I was kinda surprised whenever Mr. William and Mr. Archie said they were gonna be lookin' after me and Christopher Robin for a couple of days, but when I heard it was 'cos Ray an' Mr. Horatio were goin' off for a bit, well then, that was jus' fine with me. It was a strange arrangement here, 'tween everyone, an' I dunno how it woulda worked in Maycomb, but I like 'em all well enough that I don't think much on it.
Anyhow, I've been tryin' to play quietly an' not be much of a nuisance. I don't think Ray an' Mr. Horatio would be too happy if we were misbehavin'. I'm colorin' on a leftover copy of the newspaper someone here printed, when I notice my red crayon's gone an' rolled away. I get up and pad 'cross the room to go pick it up.
Christopher Robin was colouring as well, ignoring the letters on the newspaper page in favour of drawing a friendly green forest of cheerful rounded oak trees. Pooh sat next to him, remarking on how like home the forest looked, and Piglet pointed out where a beehive or a pile of twigs ought to be.
He missed Ray and Horatio a little already, and somewhere deep inside was a bit worried that something would happen and one or both of them wouldn't come back. But he didn't say anything about that, because he liked Mr Bush and Mr Kennedy quite well, after all.
Archie watched both children closely but drew the line at starting to color himself. He decided he probably should leave that to Chrisopher and Scout. Still, he did not mind fetching the red crayon for the girl or sitting down next to the boy. "That's a nice shade of green."
And in all honesty, William was quite surprised Archie hadn't joined in the coloring after all. Still, he paused in his carving as Archie spoke, a smile flickering briefly as he watched the trio.
I take the crayon Mr. Archie hands back to me, since he reached it 'fore I could get over there. "Thank you," I say with a smile, stickin' the crayon back in my pocket an' floppin' down in front of my paper.
Now, back to my drawin'. Right now it's jus' a bunch o' scribbles but maybe I'll turn it into Christmas pictures or maybe a turkey for Thanksgivin'.
"Thank you," Christopher Robin said politely, smiling up at Archie. "Would you like to colour too? There's plenty of paper. We don't mind sharing, do we Scout?"
"No, we don't mind sharin' at all, Mr. Archie," I say with a nod. I like it when people color with me, anyhow. 'minds me of Atticus sittin' down his Sunday paper to color with me, or read with me, or things like that. I push some of the not-colored-on papers over to Mr. Archie, jus' in case he wants to be colorin', too.
"That would be great," the lieutenant decided, sitting down next to them and accepting the blank papers from Scout. "But you needn't call me Mr. Archie. Archie's fine."
And even as he returned to his carving, the smile stayed as William listened to exchange. Ah, there - and before long Archie would be carving with the best of them.
It was ridiculously charming, really. Perhaps babysitting wasn't so terrible after all.
Anyhow, I've been tryin' to play quietly an' not be much of a nuisance. I don't think Ray an' Mr. Horatio would be too happy if we were misbehavin'. I'm colorin' on a leftover copy of the newspaper someone here printed, when I notice my red crayon's gone an' rolled away. I get up and pad 'cross the room to go pick it up.
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He missed Ray and Horatio a little already, and somewhere deep inside was a bit worried that something would happen and one or both of them wouldn't come back. But he didn't say anything about that, because he liked Mr Bush and Mr Kennedy quite well, after all.
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Now, back to my drawin'. Right now it's jus' a bunch o' scribbles but maybe I'll turn it into Christmas pictures or maybe a turkey for Thanksgivin'.
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It was ridiculously charming, really. Perhaps babysitting wasn't so terrible after all.
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