Purebred Read Free Page A

Canadian border. “Lots of snow and wind and ice,” Colonel Hanson said. “Travel can be difficult up there this time of year. But your aunts and uncle will know how to cope with the weather.”
    Carole hugged her arms around herself. She couldn’t wait to go.
    W HEN C AROLE TOLD Stevie and Lisa the news the next day at Pine Hollow, they were excited about her trip, but a little disappointed too.
    “I wanted you to help me with No-Name,” Stevie said. “But you can help me after you get back. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of Starlight for you.”
    “We can feed Snowball too,” Lisa offered. Snowball was Carole’s jet-black cat, so named because she was so contrary. She always did the opposite of what she was told to do. Carole thanked her friends. She knew she wouldn’t have to worry about Starlight and Snowball while she was gone—Stevie and Lisa would do everything for them that she would do.
    “Do you have a name for No-Name yet?” Carole asked her friend.
    Stevie groaned. “I can’t think that hard during vacation,” she said. “Perfection eludes me.”
    E ARLY IN THE morning on the Tuesday after Christmas, Carole packed her bags. She still felt full of the warm feelings of Christmas.
    On Christmas Eve she had ridden Starlight in another Starlight Ride, only this year she had had the sweet joy of seeing Stevie, flushed with pride and happiness, lead the procession aboard No-Name. Christmas Day had been great—another great Christmas with her dad. Carole found that even though she still missed her mother, especially around holidays, she had become used to and loved the quiet way she and her father celebrated. They had gone to an early morning church service at the base, then came home and built up a roaring fire before opening their gifts to one another.
    Carole put her hand to her ear to be sure the earrings her dad had given her were still there. They were real gold, tiny horseshoes set with even tinier diamond chips. “For luck, not that you need luck,” her father had explained. They were the first real grown-up present she had ever gotten from him, and she loved them.
    And now, on this lucky day, they were going to Minnesota. Her father had told her a lot already, and from what he said she was even more excited.
    “They should make an interesting project,” he had said,stretching out on the couch Christmas afternoon, while Carole played with Snowball in front of the fire. “The Foleys can trace their ancestry back to the days of slavery, right back to a slave in the Old South.
    “I don’t really know the details, but I remember hearing about a man who escaped from slavery just before the Civil War. He brought his family all the way to Minnesota and began to farm there. Foleys have lived in that area ever since.”
    Now, as Carole shoved a pair of jeans into her crowded suitcase, she remembered how the story had made her shiver. So this was her oral history. She was eager to learn more, especially since it sounded like she had a real hero in her family tree.

T HE TRIP TO Minnesota seemed to take forever, but finally Carole and her father landed at a little regional airport in northeastern Minnesota. Carole ducked her head as she climbed out the plane’s small hatchway. A gust of cold air hit her so strongly that she was nearly blown off her feet. With her mittened hand she grabbed the railing of the plane’s steps and hung on. The air made her nose hairs crackle. She’d never felt anything that cold!
    She and her father hurried to the terminal building. Inside, her father collected their luggage while Carole looked around for their relatives. A tall black man in a dark parka stood looking searchingly at the incoming passengers. Carole waved a tentative hand. “Uncle John?”
    Instantly the man’s face was wreathed in smiles. “Carole!”He came toward her and held out his arms. Carole held hers out to him, and he wrapped her in a giant bear hug. “How could I not have recognized