Horse Tale by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online

was so funny.”
    “It sounds like Stewball’s the one with the fan,” Stevie told Christine. Then she bent down to look the little girl in the eye. “I’m glad you liked it. I’ll tell Stewball—that’s my horse’s name—that you said so, too.”
    Just then the little girl’s family reached them. “Sorry, I hope Susie isn’t bothering you,” said a young man who appeared to be Susie’s father.
    “She just went crazy for the show this afternoon,” added the woman at his side. “When she recognized you, well, I guess she just had to meet you.”
    Stevie waved away the apologies with a grin. “It’s no bother at all,” she assured the young couple. “I just wish my horse was here to meet his fan.”
    “Where did you get your horse?” Susie asked. “I wish I had a horse. I want a smart, funny one just like yours, with spots and everything.”
    “Well, Stewball isn’t really my horse,” Stevie explained. “He belongs to my friend Kate’s parents. But they let me ride him whenever I visit, and I love him just as much as if he were really mine. I actually live in Virginia.”
    “I live in California,” Susie said solemnly. “But I wish I lived here, so I could watch the cowboy show every day.”
    Stevie chatted with her new friend for a few more minutes, until the little girl was dragged away by her parents. As The Saddle Club continued on their way, Stevie’s friends began to tease her a little about her new celebrity status, but they had hardly begun before another group of tourists stopped them to congratulate Stevie on her act.
    After that it seemed that Stevie could hardly take two steps before being accosted by more of her adoring fans. Carole noticed that by the third or fourth time, Stevie had stopped explaining that Stewball wasn’t really her horse. Infact, Stevie started inventing some pretty tall tales about him—including one in which she and Stewball had met when he had rescued her from a pack of coyotes in the desert. Carole and the others just rolled their eyes at that one and kept quiet.
    “He really is the most wonderful horse in the world,” she told the group of college students who had stopped to talk to her. “I’d be happy if I never rode another horse in my life besides my Stewball.”
    Carole raised her eyebrows—was she imagining things, or did Stevie sound as if she had really meant that?
    “Hey, you guys,” Stevie said as they reached the main street. “Can we stop in the candy store again for a second?”
    “Is your sweet tooth acting up again?” Carole teased. “All that rock candy you ate today wasn’t enough?”
    “Actually,” Stevie replied, “I want to get a little bit more as a special treat for Stewball. After all, he does deserve star treatment after the way he rescued me today, don’t you think?”
    “You know, Stevie, now that you mention it, maybe the rock candy was the reason for the ‘rescue’ all along,” Kate said. “He’s got almost as much of a sweet tooth as you do. It’s possible he was just after the sugar in your pocket this afternoon. You saw how he acted with Sam.”
    Stevie shook her head firmly. “No way. It’s like I said before—Stewball saw that I was in danger and he wanted to help me. He probably just realized that Sam was my friendwhen he smelled the rock candy he had in his pocket, and that’s why he calmed down.”
    Carole thought that sounded a little far-fetched, but she decided to keep quiet about it. After all, she wasn’t entirely convinced that Kate’s theory was right, either—it really had looked as though Stewball had had more than rock candy on his mind when he went after Sam.
    “Well, whatever he was thinking, I think we can all agree that Stewball is quite a horse,” Carole commented.
    Stevie nodded her head vigorously. “That’s for sure,” she said. “He’s my hero!” With that she opened the candy-store door and marched in to buy Stewball’s reward.

“I CAN ’ T WAIT ,” Carole