Cookies and Crutches
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Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random House, Inc., New York
Text copyright © 1988 by Judy Delton
Illustrations copyright © 1988 by Alan Tiegreen
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eISBN: 978-0-307-77884-0
v3.1
For Dyana Peters,
who has Pee Wee Scouts of her own
Contents
Cover
Other Yearling Books You Will Enjoy
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
1 Three O’clock at Last
2 Raw Dough!
3 Root Beer to the Rescue
4 Baked Frisbees
5 Cookie Badges
6 Dainty Feet
7 Crutches
8 A Badge for Molly
CHAPTER 1
Three O’clock at Last
Molly Duff watched the clock.
The big black minute hand dropped, boing, boing, boing.
One minute at a time.
To get to three o’clock, it had to climb, chug, chug, chug.
At three o’clock the bell would ring.
The Pee Wee Scouts from first grade would run out of the room and down the stairs. They were in Troop 23.
Clop, clop, clop.
Tuesday was their meeting day.
Molly could not wait.
Today Mrs. Peters would show them how to bake cookies.
Mmm. Molly felt hungry thinking about it.
She could not sit still in her seat on Tuesdays.
She pretended to think very hard about her spelling words.
She squinted and said, “Pig: p-i-g.”
But she was not thinking about pig.
She was thinking about Scouts and cookies.
Molly knew how to spell.
She could spell pig without thinking at all.
Spelling was easy.
“Mary Beth, spell home,” said Mrs. Lane.
Mary Beth Kelly was passing a note to Sonny Betz.
Mrs. Lane watched for people who passed notes.
Mary Beth turned red.
She was not good at spelling.
“Spell home,” Mrs. Lane said again.
“Home-comb,” said Molly to herself.
“Let’s go to Scouts!”
Mrs. Lane looked as if she wanted to leave too.
She spelled home for Mary Beth.
“Keep your eyes on your spelling, Mary Beth,” said Mrs. Lane.
“Yes, Mrs. Lane,” said Mary Beth.
Molly looked at the clock. Chug, chug, chug.
The big hand was climbing to three.
“Home,” said Mrs. Lane. “It is almost time to go home!”
Sonny Betz waved his hand.
“Not for us!” he said.
“It is Tuesday. We have Scouts on Tuesday.”
“Dear me, I forgot!” said Mrs. Lane.
Teachers were not supposed to forget, thought Molly.
That was a teacher’s job. To remember everything.
It was good that the first graders remembered it was Tuesday.
Remembered it was Scout day.
Or else Mrs. Peters would be all alone with her cookies.
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
Mrs. Peters would eat all the cookies herself!
Dozens and dozens of cookies!
Molly laughed into her speller thinking about it.
The minute hand was still climbing. Chug, chug, chug.
“Row One, get your coats,” said Mrs. Lane.
Row One raced to the back of the room.
“Row Two is noisy,” said Mrs. Lane. “I will call on Row Three because they are quiet.”
Row Three raced to the back of the room.
Molly sat up straight. She sat very very still. She was in Row Two.
Mrs. Lane looked at Molly.
“Row Two,” she said.
Row Two got their coats.
Some of the children got in line.
Then Mrs. Lane called, “Pee Wee Scouts, line up!”
* * *
The minute hand climbed its last minute.
It was on the twelve.
The bell rang, BRRRING!
Molly covered her ears. The bell was right outside the first-grade door!
The lines marched out of the room.
It was time for Pee Wee Scouts at last!
It was time to learn how to bake cookies.
CHAPTER 2
Raw Dough!
Troop 23 ran all the way down the stairs.
The school bus waited near the door.
Molly wanted to get there first.
She squeezed ahead of Mary Beth Kelly.
Then she squeezed ahead of Sonny Betz.
But Rachel Myers was there first.
She was in the other first grade.
“That’s not fair,” said Molly. “Your room is closer to the door.”
“I can run faster,” said Rachel.
“I’ve got my running shoes on.”
Molly looked at Rachel’s running shoes. Everybody had some.
Everybody but Molly.
Molly’s mother said running shoes were not school shoes.
“A hex on your running shoes,” said Molly, crossing her eyes.
Molly said that when she was mad.
It made her feel better.
It scared some people.
They thought she might really put a hex on them.
But she couldn’t.
A hex was not a real thing.
The Scouts got on the school bus.
They got off at Mrs. Peters’s house.
Mrs. Peters was waiting at the door.
“We’ll meet in the kitchen today,” she said.
The Scouts followed her one by one.
She had bowls and spoons out.
She had flour and butter and sugar.
“Umm,” said Molly, rubbing her stomach.
Everyone stood around the table.
They all wanted to be in front.
They all wanted to see.
Mostly, they all wanted a cookie!
Mrs. Peters smiled.
She was friendly and kind.
She was a good troop leader.
“Before we begin, does anyone have a good deed to report?” Mrs. Peter
s asked the Scouts.
“I helped my grandma wash her windows this week,” said Sonny Betz.
“Good!” said Mrs. Peters.
“I carried three bags of groceries for the lady next door,” said Roger White.
“Wonderful,” said Mrs. Peters. “You’ve been real Pee Wees this week. Today, I will show you how to make easy cookies.
“To earn your cookie badge, you must bake cookies yourself.
“You must bake them at home and bring one to me.
“I will see if you earn the badge.
“Your parents must not help.
“But they must know you are using the stove.
“And they must write a note saying you baked them yourselves.
“Do you all understand what to do?”
The Scouts nodded.
All except Roger White.
“Baking cookies is for girls,” he said.
“It is not,” said Sonny Betz.
“Sissy!” said Roger. “Mama’s boy!”
Lots of people thought Sonny was a sissy.
His mother still walked to school with him every morning.
She met him after school too.
Mrs. Peters held up her hand.
“Do you like to eat, Roger?” she said.
Roger nodded.
“If boys can eat, boys can cook,” she said. “Baking and cooking are for everyone.”
“Yeah!” shouted Sonny. “I told you, creep!”
Mrs. Peters began to measure flour.
She explained the measuring cups.
And the measuring spoons.
She mixed the butter and sugar.
She put in eggs.
She put in flour.
She mixed it all up.
At the end she put in chocolate chips and nuts.
“Umm,” said Molly and Mary Beth together.
“I could eat them right now. Before they are baked,” said Rachel.
Roger made gagging noises.
“You can’t eat raw flour,” he said. “Yuck!”
“And raw eggs,” said Molly. “Right out of a chicken!”
“It’s good!” said Rachel. “I could eat that whole bowl of dough right now!”
Now everyone was making gagging sounds.
Mrs. Peters had to hold her hand up again.
She showed the Scouts how to scoop the dough with a teaspoon and put it on the pan. When the pan was full, she put it into the oven.
“Now!” she said. “We put the timer on for twelve minutes. While we wait, we will sing our Pee Wee Scout song!”
Troop 23 got into a circle.
Mrs. Peters washed her hands at the sink.
Everybody sang.
(to the tune of
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm”)
Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,
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!
While the Scouts sang, they sniffed the air.
The cookies smelled wonderful, baking.
CHAPTER 3
Root Beer to the Rescue
When the cookies were done, Mrs. Peters gave one to each Scout.
“Umm,” said Molly. “These are good cookies!”
The cookies were warm and soft.
The chocolate chips were melted and ran down the Scouts’ fingers.
“See if you can make good cookies too,” said Mrs. Peters.
“Be sure your mother is home. Be careful when you use the stove.”
Mrs. Peters passed out papers.
They were recipes for how to make the cookies.
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix well.
Then add: 1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups cornflakes
1 pkg. chocolate chips (8 oz.)
1/2 cup nuts
Drop small spoonfuls of dough on greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.
“Let’s make cookies together, at my house,” Mary Beth said to Molly.
“Can we make cookies together?” asked Molly.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Peters. “You can work together.”
It was time for Scouts to end.
Everyone said the Pee Wee Pledge.
We love our country
And our home,
Our school and neighbors too.
As Pee Wee Scouts
We pledge our best
In everything we do.
Then they put their coats on to leave.
“Let’s make our cookies now,” said Mary Beth on the way home.
“No, they’ll be stale by next Tuesday,” said Molly. “Let’s make them Monday after school.”
The next day was Wednesday. During recess Mary Beth walked up to Sonny.
“We’re making our cookies together,” she told him.
“We are too,” said Sonny. “Aren’t we, Roger?”
“I s’pose,” said Roger.
He was thinking of how warm and soft those cookies were.
He remembered that Mrs. Peters said if boys could eat, boys could cook.
It made sense.
At three o’clock the next Monday the girls hurried to Mary Beth’s house.
When they got there, Mary Beth’s mother had chocolate chips ready.
She had flour and sugar and eggs out.
“The oven is on,” Mrs. Kelly said. “I’ll be upstairs. Call me if you need me.”
“We will,” said Mary Beth.
Molly took the paper out of her pocket.
It had the cookie recipe on it.
“Measure the flour,” she said.
Mary Beth measured the flour.
She poured it into the bowl.
Molly measured the butter into another bowl.
She put an egg in too.
They both did just what it said on the paper.
First Mary Beth stirred it, and then Molly.
“There is something the matter,” said Mary Beth.
Molly looked into the bowl.
“It should be brown,” said Mary Beth. “Mrs. Peters’s cookies were brown.”
“Maybe the chips will make it brown,” said Molly.
She dumped the chips in.
It still was not brown.
It was almost white, like flour.
“We need something brown,” said Mary Beth, opening the refrigerator.
She reached for a bottle of root beer. It was brown.
“Let’s put some of this in,” she said.
Molly looked doubtful. It was brown, though.
And the cookie dough did look too white.
She poured some of the root beer into the batter.
Fizzzzz!
Little bubbles were all over.
Molly stirred it.
“It’s too runny now,” she said. “We need something to make it thick.”
Mary Beth looked in the cupboard. She reached for a package of something that had a brown picture on the box.
“What does this say?” she asked.
“Gravy mix,” read Molly. “That’s good! My mom uses it to make gravy thick when it’s too runny. So it would make this thick too.”
Mary Beth dumped the box of gravy mix into the cookie dough.
“Perfect!” said Molly. “It’s real thick now.”
“Thick and brown!” said Mary Beth. “It looks like Mrs. Peters’s cookies.”
“Now there is more dough,” said Molly.
“But not enough chocolate chips!” added Mary Beth.
“I like lots of chocolate chips,” said Molly.
“So do I,” said Mary Beth. “That’s the best part.”
The girls looked in the cupboards and in the refrigerator. There were no more chips.
“We need something!” said Mary Beth, stamping her foot.
“These look like chips,” said Molly, picking up a plastic bag.
“Dump them in!” said Mary Beth.
The girls stirred and stirred. Then they put the cookies on the pan one at a time, as Mrs. Peters had shown them.
“Terrific!” said Molly. “They look yummy!”
* * *
Mary Beth popped the pan into the oven.
She set the timer for twelve minutes.
“Now all we do is wait,” she said. “Wait for our yummy yummy cookies.”
CHAPTER 4
Baked Frisbees
“Wash the dishes when you’re through,” called Mary Beth’s mother from upstairs.
The girls sighed. Cookies were more work than Mrs. Peters had said.
They washed the dishes and then went to Mary Beth’s room to wait.
Pretty soon Mary Beth’s mother called out, “What is that smell?”
The girls sniffed the air.
“It smells like turkey roasting,” said Mrs. Kelly.
“Our cookies!” Molly shouted.
The cookies were not white now.
They were very very brown.
And they were huge.
“They look like hamburgers!” said Molly.
“But they smell like turkey!” said Mary Beth.
Mary Beth’s mother came into the kitchen.
She picked up the gravy mix box.
“No wonder it smells like turkey!” she said.
“Why did you use this?”
“The cookies were runny,” said Mary Beth.
“From the root beer,” said Molly.
“Why did you use root beer?” asked Mary Beth’s mother.
“To make them brown,” said Molly.
“Baking makes them brown,” said Mrs. Kelly.
“It sure does,” said Mary Beth.