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shoved his way through the excited boys and girls crowded around the rats. Sure enough, Mutt was bigger. Otis put his finger against the cage. With his whiskers quivering, Mutt put his front paws up on the wire and sniffed at Otis’s finger. Good old Mutt, thought Otis. He knows me. He’s just like my very own pet rat.
    And then Otis began to wonder. What was going to happen to the rats when the experiment ended? Mutt was the only pet he had ever had. He was going to miss him when he was gone, unless…Maybe there was some way he could get to take Mutt home with him. Mrs. Brewster would not have to know about a pet rat, and Otis’s mother was too busy to care.
    Otis went to the teacher’s desk. “Mrs. Gitler, what will happen to the rats when the experiment ends?” he asked.
    “We’ll talk about that when the time comes,” she answered, and went on working on her lesson plans.
    That only made Otis more anxious. After the class had taken their seats, he couldn’t keep from watching Mutt. Such a fine healthy rat! And all because he had worked to make sure that he had good food. Otis had to find some way to keep him.
    As Mrs. Gitler took the scales out of the cupboard, Otis still had not thought of a plan. He wished she would hurry as he watched her adjust the weights and set Pinky on the scale. She slid the weights back and forth some more before she said, “Pinky weighs one hundred and thirty grams.” Then she lifted Mutt out of his cage, weighed him, and announced, “Mutt weighs one hundred and thirty-seven grams!”
    Mutt was bigger than Pinky! Everyone began to talk at once.
    “I have only one pair of ears,” said Mrs. Gitler.
    “I can hear only one person at a time.”
    Secretly Otis felt that he had Mrs. Gitler in a pretty tight spot. He raised his hand and asked, “If Mutt grew more on white bread and soda pop than Pinky did on school lunches, doesn’t that mean we should drink soda pop and eat white bread in the cafeteria?”
    Soda pop in the cafeteria! Everyone had something to say.
    Mrs. Gitler looked stern until the room was silent. Then she spoke quietly. “No, Otis, it does not mean that we should eat white bread and drink soda pop in the cafeteria.” She paused to look sadly at the class. “It means that some boy or girl in this room has spoiled our experiment by feeding Mutt.”
    Otis stared at his teacher. Leave it to Mrs. Gitler to guess what had happened. Much as he disliked admitting it, even to himself, he had to admire her. You couldn’t put anything over on Mrs. Gitler. At least, not very often. Otis squirmed uncomfortably. Poor Mrs. Gitler. How disappointed she looked—to think that one of her boys or girls would spoil the scientific experiment.
    Now Otis did not know what to do. He had expected Mrs. Gitler to be surprised or maybe cross, not to look sad and disappointed. While Mrs. Gitler looked sadly at the class, Otis made up his mind to tell her what he had done. He would say he was sorry, and when Mrs. Gitler forgave him he would ask for Mutt.
    But before he could get the words out, Ellen spoke. “Mrs. Gitler, I…I…” She gulped. Otis thought she sounded as if she was about to cry. “I fed Mutt. He…he looked so little and hungry that I felt sorry for him.” She gulped again and looked miserably at Mrs. Gitler.
    Otis stared at Ellen. Mrs. Gitler surprised him, but Ellen astounded him. Old Ellen Tebbits saying she fed Mutt just when he was going to tell what he had done. Well, he didn’t believe it. It wasn’t true. She couldn’t have fed Mutt. Look at all the trouble he had had, trying to slip cheese and vitamin pills to him.

    “How could you feed him without anybody seeing you?” Otis demanded.
    “Yes, Ellen, and tell us what you fed him,” said Mrs. Gitler.
    “Every day I wrapped some of my lunch from the cafeteria in a paper napkin.” Ellen paused to sniff unhappily. “And then I waited till everyone had gone home and then I asked the janitor to let me into