Our Favorite Things #12 – Pranks

You can read about more favorites in Andi’s Attic >>

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September, 1881

Yesterday, Melinda pranked me again! We have been taking turns with this for a while, since I first pranked her. You should have seen the look on her face. It was hilarious. 

Mitch just gave me the perfect idea for a new prank. He said to go into town and buy one of those small, rubber snakes and sneak it into her bed. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, it’s a bit cruel, but you don’t know what Melinda did to me. Just the other day, big sister tied a string across the bottom of my bedroom door. In the morning when I got up, I tripped over it.

Read about our favorite pranks on each other (and on our brothers) below.

12. Our Favorite Pranks

Melinda’s Favorite Prank

My sister’s favorite prank is hiding my saddle and making me believe somebody stole it. She gets me with this one every time. This is how she does it: she waits a few weeks at a time then she suggests that she and I should go on a ride. I will always ride any time, and I like riding with my big sister. I’m so excited. But . . . when I go to saddle Taffy, I can’t find my saddle. Where could it be? I look high and low, not suspecting a thing. I then ask Melinda to help me find it. She “helps” me look for it then suggests, “Do you think someone might have stolen your saddle?” So I rush inside, yelling to Mother that my saddle is stolen, but  Melinda yells, “I got you!.” And then she bursts out laughing. I stop in my tracks, scowl, then laugh too. But inside, I’m scheming about a prank I can pull on her.

One time, I tried the saddle prank on her. She, of course, was suspicious and said, “Stop pranking me, Andi. Just tell me where it is.” I put on my most innocent face and didn’t say a word (I would never outright lie to anyone). She just knew I had pranked her somehow, but she couldn’t prove it. Annoyed, she found another, worn-out saddle to go for her ride. The next day at the breakfast table Melinda announced that she thought somebody stole her saddle. She looked like she really thought it too. That’s when I yelled, “I got you!” and burst out laughing. She was more than a little annoyed, but hey, she keeps doing it to me, and fair’s fair, right?

Andi’s Favorite Prank on Melinda

My favorite prank on Melinda is filling a cup halfway with water then taking a broom and lifting the cup gently up to the ceiling in her bedroom. I hold it there so it looks like it’s catching something, like a spider or a bug. “Melinda! Come quick!” I yell. When she arrives, I ask her to hold the broom so I can find a container because there might be a bug up there. She totally falls for it. She holds the broom while I pretend to go and get a container for “the bug.” After a few minutes I pretend to pass by her room, and she calls and says, “ Where is the container?” Then I yell, “Got you” and burst out laughing. Then I tell her that the cup is filled halfway with water. Now, she’s stuck holding that broom cuz she doesn’t want to get wet. Oh, boy, does she get mad. But the problem with that joke is I am too short  to reach the cup so I have to find Mitch and ask him to climb on a chair to get the cup down (our ceilings are really high). 

One time when Melinda fell for that prank, her arms got tired and slipped. She dropped the broom and the water splashed all over her. She was heaping mad when she marched in the parlor soaking from the water. I reckon she’ll consider me the Boy Who Cried Wolf and will never fall for that one again. Mother thinks it is silly the way we prank each other, but you can tell her eyes are twinkling when we do it. It’s all in good fun.

There is one prank I will never, ever pull on Melinda, due to her horror and distaste of spiders. I will never prank her with spiders in her bed or even in her room. I accidentally left a jar of spiders in her room last year, and it was terrible. Melinda got bit all over. I apologized all over the place, but she thought I’d pranked her. It was hard to convince her to believe that it was an accident.

Andi’s Favorite Prank on the Boys

My favorite prank on the boys is sneaking their boots out of their rooms at night and hiding them. In the morning they wake and can’t find their boots, and boy do they holler! “Andiiiii!” It is music to my ears. At least, it was, until one of my brothers (Chad, of course) decided to do something about this prank.

One night I did this prank like always. Chad woke me up very early in the morning (it was still dark), yanked me out of bed, and turned me upside down so I would tell him where his boots were. “Put me down and ask nicely!” I yelled, scrambling to keep my nightgown and underdrawers all in one place. He said, “No. Tell me.” So, I didn’t tell him anything and said I would not tell him. Then he hauled me out of my room, with my arms flailing, down the stairs, and outside. By now, I had a horrible feeling how this would end in the cold, dark dawn. Yep. Splash! He dropped me into the horse trough. It was so cold! He stood there in his stocking feet, his arms crossed over his chest, and demanded to know where his boots were. I told him. Then he made me promise to stop with the childish prank of hiding his boots. I promised, shivering. He nodded, turned away, and left me soaking in the trough. Oooh! Sure. I won’t hide his boots again (or Mitch’s or Justin’s, for that matter), but I have something better planned. And Melinda has agreed to go along with it.

We are not going to wait for next April Fool’s Day, not when there are so many dead bugs lying around this time of year. Melinda and I are going to collect every dead grasshopper, beetle, and bug (maybe a dead lizard or two, as well) and fill the boys’ boots with these critters. Ooooh! I can’t wait to hear them yell!

Mrs. M is open to other guest bloggers coming alongside her and thinking up fun Favorite Things for Andi and Melinda (or even least favorite things). Thank you, Ellie for being the first! Mrs. M. met Ellie B. at the 2022 OCEAN (Oregon) homeschool convention.