Star of Wonder

by JoAnn S. Dawson

  Star of Wonder

  JoAnn S. Dawson

  Illustrated by Michelle Keenan

  Copyright © 2007 by JoAnn Dawson

  Cover and internal design © 2007 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover illustration and internal illustrations © Michelle Keenan Lucky Foot Stable logo © Tim Jackson

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

  (630) 961-3900

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Dawson, JoAnn.

  S

  tar of Wonder / JoAnn Dawson.

  p

  . cm.

  S

  ummary: When Mary's horse, Lady, gives birth to a baby on Christmas eve, Mary and her best friend Jody name him Star, train him, and share many adventures with him, as well as with Lady and the other animals on the dairy farm where they board their horses.

  [

  1. Horses--Fiction. 2. Domestic animals--Fiction. 3. Farm life--Fiction.] I. Title.

  P

  Z7.D32735St 2007

  [

  Fic]--dc22

  2007027946

  Printed and bound in the United States of America.

  VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To Ted, Zach, and Nick

  for all the love and joy

  Lucky Foot Stable

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Welcome

  Chapter 2: A Dangerous Lesson

  Chapter 3: Time to Grow Up

  Chapter 4: A Sleepless Night

  Chapter 5: Lady’s Tears

  Chapter 6: Star and the Squabs

  Chapter 7: Colonel Saves the Day

  Chapter 8: Circus Act

  Chapter 9: The Reunion

  Chapter 10: Swinging

  Chapter 11: Trapped!

  Chapter 12: Where is Star?

  Chapter 13: The Slaughterhouse

  Chapter 14: The Rescue

  Chapter 15: Manners

  Glossary of Horse Terms

  About the Author

  1

  Welcome

  YOU’RE RIGHT, JODY, Star of Wonder is the perfect name for him,” Mary whispered as they gazed at the newborn foal sleeping peacefully in the straw. “Look, the star is exactly in the middle of his forehead, just like his father’s. It even has five points, like a real star. And it’s a wonder that he’s here!”

  “I know,” replied Jody. “I still can’t believe we didn’t figure it out. Lady was getting so fat and grumpy and I didn’t know why!”

  Mary and Jody sat side by side on the thick bed of straw in Lady’s stall at Lucky Foot Stable, in awe of the gift that had been given them on this cold clear Christmas morning. Colonel Sanders, the old white barn rooster, ruffled his feathers and peered down from his roost on the top board of Lady’s stall while Gypsy Amber, Mary’s pony, hung her head over the stall next door and nickered softly as if to say, “Welcome, Star of Wonder.”

  “Mary, look, under the stall door!” Jody giggled. “Poor Finnegan wants to come in and see what’s happening!”

  A black nose and two front paws were all that could be seen of Finnegan, the farm’s herding dog, as he snuffled and scratched at the packed clay under the door.

  “Maybe we should let him in,” Mary said sympathetically. “After all, he is the one who woke us up to tell us about the baby!”

  Mary and Jody were “epic friends,” brought together by their love of their two ponies. They had camped out in the stable overnight on Christmas Eve, trying to stay awake until midnight to hear the animals speak, a legend that Mary had read about in one of her many books. But they had both fallen asleep just before the stroke of twelve, only to be awakened in the morning by Finnegan’s whining and scratching at Lady’s stall door. When Mary got up to investigate, she experienced the shock of her life at the completely unexpected sight of the black-and-white foal struggling to stand on his spindly legs as Lady, his proud mother, gently licked the top of his head.

  “OK, Finnegan, you can come in if you promise to be quiet and calm and not wake the baby!” Mary giggled, carefully opening the stall door. Finnegan’s whole body wagged as he entered the stall, but upon seeing the sleeping foal, he stopped in his tracks, pricked up his ears, and cocked his head as if to say, “What in the world is that?” Mary and Jody covered their mouths to keep from laughing out loud at the look on the dog’s face.

  “Finney, meet Star of Wonder. We know you weren’t expecting him, and neither were we, but he’s here and we’re going to help Lady take care of him,” Mary explained.

  Lady snorted and pinned her ears back at the sight of the intruder, and Finnegan took a step back, not sure what to do.

  “Lady, it’s all right—you know Finnegan! He’s not going to hurt Star. He just wants to see him,” Jody said, petting the hapless dog to show Lady that he was no threat. Lady shook her head up and down and extended her nose for Finnegan to sniff, and they were friends again.

  “Mary, I just thought of something!” Jody exclaimed. “I don’t know what time it is, but I bet it’s almost milking time. We’ve got to get Willie!”

  Willie was the old cowhand on Mr. McMurray’s dairy farm where Jody and Mary kept the ponies. While he spent most of his time taking care of the cows, he sometimes helped the girls with the ponies—like the time that past spring when he hauled Lady to a horse show in the back of his old red pickup truck. The girls were now gazing at the result of that trip, when Lady had gotten herself into a paddock with a beautiful black stallion.

  “You’re right, Jode. I’ll go see if he’s here yet!” Mary started to jump up in her usual way, but remembering to be quiet around the foal, she raised herself gently from the straw. Before she reached the stall door, she was greeted by a familiar voice.

  “Well, what in tarnation do we have here?” Willie said, looking through the open door and tugging on his earlobe.

  “Willie! I was just coming to get you! It’s a foal! Lady had a baby! We didn’t even know! We fell asleep before midnight, and Finney woke us up this morning, and here he was in the stall!” Mary exclaimed all in one breath.

  “Hmph,” Willie said, taking off his hat and scratching the side of his head.

  “Willie, is that all you have to say? Isn’t it a miracle?” Jody whispered.

  “A miracle? I don’t know about that,” Willie smiled. “I reckon I can figure out how it happened.”

  “Oh, Willie, we did figure out how it happened. I mean, we knew Lady was in the paddock with the stallion at the horse show, but we just never thought about it—even when Lady was getting all fat and lazy!” Jody continued.

  “Willie, you don’t even look surprised!” Mary said suspiciously. “Willie—you knew all along, didn’t you? You knew and you didn’t tell us!”

  “Hmph,” Willie replied with a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

  “Well, if you wanted us to be surprised, you did a good job!” Jody cried. “We were surprised, all right!”

  “Now, who do you think has been givin’ that old plug extra grain and makin’ s
ure she was gettin’ all the hay she needed to make sure that baby was growin’ the way it should in her belly?” Willie asked. Normally Jody would be offended at Willie calling Lady an “old plug,” but she was still trying to absorb the fact that Willie had known about Star all along.

  “Willie, guess what we named him?” Mary said, forgetting to be mad at Willie for keeping such a big secret.

  “You named him already?”

  “Of course, we’ve been in here with him for an hour!” Mary exclaimed. “When we were trying to stay awake last night to hear the animals talk, we decided to sing Christmas carols, and the one we knew the words to was ‘We Three Kings.’ So we sang it, and the chorus goes, ‘Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.’ So since he has that perfect bright star, and he’s such a wonder, we named him Star of Wonder—Star for short. And it was all Jody’s idea,” she continued generously.

  Just as if Star of Wonder had heard his name called, he raised his head from the straw and blinked, first at Mary, then at Jody, and finally at Willie before raising himself to a more upright position. He blinked again, shook his head, and blew through his nose. Then, just as Lady had done, he stretched his neck and offered his muzzle for Finnegan to sniff.

  “He’s a right cheeky thing, ain’t he?” Willie chuckled.

  “Look, he’s trying to get up again!” Jody giggled.

  The gangly foal stretched out his front legs in the straw and raised himself up as far as he could, trying to push off with his hindquarters. Wobbling to and fro, he managed to get his rear end off the ground just long enough to lose his balance and flop back down on his side.

  “You girls move out of the way and give him some more room,” Willie instructed. “He may look small, but if he lands on you, you’re gonna know it.”

  “But Willie, can’t we help him? If Jody gets on one side and me on the other, we could help him up!” Mary exclaimed.

  “You just let him get up on his own,” Willie said. “He’ll get it in a minute. He already knows how to stand, he’s just got to figure it out.”

  So Mary and Jody backed up against the stall boards while the determined foal tried once again to get his impossibly fragile legs under him. As he rocked back and forth, Lady nickered her encouragement and nuzzled him gently until he finally stood, legs splayed but sturdy enough to help him stay up. Now he only had to turn himself around far enough to get his muzzle under Lady’s belly where the nourishing first milk was. As if she knew he would have difficulty with that maneuver, Lady turned her own body around to accommodate him.

  The gangly foal stretched out his front legs in the straw and raised himself up as far as he could.

  “He’s already nursed once, Willie. We watched him.” Mary said.

  “I see he’s got the stallion’s black color but Lady’s white patches across his withers. And look at those white stockings all the way up to his knees and hocks. He’s gonna be a real looker,” Willie said admiringly.

  The foal felt along Lady’s side with his muzzle, pushing and snuffling, trying to find the right spot, but he couldn’t quite remember where he had nursed only an hour before.

  “Oh, Willie, can’t we help him now? He just needs a little guidance,” Jody implored.

  “Well, I reckon it couldn’t hurt. Just push his head down a little and guide his mouth up to her udder, and then he’ll get the picture.”

  The girls almost ran into each other in their eagerness to help the foal find Lady’s milk. Mary stood back in deference to the fact that Lady was Jody’s pony but braced herself against Star’s body to help him stand while Jody guided his muzzle low enough to find Lady’s udder, swollen with milk. Then all was quiet except for the sounds of suckling as the foal took to his task with enthusiasm. Willie, watching silently from the stall door, suddenly turned away.

  “Well, I’ve had enough of this foolishness,” he said gruffly, rubbing his gnarly hand across his eyes. “Got to get to the barn. It’ll be milkin’ time before you know it.”

  2

  A Dangerous Lesson

  STAR OF WONDER’S birth turned out to be quite an event at Lucky Foot Stable. Even Mr. McMurray, the owner of the dairy farm where the little green-roofed stable sat next to the huge cow barn—biggest one in the county, Willie often said—came by later that week to welcome the baby into the world. Mary and Jody were just taking down the little Christmas tree from the top of Jody’s tack box when he appeared in the doorway.

  “Well, girls, I hear congratulations are in order,” he said in his thick Irish brogue. “You know, I don’t care so much for horses, hay burners they are, and eating the cow’s pasture for no profit, but I would like to see the little devil. Willie says he’s right smart looking.”

  Mary finally found her voice after the initial surprise of seeing Mr. McMurray in Lucky Foot Stable, where he had rarely set foot since the day he agreed to let the girls keep the ponies there in exchange for carpentry work from Jody’s father and bookkeeping from Mary’s mother.

  “Oh, yes, sir. He is, and right smart in the head too!” she exclaimed proudly. “We’ve already put a halter on him, and he didn’t care a bit!”

  “Come see him—he’s out in the paddock with Lady,” Jody said, forgetting her shyness and taking a surprised Mr. McMurray by the hand.

  The snow that had fallen lightly on Christmas Eve still remained in small patches here and there in the paddock, and Star of Wonder was pawing and snuffling at one of these curious white spots when Mr. McMurray looked over the door of the stable into the paddock. As soon as the foal saw the new face, he stopped pawing and boldly walked over, raised his muzzle, and sniffed Mr. McMurray’s outstretched hand.

  “He’s not shy, now, is he?” Mr. McMurray said, chuckling as he rubbed the top of Star’s head. Lady raised her head for a moment from her pile of hay, but anticipating no danger from this visitor, quickly resumed her breakfast.

  “He’s getting really strong and loves to run around,” Jody said. As if on cue, Star flung up his head and spun in a circle, prancing and kicking across the paddock on his spindly legs. Mr. McMurray laughed out loud at his antics as the girls watched him with pride.

  “Well, girls, like I said, I never had much use for horses, but I will say he is a handsome lad, and full of the devil!” He laughed as Star took another turn around the paddock, bucking and kicking up his heels.

  “Mr. McMurray, Christmas break is almost over and next week we have to go back to school,” Mary spoke up. “We’re a little worried about Star because he needs us.”

  “He needs you, does he?” Mr. McMurray said. “And what about his mama? Doesn’t she take good care of him?”

  “Well, yes, but Lady needs us too. She has to be fed extra grain so she can make good milk, and we have to turn her out at separate times from Gypsy for right now until the baby gets a little bigger, and somebody needs to keep an eye on Star because he runs around like crazy, and we’re afraid he’s going to fall down and break his leg!” Mary continued breathlessly.

  “Hmm, I see—so what are you saying, Mary?” Mr. McMurray asked.

  “Well, I just wondered, since you came to see him and everything, and you think he’s a right smart handsome lad, if you could just look in on him once in a while. And maybe you wouldn’t mind if Willie came over when he’s not too busy with the cows to turn out Lady and Star and bring in Gypsy during the day?”

  “And I’ll be here after school, as soon as I finish my homework,” Jody added. “My dad got me a new bike for Christmas and I can get here really fast from my house!”

  “And instead of going home from school and then riding my bike here, my mom said she could pick me up from school and bring me straight here, as long as I get back home in time to do my homework before bed!” Mary said.

  Mr. McMurray looked from one girl’s upturned face to the other and tried to sound serious.

  “I’ll have a word with Willie and see what we can do,” he said. “But we can’t take too much
time away from the cows, you know.”

  “Oh, we know, sir, and we’ll help Willie with them too, if he needs it.” Jody promised. “And as soon as Star gets bigger and gets weaned, and it gets to be spring, we won’t worry so much. Because the ponies will be out in the pasture all the time.”

  “Am I interrupting anything?” a voice came from the stable aisle.

  “Mom!” Mary said, turning to see her mother, who was dressed in her best work clothes. “I was just talking about you!”

  “I thought I would stop on my way to work and check up on that new baby,” Mary’s mother said, looking out over the stable door. “Hello, Jody. And Mr. McMurray. How are you today?”

  “I’m well, Mrs. Morrow. I think that’s a fine looking colt out there, and the girls are thrilled, of course.”

  “Oh, yes, and he’s grown since just a few days ago!” she exclaimed. Mary was pleasantly surprised to see her mother in the stable, because her mother didn’t like the smell of horse manure, and the high heels she wore to work weren’t suited to walking in a barn.

  “Mom, I was just telling Mr. McMurray that maybe you could pick me up at school and get me here fast so I can help Jody take care of Lady and Star,” Mary said hopefully.

  “I’m going to try, Mary, but you know some days I won’t be able to take a break from work. And what about your schoolwork?”

  “I’ll be home in time to do it before I go to bed. Mom, I’ve been getting straight As, remember?”

  Mrs. Morrow smiled and shook her head. Ever since Mary’s father had left the family when Mary was a baby, her mother had worked hard to keep them together and happy. But sometimes she wondered why the two of them were so unlike each other. Almost since Mary could talk, she had asked for a pony every year for Christmas, and her room was filled with horse books, horse posters, horse calendars, and horse models. Mrs. Morrow had finally decided that Mary was ready for a real horse, and so they found the dark chestnut pony with the flaxen mane and tail at a horse and pony rescue stable. Mary named the mare Gypsy Amber, and she made up a suitably wild story to explain her background, although Mary’s mother knew that the pony had come from a home where she had been neglected to the point of starvation. Mrs. Morrow had contacted Mr. McMurray about using a stall in the little white and green stable in return for developing a good record-keeping system for his cows and monthly bookkeeping. And Jody had arrived a month later with her little pinto Lady. The girls had been inseparable ever since, and Mrs. Morrow never regretted her decision.