Worse Than Rotten Ralph Read online

  Worse Than Rotten, Ralph

  Jack Gantos and Nicole Rubel

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  WORSE THAN ROTTEN, RALPH

  Text by Jack Gantos Art by Nicole Rubel

  Houghton Mifflin Company Boston

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  To Carew

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  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Gantos, Jack

  Worse than rotten, Ralph.

  SUMMARY: Rotten Ralph makes an earnest attempt

  at good behavior but is enticed, not too reluctantly,

  into a series of misadventures by some ruffian alley

  cats.

  [1. Cats—Fiction. 2. Behavior—Fiction]

  I. Rubel, Nicole.

  II. Title.

  PZ7.G15334Wo [E] 78-6512

  ISBN 0-395-27106-1

  The character of Rotten Ralph was originally

  created by Nicole Rubel and Jack Gantos.

  Copyright © 1978 by John B. Gantos, Jr.

  Copyright © 1978 by Leslie Rubel

  All rights reserved. For information about permission

  to reproduce selections from this book, write to

  Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue

  South, New York, New York 10003.

  ISBN: 0-395-27106-1 Reinforced Edition

  ISBN: 0-395-32919-1 Sandpiper Paperbound Edition

  Printed in China

  LEO 20 19 18 17

  One morning when Sarah woke up, Rotten Ralph was swinging on her chandelier.

  "I have to run some errands today," Sarah said as she tied a pretty ribbon around Ralph's neck. "While I'm away I want you to behave."

  When Sarah left the house Ralph tried to find something nice to do.

  "I'd rather be fishing," he moaned while watching Sarah's fish.

  Instead, he fed them breakfast.

  Staying out of trouble made him tired so he decided to take a nap. But while he was lying in his hammock a tough alley cat came by. "Hey softy," he called to Ralph, "why don't you stop sleeping your life away."

  "Leave me alone," replied Ralph. "I'm trying to behave."

  "Why I bet you don't even know how to be rotten," said the alley cat.

  "That's not true," said Ralph.

  "Prove it," sneered the alley cat.

  Ralph slowly got up from the hammock.

  The alley cat took Ralph to meet his gang of friends.

  "I dare you to help us push over some trash cans," said the leader.

  "I don't want to cause trouble," Ralph replied. Still he took off his bow. Then he gently pushed over one can.

  The alley cats had a great time.

  "To the park!" ordered the leader. Ralph and the alley cats climbed up into a tree and knocked hats off the passers-by.

  Ralph knocked off almost as many hats as the other cats.

  Afterward the cats leaped out of the tree as though they were a pack of tigers. They crept along the ground and soon sneaked up on some nice cats.

  "Growl," roared the alley cats.

  "Growwlll," roared Ralph louder than anyone else. The nice cats cried and ran away.

  The alley cats couldn't think of anything else to do.

  Then Ralph said, "If you dare to follow me I'll show you some real fun."

  "We can do anything a soft house cat can do," scoffed the leader. They followed Ralph downtown.

  They went into Frankenstein's Costume Shop and tried on all the costumes.

  "This is more fun than chasing rats," said the leader.

  "You haven't seen anything yet," boasted Ralph. "I'll eat you alive," growled Frankenstein as he chased them around the shop.

  Then they ran through Pierre's Poodle Parlor.

  The poodles screamed and ran away.

  "When I catch you I'll clip off your tails!" threatened Pierre.

  "Charge!" shouted Ralph as the alley cats ran into a bakery. Rotten Ralph took a pie and threw it in the leader's face.

  Immediately a pie fight began.

  "Get out of here or I'll turn you into gingerbread cats!" shouted the owner.

  The alley cats were beginning to grow tired but Ralph took them home anyway.

  "Let's play follow the leader," he announced.

  "I'm the leader."

  Rotten Ralph took them into Sarah's room. They jumped up and down on her bed until it broke.

  "Everyone has to paint wild pictures on the wall," Ralph declared.

  He gave them Sarah's paints and soon the walls were dripping with bright colors.

  They were banging pots and pans together when Sarah returned home.

  "You nasty cats!" she shouted.

  "Leave my Ralph alone!"

  She picked up a broom and chased them out the back door while Ralph hid behind a chair.

  "You poor thing. You must have been so frightened," Sarah said while brushing Ralph's messy fur. "It wasn't very nice of those horrible alley cats to lead you astray and make you do so many rotten things."

  Sarah loved Ralph very much.

  He sighed. "I can't be all rotten," Ralph said to himself.

  Still, he hoped the alley cats would dare to call him a softy again.

 

 

  Jack Gantos, Worse Than Rotten, Ralph

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