Dude Ranch by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

stray. He rode up an incline and along the top of a ridge, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. When he reached the top of the ridge, Eli turned the horse to his left and disappeared on the other side without slowing his pace one bit.
    Kate looked over her shoulder at her friends. They all knew they’d been challenged. And they accepted.
    Kate gave her horse a kick and he sprang into action. Kate and Spot nearly flew up the hillside. Lisa on Chocolate and Carole on Berry followed close behind. Stevie pressed her calves on Stewball’s sides, but the horse stood still.
    Suddenly, she got the feeling that her first instinct about this funny-looking horse had been right. He was going to be stubborn and unpredictable and Eli had chosen him for her just to be a tease. But then Stewball proved her wrong.
    While Berry and Chocolate struggled up the steep side of the hill, Stewball turned in the opposite direction and reached the top by a gentler slope. The only problem was that it wasn’t at all what Stevie had told him to do! With little or no help from Stevie, Stewball led the way. The horse clearly understood the challenge,too, and was determined to meet it head-on. Stevie remembered that horses are extremely competitive animals.
    Ahead, through the dust, she could see Eli, still galloping fiercely. Stevie leaned forward toward Stewball’s brown-and-white mane. “Get ’im, Stewball,” she said. Those seemed to be the words the horse wanted to hear.
    Stevie held on as he spurted ahead, gripping tightly with her legs, holding the reins loosely enough to give Stewball the slack he needed. She settled into the saddle and let her horse do the work.
    Stewball’s pace quickened and his stride lengthened. Berry and Chocolate were well behind and the gap between Stewball and Eli was narrowing. Stevie could see that the end of the race was near. Ahead, perhaps a hundred yards, a creek cut across the land. It was a welcome sight. They’d all need some refreshment by the time they got there.
    Stewball began going even faster. Stevie could feel the dust kicked up by Eli’s horse in her eyes, taste it in her mouth. If it bothered Stewball, there was no way of telling. It just seemed to make him go faster. Stevie had never felt anything like the controlled energy beneath her now.
    “Go for it, Stewball!” she said excitedly. The horse’s ears flicked back as if he understood her words, then flattened in determination.
    The creek was only a few yards ahead now and Stevie could almost touch Eli’s horse. She leaned forward, watching as her horse’s nose passed by Eli’s horse. She’d won!
    Grinning, and breathing hard with excitement, she sat upright in the saddle and pulled gently on the reins. Stewball was ready to stop. Smoothly, he slowed his pace until he was walking. He held his head high.
    “That what you wanted to show us how to do?” Stevie asked Eli.
    He regarded her carefully. “Something like that,” he agreed.
    “Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know about me, but I’m pretty sure Stewball can handle it.”
    “I’m pretty sure he can,” Eli agreed, grinning in spite of himself.
    The two dismounted and waited for Lisa, Carole, and Kate to catch up to them.
    “I never saw anything like it!” Kate said, sliding down off Spot. “Stewball’s amazing!”
    “Yep,” Eli said.

“A RE YOU SURE he’s coming back?” Carole asked Stevie the next morning. The four girls were in their bathrobes, standing barefoot on the porch of their bunkhouse. It was still dark, the first hints of dawn on the eastern horizon.
    “Of course not,” Stevie said. “But you don’t want to miss it if he does, do you? After all, there may be a treasure, or maybe we’ll learn some kind of ritual thing. I read once where some Native Americans, when they get to be about our age, spend weeks at a time in the wilderness. Maybe that’s what this guy’s doing.”
    “I read that book, too,” Lisa said. “It took place more than a