Mitch and Amy by Beverly Cleary

off.
    Mitchell turned and glowered atBernadette, who brushed her witchy hair aside and smiled at him.

    â€œHup, two, three,” said Mrs. Collins, as the class waved to the men working on the new wing of the school and started down the hill. Bill tried to pretend he did not know his mother.
    Mitchell felt the toe of Bernadette’s shoe on his heel and jumped quickly to avoid having his sneaker pulled off. “You cut thatout,” he said to Bernadette, who, along with her partner, went into a gale of giggles.

    Now Bill jumped to avoid losing his sneaker. “Don’t pay any attention to them,” he said to Mitchell. “They’re just a couple of Girl Snouts.”
    â€œWe are not,” contradicted Sarah. “We’re Girl Scouts.”
    â€œHup, two, three, four. Hup, two, three, four,” counted Mrs. Collins, who was the jolly type and did not understand how parents sometimes embarrass their children.
    Down the hill marched the class. Mitchell felt Bernadette’s toe on his heel again and jumped in time. “Girl Sprouts,” he flung over his shoulder.
    Across streets, through a park, and on down the hill marched the class, now followed by half a dozen dogs. Mitchell and Bill worked out a system to keep from having their shoes pulled off by Bernadette andSarah. They took two or three steps and then gave a little hop, to keep the girls from matching their rhythm and stepping on their heels. Step, step, hop. Step, step, step, hop. Step, hop. By hopping at uneven intervals they kept the girls guessing.
    Bernadette and Sarah found the boys’ hopping extremely funny. “Just like darling little bunny rabbits,” remarked Bernadette between fits of giggles.
    â€œHippety-hop, hippety-hop,” said Sarah. “Aren’t they too cute for words.”
    Mitchell hurled the worst name of all. “Girdle Scouts!” He only made the girls giggle more.
    On down the hill and into the business district marched Miss Colby’s fourth grade, with Mitchell and Bill hopping every few steps, the girls giggling, and Mrs. Collins counting from time to time. People stopped to stare. A little boy who was dribbling achocolate ice-cream cone down the front of his shirt joined Mitchell and Bill in stepping and hopping until his mother ran after him and dragged him away.
    By the time the class had reached the Golden West Savings and Loan Company, Mitchell vowed to hate all girls, with the possible exception of Amy part of the time, forever. They were nothing but giggling pests. As the class marched through the glass and stainless-steel doors Mitchell forgot to hop and Bernadette, with the awful concentration of which she was capable, stepped squarely on his heel and pulled off his sneaker.
    â€œI’ll get you for this, Bernadette,” said Mitchell, jabbing her with his elbow as she went past.
    â€œMiss Colby, Mitchell hit me,” said Bernadette promptly, but in the excitement of reaching the savings-and-loan company no one paid any attention to her. She did notcare because she was busy slipping through the crowd in an eely sort of way to be the first to pan gold.
    Mitchell became even more annoyed. Girls, he thought bitterly, and he knelt to put his sneaker on again. They pester and then tattle if a fellow tries to get back at them.
    The gold was panned in what looked like a rock pool, set on a yellow carpet, in the corner of the lobby of the savings-and-loan company. The rocks, which Mitchell soon discovered were not real rocks at all but fiberglass, were higher on one side, and a small waterfall, raised by a hidden pump, trickled down among some plastic plants into the pool. Mitchell had to wait for his turn. While he waited he looked around for the pump that worked the waterfall, but he could not find it. It must be hidden someplace inside the fake fiberglass rocks.
    When Mitchell’s turn came he was handeda gold pan by a fake pioneer, a bearded student from the