nobody carried around bags of gold today,

but she enjoyed imagining them.

“What’s Howie’s uncle doing in Saudi

Arabia?” asked Mr. Quimby. “Besides spit-

ting licorice in the sand?”

“Daddy, don’t be silly,” said Ramona. “I

don’t know exactly.” Now that she was the

center of attention, she wished she had more information.“Something about oil. Drills or rigs or something. Howie understands all

about it. His uncle earned a lot of money.”

The Quimbys were a family who had to

worry about money.

“Oh, that kind of rich,” said Mr. Quimby.

“I thought maybe a long-lost uncle had died and left him a castle full of servants, jewels, and rare old wines.”

“Daddy, that’s so old-fashioned,” said

5

Ramona. “That’s only in books.”

The conversation drifted off, leaving

Ramona behind. Her father, who would earn

his teaching credential in June, said he was inquiring around for schools that needed an art teacher, and he also told about the problems of the men who worked in the same

frozen-food warehouse where he worked on

weekends at below-freezing temperatures.

Mrs. Quimby told about two people who

got into an argument over a parking space at the doctor’s office where she worked. Aunt Bea talked about a man named Michael

who had invited her to go skiing and was

the reason she had bought new ski clothes.

Beezus wondered aloud if Michael would

ask Aunt Bea to marry him.Aunt Bea laughed at that, saying she had known him only two weeks, but since this was January, there were several months of skiing left and there was no telling what might happen.

6

No more was said about Howie’s uncle that evening. Days went by. Uncle Hobart

didn’t come and didn’t come. Every evening Mr. Quimby asked, “Has Old Moneybags

arrived?” And Ramona had to say no.

Finally one morning, as Ramona and

Howie were waiting for the school bus,

Ramona said,“I don’t think you have a rich uncle at all. I think you made him up.”

Howie said he did too have a rich uncle.

Even little Willa Jean, when Ramona went

to the Kemps’ after school, talked about

Uncle Hobart and the presents he was bringing. Ramona informed Howie and Willa Jean

rather crossly that her mother said it wasn’t nice to talk about other people’s money. They paid no attention—after all, he was their very own uncle, not Ramona’s—and went right

on talking about Uncle Hobart this and

Uncle Hobart that. Uncle Hobart had landed in New York. He had actually telephoned,

7

live and in person. Uncle Hobart was driving across the country. Uncle Hobart was delayed by a storm in the Rockies. Ramona wished

she had never heard of Uncle Hobart.

Then, one day after school, Ramona and

Howie saw a muddy van parked on the

Kemps’ driveway.

“It’s Uncle Hobart!” Howie shouted, and

began to run.