Another Lesson

Another Lesson

Della stuck her brush in the cup. She was trying to do it all by herself this time, she was making a card for Mommy. She was determined to show Mommy that she was a big girl now. They had had a little “discussion,” as Mommy always called it, yesterday, about her doing things by herself.

There were many things Mom actually expected her to do by herself now. It was just hard to remember which ones were OK and which ones were not. Plus, there were things she wanted to do, and was so sure she could do, that she just assumed it would be OK with Mom. Apparently, walking the dog was not one of them.

But she made lots of cards already at school. Just usually Mrs. Peterson brought out the paint. But Della wanted to surprise Mom so she wouldn’t be so upset about having to pay money to get Ruffy back at the dog pound.

She just had to open this paint. She saw Mom do it before, and then stir it with a stick. Just opening it was tricky. They had smaller cans at school with screw on tops. Mom used this metal tool, Della has seen her do it many times.

The first couple tries, the paint can slid away. But Della knew just what to do. She carried it over to the rug so it wouldn’t slip. Just like Daddy did with his footstool when it kept sliding.

It worked.! The cover came off, just kind of hard, and then very fast. But then the can tipped over and the red paint spilled out over the rug.

Mom was coming in the back door now, and Della started getting a little nervous. Somehow the towel was not cleaning up all the paint...