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Show MYFRIEND ' THE STORY SO FAR: Ten-year-old Ken McLaughlin, given an opportunity to choose any yearling on his lamlly'i Wyoming Wy-oming ranch, picks the filly of a "loco" marc. His lather, a retired army officer, offi-cer, is disappointed by Ken's choice and by his failure at school. When the filly, Pllcka, Is badly hurt trying to Jump the corral fence, Ken takes the opportunity opportu-nity to make friends with the wild little colt. Captain McLaughlin, who still thinks FUcka Is "loco" spends ten dollars dol-lars for medicine for her and explains to a surprised Ken that his failure at school cost Just thirty times that much. He thinks for the first time of what that means to his father, j Now continue with the story. palling. Why, the whole summer was gone! Back in school soon, without with-out Flicka, living apart from her for many months, not seeing her, not even knowing what she was doing, how she was looking, what she was learning bad tricks or good Ken knew that he had to take it like a man. It was part of the price he paid for Flicka. There was also the composition. He was writing it. He brought his copybook down to Flicka's nursery and sat on the side of the little hill between the trunks of the Cottonwood trees and worked at it, and read bits of it aloud to into the darkness that was gathering between the cliffs and under the aspen. Though there was nothing of a frightening nature to be seen she whirled and broke into a run, calling, "Rob!" There was a tremor of hysterical excitement in her voice, as with head turning constantly to look over her shoulder, her feet flew down the path. "Rob!" she called again, "The wildcat!" Then, reaching the edge ef the Green, she pulled up short. Rob was standing some distance off, bawling out Tim. He had not heard v.,. ar,A Won tn assume a CHAPTER XV Ken went to the table, sat down and propped his head in his hand, staring down at the red-checked cloth. It could hardly be believed that such momentous things could follow the small misdemeanor of looking out a window and neglecting to write a composition. "If I wrote it .now, Mother," he said at last. "Well, I told you to do that, a month ago," said Nell. "Have you done it?" "No." "Have you even thought of it again?" "No not since when Dad said he wouldn't make me do the study." "You might do it of your own accord," ac-cord," said Nell, writing on her list "He does things for you of his own accord " "I know that's it. Mother, do you uer. it neeueu to uc lwhj- a pages long. Making it up was not hard, there was plenty to say, but it was hard to get the spelling right, and the punctuation. When it was finished, he would copy it at the desk in his room so that the penmanship pen-manship would be perfect. "This," he said proudly to Flicka, "is a three-hundred-dollar composition, composi-tion, Flicka. Dad gave you to me, Flicka, and I'm giving him three hundred dollars. So, you could say, I'm paying for you that's a pretty good price for a little yearling filly but I'll have to take ten dollars off that, for the shot of serum" Sitting nibbling the end of his pencil, pen-cil, his thoughts concerned with "The Story of Gypsy," his eyes were on Flicka, and it seemed to him that her ribs were showing. It was the first time he had noticed that. She ate her oats, she grazed, but she certainly was thinner than when she had been brought in off the range, calmer demeanor. It would not do to appear before Tim in near-hysterics. She went quietly toward them, anxious to reach Rob, to get hold of his hand, or at least to stand close beside him until he should be through talking to Tim. She was ashamed of her fright but could not control the pounding of her heart or the trembling' of her hands. When she had told Rob all about it, she would feel better, she thought. But she stopped before reaching them, because Rob was shouting, "When I tell you to pasture the cows in Seventeen I don't mean Sixteen." Tim's face was crimson. "The Missus told me to put them in Sixteen, Six-teen, Captain." Nell stood there with the little gun in her hand, looking from one to the other, the wind gone out of her sails. "Did you tell Tim to put the cows into Sixteen?" shouted Rob. It was a relief to her taut nerves to whip back at him, "I did. Any reason why I shouldn't?" "I'll say there's a reason," he bawled. "I told him to put them in Seventeen. That's why who's running this ranch?" Angrily Nell answered, "One of the cows is coming in heat and I don't want her bred by that Hereford Here-ford bull over the fence from number num-ber Seventeen on Crosby's land. That happened last year. We had a mixed Hereford and Guernsey calf it's not going to happen again." "Whose business is it to give orders or-ders to the men?" roared Rob. "The cows are my job; always have been." "You tell me what you want and I'll give the orders!" Several of the haying crew were seated on the bench outside the bunk house. They could see and hear all that was going on. Nell's eyes filled with angry tears. "I'll give any orders about the cows think if I wrote it, Mr. Gibson would take me back in my own grade?" Nell put down her pencil and paper, pa-per, and sat back on her knees. "Kennie, you write the composition, "The Story of Gypsy'; and I'll write him a letter, explaining. And we'll send them to him. And perhaps when school opens, he may decide to let you try again." The fine weather still held. And because it was due to break any time, McLaughlin decided to hire a crew of six extra men,' and get the haying done in three weeks, instead of taking on only a couple of extra hands and letting the work run through September. Ken and Howard thought it was fun to eat in the kitchen with the hay crew. The men stamped in at meal time, with clean washed faces and hands, and freshly slicked hair. The proximity of the two towns, Cheyenne to the east, and Laramie to the west, made the men restless. They could hear the transcontinental busses out on the Lincoln Highway; and the moment they had a few dollars dol-lars in their pockets, they were in a fever to spend them. Other things happened. One day the biggest hay wagon, fully loaded, was turned too sharply by the driver, driv-er, and tipped over.. Another day, when McLaughlin had gone to town, the men tried to get the baler across the creek in Castle Rock Meadow, bridging it by means of a few heavy boards laid , across. They foundered the heavy machine in the mud of one of the banks and failed to get it out during a whole morning of sweating and shouting and cursing. McLaughlin had neither the time nor patience to help Ken with Flicka. Or, thought Ken, was it because she uj him that ten dollars for the , "That's why who's running this ranch?" thinner even than she had been a week or two ago. He spoke about it to his father. Rob glared at him. ''Do you give her oats twice a day?" I want! She turned and ran into the house, sobbing with fury; because of the fright she had had; because Rob was in a nasty mood and she couldn't tell him about the wildcat; because he had humiliated her before the men; and because she had made the mistake of shouting back at him. "Never any use," she muttered as she rushed upstairs, "just makes him snarl louder " She pulled off her slack suit and began to dress for town. A moment later she heard Rob's voice in the living room, shouting, "Nell!" She did not answer, but slipped on a green silk print, then zipped it up, stopping to wipe the tears from her face again. serum that he was so. short and irritable? When Ken bothered him to know what he should do next with the filly, McLaughlin roared, "Oh, do anything any-thing with her you want! Lead her around., Get her used to the corrals cor-rals and the stables." So Ken led the filly by the halter and lead rope. Into the pens and corrals, up through the Gorge into the horse corrals where she had been caught. When he first tried to get her through the door of the stable sta-ble she halted, and Ken did not force her, He stood at the door with her and finally left her there and went in alone and poured some oats into the manger for her. That did the trick. She walked in of her own accord and when she had eaten her oats became curious and mvestigat-ed mvestigat-ed every corner of the barn. Together To-gether they made the rounds, Ken at her head, discussing what they Everyone on the ranch got used to the sight of the boy leading the little golden mare around. She used three gs, and held up the fourth. The wound on the foreleg was hard and swollen, but did not seem to pain her. . . . . . "Sure." "Does she clean 'em up?" "Yes." "All right, then." "But Dad would you come and look at her?" "No! Don't bother me about herl" Ken went back to Flicka and his copybook and pencil. But when he looked at her, his eyes were troubled. trou-bled. The wounds seemed neither better nor worse; hard and dry and somewhat swollen; but certainly, she had lost flesh. Everyone is thin, thought Ken, after aft-er an illness. And Flicka had been ill a long time. She would pick up gradually, the way grown people did, when her sickness was quite over. Besides the wounds, there was that thing his father had said an infection infec-tion of the blood-stream. That means she was sick all the way through. She had a lot to get over. Nell was counting the days until the hay crop should be in, the haying hay-ing crew gone, and she would have time to breathe again. She lived in the hot kitchen, or in the car, driving driv-ing back and forth to town for supplies. sup-plies. When supper was over and the ,ashpd. she had a few hours "JNeU! . She perched on the edge of the stool before her dressing table and hastily smoothed and arranged her hair, determined not to answer. "Nell!" "What!" Rob could always whip an answer out of her, even against her will. He came stamping upstairs and stood at the door looking at her. Just because he should have been surprised to see her dressing for town at that hour of the night, he said nothing. She volunteered the explanation. "I'm going to town," she said defiantly. "I can't stand it here another minute. I'm going to a movie." There was silence, while she finished fin-ished arranging her hair. Then Rob said, "It's quite cold. You'll need a coat. What one will you wear?" "The light green plaid." He went to the closet, hunted in it till he found the coat, took it down from the hanger and was holding hold-ing it for her when she was ready to put it on. "Got your hanky? And some money?" mon-ey?" "Yes Oh, wait, I don't think I've !nt anv money." Both the boys had to spena pi of each day in the haying field. There were many ways in which they could be of assistance. When the hay was being tossed from the little piles into the hay wagon, to be earned to he big stack and dumped there, the boys could stand in the wagon, tramping the hay down, and dis-Sng dis-Sng it with pitchforks, so that t would load more evenly. There was endless running of errands and It Jug and carrying to be done on Highboy and Cigarette. Howard spent the whole day with the hay crew; but Ken, when he las let off, hurried back to Fl.cka In her nursery. He was beginning to have a fee ing of pressure. Here it was al-! al-! most September-school began the neenth-only a couple of weeks Z o spend with Flicka. Stand- "at the'fil.ys head, so he could L ,fk to her and look into her eyes. " abwCht aout it ad W;1S a! for herself. She would have a tub-ful tub-ful of water waiting for her upstairs; would run up, slip off her kitchen smock and step into the water, then dress in fresh clothes her cool gray linen slacks and blouse, and wander off alone into the woods for refreshment refresh-ment and solitude. One night she decided to go up to the Stable Pasture, her favorite haunt. At the last moment, thinking think-ing of the meals for the next day, it occurred to her that a fricassee of cottontails would be nice for a change. So she took one of the twentv-twos out of the gun-rack in the dining room, filled the pocket of her slacks with shells, and headed tor the Stable Posture. An hour later she came hurrying back through the Gorge. Her face was very while and the pupils of her eves distended. She cast a glance over her shoulder then stopped and half turned and peered Rob got his wallet out of the coat he had last worn to town and put some bills into her purse. He followed her downstairs and out to the car, took the whisk broom out of the car-pocket and cleaned the seat before he'd let her get in. Nell took her seat, her lips set, her eyes determinedly turned away from him. If he asks me now if I love him I'll slap his face. She wished he would. He hesitated at the open door after aft-er she had taken her seat and started start-ed the engine. Then he stepped back, closed the door and stucr. hi head' through the open window. "Don't forget to fill up with gas in town." Nell made no reply, waiting, with exaggerated patience, till he should withdraw his head and let her go. And don't drive too fast." He stood back. (TO BE COSTIMED) |
