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Bobby and Betty with the workers cover

Bobby and Betty with the workers

Chapter 98: Riddles:
By Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
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About This Book

Two young children accompany and observe neighborhood workers—milkman and his horse, iceman, baker, grocer, shoemaker, tailor, postman, newsboy, and others—discovering how everyday foods, clothing, and services are produced and delivered. Short, episodic scenes mix simple narration, playful rhymes, and hands-on activities as the children buy pies, help bake, visit shops, and earn and spend money. Each vignette pairs concrete descriptions of tasks with study prompts and play suggestions for teachers, offering practical lessons about community roles, the origins of household goods, and the connection between work and daily life.

THE NEWSBOY

Every morning the newsboy comes with a newspaper.

He leaves it on the back porch.

Sometimes Bobby brings it in to Father.

Sometimes Betty brings it to him.

Father likes to read the paper before he goes to his work.

One morning Father said to Bobby, “Bring in the paper.”

“It hasn’t come, Daddy,” answered Bobby.

“The newsboy is late this morning,” said Father.

“He is coming now,” said Betty. “I see him.”

Bobby went out on the back porch.

The newsboy tossed a paper on the porch and ran to the next house.

Bobby took the paper to Father.

“Thank you, Bobby,” said Father.

“I want to be a newsboy,” said Bobby. “Mother, may I be a newsboy?”

“What is that you are saying?” asked Father.

“I want to be a newsboy, Father,” said Bobby.

“Betty, what do you think of that?” asked Father.

“I think Bobby is too little,” said Betty. “When Bobby is bigger he can be a newsboy.”

For study and play:

Papers, papers! right this way!
Come and buy one every day!
—Second Grade, Riverside, Illinois
What’s the news of the day,
Good neighbor, I pray?
They say the balloon
Has gone up to the moon.
The newsboy comes each morning,
When I’m out at play,
Throws the paper on the porch,
And then he runs away.
—Mary MacMillan and William Feldman,
Second Grade, Hinsdale, Illinois

Riddles:

What is it that is black and white and red (read) all over?
A newspaper
Why is a cherry like a book?
Because it is red (read)