to play with, she would run tattling to the

grown-ups. “Ramona hid her toys!” Ramona

laid a stuffed snake on her bed, then doubted if even Willa Jean could love a stuffed snake.

What Ramona needed was a present for

Willa Jean, a present wrapped and tied with

a good hard knot, a present that would take

a long time to unwrap. Next to receiving

presents, Ramona liked to give presents, and if she gave Willa Jean a present today, she

would not only have the fun of giving, but

of knowing the grown-ups would think,

Isn’t Ramona kind, isn’t she generous to

give Willa Jean a present? And so soon after Christmas, too. They would look at Ramona

in her new red-and-green-plaid slacks and

5

red turtleneck sweater and say, Ramona is one of Santa’s helpers, a regular little

Christmas elf.

Ramona smiled at herself in the mirror

and was pleased.Two of her most important

teeth were only halfway in, which made her

look like a jack-o’-lantern, but she did not mind. If she had grown-up teeth, the rest of her face would catch up someday.

Over her shoulder she saw reflected in

the mirror a half-empty box of Kleenex

on the floor beside her bed. Kleenex! That

was the answer to a present for Willa Jean.

She ran into the kitchen, where Beezus was

beating muffin batter while her father fried sausages and her mother struggled to

unmold a large gelatine salad onto a plate

covered with lettuce.

“A present is a good idea,” agreed Mrs.

Quimby when Ramona asked permission,

“but a box of Kleenex doesn’t seem like much 6

of a present.” She shook the mold. The salad refused to slide out. Her face was flushed and she glanced at the clock on the stove.

Ramona was insistent.“Willa Jean would

like it. I know she would.” There was no time for explaining what Willa Jean was to do

with the Kleenex.

Mrs. Quimby was having her problems

with the stubborn salad.“All right,” she con-sented. “There’s an extra box in the bath-

room cupboard.” The salad slid slowly from

the mold and rested, green and shimmering,

on the lettuce.

By the time Ramona had wrapped a large

box of Kleenex in leftover Christmas paper,

the guests had begun to arrive. First came

the Hugginses and McCarthys and little

Mrs. Swink in a bright-green pants suit.

Umbrellas were leaned outside the front

door, coats taken into the bedroom, and the

usual grown-up remarks exchanged. “Happy

7

New Year!” “Good to see you!” “We thought we would have to swim over, it’s

raining so hard.” “Do you think this rain

will ever stop?” “Who says it’s raining?”

“This is good old Oregon sunshine!”

Ramona felt she had heard that joke one

million times, and she was only in the

second grade.

Then Mr. Huggins said to Ramona’s

father, “Congratulations! I hear you have a

new job.”