Attaboy, Sam! by Lois Lowry

Author:Lois Lowry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

6

Sam dressed very quickly for nursery school on Wednesday morning. He woke up, took his pajamas off, dropped them on the floor, and jumped into his clean underwear, jeans, sweatshirt, and socks faster than he ever had before. He grabbed his sneakers and took them down to the kitchen, where his mom was fixing breakfast.

"My goodness, Sam," his mother said when he appeared. "I didn't even know you were up. Most mornings I have to shake you awake and then nag you and nag you to get dressed."

Sam climbed onto a kitchen chair and shook some Rice Krispies into a bowl. "Well," he explained, "today I was Mr. Speedo."

He didn't want to tell his mother the real reason that he had dressed so quickly.

Anastasia was gathering her books. "I'll be home late this afternoon, Mom," she said. "I have to stay after school to work on the newspaper.

"And Sam," she added, "it was really helpful, your suggestions last night. I worked on that project some more and it's coming along much better, thanks to you."

"What project's that?" Mrs. Krupnik asked. She went over to the table with her cup of coffee and sat down. She sliced a banana over Sam's Rice Krispies and poured some milk into his bowl.

"Secret," Anastasia told her.

"Secret?" Mrs. Krupnik said, looking puzzled. "I'm not sure I like that, Anastasia. Having secrets from your own mother."

Anastasia grinned. "Well, how about if it's a secret for a big event coming up this Friday evening?"

"Friday evening?" Mrs. Krupnik asked. Then she smiled. "Oh, I see. My birthday. I almost forgot. Well, okay, then. Birthday secrets are allowed."

Anastasia left for school, and Sam spooned up the rest of his cereal and bananas.

"I have a secret, too," he told his mother. "A birthday secret. And so I don't want you to go into my room. Nobody can go into my room but me."

"But, Sam, what about your bedtime story?"

Sam thought. He didn't want to give up the nightly story. "We can read it downstairs, okay?" he suggested. "We can cuddle up on the couch in the study."

"Well, all right, I guess that would work," his mom agreed. "But, Sam, what about the laundry? I have to go into your room to collect your dirty clothes."

"I'll bring my dirty clothes down to the washing machine," Sam said. "But you mustn't go in my room. Promise?"

His mother chuckled. "Okay, I promise. But you have to promise to bring all the dirty clothes down. And you'll have to take the clean ones back up, too. Otherwise you won't have clean socks or undies."

Sam didn't actually care that much about clean socks or undies. He would have been happy to wear dirty ones every single day. But it was important to his mother.

And it was important to him that she not go into his room. It was the real reason that he had dressed so quickly this morning.

His room smelled terrible.

***

"Don't take your jackets off, children," Mrs. Bennett said. "Remember that today is a

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