Raven Read Online Free PDF Page B

coffee and pie is ready," he added, and left the kitchen to go watch television.
My eyes followed him out, and then I looked at William, who was staring at me sympathetically. I smiled at him, and his face brightened.
"I gotta go do my homework, Ma. I don't have to do anything with the dinner dishes anyway, right? You got her," Jennifer said, nodding at me.
"You should still help out, Jennifer?'
"I can't. You heard Daddy. He wants me to make the honor roll. Don't you want me to finish my homework?" she whined.
"Of course?'
"Okay, then," she said, jumping up. "I'll come down later for a piece of pie."
She left the kitchen. Aunt Clara shook her head sadly.
"I'll help," William said. He started to clear the table with me.
"You want to see the birdhouse I built?" he asked me when we were finished.
Aunt Clara smiled at me, happy William was emerging a little from his shell.
"Sure," I said.
"It's up in my room. I made it myself," he said. I followed him up to his room, and he took it off the shelf. It was a triangular-shaped house with dried corncobs attached to the outside.
"I glued all those on," he said, showing me how secure the cobs were.
I handled it gently. "This is wonderful, William It must have been hard to build this from scratch. How long did it take?"
"A couple of days," he said proudly, "As soon as I save up enough, I'm going to buy some binoculars so I can see the birds that come to my house up close. Do you know anything about birds?"
I shook my head, and he went to his desk to get an encyclopedia of birds. It contained brightly colored photos of birds, their habitats, and the type of food they ate. He then showed me another book that had instructions on building birdhouses.
"That's the next one I want to build." He pointed to a double-decker birdhouse.
"That's beautiful. You can build that?"
"Sure," he said confidently. "I'll let you know when I get the materials, and you could watch if you want." "Thanks," I said.
He gave me his best smile, one that truly brightened his eyes.
"I better start on my homework," I told him.
I left, and as I passed Jennifer's door, which was partly open, I saw her curled on the floor, talking on her phone. I paused, and she looked up at me.
"What are you doing, spying on me?" she snapped.
"Hardly," I said. "But I thought you had to do your homework, or are you taking a course in gossip?" I continued down the stairs, my heart pounding. I heard her slam her door closed behind me.
Since the sewing room was so close to the dining room, I could hear Uncle Reuben's
conversation with Aunt Clara while he had his coffee and pie.
"We're not going to go and spend a lot of money on new clothes for her. I want to see if we can get some sort of government help. I think if you take in a kid, they give you some support money."
"She needs things, Reuben," Aunt Clara said softly. "Shouldn't you go back and see what else she has in the apartment?"
"What good would that do? We'd only have to have it deloused."
"You can't just let her wear what she has," Aunt Clara insisted softly.
"Okay, okay, get her a couple of things. But I don't want you spending a lot of money, Clara. We got Jennifer, who needs new things. You see how fast she's growing : "
"Maybe Jennifer will share some of her things with Raven," Aunt Clara said.
He grunted and then added, "If she does, you make sure Raven is clean before she puts anything of Jennifer's on."
"Oh, she's clean, Reuben. She's really a very nice young lady, despite her life with your sister."
"We'll see," he said. I heard him rise. "Make sure she cleans all this up before she goes to sleep. I want her to appreciate what she gets here."
"She does."
He didn't respond. I heard him go back into the living room and turn up the television. Then I went to help Aunt Clara.
"You don't have to do this, Raven," she whispered. "There's not much left. Go do your homework."
"I didn't have that much, Aunt Clara. I have to meet with my teachers for a while after school each day for the