Star of Wonder

by JoAnn S. Dawson

  “Willie!” Mary said excitedly. “You missed our circus act! We practiced yesterday in the pasture field . . .”

  “And then Mary landed in a cow plop, and Walter landed on her head when she washed her hair, and . . .”

  “Walter who?” Willie asked, peering into the old bunny cage. “Oh, you mean that ugly little squab? He looks like he’s about ready for the stewpot.”

  “Willie!” exclaimed Jody. “He’s not ugly! Well, maybe a little. And he’s not a squab anymore, he’s a full-grown pigeon now. Watch, we’ll let him out of his cage. He doesn’t even try to fly away. He stays right here with us.”

  “I don’t have time for this foolishness,” Willie interrupted, looking out the stable door into the paddock. “I came over here to see if you’re ready to put this ornery bugger and his mama back together again.”

  “Ornery bugger . . . you mean Star? Do you think this is a good time? Is he ready? Is Lady’s milked dried up yet?” Mary asked breathlessly.

  “Slow down, girl. Yes, Lady’s milk is dried up and he’s as ready as he’s ever gonna git. Now here’s a lead rope . . . grab ahold of Star and we’ll lead him over to the pasture. I let the cows into the barn a little early, so’s he wouldn’t have to git used to them at first.”

  “That’s right! He’s never really seen a cow up close. I wonder if he’ll be scared?” Jody asked.

  “That’s what I mean. I figure we’ll let him out in the pasture with Lady and Gypsy, and then later on when the cows come back out, he’ll at least be settled down a little already.”

  “Good plan, Willie,” Mary said approvingly as Jody snapped the lead rope onto Star’s halter and led him from the paddock. “I can’t wait to see what Star does when he sees Lady!”

  Willie just shook his head as the three approached the cow pasture with Star in tow. Nearing the gate, Star suddenly started prancing and throwing his head up and down.

  “Whoa, buddy!” Jody exclaimed, trying to hold Star steady. But it was too late. Star had seen Lady over the pasture gate, and he reacted by letting out a long shrill whinny.

  At the familiar sound, Lady and Gypsy raised their heads from grazing at the exact same moment, still chewing. Then they switched their tails lazily and resumed grazing.

  “Look, Willie! Lady doesn’t even act like she remembers him!” Jody exclaimed as Mary unhooked the chain on the gate.

  “I been tellin’ you that,” Willie responded. “Just watch.”

  At that, Mary pushed open the gate and Jody unhooked the lead rope from Star’s halter.

  Before Jody could even pat him good-bye, Star took off at a canter across the pasture, heading straight for Lady and whinnying all the way.

  “Willie, she’ll be happy to see him, won’t she?” Jody worried.

  “Anything could happen,” Willie replied mysteriously. “Just wait and see.”

  It didn’t take long for Star to reach Lady, and when he did, he wasted no time trying to get reacquainted. Nickering happily, Star extended his muzzle to Lady’s in typical horse greeting fashion. And Lady responded, ears up, sniffing Star’s nostrils.

  “Look, Willie. She is happy to see him!” Mary cried.

  “So far,” Willie replied quietly.

  Before the words were barely out of Willie’s mouth, Lady pinned her ears against her head, kicked out with one front hoof, and made a horrible grunting sound of intense displeasure in Star’s direction. Star threw his head up in shock, his initial joy at seeing his mother turning suddenly to astonishment. Lady moved away a few steps and continued grazing with Gypsy.

  “Willie, why did she do that?” Jody asked in dismay. “She’s acting so mean!”

  Willie didn’t reply but continued to watch with a half-grin on his face. Star, having partially overcome his initial amazement at Lady’s behavior, decided to try again. He gingerly took a step in Lady’s direction and stood gazing at her, his ears up in question, as if to say, “Mama, don’t tell me you don’t remember me!” Taking a few more tentative steps, he stretched out his neck as far as it would go without having to step any closer, and pointed his muzzle toward her flank as if to nuzzle for milk.

  This time Lady pinned her ears and lunged at him, teeth bared, then turned suddenly and kicked with both hind feet, barely missing Star’s head.

  “Lady!” screamed Mary and Jody in unison. Jody’s hand was on the gate to go in and rescue Star when Willie grabbed her arm and actually laughed out loud.

  “Willie! It’s not funny! I have to go in and save him! Lady is trying to kill him!” she beseeched.

  “She’s not trying to kill him, no such a thing,” Willie replied calmly. “She’s just puttin’ him in his place, is all. She’s teachin’ him that he’s on his own now and should be startin’ to act grown up, not like a baby wantin’ to nurse. You just leave them be. They’ll get on all right in a little while.”

  Mary and Jody watched in silence, and they had to admit to themselves that the expression on Star’s face was almost comical as he stood a safe distance from Lady, gazing at her with his head cocked to one side, both mortified and confused. Lady had gone back to grazing peacefully, thoroughly ignoring her son as if he were just another cow in the pasture.

  This time Lady pinned her ears and lunged at him, teeth bared, then turned suddenly and kicked.

  This was too much for Star. Mary and Jody could almost see the thoughts turning in his brain as he decided he would get Lady’s attention any way he could. Suddenly tossing his head and letting out an impudent squeal, he took off at a gallop across the pasture, bucking and kicking and spinning in circles like a rodeo horse. Skidding to a stop at the fence line, he turned and galloped back toward Lady, repeating his antics all the way. He halted squarely in front of her and snorted, nostrils flaring like a stallion, and reared to his full height. And then he dropped to the ground and rolled over and over.

  “Willie, what in the world is he doing?” Mary giggled. “I just hope he’s not rolling in any green cow plops; he’ll really make a fool of himself then!”

  “He’s just showin’ off—tryin’ to make her look at him. But look, she don’t care one way or th’ other,” he chuckled. And he was right. Lady simply went on grazing as if Star was nothing more than a pesky old fly. “I got to get back to the cow stable—the cows’ll think I forgot to milk ’em.” Willie continued. “You just stay out of that pasture and let them get together in their own good time.”

  Star finished rolling and lay still in the pasture, catching his breath and scrutinizing Lady’s reaction to his mischief out of the corner of one eye. Seeing that she had no reaction at all, he sighed heavily and raised his head, blinking at her in frustration.

  “Poor baby, look at him,” Jody murmured. “He doesn’t understand.”

  “I know. I didn’t know Lady could be so mean,” Mary added. “She’s usually so sweet.”

  As if hearing Mary’s comment, Lady raised her head from the grass and looked directly into Star’s wide eyes. The two stood gazing at each other for a moment, and then Lady stepped quietly to her impish son. Star rolled his eyes and looked ready to flee, but he remained lying down as Lady sniffed his muzzle gently. Then she simply licked him once on the top of his head before turning back to her grazing. Star’s eyes widened and he shook his head. Then, understanding that everything was all right at last, he raised himself from the ground and took his place in the pasture next to Lady, grazing as calmly as if he had never left her side.

  10

  Swinging

  MARE, MAYBE WE should come back out here when the cows are turned out after milking, so we can see how Star reacts,” Jody declared as the girls walked back to Lucky Foot Stable from the pasture field, satisfied that Star and Lady were getting on all right, as Willie had predicted.

  “I know,” Mary agreed. “But what should we do in the meantime?”

  “Well, we could go climb the horse chestnut tree and shell some corn for the ducks,” Jody suggested.

  “We re
ally should clean Star’s stall, so when we bring him back in it’ll be ready,” Mary said halfheartedly. “Or we could just leave him in the paddock tonight. It’s not going to rain, and it’s warm out,” she continued.

  “Do you think Mr. McMurray will ever let him stay out in the pasture with Lady and Gypsy all the time?” Jody wondered.

  “Probably not,” Mary replied glumly. “Remember what Willie said.”

  It had taken quite a bit of effort on Willie’s part to talk Mr. McMurray into allowing even two ponies to graze in the pasture all day and night with his cows. “Hayburners!” he had called the ponies. “And eating up my profits, they are.” Willie had explained to the girls that Mr. McMurray was being very generous as it was, and although Mr. McMurray had grudgingly agreed to allow them to turn Star out in the pasture for a short time each day, he would have to come in to either his stall or the paddock at night.

  “I know what we can do!” Mary exclaimed. “Let’s fix up our hay fort and swing on the rope swing in the barn! We haven’t done that for ages!”

  “Good plan!” agreed Jody. “Then we can listen for Willie to turn out the cows and go watch Star when he does!”

  So the girls dashed to the top of the barn hill and took a firm hold on the immense sliding barn door that led to the enormous hayloft of Mr. McMurray’s dairy cow barn.

  “Ready, one, two, three!” they shouted in unison, and the door began to slide slowly open as they pushed with all their might. Pigeons flew overhead with a whirring of wings as the girls entered through the narrow opening their effort had afforded them. They stood quietly in the cavernous structure, which was lined on either side with neatly stacked mountains of hay and straw, and blinked as their eyes adjusted to the dim light.

  “Gosh, Jode, I think the last time we were up here was when Willie showed us the sleigh!” Mary exclaimed.

  “That reminds me—next winter when it snows, it’ll be Lady’s turn to learn how to pull it!”

  Jody said excitedly. “Remember, she was so pregnant with Star at Christmas that Willie said she could learn next time!”

  “Yeah, and we were so dumb we didn’t even know why Lady was so fat!” Mary chuckled.

  “Hey, let’s go in the grain room and see how the old sleigh’s doing!”

  To the left of where the girls stood was a room built into the side of the barn, where wheat, barley, and oats were stored in individual bins, waiting to be ground into feed for the dairy cows.

  Mary creaked open the rickety door and the girls went in slowly, peering around at the cobwebbed corners and taking in the smell of the variety of grains. In the furthest corner of the room, the canvas-covered form of the sleigh could be seen in the faint light. Mary and Jody tiptoed toward it, feeling the need to be quiet and still in the stuffy room. Just as they were passing the last bin of wheat on their right, a fat brown groundhog darted out of the barley bin on the left and stood up on his hind legs, chattering a warning to get out of his room!

  “AAAGHHH!” Mary screamed, so startled by this sudden apparition that she turned and tripped over Jody, and they both fell in a heap on the dusty floor. Disturbed by Mary’s scream, a suddenly awakened barn owl swooped down just inches from the girls’ heads and flew out the door, its giant wing knocking over a grain shovel with a clatter on its way out. Mary and Jody screamed again and crawled on their hands and knees as fast as they could go until they reached the relative safety of the barn floor and sat shuddering, holding each other’s hands.

  “I don’t think I want to see the sleigh that bad,” Mary whispered, forgetting her good grammar for the moment. Then the girls looked at each other sheepishly and burst out laughing.

  “You should have seen your face!” Jody giggled. “You looked like you saw a ghost!”

  “I thought I did!” Mary laughed. “And you should talk—you were as white as a sheet!

  But anyway, enough of this foolishness, time’s a-wastin.’ Willie will be done milking soon, and we haven’t even started on our fort! But look, the swing is still there, same as always!”

  The swing of which Mary spoke was simply a long braided rope with a large knot tied on the end, hanging straight down from the rafters of the barn. A tall pile of hundreds of bales of hay stacked neatly against the barn wall rose to one side of the rope, and a stack of the same height of straw towered on the other, but the stacks were much too far from the rope and the rope hung at least ten feet from the floor—too far for the girls to grab it without piling some bales underneath and standing on them to reach.

  “Looks like we’ve got work to do,” Mary exclaimed. “First we’ll have to climb up to the top of the high stack and throw some bales down, and then we’ll stack them under the rope so we can reach it. Let’s use straw—it’s not as heavy as hay.”

  So up the bales of straw they clambered like mountain climbers, until they reached the top layer, where they were able to push and throw enough bales to the floor to build a pile high enough to stand on and reach the rope. When they were finished, they stood back to admire their handiwork.

  “That’s a good sturdy stack, if I do say so myself,” Mary bragged.

  “Hey, what about me? I built it too, you know,” Jody chided.

  “Yes, you did, and now I think you should climb up there and see if you can grab the rope. You’re a little taller than me,” Mary proposed. “I’ll climb up partway and hold on to your ankles.”

  “Me? I’m barely taller than you, and you’re the one who’s so fearless—remember climbing up the pine tree to cut the top out?”

  “Yes, and that’s why it’s your turn now,” Mary insisted. “Just go up there and grab the rope, and I’ll hold your ankles while you try to throw the knotty end up onto the high stack. Then we’ll be able to swing practically across the whole barn!”

  Jody gave Mary one last desperate look, took a deep breath, and turned to the stack of bales. The bottom of the stack was wide and sturdy with ten bales in a square, but it narrowed as it went up until there were only two bales for Jody to stand on at the very top.

  “Mare, it feels kind of shaky up here,” Jody lamented as she stood with one foot on each of the bales.

  “Never fear! I’ve got you,” Mary crowed, sitting up on her knees on the third layer of bales and grabbing one of Jody’s ankles in each hand. “Now just reach up and grab it!”

  “But it’s just about two inches too high!” Jody insisted, stretching up as tall as she could on her tiptoes to reach the elusive knot.

  “All right then, you’ll have to jump a little to grab it,” Mary prodded.

  “But I’m going to fall!” Jody cried, beginning to wish she hadn’t ever suggested swinging to begin with.

  “No, you’re not. Just try it. Jump a little and see if you can get ahold of it.”

  So Jody jumped. But when she grabbed the knot, the momentum swung her out and off the stack of bales and then back over the stack like a pendulum. Her feet were just about two inches too high to get back on the bale.

  “Mare! What do I do?” Jody screeched, holding tight to the knotted rope as she swung back and forth.

  “Wait—there, I’ve got you again,” Mary soothed, grabbing Jody’s ankles as she swung over. “Calm down, and just drop back down on the two top bales again! You’re only a little bit above them!”

  “But they’re not very sturdy! What if I don’t drop right and they topple over?”

  “What in the world is goin’ on in here?” A familiar voice came gruffly from the barn doorway.

  “Willie!” Jody yelled, never so relieved to see the old cowhand. “Mary made me climb up here to get the rope, and now I’ve got it, and I can’t let it go!”

  “I didn’t actually make her, Willie. It was just a suggestion,” Mary squeaked.

  Willie didn’t say a word. He just shook his head as he hobbled over to the stack of bales. He climbed deftly up next to Mary and wrapped one arm around Jody’s waist.

  “Now let go and drop down a little. I go
t ya.” Willie said grumpily.

  Jody released the rope immediately, knowing she’d better obey with no complaint. Her feet came down solidly on the bales, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Now, would you two mind tellin’ me just what you’re tryin’ to do?” Willie demanded, stepping down to the barn floor and turning to Mary.

  “Well, Willie, we just wanted to swing on the rope, and we couldn’t reach it, so we had to stack up some bales, and Jody was going to grab the end and throw it up to the top of the big stack, so we could go up there and swing across the barn,” Mary said all in one breath.

  “And did ya think she was goin’ to be able to throw the rope while she was swingin’ on it just now?” Willie asked crankily.

  “I guess we didn’t really think that far ahead,” Mary replied sheepishly.

  “Good thing I came up here to throw some feed down the chute,” Willie said. “Can you think of any more mischief to get into now, or can I get back to feedin’?”

  “No, no, Willie, no more mischief at all,” Jody said quickly.

  As Willie turned toward the grain room, Mary said meekly, “Um, Willie?”

  Willie turned back, his face like a thunderbolt. “What now?” he growled.

  Mary put on her sweetest voice. “Uh, while you’re here, and since you’re taller than us, do you think you could just take a second to climb back up on our stack and throw the rope up for us? Please?”

  Willie took off his farm cap and scratched the side of his head. Then he looked up at the hayloft and back at the two pleading faces. “Daggone girls,” he muttered, but hobbled over and climbed silently up the stack and onto the top two bales, taking hold of the knotty end of the rope and with one motion flinging it easily up to the top bales of the loft.

  “Are ya happy?” he groused, heading back to the grain room to finish feeding the cows.