"I am healed!" cried Katie. "I'm as good as new!"
Larry helped Katie into the hay wagon.
Then he grabbed Joy's hand and pulled her up too.
Larry's father, Mr. Ferguson, was sitting up front on his tractor.
"AJ, is everybody aboard?" he asked.
AJ looked around at his friends sitting on bundles of hay.
He looked up at his big sister Emily.
She smiled and nodded.
"All aboard, Mr. Ferguson!" shouted AJ.
Mr. Ferguson started the tractor motor.
The hayride had begun.
"Happy Birthday to you," sang Laura.
AJ put his hands over his face.
"Happy Birthday to you," sang everybody.
"Happy Birthday, dear AJ, Happy Birthday to you!"
All the kids cheered and clapped.
"How old are you?" asked Katie. "Four? Five?"
AJ jumped up. "I'm six years old and you know it!" he said.
Katie smiled and winked at him.
Manny reached behind Laura and brushed her neck with a piece of straw.
"Ooh!" cried Laura. "Something is crawling on me!"
"A big, hairy spider!" said Luke.
Laura screeched. "Get it off me!"
"It's too big," said Luke. "I'm afraid to touch it!"
Everybody laughed.
"There's no spider," said Joy. "Luke, stop teasing."
"Okay," said Luke. "There are no spiders on this wagon.
And I hope there aren't any black snakes either!"
Olivia punched Luke's arm.
"That was a very big black snake, and it wanted to bite me!"
"That's not what I heard," said Larry.
"I heard you scared it to death!"
Everyone laughed again.
"What a day that was," said Joy.
"First, my helper got hurt.
Then, the price of walnuts dropped—again!
I thought I would never reach my goal."
"What did you do?" asked AJ.
"Well, I just kept picking walnuts," said Joy.
"But Katie and Olivia called Luke, Larry, Laura, and Carlos.
They all showed up on Sunday morning to help me."
"Me too," said Manny.
"Yes! You too," said Joy.
"With so many people, we were able to fill the cart quickly," said Olivia.
"Whenever the cart was full, Mr. Donovan and Joy took it to the nut-buying station," said Laura.
"We filled the cart three times."
"I did better than my goal," said Joy.
"I earned one hundred eleven dollars and fifty-five cents!—thanks to my friends."
"Is your fiddle fixed?" asked AJ.
"It's in the shop," said Joy.
"Soon it will be as good as new!"
"Just like my ankle!" said Katie.
The hay wagon bounced down the trail. Mr. Ferguson started a song.
Old Dan Tucker was a mighty man.
He washed his face in a frying pan.
The kids joined in.
Joy played an imaginary fiddle.
He combed his hair with a wagon wheel.
And died with a toothache in his heel.
The kids sang, and Mr. Ferguson drove into the woods.
They hadn't gone too far when Carlos saw something.
"It looks like a bonfire!" he said.
"It is a bonfire," said Laura.
"It's AJ's dad," cried Katie.
"You're finally here," shouted Mr. Morgan, AJ and Emily's dad.
"I thought I might have to roast the hot dogs all by myself."
Everyone jumped out of the hay wagon.
"Welcome to AJ's birthday bonfire!" said Emily.
"Who wants hot apple cider?"
"AJ has to make a birthday wish!" said Katie.
"I can't tell you my birthday wish," said AJ.
"Then it won't come true!"
Joy smiled at the little boy.
"Well, make another wish then.
It doesn't have to be your birthday wish," she said.
"And then you can tell us!" added Katie.
"Okay," said AJ.
"I wish to have the biggest birthday hayride in Willow Creek next year!
I'll invite everyone!"