Mostly Monty Read Free Page B

again, and got only 185. “This has to go in the trash too,” he said sorrowfully. He checked the pieces in the other boxes. None of them was complete.

    “At least I got a new wagon. Or a new old wagon,” he told his parents. He gave the wagon a little pull, and the wobbly wheel stopped being wobbly. It fell off the wagon altogether.

     
    “Oh, dear, I’m afraid this is beyond repair,” said Mr. Morris, inspecting the wagon. “The screws are all rusty, and so are the holes where new ones would go. I’m sorry,” he told his son. “Maybe we can get you a brand-new wagon with four good wheels for your birthday.”
    “Will it be red?” asked Monty hopefully.
    “Of course,” said his dad.
    “When are you doing a wash?” Monty asked his mom. It looked as if all his newfound possessions were going out to the garbage. And it was a long way off till his next birthday. But maybe they could still rescue the teddy bear.
    “I’ll do one now,” said Mrs. Morris.
    The large orange sanitation truck came while the teddy bear was still in the washing machine. The broken chair and the suitcases and the old magazines in front of Mrs. Carlton’s house were picked up. The old books, the puzzles with the missing pieces, and the rusty wagon with three attached wheels and one that had fallen off were picked up too.
    At last, the spin cycle of the washing machine was completed, and the teddy bear was taken out, together with the clothing he had been washed with.
    “I’ll put him in the dryer for a little while,” said Mrs. Morris.
    Monty went down to the basement and watched the teddy bear spinning around inside the dryer. He hoped when it finished spinning, the bear would smell good.

    Finally, the buzzer went off. It meant the drying was completed. Mrs. Morris removed the dark clothing and the teddy bear from the machine. She sniffed at the bear and smiled. “What do you think?” she asked Monty.
    Monty took a deep breath. “He smells good,” he said happily.
    So even though he didn’t get any new books or puzzles or a wagon that day, Monty did get the teddy bear with the friendly smile. It sat on his bed, smelling good. And that night, it slept inside the bed, with Monty. Just looking at it made Monty feel good too.

Not everything Monty saw lying around belonged in the garbage. One Monday just as recess was ending, Monty found a sweater lying in a corner of the playground. It was dark gray and it was near a gray wall, so it would have been easy to miss. In fact, it had been missed by its owner, which is why Monty found it.
    On his way back to his classroom, he stopped in the school office and handed the sweater to Mrs. Remsen, the secretary. Under her desk was a carton labeled L OST & F OUND .
    “I found this,” he informed her.
    Mrs. Remsen took her eyeglasses off the top of her head, where she often left them, and, putting them on, she examined the sweater. “There’s no nametape sewn inside,” she commented. “There’s no brand label either. This is a hand-knit sweater, and someone put a lot of work into making it. I hope the owner has enough sense to come looking.” Then she turned to Monty and smiled at him. “Thanks for being such a good citizen,” she told him.

     
    Monty blushed. He could go for days without anyone noticing him. It wasn’t often that someone at school praised him. So he felt very good, even if he was embarrassed at the same time.
    After that, Monty spent a lot of time looking for lost items around the school. Some of them he knew would never be claimed: a chewed pencil, a red mitten with a hole in it, a notebook with its cover torn off. Still, he took them to the office. He liked showing what a good finder he was, even when the stuff he found wasn’t very important. But then the following week, he made several important finds: a pair of boots, a book from the public library, a Yankees baseball cap, and a dollar bill. He thought about keeping the dollar. No one would know if he