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  YOUNG YEARLING BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

  The Pee Wee Scout Books by Judy Delton

  COOKIES AND CRUTCHES

  CAMP GHOST-AWAY

  LUCKY DOG DAYS

  BLUE SKIES, FRENCH FRIES

  GRUMPY PUMPKINS

  PEANUT-BUTTER PILGRIMS

  A PEE WEE CHRISTMAS

  THAT MUSHY STUFF

  SPRING SPROUTS

  THE POOPED TROOP

  THE PEE WEE JUBILEE

  BAD, BAD BUNNIES

  ROSY NOSES, FREEZING TOES

  SONNY’S SECRET

  SKY BABIES

  TRASH BASH

  PEE WEES ON PARADE

  LIGHTS, ACTION, LAND-HO!

  PILES OF PETS

  YEARLING BOOKS/YOUNG YEARLINGS/YEARLING CLASSICS are designed especially to entertain and enlighten young people. Patricia Reilly Giff, consultant to this series, received her bachelor’s degree from Marymount College and a master’s degree in history from St. John’s University. She holds a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University. She was a teacher and reading consultant for many years, and is the author of numerous books for young readers.

  For a complete listing of all Yearling titles, write to

  Dell Readers Service, P.O. Box 1045,

  South Holland IL 60473.

  Published by

  Dell Publishing

  a division of

  Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

  1540 Broadway

  New York, New York 10036

  Text copyright © 1993 by Judy Delton

  Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Alan Tiegreen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  The trademark Yearling® is registered in the U.S. Patent and

  Trademark Office.

  The trademark Dell® is registered in the U.S. Patent and

  Trademark Office.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-79999-9

  v3.1

  For Elm, the card sunfish, from the shark

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 The New Pee Wee

  2 Mrs. Peters’s News

  3 Looking for a Hobby

  4 Molly’s Bad Day

  5 Trying Again

  6 Wheelchair Whoopee

  7 The Extra-Clever Hobby at Last

  CHAPTER

  1

  The New Pee Wee

  “Hey, who’s that kid with the wheels?” shouted Roger White. “What’s he doing here?”

  Mrs. Peters frowned at Roger, as she always did when someone said something he or she shouldn’t have said.

  It was Tuesday, and Tuesday was the meeting day of the Pee Wee Scouts. They met in Mrs. Peters’s basement after school. Mrs. Peters was the leader of Troop 23.

  “Maybe he’s a visitor,” said Molly Duff to her best friend, Mary Beth Kelly.

  The girls looked at the boy sitting in the wheelchair at the big table.

  “We don’t need any more kids in our troop,” said Tim Noon. “There won’t be enough cupcakes.”

  The rest of the Pee Wees clambered down the steps and sat down in their chairs. They all looked surprised to see the wheelchair.

  Scrape, bump, scrape went the chairs on the floor. Roger tipped way back in his, and Mrs. Peters frowned at him again. Once Roger had tipped right over and landed on his head on the floor.

  Mrs. Peters clapped her hands.

  “Boys and girls, I have some news for you today. We have a new Scout with us for the next few months. His name is Jody George. I hope that you will all make him feel welcome in Troop 23.”

  First no one said anything. Then Roger put his fingers in his mouth and whistled a long, piercing, shrieking whistle. The rest of the Pee Wees clapped.

  “What kind of a name is that?” asked Sonny Betz Stone. “Is George his last name or his middle name?”

  “Hey, look who’s talking about names, Stone,” said Roger. “Sonny Rock, Sonny Pebble, Sonny Boulder.”

  “How can this guy play ball against Troop 15?” asked Tim.

  “Jody’s a girl’s name,” said Tracy Barnes. “I never heard of a boy named Jody.”

  All of a sudden Rachel Meyers got up from her chair and walked up to Jody. Her curls bounced as she walked.

  “Welcome to Pee Wee Scouts,” she said. “We are glad to have you here.”

  Rat’s knees! thought Molly. Why didn’t I think of doing that? But Molly knew that even if she had, she wouldn’t have had the nerve to go up and say it. Rachel had lots of self-confidence and a lot of nerve. Molly was shy.

  Now Rachel was writing her name and address and phone number on a piece of her ballerina stationery. She handed it to Jody.

  “Call me anytime,” she said. Then she walked back to her chair.

  Now Tracy was going up to Jody. “Glad you’re here,” she said.

  Tim went up and gave him a broken pencil.

  “Some gift,” whispered Mary Beth.

  Kevin Moe went up to Jody. Molly liked Kevin. She wanted to marry him when she grew up. Kevin was smart. He was going to be mayor someday.

  “Glad to have you aboard,” said Kevin.

  Mary Beth giggled.

  “We’re Scouts, not sailors,” she said.

  “That’s political,” whispered Molly. “Kevin is a politician.”

  She didn’t like Mary Beth giggling at Kevin.

  Now Lisa Ronning was shaking Jody’s hand. And the Baker twins, Kenny and Patty. Pretty soon everyone had welcomed Jody but Roger and Molly.

  Roger swaggered up and said, “What kind of a name is that? Is George your last name or your middle name?”

  “My last name,” said Jody.

  “How can you play ball in a wheelchair?” Kenny was asking.

  “I can go pretty fast,” he replied.

  “My cousin’s in a wheelchair,” said Rachel. “It’s an electric one. She can go anywhere she wants.”

  “So can I,” said Jody. “I go on boats and airplanes all the time.”

  Molly was getting nervous. Even Mary Beth had gone up to meet Jody. Finally she got all her courage together and went up to his wheelchair.

  “Do you sleep in there too?” was the only thing that came to her to say.

  “Ho, ho, ho.” Roger laughed. “Sure, Duff, he sleeps sitting up.”

  Now Roger sat up straight in his chair and began to snore. Soon all the Pee Wees were snorting and snoring.

  “I do sleep in it sometimes,” said Jody. “The back goes down like this.” He pushed a button, and the chair looked like Molly’s dad’s recliner.

  Roger looked sheepish. Molly felt better. She hated to be laughed at.

  “Now,” said Mrs. Peters. “We will all get into a circle and sing our Pee Wee Scout song.”

  The Pee Wees joined hands to sing. Kevin ran to take Jody’s hand. Lisa and Tracy fought over his other hand.

  Rachel ran up to the piano and took the sheet with words to the song from the top and gave it to Jody.

  “Leader’s pet,” said Tim.

  “ ‘Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,’ ” sang the Scouts to the tune of “Old MacDonald.”

  “… Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  We sing and play when work is done,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  “With a good deed here,

  And an errand there,

  Here a hand, there a hand,

>   Everywhere a good hand.

  “Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!”

  “Now for our pledge,” said Mrs. Peters.

  Roger ran and got the words for the pledge and handed them to Jody.

  “We love our country

  And our home,

  Our school and neighbors too.

  “As Pee Wee Scouts

  We pledge our best

  In everything we do.”

  When they had finished, Molly said, “Rat’s knees! First no one wanted to be Jody’s friend. Now everyone wants to. Roger is doing that for attention.”

  “I suppose,” said Mary Beth. “But if a Scout isn’t a friend to a new kid, who is?”

  Molly was embarrassed for the second time that day. Mary Beth was right. It was up to Scouts to be helping and friendly. If anyone could do it, the Pee Wees could.

  CHAPTER

  2

  Mrs. Peters’s News

  Molly didn’t know that people in wheelchairs could sing. But Jody seemed to sing as loud as the rest of the Pee Wees. She wondered what else he could do that she didn’t know about.

  Mrs. Peters clapped her hands.

  “Boys and girls,” she said. “It’s time to tell the good deeds we’ve done all week. Who would like to be first?”

  Hands waved. Before she could call on anyone, Rachel said, “Mrs. Peters, I raked our yard and our neighbor’s yard. Our neighbor didn’t even ask me to—I just did it.”

  “Hey, dummy, how did you know he wanted his yard raked?” said Roger. “Maybe he wanted flat grass!”

  Rachel stuck out her tongue at Roger. Mrs. Peters frowned.

  “Who wants all kinds of garbage and junk all over their lawn?” said Rachel. “Probably you would.”

  Mrs. Peters called on Tim before there was any more arguing.

  “I raked my grass,” said Tim.

  “Copycat!” said Rachel. “You did not! You just said that because I said that.”

  “Did too!” said Tim.

  “Did not!” said Rachel.

  Mrs. Peters sighed and held up her hand.

  “Tim could have raked his yard too,” she said. “Let’s move on.”

  “I washed my dad’s car,” said Patty Baker.

  “And I vacuumed the inside of it,” said Kenny.

  “Very nice!” said Mrs. Peters. “That is surely a very good deed.”

  Rat’s knees. Molly wished she could have done that. But her dad had had the car washed at the Nice an’ Easy car wash. Some workers with rags and brooms had cleaned it inside and out while it moved down a long track. It cost money. Molly could have done it for nothing.

  “I gave the twins some of my candy,” said Sonny. “I shared,” he added, in case that did not seem generous enough.

  “Your twins are too little to eat candy,” said Kevin. “They could have choked, Stone. You could have killed them!”

  Sonny didn’t look as if he liked having his good deed turned into attempted murder.

  Roger started coughing and choking and holding his throat. Then he fell over and pretended he was dead. Soon all the Pee Wees were choking and coughing and falling over dead.

  Sonny looked as if he might cry. “It was soft candy,” he said. “It melts in your mouth. Anyway, I didn’t kill them.”

  “What a baby,” said Mary Beth. “Sonny can’t take a joke at all.”

  “It’s not a joke to be accused of murder,” said Molly. “I wouldn’t like that either.”

  Molly usually defended Sonny. It wasn’t his fault he was sensitive to jokes about being a baby.

  “Well, let’s just remember what we learned in our safety class,” said Mrs. Peters. “When we are around small children, we must be careful of what they put in their mouths.”

  “I shoveled snow off the sidewalk,” said Tracy.

  The whole troop stared at her.

  “It’s summer,” said Roger. “What kind of snow did you shovel, Barnes? Ivory Snow?” He laughed at his joke.

  “It isn’t summer, it’s fall,” said Rachel, who didn’t want Roger to get away with anything. “It’s September, and that’s not summer.”

  “It was last winter when I shoveled it,” said Tracy.

  Molly wondered why she had waited till now to tell about it. But Mrs. Peters said, “Shoveling snow is a good, good deed.”

  Lisa said she had given her little cousin a bath.

  Roger said he had built an addition onto his garage. No one believed him.

  Molly told about dusting the bookshelves. “I took all the books off to do it,” she said. “I didn’t just dust around them. It was a lot of work to take them all off. And then I dusted the books too.”

  Mrs. Peters nodded seriously. But she didn’t say it was a wonderful good deed.

  Then Jody raised his hand. Everyone was as quiet as a pin. What good deed could someone in a wheelchair do?

  “I read the comic strips to my little brother,” he said.

  So people in wheelchairs could read!

  And they could have little brothers!

  And they could do good deeds and have them to report, even though Jody hadn’t known he would have to report a good deed!

  Molly wasn’t the only one who was shocked.

  “Is your little brother in a wheelchair too?” asked Patty politely.

  Suddenly Molly pictured an entire wheelchair family. Wheelchairs around the breakfast table.

  Wheelchairs doing the dishes.

  Wheelchairs lined up in a row for a family picture.

  Wheelchairs around a Christmas tree …

  “No,” said Jody. “I’m the only handicapped person in my family.”

  Molly’s imagination had run away with her again. Her mother called her imagination “wild.”

  “Now,” said Mrs. Peters, “it’s time for refreshments.”

  The Pee Wees immediately forgot good deeds and yelled “Yeah!” at the top of their lungs.

  Sonny’s mother came down the basement steps, carrying a big plate of cupcakes with autumn leaves on them made of frosting. Mrs. Stone was the assistant troop leader. She set them on the table and tied a napkin around Sonny’s neck that looked like a bib. The Pee Wees dug in. Mrs. Peters poured glasses of milk to go with the treat.

  “Now, while you are enjoying your treat,” said their leader, “I’m going to give you some news. You must be wondering what badge we are going to earn next!”

  All the Pee Wees nodded, with cupcake in their mouths. They loved to earn badges.

  “How many of you have hobbies?” she asked.

  A few hands waved. Rachel’s waved wildly.

  “Mrs. Peters, I have four hobbies,” she said.

  Of course, thought Molly. If someone had one hobby, Rachel had to have four.

  Rachel rattled off all four: “Tap-dancing, skiing, skating, and reading.”

  “I read, but I never thought it was a hobby,” said Tracy. “It’s something we have to do in school. It’s work.”

  “I hate to read,” said Sonny.

  “Ha, that’s because you’re such a baby you can only read ‘Run, Spot, Run’!” said Roger.

  Sonny was about to throw his cupcake at Roger when Mrs. Peters held up her hand.

  Molly loved to read. She got piles of books from the library.

  “Reading can be a hobby,” said Mrs. Peters. “A hobby is something we do for pleasure, outside of our regular work. I’ve brought some pictures of many different hobbies.”

  While Mrs. Peters held up the pictures, Molly wondered what hobbies had to do with badges.

  “You see, here is a little girl who raises goldfish,” said their leader. “And here is a boy making model airplanes. And a girl making model cars.”

  Mrs. Peters held up pictures of children painting pictures and modeling with clay and swimming and hiking in the woods and doing magic tricks.

  “I would like you to begin thinking about hobbies,” she went on, “and fin
d one you like. When you find a hobby you like and get it under way, you can tell us all about it and show it to us, and when you do it well, you will get a hobby badge.”

  Rachel stood up and waved her hand again.

  “How can I ski in here?” she said. “How can I show you my skiing hobby?”

  “Like this,” said Roger, getting up and making swooshing noises around the room.

  “You can tell us about it,” said Mrs. Peters, guiding Roger back to his seat.

  Rachel sat down in a pout.

  “You have to see it,” she said.

  “Now, take your time finding the right hobby,” said Mrs. Peters. “Go to the library and look through books. Ask your family and friends what hobbies they have.”

  “My mother plays golf,” said Lisa. “I don’t think she’d let me do that.”

  “My dad hunts,” said Roger.

  “That’s disgusting!” said Lisa. “Hurting those little animals.”

  The Pee Wees booed Roger. He looked sorry he ever said his dad’s hobby.

  “Now for my other news,” said Mrs. Peters. “Grandparents Day is coming up, and I thought as a special treat we’d have a little program for your grandparents. Each of you could make up a little poem or verse to recite, or draw a picture. If you are extra clever, you can combine what you do for Grandparents Day with your hobby!”

  The Pee Wees all nodded as if they had just the right thing to do in mind. All but Molly. She didn’t nod. She didn’t have a hobby. And how could she combine Grandparents Day with a hobby she didn’t have?

  CHAPTER

  3

  Looking for a Hobby

  “Well, I don’t have any work to do for my hobby,” said Rachel on the way home. “And I can just do one of my old tap-dances at the program, and my grandma will love it. She loves the way I dance.”

  “My grandpa and grandma can’t come!” cried Mary Beth. “They live in Florida. How can I do a hobby at the program with no one to watch?”

  Mary Beth looked as if she might burst into tears anytime.

  “I’ll share my grandma and grandpa with you,” said Molly, putting her arm around her friend.

  “It’s not the same,” said Mary Beth, shaking her head. “We’re supposed to have our own grandparents. Your grandparents come to see you.”