didn’t go to school the usual way? Because I was feeling full of spunk, Ramona answered

in her thoughts. Her father would under-

stand. She hoped her mother would, too.

Workbooks were collected. Reading cir-

cles were next. Prepared to attack words,

Ramona limped to a little chair in the front of the room with the rest of her reading

group. She felt so much better toward Mrs.

Griggs that she was first to raise her hand on almost every question, even though she was

worried about her missing oxford. The

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reader was more interesting now that her group was attacking bigger words. Fire

engine. Ramona read to herself and thought, Pow! I got you, fire engine. Monkey. Pow! I got you, monkey.

The buzz of the little black telephone

beside Mrs. Griggs’s desk interrupted

work in Room One. Everyone wanted to

listen to Mrs. Griggs talk to the principal’s office, because they might hear something

important.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Griggs to the telephone.

“Yes, we do.” With the receiver pressed to

her ear, she turned away from the telephone

and looked at Ramona. Everyone else in

Room One looked at her, too. Now what?

thought Ramona. Now what have I done?

“All right,” said Mrs. Griggs to the tele-

phone. “I’ll send her along.” She replaced

the receiver. Room One, most of all

Ramona, waited.

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“Ramona, your shoe is waiting for you in the office,” said the teacher. “When the

dog’s owner found it on the lawn, he

brought it to school and the secretary

guessed it was a first-grade size.You may be excused to go get it.”

Whew! thought Ramona in great relief,

as she limped happily off to the office. This day was turning out to be better than she

had expected. She accepted her shoe, now

interestingly scarred with toothmarks, from

Mrs. Miller, the school secretary.

“My goodness,” said Mrs. Miller, as

Ramona shoved her foot into her shoe and

tied the lace, still damp from being chewed, in a tight bow. “It’s a good thing your foot came out of your shoe when the dog got

hold of it. He must have had pretty big

teeth.”

“He did,” Ramona assured the secretary.

“Great big teeth. Like a wolf. He chased

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me.” Now that Ramona was safe in her two

shoes, she was eager for an audience. “He

chased me, but I took off my shoe and threw

it at him, and that stopped him.”

“Fancy that!” Mrs. Miller was plainly

impressed by Ramona’s story. “You took off

your shoe and threw it right at him! You

must be a very brave girl.”

“I guess maybe I am,” said

Ramona, pleased by the com-

pliment. Of course, she was

brave. She had scars on her

shoe to prove it. She hoped

her mother would not be in

too much of a hurry to

hide the toothmarks with

fresh shoe polish. She

hippity-hopped, paper

slipper in hand, down