No School - No Play!
Grandma and I were relaxing on the porch swing. Suddenly she said, remembering, "Katie, it was so unlike you to pull such a trick (it wasn't easy for her to forgive me and the twins for going into the pasture by ourselves, but she had made a great effort!), but do you remember when you were in the second grade, you wanted to stay home from school one day? You wanted to play with the Tinker Toys Buck had gotten for Christmas? So much so that you pretended you were sick?"
"Do I everl May I tell this story?" I asked eagerly.
"Please do!" Grandma settled back to listen.
"Well, I had a half finished project on Buck's Tinker Toy set. I figured I
couldn't wait until after school to finish it. I'd never played hooky before, but I knew I was ahead in school. so my enthusiasm overcame my consiience!
"When Mama came to wake us up for breakfast, I looked real pitiful and told her I had a sore throat. "May I stay home today, Mama? My throat really hurtsl,' "Having given Mama no cause to doubt my word before, she came over and looked dutifully at my exaggerated open mouth - much wider than necessary." "There is no redness, Mama stated. Probably too early to tel1. Just stay in bed and cover up good. I'11 bring your breakfast to you in bed on a tray after the
others have gone!"
"Yes, Mama," I said meekly - already feeling a little guilty. I heard my
brothers and sisters leave the house. I looked out the window and saw my friends and other children talking together as they walked to school. There went another pang to my conscience! I always enjoyed being with my friends as we walked and made our plans for after school. I wondered if there would be any message for me in the old tree with the convenient hole about our height. We all stopped on the way home from school to see who got the message that day.
'After the last kids disappeared I hopped eagerly out of bed" and continued my TinkerToy project! Everything was going great until I heard a light tap on my door. Before I could jump back into bed, my mother walked into the room carrying a hay with my hot oatmeal and toast!"
"You are not sick!" Mama cried. "You may as well be, because you are going to get back in bed; and you will stay there the entire day. Also, you do not deserve a hot breakfast. You may have the piece of toast; and I will eat the oatmeal as I have not eaten yet! You need to be taught a valuable lesson, young lady! Now just hop back into bed. There will be no reading either. you will spend the entire day thinking about this thoughtless trick you have pulled. You may be Kathryn Bush
certain you will never be tempted to try such a sfunt again," Mama was really angry.
"I cringed and crept deep under my covers. I almost wished I were sick, as I had never heard Mama lash out at me so before!
*My Tinker Toy project was completed by Buck later in the day. I actually asked him to as I now had lost all desire to finish it.
"I indeed never pulled such a trick again!"
Grandma was all set to laugh heartily at my story as usual, but when she saw the look on my face, she just smiled sympathetically and realized this story no longer brought me pleasure - it brought a tinge of remorse for my one day of playing hooky.