Molly Learns a Lesson (American Girl (Quality)) by Valerie Tripp

Author:Valerie Tripp [Tripp, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: American Girl
Published: 2012-12-01T07:00:00+00:00

“We’ll just have to keep trying,” said Molly.

“We can’t give up now. Let’s go to the next block.”

Bottletops were scarce on the next block, too. No one was home at two houses. At one house, a man came to the door in a painter’s hat. He was spattered all over with blue paint. He said if he did have any bottletops he’d never be able to find them because the whole house was torn up and in a mess. The girls peeked past him to see if that was true. It was.

One nice lady holding a baby gave them two apple juice bottletops and let them shake hands with the baby. A smiling old lady said they were sweet girls and gave them each one bottletop. As they left, Molly noticed two blue stars hung in her window. “She has two people from her family fighting in the war,” Molly said.

“We have one blue star for my father,” said Linda. “The people next door have a gold star because their son got killed.” Molly looked back at the old lady’s house. It seemed to be waiting for happy, noisy young people to come back and fill it with fun again.

At the next house, a teen-age boy holding half a chicken sandwich pulled a bottletop out of his pocket, handed it to Molly, and closed the door without saying a word. “Did you see that sandwich?” asked Linda as they headed down the walk. “I’m hungry. It’s lunchtime. We have to stop now.”

“Not yet,” said Molly. “We only have sixteen bottletops.”

“I’m tired,” said Susan. “I can’t go on any longer.”

“Some secret agents you two make,” said Molly. Her nose was runny. Ricky’s boots were heavy. “Come on. Just one more block, then we’ll take a break for lunch.”

Susan sighed. Linda shivered. Molly led the way across the street to the next block.

“Hey, you know who lives on this block?” Linda asked. “Alison Hargate.”

“I know,” said Molly. “We just won’t go to her house to ask for bottletops.”

“I bet Alison has lots of bottletops,” said Susan. The girls were now standing right in front of Alison’s house.

“I know what! Let’s go peek in the window at the knitting bee,” said Linda. “It’ll be fun! Just like real secret agents!”

“Yes!” said Susan. “Let’s spy on them.”

Molly hesitated. “What if someone sees us?”

she asked. But Linda was already bent over, creeping behind a tall bush and heading toward a big window. Susan put her umbrella in the bush and followed Linda. Finally Molly went, too. She felt out of place standing on the sidewalk all alone.

When she bent over to sneak behind the bushes, the rain dripped down the back of Molly's neck. It gave her goosebumps. Linda and Susan were on tiptoe, holding on to the window ledge, peering inside. Molly looked, too.

Oh, it was so warm and cozy in there! They were looking into Alison’s living room, where a cheery fire blazed in the fireplace. All the other girls in their class were sitting Indian-style in a circle on the rug.

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