Secrets According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

the morning but I couldn’t picture them on two legs in the afternoon!
    There were books about birds. They walk on two legs in the afternoon, but they don’t
have
four legs ever!
    And then there were scary creatures, such as snakes, that don’t have legs at all!
    Come to think of it, neither did my fish friends in the library.
    But none of them—from aardvarks to foxes to leopards to squirrels to woodchucks—walked on three legs!
    I was puzzled because I didn’t see hamsters and frogs in that section, but I found them later in another section. No animals there had three legs, either.
    I wasn’t even getting close to answering the Riddle of the Sphinx, but I never realized there were so many interesting animals in the world! Hyenas, ocelots and prairie dogs! (I’m not too fond of dogs, though these looked more like hamsters.)
    Then I had an idea about my other quest. “Joey likes rabbits. And he loves his dog. Oh, and he likes Og and me, too!” I squeaked out loud. “I think he’d like to read about animals. He was so happy to get the book about creatures in ancient Egypt.”
    That could be it!
    The fish opened and closed their mouths, but I didn’t hear a thing.
    Were they trying to tell me something ? Maybe they could help me find an animal book for Joey. They ought to know the library pretty well. After all, they are library fish.
    I scampered over, closer to their tank. “Can you hear me ? ” I squeaked at the top of my tiny lungs.
    They did have a glass wall and all that water around them—maybe they couldn’t hear me.
    â€œThe thing is, I need to find an animal story that Joey will like,” I shouted. “He REALLY-REALLY-REALLY likes animals! I’m sure he likes fish, too!”
    Their mouths opened and closed, but nothing came out that I could hear.
    The tank was on a shelf behind the big desk where people check out books.
    If I could only get a little closer to the tank, maybe the fish could hear me. But the desk was much taller than a regular desk. How could one small hamster get to the top ?
    I hurried around the back of the desk, where the librarian sat to check out books. There was a tall stool with long legs, but there was no way I could pull myself up to the top.
    Then I noticed that there were many, many drawers on this side of the desk. And Mr. Fitch had left some of them open. In fact, he had left most of them open.
    Maybe he’d been in a hurry.
    I started to come up with a Plan. And maybe, just maybe, my Plan would work.
    I reached up with my front paws stretched toward the handle of the drawer closest to the floor and took hold.
    Got it! I managed to swing one of my back paws up on the handle. Then I reached one of my front paws up to the edge of the drawer, made sure I had a firm grip and pulled myself up. Now I was standing with my back paws on the handle and my front paws on the edge of the drawer.
    I swung my rear end back and forth until I was even with the top of the drawer and let go. Made it! I landed on a tall stack of notepads.
    Standing on my tippy toes, I grabbed the handle of the next drawer up.
    I pulled myself up, vaulted over the top of the drawer and landed—plop—right in a box of tissues! That was a lucky break.
    I rested for a few seconds, then used the tissues like a bouncy trampoline and bounced high enough for me to grab hold of the handle of the next drawer up.
    Made it! This drawer had a stack of tins marked “Stamp Pad” and a set of rubber stamps labeled “Donated By,” “Do Not Remove from Library” and “Reference Only.”
    They were unsqueakably interesting but I was only halfway up the desk, so I reached UP-UP-UP and pulled myself to the next drawer. This one had stacks of little notes printed with “Hold For” and “Past Due Notice.”
    Forgetful-Phoebe and Hurry-Up-Harry had received a few of those Past Due notes, because they never