Miracles on Maple Hill (Harcourt Young Classics) by Virginia Sorensen Read Free Book Online Page A

put the lid back and reached around to the side of the stove and pushed something—and suddenly the smoke stopped coming. It was as magical and sudden as Mr. Chris and the cream.

    Marly stood still and felt her heart beating harder and harder. Daddy stood looking at the stove; then he turned and looked at Mother, and then he looked at her. He was going to be madder than she had ever seen him in her whole life, she knew it. And she had seen him angry enough, so angry he couldn't even speak but turned and left the room and the house and didn't come back for hours and hours.
    "What were you trying to do?" he asked. "Burn the house down?"
    "Oh, our nice clean curtains!" Mother said.
    "I just wanted to get it warm—and get breakfast. I was going to make pancakes, for a surprise—" Marly said. "Honest, Daddy, I only—" Her voice, her face, her whole body seemed breathless with fear as she looked up at him and he stood, absolutely huge in his pajamas, looking down. Then he turned back to the stove and opened the lids again and pulled out some of the things she had stuffed in. His hands went jerk, jerk, and his face looked hard. She waited for him to turn around again and say what he was going to say. And he would be right to scold her this time. It was stupid and terrible, what she had done.
    "What a scare!" he said. "You put in too much, Marly, in the first place. Look—that's plenty for a start. And I should have told you about that damper." He turned. He was smiling! "One of my first mornings up here I did exactly the same thing. Now, you See—when the damper's back—"
    He explained all about that big old stove, while she moved close to see. Relief flooded over her, and she felt light, light, light. There was such a huge gladness in her that it actually made a lump in her throat.
    "You go on back to bed, Lee, until the house warms up," Daddy said. "Marly and I are going to build a fire in the other room, too. She started this breakfast thing, and she's going to finish it." But it wasn't scolding, the way he said it. It was a kind of teasing instead; there's all the difference in the world.
    "Heavens, I'm too weak to get back up the stairs," Mother said. Marly saw how relieved she was, not only because there was no fire but because Daddy didn't seem to mind much about the smoke. "I thought the whole house was on fire. You know what went through my mind, just like that?
We haven't got the phone in yet. Everything will burn to the ground.
" Her laugh was shaky. She turned and disappeared up the stairs.
    Daddy stood rubbing his hands over the fire. "Tell you what," he said, "you and I'll mix up those pancakes and take a plateful right up to her, and she can eat in bed for once, like a lady."
    Suddenly, for no reason on earth that Marly knew, she ran to him and threw her arms around him, hard, and began to cry.
    "Whoa, there!" he said. "No damage done!"
    But it wasn't because of the fire she was crying. It was as if something all wound up in a ball inside of her had let go at the sight of him just that minute. She felt it all go soft inside. Everything! Even the lump in her throat went soft and went down and disappeared entirely.
    "Well, Polly, get the kettle on!" Daddy said.
    So she did. And they made the most wonderful pancakes she ever tasted in all her life. When Joe came in, all cold and red-faced, she was turning some pancakes over in the skillet. Daddy didn't ask Joe where he had been but just said, "Come on in and have some pancakes, a la Marly, Joe, all decorated with first-run Chris!"
    Every single pancake was perfect, round and brown. Carefully she filled Joe's plate, and it was fun to see his face—it was so surprised. "Did you make these?" he asked. "Gee!"
    Now Marly understood why Mother looked so pleased when they liked the things she made. After Joe said "Gee," he didn't say another single word until he had eaten nine pancakes in a row.

6. Journey for Meadow Boots
    Joe always said he was going to be an