“Why don’t you turn on the dawnzer?” Ramona asked, proud of her new word.
Beezus looked up from her book. “What are you talking about?” she asked Ramona.
“What’s a dawnzer?”
Ramona was scornful. “Silly. Everybody knows what a dawnzer is.”
“I don’t,” said Mr. Quimby, who had been reading the evening paper. “What is a dawnzer?”
“A lamp,” said Ramona. “It gives a lee light. We sing about it every morning in kindergarten.”
A puzzled silence fell over the room until Beezus suddenly shouted with laughter.
“She-she means—” she gasped, “The Star-Spangled B-banner!” Her laughter dwindled to giggles. “She means the dawn’s early light.”
―
Beverly Cleary,
Ramona the Pest
