Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 03 Read Online Free PDF

started to push.
    Jeffrey felt the toboggan move slowly through the deep snow. At the edge of the hill, it tippeddownward. Then it started to go faster.
    “Hold on, Jonathan!” Jeffrey shouted. “Here we go!”
    But Jonathan didn’t answer. As the toboggan raced down the hill, Jeffrey looked behind him.
Jonathan wasn’t there!
He was still at the top of the Monster Smash, waving and laughing as Jeffrey zoomed toward the trees.
    Jeffrey should have been furious at his cousin, but there wasn’t time. There was only time to hold on tight. The wind rushed against Jeffrey’s face until he was numb.
    The toboggan tilted and bumped, but Jeffrey held on to the ropes. Then he saw one of the big pine trees getting closer and closer. He was heading straight for it!
    This is it, Jeffrey thought. The toboggan and I are both going to be smashed to toothpicks.
    But a split second later, the toboggan veered to the side. It squeezed through the narrow space between two large pines. Then it slid straight into the side of a large snowdrift.
    Jeffrey came to a stop with a jerk. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He couldn’t believe it. Somehow he was still alive—and he had done it! He had survived the Monster Smash! He tried tostand up, but his legs were shaking too much.
    “Jeffrey!” a loud voice called to him from up the hill.
    Then Jeffrey saw his father. He was half running and half sliding down the hill. Jonathan was following him.
    Jeffrey knew he was in trouble now. “Dad,” Jeffrey said as his father helped him out of the snowdrift. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. It was Jonathan’s idea.”
    “Jeffrey,” his father shouted. He grabbed him, hugged him, and pounded him on the back. “It was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen. You were fabulous. Totally, incredibly awesome!”
    Jonathan stopped in his tracks about twenty feet away. He didn’t say anything for a second. He just looked at Jeffrey and his father hugging. Then, all of a sudden, he grabbed his wrist.
    “Oooowwww,” he moaned. “I think I sprained my wrist when I gave Jeffrey that push. Owww! You’ve got to get me to a doctor fast, Uncle Bob. It really hurts.”
    Mr. Becker stopped pounding Jeffrey and took a look at Jonathan’s arm. “I don’t see anything,” he said, “but we’d better get you to the emergency room right now.”

    “But he’s not really hurt,” Jeffrey said. “He’s just faking!”
    “We’ve already taken enough chances today,” said Mr. Becker. “Let’s go.”
    And that was the end of Toboggan Sunday.
    The doctors at the hospital couldn’t find anything wrong with Jonathan’s wrist. But for the rest of the day, Jonathan babied it, anyway.
    “I need something to drink,” Jonathan said as soon as they got home.
    Immediately, Mrs. Becker got some cola for him.
    “I need something to eat,” Jonathan said.
    Mr. Becker made sandwiches for him.
    And the pain seemed to get worse every time someone started to talk about how Jeffrey had gone down the Monster Smash.
    That evening, when Mrs. Becker came up to Jeffrey’s room, Jeffrey was tossing a tennis ball in the air. He tossed it up and caught it in Max’s baseball glove.
    “Hello, stranger,” said Mrs. Becker. “You’ve been up here forever. What are you doing?” She gave him a warm smile and sat down on his bed. “Let’s talk about Jonathan—”
    “Don’t worry, Mom. I know what you’re going to say,” Jeffrey interrupted. “I know Jonathan almostgot me killed on the Monster Smash. And from now on I won’t listen to anything else he says unless I have a lawyer with me.”
    “Well—”
    “You don’t have to say it, Mom. Really,” Jeffrey went on. “I know you’re trying to say you finally realized you’ve been giving Jonathan and Wendy all of your attention. It’s almost like I’ve been a ghost around here.”
    “But—” his mother started to say.
    “It’s okay, Mom. I know you’re trying to admit that you’ve