Applewhites at Wit's End Read Online Free Page A

revisions before Zedediah was able to put the forms and instructions up on the website and cross “application” off the list.
    When the advertising budget ran out, Sybil managed to get free publicity with some small stories printed in various newspapers around the country and on a great many parenting blogs. Apparently there were millions of parents across the country who believed they were raising creative geniuses, because the news of Eureka! quickly went viral. The Eureka! website’s e-mail account was deluged with inquiries from parents. The trouble was that almost all of them asked for—or demanded—scholarships for their prodigiously talented children. “I don’t understand it!” Sybil moaned. “We don’t mention scholarships anywhere!”
    â€œYes, but we did mention the fees,” Archie said. “Astronomical fees!”
    â€œTell them the Eureka! scholarship fund has already been exhausted,” Zedediah said dryly. “Like the advertising budget.”
    As the application deadline approached, Lucille, who’d been put in charge of collecting the applications, reported that two had arrived, then a third. “Three? Three total?” Sybil said. “From all those thousands of inquiries? This is a disaster!”
    Aunt Lucille dismissed Sybil’s concerns. “You know how creative people are. They put things off till the last minute. We’ll get an avalanche of applications the week after the deadline.”
    E.D. turned back to her math now. It was the last schoolwork she was likely to get done today. Her father had arrived home last night, grumpy from the long drive. He had dragged his suitcases in from the car, kissed her mother, and gone straight up to bed, saying he couldn’t possibly deal with anything Eureka! until he’d had a good, long sleep. The meeting to catch him up on their progress and begin winnowing applications was scheduled for this afternoon.
    â€œSeven? What do you mean seven ?” Randolph roared when Lucille set the basket of applications on the table where the family had just finished lunch.
    â€œSeven, seven, seven!” Paulie repeated quietly from his perch in the corner.
    â€œShe means that we have received a total of seven applications,” Zedediah said. “Period.”
    Lucille nodded. “Think of it this way. At least we don’t have to spend the whole afternoon winnowing.”
    There was a considerable period of silence.
    E.D. thought of all the effort that had gone into creating the application. They could have just asked for names and addresses and been done with it.
    â€œWe’ll just have to accept all of them then,” Randolph said. “We needed twelve campers to pay the mortgage off entirely, but I think we can survive with seven. Barely .”
    There was another silence. “What?” he said. “Why is everybody looking at me?”
    â€œI’m not looking at you, Daddy!” Destiny said from his stool at the end of the table. “I’m drawing Pooh and Piglet in the woods!” Destiny had recently become entirely obsessed with drawing.
    â€œYou might want to look at that first application on the top of the pile,” Sybil said.
    Randolph picked up the sheaf of paper-clipped pages and scanned the top sheet. “Priscilla Montrose? That Priscilla Montrose?”
    â€œYou think there’s another in Traybridge?” Archie said.
    â€œOh, no. No, no, no! Absolutely not! We are not having that child at our camp.”
    E.D. sighed. It was Randolph’s utter refusal to cast Priscilla Montrose in The Sound of Music last fall that had led Priscilla’s mother, the president of the board of the Traybridge Little Theatre, to cancel the production he had been hired to direct. That had led the Applewhites to turn their barn into a theater and create the Wit’s End Playhouse so the show could go on. As successful as that show had been,