Sophie the Chatterbox Read Free Page A

the kitchen in your house?” Ranger Fawn asked the class.
    Twenty hands shot up at once. And twenty answers came out in a hurry.
    There was no dishwasher. Or fridge. Or stove. Or sink.
    There was no microwave for making popcorn. There was no blender for making milk shakes.
    All the water came in buckets, from a well outside.
    All the cooking was done in the fireplace, in big black pots and pans.
    It seemed like a lot of trouble to Sophie.
    “Did George Washington’s family eat out a lot?” she asked.
    Ranger Fawn grinned and shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “They made all of their meals right here — including George Washington’s favorite breakfast: hoecakes with butter and honey. Hey! Who would like to make George Washington’s favorite breakfast right now, right here?”
    “Me!” the whole class cheered. And that included Sophie, even though she did not know what a hoecake was. She
did
know that she liked butter and honey!
    “Great!” Ranger Fawn said. “Let’s split into twogroups. One group will make the hoecakes, and the other group will make the butter.”
    She moved over to a tall wooden bucket. It had a lid with a hole in the middle and a long pole sticking out of the top.
    “Who has used a butter churn before?” Ranger Fawn asked.
    Mindy’s hand shot up. Of course. So did Lily’s. They waved their hands like they were experts. But Sophie was not so sure about that.
    Still, it was hard for Sophie to be honest right then. What if the ranger only picked the experts to churn the butter? Sophie really wanted to try it! It was not easy to keep her hand down.
    “Okeydokey,” Ranger Fawn said. She pointed to Mindy and Lily. “Since you two have done this before, you can make hoecakes. I want to let kids who have not churned butter have a chance.”
    Mindy’s face got pinchy mad. Lily’s face did, too. But Sophie was too busy pumping her fist to look at them.
    Being honest was awesome!
    Ranger Fawn picked Sophie for butter churning. Then — yay! — she picked Kate, too.
    Then she picked a bunch of their other friends.
    Then she picked Toby and Archie.
    Too bad.
    Their group gathered around the butter churn. Ranger Fawn poured a big jug of cream into it.
    She showed them how to move the stick up and down. That was easy.
    Then she told them to have fun and take turns. That was hard.
    Grace’s mom was in charge of their group. She tried to make it work, but she had never been in charge of Toby and Archie before.
    Toby and Archie were very bad at taking turns.
    “Me first!” Archie yelled.
    “No, me first!” Toby hollered.
    They both grabbed the butter churn handle — and they did not let go.
    “Boys, boys, boys,” Grace’s mom said gently.
    “Everyone will have a turn. Let your friend go first,” she told Toby. “Then you can go.”
    Sophie shared a look with Kate. Grace’s mom did not know Archie and Toby at all!
    Toby looked at her and shrugged. He let Archie grab the handle. Then Archie started churning the butter as fast as he could.
    “Okay, next,” Grace’s mom told him.
    But Archie did not stop. So Toby grabbed his arms to pull him away. The butter churn rocked….
    “Boys!” Grace’s mom yelled. She did not sound gentle anymore. “That’s it! You’re done!”
    A few other kids went. Then at last it was Sophie’s turn. She couldn’t wait! She gripped the handle tightly. And she churned and churned and churned….
    Then she stopped.
    Boy, were her arms tired! Churning butter was much harder than it looked.
    “What’s the matter, Sophie? Tired already?” Toby jeered.
    Sophie glared at him. She wanted to say no, but she could not lie. She was Sophie the Honest, after all.
    “Yes,” she muttered. Then she started to stick out her tongue.
    But before she could, Ranger Fawn was there.
    “The hoecakes are done,” she said. “How’s the butter coming?”
    Sophie wiped her forehead. “I think it’s ready,” she said.
    She stood back and let Ranger Fawn lift the