Mudshark Read Free

above all else, a master librarian and knew where to find any book on any subject in the shortest possible time.
    And she was wonderfully unhinged. So when the School Administration Science Experiment Directive came down about crayfish, she embraced it with an enthusiasm any educational administrator would have found rewarding.
    If a couple of crayfish were good, she thought, looking around at all the empty space in her library that suddenly seemed to cry out for cages and aquariums and terrariums, then other examples of more exotic living creatures would be better.
    And so the Amazing Armadillo.

This is the principal . Would the custodian please report to the faculty restroom with a large stick, safety goggles and a respirator mask? And would whoever took the erasers from room two oh three please return them and refrain from removing erasers in the future? Also, while it is loose, and in spite of what I said in the last announcement, the gerbil is not, per se, a wild animal and will not, repeat, will not attack. So please refrain from screaming or otherwise panicking should you see said gerbil .
    Ms. Underdorf bought an armadillo from a man on a street corner who said he was a professionalarmadillo salesman from Texas. Since Ms. Underdorf believed in everybody, she took him at his word and happily brought the little armadillo to school, sleeping soundly, she thought, rolled up in wood shavings in the corner of its glass tank.
    She named it Sparky.
    Sparky the Amazing Armadillo.
    Ms. Underdorf spent long hours cooing soft words over Sparky's tank to help him have sweet dreams, because her research indicated that these particular armadillos were nocturnal. But when she asked the custodian about Sparky's nights, he said Sparky wasn't any more active in the evening hours, when the custodian was there to clean the library.
    Ms. Underdorf never noticed that she was the only person in school who paid any attention to Sparky; after a curious glance by the student population the week he arrived, no one ventured near his table. The explosion of crayfish had curbed their interest in animal behavior.
    After a while Ms. Underdorf became concerned because Sparky never unrolled and didn't evenwaken to eat the special lumps of insects she supplied weekly. Armadillos were supposed to love those lumps. One day, when this had been going on for about four weeks, Mudshark noticed that, although Sparky wasn't eating, the spider population of the library was incredibly well fed. He wandered over to Sparky's tank and watched a line of spiders drop in, wrap up Sparky's food and scramble up the sides of the glass tank, stolen dinner in tow.
    Mudshark took a close look at Sparky, reaching into the tank to nudge him. Mudshark's eyes widened in surprise.
    Mudshark waited until he and Ms. Underdorf were the only people in the library. Then he said carefully, “Uh, Ms. Underdorf. Did you notice that Sparky is … um … special?”
    “Of course he's special! Why, he's downright amazing; he was one of four identical babies born in his litter—all armadillos are born four at a time from one egg. Isn't that cunning?”
    “Uh, no. I mean yes, that's clever, very utilitarian, and my family has an appreciation of themultiple-birth phenomenon, as you well know, but what I was talking about, specifically, was that Sparky seems to have, well, it looks to me like a brass clasp is holding his stomach contents in place.”
    Ms. Underdorf peered intently at Sparky. Mudshark's nudge had flipped him on his side and out of the burrow of wood shavings.
    “Well, I'll be …,” she said. “Would you look at that! It's a purse! Sparky is actually a purse. Fine observation, Lyle.” She beamed proudly at Mudshark. And then she reached in, plucked Sparky out of the glass tank and snapped open the clasp. “Oh, look! A penny. This
is
my lucky day. Thank you, Lyle, for bringing this to my attention.” She smiled at Mudshark before taking Sparky to her office and