Little House On The Web

~Chapter Six~

The Moment of Truth!

            I was dying to open that envelope and see what Mrs. Walker and Mr. Radford had been so mysterious about, but I took Mrs. Walker’s instructions and didn’t open it until I got home.

When I did, I gasped. I couldn’t believe my eyes! There, tucked carefully inside the envelope, was a check for two thousand dollars! My eyes bulged, and I opened the letter that had been in the envelope with the cheque.

           Our dear friend Emily,

          This is for buying your horse, Sundance. We were proud to hear about you giving to that poor family, and not thinking about yourself. As well, Ritchie is rich and has the money. He would like to do something good with it as he doesn’t need it all, and I suggested giving it to you for buying the horse. We know how hard it was to give up all that money and work, so we are also glad for you making a break through to Ritchie, and he apologizes for being so cold about you in your first days at the stables, as he now realizes that you made the big difference, in being kind to him.

         Your friends, Mrs. W & Ritchie Radford

         Like when Mrs. Walker had first given me the hundred dollars, I started crying. Suddenly I stopped, and tucking both the letter and the check into the envelope, I brought it downstairs to show Mom and Dad.

“What is it, honey?” Mom asked me first.

“Yeah, what is it?” Dad peered over my shoulder.

“It’s a cheque for two thousand dollars,” I said, feeling choked up. Dad gasped, and Mom was quiet.

“If it was given to you, it’s for you to spend,” Mom said quietly, holding out her hand for the letter. I handed it to her, and her eyes scanned over it. She rubbed her eyes with her apron, and turned away. “They’re so generous, but yes, you deserve it,” she told me.

“So you get your pony!” Dad bellowed. “That’s my girl!” He grabbed me around the waist and all of a sudden we were all happy and dancing.

“I’d better go thank Mrs. Walker,” I said finally, tired out.

“Yes, you should,” Mom agreed. So all of us including Ricky, walked out to Mrs. Walker’s house with a basket of goodies.

“Hello!” Mrs. Walker answered the door on the first ring, with a twinkle in her eye. I threw myself on her, hugging her. “Did you buy Sundance yet?” she asked expectantly.

“Not yet,” I replied. “Mom and Dad promised that we’ll go there right after school. But I have my stable job first.”

“Don’t worry, Ritchie won’t mind if you’re a bit late.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really,” she nodded solemnly.

“Well, we really appreciate this,” Mom said, tearing up. She hugged Mrs. Walker, and Dad shook her hand.

“No problem. Like we wrote in the letter, Ritchie wanted to spend his money on something worthwhile, so when Emma here told us about giving the money away, we agreed on doing this.”

We ate a joyful dinner at Mrs. Walker’s house, and Mr. Radford showed up too.

The next day, Mr. Radford left the stables in his friend’s care for a couple hours, and he joined Mrs. Walker and my whole family in going to buy Sundance.

“Hi Emma,” Suzanne said.

“Where’s Sundance? Have you sold him?” I asked quickly, scanning wildly around.

“Don’t worry, Daddy keeps his word,” she assured me.

“Oh, thanks,” I said. “Hi, Hank.”

“So you’ve come for the colt?” Hank asked me.

“Yeah,” I replied, handing him a thick wad of bills. He quickly counted them, then led us all to his stall.

“He doesn’t like much of a crowd,” he told us. So Mr. Radford, Mrs. Walker and I went in to see Sundance.

We brought Sundance home in a horse trailer borrowed from the Kerrs. A Western saddle and bridle were included, and I used the blue halter from Christmas that I had brought from home. Hank also included a dark green saddle blanket free of charge.

Mrs. Walker and Mr. Radford left when we got home, but we all thanked them over and over again.

“Welcome to your new home,” I told Sundance, leading him down the ramp. In the barn, he whinnied and all of our other horses whinnied back.

Sundance was a dream come true.

~Chapter Five~

Mr. Radford

             Arriving at the stables, I grabbed the gift for Mr. Radford, then climbed out of the car and said bye to Dad.

“Hi Mr. Radford,” I called out.

“Hey,” he mumbled, taking off his hat nodding. I thought that was a good change from his usual ‘unh’.

“I brought a gift for you.”

“You did?” he asked, looking up in surprise.

“Yeah,” I nodded. I ambled up to him and handed the gift wrapped in paper with horses galloping, to him. “Go ahead,” I said expectantly. “Open it.”

He carefully pulled the packaging away, and gazed at the brown Stetson resting on some soft straw. “Thank you,” he whispered, slowly lifting the hatand placing it on his head.

“You’re welcome,” I replied happily, then got to work.

“I’ll finish up here,” Mr. Radford grunted, motioning for me to hand over the saddle soap and cloth.

“We can work together,” I suggested. Mr. Radford nodded, then grabbed another saddle to polish, and another cloth.

The work was done in record time, with both of us doing it.

Two hours later, Mr. Radford showed me into his house.

“You want hot chocolate or a soft drink?” he asked, gesturing for me to sit on the high, leathery sofa.

“Yes please, a soft drink,” I responded absentmindedly, gazing around the huge mansion. There were crystal chandeliers, oak chairs with velvet cushions, and leather sofas. It was obvious he was rich.

“What type?” he interrupted my thoughts.

“Oh, do you have Orange Crush?”

“Sure,” he went back into the kitchen, and came back a moment later holding a can of the orange drink I had asked for. “Here,” he grunted again, passing it to me.

“Thanks,” I smiled at him.

“You’re welcome.” There was the hint of a smile on his weathered face, then it disappeared and he sat down on the sofa next to me. “You read horse magazines?” he asked.

“Some,” I answered. He rifled through a stack of magazines, then offered me a pile with horses and ponies of all sorts on the covers.

The rest of the time I chatted with Mr. Radford about Sundance and Big Jake.

When I heard Dad’s horn honk, I stood up abruptly, knocking my can over.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Radford,” I exclaimed, quickly picking it back up.

“It’s okay,” he waved it away. “It was empty anyhow. So you have to go?”

“Yeah,” I said regretfully. “But I’m coming again tomorrow after school.” This time Mr. Radford smiled for real, as he showed me to the door. “See you tomorrow,” I said to him.

“See you tomorrow,” he nodded.

After I got home, I went straight to Mrs. Walker’s house to tell her all about my time with her son.

“Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Walker!” I called while ringing the doorbell.

“Howdy, girlie,” she grinned when she opened the door. “What’s the rush? Well, first come in, then you can explain.”

So when I was settled on a comfy chesterfield, I described what had happened at Mr. Radford’s stables.

“So you’ve finally broken through?” she smiled broadly. “That’s good news.”

“That reminds me of the bad news,” I remembered glumly.

“What?” Mrs. Walker asked worriedly.

“Well, last Sunday at bible study the pastor was talking about this family of ten who needed two thousand dollars to pay the rent, plus they can’t even buy a decent meal. So I gave my ‘Sundance’ fund to them that very day, so I don’t have Sundance,” I explained.

“That’s too bad,” Mrs. Walker sympathized. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to keep on praying, hoping, and working!” I informed her determinedly.

“That’s my Emma!” Mrs. Walker raised her arm in victory. “Now, get along now and get to work.” She hurried me out the door.

At home, I went into the kitchen and pulled out a recipe book of desserts.

“What are you doing?” Mom asked, coming in.

I explained to her what had happened at the stables, and that I was planning to bring Mr. Radford something delicious. Mom was delighted that we were on our way to becoming friends since we’d be seeing so much of each other, and she helped me pick a recipe for oatmeal cookies and triple fudge brownies, and helped me make them.

The following day after school, I biked to Radford Stables on my own.

As soon as I got there, Mr. Radford greeted me with a slim smile and helped me do all the work, making it all only take one hour.

“Come into the house,” he invited me after all the stalls had been mucked, all the horses brushed, and all the tack cleaned. “So, Orange Crush as usual?” he winked.

“Yes please!”

So we spent another hour talking, eating the food I had baked the day before, and drinking our drinks.

The hour flew by all too soon, and I was sorry to leave.

I heard a car pull into the gravel driveway, then Mr. Radford called to me. “Wait, come back! I have something for you.”

“Hello,” said a voice. It was Mrs. Walker.

“Hi Mrs. Walker!” I cried.

“We have something for you,” she said mysteriously, grabbing her son’s hand.

“Come inside, Mom and Emily,” Mr. Radford said, ushering us in. When I was seated, Mr. Radford pulled something from his pocket and handed it to Mrs. Walker. She in turn brought it to me, and smiled. It was an envelope with my name on it.

“Don’t open it until you get home,” Mrs. Walker told me.

~Chapter Three~

Christmas!

            Two days later it was Christmas. I slipped down the stairs at six o’clock, presents in hand. Ricky was already waiting, and there were several presents stacked under our towering Christmas tree. Our stockings were bulging, but best of all it was snowing!

“Merry Christmas!” I cried.

“Merry Christmas!” Ricky embraced me.

“Merry Christmas,” Mom and Dad yawned, coming in. “Might as well open presents now, huh?”

“First things first,” Mom reminded him. “First we pray.”

We grabbed hands all around and closed our eyes. Then Dad prayed, “Dear God, thanks so much for this day. Thanks for sending your son Jesus to first be born in a stinky barn, then later crucified. We’re so thankful for blessing us with a loving family, and wonderful horses, too. In your name we pray, amen!”

“Amen!” we all chorused loudly.

“I want to be hander outer!” I yelled.

“No way, you were last year!” Ricky shouted back.

“Alright, you can be Santa,” I sighed. Ricky grinned, hugged me, then went to his station beside the tree. He handed first a gift to me, then Mom and Dad.

Nestled inside a box of stuffing was a beautiful, robin egg blue halter! It was from Mom, so I dropped the box and hugged her. “For Sundance, when you buy him,” she said softly, then ruffled my hair.

“Thanks,” I whispered, then hugged her again.

“Em-ma,” Ricky said impatiently. He was holding a box, which he handed to me. “It’s from Dad.”

I undid the ribbon and unwrapped the paper. I gawked. Inside were two Breyer horses. One looked exactly like Big Jake, even with the fringe of mane that always fell over his eyes. To my delight, the other one was an exact replica of Sundance. “Dad!” I squealed. “Thanks so much, how did you know about them?” Dad looked at me with that mysterious look in his eye, so I knew that that’s what Ricky had told him when he left the car. I hugged Dad, too, then placed the two horses with the blue halter.

There was a knock on the door, so I went to open it. Standing there was Pete Kerr, Suzanne’s older brother. “These are from Sue. One of them is for the whole family, one just for you.” He handed me two boxes, one big and one small, and turned to leave.

“Wait!” I called after him. “I have a gift for her, too, so you might as well take it.”

“Sure.” He turned back around to wait.

I ran up the stairs, grabbed Suzanne’s present, then ran back down and handed him the box.

“Say Merry Christmas to Sue, and thanks for bringing the present, Pete,” I thanked him. Mom asked if he would like to come in, but he declined, saying that they were having a Christmas dinner with family and had to prepare the house.

By that time, all the presents were open except for the gift from Suzanne and the stuff in the stockings, which we hadn’t seen yet.

“Open it,” Ricky urged me. I tore open the smaller package and nestled inside were four identical leather necklaces decorated with wooden beads and feathers, with a simple yellow stone in the middle. We spent several minutes admiring them, then I read aloud the letter that had come with it.

“Dear Emily. This is a gift for your whole family. Unfortunately, the yellow stones aren’t real topaz, but I hope you like the necklaces all the same. Enjoy the other gift. With Love, Sue and the Kerrs.” I handed everyone a necklace, with me and Ricky having the two, slightly smaller ones.

“There’s another one,” Ricky reminded me. I laughed at his enthusiasm, then obliged and removed the wrapping paper from the bigger gift.

“A Stetson cowboy hat ,” Dad breathed.

“And the same colour as the halter Mom got me!” In the box sat a dazzling blue Stetson, with a brown feather in the band, next to a big, silver belt buckle.

After Christmas breakfast, I excused myself to finish Mrs. Walker’s present, and bring it to her. I had drawn a picture of Sundance, and now I just outlined it and finished colouring. I also framed it, then went outside to bring the picture to Mrs. Walker.

“Hello, Emma dear,” she greeted me. “Merry Christmas!”

“Hi Mrs. Walker,” I said shivering. “Merry Christmas to you too. Here’s a present.”

“Come in, you must be freezing.” I went in with her, and handed the wrapped up drawing to her. “Would you like me to open it now?” Mrs. Walker asked after hanging my jacket up.

“Sure,” I shrugged, sipping a cup of hot chocolate. She carefully undid the ribbon and slit the tape on the wrapping paper.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” she exclaimed happily. And I know just the place to put it. The wall across from my bed has always seemed empty, and now whenever I wake up I can see this beautiful horse. Is this Sundance, the buckskin pony I gave you the money for?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“That reminds me, thank you for the baking. It tasted wonderful, and I shared it with my son Richard when he came over on Christmas Eve.”

“You’re welcome, and thanks so much for the money. You don’t know how much I appreciate it. Anyways, I have to go now. Thanks for the hot chocolate, Mrs. W.”

“Good-bye, Emily.” She hugged me, then put my coat on for me.

            That night in my prayers, I thanked God for him, Mom, Dad, Ricky, Mrs. W, Suzanne, the stable and all the horses especially Big Jake, and a wonderful Christmas, and ended with asking for money to buy Sundance.