Oddfellow's Orphanage Read Online Free

Felix’s cross words.
    “Boy, are
you
a grump!” Imogen retorted, sticking her tongue out.
    The breakfast table was quiet until Ollie timidly broke the uncomfortable silence. “Maybe I’ll ask Hank to snip off these little bushy pieces,” he said, patting the top of his onion head.
    Hank’s usual job was minding the bears and circling the grounds on a great brown hare to be sure no scoundrels crept past the school’s borders. But twice a year he was the orphanage’s barber.
    In observance of Haircut Day, classes were canceled. A striped canopy was stretched out over a big wooden chair Hank had lugged into the front yard. “Who’s first?” Hank called merrily to the group waiting on the grass. His shiny silver scissors flashed in his hand.

    “The headmaster should go first!” called Professor Stella, looking up from her book of old star charts.
    The headmaster plunked down happily in the chair. “Oh, I do
love
Haircut Day!” he said. Then Hank went to work. The headmaster’s hair was unruly and thick. Hank neatened it up in a big cloud of snipping. He also trimmed the headmaster’s beard to its summer length. Delia watched as the feathers of falling blue-black curls grew into great piles on the ground.
    The other grown-ups went next, ending with Professor Silas, whose dark red hair was clipped back from the overgrown state it was in. Then the children lined up for their turn. Delia got just a little trim, and Imogen got her sleek bob, which everyone (except Felix) admired. Ollie hopped into the barber’s chair, and Hank carefully found a few (imaginary) hairs that he pretended to snip.
    Daniel, being the leader of the Golden Rule Society at Oddfellow’s, asked the headmaster if he should help sweep up the hair that piled the ground.
    “No, no, Daniel!” the headmaster said. “We leave it—”
    “For the birds to make their nests!” Ava chimed in.
    “Exactly,”
said the headmaster, smiling.
    “Let’s take some to the edge of the forest, for the birds that live there,” Ava said, turning to Delia, who sat rebraiding her hair, and Imogen, who shook her new bob happily. Delia andImogen nodded, and the girls gathered up the trimmings in their skirts and headed away from the group.
    Suddenly, Delia felt a tug on one of her braids and heard a thick
sssniiip
. She whipped around to see Felix laughing as he ran away, holding one of her white braids in his hand.

    Ava turned and saw him, too. “What is the matter with you?” she shouted after him.
    Delia heard thunder in her ears. Her face was flushed with anger, and hot tears began to roll down her cheeks.
    “Are you okay?” Imogen asked.
    Delia nodded, sniffling.
    Ava tossed her trimmings into the air and took off after Felix. Delia was too stunned to run, so she and Imogen followed behind Ava. Meanwhile, Felix had run straight into Professor Stella. Delia and Imogen joined the small crowd, where Professor Stella shook the white braid as she scolded Felix.
    Felix shouted, “I don’t care what you say. You’re not my mother!” Then he ran toward the house.
    The other children looked around wide-eyed, because such unpleasantness almost never happened at Oddfellow’s. Professor Stella was equally stunned. “What in the world is the matter with him?” she asked. She looked around at the children’s baffled faces. “Well, whatever it is, let’s give Felix a little time to calm down from … well, whatever is troubling him.”
    After lunch, Daniel looked for Felix. He looked all around the house, then peered into the bears’ quarters. Felix sat in the straw, spooning honey for the baby bear, who greedily gobbled it up. Daniel could hear Felix crying faintly.
    “Felix?” Daniel said softly. “What’s wrong?”
    Felix wiped his face quickly on his sleeve and turned. “Nothing. I just hate Haircut Day.” Daniel sat down beside him.
    “Is that why you cut Delia’s braid?” Daniel asked.
    Felix sighed. “I don’t know why I cut her