Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill by Maud Hart Lovelace

Author:Maud Hart Lovelace [Lovelace, Maud Hart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-199829-4
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

7

Out for Votes

ON THE RAYS’ hitching block next morning Betsy, Tacy, and Tib made out their petition. They printed at the top of a piece of foolscap:

“We, the undersigned, want Tib Muller for queen.” Across the street, on the Kellys’ hitching block, Julia and Katie were printing on a sheet of foolscap too. Margaret and the Rivers children ran from group to group. Paul waited on the Kellys’ porch with the dinner bell in his hand.

Katie called across the street, “Are families allowed to sign?”

“No! No!” whispered Tacy, nudging Betsy to remind her that Julia and Katie were on the Kelly side of the street; they could get to the Kelly house first and there were lots of people in the Kelly family.

“No,” called Betsy. “Of course not.” She and Tacy and Tib had finished. They jumped to their feet.

“No fair starting ’til the signal!” warned Julia. It had been agreed in advance that no one was to begin until Paul rang the dinner bell.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib rocked impatiently on their toes; Julia and Katie jumped up.

“Ready?” cried Paul. “One, two, three, go!”

He rang the bell vigorously, and the race for votes was on.

With excited whoops both sides started running down the sloping sun-dappled street. Julia and Katie ran on the Kellys’ side; Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, on the Rays’ side.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib paused to sign up the oldest Rivers child. She hadn’t started to school yet but she could print her name. They ran into the Riverses’ house and Mrs. Rivers signed. They ran down the terrace to the next house.

In that house lived a deaf and dumb family. That is, the father and mother were deaf and dumb. The baby cried as loudly as any other baby. Their name was Hunt. Mrs. Hunt had taught Betsy and Tacy the alphabet in sign language. So they asked her in sign language to vote for Tib for queen. They showed her the petition too, and pointed to Tib and said, “Vote!” Mrs. Hunt smiled and wrote her name.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib bounded down the terrace to the Williamses’ blue frame house. They called there sometimes to borrow the Horatio Alger books. These belonged to Ben who walked home from school with Julia. His sister, Miss Williams, was Julia’s music teacher.

Ben said that he was too busy to vote. He looked cross. Miss Williams wouldn’t sign either. She exclaimed, “Why, Julia has been planning for weeks on being the queen!” Mrs. Williams signed though, and Grandpa Williams signed. So they came out even.

Across the street Julia and Katie could be seen at Mrs. Benson’s door.

“She won’t sign, I’ll bet. She’ll wait for us,” said Tacy as she and Betsy and Tib leaped down another terrace to the Grangers’ house.

This was a neat light tan house with brown trimmings. No children lived there; the Granger daughters were grown-up. But Betsy and Tacy knew the house well, for here they often borrowed Little Women. They had borrowed it almost to tatters.

Mrs. Granger signed and so did the woman in the house below.

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