School Days According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

lot. “Oh, please, don’t! I don’t want to worry her. I promise I’ll do better!”
    â€œSee that you do.” Mrs. Brisbane let her go, but that was a close call!
    Then, during recess one day, Mrs. Brisbane had a talk with Helpful-Holly about letting Rosie decide when she wanted help. Holly listened and agreed to try. Still, I saw Rolling-Rosie get irritated several times when Holly wanted to push her wheelchair or tell other people to get out of the way.
    Mrs. Brisbane was annoyed when Thomas raced out of the cloakroom one afternoon and announced that there was a bug as big as his hand in there.
    â€œEek!” I squeaked.
    But the bug turned out to be a harmless little fly.
    That same day after school, Ms. Mac stopped by to chat. She had problems, too.
    â€œHumphrey, teaching first grade would be a lot easier with you around, but I can’t ask Mrs. Brisbane to give you up,” she told me.
    I didn’t think it would be polite to argue with her.
    Just then A.J. and Richie came in to try to convince Mrs. Brisbane to let either Og or me move to Room 18.
    â€œYou miss us, don’t you?” Richie asked me as he generously slipped a few raisins into my cage.
    â€œI do!” I squeaked back.
    â€œYou’d rather live in Room Eighteen, wouldn’t you?” A.J. said in his loud voice.
    â€œMaybe not,” I mumbled.
    I wasn’t sure how I felt about moving to Room 18. And I couldn’t tell what Mrs. Brisbane was thinking because she was spending every spare moment playing with cards.
    She’d line up the cards in pairs on her desk and mutter over them at recess.
    She stayed after school and moved them around, muttering some more. I could only hear bits and pieces of what she was saying—things like, “Maybe that will help her,” and, “Those two will work well together.”
    I am a very curious hamster, especially when it comes to what’s going on in the classroom. One night, Mrs. Brisbane left the cards out on her desk and I just couldn’t stop thinking about them. I wanted to check them out, but I didn’t dare risk leaving my cage until after Aldo was finished for the night.
    â€œHi, rodent and frog. Greetings from a primate!” Aldo announced when he came in to clean.
    â€œWhat’s a primate?” I asked.
    Aldo pulled out a cloth and starting dusting the student tables. “Primates are the group of mammals that humans belong to. Rodents are the group of mammals hamsters belong to. I guess you already know Og is a frog,” he explained. “There are so many kinds of frogs, they have a whole group all to themselves!”
    I was shocked to find out there were more frogs than hamsters in the world. Imagine that!
    Aldo began to dust the teacher’s desk.
    â€œNO-NO-NO!” I squeaked. Mrs. Brisbane had worked so hard arranging those cards!
    â€œWhoops,” Aldo said. “Mrs. Brisbane’s in the middle of something here.”
    He looked at the cards more closely. “Looks like she’s got something planned here. Brisbane’s Buddies!”
    Brisbane’s Buddies? I’d never heard of that before.
    Aldo left the cards alone and mopped the floors. When he was finished, he stopped to eat his supper and talk to us.
    â€œI told Maria that I’m lucky I get to clean Mrs. Brisbane’s room,” he said as he munched on a sandwich. Maria was Aldo’s wife and a special friend of mine. “I get a lot of good ideas about teaching just from seeing what she’s doing,” he added.
    Aldo gave me a small piece of carrot and dropped a few Froggy Food Sticks into Og’s tank before he left. He was a thoughtful friend.
    Once Og and I were alone again, I couldn’t stop thinking about those cards.
    â€œBrisbane’s Buddies,” I said. “Og, do you have any idea what that’s about?”
    Og splashed lazily in the water. He obviously didn’t have an