Autumn Trail by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

miss you,” Mrs. Lake said. She paused. “Most of us, anyway.”
    Stevie rolled her eyes. “If you’re referring to my dear brothers, let me assure you I won’t miss them either.”
    “That’s not who I meant,” Mrs. Lake said with a mischievous smile. “I was just thinking that your aunt Louise will probably be relieved not to have a replay of last year’s parsnip incident.”
    “Oh, that,” Stevie said, giggling. It had been one of her finest moments. At Thanksgiving dinner the year before, Stevie had put a parsnip on her linen napkin and jerked the napkin tight to make the parsnip jump up. It had jumped a little higher than she had been expecting and had ended up mashed on the ceiling. It had remained there, much to her aunt’s dismay, until dessert, when it had dislodged itself and plopped back down—right into Chad’s pumpkin pie.

R IGHT AFTER SCHOOL the next day, Stevie’s parents dropped her off at Lisa’s house on their way out of town. Stevie took her suitcase up to Lisa’s room, then the two girls set off for Pine Hollow. Stevie couldn’t wait to get started in her role of assistant stable hand. For her part, Lisa was glad she’d be able to help Stevie with her Thanksgiving project, although she hadn’t had any luck so far figuring out what to do for her own. She was beginning to worry that she’d never find a project in time, since Thanksgiving was the next day.
    When they arrived at the stable, one of the first things they noticed was how quiet it was. There were no other people around, as there usually were at almost any time of the day, any day of the week. Everyone seemed to have deserted Pine Hollow for the holiday. But Stevieand Lisa knew that there had to be at least one other person there: Carole. They knew their friend well enough to know that she would be there, taking care of Starlight as usual, holiday or no holiday.
    And they were right. They found Carole in Starlight’s stall, hoof pick in hand, cleaning out his feet.
    “Hi, you two. Are you ready for your new jobs?” Carole asked. Stevie had called her the night before to tell her about her plan.
    “You bet,” Stevie said, sliding open the door to Starlight’s stall and stepping inside. Lisa was right behind her. One of the things that made taking care of horses so much fun was that there was so much of them to take care of. That meant that all three girls could groom Starlight at once—and talk while they were doing it, of course. They had held plenty of impromptu Saddle Club meetings this way in the past, and today’s grooming seemed to be turning into another one.
    Stevie picked up a wide-toothed comb and set to work on the gelding’s dark, silky mane, carefully loosening tangles and picking out pieces of hay. “I’m really looking forward to it,” she said in response to Carole’s question.
    “We’ll probably learn a lot,” Lisa agreed, grabbing a body brush.
    Stevie grinned. “Right. But the best part is, we’ll know we’re doing it all for Max and his love life.”
    “You know I’ll pitch in as much as I can,” Carole said, setting aside the hoof pick and picking up a rub rag. “ButI don’t know how easy it will be to convince Veronica to help.” Since Veronica was so famous for getting out of doing her own chores, Carole certainly couldn’t imagine her volunteering to take on anybody else’s.
    “Oh, yeah,” Stevie said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “Well, I still think you’ve taken on the toughest job of all by volunteering to baby-sit Veronica for the whole weekend. I bet she’ll be more work than this whole stable full of horses. I mean, she’ll probably expect you and your father to bring her breakfast in bed every day, polish her boots for her, that kind of thing.”
    “Shh,” Carole whispered, glancing out at the corridor. “She’s here someplace. She came to take care of Garnet.”
    “You mean she’s actually doing some work?” Stevie said in disbelief.
    Lisa smiled. “I