From Third Grade Angels It was a warm and sunny day, but really windy. Swings were flapping even when nobody sat on them. Basketball shots were curving. Besides the wind, everything was going along pretty normal until a yellow baseball cap came flying onto the playground. On the other side of the fence a lady in a sweat suit was stopped, jogging in place. She was pointing to her hat, which had blown off and landed among a bunch of us third-graders. For a second nobody moved. And then it hit all of us at once: Good deed! About ten of us pounced on the hat. There were so many hands the best I could do was grab somebody's wrist. We were wrenching and pulling and twisting ten different ways. "I got it!" "I got it!" "Let go!" "I was first!" "I was first!" "Oww!" Suddenly we all snapped apart like a broken wishbone. Eddie Shank was holding the rim of the cap. Diana Briggs was holding the rest. Somebody said, "Uh-oh." Excerpted from Third Grade Angels by Jerry Spinelli All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
