Unfortunately, Nellie had forgotten exactly how big the Mendelson backyard was

Eli: This little boy, Shlomo, told us that he could show us the way to the brook, so we all biked with him to the spot that he found.

Nellie: I felt so bad for him! His bike was too small, so I told him that I’d bring him one of Eli’s old ones. We’re going to raise money and buy him a brand-new bike.

Squizzle: The brook was a dud, but Eli found a globe from the treehouse in the woods. And I’m looking forward to “raking leaves,” whatever that is.

Whomever had given Nellie a sharp object and then put her in charge of probably the most boring job ever had made a terrible, terrible mistake. Nellie stares at the rake in her hand and wonders if she could throw it at their neighbor’s garage roof with enough force to embed it in there. Maybe. Or, better yet, she could make herself a little leafman — like a snowman, but better. If she sticks the rake upside down into the ground, then pokes red and brown leaves into the prongs, it might look like hair at the top of a person —

“Nellie, wake up,” Eli says from where he’s already started to make a pile at the center of the Mendelsons’ backyard. Mrs. Mendelson had been enthusiastic when she’d heard about their goal and had offered 30 dollars for them to rake her backyard.

Unfortunately, Nellie had forgotten exactly how big the Mendelson backyard was. It stretches out along the woods so far that it takes Kivi over a minute just to run from one side to the other. And there are trees towering over the whole thing, which means a lot of leaves.

Kivi spots Eli turning to talk to Nellie, and seizes the opportunity, careening across the yard and flinging himself into Eli’s leaf pile. “Kivi!” Eli goes after him with a rake, and Kivi squeals and races across the yard, his eyes on the half-started pile that Nellie had half-heartedly raked. Nellie holds up her rake like a sword, threatening Kivi, and he giggles, ducks under it, and rolls down the slope of the backyard instead. By the end, leaves are stuck to him everywhere, and Squizzle has leaped onto him.