44545 -U.S. $2.50
CAN. $3.25
A DELLIlsisfr^YEARUNG BOOK With ketchup, mustard, or cream sauce,
worms can be good!
Barowfc'^Li
now TO
EflT PRIED UlORmS THOmnS R0CKU16U
-«ii^
^m/i^n-B^..
(aprotinin injection)
^^^^aj^-%!<arf
How to Eat Fried
Worms
*^
^^r-^^
Horw to Eat
FHed THOMAS ROCKWELL
PICTURES BY EMILY McCULLY A YEARLING BOOK
Published by Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1
Dag Hammarskjold
New
York,
Plaza
New York
Text copyright
©
10017
1973 by
Illustrations copyright
©
Thomas Rockwell 1973 by Emily
McCuUy
All rights reserved. For information address Franklin Watts, Inc.
New
York,
Yearling*
New York
10019.
TM 913705, Deli Publishing Co., Inc.
ISBN: (M40-44545-0 Reprinted by arrangement with Franklin Watts, Inc. Printed in the United States of
January 1975
30 29 28 27 26
MPC
America
OTHER YEARLING BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:
UPCHUCK SUMMER, Joel L. Schwurtz CHOCOLATE FEVER, Robert Kimmel Smith JELLY BELLY, Robert Kimmel Smith
HENRY HUGGiNS, Beverly Cleary HENRY AND THE CLUBHOUSE, Beverly Cleary HENRY AND THE PAPER ROUTE, Beverly Cleary
HENRY AND
RiBSY, Beverly Cleary
HENRY AND BEEZUS, Beverly Cleary
THE GREAT
BRAIN,
ME AND MY
John D. Fitzgerald
LITTLE BRAIN, John D. Fitzgerald
YEARLING BOOKS are designed especially to entertain and enyoung people. Charles F. Rcasoner, Professor Emeritus of Children's Literature and Reading, New York University, lighten
is
consultant to this series.
For a complete
listing
of
all
Yearling
titles,
write to
Dell Publishing Co., Inc., Promotion Department,
P.O.
Box 3000, Pine Brook,
N.J. 07058.
I
n
m nr
VI
n vin IX
X XI
xn
xm xnr
Contents
The Bet
1
Digging
6
Training
Camp
The
Worm
First
10 14
The Gathering Storm The Second Worm
22
24
Red Crash Helmets and White Jump The Third Worm The
Plotters
The
30
33
The Fourth Worm
Tom
Suits
34
42 Fifth
Nothing
to
Worm
Worry About
The Pain and
vu
46
the Blood
48
and the Gore
50
27
XV XVI XVII XVIII
XIX
XX XXI XXII XXIII
XXIV
XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII
XXIX
XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII
XXXIV
3:15 A.
The
M.
Sixth
54
Worm
60
The Seventh Worm
61
The Eighth Worm The Ninth Worm Billy's
Mother
62 63
68
The Tenth Worm
74
The Eleventh Worm Admirals
77
Nagumo and Kusaka on December 6, 1941
the Akaiga,
The Twelfth Worm Pearl Harbor
80
82
Guadalcanal
83
The Thirteenth Worm
....
Hello, We're
The Peace Trevid The Letter Croak
90
96
98
101
The Fourteenth Worm The
Fifteenth
tx
86
....
102 103
the Bridge of
78
xxxv XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII
XXXIX XL XLI
Burp
The
103
Fifteenth
Wo ...
Out of the Frying Pan
%$*! Blip*
The United
4-
&!
Epilogue
xt
into the
States Cavalry
Fifteenth
116
107
Oven
Ill
over the Hilltop
The
.
Worm
112 113
Rides
109
I
The Bet
JljLey,
Tom! Where were you
"Yeah, you missed
last
night?"
it."
Tom
Alan and Billy came up the front walk.
was
on his porch steps, bouncing a tennis ball. "Old Man Tator caught Joe as we were climbing through the fence, so we all had to go back, and he made us pile the peaches on his kitchen table, and
sitting
then he called our mothers." "Joe's
mother
hasn't let
him out
yet."
"Where were you?"
Tom
stopped bouncing the tennis
skinny boy
who
"My mother
kept
tall,
"What "I
began
to
He was
a
me
in."
for?"
wouldn't eat
Alan
ball.
took his troubles very seriously.
sat
my
dinner."
down on
chew
"What was
his it?"
the step
thumbnail.
below
Tom
and
"Salmon
casserole."
down on
Billy flopped
the grass, chunky, snub-
nosed, freckled.
"Salmon
casserole's not so bad."
"Wouldn't she
let
two
just eat "I
just eat
my mother
Alan. "Sometimes I'll
you
two
bites?" asked
says, well, all right, if
bites."
wouldn't eat even one."
"That's stupid," said Billy.
"One
bite can't hurt
you. I'd eat one bite of anything before I'd let
send
me up
Tom
to
my room
them
right after supper."
shrugged.
"How
about mud?"
Alan asked
Billy.
"You
wouldn't eat a bite of mud."
Alan argued
gnawing
at
a lot, small, knobby-kneed, nervous,
his
thumbnail, his face smudged, his
red hair mussed, shirttail hanging out, shoelaces untied. "Sure,
I
would," Billy
Just dirt with a
little
said.
"Mud. What's mud?
water in
it.
My
father says
everyone eats a pound of dirt every year anyway."
"How
about poison?"
"That's different." Billy rolled over on his back. "Is
your mother going to make you eat the
leftovers today at lunch?"
he asked Tom.
"She never has before."
"How Tom's
about worms?" Alan asked sister's cat
Billy.
squirmed out from under the
porch and rubbed against
Billy's knee.
"Sure," said Billy.
"Why
Worms
not?
are just
dirt."
"Yeah, but they bleed."
"So you'd have to cook them. Cows bleed." "I bet a hundred dollars you wouldn't really eat worm. You talk big now, but you wouldn't if you were sitting at the dinner table with a worm on your
a
plate."
"I bet
would.
I
me
body'd bet
'You really
you
I'd eat fifteen
can't eat fifteen
worms.
"Where're you going "In
and
my
I
ings account.
dollars
really will."
to get fifty dollars?"
and seventy-nine cents
know, because
I
some-
if
fifty
savings account. I've got one
thirty dollars
five dollars
worms
hundred dollars." want to bet? I'll bet you
a
my grandmother
last
gave
week
me
hundred
in
my
sav-
put in the
I
for
my
birth-
day."
"Your mother wouldn't "She would her
tell
erwise. that
I
I
I
earned it.
teen worms.
I
let
you take
lost the bet.
it
out."
She'd have
to.
I'd
my stamp collection othbought that with all my own money
was going
And
want with
if
to sell
mowing I'll
lawns, so
bet you
Come
fifty
I
can do whatever
dollars
you
on. You're chicken.
can't eat
I
fif-
You know
do it." "/wouldn't do it," said Tom. "If salmon casserole makes me sick, think what fifteen worms would do." you
can't
Joe came scuffing up the walk and flopped
down
beside Billy. a long nose
He was
a small boy, with dark hair
and big brown
and
eyes.
"What's going on?"
"Come
on," said Alan to Billy.
your second and
You think
it's
Joe'll
so easy
"Tom
can be
be mine, just like in a duel.
—
here's
your chance
to
make
bucks."
fifty
Billy cat just
dangled a leaf in front of the
rubbed against
"What kind
cat,
but the
his knee, purring.
of worms?"
'Regular worms."
"Not those big green ones toes.
I
won't eat those.
And
I
on the tomawon't eat them all at
that get
once.
might make
It
me sick. One worm
a day for
fif-
teen days."
"And he can eat them any way he wants," said Tom. "Boiled, stewed, fried, fricasseed." "Yeah, but we provide the worms," said Joe. "And there have to be witnesses present when he eats them; either me or Alan or somebody we can trust.
Not
just
you and
"Okay?" Alan said
Billy."
to Billy.
Billy scratched the cat's ears. Fifty dollars.
was a
lot
of money.
How
bad could a
liver,
salmon
Other
kids' parents
nagging them to
eat, eat; his
about how much he
ate.
Not
loaf,
were always
had begun
that
he
That taste?
mushrooms,
He'd eaten fried tongue, pig's
feet.
worm
to
-was fat.
worry
He
just
hadn't worked off all his winter blubber yet.
He
slid
his
hand into
his shirt
squeezed the side of his stomach.
and
furtively
Worms were
just
dirt; dirt wasn't fattening. If
he
won
fifty dollars,
he could buy that mini-
bike George Cunningham's brother had promised to
him
sell
lege. lars,
in
September before he went away
Heck, he could gag anything
down
to col-
for fifty dol-
couldn't he?
He
looked up. "I can use ketchup or mustard or
anything like that? As
much
Alan nodded. "Okay?" Billy stood up.
"Okay."
as
I
want?"
II
N,o," said Tom. "That's not He and Alan and behind the barns
where
to dig the first
"What body
at
d'ya
Joe were wandering around Billy's house, arguing over
worm.
mean,
said anything
fair."
not
it's
"No-
fair?" said Joe.
about where the worms were
supposed to come from.
We
can get them anywhere
we want." not
"Not from fair. Even
thing,
you
"What
still
a if
manure pile," we didn't make
have to be
said Alan.
Tom.
a rule
"That's
about some-
fair."
difference does
comes from?"
said
it
make where
"A worm's
the
worm
worm."
a
"There's nothing wrong with manure," said Joe. "It
comes from cows,
vious, a schemer.
Joe was sly, demanure pile had been his
just like milk.
The
"
idea.
"You and Alan
to
Tom.
the pile, where
Billy have got to be fair, too," said
"Besides, we'll dig in the old part of it
doesn't smell
much anymore."
Digging
"Come
dragging
field
Tom,
on," said
starting ofF across the
"If
shovel.
his
wouldn't be so anxious about
worm from
a
manure
it
it.
was
you
fair,
Would you
eat a
pile?"
Joe and Alan ran to catch up. "I wouldn't eat a worm, period," said Joe. "So
you
can't
go by that."
"Yeah, but pick
some
if
your mother told you
daisies for the
"My mother
supper
manure
pick the daisies off a
to
table,
go out and
would you
pile?"
wouldn't ask me. She'd ask
my
sis-
ter."
"You know what Alan and
Tom
under
a
worms
they had
tree
in
"Not him," ler.
"Why
not?"
I
mean."
and Joe leaned on
their shovels
the apple orchard, watching the
dug squirming on said
Tom,
a flat rock.
pointing to a night craw-
"Look
at
him. He'd choke a dog."
"Geez!" exploded Alan. "You expect us to pick
one
Billy can just
gulp down, like an ant or a nit?"
"Gulping's not eating," said Joe.
"The worm's
got to be big enough so Billy has to cut
and eat
it
it
into bites
with a fork. Off a plate."
"It's this
one or nothing,"
said Alan, picking
up
the night crawler.
Tom
considered the matter.
It
would be more
fun watching Billy trying to eat the night crawler.
He
grinned. Boy,
Wait
Billy
till
"We
let
After
win
fifty
little
saw
it
was huge!
you choose where
all,
thought
dollars
A
regular python.
it.
Tom,
to dig," said Alan.
Billy couldn't expect to
by just gulping down a few measly
baby worms.
"All right.
Come
on."
He
back toward the barns, dragging
turned and started his shovel.
Ill
i^ix, seven, eight, nine, ten!" Billy
barn.
was doing push-ups
He
wasn't
in the deserted horse
worried about eating the
first
worm. But people were always daring him to do things, and he'd found it was better to look ahead, to try to figure things out, get
ter
Alan had dared him
igloo they'd built in Billy
had thought
himself ready. Last win-
to sleep out all night in the
Tom's backyard.
to himself.
Why
not?
What could happen?
About midnight, huddled shivering under his blankets in the darkness, he'd begun to wonder if he should give up and go home. His feet felt like aching stones in his boots; even his tongue, inside his
mouth, was
cold.
But half an hour
later, as
he was
stubbornly dancing about outside in the moonlight to
warm
with
six
himself,
Tom's dog Martha had come along
other dogs,
all
in a pack,
and
Billy
had
coaxed them into the igloo and blocked the door with an orange crate, and after the dogs had stopped wrestling and
10
nipping and barking and sniffing
Training Camp
around, they'd
all
in the middle, as
gone to sleep
warm
as
so
he was
do
to
just
heap with
Billy
an onion in a stew.
But he hadn't been able special to
in a
to think of
anything
prepare himself for eating a worm,
limbering up in general
knee bends, jumping jacks Nearby, on an orange
—
— push-ups,
red-faced, perspiring.
crate, he'd set
out bottles
of ketchup and Worchestershire sauce, jars of piccalilli
and mustard,
a
box of
crackers, salt
and pepper
shakers, a lemon, a slice of cheese, his mother's tin
cinnamon-and-sugar shaker, a box of Kleenex, a jar of maraschino cherries, some horseradish, and a plastic
honey
bear.
Tom's head appeared around the door. "Ready?" Billy
scrambled up, brushing back his
hair.
"Yeah."
"TA RAHHHHHHHHH!"
Tom
flung the door open;
Alan marched
in
carrying a covered silver platter in both hands, Joe
11
slouching along beside
nodding
arm,
and
him with
smiling
a napkin over one
obsequiously.
dragged another orange crate over beside the
Alan
set the silver platter
"A
on
chair," cried Alan.
Tom first;
it.
"A
chair for the mon-
shure!"
"Come
Tom horse
on," said Billy. "Cut the clowning."
found an old milking
stalls.
Joe dusted
it
stool in
one of the
off with his napkin, show-
ing his teeth, and then ushered Billy onto
it.
'Luddies and gintlemin!" shouted Alan. "I prezint
my musterpiece: Vurm a la Mud!" He swept the cover off the platter.
"Awrgh!" cried
13
Billy recoiling.
IV A HE
huge night crawler sprawled limply
center of the platter, "Boiled," said Billy
and it
brown and steaming.
Tom. "We
boiled
it."
stormed about the barn, kicking barrels
posts, arguing.
was a worm,
ler's
in the
it'd
"A
night crawler
isn't
be called a worm.
A
a
worm!
If
night craw-
a night crawler."
Finally Joe ran off to get his father's dictionary:
night crawler n:
worm found on
Billy
didn't
earthworm;
kicked a barrel.
care
esp: a large earth-
the soil surface at night
It
wasn't
still
what any dictionary
said;
fair;
he
everybody
knew
the difference between a night crawler and a
worm
— look
at the thing.
Yergh!
It
was
as big as a
souvenir pencil from the Empire State Building!
Yugh! He poked
14
it
with his finger.
Th« First Warm
Alan
said they'd agreed right at the start that
he
and Joe could choose the worms. If Billy was going to cheat, the bet was off. He got up and started for the door. He guessed he had other things to do besides
argue
So
all
Tom
day with
a fink.
took Billy aside into a horse
put his arm around
Billy's
stall
and
shoulders and talked to
him about George Cunningham's brother's minibike, and how they could ride it on the trail under the power lines behind Odell's farm, up and down the hills, bounding over rocks, rhum-rhum. Sure, it was a big worm, but it'd only be a couple more Did he want to lose a minibike over two bites? Slop enough mustard and ketchup and horseradish on it and he wouldn't even taste it. bites.
"Yeah," said Billy. "I could probably eat this one. But
"You them."
15
I
got to eat fifteen." can't
quit
He nodded
at
now," said
Tom. "Look
at
Alan and Joe, waiting beside
the orange crates. "They'll
chicken.
He down,
It'll
be
all
tell
over school.
everybody you were
Come
on."
led Billy back to the orange crates, sat tied the
napkin around
his neck.
Alan flourished the knife and
"Would monshure
him
fork.
like eet carved lingthvise or
crussvise?"
"Kitchip?" asked Joe, showing his teeth.
"Cut
it
Tom. "Here." He glopped
out," said
ket-
chup and mustard and horseradish on the night crawler, squeezed on a few drops of lemon juice, and and peppered
salted
it.
Billy closed his eyes
woot
and opened
mouth. "Ou
his
in."
Tom
sliced off the
it
Billy's
open mouth,
opened
his eyes.
"No,
me do
let
Tom
end of the night crawler and
up. But just as he was about to poke
forked
Billy closed
it
into
mouth and
his
it."
handed him the
fork.
Billy gazed at the
dripping ketchup and mustard, thinking, Awrgh! It's all
right talking about eating
worms, but doing
it!?!
Tom
whispered in his
.
crossed,
.
fork into his mouth, .
gulped!
.
.
.
His eyes
swam, squinched shut. He flapped his arms then, opening his eyes, he grinned bea-
wildly.
And
tifically
up
16
"Minibike."
ear.
"dug." Billy poked the chewed furiously, gulped!
at
Tom.
"Superb, Gaston."
Tom
cut another piece, ketchuped, mustarded,
peppered, horseradished, and lemoned it, and handed the fork to Billy. Billy slugged it down, smacking his lips. And so they proceeded, now sprin-
salted,
kling on cinnamon and sugar or a bit of cheese, some cracker crumbs or Worcestershire sauce, until there was nothing on the plate but a few stray dabs of ketchup and mustard. "Veil," said Billy, standing up and wiping his mouth with his napkin. "So. Ve are done mit de first
Naw seconds?" "Lemme look in your
mouth," said Alan.
"Yeah," said Joe. "See
if
curse.
he swallowed
"Soitinly, soitinly," said Billy.
"Luke
it all."
as
long as
you vant." Alan and Joe scrutinized the inside of his mouth. "Okay, okay," said Tom. "Leave him alone now. Come on. One down, fourteen to go."
"How'd
it
taste?"
asked Alan.
"Gute, gute," said
Billy. "Ver'fine, ver'fine.
Hoo
He flapped his arms like a big bird and began hop around the barn, crying, "Gute, gute.
hoo." to
Ver'fine, ver'fine. Gute, gute."
Alan and Joe and Tom looked worried. "Uh, yeah gute, gute. How you feeling,
Tom
—
"Yeah, stop flapping around and come
how
Billy?"
asked.
you're feeling," said Joe.
17
tell
us
They huddled Billy
together by the orange crates as
hopped around and around them, flapping
his
arms.
"Gute, gute. Ver'fine, ver'fine.
Hoo
hoo."
Alan whispered, "He's crackers." Joe edged toward the door. "Don't let him see we're afraid. Crazy people are like dogs. If they see you're afraid, they'll attack."
whispered Tom, standing his
"It couldn't be,"
ground. "One worm?" "Gute, gute," screeched
Billy,
hopping higher
and higher and drooling from the mouth.
"Come on," whispered Joe to Tom. "Hey, Billy!" burst out Tom suddenly in a hearty, quavering voice.
want
"Cut
it
out, will you?
I
you something." arms flapped slower. He tiptoed menacingly around Tom, his head cocked on one side, his to ask
Billy's
cheeks puffed out.
Tom
hugged himself, chuckling
nervously.
"Heh, heh. Cut
it
out,
will
you.
Billy?
Heh,
heh." Billy pounced. Joe and Alan fled, the barn door banging behind them. Billy rolled on the floor,
helpless with laughter.
Tom clambered
up, brushing himself off.
"Did you see their faces?" Billy said, laughing. "Climbing over each other out the door? Oh! Geez! Joe was pale
20
as
an onion."
— Tom. "Ha, ha. You fooled them." "Ho! Geez! Billy sat up. Then he crawled over to the door and peered out through a knothole. "Look at them, peeking up over the stone wall. "Yeah," said '
Watch
this."
The door swung slowly Screeching, into the yard!
puddle!
Billy
— up
— flapping
open.
hopped onto onto a stump!
the doorsill!
—splash
into a
his arms, rolling his head.
Alan and Joe galloped up the hill through the high grass, yelling, "Here he comes! Get out of the way!"
And
then Billy stopped hopping, and climbing
up on the stump, called in a shrill, girlish voice, "Oh, boy-oys, where are you going? Id somefing tare you, iddle boys?"
Alan and Joe stopped and looked back. "Id oo doughing home, iddle boys?" yelled
Billy.
"Id oo tared?"
"Who's
scared,
you lunk?" called Alan.
"Yeah," yelled Joe. "I guess
out being called scared,
"But
ain't
oo
in a
all."
meadow,
his
He
I
want
I
21
with-
to."
Billy.
was supposed to help
this afternoon," said
my
Alan.
turned and started up through the
hands in his pockets.
"Yeah," said Joe. "Me, too." Alan.
home
dawful hurry?" shouted
"I just remembered mother wash windows
"That's
if
can go
I
He
trudged after
V /\lan and
Joe stopped in the orchard by the
pile of fresh dirt.
"You think
he'll
be able to do
it?"
asked Alan,
biting his thumbnail.
know," said Joe. "He can't do it," said Alan. "I don't
worms? My father'll that one awful easy."
eat fifteen
He
ate
"Forget self,
I'll
next
it,"
figure
worm
said Joe. "If
"How kill
could anybody
me. Fifty dollars!
he doesn't give up him-
something out.
We
could spike the
with pepper. He'd eat one piece and
then another, talking to
Tom — Then
all
of a sud-
den he'd sneeze: ka-chum! Then he'd sneeze again: ka-c/iwm.' Then again: ka-chum ka-chum! A faint look of panic would creep over his face; he's beginning
to
wonder
if he'll
ever stop.
stomach; his eyes begin to water.
chum!"
22
He
clutches his
Ka-chum! Ka-
—
Th« Gathering Storm
awful stubborn," said Alan. "Even
"Billy's
if it
was killing him, he might not give up."
"He
"Ka-c/iMm.' Kdi-chum!" cried Joe. floor.
bend over him. 'Gawd,'
I
mother.
It's
falls to
the
'Call
his
say.
I
the troglodycrosis.' His eyes bleat
up
at
me. Ka-chum!"
"Remember
that
business
last
Alan, gnawing on his thumbnail. ninety-five degrees in the shade
put on coat
all his
and
and
summer?"
said
"When
was
I
it
dared him to
winter clothes and his father's raccoon
his ski boots
and walk up and down Main
Street all afternoon?"
"Ka-c/iwm.' Ka-chum!"
They went
off through the orchard, Joe sneez-
ing, sighing, rolling his eyes
suffering
moaning be
to
be Billy
from a dose of peppered worm; Alan to himself
fifty dollars?
23
— pretending
about
how stubborn
Billy could
VI
JjiLLY
sighed.
the last bite of
On
the plate before
worm under
a
him
lay
daub of ketchup and
mustard.
"What's the matter?" asked "I don't
know," sighed
Tom. He
Billy.
picked up the
fork again.
"Does
it
taste
bad?"
"No," said Billy wearily.
ketchup and mustard mostly. But it makes me feel sort of sick. Even before I eat it. Just thinking about it." He sighed again and then glanced at Joe and Alan, talking
to
each
other
in
"I just taste
whispers over by the
window.
"What
are you whispering about?"
"Nothing."
"Then what
24
are you whispering for?"
Tli«
Second Warm
"Nothing.
It's
not important. Just something
him
Joe's father told
last night."
"What?"
"Come
on. Finish up.
It
was nothing. We'll miss
the cartoons." Billy shut his eyes
worm
into his
and popped the
last
piece of
mouth, chewed, gagged, clapped
his
hands over his mouth, gulped! gulped! toppled
backward off the orange in the chaff,
crate.
Sprawling on his back
he gazed peacefully up
Joe and Alan stood over him.
"Open Billy
up."
opened
his
mouth.
"Wider. See any, Joe?" "Naw, he swallowed it." "Okay,
25
let's
go."
at the ceiling.
VII
Red Crash Helmets and White Jump Suits i\fter
the movies,
Tom
walked home with
Billy.
"Tomorrow fry
it.
roll the
I'll
crawler in cornmeal and
Like a trout."
"It's
not really the
the thought.
smothered
When
I
taste," said Billy. "It's
start to eat
ketchup and
in
it,
more
even though
it's
mustard and grated
I can't stop thinking worm. Worm, worm, worm, worm, worm, worm: gaggles of worms in bait boxes, drowned worms drying up on sidewalks, a
cheese,
worm squirming as the fishhook gores into him, the soggy end of a worm draggling out of a dead fish's mouth, robins yanking worms out of stop thinking
"Yeah, but
if
I
fry
like a crawler," said it,
and some
slices
centrate, think
the barn,
27
all
a lawn.
I
can't
worm." it
in cornmeal,
Tom.
"I'll
of lemon.
fish.
it
won't look
put parsley around
And
then you can con-
All the time you're waiting in
the time you're eating
it,
keep saying
to
yourself: fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish; here
eating
fish,
good
I
am
fish.
"Trout, salmon, flounder, perch, I'll
ride
my
minibike into church.
Dace, tuna, haddock, trout, Wait'll
"Fish
you hear the minister shout.
fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish
fish fish.
"Shark, haddock, sucker, I'll
race
my
eel,
father in his automobile.
Eel, flounder, bluegill, shark.
We'll race
all
day
till
after dark."
Billy cheered up.
"Think how
they'd all stare. I'd rev
up the
aisle,
around the front pews, down a side aisle under the stained-glass windows. My parents would kill me. Reverend Yarder'd peer down over the bible zip
you take that
stand. 'William,' he'd cry. 'William,
engine thing out of here
this
"Yeah, and then they'd us," said
minute!'
"
come chasing out
after
Tom.
"Waving their arms and yelling. And we'd lead them zigzag round and round and in and out among the gravestones and monuments in Billy laughed.
the cemetery and then roar off
28
down
the Sandgate
Road, leaving them draped over tombs, panting and shaking their fists."
"Hup
hup!" yelled
boxing the
Tom. dancing around and
air.
Monday we'd smuggle it into class disguised as Raymond Dwelley, because he's so fat, and hide it in the coat closet. And then when Milly But"And
that
ler said anything,
anything
like 'excuse me,' or if she
at all,
even something
even sniffed, we'd
dump
a
whole bottle of ink over her head and run for the coat closet, overturning chairs and desks behind us to slow
up Mrs. Howard. She'd come
after us,
fum-
ing and shouting threats, and suddenly the doors of the coat closet would slam open, and out we'd roar
on our minibike
blood-red crash helmets and
in
jump suits, our scarves streaming out behind us! And we'd roar round and round the classroom while Mrs. Howard knelt among the overturned white
desks and chairs, sobbing helplessly into her hands,
and then rhum-rhum out the door and up the
thumbing our noses ety-brackety up the
hall,
at the
monitors. Brackety-brack-
stairs,
stiff-arming tacklers, into
— up
Broom! Broom! a backfire into his face, and zoooom! out the window as he topples backward in his chair in a hurricane of quiz papers and rep)ort cards. And then, crunch, landing on the driveway, we roar off Mr. Simmons's
office
—
down Navy
highway
to
parents can't punish us."
29
his desk!
Bennington and join the Mrs. Howard and Mr. Simmons and our
the so
onto
VIII XoM
ran out of the kitchen of Billy's house,
holding the sizzling frying pan out in front of him
with both hands, the screen door banging behind him.
Alan threw open the barn door when he saw him coming. Tom thumped the frying pan down on the orange
crate.
"There!" he said breathlessly. "Done to a T.
Look
at her, all
good enough
golden-brown and
sizzling. It looks
to eat."
"Yeah," said Billy.
He poked
the
worm
with his
fork.
Tom ing.
took off the pot-holder glove he was wear-
"Think
fish,"
he
said.
"Remember: think
fish.
"Trout, salmon, flounder, perch, I'll
ride
my
minibike into church.
Eel, salmon, bluegill, trout,
Wait'll
you hear the minister shout.
"Clam, flounder, tuna, sucker.
Look out here we come, old Mrs. Tucker. Lobster, black bass, oyster stew,
There goes
30
New
Orleans, here comes Peru."
"
Third
Tft6 He "Fish
Worm
leaned over Billy and whispered in his ear,
fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish,
bite, fish fish fish fish fish, okay, fish, fish, fish.
. .
.
go on, take
second
a
bite, fish,
IX
Th« Plotters
VJeez, you think "Suppose
it
doesn't?
it'll
He
work?" said Alan to Joe.
didn't
seem
to
pay
much
at-
tention today."
"Don't worry, It
takes time.
I
33
I
"
got
said Joe. it all
"We
doped
got
out.
him
thinking.
Trust me."
X IJiLLY ate steadily, grimacing, rubbing his nose, spreading on more horseradish sauce. Tom bent over him, hissing in his Billy paused,
he
ketchup and mustard. All of a sudden
in the
said,
watching Alan and Joe whispering swished the last bite round and
He
by the door.
round
"That's not
more. Every time
me
they expected
then
ear, "Fish fish fish fish fish fish."
when
I
I
They
can't act like that any-
swallow they lean forward
as if
something!
And
to keel over or
and shrug
don't, they look surprised
their shoulders
'Come
fair.
and nudge each other."
on," said Joe. "Cut
it
out.
We
can watch
you, for cripes' sake. We're just standing over here
by the window watching you."
"No, you're not," said
And
acting as
every time "It's
34
I
if
Billy.
"You're whispering.
you expected something
to
happen
swallow."
nothing," said Joe. "Forget
it.
Look, we'll
"
Tft6 Fourth Warm
window while you
turn around and look out the swallow."
"What do you mean,
it's
nothing?" said Billy.
"What's nothing?"
"Oh, come on," said Alan. Joe's father told
him
"It's just
the other night.
It's
something nothing."
"What? What?" "It'll just
worry you," said Alan.
nothing. Forget
"It's crazy. It's
it."
Billy tore the
napkin away from his throat.
"Tell me!" "It's
ther
is.
nothing," said Joe.
"Tell
me
or
"Well, look, last, I
and
was
my
fa-
it's all off. it's
nothing, but the night before
telling Janie
father was
threw down
55
"You know how my
He's always yelling about something."
his
about you eating the worms
on the porch and heard
newspaper and
us.
says, 'Joseph!'
So he So
I
"
seph?'
me
And he
worm, JoAnd then he grabbed my shoulders and shook,
says, 'Yes, Pa?'
till
my
hands danced
a puppet's.
'It's
stuttered out,
ggggood
if
says,
for
'It'ssss
mil
at the
et a
ends of
your own
my
arms
like
good,' he says. So
nnnnot going
to
I
ddddo me any
sssshake to pppppieces,
my mother
was wailing;
'Have you
Janie
is it?'
was chewing her apron in
the doorway. 'Alfred,' she cries, 'what's he done? You'll
deracinate him.
American
flag at school
Has he hauled down the it again? Has he
and eaten
"So what's the point?" yelled point! What's
it all
Billy.
"Get
have to do with me?"
"I'm coming to
it,"
said Joe,
wiping
his nose.
"But I wanted to show you how important my father nearly killing me and all."
He finally
sneezed.
had
hugging
to
And
was,
it
then Alan began to sneeze and
hobble off into one of the horse
stalls,
his stomach, to recover.
"Anyway," said Joe, wiping hitching
to the
up
his Levi's, "so
my
and
his nose again
my mother what?' says my
father told
I'd eaten a worm. 'A mother, dropping her apron and clutching the sides
he thought
of her head. 'A worm,' says
emnly. So
my mother
my
father,
nodding
sol-
fainted, collapsed all helter-
skelter right there in the doorway,
and
lay
still,
her
tongue lolling out of her mouth, her red hair spread out beautifully over the doorsill. So I
—
"Will you cut
36
it
out?" Billy yelled.
"Who
cares
about your mother? What does
it
have
to
do with
ME?" "I think he's lying," said
Tom. "Whoever heard
of someone's mother fainting and her tongue hanging out?" "All
RIGHT!" yelled Joe apoplectically, stamp"ALL RIGHT! Now I won't tell. You
ing around.
can die, Billy Forrester, and you'll have to carry him
home,
Tom
Grout,
all
by yourself! Nobody says to
me: 'Who cares about your mother.'
ALL RIGHT!
I'm going. Alan," he yelled, "they're insulting
my
mother. I'm going." "Don't," said Alan, running out of the horse
stall
and grabbing Joe by the shirttail. "Don't. You got to tell him. Even your mother'd say so. Mine, too. No matter what he said. Ain't it a matter of life and death?" "I won't," said Joe, starting
toward the door.
Alan pulled him back. "You got have we known poor
Bill? Six,
time's sake, Joe, because
garten together.
How
long
seven years? For old
we were
Think of
to.
all
once
in kinder-
the agony he'll face, Joe,
the pain and the blood and the gore." Billy
was on
his
knees by the orange crate,
wringing his hands, not daring to interfere. But
when Joe glanced
sullenly back at him, he whis-
pered, "Please, Joe? For old time's sake?"
"Well,
mother?"
37
will
you
apologize
for
insulting
my
"1 do." said Billy. "I do.
I
apologize."
to sneeze again
and
this
So Alan and Joe began put their heads between time had to bend over and their legs to recover.
Tom, who had been watching them
38
suspiciously.
"
make out what was going
trying to
on, started to say
something. "Shut up!" hissed Billy
fiercely,
turning
on him. "You keep out of it!" So Joe went on with his
how
mother
story:
his
had been carried upstairs to her room; how the doctor had come, shaking his head; how his aunt had
down
sobbed, pulling
how
morning
that
downstairs for the
all
first
the shades in their house;
mother had
his
finally
come
time leaning on his aunt's
how
arm, pale and sorrowful;
.
.
.
Tom. "Sure. So why? What does worms do to you?" "Nobody will tell me," said Joe, opening his eyes "Yeah," said
eating
wide. It's
been three days now, and nobody'U
"It's
just like the time
my
say.
cousin Lucy got caught in
the back seat of her father's Cheverolet with the en-
cyclopedia salesman. Nobody'U
was such an uproar." thing's sure:
it's
"Crap," said
He wiped
tell
his
me why
there
mouth. "But one
worse than poison. Probably
—
Tom.
"Oh, yeah?" said Joe. But then he and Alan had another sneezing
fit,
sprawling helplessly against each other.
"Look sneezing
at
—
piece and
"You
them," said
Tom
they're laughing.
let's
to Billy.
Come
"They're not
on. Eat the last
get out of here."
really think so?" said Billy doubtfully.
sneezing did look an awful lot like giggling. "Sure.
39
Look
at
them."
The
Tom
gave Alan and Joe a shove.
They
collapsed
in a heap, sneezing uncontrollably.
watched them. Yeah,
Billy
sneezing
— they were laughing.
"Hay
fever,"
.
sure, .
.
they weren't
Weren't they?
gasped Alan, "hay fever."
"Aw, you never had hay fever before," said Tom. "How about yesterday or the day before? Come on, Billy.
So
Open
up."
Billy, half believing
Tom
and half
not, glanc-
ing doubtfully at Alan and Joe, allowed
poke the
last bite
him out of the
of
worm
into his
Tom
mouth and
to
lead
barn.
Alan and Joe
sat up.
"It didn't work," said Alan.
Joe began
"You
wait.
to
brush the chaff out of his
He
wasn't sure.
Tom
hair.
was, but he isn't
You wait. Billy's worried. He was why he said he felt like he was going to throw up. But now he's really worried. Suppose I wasn't lying? Did you see his face when 1 said my fa-
eating the worms. before, that's
ther shook
me?
I
thought his eyes would bug right
out of his head."
Alan laughed. "Oh, geez, yeah. And when you said your mother fainted." Joe stopped brushing the chaff out of his hair. "Except why'd you laugh so much, for cripes' sake? If
you'd kept a straight face even
have guessed."
40
Tom
wouldn't
"Aw, you laughed first. What do you mean?" "Me? / laughed first? I did not." "You did so. You laughed when he yelled at you the first time. You wiped your nose."
They went
off through the
meadow, arguing.
"
XI
B,'illy pushed the frying pan toward Tom. "Okay,
fink. If
it's
not supposed to hurt you, you
eat a piece."
He and
Joe were lying on their stomachs in the hayloft, watching. "If he eats a piece, you lose, Billy. The bet was you were going to
"Oh, no," said Alan.
eat fifteen
worms, not you and him together."
Billy didn't look up, his eyes fixed grimly
on
Tom.
Then
"All right.
for him. He's so big,
up,
I
can't wait
right.
Now —
go dig another worm, just telling me: 'Hurry up, hurry
I'll
around
all
day
"I didn't say sissy," said just said if the first four
one wouldn't. be
I
have to mind
42
my
Tom
worms
can't help
home by two
— don't be
it if
a
sissy.'
All
uncomfortably. "I
didn't kill you, this
my mother
told
me
today. She's going shopping, so
brother."
to I
Tom
"Yeah?" said for
you
Billy.
"Okay. So we'll just have time
worm
to eat a
Come
before you go.
on.
Where's the shovel?" "Here," said Alan from the
loft.
"We brung
an
extra today."
A worm dropped
it
dangled squirming from his
not cooked," said
"I'll
do
it,
He
the ladder.
do
I'll
sat
want
it,"
Tom. said Joe, scrambling
worm from Billy and ran and grabbed the frymg pan.
down on an overturned to eat
any worm.
It
pail to wait.
wasn't his bet.
glanced at the door creaking in the wind.
he should make
He He
Maybe
a
break for
it.
Of course, he
could see
Billy's point. Billy didn't
believe Joe's story, but
ing
down
took the
out, then ran back
Tom
He
to Billy.
"It's
didn't
fingers.
if
43
Tom
ate
still
some worm,
.
.
too.
.
he'd find
it
reassur-
"He'll eat
it,"
Billy
was saying to Alan.
"If he don't, he's chicken," said Alan. "After
all
his talk."
Why
don't
yucky thing
He
eat
I
to do,
it?
but
thought Tom.
it
wouldn't
kill
I
mean,
it's
a
me.
scratched his neck, shifting his seat on the
pail. I
don't know,
thought
Tom.
won't,
I
would be like worm. He glanced
to
I
just
guess.
bite
He gagged, down on a
imagining what soft, fat,
boiled
it
at
the door again. Billy kicked the
"Leave
it
door shut.
open," said
Tom.
"Why?" "Because
I
said so."
"Yeah? Well, you don't own
this barn."
"Neither do you. Your father does." Billy
rubbed
his nose,
watching Tom, figuring:
He's trying to pick a fight so he won't have to eat the
worm. "Okay."
opened the door and set a brick against it. shifted his seat on the pail again. He couldn't stop thinking about what it would be like to bite down on a soft, fat, boiled worm. He Billy
Tom
scratched his ear.
Who did
Billy think he was, trying
to order people around, telling to eat
44
and
all? Billy
them what they had
wasn't anybody's father.
Tom
began
A the
to feel
put-upon and indignant and stubborn.
screen door slammed: Joe
worm.
Tom
licked his
lips.
coming back with
He
heard Joe run-
ning across the barnyard toward them "Billy!"
Billy
of
Tom
He
.
.
.
Alan shouted.
spun around
just in
time to catch a glimpse
pelting out the door, the door banging shut.
flung to the window: Joe sprawled in the middle
of the barnyard on his back,
Tom
was clambering
over the wall into the meadow, the frying pan lay upside
49
down
beside the horse trough.
XII
l_jooK, said Billy to himself, staring the fried it
worm on
Be
the plate.
sensible.
he never wants to
He
at
can
was
just
Tom
hurt me? I've eaten four already.
scared. He's like that.
down
How
eggs other people on, but
do anything himself
"Give up?" asked Alan.
"Come
on," said Joe.
"We
haven't got
"Then
"Five more minutes," said Alan.
"There's no time limit," said
time he wondered what he'd do could he ever get ten more? Big,
fifty fat,
dollars?
He
46
he
day." I
win."
For the lost.
first
Where
But how could he eat
ugly, soft,
couldn't ask his father for
Billy. if
all
brown
things.
fifty dollars.
heard Alan and Joe whispering together.
He
TheFifthWorm
"He's gonna quit." "Yeah.
with him.
I
knew
He
he'd never
make
it
Him and Tom
talks big.
when
I
bet
are just the
same. But they never do anything." Billy gritted his teeth, tard, salt, grated cheese,
anything,
worm and into his
everything, tore
it
glopped on ketchup, mus-
whatever was on the
crate,
and then grabbed up the
apart with his hands, stuffing
it
mouth, chewing and chewing and swallow-
ing, gulping.
.
.
.
Then, panting, he reached out and wiped his gooey hands on Alan's trousers and grinned messily up at him and said, "There. Five."
47
—
"
XIII night Alan asked his father to show
Ahat
him
fifty dollars.
After that, he couldn't sleep, tossing and turning in his see
rumpled bed. Suppose he
lost?
himself asking his father for
begging for his cheeks;
ing while
it,
on
his knees, tears
and then,
all
at
He
could just
fifty
dollars
streaming
-
down
Thanksgiving dinner, cring-
and uncles and cousins roared
his aunts
over his father's story of "Alan's bet."
He
slid
out of bed and snuck
hall to his parents'
"You got
to
down
the carpeted
bedroom.
wake him, Mrs. O'Hara, you got
he whispered into the phone.
"It's
to,"
an emergency.
I
got to speak to him." Pause. "I got a hoarse throat,
Mrs. O'Hara, that's Pause.
why
"Gee, thanks,
ever call this late again,
He
waited,
creaked on the
"What
it's
He
O'Hara. No,
just
at his
it's
—
thumbnail.
I
won't
A
board
stiffened. Silence.
d'ya want?" said Joe suddenly over the
telephone. !'Geez,
48
Mrs.
gnawing stairs.
I'm whispering. Please."
I
was sleeping. You woke
me
up."
"
Nothing to W[nrry About "Joe, suppose
take the
money
I
he won't. You think tell
me. Give
it
lose?
out of
to
I'll
me
My
my
father'll
never
lose,
let
me
know Joe? Huh? Huh? Joe,
savings account.
straight. Joe,
I
I
got to know.
I
can't sleep."
Joe sighed. "Look. I told you this afternoon. You got nothing to worry about. He's cracking. Sure, he ate that
one today. Sure, he might
—
XIV
J^ouR blocks away Billy suddenly found himself lit butcher shop, jostled by a crowd of
in a brightly
women,
middle-aged
enormous,
pigeon-breasted,
shouting to
make himself heard over
the din of their
chatter and the roars of butchers ordering about the
weasel-faced boys
who were
lugging haunches and
room in jumping and
tubs of meat in and out of the refrigerator
Then jumping among
a butcher saw Billy
the rear.
and
Billy gave
the it,
women and
asked for his order
and suddenly he was shoved up
close to the chopping block and the butcher slapped
down
ten black
tried to say they
worms
as big as snakes
were too
big, he'd
and
Billy
choke on them,
but the butcher couldn't hear him over the thumps of his cleaver and the din of the
women and
the
hoarse shouts of the other butchers, and before Billy
knew what was happening, he was
50
seated at a table
The Pain and the Blood and the Gore
Longchamps Restaurant on Times Square
in
New York chin,
and
which
lay
City with a large napkin tied under his
waiter was uncovering a platter on
a
one of the huge black worms, coiled snak-
a red, red rose
ily,
"How into a mammoth can
I
wobbling
ever finish
in the center of it?"
said Billy
its coils.
and cut
Steaming pink juice flooded
coil.
and ate and ate and looked and and ... he must have more than that? And then he looked again and was no hole at all. He had eaten and eaten and
out.
Billy ate .
.
.
.
.
and .
.
nothing
And
in
ate
.
.
then eaten there
eaten
at all!
then he
felt
something cold on
his ankles
and looked under the tablecloth and there were two more of the huge worms wound around and around his ankles.
down
5i
his
And
then he
felt
something weighing
arm and he looked and
there was another
worm wound around with
his arm, glaring hungrily at
him
bloodshoot eyes, and from everywhere in the vast room, winding between the tables, waiters apits
proached carrying huge
opened
Billy
For the his
first
bedroom,
silver serving platters.
.
.
.
his eyes.
moment,
in the
two bare
his
moonlight flooding
feet, sticking
the bottom of the covers, looked like two
up out of huge white
worms' heads.
And
then he realized that he had been dreaming
and sank back onto
his pillow, the
nightmare melt-
ing away.
There were no huge worms
thons, he
was home in bed, room.
in the next
.
.
his parents
as big as py-
were asleep
.
His stomach rumbled.
But suppose Joe hadn't been lying?
The hair stood up on the back of his neck. Or suppose Joe had made it all up but had been right anyway, without
A
knowing
it?
shutter banged. Billy glanced out the
window
and saw the moon riding among the tossing His stomach rumbled and gurgled.
He
leaves.
groaned.
Suppose he was dying? He'd heard of people waking up in the middle of the night with pains in their stomachs, in the
and then,
as the
dawn, they died. Toadstools, soured
tainted pork.
That was
52
windows turned gray
a pain!
'
lobster,
He
clutched his stomach, and groaning, half
half staggered out of bed
door, bent double.
whimpered.
It
Maybe
and hobbled toward the there was an antidote.
didn't hurt a
did to begin with, did
it?
fell,
lot,
He
but nothing ever
XV
H.
LIS
light.
mother reached out and switched on the
"What kind of pain,
Billy?"
He stood beside the bed, clutching his "In my stomach. Oooo, there it goes again,
stomach. I
think."
"Did you eat something before bed?" She was pulling on her bathrobe. "John, John."
U
3:tS A.M.
She shook her husband's shoulder. sleepily.
"Did you
eat
He mumbled
candy or something before
bed, Billy?"
"Worms," groaned
"Worms? John! worms?"
55
Billy.
John!
Billy,
what
kind
of
"
"Regular worms, night crawlers." She
felt his
forehead, lifted his chin to look in
"You don't have worms did you eat?" his face.
"Five.
Two
boiled and three fried.
chup, mustard, horseradish,
make them
salt,
had
With
ket-
To
pepper, butter.
taste better."
"Fried? Ketchup? Taste better? John! "I
How many
a temperature.
this bet
with Alan. Ohhhhh."
Wake up." He groaned
again.
"Take your hands away. Where does now? Show me." "It doesn't really hurt so
much now.
rumbling and gurgling something awful. "Then why are you groaning?" asked
It's
it
hurt
It's
just
—
his father,
sitting up.
"Because I'm afraid
Do
it's
going to
start hurting.
you think I'm going to die, Daddy?"
"Worms?"
his father asked.
"Ordinary worms?
Earthworms?" Billy
nodded.
"And how many did you eat this evening?" "One this afternoon. I've eaten one every day the
last five days.
But they weren't
were night crawlers, huge
little
for
ones; they
ones, as big as snakes
al-
most."
His father lay back down, pulling the covers up
56
around
shoulders.
his
Eating one
"Don't worry.
night crawler a day for six weeks wouldn't hurt you.
Go
back to bed.
mustard
that's
probably
It's
the ketchup and
all
upsetting your stomach. Drink a glass
of warm water."
"John, are you sure?" said doesn't
seem
me
to
healthy thing to
that
Billy's
mother. "It
worms could be
a very
John?"
eat.
His father snuggled deeper under the covers. didn't say eating
worms would turn him
All-American fullback. hurt him. Billy's
Now
let's
I
said
just
"I
into an
they wouldn't
go to sleep."
mother glanced
at Billy, shivering beside
the bed in bare feet and pajamas, and then shook
her husband again. "John? John, wake up.
you should
call
You
Dr. McGrath.
whether or not eating worms
is
I
think
know know you
don't really
harmful.
I
don't." Billy's father
groaned and
am
not going to
call
the
morning
Dr.
to ask if
worms. That's
flat.
sat
it's all
Secondly,
I
sonous, which they're not, he
five
this. Billy,
days?" Billy
57
nodded.
"Now,
look.
I
at three thirty in
right for
my
son to eat
do know that
Billy's
worms were
poi-
would have been
laid
not going to die before morning.
up before
up.
McGrath
If
you've been eating
worms
for
"All right.
And
thirdly,
I
ate a live crayfish
when
was in college and have suffered no discernible effects. And fourthly: I am going to sleep." I
Billy's
mother slipped her
feet into
ill
her slippers,
up and buttoned her bathrobe, and then
stood
leaned over the bed and shook her husband's shoul-
"John? John,
der.
I
won't be able to sleep until you
John? John, what about tapeworms or a funWake up. Billy, you go back to bed.
call.
gus? John?
Your
McGrath. John? John?" to his mother and
father will call Dr.
Billy lay in
bed listening
ther atguing in their bedroom.
He
fa-
could only make
out a word here and there, usually when his father started to shout, only to be shushed immediately by his
mother. Billy got sleepier and sleepier. His stom-
ach had stopped rumbling and gurgling.
It
was
warm
and cozy under the covers after standing on the cold floor in his bare feet. Then, in the midst of a foggy drowse, he heard someone dialing the phone in the hall outside his parents'
bedroom, and then
ther say, "Poison Control?" and explain
Then running
fa-
there was a silence. Billy heard the water in the
bathroom.
And
"You're sure? These weren't nightcrawlers." fects?" Pause.
And
his
the case.
Pause.
then his father said,
little
"And no
ones.
These were
long-range
His father laughed. "A
bet,
I
ill
ef-
think."
the next thing Billy knew, sunlight was
streaming through his window and Emily was skip-
ping
down
58
the hall past his door singing.
"
"Haifa pound of tupenny
rice,
Half a pound of treacle, That's the way the
money
His father shouted
you know where is?"
59
my
down
green
goes
the
tie
— stairs,
"Helen, do
with the red stripes
XVI The SixthWarm
B.>1LLY
gulped
triumphantly, serene, untrou-
it
bled.
By the door Alan glowered, He's gonna do
he'll
it,
his
win, what'U
I
mind
racing:
do? Fifty dol-
lars.
Joe
sat
carelessly
then
on an overturned about
at Billy.
.
.
.
pail, whistling,
sneaking a glance
What had gone wrong? Why
gazing
now and hadn't he
cracked? Outside,
Tom
lurked sheepishly in the bushes
behind the stone wall, peering
60
at the barn.
XVII Tlt« Seventh Warm
B.>ILLY ate
it
offhand, sideways, reading a comic
book.
Alan and Joe squatted glumly in the barn door, watching him. was daubing horseradish sauce on Tom's head appeared in a corner of grimy window. He waved tentatively at Billy.
As
Billy
last bite,
Ignoring him, Billy gulped
wiped
his
mouth, and tucking
his arm, strolled airily
down
his
the
the last bite,
comic book under
out of the barn, remarking
over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow, fellows."
61
the
"
XVIII The Eighth Warm Where's Joe?" asked Billy, spreading mustard down the length of the fried worm. "He wouldn't come," said Alan sullenly. "It's no fair putting on that much mustard." "Ha, ha," said
much
as
I
like of
Billy.
"Who
whatever
I
can put on
as
and you know
it.
says?
like,
I
Why wouldn't he come?" "How
should
I
know?"
swooshed a
Billy
bit of
and horseradish sauce.
"I
worm around
know why he
in
ketchup
didn't."
"Yeah. You're so smart. Big deal." Alan couldn't get the
fifty
ther going to say
and
lars
What was
dollars out of his head.
lost?
when he
Geez!
told
He gnawed
him
he'd bet
at his
his
fa-
fifty dol-
thumbnail.
"He wouldn't come because he knows I've won. He knows I could eat twenty worms if I had to." "Yeah? Yeah? Well, you ain't won yet. There's still
seven to go.
feel
it
in
You
act so big. Wait'll
thing. Yeah. You'll see.
"Ha, ha," said
me
you begin
to
your stomach. You think you know every-
You wait. "You think you can
scare
Billy.
talking like that? Phooey."
He
strolled past
Alan
out into the sunlight. "Hi,
"
said
Tom, popping up from behind
a bar-
rel.
"Pfffffft!" said Billy disdainfully
62
and walked on.
XIX TheNtnthWorm A hat's it
not a worm!" yelled
be a worm? Geez, "It's
worm,"
a
like all the others.
it
said
Alan stubbornly.
rolled
I
"How
Billy.
can
must be two feet long!" it
"It's just
cornmeal and fried
in
it."
"It's
over two feet long!" screeched Billy.
He knew something was
Otherwise Joe
up.
wouldn't have come back, slouching in the doorway
pretending to be gazing up
But
Billy
noticed he kept glancing at Alan and him.
And
Tom
was peering
in the
at the clouds.
window
again.
Something
was up. "Look," said Alan. yourself
We
it's
a
cut
"I'll
it.
You can
see for
worm. There. See? Come on. Eat
ain't got all day.
Joe and
me
up.
have to go to Shu-
shan with his father." Billy poked at the huge wofm with his fork. Something sure was up. He ate the piece Alan had
worm
cut, looking the rest of the
He
he chewed. ten to dip
it
"Come
over carefully
ate another bite. Fauh!
in the horseradish sauce.
on,
come
on,
come
on,
"
said Alan.
"Yeah," said Joe. "Eat up, Billy, I'll
we
got to go."
never be able to eat the whole thing, thought
Billy. It'd
choke me;
it's
"Half," he croaked.
63
as
He'd forgot-
too
much yuck
"I'll
eat half.
at once.
This
is
some
"
sort of a ringer. There's
"
worm
never been a
this
long."
"Okay," said Alan. "Then the yourself.
Come
"All right,
bet's
off.
Suit
on, Joe, he chickened out. Let's go. said Billy, playing for time.
all right,"
"The whole thing." "You'll make yourself sick,"
said Alan.
He's too anxious, thought Billy. What's going
on?
"Leave him alone," said Joe. "Let him eat his
it.
It's
He's trying to cover for Alan, thought Billy.
He
stomach."
Then he began to scrape worm with his knife.
ate another bite.
the corn-
meal carefully off the
"What
are
"I think
you doing?"
I'll
have
"That's not fair!
it
said Alan.
plain today.
You
can't
"Glue!" screamed Billy
You
—
all
No
of a sudden. "Glue!
glued two crawlers together! Geez!
of lousy cheats!
Tom! Tom,
cornmeal."
You bunch
look what they tried to
pull! Glue!"
Tom
bent over the plate. "You're right.
Alan kicked a
pail clattering against the wall. "I
Panting,
Geez!"
told you
it
wouldn't work!
"All right. So
it
"
he screamed
didn't work.
You
at Joe.
couldn't think
of anything better." "That's cheating!" said Billy. "I ought to win right now.
64
You
cheated."
"Fifteen ain't
won
worms
in fifteen days!" yelled Joe.
"You
yet!"
"But you cheated!" shouted Tom. "So what?"
They argued and
6f
yelled, striding here
and there
about the barn, sprawling against their arms, kicking walls,
p>osts,
flinging
up
banging down on a pail or
orange crate and squeezing their heads between their hands.
make any difference!" Joe yelled at didn't work! You didn't ya///or it! If you'd
"It doesn't Billy. "It
eaten the whole thing and then found out
worms glued to
it
was two
you could have claimed
together, then
win because Alan was cheating." "Big mouth!" shouted Alan from the horse
where he was kicking the
slats in.
"Who
stall,
thought
it
up? Not me!"
"Who "It's still
A
cares
who thought
it
up?" shouted
Tom.
cheating!"
pig looked in at the door and then wandered
away.
Joe ran out and stuck his head under the faucet by the kitchen steps. A minute later he came run-
ning back dripping, yelling, "That's not true!" "What's not true?" said
from shouting
at
Billy,
turning around
Alan.
"Whatever you said." "What'd I say?" "It doesn't
and
a cheat
and
make any
difference. You're a liar
so anything
you say
"You're crazy. Even Hitler or per
—sometimes
possible to
lie all
Behind them said,
"Arrgh!"
66
said things that
isn't true."
—or Jack the Ripwere
true.
It's
im-
the time."
Tom
lay
down on
his
back and
Alan and Joe and Billy turned "What's the matter with you?"
to look at
him.
"ARRRGH!" "Argh?"
"ARRRGH!" Silence. A bird broken window
and then out through
flew in
in the loft.
"Well," said Billy. 'Yeah.
He and Alan and turned orange way,
I
was
Joe
see
I
sat
crates. After a
what you mean."
down on
while Joe
right. If Billy'd eaten
been cheating. But he still
a
didn't, so
it,
it's
it
the over-
said,
"Any-
would have
not.
The
bet's
on."
The "A
pig looked in at the door again.
pig's loose," said Alan.
"Where?" gotta catch
it."
said
Billy.
He jumped
"Look."
"Oh up.
"Whoooooeeeeee!" yelled
boy,
The
come
Billy,
We
dashing out.
Tom and Joe and Alan scrambled after him.
61
on.
pig bolted.
B,>ILLY
slumped
the kitchen table on one
at
elbow, pawing in his bowl of Wheaties with his spoon. His mother was washing the breakfast dishes at the sink.
"But why fast?
I
"Oh,
good
isn't it
know nobody
does.
Billy," said his
to eat hot dogs for break-
But why don't they?" mother. "Stop
it.
Finish
your cereal." "Well,
but—"
A knock on Billy's
Joe.
Is
the screen door.
mother glanced around. "Oh,
your
sister better,
hello, Alan,
Joe?"
"Yes, thank you." "Billy breakfast.
can't
come out
Would you
until
he's
like to wait for
finished
his
him on
the
front porch?"
"We came to see you, Mrs. "Oh? Come in."
68
Forrester."
"
"
Billy's
Mather
"Mrs. Forrester," said Joe, as Alan shut the door
know
carefully behind them. "I don't
already, but see, about a
about
it
made
this bet
you know
with Billy about eating worms. If
Billy could eat fifteen
teen days, then
if
week ago Alan
—
"Billy! You're not
worms, one each day
still
for
fif-
eating them?"
Wheaties into
Billy stuffed a spoonful of
his
mouth.
"Not other
stuff,
McGrath "But
worms.
just
Look
too.
told
Mom. at
I
been eating
me.
lots
I'm healthy.
of Dr.
you the worms wouldn't hurt me."
Billy, Dr.
McGrath
didn't think you were
going to keep on eating worms."
Joe nudged Alan and grinned. "Aw, Mom, if five worms wouldn't hurt me, a few more won't either. They're sides,
69
it's
a bet. If
I
—
little
worms. Be-
"
"They're big worms, Mrs. Forrester," said Joe,
"We
looking virtuous. told
me
never to
"Manure," you. If
won't
"Fifty dollars! that chair."
"Mom, pay me
Young man,
She went
My
mother
a bet.
it's
I
told
dollars."
fifty
don't you
move from
off into the front hall.
whispered
"Finks!"
you.
tell a lie."
said Billy.
win, Alan's got to
I
lie to
"But
Billy.
you'll
see.
It
won't work."
Alan and Joe gazed nonchalantly at the ceiling. Billy's mother's voice came from the front hall. "Dr. McGrath, I'm awfully sorry to bother you again,
it's
such a ridiculous matter, but since
to you, Billy has
"No, no,
it's
normal otherwise.
some other
continued to
nothing like It
boys." Pause.
eat fifteen to
win
spoke
He's acting perfectly
that.
seems
I
eat worms." Pause.
he's
"One
made
a bet with
every day.
his bet." Pause.
He
has to
"Oh, thank you,
Dr. McGrath. I'm so sorry to bother
—
She returned to the kitchen. "But no more bets after this one, Billy. Alan and Joe, don't you egg
him on anymore. He's
too eager to do wild
far
things." Billy
made
a
yukked
silently
rude gesture
at
at
Joe and Alan. Alan
him.
"Mrs. Forrester," said Joe, "what we really came is that Alan and me are going up to Lake
about
Lauderdale today with won't be back
70
till
my
tomorrow
father to night, so
fish.
And we
we wondered
"
"
if
you'd
make
tomorrow. Forrester
—
— but
know,
not that
It's
"No," said "
sure Billy eats the
it's
Billy's
ments and hard worms."
He
if there's
We
feelings.
just
a referee.
You
says at school: to save argu-
brought the two
held up a paper bag.
you can
already, so
don't trust Billy, Mrs.
mother, smiling.
always better
Mr. Simmons
like
we
worms today and
"We
boiled them
keep them in the
refrigera-
tor."
"Well," said Billy's mother. "This sponsibility.
am
his
Are you sure
quite a
is
re-
be neutral enough?
I'll
I
mother."
"Yeah,
we thought of that,"
said Joe, "but
ured, well, you're usually pretty
parents almost never cheat kids
between get into
kids.
fair,
if it's
They're usually pretty
and
just
we
fig-
besides,
something
fair until
they
it."
Billy's
mother laughed. "And how does he
eat
them? Just cold boiled?" "Well, roll
them
we been in
frying them, Mrs. Forrester.
cornmeal and then
fry
them
We
like a fish.
But he can do whatever he wants. Except that Alan and me have decided it's not fair to make soup out of them or chop them
all
up
like hash or a chicken-
salad sandwich. He's got to eat
"Who
said?
"
yelled Billy.
the rules? "
We
71
said!"
shouted Alan.
them piece by
"When was
piece."
that ever in
Billy
then
I
jumped
up, kicking his chair over. "Well,
win! Because
it's
cheating to
make up new
rules in the middle."
"Oh, yeah?" shouted Alan. "Then you cause anybody knows
72
it'd
lose! Be-
be cheating to hash
it
up."
"
"You
think, you're
I've already
"
"
going to weasel out of
it
after
eaten nine!"
"Who's weaseling? You're cheating!" "Yeah?" "Yeah!" "Boys! Boys! Billy! Alan!" Silence.
Now
"Please.
I
think
do think Alan and Joe
first. I
be
Billy,
cut the
fair to
worm
all
some other way of fixing
it.
— no,
you sure
"Mom, mer
in
me
speak
wouldn't
You can just think Thank you, Joe."
up.
She took the paper bag and looked Billy, are
let
are right. It
—
inside.
of
"Pew.
eels; you ate eels last sumThese are just smaller. They're
you've eaten
Long
Island.
the same thing."
"Well." She put the paper bag in the refrigerator. "I
why
guess
if
don't you
"I
Dr.
all
McGrath
says
it's all
right.
go outside?"
wouldn't go across the street with those
said Billy.
Now
— "They can
finks,"
"Yeah?" shouted Alan. "Well, who'd want to go
anywhere with you, "Yeah?" shouted
either?" Billy.
"Boys!" cried Mrs. Forrester. "Stop
it!
All right.
Alan and Joe, you had better go. The screen door banged behind them. "Pffffft!" said Billy scornfully.
Joe's face
appeared
at the screen.
saying you'll help out, Mrs. Forrester."
75
"Thanks
for
XXI What's
com-
for dinner?" said Billy's father,
ing into the kitchen.
"Well," said Billy's mother. "You and
I
and
Emily are having hamburgers and string beans and mashed potatoes. Billy is having a fried worm." "More worms? The bet's still on?" "Look." She took a small plate covered with
Wrap
Saran
out of the refrigerator.
"And you've eaten nine of these already, Billy?" He poked the worms curiously. "What do you do, use a lot of ketchup and mustard?"
nodded.
Billy things.
And we
fry
"And
horseradish
and
other
them."
Billy's father lifted a
corner of the Saran
Wrap
and smelled the worms. "Helen, you ought to be able to do better than fried. Use your cookbooks." "I'm not the cook. I'm just the referee."
"Oh, come on. Think of the challenge." He took a cookbook from the shelf under the spice rack.
He
Cooking."
How
about Poached Eels on Toast?"
"No," said
up
Mastering the Art of French leafed through the cookbook. "Here.
'Let's see.
the eel in
Billy's
mother. "It
little pieces,
and
calls for
that
chopping
would be against
the rules."
"How
74
about Spaghetti with Wormballs then? Or
The Tenth Worm Worm Pie? Creamed Worms on Toast? Worm? Wormloaf with Mushroom Sauce?"
a Savory
Spanish
"Wait," said Billy's mother, putting
cooking spoon. "It might just
—
"
down
her
She took the cook-
book and turned to the index. "Here." She read: "Alsatian Smothered Worm: dredge the worm with seasoned flour. Saute in three tablespoons drippings until browned. Cover with sliced onions, pour over one cup thick sour cream, cover pot closely, and
bake in a slow oven until tender." "Bravo," said Billy's father. "Put the hamburgers
back in the refrigerator. We'll
have
all
worm
to-
night." "I won't," said Emily.
"Ha," said ing. "Boy,
Billy,
grinning in the midst of chew-
Alan and Joe thought they were doing they came to you. Mom, but this is bet-
me
in
ter
than steak.
when
It
really tastes good."
"Yug," muttered Emily, making
"Let
me
have a
a face.
taste," said Billy's father.
"No, no," said his mother. "Billy has to eat every bit himself.
Alan and Joe were very firm about
and I'm the
referee."
"Boy," said Billy. "I don't this."
75
mind
that,
if it tastes like
XXII
The Eleventh
Warm
JTXow'd you do
"My
it?"
said Billy.
"Gosh, Mrs. Forrester," gasped
On
candied orange
sprinkled with "It's called ly's
it
called?"
Tom.
a silver dish in front of Billy lay an ice-cream
cake bathed in fruit syrups frutti,
"What's
word," said his father.
cherry, tutti-
— topped with whipped cream
beans and almond
jelly
a
— peach,
slivers.
Whizbang Worm Delight," "I made it up."
said Bil-
mother proudly.
worm
"Is the
about with
poking away a bit
really in there?" said Billy,
his spoon.
And
then, scraping
of whipped cream at one end, he glimpsed the
worm's snout protruding from the center of the cake.
"Snug "I
the
still
as a
Whizbang "I
77
bug
in a rug," said his mother.
wouldn't eat a worm," said Emily, eyeing
Worm
would," said
Delight with envious distaste.
Tom. "At
least,
maybe
I
would."
XXIII
At won't work." "Look," said Joe, "even if he remembers the while we're at Shea, he can't get one. Where's
worm
anyone going
to find a
worm
at
Shea Stadium? Don't
worry, we'll say, you've won; we'll find a
we
get
home. And we keep right on
worm
after
stuffing him:
peanuts, hot dogs, hamburgers, Cracker Jack, ice
cream, orange soda, gum, Mars Bars.
You know how
eat. You ever seen him refuse something By the time we start home he'll be bloated,
he loves to to eat?
drowsy, belching. his father took us?
Remember the last time? When He was asleep by the time we hit
Your father'U carry him in from the car; his mother and father'U put him to bed; next morning he'll wake up TOO LATE! You've won! FifPeekskill.
—
teen
worms
78
in fifteen days!
He
missed a day!"
"
"
Admirals Nagumo
and Kusaka an the Bridge of the Akaiga, December 6, 194t Alan gnawed
at
his
thumbnail. "What about
Tom?" "We'll ask up.
We
mother
can
him along and then
tell
he was
called,
anything, just so
we
sick, his
hamburgers
buy
to
—
"Yeah, but
it'll
"Yeah, well this? If
my
cost
—oh
it'll
you fifty dollars
his
me
— Cracker
Geez, how'd
—
Alan slumped on the porch
gnawing
him with
probably cost
that food
all
father finds out
his sneakers,
him
grandmother died,
don't have to bring
Alan sighed. "Geez, dollars just
just not pick
your father and Billy that Tom's
I
steps,
if
us."
eight Jack,
he wins."
ever get into
gazing
down
at
thumbnail.
"Come on," said Joe, slapping him on the shoulder. "Cheer up. You haven't lost yet. Go ask your father."
79
XXIV
when he said turning down the flame
JLou think Alan really meant he'd given up?" asked Billy,
it
under the frying pan. He was cooking
a toasted-
cheese-and-worm sandwich. "I don't
suppose
erator. "I
—
Say,
is
know," said Tom, looking so.
He
asked us to the Mets
It's
for supper."
could just scrape some off the top, and then
you could
on the
game
that chocolate pudding?"
"Yeah, but don't take any. "I
in the refrig-
tell
floor
your mother
it fell
out upside
down
by mistake while you were getting the
cheese out, so you scraped the dirty part off into the garbage."
"WelllU— " said Billy doubtfully. "Thomas Grout," said Billy's mother, coming from the
80
hall.
"I'm surprised
at
you."
in
"
The TtvelfthWarm
"Aw, Mrs. it.
I
my
was
Forrester,
just,
father,
you know,
—
—
"
"I didn't
Tom,"
sat
Everybody
talking.
my
Billy,
ice
—
at
talks:
Annie,
the door.
named Colum"Would you like
a sister
cream instead?"
sure, Mrs. Forrester," said
down
sisters
He was backing toward
said Billy's mother.
some chocolate "Oh,
wouldn't really have done
Columbus know you had
Betty, Agnes,
bus,
He
father,
Billy's
Charlotte, Polly "
I
the table. "It's
named Columbus." He
grinned.
Tom,
my
relieved.
cousin who's
"Columbus Ohio.
He's a capital fellow, Mrs. Forrester."
And
then he had to grab the edge of the table to
keep from rolling off his chair laughing joke. Billy looked disgusted. His refrigerator, shaking her head.
81
at his
own
mother opened the
XXV Pearl Hathar Ahe
under the
car slid quietly to a stop
street-
light outside Billy's house.
"Shhh," whispered Alan to his father. "Billy's asleep."
His father glanced back fully in the
back
seat, his
at Billy,
snoring peace-
plump cheeks
sticky with
orange soda.
up
"Alan, run
to the
house and
tell
them I'm
bringing Billy in." Billy's father
met them
at the front door,
and
taking Billy, whispered his thanks. Alan and his ther
fa-
went down the walk. Behind them the porch
light clicked off.
In the back seat of the car Joe and Alan wrestled gleefully.
"We
did
it!"
"We've won!" "He'll never wake up
now!"
Alan struggled out of Joe's grip and asked ther what time
it
his fa-
was.
"Late. Almost midnight,
Joe pulled Alan's head
I
think."
down and
tried to
sit
on
it.
"He
couldn't do
it
now even
if
could he find and cook and eat a
he woke up.
worm
Hee, hee. We've won! We've won!"
82
How
in the dark?
—
XXVI Guadalcanal JjuT slumped on
bathroom
the
stool, his
holding up his chin while she washed his
mother
face, Billy
was waking.
"Hold
Did you have
dear.
still,
home
You're certainly
late.
Is this
good time? part of winning a
the bet?"
feeling he
He had a gnawing something. He hiccupped,
blinked sleepily.
Billy's eyes
had forgotten
gazing dopily
down
yawned
He'd remember
.
.
.
at the fuzzy
blue bathmat
in
.
the morning.
.
.
It
couldn't be that im
BET!?! BET!?!
He
three to go! Fifteen!
still
Today was He jumped up.
days!
.
won yet! There were Fifteen worms in fifteen
hadn't
.
.
"Mom, I haven't eaten my worm today!" And suddenly it all came to him. The whole trip ... all the candy bars, hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn.
"What time
is it,
"About quarter "It
83
was a
Mom?
Quick!"
to twelve."
trick!"
He
snatched his pants off the
"They were
floor.
tumbled and room,
slid
trying to
make me
He
forget!"
downstairs, through the dining
his shirttail flying,
yanked open the drawer in
the kitchen table, snatched out the flashlight, the
drawer spilling out with a floor,
clatter
and crash onto the
and slammed out the back door.
"The
He
finks!"
Tom's
scuttled across the back field toward
house, searching the ground with the flashlight as he
went.
"There! Darn, a
stick!
Geez, suppose
I
can't find
one?"
He
stopped.
"There won't be time
He
to
cook
it!"
ran on.
"And no ketchup."
He stopped. "I'll
He He
bet
ran on.
paused
dewy
Tom wasn't sick at all."
grass
The
night was moonless and close.
heave over a rotten log in the high,
to
— mealybugs
and scooters
—clambered
over the stone wall into Tom's backyard
was
all
of a sudden wrestling with a
pup
.
.
.
and
tent.
Muffled grunts and thrashings.
"Tom! he '
yelled.
"Tom!
It's
me!
Billy!
They're
trying to trick us."
Tom
and
his
younger brother Pete crawled out
from under the pup "It
was a
were trying
84
to
tent.
trick,"
panted
make me
Billy.
"Alan and Joe
forget. Fifteen
worms
in
fif-
teen days. If
I
don't eat one in the next ten minutes,
Alan'U say he's won.
"And
they
It's
almost midnight."
me home
left
so
I
wouldn't remind
you?"
nodded.
Billy
"Have you got
worm?"
a
"We'll have to find one."
Tom
dug back
with two
into the
flashlights.
They
pup
tent
and came up
zigzagged back and forth
across the lawn, bent over, searching. "I got one!
'
cried Pete.
"Shhh." "I'll
back
have
to eat
it
raw," said Billy.
He threw
his head.
Tom, grabbing where Alan and Joe can
"Wait," whispered
should do
it
his arm.
run and get your siren out of the garage."
85
"You
see you. Pete,
XXVII
LJnder
Tom
the streetlight in front of Alan's house
and Pete knelt over the
side them, the night crawler
siren. Billy stood be-
squirming in his
fin-
gers.
"Now
wait
till
all
of lights come on all over, in Tom. "Then chomp it down.
lots
the houses," said
Ready, Pete? Now."
The until
siren growled,
winding slowly up and up
it
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHED! across
the
sleeping
neighborhood, sending birds
squawking and chirping into the air from trees and rooftops; dogs began to bark; windows lit up; there were confused shouts, bangs of windows slamming up.
"Ladies and gentlemen," shouted
Tom
through
the dying whine of the siren, "Alan Phelps and Jo-
86
"
The Thirteenth
seph O'Hara, through their finkiness and cheating,
—
and dirty "Come on," muttered
their lies
back, dangling the
haven't got
"Alan
much
worm
head thrown
his
Billy,
over his open mouth.
"We
time."
Phelps
and
Joseph
O'Hara,"
shouted
Tom, "have forced us to wake you all up so that you may now witness, ta-ratta-ta-ratta-ta-ratta-ta-ta: THE
EATING OF THE THIRTEENTH WORM!" He dropped
to his knees; the siren
SCREECH!
up
to a
his
mouth and chewed
to his knees, still
Billy
dropped
wound
slowly
the crawler into
furiously, his eyes closed; fell
chewing, his face turning beet-red;
toppled over on his
side, still
chewing; rolled and
writhed about the sidewalk, clutching his stomach, still
chewing
light,
— Tom and Pete kneeling by the
working the screaming
87
siren.
.
.
.
street-
Billy
threw open his arms and lay
back under
still
the glare of the streetlight, his
on
his
mouth
wide open.
"TAAA — RAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa!" announced Tom, springing up and pointing
The went,
Tom
yelled,
Joseph O'Hara."
89
to Billy.
three boys ran off into the darkness. As they
"Remember: Alan Phelps and
XXVIII i\ street.
murmur
confused
Suddenly
a
arose
up and down
the
boy shouted from the Phelps's
house. "Finks!" Alan's father dragged
him back from
the win-
dow.
why you were
"Is that
and junk
all
"Leave him.
The
stuffing Billy with
candy
day?"
me
alone. Yeah.
fink.
voice, lunging
FINKS!" he
We
were trying
to trick
yelled at the top of his
toward the window.
"Quiet!"
His father
sat
him down hard
in a chair.
Joe peered furtively out through the fringe of the bedspread. As soon as he had heard the siren
and Tom's
"And hood up?
yells,
he had crawled under the bed.
why Billy woke the whole neighborshow you he hadn't been tricked?"
that's
to
"Yes."
His father let go of Alan's pajama collar. In the doorway Alan's mother threw up her hands and went off to the bathroom to take two aspirin. The next day Alan and Joe tramped from house
90
"
HellOf We^re
to
house
in
• • • •
the neighborhood, knocking
door and then reciting
on each
in chorus:
"Hello. We're Alan Phelps and Joseph O'Hara.
We're the reason you were waked up of the night "You'll be
in the
middle
and we're sorry." Breath. know our parents have pun-
night,
last
happy
to
we can't look at television or have any dessert for a month and our allowances have been taken away for two weeks we promise that it will never ished us
happen "At Joe
again. least
not in this neighborhood," muttered
door closed behind them.
as the last
"And "I don't
Alan," said his father at dinner that night,
want
to hear that there has
tion of this incident at Billy's or
anywhere
else.
"But we
Do you
been any repeti-
Tom's house or
understand that?"
can't let
them
get
away with
it,
Mr.
Phelps," called Joe from the living room, where he
was waiting for Alan to
"There
will be
anything like trick Billy ter."
91
it,"
and
finish dinner.
no repetition of
this incident
or
repeated Mr. Phelps. "You tried to
lost.
That
will be the
end of the mat-
Jlou know what you almost touching
"And
Billy's.
you're
clenched teeth.
are?" said Alan, his nose
"You're a bastard."
another," sneered
"And
Billy
through
a cheating, lying, dirty, snot-
nosed, cheating, lying one."
you say two more words" know what? I'll beat your head in." "If
said Alan,
"you
Billy breathed hard.
"I'm right behind you," muttered
grimly over
Tom,
peering
Billy's shoulder, his fists clenched.
"Yeah?" said Joe from behind Alan. "So what? We can lick both of you with our hands tied behind
our backs and paper bags over our heads."
"You couldn't "Yeah?" "Yeah."
92
lick a.Jiea."
«•
.-
J^ Spiffle!
Whack!
Thump!
No
"Someone's choking!
fair!"
Thwomp! Gouge! Joe crawled off behind a
tree,
nose bleeding.
Womp! "He's pulling hair!" "He's scratching!" Twist! Tsiwt!
Alan crawled weeping behind a bush.
Thump!
Whack!
Donk! "Billy!
It's
just
you and me!"
"Where're the others?" 93
.
•a^.-.;
Tom
and
Billy
scratched, dusty,
nose was bleeding,
untangled and
shirts Billy's
up, bruised,
sat
hair tousled.
torn,
shoe had
come
Tom's
off.
"Yaaaaaaa ya!" sassed Alan and Joe from be-
hind the
tree.
Billy started to shake his
fist
ber up, but then sank back.
at
them and clam-
Tom
panted beside
him, bleary-eyed.
"Yaaaaaaa
ya,
all
worn out? Can't
fight
any-
more?"
at
Tom
94
and
Billy.
mud
and flung it Then Joe did the same. Billy and
Alan scooped up a handful of
Tom
scrambled up and pelted back.
Mud
splattered
against trees and bushes. Alan began to cry. hit Billy over the eye.
He
sat
A
down backward
rock
in the
mud, covering his head with his arms, sobbing. Joe and Tom stopped throwing. Joe grabbed Alan.
"Come
on."
Tom
knelt beside Billy.
"Lemme
bad? Take your arms away so pull Billy's arms apart. Billy
"Come
on," said
you home. the doctor."
95
Come
Tom
on.
I
can
see, Billy. Is
see."
He
it
tried to
wrenched away.
in a scared voice. "I'll take
Your mother can take you
to
-tVlan and Joe sat on the sofa, Tom and Billy on two straight chairs opposite them. "Now," said Alan's father. "What's this all about?"
The
four boys
all
began talking
at once, accus-
ing, recounting, explaining.
"All
right,"
"That's enough.
said
Alan's father after a while.
Now
w;e
know
it's
got something to
do with this bet Alan and Billy made, but Mr. O'Hara and I aren't going to get involved in that. You'll have to settle that
among
"You four boys have been start fighting
yourselves."
friends too long to
now," said Mr. O'Hara. "You really
hurt each other. Look at yourselves, your faces bruised and muddy. Talk
over,
it
work things
all
out,
and then you can shake and be friends again." Joe muttered under his breath, "I couldn't be friends with those rats."
"We'll be out in the kitchen," said Alan's father.
"When you've settled it, call down to Friendly's for some ice Billy
and Alan and
thers left the room.
The
other. After a while,
scratched
Tom.
Another
96
and
we'll all
go
nodded.
The two
fa-
boys gazed silently at each
Alan
Billy did
silence.
Tom
us,
cream. Okay?"
it."
said, "It wasn't us that
"
"
Tfi6 Peace Treol^ "Did you have stitches?" "Naw. Did you?" Billy
shook
Billy asked Alan.
his head.
More silence. "You tried to cheat,"
said Billy.
We
"That wasn't cheating.
were
just trying to
trick you."
When
"Yeah, but before that.
you glued the two
worms together. That was cheating." "You would have cheated, too, if you'd been
los-
ing."
Billy thought
about
it.
v
"Okay. But look, no more cheating. eaten thirteen worms; you
Heck, ibike,
if
I
know
I
I've already
can eat two more.
buy George Cunningham's brother's min-
we can
all
use
it
—
we'll all
Joe and Alan glanced
at
it."
each other.
"Okay," said Joe. "You win. "Yeah, but
—
have fun with
He
wins, Alan."
"What's the use?" said Joe. "We've tried everything. I'm sick of it. Geez, we've done nothing else for almost
two weeks."
Alan scratched
— "Yeah, but
Joe stood up. shake out of it."
97
his
"Come
eyebrow, glancing
at
Joe.
on. At least we'll get a milk
XXXI
JJiLLY
lifted the
worm
out of the frying pan
with the cooking tongs and curled
on
his
it
back and forth
peanut-butter sandwich.
"I bet they try something,"
he
said.
"Joe won't
give up. Alan might, but Joe won't."
Tom
was carving
his initials in the leg of the
kitchen table. "Yeah, but
it's
not Joe's bet.
What
does he care?"
this
the
"Just the
same
Billy sat
down
way and
that,
I
bet he tries something."
at the table,
turning the sandwich
looking for the best spot to take
first bite.
Emily came in from the dining room. "You and mom got a letter." Chewing, Billy opened it.
98
Tlt« Letter Charles M. McGrath, M.D. Drive 3)4. Beechwood Gratton, New Yorl^ 12601
isim Mrs, John Forrester 7 Manchester Road East Gratton, N. Y. 12603
Dear Mrs, Forrester: I have just made a distress! discovery, ii iP whit luLl w^ iiiij^li a medical journal before going up t bed, I noticed an article entlttled **Polsons In the H6me Garden**, a subject which neccessarlly fascinates, me. As T glanced through the article a phase c aught my eye: '*Lumbrlcus terrestrls, the common eartbw orm,*' I read on, Mrs, Forrester, let me assurre you, first of all, that th ere Is no cause for undue alarm. However, you will, I am sure, be concerned to learn that "especially In the months of July and August parents must beware of the fc
99
common earthworm, some varieties of which are known to secrete a substance (Lumbrlcus corefcpsis), which, though not malignant to the skin, is someDr. A, times harmful if swallowed. C. Roosevelt of Hyde Park, New York, reports that 10^ of the boys studied report ed no ill effects except induced paralysis of the lower fulmar region; U.0% reported abdominal cramping, triple vision (lasting from two to thr ee years and impaiuing school performance) and extreme lussitude; autopsy repojbts have not yet been recieved on the remaining ^0%, and so no final conclusions canbe drawn, but extreme caution is urged since the blackened and pimply faces of the subjects lead one to suspect the worse.**
Mrs. Forrester, as your fri4nd and family phisician, I would strongly recommend that your son William eat no mere worms until I return on Thursday from New York City and ca n give him a thurough examination.
Yours sincerely,
C, M. McGrath, M.IJ.
CMM/ac
"
XXXII Croak XJjs hand trembling,
laid
Billy
butter-and-fried-worm sandwich
—
the
down on
peanut-
the table.
"Do you think "Wow," whispered Tom. The screen door banged. Billy's father
came
into the kitchen, his tie loos-
He
ened, his jacket over his arm.
on the
laid his briefcase
table.
"It's hot,"
he said cheerfully.
Billy staggered to the sink self a glass
and feebly drew him-
of water.
Tom and
Emily watched him, awestruck.
"What's the matter?" asked
Billy's father.
Water dribbled down Billy's chin and onto his T-shirt as he drank. His mind swam. Poison? Paralysis? Extreme lussitude? " Tom," said Billy's father, "what's going on?" Tom pointed at the letter lying on the table. Billy's father
and getting at
read
it,
smiled, glanced at Billy,
a beer out of the refrigerator, sat
down
the table.
"Well," he said to Billy. "So
"Fooled me?" croaked
101
Billy.
it
fooled you, eh?"
XXXIII The Fourteenth
Worm XJUT how could Alan and Joe know all those medical words, Mr. Forrester?" said Tom. "Lumbricus coreopsis? Fulmar?"
"Do you know what fulmar
Tom "It
and
means
Billy
a bird, a seabird,
"Boy," said Billy, disgusted. the table and picked
"They could be
Tom. "Couldn't
really
means?"
shook their heads.
up
think."
I
He
sat
back down
at
his sandwich.
arrested,
Mr. Forrester," said
they be arrested for defrauding the
mails? Couldn't they?" Billy
grinned and
bit
down on
butter-and-fried-worm sandwich.
the
peanut-
.
XXXIV Tlt« Fifteenth i^TANDiNG on
a rusty pail, Billy
a crack into the horse barn. Joe
. • •
peered through
was wandering about
lashing at cobwebs with a stick; Alan was
on
slumped
gnawing his thumbnail. went around to the door.
a barrel, Billy
"Hi," he said.
Alan didn't look up. "Hi." said Joe.
around suspiciously.
Billy glanced
"Take He's
do.
it
easy," said Joe.
still
"We
trying to think
Alan with the
stick.
"Where's Tom?" said
Billy.
pointed
at
"He wouldn't him
concede. At least
I
up something." He
eat his lunch, so his
mother kept
in."
Billy leaned over the platter on the orange crate and smelled the steaming. Southern-fried worm.
"He wanted Joe, "but Billy
onto the
I
wouldn't
.
.
.
let
it
with red pepper," said
him."
ketchup,
forked
mustard,
platter, cut a piece of
the glop, stuck
swallowed
worm
to load
in his
it
.
.
.
and
piccalilli
worm, dipped
it
in
mouth, chewed nervously
cut another piece.
.
.
.
The
tasted better than usual, sort of like kidney
beans. Southern-fried kidney beans.
"Where'd you get
103
this
one?"
"Down behind Bannerman's," "From
said Joe.
muck!" yelled Alan. "The muck!
the
Gooey, slimy, stagnant muck!" "Yeah? You'll have
Billy grinned.
This
is
to
show me.
the best one yet."
Alan jumped up and kicked the barrel clattering into a
Joe shrugged
stall.
held up the
at Billy, grinning. Billy
last bite.
"Ta-rahhhh."
He swallowed
it.
"Okay, lemme look," said Alan. peered into
on."
He
mouth.
Billy's
"Oh, no.
"Come
Come
on. There's
some
still
stuck be-
tween your teeth there." Billy
sucked noisily
at his teeth.
"Okay?" Alan's shoulders slumped.
money till tomorrow," he said. You know I'll have to work Saturdays for
"I can't get the
"Oh, six
geez.
months
He
to
pay
it
back."
trudged slowly toward the door.
"Comin', Joe?" "Yeah, maybe your father won't act so bad there
when you
tell
Alan stopped
if
I'm
him."
in the door.
"Tomorrow?" he
said
without turning. "Ten
o'clock?"
He sounded
as if
he was going to
"Yeah, sure," said Billy.
"Make
cry. it
later if
you
want."
"Naw. off.
It's
Come on, 104
not going to do any good putting Joe."
it
XXXV Burp J-JEFT alone in the barn, Billy hugged himself. "I
won!
He
sat
"Heck, at first,
I
won!
Ha, ha."
Fifty dollars.
down on the crate, grinning. / knew I could do it. Ha. I was
waking everybody up
in the
so scared
middle of the
night."
He burped
— beans. made it thirty worms and one That stupid letter. Joe knew when
"I should have
hundred
dollars.
he was licked though. Ha. Geez."
BEANS?!!?
He
stood up.
How come
that burp had tasted like beans? He'd hamburger for lunch. And a glass of milk. Then the worm. Say they couldn't have. ? He snatched up the platter. Nothing left, just a few crumbs of cornmeal. Craning his neck, his eyes
had
a
.
.
.
bugging out, straining, he
.
.
.
.
.
he
.
.
burped:
.
beans!
Again: beans!
He
burst out of the barn, stumbling over the
sill,
Joe and Alan turned. Alan grabbed his arm.
yelling. Across the field
started to run; Joe "It
was a fake!" panted
them. "You faked
lOf
Billy,
coming up worm! "
it!
It
wasn't a real
to
"Real worm?" said Joe. "What're you talking about?"
"You made a worm!" yelled Billy. "Out of beans! Then tomorrow you were going to say I'd lost, I the last one v/aisfake." hadn't eaten fifteen worms
—
"Oh, geez," said Alan. "Come on, will ya?" "He didn't do it while I was around," said Joe. "You sure? What'd you have for lunch?"
"A hamburger and
milk."
"Yeah, but where'd you get the hamburger?" "I don't
know.
My
mother bought
it.
What
dif-
ference does that make?"
hamburg you get these You know, sausage meat, bread crumbs. So the butcher makes more
"Yeah, well, a lot of the days has stuff mixed in soybeans,
money.
it.
"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Billy. "Sure. But anyway, you
come on
back. Just to
make
sure,
I'm
Come
on,
going to eat another worm." "Geez, suit yourself. Eat four more. Alan,
let's
go. Let
him
eat
what he wants."
XXXVI The Fifteenth Wa.... .
JOiLLY threw back his head, lowered the worm Alan charged around the door! leaped on Bil-
.
.
him to the ground! punching! yelljumped up! grabbed Billy's feet! dragged
back! flung
ly's
ing!
.
.
.
him bump-bump-bump to the tool closet!
door! locked
inside!
floor
slammed
the
it!
Water
Silence.
rough chaffy
across the
bundled him
Alan panting.
.
.
trickling into the trough outside, .
"What're you gonna do with him?" Joe asked hoarsely from the doorway.
"IF HE'S IN THE CLOSET, HE CAN'T EAT THE WORM, CAN HE?" "You're crazy. He'll
His parents'll
start to yell.
hear him."
"YEAH?
YEAH?"
Alan's hair was mussed; his shirttail
"He
"Yeah," said Joe, eyeing him.
and
start to yell
.
"Not
"The it
out.
107
.
if
.
turned.
.
.
He'll
cistern?"
only
Joe wiped fifty
.
.
.
started toward
.
we put him down
It's
will.
his parents'll hear him."'
Alan glanced wildly about the door
hung out.
the cistern." his
dollars.
mouth. "Alan, cut
Come
on.
Face
it.
"
You've all
"
lost.
You
"
put Billy down in that cistern
can't
by himself. Suppose there's water in
it? It's
fifteen
feet deep."
"We can lower him down with a rope." BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Billy
was kicking the
tool-closet door.
HELP! LEMME OUT! CHEATING! HELP! I wanna get out, I
"LEMME OUT! IT'S
wanna
get out,
both
wanna
get out
—
BANG!
BANG!
BANG! He
I
BANG!
chanted rhythmically, kicking the door with
feet in
time with his chant.
Alan ran across the barn and grabbing hold of beam, skidding
and
trash
which
a
to kick aside the
hay
littered the planks over the old
cis-
to a stop,
began
tern.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! wanna — out "I
get out,
I
wanna
get out,
I
wanna
get
"Come on!" Alan yelled at Joe. "Help me! We all down in it last year. How's it gonna hurt
were
him? Come some rof>e."
on.
It'll
work.
I'll
split
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! "I
wanna
get out,
I
—
with you. Get
"
"
XXXVII Out of the Frying Pan into the Oven V-/n
his
knees,
yanking
the planks which
at
covered the old cistern, thinking, got him.
I
win. He'll never
.
grip his shoulder, glanced up.
"WHAT THE DEVIL HERE?"
.
IS
Mr. Forrester shouted
Alan
.
.
.
I've got
him.
felt
a
I've
hand
.
GOING ON
down
at
IN
him.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! "I
wanna
—
A confused
babble of voices, dying out suddenly.
"Now," said Mr. Forrester. "Alan and Joe: home! Scoot." Alan and Joe crowded out the door. "I've won!" crowed Billy. He danced toward the platter. "Nothing can "Billy! Up to your room!" "I just got to eat this worm. Dad. Ho, ho, I've won! I've won!"
—
"BILLY! "Dad,
Up
to
I—"
His father pointed.
109
your
ROOM!"
"
"Dad, win.
It's
if
just
don't eat what's
— two
I
"Now. The bet you about "Dad, I'll
is
over.
that cistern. lose!
"
"
left,
I'll
lose; Alan'll
You know what
I've told
NOW!"
I'll /o5^.'
Alan'll—
"Then you will learn something. March!" "You mean I can't even eat that last little How long could it take me? What could
—
.
"Billy.
Now."
bit?
XXXVIII $%//itBUp*/&!
JjiLLY kicked the bed. He'd won. All he'd had bites,
two
He
to
do was
eat
two more
for?
Alan had
bites.
kicked the wall.
What'd his father gotten so mad opening the cistern, not him.
started
Geez, he hadn't even
let
him
explain. Twice.
Twice he'd won and then something had happened.
And now
he was going to lose? After
gone through? Nightmares, been poisoned? All
He
ill
fights,
for nothing?
kicked the bed.
all
he'd
thinking he'd
Tlt« United States
Cavalry Rides aver the Hilltop JVx RS.
Forrester?" said
the screen door. "Could
"He's up in his
I
Tom,
peering through
see Billy for a minute?"
room being punished, Tom. He
and Joe and Alan were very naughty
this
after-
noon."
"Yeah?" said do?"
112
Tom. "No
kidding? What'd they
XL Tfi« Fifteenth
Worm XJilly kicked the wall
Two utes have
He
minutes.
What
again.
difference could two min-
made?
leaned his forehead against the windowpane,
gazing dejectedly out into the backyard. That's what always happened
—somebody
.
.
.
Tom's younger brother Pete appeared suddenly around the corner of the house, running, holding up a little yellow Easter basket
THE WORM! TOM!
.
.
.
gesturing?
Pete had brought
worm! The fifteenth worm! Billy slammed up the window. "Catch!" yelled Pete.
"Hurry!
Tom's to
talking
your
mother!"
him
a
"
He heaved Billy; Billy
a brick with a string tied to
caught
it,
up
it
to
hauled the string up hand over
hand, the basket came bobbing up the side of the house. Alan and Joe plunged out of the bushes,
.
.
.
Billy snatched the tin can out of the Easter basket,
plucked out
a huge,
squirming night crawler
.
.
.
"MRS. FORRESTER! MRS. FORRESTER!" Alan and Joe shouted at the top of their lungs, dancing about on the lawn, waving their arms.
"MRS. FORRESTER! MRS. FORRESTER!" "TOO LATE!" yelled Billy gleefully. Throwing back his head, he dropped the chewed squirming night crawler into his mouth .
and chewed.
Tom
and Mrs.
.
.
appeared
Forrester
around the corner of the house.
"Too glate!
glate!"
Billy yelled,
still
"Too
chewing.
gwin!
I
He
disappeared from the
window ...
a
door
slammed inside the house, a trampling on the stairs ... he burst out the kitchen door ... a flying leap off the back steps.
He
rolled,
scrambled up, yelling,
I win! I win!" grabbed Tom's hands. They danced round and round and round, Pete cavorting
"I win!
beside them.
Joe and Alan slunk off through the bushes. round and round and round .
.
.
.
.
.
mother laughed and went into the kitchen. till they round and round and round collapsed on their backs in the grass. Billy's
.
.
.
.
.
.
"I win," gasped Billy to the blue, cloudless sky. "I win."
115
XLI Epilogue J3iLLY leaned the minibike against started
down
a tree
and
Tom
and
the path through the woods.
Joe were already
sitting by a smoldering trash fire on the riverbank, opening their lunch bags. "Where's Alan? At the store?" asked Billy, flop-
ping
down by Tom.
"Yeah," said Joe. "He's
"What have you
still
got two weeks to go."
got for lunch?" asked
Tom.
Billy looked embarrassed. "
Worm-and-egg on
"Heck," said
something somebody Billy frowned.
my
"I don't
know.
mother.
I
his head. tors don't
rye."
Tom. "Why
his
lunch bag.
just can't stop.
even like the
"Do you think
taste
there's
know? Do you think
you ever bring
you can trade?"
else likes, so
He opened I
can't
I
don't dare
now."
He
tell
scratched
something the docI
could be the
person who's ever been hooked on worms?"
first
Hovj to Eat Fried Worms Thomas Rockwell
I
of a bet. Billy Is in the uncomfortable position of
Because having
to
eat fifteen
worms
The wor^ns are
days.
in fifteen
readily suppiie^^'y his opponent, whose moito seems to-be the bigger and jiiicier, the better! At first, Billy's problem is simply whether-or not he can manage to swallow the worm that is placed^ ceremoniously before him despite the free
choice of cefidfments, from peanut butter to horseradish. But later, it begins to look like Billy will win, and the challenge becomes whether or not Billy can get to the worm in order to eat it. Billy's family, after checking with the doctor, takes everything in stride and even helps Billy through the gastro-
nomic ordeal that twists and turns with each new day, leaving outcome of the bet continually in doubt.
the
"The clear to
make a
and revolting subject matter are sure
writing, clever illustrations, hit
with
many middle grade
readers."
— (starred review) Library Journal
The chapters march briefly "A hilarious story that will revolt and delight and irresistibly cm, worm by worm. The characters and their families and activities are natural to a T, and this, juxtaposed against the uncommon plot, makes for some colorful, original writing in a much-needed comic .
.
.
—ALA Booklist
vein."
"Let's
hope
that
we
will
have more humorous books
like this."
—Children's Book Review Service
"Rockwell's sensibilities (if that's the word) are so uncannily close to those of the average ten-year-old boy that one begins to admire Billy as a really The Kirkus Heviews snarp operator."
—
"Surefire intermediate-grade
humorous
fare."
-Instructor
Magazine
Thomas Rockwell is the author of Rackety-Bang and Other Verses, Humph!, The Neon Motorcycle, and Squawvifv\fk! (available in a Yearling edition). He and
his
v.'ife
and
their
two children
live
on a farm near Poughkeepsie,
New York. 4
4545 A
Yearling
Dell Publishing
Book
Co
New York
71009"00250
RL:2.6
ISBN D-^^D-^^5^5-D
008-012 0440-44545-0
^.
..i^ki^
.
Inc.
