Ivy Takes Care Read Online Free Page A

Ivy. Ivy checked Chestnut for insect bites, and when she found one, she put purple gentian on it so it would heal. Then she washed the day’s dust off him and brought him into his stall. She cleaned his water bucket and gave him another flake of hay while she checked his legs and feet.
    Before lights-out, Chestnut got a handful of sweet feed and Ivy turned on the radio, tuned to station KNEV.
    “Good night, Chestnut,” said Ivy. “You are never really alone, because I will always come back.”
    Ivy made sure all the gates and stall door were closed before she bicycled home.
    On the fifth day of work, Ivy got up the courage to spend Mrs. Pratt’s five-dollar advance payment. After her Chestnut chores were finished for the day, Ivy went through town and stopped at Steinway’s.
    Ivy chose the ring with a tourmaline, which was Annie’s birthstone. Her heart tripped as the precious money skidded out of her fingers and into Steinway’s cash register. The Steinway’s jewelry box felt hot in her pocket.
    Ivy wore the ring home. For a moment after supper, she rested her hand on the windowsill where the stone caught the outside light and sparkled.
    “Fancy ring,” said Billy Joe, noticing, as he noticed everything. “Where’d you get the bucks for that little bangle?”
    Ivy’s hand disappeared into her pocket. “I don’t see you wearing your fancy-dancy cowboy boots, Billy Joe!” she said. “Why not?”
    Billy Joe gave Ivy a dark look and didn’t answer. His uncle had given him a pair of hand-tooled western boots with silver tips for his tenth birthday. Because his feet were hot, Billy Joe had kicked the boots off while sitting in the grandstand at a rodeo. The boots dropped to the soft dirt under the grandstand, where they stayed for about ten minutes before someone snatched them. Billy Joe had been made to string five hundred yards of barbed wire fence for losing the boots. It took him three days and some nasty cuts, into which his mom poured iodine. Ivy knew the whole story because the Butterworths’ kitchen window was about ten feet from her bedroom window. She had the advantage of hearing all kinds of personal conversations, but Billy Joe had no such luck because Ivy’s family’s kitchen opened out onto the horse paddock.
    The next day, Ivy put the ring into its box and the box into an envelope she swiped from the Red Star Ranch office. She addressed it to Annie at Camp Allegro, Crawford Notch, New Hampshire.
    The moment it went into the mailbox, Ivy was hit with the thought that if Camp Allegro forbade its campers from getting hair curlers and nail polish and candy bars in the mail, it would surely confiscate jewelry. Her heart sank, but it was too late. There was nothing she could do except wait for Annie’s reply.
    Each day brought new flowers to Mule Canyon and new weather to the sky. Ivy lost herself in the smells of horse and leather, and the memory of the turtle day faded. Along the stony Mule Canyon trail, bright claret-cup cacti opened their flowers. One day, Ivy found mule deer antlers behind a stretch of pines.
    “A four-point rack!” said Ivy. “Dad’ll like that for sure.” She strapped the antlers to the back of her saddle. Mr. Coleman collected them for ranch guests.
    Each evening, Ivy mucked out Chestnut’s stall. She cleaned his hooves, treated his fly bites, and gave him his sweet feed. Chestnut nuzzled her shoulder when she brushed him and talked to her in little horse grunts and sighs.
    One night, just before she turned on Chestnut’s radio, Ivy heard a squeak coming from an unused stall in the back of the stable. The mountains were full of critters of one kind or another, and Ivy knew that any number of them could creep into the barn if they liked and raid the sweet feed bin. Some creatures, like rattlers, were dangerous. Some, like skunks, were a nuisance, especially if your dog messed with them. Some, like coyotes, who stole lambs and anything else they could get their teeth