around her neck. Thinking she was being hugged (and more or less right about it), Elvira stopped immediately - all except her jaw, which kept working. A short strip of cotton T-shirt was hanging out of her mouth like a blue tongue.
Claire looked out from behind Jessi.
"Oops," said Mal. "Looks like you"re going to get a new shirt, Claire."
Some of the kids started to laugh. Claire looked around. Her face grew red.
Elvira stood there, chewing, until Mrs. Stone reached out and took the little strip of blue cloth from her mouth.
Then Claire started to laugh. "I got eaten by a goat."
Of course, Matt and David Michael and the other kids immediately started sticking their arms out and the tails of their shirts to see if Elvira would sample those.
And of course, the members of the BSC hustled them quickly on to the next segment of the nature walk.
They listened as Mrs. Stone explained about organic farming and why the Stone family farm was being converted to an organic farm.
They laughed at Screaming Yellow Honker, the watch goose.
But all they talked about, all the way home, was how Claire had been eaten by a goat.
Chapter 8.
My father had been gone four whole days.
I wasn"t counting the days until he came back. But I was surprised by how much I missed him. It"s funny how you don"t miss something until it"s gone. Dawn is one of my two best friends and I miss her when she goes to California. I always tell people that I don"t miss my mother because she died when I was just a baby and because I can"t really remember anything about her. I think I missed the idea of having a mother more than my actual mother.
But I"d never thought about missing my father. I mean, he"d been away on business trips before, when I was growing up. I"d stayed with weird baby-sitters and with my friends. When I stayed with the weird baby-sitters, I missed him a lot, and when I stayed with my friends Kristy and Claudia, I didn"t miss him so much.
Since Dad and Sharon had gotten married, though, he hadn"t been away except on a couple of overnight trips for his firm. I"d gotten used to my new family. I"d gotten used to being even closer to my dad, too, now that I was growing up and he didn"t treat me like such a child anymore.
I hadn"t realized that, but it was true. I was closer to my dad than I had ever been. As close to my dad as Dawn was to her mother.
And I was as much like my dad in many ways as Dawn was like her mom.