CHAPTER 2 — THE STOVE THAT MADE EVERYONE LAUGH

For nearly three weeks, Eli worked on his stove.

He cut metal.

Bent pipes.

Drilled holes.

Hammered pieces into place.

Sometimes he burned his fingers.

Sometimes the whole structure collapsed.

Once, smoke filled the cabin so badly that Eli had to crawl outside coughing.

But he never gave up.

Finally, one cold evening, the stove stood in the middle of his cabin.

It was ugly.

The metal was covered with scratches and patches.

One side was darker than the other.

The chimney pipe leaned slightly to the left.

It looked nothing like the beautiful iron stoves sold in town.

But Eli didn’t care.

He placed a few small pieces of dry wood inside.

Then he struck a match.

The fire caught.

At first, nothing happened.

Then the flames began moving through the narrow chamber.

The metal slowly turned warm.

Eli held his hands above the stove.

Heat rose toward his fingers.

He smiled.

“It works.”

The next morning, he carried the stove outside.

Several townspeople stopped to watch.

“What is that?”

“My stove.”

A man named Harold Pike laughed.

“That pile of rust?”

Another man shook his head.

“You’ll burn your cabin down.”

Someone else shouted:

“That’s not a stove. That’s a bucket with a chimney!”

Everyone laughed.

Eli didn’t answer.

He carried the stove back inside.

That night, he cooked a small pot of beans on top of it.

The fire burned for hours.

And surprisingly little wood disappeared.

Eli stared at the remaining pieces.

His eyes widened.

The stove wasn’t merely working.

It was efficient.

Very efficient.

The next day, he made a second version.

Then a third.

He changed the air opening.

Adjusted the pipe.

Added another layer of metal around the fire chamber.

Each version became better.

But the townspeople still laughed.

Until one morning, the temperature fell below anything anyone remembered.

The creek froze solid.

The roads disappeared beneath snow.

And the wood sellers began raising their prices.

Then the first family ran out of firewood.

And suddenly, nobody was laughing anymore.