Mrs. Griggs continued. “I’ll call the office and ask the secretary to telephone your

mother and have her bring you another pair

of shoes.”

161

“My mother isn’t home,” said Ramona.

“She’s at work.”

“Well, don’t worry, Ramona,” said Mrs.

Griggs. “We have some boots without

owners in the cloakroom.You may borrow

one to wear when we go out for recess.”

Ramona was familiar with those boots,

none of them related and all of them a dingy brown, because no one would lose a new

red boot. If there was one thing Ramona

did not like, it was old brown boots. They

were really ugly. She could not run and play kickball in one shoe and one boot. Spirit

and spunk surged back into Ramona. Mrs.

Griggs meant well, but she did not under-

stand about boots. Miss Binney would never

have told Ramona to wear one old boot.

Ramona did not want to wear an old brown

boot, and she made up her mind she was not

going to wear an old brown boot!

Once Ramona had made this decision, it

162

was up to her to decide what to do about it.

If only she had some heavy paper and a sta-

pler, she could make a slipper, one that

might even be strong enough to last until

she reached home. She paid attention to

number combinations in one part of her

mind, while in that private place in the back of her mind she thought about a paper slipper and how she could make one if she only

had a stapler.A stapler, a stapler, where could she find a stapler? Mrs. Griggs would want

an explanation if she asked to borrow

Room One’s stapler. To borrow Miss

Binney’s stapler, Ramona would have to run

across the playground to the temporary

building, and Mrs. Griggs was sure to call

her back.There had to be another way. And

there was, if only she could make it work.

When recess finally came, Ramona was

careful to leave the room with several other members of her class and to slip down to the 163

girls’ bathroom in the basement before Mrs.

Griggs could remind her to put on the boot.

She jerked four rough paper towels out of

the container by the sinks. She folded three of the paper towels in half, making six layers of rough paper.The fourth towel she folded

in thirds, which also made six layers of

paper.

Now came the scary part of her plan.

Ramona returned to the hall, which was

empty because both first grades were out on

the playground.The doors of the classrooms

were closed. No one would see the brave

thing she was about to do. Ramona climbed

the stairs to the first landing, where she

paused to take a fresh grip on her courage.

She had never gone to the upstairs hall

alone. First graders rarely ventured there

unless accompanied by their parents on