Horse Named Dragon Read Free

anything?”
    Benny was going to tell them about hearing a truck start up in the middle of the night. But he was afraid they’d laugh at that, too. So he just reached for the maple syrup and poured it all over his second helping of Cookie’s famous flapjacks.

CHAPTER 3
No Dessert Until …
    After breakfast, Cookie and Alyssa walked the children back to the corral to see their horses. Benny spotted Lots-o’-Dots standing with Bucky in a shady corner. “Here, boy,” he called. Benny held out a biscuit he’d saved from breakfast. Lots-o’-Dots trotted over and gobbled it down.
    Bucky limped over carrying the empty oat buckets. “I told you he’d be here,” said Bucky. As Bucky climbed through the fence, his hat with the orange feathers fell off. Lots-o’-Dots picked it up in his big horse teeth. Everyone laughed. Bucky grabbed it back, then glanced shyly at Cookie as he put it on. Cookie smiled, her eyes twinkling.
    “Are we going to ride now?” Benny asked.
    “Not yet,” Cookie said. “When you live on a ranch, you have to do your chores first.”
    “We cowboys have a saying: ‘No dessert until you finish your mashed potatoes,’ ” said Bucky.
    “I always finish my mashed potatoes!” exclaimed Benny.
    Cookie laughed. “What Bucky means is, we don’t get treats—like riding our horses—until we finish our work.”
    “What can my job be?” Violet asked cheerfully.
    “Your grandfather tells me you’re a wonderful artist,” said Cookie. “I’m putting you in charge of the barn project. That big barn over there faces the highway. Lots of people drive by every day. I’d like to paint a mural on the side.”
    “A mural?” asked Benny.
    “A big painting on the side of a building, or on a wall,” said Violet. “Like the dancing fruits and vegetables painted on the wall at Faber’s Finer Foods.”
    “Right,” said Cookie. “A nice big mural could show people that the Dare to Dream Ranch has horses to ride and horses to adopt.”
    Violet looked at the huge barn. “I … I don’t think I can paint that all my myself.”
    “You just make the drawing,” Cookie said. “Bucky here will round up our volunteers to do the painting.”
    Kurt Krupnik rode up. The ranch manager’s blond moustache was as dusty as his horse.
    “I think I know what happened to Honey and Bunny. A big tree branch fell on the fence in the far pasture,” he said. “It tore down a whole section. Honey and Bunny probably saw the opening and just walked on out of here. I’ve sent a couple of my men to look for them. You never should have called the police, Alyssa.”
    “I … I thought the horses were stolen,” Alyssa said.
    “If you had more experience, you wouldn’t panic.” Kurt looked at the horses in the corral. “Why is Dragon still up here?” He glared at Alyssa. “He’s supposed to be out in the west pasture, in the old corral.”
    Alyssa jutted her jaw. “I think his leg is healed.”
    “You’re not the vet,” Kurt said. “Dragon stays out in the old corral until Slim gives the okay.”
    “Let me take a look,” said Bucky. He climbed into the corral and lifted Dragon’s back leg.
    Jessie stared at Dragon’s shoe. Most horseshoes were shaped like a “U” but Dragon’s had a square toe. “What’s wrong with his foot?” she asked.
    “Oh, that’s nothing,” said Bucky. “I noticed that Dragon here liked to ‘wing it’ when he ran. Kicked his leg up to the inside. This square-toe shoe helps him run nice and straight.” He set Dragon’s foot back down. “His leg looks healed,” he said.
    Kurt frowned at the white-haired man. “No one rides Dragon until the vet checks him out,” he told Bucky.
    “You’re the boss,” said Bucky. He grabbed hold of Dragon’s bridle. “I’ll put him in his stall until Slim can look at him.”
    “You’d better,” Kurt grunted, riding off.
    “Why is Kurt so angry?” asked Henry.
    “He hates me,” said Alyssa. “He thinks I’m too young to be