Helping Hands Read Online Free PDF Page A

doing.” I step toward the pony. Babe snorts and paws at the ground with her hoof.
    â€œShould I call nine one one?” shouts a driver.
    Any second now my parents are going to come outside, or this pony is going to run into the street and cause an accident or get hurt, or the police will come, or maybe all those things will happen at the same time.
    Babe snorts again.
    â€œWhat is she doing?” Jules asks.
    A loud whinny came from the middle of our parking lot. All of us—Jules, Babe, and I—stop and stare.
    David grins and whinnies again, sounding exactly like a horse. He walks toward the runaway pony, half a peanut butter sandwich in each hand. “Come and get it, beautiful,” he says confidently.
    Babe paws at the ground, twitching her nose.
    Jules and I exchange a glance and step forward at the same time.
    David makes a clicking noise with his tongue. Babe takes a step toward David, then stops, looking back at Jules and me, and then at David again.
    â€œGo on,” I say softly. “Go get your treat.”
    â€œPeanut butter,” David says. “Yum!”
    Babe’s nose twitches again, her eyes focused on the food. I take another step closer. Jules does the same thing. I’m close enough to reach out and grab her lead, but David shakes his head.
    â€œDon’t!” he warns. “Let her come to me.”
    Sure enough, Babe trots straight to David, and as she takes the sandwich from him, he wraps her lead rope around his hand. After she’s finished eating the first half of the sandwich, he holds the second half just in front of her nose and walks her into the corral. He rewards her with the rest of the sandwich and pats her head.
    â€œCan you bring over the water bucket?” he asks.
    As soon as I set the full water bucket in the corral, Babe plunges her head into it and slurps, then she lifts her head up and shakes hard, soaking me. David manages to jump back just in time to stay dry, laughing.
    â€œYou need some horse sense, Josh!”
    I bend down and pretend to retie my sneaker, my face burning. Yeah, he’s good with horses, I get it, and I know better than anyone that I’m clueless about Babe and Buster. But he doesn’t have to keep rubbing it in.
    Jules fetches the plastic bags she dropped when she chased after Babe.
    â€œWhat’s that?” I ask.
    She rips open the plastic. “Timothy hay,” she says. “It’s what Cuddles and Lolli eat, but hay is hay, right, David? The other bag has alfalfa pellets for small animals, but I figured the ponies wouldn’t mind.”
    â€œDid you ask Mom if you could take those?” I ask.
    â€œWhy should I?” Jules answers. “It’s our store.”
    â€œExactly, that’s why we’re supposed to sell things, not steal them.”
    â€œThe ponies are hungry, Josh,” she says.
    â€œI know, I know.” Sometimes I think Jules doesn’t understand the way the business runs. Or maybe she doesn’t want to know. Twins have more differences than most people realize. “I know you’re not a thief, but . . .”
    â€œYeah.” She hands me the bag of alfalfa pellets. “Here, you feed them; it’ll make you feel better.”
    The ponies had been chewing the small piles of Timothy hay, but as soon as I dig into the alfalfa bag, they stop and crowd around me.
    â€œWhoa,” I say, “take it easy, you two.”
    Jules takes the bag and pours alfalfa pellets into my hands, which I hold out to the hungry ponies. I’ve never fed any horses or ponies before, but there’s no time to be nervous. They eat right out of my hands, their whiskers tickling my palms and making me laugh.
    â€œCup your hands more,” David says. “You don’t want them to bite your fingers.”
    â€œYou don’t have to explain everything to him,” Jules says.
    I smile at her, and she winks. With everything that’s