| Show he named Chub and Dora to use as his team and he retired Princess to be the extra horse and to be his riding horse Years passed and my sisters andmarried and had families and we came back home each summer forvisit At one point my father said he was selling the farm land and the animals but he would keep the north pasture for Princess He said he would never sell her that they would never use his horse for horsehide coats or send her to the glue factory Never never He took her to the north field pasture where each day he would drive his car out to see how she was He would take water for her if the creek was dry One day he went out to the pasture and looked to the willows where she stood most of the time and she was down He rushed to her side and found she was dead She had died during the night He stood by her and said Sometimesthought you would be the death of me and thatwould go first It was moming and he went back to the car for his shovel and began to diggrave and to bury her He had to hurry before the men who scanned the fields each day would see her They were paid to pick up dead animals They would also sell them to the hide company so he had to work fast to get it done He started digging right alongside her backbone so when the grave was opened he could take her legs and turn her into the grave and then cover her up with plenty of dirt so the coyotes couldndig her up He began to dig dig and dig more and restbit fordrink of water My mother told us that when he didncome home for lunch she did not worry but when dinnertime and then sundown came and he didnreturn she began to worry Could it be that Princess has died and he is giving hergood burial She thought to herself that he must be digging hergrave and it will bebig job to dighole big enough to buryhorse and that the sun had baked the earth and she was sure it would be very difficult to dig She 14 |
