Bumpy Ride Ahead! Read Free

her head.
    Mark closed his eyes and let the sun beat down on his face. It might be fall, but today it felt almost like summer.
    Meow! Meow!
    Mark opened his eyes and looked down. His fluffy gray cat, Lucky, sat on the ground by his stool, staring up at him.
    “Kumme,” Mark said, patting the side of his leg.
    Lucky didn’t have to be asked twice. She leaped into Mark’s lap and started licking his hand with her sandpapery tongue.
    Mark smiled and stroked the top of Lucky’s head. “You’re such a nice
katz.
“
    “It’s a good thing your cat wasn’t here when that big dog came around,” Mattie said. “Most dogs don’t like cats, you know.”
    “That’s true,” Mark agreed. “But Lucky can run really fast, and she’d have probably climbed up a tree, like she does when your dog, Twinkles, chases her.”
    Mattie looked like she was going to say something more when their thirteen-year-old brother, Russell, showed up.
    “What happened to my pile of leaves?” Russell asked, frowning. “I worked really hard raking them yesterday.”
    Mark explained about the big dog that had made a mess of the leaves.
    “Couldn’t you have done anything to stop him?” Russell asked, pushing a hunk of his blond hair away from his blue eyes.
    “I tried, but the exuberant hund wouldn’t listen.”
    “The what?” Mattie asked, looking at Mark.
    “Exuberant. It means
lively
or
frisky.
“
    “That’s a fact,” Mattie said. “The frisky, exuberant dog had a mind of its own. He ate the whole tray of Mom’s kichlin, too. I’ll bet it was a stray and has no home.”
    Russell placed his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “It doesn’t look like you’re that busy here, so how about helping me rake up the leaves? After that, we’ll put them in the wheelbarrow and haul ’em around back to the compost pile. Guess I should have put ’em there in the first place.”
    “I’d rather not rake leaves,” Mark said. “Besides, Mattie needs my help with the stand.”
    “You weren’t worried about that when you were foolin’ around with your glicker,” Mattie said. “I’m sure I can manage on my own for a while—especially since we haven’t been that busy anyway.”
    Mark knew Mattie was right, but he didn’t think it was fair that she got to sit and read a book while he helped Russell rake leaves. Well, then again, maybe he would find his marble while they were raking up the leaves. At least that would make it worth all the trouble he’d had here today.

C HAPTER 2
Sticky Pickles
    That evening during supper, Mattie glanced over at Mark and noticed his frown. He’d been unhappy ever since he lost his marble this afternoon. She couldn’t blame him for being upset, but if he’d stayed at the produce stand with her instead of tossing the marble into the leaves, he’d have it with him right now. So in some ways, it kind of served him right.
    “How’d things go at the stand today?” Dad asked, passing a bowl of mashed potatoes to Mattie.
    “Not so well,” she said. “We only sold a few things, and that wasn’t till this afternoon, after Mom brought us our lunch.”
    “That’s too bad,” Dad said. “I stopped by my brother Aaron’s house this afternoon, and he said Harold and Mary sold all the pumpkins you’d given them, as well as most of their other produce.”
    Mattie frowned. “I’ll bet we would have done better if we hadn’t given them half our pumpkins.”
    Mark gave a nod. “The first lady who came by our stand probably would’ve bought a pumpkin from us if we’d had some bigger ones to choose from. But no—all the big pumpkins went to Harold and Mary.”
    “Where’s your spirit of generosity?” Mom asked. “Don’t you realize how good it feels when we give to others?”
    “I suppose it does,” Mattie said. “But since Mark and I didn’t sell any of our pumpkins, we didn’t make one bit of money for ourselves today. Though we did send two different customers over to our cousins’ stand, since