1 School''s Out! Betty Peachey opened her eyes. She could hear birds singing. She could see the sun shining. The air felt warm. Outside her window, bees buzzed and flowers nodded in the breeze. She listened carefully. There was no shouting and no rushing around. No one was pounding on the bathroom door or stomping down the stairs.
There was no smell of burning toast from the kitchen. In the next room, her brother was still asleep. In the room next to that, her sister was reading the works of a German philosopher whose name no one could spell. Downstairs, Betty''s parents ate breakfast and read the newspaper. The house was quiet except for the sound of turning pages and munching. Summer! Betty thought. The first day of summer vacation is the happiest day of the year. Even happier than Christmas.
Lying in her bed, with the sun streaming in through the window, Betty sighed. I must be the happiest girl in the world, she thought. Lying on his bed under the stairs, McTavish sighed. I must be the happiest dog in the world, McTavish thought. For there is nothing a dog likes more than to have his entire pack gathered together peacefully in one place. McTavish had made a great deal of progress with the Peachey family since he''d decided to rescue them, but they still required hard work and patience. Pa Peachey could be extremely stubborn. Ollie Peachey could be argumentative.
Ava Peachey tended to read too much German philosophy and come up with too many theories. Only Betty Peachey and her mother were the sort of calm, sensible, wellbehaved humans that dogs prefer to share a home with. Training the Peachey family had been slow and difficult, but he was an intelligent dog and was up to the job. He under-stood that a family with an uncertain and chaotic past could not be fixed overnight. With a combination of love, patience, and consistent handling, he had helped the Peacheys become far more organized and relaxed than when he had first decided to rescue them. But there was still a long way to go. 2 The Peacheys Choose a Vacation "Well," said Pa Peachey, when everyone had finally come down to breakfast. "Summer is upon us, and it is time we chose a destination for our family vacation.
" "I would like to go to a place with loud dance clubs so I can meet many beautiful girls who will want to be my girlfriend," said Ollie. "I would like to visit the birthplace of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in Germany," said Ava. "There, I will think about philosophy night and day." "A yoga retreat in India would be perfect," mused Ma Peachey. "There, I might finally achieve my dream of striking a onehanded tree pose." Betty Peachey was silent. Everybody looked at her. At last she took a deep breath.
"I," she said, "would like to go camping." "CAMPING?" The Peacheys were aghast. "Camping? With horrible creeping crawling biting bugs?" said Ava. "Camping? In the freezing rain? On the cold, hard ground?" said Ollie. "With no WiFi and nowhere to charge your phone?" "Camping? With poisonous snakes and rats and killer moles?" said Pa Peachey. There was a long silence, during which the Peacheys gaped at Betty. "Yes," said Betty. "Camping.
" McTavish pricked up his ears to listen. "For one thing," Betty said, "camping is educational. You pitch your own tent and cook your own food. Camping builds camaraderie and cooperation. It requires skills, like making fires and reading maps. You learn new things and live side by side with nature." "I don''t want to live side by side with nature," said Ollie. "I want a girlfriend.
" "I don''t want camaraderie," said Ava, glaring at Ollie, "especially if it''s with him." "Nature?" said Pa Peachey. "Nature is full of bears and Tasmanian devils. Nature is just another word for swamps and getting struck by lightning. Nature is falling out of a canoe and drowning. Or getting malaria from mosquitoes. Nature is having to eat crickets or starve to death. I hate nature.
" Everyone looked at Pa Peachey. "Nature," said Betty, "is the wind blowing gently through the trees. It is the sun warming your face. It is the smell of damp earth and the sound of blackbirds singing. Nature is green shoots and new buds. It is daffodils and buttercups. I love nature." For a long moment, none of the Peacheys said a word.
At last, Ma Peachey spoke. "I think camping is an excellent idea. For one thing, it is not expensive. For another, it does not require cell phones or laptops. And for a third thing, if we went camping, we would not have to put McTavish in a kennel. We could take him with us." Everyone looked at McTavish, who wagged his tail. In his opinion, this was the best argument in favor of camping.
He walked over to Betty and lay at her feet. Well, not actually at her feet but on her feet. Pa Peachey shook his head. "This flirtation with nature is a travesty," he said. "It will all end in tears." But nobody paid much attention, because that is what Pa Peachey always said, about practically everything.