Lily was told to dust the furniture while Joseph cleaned under the beds with the dust mop. They were in a hurry. They wanted to spend the afternoon building a snowman, but Mama kept finding more chores for them to do. Lily finished dusting the furniture in her hallway bedroom and hurried to dust Joseph and Dannie’s room. Their bunk beds looked rumpled and unmade. Several shirts were tossed on the floor. Lily sighed. Boys were so messy. She picked the shirts up and put them into the laundry basket. Then she made up the beds. “I beat you!” Joseph yelled as he ran down the stairs. That wasn’t fair. If Lily hadn’t cleaned up his mess, she would have been done by now too. As she walked through her hallway bedroom, she noticed the handle of the dust mop sticking out from under the bed. She should go downstairs and make Joseph put the dust mop away. He hadn’t beaten her after all. Then she had a better idea.
