Fortune's Magic Farm Read Online Free PDF

eating,” she reported.
    “That’s nice,” Grandma Maxine said, coughing again.
    There were other critters to feed. Isabelle pulled some grass blades from her pocket and tossed them into a cracker box that she had turned into a slug garden. She dropped a small piece of rotten driftwood into an empty milk carton that she had turned into a potato bug palace.
    “I’m so sleepy,” Grandma Maxine murmured, closing her eyes.
    “Oh, wait.” Isabelle had almost forgotten. She rushed across the soft moss and grabbed the apple. “Look, I have something special for dessert.”
    “I’m too tired to eat.”
    “But it’s an apple.” Isabelle beamed with pride, presenting the apple with a formal bow.
    Grandma Maxine opened her eyes and gasped. “An apple? Oh, Isabelle. I know we don’t have enough food, but you shouldn’t steal. It’s wrong.”
    “I didn’t steal it.” Isabelle dug a small chunk from the apple with the spoon. “Go on, eat some.” She gently pressed the piece into her grandmother’s mouth.
    Grandma Maxine chewed slowly, then her eyes widened. “As sweet as I remember,” she said. “It’s been so long.”
    Isabelle eagerly took a bite. Sweet juice burst onto her tongue. She wanted to shove the entire apple into her mouth. “It’s the best thing ever!” She dug her grandmother another chunk. As the old woman ate, her eyes ignited, as if a lightning bolt had shot right through her. She held out her withered hand for another piece.
    “How much I’ve missed this taste. When I was a little girl, we had an apple tree in our backyard and we ate apple pie and drank apple cider. Our neighbor had a plum tree and the church on the corner had a cherry tree. It was so different when I was little. It used to be called Sunny Cove in those days.”
    Isabelle knew all about her grandmother’s childhood. Life in the old days sounded like a dream.
    “My father loved apple cider. He was a fisherman, like all the other fathers. He’d leave in the mornings before I woke. After school I would run down to the docks and wave as his boat came in. There were plenty of fish in those days. We ate halibut and salmon and herring. My father was the best fisherman in Sunny Cove.” The light faded from her eyes and she slumped against the pillow. Talking about the old days always made Grandma Maxine sad.
    Isabelle knew the rest of the story. Each year the fishing fleet caught more and more fish until there were no more to catch. The people almost starved. Then the factory came and Mr. Supreme Senior gave everyone jobs. Then, mysteriously, the endless rain arrived and life changed forever. It was the saddest story she had ever heard.
    The overhead light shut off with a popping sound. All the bedroom lights turned off automatically at eight o’clock. It didn’t matter if Mrs. Wormbottom was darning a sock or if the twins were playing marbles. Mama Lu didn’t want to spend any extra money. “Good night, Isabelle.”
    “Good night, Grandma.”
    “I love you, dearest.”
    “I love you too.”
    Then a whisper floated through the darkness. Grandma Maxine’s voice was quivery and sad. “How will you take care of yourself when I’m gone?”
    Isabelle removed the tray. “Don’t worry about that. You need to get some sleep.”
    Grandma Maxine rolled over and started to snore. The sound comforted Isabelle, for a person who snores is
not gone.
    She sat on the edge of her grandmother’s bed, her mind racing, thoughts turning from her grandmother’s health to the day’s weird events. Finding an apple beneath a cat could be simply a matter of luck. Having an apple dropped on one’s head could just be a coincidence. But having a sea monster sneeze an apple onto one’s lap seemed deliberate. The fact that all three apples had appeared on the same day, in a place where apples did not grow, seemed… miraculous! No doubt about it—Isabelle was smack dab in the middle of a mystery.
    She crept to the window and leaned on the