Bitter Harvest Read Online Free PDF Page B

whiteness. Seth reached it first and pulled open a door. They stepped inside to relative silence. As her eyes adjusted Meg could see where snow drifted in through some of the many cracks between the old boards.
    “We should clear out a stall for the goats,” Seth said. “You’ll have to put out some hay, and some food. And if you find anything that looks burnable and isn’t holding something up, leave it in the center here.”
    “Gotcha. Which stall looks best?”
    Seth looked around him. “They all look pathetic. But how about the one that backs against the apple storage chambers? At least there’s one solid wall to block the drafts, and the rest looks okay.”
    Together they hauled random pieces of ancient farm equipment and a roll of wire fencing out of the stall. Luckily Meg had been keeping the goats’ hay inside the barn already, since there wasn’t room in their shed outside, so they spread some on the wooden floor of the stall and stacked the remaining bales around the perimeter. Meg added feed to a trough that had been part of the stall for as long as it had been there, and filled a bucket with water from the rusty tap inside the barn. Now all they needed were the goats.
    “You want me to get the girls?” Seth asked.
    “Will they come to you?”
    “Sure. They love me. They came over to my place yesterday, didn’t they?”
    “I thought it was Max they had a thing for.”
    “Love my dog, love me. I’ll go round them up.”
    How did Seth stay so cheerful? Meg wondered. Throw a major storm at him, and he just goes down his checklist of things to do: make sure mother is secured. Check in on poor Meg, who is clueless. Herd goats. Build a fire. What couldn’t he do?
    He was back a minute or so later with Dorcas and Isabel trotting behind him, on the same rope leashes he had used before. “Listen, didn’t you replace the locks on the doors, after that pesticide incident?”
    “Uh, yes. Plus to protect the equipment I keep in here. Why?”
    “Looks like someone tried to jimmy the back one again—there’s a bunch of new gouges.”
    “Do you think they got in?”
    “Hard to say. Is anything missing?”
    “Honestly, I never come out here, or at least, not past the holding chambers. The tractor is still here, obviously, but I don’t think anyone would be tempted to steal it. As for the rest, I have no idea what I’ve got. You think someone was looking for something, or just wanted a place to hang out? Like teenagers?”
    “Maybe. No harm done, apparently. Let’s get these two settled.” He led the goats into their new temporary home, and they explored it thoroughly before trying out the feed. Seth latched the gate behind them.
    “Will they be warm enough?” Meg asked.
    “Sure. They’ve got shelter, and they’ve got each other. How do you think animals survived in the wild all these years?”
    “I didn’t think about it. Are we done here? My fingers are getting numb.”
    “And they aren’t going to get a lot warmer in the house. Remember, I offered you a nice warm place.”
    “And I thank you, but I’m staying.”
    “Then so am I.”
    When they emerged into the blinding snow, Meg realized there was someone else in the driveway, or at least another truck.
    “Seth?” someone called out.
    “John?” Seth replied. Meg giggled: this was like a game of Marco Polo, with the three of them trying to find each other in the snow.
    A shadowy figure came into focus, bundled to the eyeballs. “Hey, Seth, I wanted to check if you’d need me for plowing? Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you, ma’am.”
    Seth looked back and forth at Meg and John. “You haven’t met? Meg, this is John Taylor—he lives down the street from you, toward Ludlow. John, meet Meg Corey.”
    John stuck out a gloved hand. “Nice to meet you. Sorry I haven’t been by to introduce myself before now.”
    “Hey, I’ve been so busy with the orchard that I haven’t been around much, so I probably would have missed you