Huckleberry Harvest Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t leave well enough alone. “Mandy is only in town a short time. Any of you who would like to ask her on a date had better hurry up.”
    Mandy’s face caught fire with embarrassment. The room full of boys stared at her as if they expected her to do a somersault or some other circus trick right there in Mammi’s great room. She would have gladly crawled underneath the sofa and taken up residence with the dust bunnies.
    Something akin to sympathy traveled across Noah’s face. He thumped Adam on the back with his palm and nudged Freeman with his shoulder. “Quit staring and help me move this stove. I don’t know about you, but I got other stuff I gotta do today.”
    Noah’s unconcerned manner immediately dispelled the awkward tension in the room. Titus and Freeman laughed, and the boys turned their attention to the stove, acting as if they’d forgotten Mandy was in the room. She breathed a sigh of relief and felt almost grateful to Noah Mischler. Almost. He was in a hurry to move the stove, nothing more. He hadn’t intended to help ease Mandy’s embarrassment. But at least no one was staring at her anymore.
    Mandy decided to stay out of the way and watch. She couldn’t begin to help lift the old cookstove, and Noah would surely be annoyed if she tried to help.
    “We need to shove the stove out from the wall and lift together,” Adam said.
    Noah shook his head. “Nae. Let’s do it the easy way. Freeman, you and Davy detach the pipe and take it apart. I’ll be right back. Adam, can you help me?”
    Noah and Adam bounded out the front door.
    “He’s a smart one,” Dawdi said, grinning and gazing pointedly at Mandy, as if Noah’s intelligence were something she should know about.
    Before Freeman and Davy had pulled the pipe from the stove, Noah returned with a strange cart that stood low to the ground and looked like a flat red wagon or a skinny lawn mower. Adam followed, carrying three or four sheets of cardboard.
    “We can get the stove out of the kitchen with this,” Noah said. “I’ll need you to keep it steady and then lift it down the stairs and into my wagon.”
    Even though Mandy had determined never to speak to Noah again, her curiosity got the better of her. “What is that?”
    Noah glanced at her. “It’s a floor jack. It can lift almost anything.”
    “I should have thought of that,” Titus said, forgetting that he mostly never had thoughts that deep.
    The stovepipe squealed as Davy and Freeman tried to jiggle it loose from the cookstove.
    “Wait,” Noah said, reaching into his toolbox for a screwdriver. “You’ve got to unscrew the pipe from the ceiling support.”
    Davy and Freeman did as they were told, and with a little more coaching from Noah, detached the pipe from the stove. A cloud of black ash floated into the air once the pipe was off.
    “ Ach, du lieva ,” Mammi said. “Oh, my goodness. I should have cleaned that better.”
    Mandy put her arm around Mammi. “It’s okay. We will give the house a gute dusting once the stove is in.”
    Noah took the sheets of cardboard and laid them over Mammi’s floor, making a path to the front door.
    “Don’t want to hurt the wood,” Dawdi said.
    The other boys moved out of the way, and Noah deftly slid the jack under the stove. He pumped the handle up and down, and the jack slowly rose, lifting the stove with it. Adam and Melvin supported the massive stove on either side to ensure it wouldn’t tip, and Noah slowly wheeled the jack with the stove to the door.
    The boys followed Noah outside with Mandy and Sparky close behind. At the edge of the porch, Noah lowered the jack and slid it out from under the stove. Dawdi stood back. As much as he liked to do things himself, he was an eighty-five-year-old man who was wise enough to know he didn’t want to strain his back.
    The seven young men surrounded the stove and lifted it from the porch to the ground. Noah pumped up his jack again and pulled the stove over the grass to his