Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record Read Online Free PDF Page B

Bean!” hissed Nancy. “Everyone will see you!”
    Nancy was always worried that everyone would see her.
    Bean wanted everyone to see her. She lay down on the sidewalk and rolled from side toside, moaning, “Just a little corn-dust, that’s all I ask!”
    The front door slammed. Nancy had gone inside. It was so easy to make Nancy crazy.
    Bean lay on the sidewalk, resting. The sun was warm. She loved Saturdays.
    “We’ve got dirt at my house,” said a voice beside her.
    It was Sophie W. from down the street.
    “What kind of dirt?” asked Bean.
    Sophie smiled. Both her front teeth were out, and she had filled the hole with gum. “A lot of dirt.”
    That sounded interesting. Bean jumped up and grabbed her bag of corn. Together, she and Sophie hurried around Pancake Court.
    Usually, Sophie W.’s house looked a lot like all the other houses on Pancake Court, but today, it looked different. Today, there was an enormous mound of dirt in the front yard.A
monster
mound. It was as high as the front porch. Maybe even higher. It spread across half the lawn, all the way to the path. The dirt was dark brown, the kind of dirt that smells good and is already halfway to mud.
    “Wow. Your parents gave you dirt?” asked Bean.
    “Sort of,” Sophie said. “They’re going to use it in the back yard, but not until next week.”
    “We can play on it?” asked Bean. It was too good to be true. “It’s okay with your mom?”
    Sophie W. looked at her front door and giggled. “My mom’s not home! There’s a babysitter in there!”
    Bean stared at the mound. They wouldn’t put it out in the front yard if they didn’t want people to use it, she thought. “Shouldn’t we ask the babysitter?” she said.
    Just at that moment, a teenage girl stuckher head out the front door. She was the babysitter. “Oh,” she said to Sophie. “There you are.”
    “Is it okay if we play with this dirt?” asked Bean politely.
    The teenager looked at the mound like she had never seen it before. “I guess. Um. Don’t track it into the house.”
    “No problem,” said Bean. “We don’t even want to go in the house.”
    The babysitter nodded and turned to Sophie. “I guess I’ll be watching TV, okay?”
    “Sure,” said Sophie. She and Bean waited until the teenager had gone inside. Then Sophie turned to Bean. “What should we play?”
    “Play?” said Bean. “We haven’t got time to play! This volcano’s about to blow!”