box of candy, Andy should have
the first pick.

"He can have his choice of any piece in the box," thought Jerry
benevolently. And waited quite patiently while Andy came down the
stairs slowly all the way like a grownup and not two feet on the same
step like a baby. Sometimes Jerry did not mind having Andy tag along
as much as he made out.

3

P. T. A. Meeting

"Why did it have to be pleasant all week and then rain on Saturday?"
thought Jerry unhappily the following Saturday. He watched the rain
slant against the front windows for a while and then picked up the
morning paper to reread the comics. "April showers may bring May
flowers, but it's tough on baseball," he said to himself.

Andy came in the living room. He had a much folded and unfolded sheet
of paper in his hand. "Help me learn my piece, will you, Jerry? I can
read pictures but not hard words. But I know most of my piece. Cathy
teached me."

Andy was to make his first public appearance at the P. T. A. meeting
Monday evening. His kindergarten class was to perform a short play
about Goldilocks and the three bears. Once a year the Oakhurst
elementary school put on a program by the pupils for the parents. This
year Cathy was to sing in a girls' chorus and Jerry, one of a rhythm
band, was to shake bells during the playing of "The Stars and Stripes
Forever" by John Philip Sousa. Andy had an important part on the
program. He was to speak a poem to introduce the play about
Goldilocks. Miss Prouty, his teacher, called it the prologue. Andy
called it his log piece.

Jerry took the grimy piece of paper. "Let's hear it," he told Andy.
"Shoot."

Andy stood with his legs far apart, his head tilted upward as if he
were reading his "piece" from the ceiling. His usually merry face
looked solemn, his dark eyes worried. Hardly above a whisper he
recited:

We welcome you, dear parents,
And hope you'll like our play.
'Twas written by Miss Prouty's class
Just for the P. T. A.

"How could your class write a play when you don't even know how to
write?" asked Jerry.

"I can print all my name," said Andy in his normal voice. "Miss Prouty
says that part of writing is thinking and saying. So she read
'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' to us three times. Then our class
said it to her and she wrote it down. But she wrote my log piece by
herself."

"You'd better say the first verse again and a lot louder," Jerry
suggested. "Nobody will hear you