Scarecrow on Horseback Read Online Free Page A

your
horse. That is, if him and Rover are up to it today. They're both
kind of geriatric, old that is.”
    A hot rage rose in Mel at Jeb's put-downs of
Sally. But Sally walked in smiling, leading Rover, who, on command,
bent one front leg and drew back on the other three in a sort of
bow. Then Sally tickled Rover under his jaw and Rover gave his
horse smile. The audience laughed obligingly.
    “Now there's a few rules to follow,” Jeb
droned on, after he'd talked about the mandatory riding helmets for
kids being optional for adults. “You always approach a horse from
his left side, and don't walk too close behind him where he can't
see you or he might kick. You stay with the wrangler leading your
ride and let him or her deal with any problems, like dropped water
bottles or lost hats.” His list of rules made the children fidget
on the narrow benches, and still, Jeb talked on. He reminded Mel of
last year's seventh grade social studies teacher, nicknamed Mr.
Sandman because he put half the class to sleep.
    “You folks are going to use mounting blocks,
so there won't be any problems getting up on the horse,” Jeb said.
“Remember you approach from the horse's left.”
    Sally put the mounting block down on the
wrong side with a one-handed flourish. He stepped onto it,
pretending to teeter on one foot. When a child in the stands
yelled, “Oh oh!” Sally, waved, grabbed the mounting block, scooted
with it under Rover's belly and hoisted himself gracefully into the
saddle from the right side.
    “Well,” Jeb said, “at least he got on facing
the right end of the horse today. Once you're in the saddle, a
wrangler will adjust the stirrups and tighten the cinch. We'll stop
again soon after we start out to check that the cinch is tight. If
Sally's your wrangler, you might have to remind him about that. At
his age, he don't always remember so good.”
    Sally kept smiling through the remarks. Mel
had realized the clown act was to amuse the guests, but she didn't
like it or the part Sally played in it. He illustrated, as Jeb
explained, how to start and stop and turn the horse. To Mel, Sally
looked like a centaur, as if horse and man were one, as he had
Rover walk to the left and the right and around and back up and
then jog and lope and stop.
    “So if old Sally can do it so good, you're
not going to have any problems, right?” Jeb asked the audience.
    “Right,” a short, eager boy yelled out. The
guests clapped politely at the end of the exhibition. Sally doffed
his cowboy hat and jogged out of the barn on Rover, bouncing in an
exaggerated way.
    Jeb called down the smallest boy first. Mel
led Lily over to the mounting block and Jeb strapped a riding
helmet onto the boy and helped him into the saddle. “Just kick your
horse to start her walking,” Jeb told him. In short order, he had
the boy reining to the left and to the right and stopping Lily.
    “See how easy it is? Bet you could do it,
too,” Jeb said to Mel, loud enough for his audience to hear.
    Her face got red hot at the remark, and her
stomach clenched. For fear of more public embarrassment, she said,
“I'm out of here,” turned on her heel, and ran out of the barn.
Halfway back to the corral she began to regret walking out on Jeb.
What if he barred her from the corral? What if he forbade her to
come near Lily again? He was the boss. He could do it.
    She wished she'd listened to Sally and tried
to sweet-talk Jeb instead of getting mad at him. Why did she always
mess up? She needed Lily. She needed Sally and the feeling of being
useful and belonging somewhere.
     

 
    Chapter
Three
     
    “I hear you walked out on Jeb,” Sally said to
her the next morning. Mel was crouched beside Lily lifting the
horse's hooves one by one as she used the hoof pick to dig out the
crusts of dried mud. “He says you're touchy.”
    “I'm not. I just won't let him push me
around.”
    “Yeah, well. He likes to tease. He's not a
bad feller, Mel.”
    “He wouldn't talk to me last