Bookworm Buddies Read Online Free PDF Page B

cross. This conversation was taking valuable time away from thinking about how to earn money for the lost books.
    “My mom said that if we sold them, we could keep the money,” Tim went on. “AndI was thinking that I’ll bet we could get enough to pay for the book if we did.”
    “Books,” corrected Molly. “My dog ate mine,” she added.
    Now Molly was sorry that she had been cross with Tim. Apples! What a good thing to sell! It was better than old Halloween stuff. It was legal, it was free, and they didn’t have to be adults to do it!
    “I’ll be over in the morning!” said Molly. “Real early! That’s a great idea, Tim!”
    Molly hung up and called Mary Beth and Tracy, and they agreed to help.
    In the morning Tim was in front of his house with the apples. Lots and lots of rosy red apples.
    “My mom said we can give them away if we can’t sell them,” he said. “But I thought it would be better to sell them and earn our book money.”
    “You bet!” said Mary Beth.
    Tracy had brought a sign that said FOR SALE . She set it in front of the bags of apples. “The sign is from our old car,” she said. “We sold it for a hundred dollars.”
    “We can’t get a hundred dollars for these apples,” said Tim.
    “We don’t need a hundred dollars,” said Molly. “We just need about twenty.”
    “Let’s charge one dollar a bag,” said Mary Beth.
    That seemed reasonable to Molly. It was cheaper than store apples. And these were fresher.
    Instead of sneezing today, Tracy was yawning. “It’s my new allergy pills,” she said. “I don’t sneeze so much now, but the pills make me sleepy.”
    Molly wondered if being sleepy was better than sneezing. If Tracy fell asleep in school, she might get bad grades and fail. Ifone problem was solved, another one was right there to take its place, Molly thought. Tracy sat under a tree and leaned against the bags of apples. Before long she dozed off.
    Tim waved his hands at the passing cars. They all slowed down. Some of the drivers smiled. Some stopped. And then a lady with pearls around her neck got out and bought four bags!
    “I’m going to make applesauce,” she said. “My grandson loves it.”
    Tim helped load the bags in her car. Molly could not believe it was this easy! People wanted apples! They paid real money for them!
    When the next car stopped, a lady with three children asked if the apples made good pies.
    “You bet!” said Tim. “My mom made about eight!”
    The lady bought three bags and left.
    “Oh, no,” said Mary Beth. “Here comes trouble.”
    Molly looked down the street. It was a bike. Rat’s knees, Roger was riding it.

CHAPTER 10
The Bad Apple
    R oger skidded to a stop, dragging his shoes on the cement sidewalk. He picked up an apple and took a bite from it.
    “Hey! You have to pay for that!” said Tim.
    “How much?” asked Roger.
    Molly tried to figure in her head. If a whole big bag of apples was one dollar, how much would just one apple cost?
    “A dime,” said Tracy, opening her eyes.
    “Hey, look,” said Roger. “There’s a worm in this apple! I’m not paying for it!”

    He was right. Molly could see a green worm sticking its head out of Roger’s apple.
    “Are there worms in all of them?” asked Mary Beth. “Our customers will be mad!”
    “There were no worms in our pies,” said Tim. “Roger just got a bad apple.”
    “Roger
is
a bad apple,” muttered Mary Beth.
    “Take that back!” shouted Roger.
    Mary Beth wouldn’t take it back. Luckily one of Tim’s neighbors came outside to get in his car. Roger tossed his wormy apple down and got on his bike and sped away.
    “I’m glad he got the wormy apple, instead of a real customer,” said Molly. “He always brings some kind of trouble with him.”
    “That’s because he’s the thirteenth scout,” said Tracy, who seemed to be wide awake now.
    Soon all the apples were gone, but customerskept coming. Tim ran into the backyard and got more. Finally the only