The Penderwicks in Spring Read Online Free PDF

let out into the wider world.
    “I’m not supposed to say what’s in them until you try one.”
    “But no sweet potatoes?” He’d gotten sick just once from Keiko’s cooking, when he’d eaten three slices of her sweet potato meringue pie.
    “No sweet potatoes.”
    Ben took a cookie. It turned out to be almost normal, chocolate with small chunks of lemon rind.
    “It’s good,” Ben mumbled through a mouthful.
    Now that he hadn’t frothed at the mouth or fallen over dead, Batty took one for herself.
    “The living room is full of teenagers again,” she said, “and I want to play the piano. Will you watch with me to see if they leave?”
    Ben didn’t care about the teenagers in the living room, but he’d follow that bag of cookies anywhere. They settled at the top of the steps, where they could spy down on the front hall from behind the baby gate. Batty didn’t blame Jane for having boys visit. It must be nice when you’re sixteen, especially for Jane, who was always doing research for the books she planned to write. And Keiko thought Batty should be grateful to have all those boys available for observation—any information she could gather would prepare themboth for the fraught teen years, which were coming whether they liked it or not. Maybe so, thought Batty, but it would be easier to be grateful if the boys didn’t so often keep her from the piano.
    “I thought one of my rocks was a dinosaur egg.” Ben spoke quietly. Lydia’s room was right there, and the last thing he wanted was to wake her up. “But Mom said no. I would have sold it and we would have been rich.”
    “We don’t need to be rich.”
    “I know, but still.”
    Batty knew what he meant. At dinner, Skye had said she’d take on more math tutoring—she already had three students—and Jane had offered to start sewing the family’s clothes to save money. Although Mr. Penderwick and Iantha had told them to stop, stop, stop, none of that was necessary and everyone should leave the money issues to the adults, Batty knew her sisters wouldn’t stop. And Rosalind had a job at college, working in the library. Someday, when Batty was a teenager, she’d want to make money, too. She had come up with a name for a future neighborhood odd-jobs business, Penderwick Willing to Work, or PWTW. But the “Work” part of it was still a mystery, and it would have to be something a shy person could do. Keiko thought that Batty would outgrow her shyness by her teen years, but Batty wasn’t so sure.
    “Ben, go down and see what those boys are doing,” she said.
    “Can I have the last cookie?”
    “When you come back.”
    She watched him labor through the baby gates, down and up again. When he returned, he said, “The Donovans are lying on the floor, and Artie’s doing handstands. I wish I could do a handstand. Also, they’re eating pretzels again. We never have any pretzels left anymore.”
    So now
both
Donovans were in the living room. When had the other one gotten into the house? Instead of going away, the boys were multiplying. Batty couldn’t help thinking they didn’t spread themselves around very well. Surely there were teenage girls right this minute without any boys at all in their houses.
    Then the doorbell rang, and Jane let in yet another teenager. At least this one was a girl, Jane’s friend Eliza, improving the girl-to-boy ratio. But Batty was no closer to her piano. Good thing she did her serious practicing in the mornings before school, before these invasions.
    “I suppose I should give up and just do my homework,” she said.
    “I already did mine,” said Ben. “Subtraction and spelling.”
    Ah, subtraction and spelling. Those were the good old days, thought Batty, dragging herself back to her room to learn clouds. Plus, there was her book report problem. She needed to write ten before the end of the year, and while she’d had all year to getstarted, so far she hadn’t written any. It wasn’t that Batty didn’t like to