The next morning right after breakfast, Aunt Kat told the girls she needed a favor. “I need you girls to go to Miss Betsy’s and borrow her steam iron. Mine is still in the repair shop and I have to catch up on my ironing today.”
”Can I go?” wheedled Billy.
”Sure, if you promise not to fight with Lynn.”
”Okay.” he answered happily.
It was a wonderful day to be out for a ramble. The sky was a brilliant blue and the day not too hot yet. As they neared Miss Betsy’s, Billy said,”I hope that old mean Chris ain’t in the yard.” He seemed a little anxious.
”It’s okay if he is. He’s not gonna bother us. Don’t you remember?” Lynn said. Y’all just do what I say. When I give the signal, pretend to pull a frog out of your pocket and holler ‘Ribbit!’ It’ll be fine.”
”Who’s Chris? What does he do?”
”He’s a horrible bully.” Lynn said. “He’s so mean he hits his own dog with a stick. He used to throw rocks at us when we walked in front of his house. One day, Mother was drinking coffee with Miss Betsy next door to his house. Billy and I hid in the bushes and spied on him. His mama was making him help her in the flower bed and a frog jumped on him. He was scared to death of that little, old frog. He was jumping around and screaming his head off! “Get it off me! Get it off me!” He was screaming like a devil had him. It was hilarious to see a
bully act like such a scaredy cat! Early the next morning before school, me and Billy went to the pond and caught a big frog. I put in in my pocket. When I got to class, I slipped it in Chris’s jacket pocket hanging on his desk chair. I kind of forgot about it. Miss Jones had us taking turns reading aloud. When it was Karen’s turn, the frog made a big old ‘Ribbit’ frog sound. Everybody laughed. Miss Jones said’Who did that?’ Nobody said anything. Karen started reading again. Suddenly ‘Ribbit’ again! Miss Jones said,’Whoever did that is going to be in big trouble.’ The frog let out another big ‘Ribbit!’ and hopped out of Chris’s pocket. He went crazy screaming’Get it off me! Get it off me!’l
Then the frog jumped up on Chris’s collar. Chris went wild, knocking over his chair and scattering his books. The other kids were acting like clowns. Finally, someone caught the frog and put it out. Miss Jones was furious! She thought he’d sneaked a frog in to disrupt the class since his behavior was always so bad. He got in so much trouble. I wanted to laugh every time I thought of it the rest of the day.
Sure enough, Chris was in his front yard, watching them walk toward him. “Where do you think you’re going?” He demanded.
”We’re going to Miss Betsy’s but we all brought you a little present. You want to see? With that, all three pretended to pull a frog out of their pockets and called out ‘Ribbit! Ribbit!’
Chris took off, bellowing “Mama! Mama”
They all nearly collapsed, laughing.
Nutsrok 