Betsey Biggalow Is Here! Read Free Page A

in it. My dad gave me Old Faithful and . . .”
    But Josh didn’t let Betsey finish.

    “Cluck! Clu-uu-ck! Chicken!” Josh began to leap about and to peck and flap and strut, just like a chicken. “Cluck! Clu-uu-ck!” Soon everyone else was doing the same thing. “Clu-uu-ck!”
    “Botheration!” said Betsey. “Josh, you’re about to lose Mr Mighty Marble.”
    Betsey dug into her bag.
    “What are you doing?” Josh frowned.
    “Getting out a marble to play with,” answered Betsey.
    “You’ve got to use Old Faithful,” Josh said. “That was the deal.”
    “But that’s not fair. Your mighty marble is ginormous and Old Faithful is tiddly,” said Betsey.
    “Too bad. That’s the deal.” Josh smiled.
    What could Betsey do? The contest was all her idea so she couldn’t back out now. There was nothing left to do but to stay put and play. Betsey felt her eyes stinging but she forced herself not to cry. She was going to lose all her precious marbles. All the marbles it had taken her so long to collect. And worse still, she was going to lose Old Faithful.
    “Josh, you go first,” sniffed Betsey.
    And the contest began. Everyone gathered round to watch. Josh flicked Mr Mighty Marble first. Betsey flicked Old Faithful away from Mr Mighty Marble. Josh flicked his marble towards Betsey’s.
    “Ooooh!” A gasp came from everyone around. Josh had only just missed Betsey’s marble.

    This was it. If Betsey didn’t do something, Josh would hit her marble with his very next shot and then Betsey would lose every single marble she had in the world.
    “Bombsies!” Betsey said.
    Josh laughed. “Bombsies! With that little marble! You can’t win, Betsey, so give up now.”
    “I’ll show you,” Betsey said. She stood up, Old Faithful in her hand. She stood over Josh’s marble, carefully lining up Old Faithful over Mr Mighty Marble. If she missed, Josh would win for sure. No one spoke. The only sound came from the waves lapping on the white sand and the sound of birds singing from the trees.
    “Your hand can’t be lower than your waist,” Josh said.

    “I know.” Betsey didn’t look up. She carried on lining up her shot until Old Faithful was directly above Mr Mighty Marble.
    Then Betsey let go of her own marble. Old Faithful hit Mr Mighty Marble with a CRR-AAA-CK!
    Then a strange thing happened. Old Faithful bounced off Mr Mighty Marble.
    “Ooooh!” said everyone.
    Josh’s marble wasn’t well. It wasn’t well at all. Mr Mighty Marble, Mr Super Marble, Mr Bigger-than-anyone-else’s Marble had cracked into four pieces. Each piece lay on the path, glistening and glittering just as loudly as before.
    Betsey picked up Old Faithful and stared at it.

    “Wow, Betsey. That’s some marble,” everyone said.
    Josh carefully picked up the pieces that made up what used to be Mr Mighty Marble.
    “Look what you did.” Josh stared down at the pieces in his hand.
    “Mr Mighty Marble doesn’t look so mighty any more.” May laughed.
    “Sorry, Josh,” Betsey said. “You can have any five of my marbles if you want.” Betsey held out her bag of marbles.
    “Can I have Old Faithful?” Josh asked hopefully.
    “No chance!” said Betsey firmly. “Old Faithful may be small, but he’s a real super marble.”
    Josh looked down and kicked at the ground with the toe of his right shoe.
    “Come on, Josh.” Betsey smiled. “I’ll give you my second best marble instead.”
    “Oh, all right then,” Josh said at last. Betsey handed over her bag and let Josh pick out five marbles he wanted.
    Then Betsey, May and all their friends set off for home, telling tales of Old Faithful, the mightiest marble of them all.

Betsey’s Bad Day!
    The moment Betsey opened her eyes, she was awake. She grinned and sat up. Saturday morning! And only one more week until Dad came home. And no school!
And
they were all going into town today. Today was going to be a good day!
    “Yippee! Saturday!” Betsey sprang out of bed.
    She put on