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Show 9S midget pon^y and then loading the heifer. "That a horse or a dog?" said Henry, a twetlve-year-old wit. "Oh, ja, she eats grass," said Arvid. We had unloaded her into the corral and she stood there looking over at the other horses • suspiciously, a princess among «faw coarse plebians. Three years old, full grown but standing no higher at the shoulder than my father's belt, she was noticeable all right, she was vivid, standing there in the dull dust of the corral as eye-taking as Venus on that shell. Jet black except for a saddle of white over her back, trim as tackle, sleek and glossy as w^my favorite cat, she needed neither size nor props. To me hanging on the corral fence she blazed with beauty, head finely shaped, little silken ears pricked in hck's. forward and a look in her eye as bold as I came to know l&fttffts. I fell for A her at first sight. Not Henry, who played it cool. Coolly he climbed the pole fence, dropped into the corral and swaggered up to her, the bronc buster. The time between her ears going back and the explosion was minimal, an explosion in black and white, and after it a small, mushroom-shaped cloud of dust, out of which floated Henry grabbing wildly for the fence, anything but cool, more like a drowning man making for the raft with right behind him a set of teeth like a shark's. He came over the fence as if sailing, as if currents of air floated him up and over and then dropped him on his butt. Bouncing back up, he stared into the corral at that thing. She met his eye, ears forward again, as smug as a cat who's just finished the cream, and Henry got his mouth closed and called her a few dirty names. "Now, Henry," said Dad. "She's just a little hard to get close to. Had a hard life, Arvid said. A pack of kids been coming around his place, teasing her, throwing rocks and poking her with sticks. We'll treat her right and tame her down a bit." "I'll tame her down all right.'" said Henry, tough as they come. |