Dude Ranch

by Bonnie Bryant

  “He’ll get used to it, though,” Stevie said. “I knew a horse once who would fuss every time he was brought into the stable—until he discovered that every time he got there, there were oats and hay waiting for him! When he’d healed and was ready to go out into the pasture, he’d just hang around the gate by the stable until somebody took pity on him and gave him a handful of oats. He was quite a horse!”

  Eli looked at her quizzically. “You ride a lot?” he asked.

  “Almost every day,” Stevie said. “At least during the summer. In the wintertime, I usually can only ride twice a week.”

  “I watched you on Stewball yesterday,” Eli told her.

  Stevie was pretty sure he had been watching her until they’d gone around the rise behind the main house.

  “You did pretty well. For a dude.”

  It didn’t exactly sound like a compliment, but from Eli, Stevie suspected that it was high praise.

  “I watched you cut out the riding horses yesterday,” she said. “How did you train the dog?”

  “I think he was born knowing how to cut horses,” Eli said, taking the pitchforks and returning them to the equipment room. He took a large bucket and began mixing a blend of grains for Peanuts and the two other horses in the barn. “Wait until you see him working with cattle,” Eli said.

  “I’ve heard that dogs are really great on roundups,” Stevie said. “Is it really instinct?”

  “Some are good, some aren’t,” Eli told her. He poured two cans of oats into the bucket. “I’ve never been able to train one that wasn’t.”

  “Have you trained a lot of them?” she asked, handing him a long-handled wooden spoon so he could mix the mash.

  “Lots,” he said, stirring methodically. “Lots.” He seemed to be concentrating so totally on his mixture that Stevie didn’t want to interrupt him for more details. When he finished blending the grains, he hung the spoon back up and stored the mixture in a cool bin. Then he put his hands on his hips and regarded Stevie carefully. She felt as if she were being x-rayed.

  “Come on,” he said finally. “Follow me.”

  He turned abruptly and left the feed room, closing the door behind him. He walked along the main aisle of the barn, past the horse stalls and the hay bins. Almost at the end, there was an old rough wooden door, covered with cobwebs. Eli turned the handle and it swung open easily. After switching on a light, he led Stevie down some stairs into the lower-level cellar of the barn. Since the barn was built into a hill, there were only a few windows high up on one side. The floor was dirt, cool even through Stevie’s boots. There was the distinct musty smell of damp earth.

  Stevie followed Eli through two more doors, passing some ancient buggy tack, and even an old ox plow. Eli didn’t offer any explanation of where they were going. Stevie didn’t ask. She figured she’d get her answer when Eli was ready to give it.

  “Quiet now,” he said, but it was unnecessary. Stevie hadn’t said a word since they’d left the feed room.

  “Okay, girl, I’m here,” he said softly, but he wasn’t speaking to Stevie. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light and she heard a gentle thumping sound.

  Eli crouched, sitting on his heels. Stevie crouched down next to him. There, in front of them, was a dog, her long tail thumping happily on the ground in greeting. Next to her, on top of her, all around her, climbed a whole litter of puppies, tails flailing joyously every which way.

  “Oh!” Stevie said in astonishment.

  “This here’s Caramel,” he said, introducing Stevie to the proud mother, a golden-colored dog. “I just call her Mel, though. And she’s got nine pups to take care of.”

  “They’re adorable!” Stevie said. “How old are they?” She reached out to them. Three of the puppies came over and began sniffing her curiously. Stevie patted their soft fur. One of them began licking her hand. Another nipped at her knees. The third returned to its mother, soon replaced by another who wanted to be patted, too. Stevie couldn’t believe how cute they were.

  “Five weeks now,” Eli said. “I’ve been keeping them down here because Mel can be fussy sometimes and if all those dudes get wind of the pups, they’ll be crawling all over the place and Mel won’t like that at all.”

  Stevie could just imagine how difficult it would be for the mother to try and take care of her babies with a whole lot of people watching every move. She understood why Eli would want to keep this a secret. She also understood that it was a very special honor for her to learn his secret. She felt proud. She knew she had earned his trust and his respect. Maybe she wasn’t just a dude anymore.

  “What kind of dog is Mel?” Stevie asked, looking at her.

  “Oh, I suppose she’s got some shepherd in her and maybe some golden retriever. There were some huskies around here a while back. Might be she’s got some of that blood. Then, that curly hair there makes me think there’s some English sheepdog. I guess she’s just some of everything. Everything good, that is. Mel’s the best herding dog I ever had, but she’s on vacation now.”

  “Maternity leave?” Stevie asked.

  Eli looked at her and burst into laughter. “Yep,” he said, nodding. “I guess that’s just what you’d call it. Pups’ll be ready for weaning in a week or so. Then Mel can get back to work.”

  “Looks to me like she’s working pretty hard now,” Stevie said. As she and Eli watched, Mel rounded up some of her rambunctious puppies, nudging a few who were using their mother as a jungle gym.

  “You could be right,” Eli said. “Maybe roundup will be her vacation, then. For now, though, let’s leave her alone.”

  “Okay,” Stevie said, standing up. “See you around, Mel,” she said, giving the dog a final pat on her head. The dog watched as Stevie and Eli left her alone with her brood, then, just before they shut the door behind them, Mel returned her complete attention to her puppies.

  “Listen, Stevie,” Eli began.

  “I know,” she said. “It’s a secret. If I promise not to tell even my best friends, will you let me visit Mel again?”

  “Sure thing, pardner,” he said, and they shook hands to seal the deal.

  Stevie found that very consoling. Maybe she was going to miss her birthday at home, but she had a secret and it was a nice one—a very nice one.

  THE NEXT MORNING, Stevie was up again in the gray dawn, awakened by the now-familiar whistle. She swung her feet to the cool wooden floor and stood up, wondering if she could make it to the window before her mysterious visitor disappeared.

  She scooted across the bunkhouse to the window, but when she couldn’t see anything, she opened the door and crept out onto the porch. She stood in the shadows of the old wooden beams, watching.

  There, not far from her, the person was riding bareback. The dog loped alongside. The horse and rider passed by the main house on the dirt road that led to the open range beyond. He sat tall on the horse’s back, glancing around as if to survey all the land.

  An early-morning breeze ruffled Stevie’s nightgown, and the dog barked. The breeze must have carried her scent to the dog.

  The rider hissed the dog into silence, pulling the horse to a stop, and glanced around. Scared, without knowing why, Stevie backed farther into the shadows of the bunkhouse porch. After a few seconds, the rider urged the horse into motion and the three were soon out of sight.

  Stevie remained on the porch until the odd threesome had disappeared behind a stand of cottonwood trees. She stood still long after the sound of the horse’s hooves had vanished. She remained frozen in the faint gray morning light until she heard the insistent chirp of birds, announcing the advance of dawn. It startled her into motion.

  She reentered the bunkhouse and climbed back into bed, but she couldn’t get back to sleep. She kept wondering about the mysterious visitor who rode before dawn.

  An hour later, the girls’ alarm clock went off, spurring The Saddle Club into beginning the new day.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Stevie began, reaching for her
toothbrush.

  “Wha’?” Lisa asked sleepily.

  “I saw a Native American,” Stevie said.

  “Sure, there are lots of them around,” Kate said. “We see them in town all the time.”

  “This one wasn’t in town,” Stevie explained. “He was riding along the roadway here, bareback, before the sun had come up.”

  “Sure you weren’t dreaming?” Carole asked skeptically.

  “I’m sure,” Stevie stated positively, and then, as they all washed up and got ready for breakfast, she told her friends about both of the morning visits—and about the dog.

  “I think it was the dog I saw in Two Mile Creek two days ago,” Stevie said. “And I also think there’s something very mysterious about this Indian riding around in the dark.”

  “You think he’s up to something bad?” Lisa asked, a fearful tremor in her voice.

  “No, it’s not like that at all,” Stevie assured her friend. “It’s more like he’s mysterious.”

  “Like it’s an ancient ritual?” Carole asked, suddenly interested.

  “Maybe,” Stevie said.

  “Maybe he’s studying the old family burial grounds,” Lisa said, following her friends’ line of thought.

  “Maybe it’s more like he’s protecting an old treasure buried in the mountains,” Carole said, pulling on her boots.

  “Maybe he’s guarding the sacred hunting grounds!” Lisa suggested. Carole and Stevie looked at each other to consider the suggestion.

  “And maybe you guys just need some food,” Kate interrupted. “These ideas you’re dreaming up are unreal! Come on, let’s get going. The bell’s about to—”

  The triangle at the main house clanged insistently. Kate beamed with pride. “See, I told you so,” she said, leading the girls to the mess hall for their morning steak and eggs.

  By the time they arrived at the mess hall, three of the girls had almost forgotten Stevie’s mysterious visitor. Stevie, however, could still see the proud silhouette and the spirited horse prancing in front of The Bar None.

  “SO, JUST WHAT do we do on a roundup?” Lisa asked while the girls were finishing their breakfasts. “What’s it about?”

  “We do a couple of things when we round up,” Kate explained. “First of all, it’s when we get a chance to count our herd, find out how many calves have been born. Then, we can brand the little ones, too. Also, we can cut out the stock that is ready for sale. And, it gives us a chance to check on the herd as a whole. Sometimes you might find that there’s a disease or something like that. This just gives us a chance to check them all out.”

  “How many cattle are there?” Lisa asked.

  “We figure our land can support a herd between one hundred twenty-five and one hundred fifty. There were a lot of calves born this spring, though. Eli thinks there may be more than one hundred fifty. We’ll just see.”

  “What do we have to take with us?” Stevie asked. “I mean, are we going to have to carry a lot of equipment with us?”

  Kate considered the question. “You know, I’m not sure,” she said. “Best person to answer that is Eli. Why don’t you go ask him, Stevie, while we give Mom a hand with the dishes this morning?”

  “Okay,” Stevie said. Dishes weren’t her favorite thing and, besides, there was a piece of steak left on her plate that she thought Mel would really love. While the other girls were busy clearing, Stevie wrapped the chunk of beef into a napkin and slipped it into her pocket. Now that was a doggie bag!

  “See you,” she said, heading for the barn.

  “Oh no you won’t,” Carole whispered when she knew Stevie was out of earshot. “Come on, girls, let’s get back to the planning board!”

  As quickly as possible, the three of them finished clearing and retreated to Phyllis’s workroom, where they were creating the decorations for Stevie’s party.

  “You’re on the banner, Lisa,” Kate said. “Mom sewed a couple of bunk sheets together and we can stretch them between two trees at Parson’s Rock. You can use the paint there,” she said, pointing at jars of red, white, and blue paint. “It worked just fine for the barbecue we had last week.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said, agreeable.

  “Now, you can work on streamers and other decorations,” Kate told Carole. “There’s all kinds of crepe paper and construction paper and stuff over there.”

  “And what are you going to do?” Carole asked.

  “I’m going into the kitchen to help my mother with the dishes so I can head Stevie off if she comes back this way. We’re going to go on our trail ride in an hour and a half. Eli’s taking us out to sort of prepare us for the roundup. Think you can get most of your work done before then?”

  “We won’t have any other time, will we?” Carole asked.

  “Nope,” Kate said.

  “Then we’ll finish,” Lisa assured her.

  “Sounds good to me,” Kate said. She left Lisa and Carole in the workroom, closing the door behind her—just in case Stevie got nosey!

  “YOU’RE GONNA NEED a clean pair of socks,” Eli told Stevie. “Always got to have those.”

  “That’s all?” she asked him.

  “Well, that ’n’ a lariat—nah, you won’t need a lariat. Wouldn’t know how to use it. Then you should have a bedroll—nah, no point in botherin’ with that. Dudes like you never sleep anyway. Too worried about the rattlesnakes.”

  “Rattlesnakes?” Stevie said, genuine concern in her voice.

  “See, I told you,” Eli said. Stevie thought he could be more infuriating than anybody she had ever known in her life.

  “I brought something for Mel,” she said, changing the subject. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the chunk of steak. Much to Stevie’s relief, Eli smiled at her. Without a word, he headed for the dark door at the back of the barn. She trailed him, eager to visit Mel and her pups again.

  Mel gobbled the steak in two bites and licked Stevie’s hand when she was done.

  “She likes me,” Stevie said.

  “She likes steak,” Eli said sensibly. Stevie laughed. Eli had to get back to the horses, so she couldn’t visit with the puppies for very long, but she gave each one a quick pat before she and Eli returned upstairs.

  Stevie went back to the main house. She found Kate in the kitchen with her mother, washing dishes. “What are Lisa and Carole doing?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Peeling potatoes,” Phyllis said.

  Washing dishes was better than peeling potatoes any day. Stevie rolled up her sleeves to help.

  “What did Eli say we should bring along?” Kate asked.

  “Socks,” Stevie told her. “And he said not to bother with bedrolls, since we wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”

  Kate and her mother exchanged glances and burst into laughter. “He’s something, isn’t he?” Phyllis asked.

  “Yep,” Stevie agreed, trying to sound like Eli.

  “Well, could you go back out there now, Stevie?” Phyllis asked. “Eli needs to tell me if he’s going to want beans in the chuck-wagon chili or plain.”

  “Beans or plain?” Stevie asked. She hated to think how Eli was going to answer that one.

  “Yep,” Eli told Stevie when she asked him the question.

  “Is that beans or plain?” she reiterated.

  “Yep,” he said.

  She returned to the kitchen.

  “Find out if he wants mashed or boiled potatoes,” Phyllis told her once she’d gotten the answer about the chili.

  Stevie shrugged, slightly annoyed, but she headed back to the barn. Eli was now busy with the family with four little children. Since it appeared that the pressing question of mashed or boiled could really wait a few hours, she didn’t even try to talk to him. Instead, she went into the bam and visited with Peanuts.

  The buckskin-colored horse was munching happily at his fresh hay. Stevie climbed up onto the gate that enclosed the stall and patted the horse’s nose and forehead. She told him about the dumb things she was doi
ng that morning. Peanuts seemed to understand completely, and he didn’t give her any totally dumb answers to her questions. He whinnied and nodded his head. That made her feel better.

  “Ready to ride?” Carole asked, entering the barn with Lisa about a half hour later.

  “Sure you’re done with the potatoes?”

  Stevie thought she saw a puzzled look pass between Lisa and Carole.

  “Of course they are,” Kate said, coming up behind them. “All the chores are done. Time for a trail ride and a lesson on roundups.”

  Eli helped the girls get their horses out of the corral. By then, each girl could manage her own tack, even with Eli’s suspicious gaze watching every motion, so they were saddled-up and ready to ride in just a few minutes.

  Eli was on his horse, too. The five of them left the corral and, instead of taking the trail the girls had ridden before, they headed for the open range—the same direction Stevie’s mysterious visitor had taken.

  Eli didn’t say much as they rode, but what he did say turned out to be worth listening to. He told them that their first concern had to be the calves. “Where there’s a calf, there’s a cow,” he said. “Watch out for her if she thinks you’re going to hurt her young ’un. And sometimes a big old bull will get an idea that he ought to be in charge of the roundup. If that happens, you get out of the way. He’s bigger than you. Probably smarter, too. Me and the dog will show him the way.”

  He explained that they’d begin by riding to the far end of the property, where the herd had been seen grazing the week before, and they’d drive them all back to the ranch.

  “We’ll see some strays on the way out, but we’ll pick them up on our way back. They’re easier to herd if we’ve got a hundred and fifty head with us to convince them along.”

  He told them what to expect if the cattle got frightened and he explained how they’d stay nearby while they camped. Stevie was glad to see that with Kate there, he didn’t make a lot of smart remarks about rattlesnakes and dudes.

  “Most of the time,” he told the girls, “we’ll be riding along like this.” It was a pleasant pace. The horses walked smoothly across the open land, giving the girls the time to admire the landscape with its snow-topped mountains as a breathtaking backdrop. “And sometimes, it’s like this,” Eli said.