Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Page A

pictures as if this day were the first day of kindergarten. Ramona was most disapproving. Things were not supposed to be this way. She looked at Howie scrubbing away with a blue crayon to make a sky across the top of his paper and at Davy, who was drawing a man whose arms seemed to come out of his ears. They were busy and happy drawing whatever they pleased.
    â€œI would like to make Q ’s,” said Ramona on sudden inspiration.
    â€œMake use of what?” asked Mrs. Wilcox, holding out a sheet of drawing paper.
    Ramona had been sure all along that the substitute could not be as smart as Miss Binney, but at least she expected her to knowwhat the letter Q was. All grown-ups were supposed to know Q . “Nothing,” Ramona said, as she accepted the paper and, pleasantly self-conscious under the awed stares of the kindergarten, went to her seat.
    At last Ramona was free to draw her Q her own way. Forgetting the loneliness and discomfort of the morning, she drew a most satisfying row of Q ’s, Ramona-style, and decided that having a substitute teacher was not so bad after all.

    Mrs. Wilcox wandered up and down the aisle looking at pictures. “Why, Ramona,” she said, pausing by Ramona’s desk, “what charming little cats you’ve drawn! Do you have kittens at home?”
    Ramona felt sorry for poor Mrs. Wilcox, a grown-up lady teacher who did not know Q . “No,” she answered. “Our cat is a boy cat.”

5
Ramona’s Engagement Ring
    â€œ N o!” said Ramona on the first rainy morning after she had started kindergarten.
    â€œYes,” said Mrs. Quimby.
    â€œNo!” said Ramona. “I won’t!”
    â€œRamona, be sensible,” said Mrs. Quimby.
    â€œI don’t want to be sensible,” said Ramona. “I hate being sensible!”
    â€œNow, Ramona,” said her mother, and Ramona knew she was about to be reasonedwith. “You have a new raincoat. Boots cost money, and Howie’s old boots are perfectly good. The soles are scarcely worn.”
    â€œThe tops aren’t shiny,” Ramona told her mother. “And they’re brown boots. Brown boots are for boys.”
    â€œThey keep your feet dry,” said Mrs. Quimby, “and that is what boots are for.”
    Ramona realized she looked sulky, but she could not help herself. Only grown-ups would say boots were for keeping feet dry. Anyone in kindergarten knew that a girl should wear shiny red or white boots on the first rainy day, not to keep her feet dry, but to show off. That’s what boots were for—showing off, wading, splashing, stamping.
    â€œRamona,” said Mrs. Quimby sternly. “Get that look off your face this instant. Either you wear these boots or you stay home from school.”
    Ramona recognized that her mothermeant what she said, and so, because she loved kindergarten, she sat down on the floor and dragged on the hated brown boots, which did not go with her new flowered plastic raincoat and hat.

    Howie arrived in a yellow slicker that was long enough for him to grow into for atleast two years and a yellow rain hat that almost hid his face. Beneath the raincoat Ramona glimpsed a pair of shiny brown boots, which she supposed she would have to wear someday when they were old and dull and dirty.
    â€œThose are my old boots,” said Howie, looking at Ramona’s feet as they started off to school.
    â€œYou better not tell anybody.” Ramona plodded along on feet almost too heavy to lift. It was a perfect morning for anyone with new boots. Enough rain had fallen in the night to fill the gutters with muddy streams and to bring worms squirming out of the lawns onto the sidewalks.
    The intersection by the school was unusually quiet that morning, because rain had halted construction on the new market. Ramona was so downhearted that she did not even tease Henry Huggins when he ledher across the street. The kindergarten playground, as she had