Miss Kirby's Room

I don't know why I keep Jamie for my best friend, Susan thinks. Sometimes she doesn't even act like a girl. Jamie actually loves Sam, the class pet snake--and she wears a rabbit's foot in her hair for good luck, the way Susan wears a hair ribbon--and she is the only girl on the baseball team, a better catcher than anyone else in Miss Kirby's room. When a dollar disappears from Nick's cubbyhole everyone in the class is upset. Miss Kirby won't read Treasure Island after lunch any more until whoever took it puts it back. Each person in the room begins to feel angry and suspicious of everyone else. But it is Jamie who says; "Sometimes people can't help doing something wrong. Like that time Tim brought his white mouse to school. Whose fault was it that Sam ate the mouse? He couldn't help it. Lots of times things are like that." And it is Jamie who tries to make everything all right in the class again. Everything is so awful with no one trusting anyone, someone has to do something! Susan is unhappy already, and when Jamie is suspected of being the thief and becomes an outcast, Susan feels as though she is caught in a spreading web of unkindness.