After breakfast, Cookie and Alyssa walked the children back to the corral to see their horses. Benny spotted Lots-o’-Dots standing with Bucky in a shady corner. “Here, boy,” he called. Benny held out a biscuit he’d saved from breakfast. Lots-o’-Dots trotted over and gobbled it down.
Bucky limped over carrying the empty oat buckets. “I told you he’d be here,” said Bucky. As Bucky climbed through the fence, his hat with the orange feathers fell off. Lots-o’-Dots picked it up in his big horse teeth. Everyone laughed. Bucky grabbed it back, then glanced shyly at Cookie as he put it on. Cookie smiled, her eyes twinkling.
“Are we going to ride now?” Benny asked.
“Not yet,” Cookie said. “When you live on a ranch, you have to do your chores first.”
“We cowboys have a saying: ‘No dessert until you finish your mashed potatoes,’ ” said Bucky.
“I always finish my mashed potatoes!” exclaimed Benny.
Cookie laughed. “What Bucky means is, we don’t get treats—like riding our horses—until we finish our work.”
“What can my job be?” Violet asked cheerfully.
“Your grandfather tells me you’re a wonderful artist,” said Cookie. “I’m putting you in charge of the barn project. That big barn over there faces the highway. Lots of people drive by every day. I’d like to paint a mural on the side.”
“A mural?” asked Benny.
“A big painting on the side of a building, or on a wall,” said Violet. “Like the dancing fruits and vegetables painted on the wall at Faber’s Finer Foods.”
“Right,” said Cookie. “A nice big mural could show people that the Dare to Dream Ranch has horses to ride and horses to adopt.”
Violet looked at the huge barn. “I … I don’t think I can paint that all my myself.”
“You just make the drawing,” Cookie said. “Bucky here will round up our volunteers to do the painting.”
Kurt Krupnik rode up. The ranch manager’s blond moustache was as dusty as his horse.
“I think I know what happened to Honey and Bunny. A big tree branch fell on the fence in the far pasture,” he said. “It tore down a whole section. Honey and Bunny probably saw the opening and just walked on out of here. I’ve sent a couple of my men to look for them. You never should have called the police, Alyssa.”
“I … I thought the horses were stolen,” Alyssa said.
“If you had more experience, you wouldn’t panic.” Kurt looked at the horses in the corral. “Why is Dragon still up here?” He glared at Alyssa. “He’s supposed to be out in the west pasture, in the old corral.”
Alyssa jutted her jaw. “I think his leg is healed.”
“You’re not the vet,” Kurt said. “Dragon stays out in the old corral until Slim gives the okay.”
“Let me take a look,” said Bucky. He climbed into the corral and lifted Dragon’s back leg.
Jessie stared at Dragon’s shoe. Most horseshoes were shaped like a “U” but Dragon’s had a square toe. “What’s wrong with his foot?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Bucky. “I noticed that Dragon here liked to ‘wing it’ when he ran. Kicked his leg up to the inside. This square-toe shoe helps him run nice and straight.” He set Dragon’s foot back down. “His leg looks healed,” he said.
Kurt frowned at the white-haired man. “No one rides Dragon until the vet checks him out,” he told Bucky.
“You’re the boss,” said Bucky. He grabbed hold of Dragon’s bridle. “I’ll put him in his stall until Slim can look at him.”
“You’d better,” Kurt grunted, riding off.
“Why is Kurt so angry?” asked Henry.
“He hates me,” said Alyssa. “He thinks I’m too young to be the head wrangler. He wanted his best friend, a wrangler in Kentucky, to get the job.”
“Now, now,” said Cookie. “Kurt’s just looking out for the horses. I swear, sometimes he’s like a mother hen protecting her chicks.”
Honk. Honk. A green van roared up to the corral and screeched to a stop. A woman jumped out. Her long hair flew crazily in all directions and her wrinkled clothes looked like she had slept in them. She waved a stack of purple flyers. “Have any of you seen my horse?” she asked, passing out flyers. They said:
STOLEN HORSE—REWARD
HAVE YOU SEEN BUTTERCUP?
There was a phone number and a photo of a beautiful gray horse with a white patch on its nose. Its tail was white and black. “Buttercup’s been missing for two days,” said the lady.
“Two of our horses are missing!” said Benny.
The woman gasped. “Were they stolen, too?”
“They may have walked out through a broken fence,” said Henry.
Violet felt sorry for the lady, whose eyes were red from crying. “Maybe your horse wandered off, too,” she said.
“No.” The woman’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Someone cut the lock on our gate. Buttercup was definitely stolen. Your missing horses may have been stolen, too.” Her hand trembled as she held up a flyer. “You should make flyers like this to pass out to people.”
“I don’t have photographs of my horses,” Cookie said.
“Then you’d better take some,” warned the woman as she climbed back in her van. “Right this very minute.” And she drove away.
Jessie studied the flyer. “I brought my new birthday camera,” she said. “I can take photos of all the horses on the ranch.”
“Are you sure? It seems like an awful lot of work,” Cookie said.
“I’ll help,” said Violet. She held up the flyer. “This picture shows people exactly what Buttercup looks like.”
Bucky walked by, leading Dragon by the bridle. He nodded at the flyer. “Too bad we don’t have photos like that of Honey and Bunny to show around.” He winked at Cookie. “It’s no use closing the barn door after the horses get out.”
Cookie’s cheeks blushed red. “Oh, all right,” she said. “You girls best get started while the horses are still in the corral. Once we turn them out to pasture, they scatter every which way.” The girls ran off to get Jessie’s camera.
“What’s my job?” Henry asked, eager to begin.
“Your grandfather told me you’re handy with tools,” said Cookie. “I want you to saddle up and go help Kurt mend that broken fence.” Henry dashed off to saddle Lightning.
“What about me?” asked Benny.
“You’ll water the horses,” Cookie said. “That means filling water buckets, tanks, and barrels all around the ranch. Bucky has a map that shows where they are.”
“Let me put Dragon in his stall,” Bucky told Benny. “Then I’ll get you started. Be right back.”
Benny waited at the corral. He watched Henry throw a blanket over Lightning’s back, then cinch on the saddle. “It’s no fair,” he grumbled, when Bucky came back. “Henry gets to ride and I don’t.”
“I’ll tell you a secret,” said Bucky. “Of all the jobs on the ranch, yours is the most important.”
“Really?” said Benny.
The old man pushed his hat back. “Benny, I’ve been a rancher over fifty years. And one thing I know is true is that horses can’t live without plenty of fresh water. Each one of them drinks ten to twenty-five gallons of water a day.” Benny pictured the big gallon milk bottle in his refrigerator back home. He tried to imagine drinking twenty-five of them. It made his stomach hurt just thinking about it.
“Besides,” Bucky smiled, “watering the horses is the most fun job … and the coolest.” He took a map out of his pocket. “Here—this is a map of the ranch.” He pointed to a big circle in the middle. “Here’s the corral, where we are now. And these,” he pointed to small red Xes all around the map, “these are water containers that need filling.”
“There’s so many,” sighed Benny. “I can’t fill them all.”
“Sure you can. The trick is to start with the first one,” Bucky ran his finger up the map to the farthest X, “then fill the next and the next. Just take them one by one. Before you know it, you’ll be right back here in time for lunch.”
Benny watched Henry climb up on Lightning and ride off across the pasture. “I really really really wish I could ride right now,” said Benny.
“You’ll be riding soon enough,” said Bucky. “but, first …”
“I know, I know,” said Benny, looking at all the Xes on the map, “first I need to go finish my mashed potatoes.” |