A Drop of Rain Read Online Free PDF

are as big as boulders. But they are so light, you can blow them away withone breath. Daddy carefully saves our seeds from the year before. Seeds are like tiny sleeping giants.
    All through the long winter, when the snow is as high as our house, the seeds wait in the darkness and warmth of our barn. Sometimes I go look at them. I take a few in my hand. I blow on them as gently as a spring breeze.
    Mostly, though, I don’t think about anything except having fun. Johnny is fun. He is my brother. He is one year older than me. Elizabeth, my sister, is two years older than me. She’s not fun, she’s a goody-goody. She says I’m not ladylike. Agnes, my other sister, is twelve years older than me. She’s all grown up. She has gentleman friends who come to call. Agnes says I’m a little beast.
    The snow’s so high, we can climb up on the roof. Somebody left a ladder.
    â€œWe’re birds. Let’s fly,” says Johnny.
    We jump off the roof into the snow. We are buried in the snow! We crawl out.
    Mommy bangs on the window and shakes her finger at us. Then she rushes outside, wiping her hands on her apron.
    â€œDon’t do that!” she cries. “You might get hurt or lost in the snow. And then you’d be frozen, and we wouldn’t find you.”
    â€œMommy,” says Johnny, running up to the door. “We’re hungry. Can we have those cold pancakes?”
    â€œHere,” says Mommy, handing him the leftover potato pancakes from lunch. “And stay out of trouble.”
    â€œCome on, Mary,” Johnny says to me, after Mommy has closed the door. “We’re arctic explorers. Let’s go for a ride.”
    Carrying our pancakes, we run to the barn. We tie our big dog Bear to our little sleigh. Then we get into the sleigh. Then we throw pieces of pancake ahead of Bear in the snow. Bear runs ahead to find his pancake treats. He pulls us along in the sleigh.
    Bear pulls us across the fields to the edge of the forest. Then he stops because we have no more pancake pieces to throw.
    Bear refuses to pull the sleigh any more. He sits down. When Johnny takes the rope off his neck, Bear runs away.
    â€œWhat will we do?” I ask. “It’s a long way home, and I’m getting cold.”
    â€œWe’ll pull the sleigh ourselves,” says Johnny. “You’ll soon warm up.”
    And we did, and I do. But it takes us a long time to get home through the deep snow. We are late for dinner, and I am cold again.
    Mommy rubs my hands and feet with snow. She gives me boiling hot raspberry tea to drink. Then she shakes her finger at us again and says: “Don’t do that! See how cold Mary is! She’s almost frozen! Now go to your rooms, both of you. And stay there all evening! And no visiting!”
    Another day, when the snow is almost gone, but it is still cold, Johnny and I lean against the sunny side of the house, where it’s warmer. But we’re still cold, so we gather little sticks and dead grass, and we light a fire with some matches that we took when Mommy wasn’t looking.
    The fire is going nicely. Our hands are getting toasty warm. Then along comes Mommy with abasket of laundry for the clothesline.
    She drops the laundry, runs for a bucket of water, and throws the water on our fire. Then, surprise! Mommy does not shake her finger at us and say, “Don’t do that!”
    Instead, she says: “I am finished with you two. I’ve had enough of your mischief. Go out into the world. Then you’d see how lucky you are. You two have been very, very bad.” Then Mommy spanks Johnny hard on the bum with her hand.
    Then she spanks my bum just as hard.
    And then she huffs off into the house and slams the door. She’s left the laundry sitting in its basket in the yard, and she is so angry that she doesn’t care.
    â€œLet’s run away,” says Johnny, when we’ve finished bawling.
    We run away to the