My book

The Running Colt

Chapter 1:Summer

It was a crisp, warm summer morning and Amanda and Sarah were ready for their trip.

“I cannot believe we are going to your grandparent’s ranch!  What is it like there?” Sarah asked at breakfast.  Sarah and Amanda were best buddies.  
“It is extremely beautiful!  There are enchanting views from the mountains.  And guess what.  We have our own room on the top story of their house facing the sunset,” replied Amanda.  Sarah was speechless.  Sarah and Amanda hurried to finish up their “first day of summer” French toast.  They did not want to waste any of their summer.  Earlier that night, they started packing for their summer, but they were not done yet.  As soon as they were both finished with their French toast they ran swiftly to Amanda’s sky blue room and finished packing for their extensive trip.  

“I cannot believe that I can go to my grandparent’s ranch with my best friend, “said Amanda excitedly.  

“I cannot believe that I was invited to do this with the best friend in the world,” said Sarah.  They linked arms and were extremely glad that they were friends.  

“I think I hear my mom calling us,” Amanda said. They hopped into the car and were off to the purple mountains.  Amanda had already been there before, but Sarah had not. Sarah had a pretty good picture in her mind, but she did not know what was awaiting her. The mountains were so beautiful that you could not put it into words.  Sarah imagined nothing near to what it was.  They were not prepared for the drive either.  About half way there, they started to feel they had been driving for all eternity.  

“I do not remember this about the drive.  Is it really this long?” Asked Amanda.  

“Yes, it was this long.  But, that was a long time ago and you were only five, “replied Amanda’s mom.  Another four hours passed and Amanda could finally recognize the surroundings.  She was asleep recalling them.  Sarah had been asleep since the third hour because she did not sleep well the night before.  

“Sarah!  We are here!” Amanda excitedly exclaimed, not realizing Sarah was asleep.  

“Yes?  What’s going on?  Are we there yet?” Sarah asked sleepily.  

“Yes, we are here!” replied Amanda.  “Let me show you to our room.”  

Sarah jumped out of the car, not even looking around.  She ran after Amanda who was already running to the cottage.  Sarah arrived there and noticed that the grand house on an emerald plain was not there!  It was a wooden cozy cabin on the steep slopes of the Rocky Mountains.  Sarah and Amanda’s “room” was really a loft above the entertaining room on the first story.  Although the loft was huge, it was not what Sarah was thinking.  Luckily for Sarah, she had always wanted to live like this.  Sarah and Amanda got all settled in and were delighted to see that their “room” for the summer was coming together.  Amanda showed Sarah around the cottage.  Sarah’s hazel eyes caught sight of the shimmering, sparkling glass objects.  Sarah hurried to catch up with Amanda.  Amanda was in the horse stable and was looking very excited.  

Chapter 2 Explanation and Entertaining

    “Sarah, Sarah, come quick!  There’s a new…” said Amanda wonderingly.

    “A new what?” asked Sarah worriedly.

    “A new horse!” Exclaimed Amanda, finally catching her breath.  Sarah and Amanda ran through the misty sunset to the cottage.  When they approached the cottage, they ran in and asked numerous questions.  Amanda’s loving grandparents told them that as soon as they heard Amanda was planning to bring her best friend, they got a new horse for them.  The horse was going to have a colt in the middle of the summer.  Sarah and Amanda understood and were elated!  They ran to the stables to get a better new look at the horse.  This time, they noted that the horse was chestnut and had a beautiful white star in the middle of her head.  Her mane and tail were a lovely off white that matched her star.  

    “What should we name her?  Maybe Sunset, because we love the sunset.  Or Diamond, because of her star? I don’t know.  Anything would be great!”  Said Sarah.

    “I like Diamond,” said Amanda.  

    “Then we will go with Diamond,” announced Sarah.  Amanda and Sarah were delighted with the name.  They ran back to the loft and made a sign out of the colored paper and sparkling glitter that Amanda brought.  Not wanting to waste any, Amanda and Sarah saved some for the colt.  

Then, they were called in for dinner.   For dinner, they had fried fish fillets and fruit salad.  The meal was delicious.  When Sarah and Amanda were excused, they went to their loft and slept soundly.  

One happy week passed, as the girls played delightedly at the cottage.  The mother colt was getting ready to have her colt.  That required hours and hours of preparation.  

Sarah and Amanda loved their summer so much that they never wanted to leave.  Amanda and Sarah woke up on the 8th day and got dressed.  Amanda’s long, silky, pitch black, extremely straight hair was in beautiful braids down her back.  She put on her blue glasses that covered her green eyes.  She wore jeans and a plaid shirt with her boots, because it doesn’t get very warm in the Rocky Mountains in summertime.  Sarah’s curly blonde hair was in a loose bun; her freckles were prettier than ever.  She was wearing a knee length denim skirt with a plaid shirt.  The two girls were ready for whatever adventure awaited them.  

After their breakfast of toast, they mallard ducks swim.  Sarah brought her camera so she could get good pictures.  

“Oh, Amanda!  Isn’t’ it so beautiful!  The ducks are so graceful, “said Sarah lovingly.  

“Sure, “said Amanda, half paying attention and half getting in the water.  Amanda was trying to catch a minnow, but failing every time.  Sarah loved the beautiful pictures she was getting, they thought that they should go back to the cottage and help cook for their enormous dinner.  Their grandmother was having twenty of her best friends to have a wonderful dinner together.  They were going to have vegetable soup, fruit salad, fresh milk, and amazingly delicious homemade vanilla coconut cream ice cream.

“I can’t wait to taste your grandmother’s homemade vanilla coconut cream ice cream tonight” Sarah said imagining what it would be like.

“It is the best ice cream ever. After you have it you will never ever and I mean never want to go back to plain old boring store bought ice cream. You know she is famous in the mountains for her homemade vanilla coconut cream ice cream. Everyone in this part of the mountains comes to their ranch in the first day of spring for her food!” said Amanda proudly

“Wow! Wow! I did not know that about your grandmother and I know a lot about your grandmother.”  Said Sarah amazed.

They both ran extremely swiftly up the steep mountain slopes to the cozy cottage. They darted in and asked to borrow two aprons. Sarah borrowed a light blue painted apron. That was used when Mrs. Robertson had a new spark of need for a new painting in the cottage. Amanda borrowed a dark brown with black spots of coal marks. Her borrowed apron was much needed. Mr. Robertson used it every time he was working on: melting medal for new horse shoes, keeping the house warm in the winter, cleaning the stables, and really whenever he was awake. The reason she was able to use this was that Mr. Robertson was asleep on the coach. His feet were propped up on the coffee table and the TV was on because he fell asleep while he was watching college football. Amanda and Sarah giggled as they walked to the coffee table to grab his well-used apron. They skipped back swiftly and quietly not wanting to wake up the sleepwalking grandfather. They started to prepare the vegetables when their eyes caught sight of a man walking down the hallway straight towards them. Then they saw that the man’s eyes were closed. Mrs. Robertson recognized him as he approached but it was too late! The man walked right into the wall and woke up. It was only Mr. Robertson. But he made the girls extremely scared. Mrs. Robertson told the girls that they should not be scared because he does it every time he watches a good football game. The helpful girls went back to preparing the dinner. As the party approached the ice cream recipe was and her mother told her it. Mrs. Robertson said she would tell the girls the recipe so that they could tell their children.

“The recipe is:

8 cups of milk

4 cups of sugar

4 cups of coconut

3 cups of vanilla cream   

2 Tbsp. Of vanilla,” Mrs. Robertson told the girls, “and then you mix it for 3 minutes and then freeze it for 2 hours”

The twelve year old girls thought that they were receiving an amazing and awesome cooking lesson. They quickly wrapped up the party food. But they still had cleaning to do. They had to: sweep the covered porch, vacuum the first story, set up tables so people could sit and eat, and dust. They split the jobs evenly among the three of them. Sarah dusted the first floor because she loved the glass objects, Amanda swept the covered porch, Mrs. Robertson vacuumed the first floor, and they all helped set up the tables. Mrs. Robertson timed them to see how long it took them. She was going to have three more parties this summer and they were going to try to speed it up as time passed. Mrs. Robertson started the timer and they did it in record speed! They were extremely proud of their time of three minutes and two seconds. When they were finished partying they heard a quite soft knock at the door. One extremely nice lady stepped into the cottage and a grandmotherly talk began.  They had not seen each other in a very long time.  They heard many thunderous, loud, knocks at the door.  Maybe it was more guests.   The wonderful grandmothers opened the door and were bombarded with 19 extra guests.  There were millions of other “hellos” and “nice to see your” and “who are these wonderful young ladies?”  There were a whole lot of answers to these wonderful questions.  All of the amazing grandmotherly ladies insisted that the young ladies had to stay and party with them instead of doing their summer homework in the loft.  After some convincing Mrs. Robertson agreed…if they were very polite.  The girls were glad she would agreed, but she would have agreed even without all the convincing.  She was such a nice lady.  Amanda and Sarah rejoiced.  They quickly ran up to their loft to brush their messy hair so they could look more polished for the party.  They walked back to the formal entertaining room very lady like.  For Sarah, it was very easy to be lady like for this amount of time because she was like this every day.  But for Amanda, let’s just say it was a lot harder!  Time flew and the girls were having the time of their lives.  Before they knew it, it was ice cream time.  That was good, but also bad.  They enjoyed all the fun they were having.  Soon all of the extremely nice ladies had to leave.  

Then the girls had no excuse for not doing some of their homework.  They were told to go and work on some school up in the loft.  The girls went obediently.  When they arrived in the loft, they realized they packed more school than they originally thought.  They worked and worked until their fingers were shaking.  They did not want to have to this again this summer.  Soon they were told to go to bed.  They realized, as they were putting their books away, that they had completed less than half of their schoolwork.  

They went to bed and slept soundly.  Amanda had a wonderful dream about the future colt.  She dreamed she was white crystal with a chestnut colored star and chestnut colored mane and tail.  Sarah dreamed about a marshmallows and unicorns world which had candy all over it!  The two girls woke up to a loudly beeping alarm clock.  Mrs.  Robertson had a lot of work for them to do today.  

Chapter three- The girls are put to good use

    The day before, Mrs. Robertson had told the girls that today was a huge cleaning day.  Mr.  Robertson had to go to Helena, which was lower in the mountains, for work.  Normally, on any other day, he would do some of the house work, but Mr. Robertson was not going to be at home today.  The girls were going to help her.  Mrs. Robertson gave her the list and said, “Are you sure you girls can handle this list?  It is a lot of cleaning.  I can shorten it if you want me to.”  

“No, I think we can handle it.  We will have it done by dinner, “Said Amanda, at 7:00 in the morning.  

The girls looked over the list and realized that the list was way more than they thought it would be.  Sarah started with detail vacuuming the downstairs.  She had a special request from Mrs. Robertson that there could not be a speck of dirt on her white carpet.  Amanda took the messier job and cleaned up the disgusting stables.  They formed a plan that whenever they completed a job, they would mark it with a check mark on the list so one job wouldn’t accidentally be done twice.  

    Sarah was already getting started vacuuming the dirty rooms.  Her delicate hand was tightly gripping the gray handle.  Her ears were ringing from the roaring vacuum.  Her strong arms were weary after the first room, but there were five more to go.  

    Amanda was busily cleaning the messy stables.  Her hand was over her nose because of the potent odor.  Her other hand, unwantingly grabbing the extremely dirty shovel.  She thought that she might not be able to handle the potent odor before she finished the stables.  They realized that this would be a very long day.  

    The two girls finished their first chore at the same time.  They planned that after they finished their seventh chore, they would meet at the, now clean, horse stables to discuss lunch.  Sarah hoped that would be sometime around 12:30ish.  She was already getting quite hungry and it was only 9:30.  There were only 14 chores, so if they finished 7 before 12:30, they would have 5 and a half hours to finish the other chores.  But they started at 8:00am, and only had 4.5 hours to complete 7 huge chores.  They better get to work if they wanted to be able to eat their lunch.  

    Sara and Amanda busily started their second chore and the m their third chore and so on.  Finally, 12:30 came.  Sara was ravenous and could hardly wait to discuss lunch.  Sara’s mouth started to water when they met at the stables.  They both loved cheese, so they decided to to have mac-n-cheese with cheese sticks, crackers and cheese and milk for their lunch. They thought that it was scrumptious.    Just as before they continued with their seven chores, but this time they had an encouraging smell of baked potatoes in the oven.  The girls finished quickly and were excited to  try  the baked potatoes that were awaiting them on the wooden table.     

They went to bed and slept soundly.  Two weeks passed and those week included many “school days”.  Being overprotective, Mrs. Robertson was worried about the girl’s education.  She did not want the wonderful girls to forget their math facts, history dates and all that stuff.  Without bringing it up to the responsible girls, she asked a neighbor and friend to teach the girls every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  THe nice lady had a three year old son,  a five year old daugher, a seven year old son, a twelve year old daughter named Vanessa and two twin fifteen year olds.  Vanessa was quiet, but not too quiet, slightly adventurous, and a lady-like young lady.  Both Mrs. Robertson and the mother, Mrs. Cany, thought that they three girls, who were so much alike, would have fun together.  Finally, after a lot of planning, the ladies told the three girls that the  tutoring would start on Monday.  It was Saturday.  

“Okay, why do we need tutoring again?  I missed that part,” asked Amanda, trying not to be rude.  “Yes, I missed that too; but, I love the idea of helping us learn,” said Sara politely.  “Well I was nervous about your education; so, I thought it would be good to get the extra practice in.” replied Mrs. Robertson.  The girls did not want to hurt her feelings; but, they just finished their school that they brought.  They would then need to start totally new books.  How long would that take, they wondered.  That could wait; they wanted to go meet this Vanessa.  They hustled over to her mansion of a house and knocked at the door.  A small, young boy came to the door.  As soon as he saw the girls, he ran off and squealed at the top of his lungs.  The girls thought that he was about three, because he was wearing ‘Paw Patrol’ underwear and no shirt.  Then a more  mature girl  came  to the  door  and asked,

“ Are you looking for Vanessa? Let  me show you to  her room.”

The girls stepped in to the wonderful house and were in awe.  The rooms were stunningly beautiful. They realized that they were lagging behind . Sarah  wanted to stay here forever  but Amanda wanted to run out and never come back. But Amanda stayed. They walked up the marble spiraling  staircase and at the end of the hallway was a door that said “Vanessa’s room”. Vanessa’s room was painted peach pink with accent colors of blue, green, and orange’. She had a barre and dance floor on the far side of her room. The  barre had pointe shoes all over it from one end to the other end. By the look of it she loved dance. Vanessa was sitting at a desk writing with a pen that had tiny pointe shoes on the end that were surrounded with pink feathers. The girls thought she was probably working on school.

“Hello, are you Vanessa? I am Sarah.” asked sarah bravely  walking in.

“Oh yes, I am Vanessa. Are you the girls my mother is teaching?”replied Vanessa

“Yes, I guess we are,”added Amanda confused.

“Do you like to dance? I do and I dance at  Philadelphia School of Dance.” said Sarah trying to get to Know Vanessa better.

“Yes I love to dance. I dance at Mountain Dance Academy or I like to call it M.D.A.,”said Vanessa realizing that the three of them had a lot in common. “ have you met my mom yet?” continued Vanessa.  

“No, but we saw you two or three year old brother, “ Said Amanda.  

“Job, “ interrupted Vanessa.

“And your older sister who is around 14 or 15, I think, “ piped in Sarah.

“Mallory,” said Vanessa.  “Let me take you to my mom,” offered Vanessa.  

The girls hurried to meet Mrs. Cany and found her in the school room working on the school plans for the summer.  “Hello, I’m Sarah and this is Amanda.  It is very nice to meet you, “ said Sarah shyly.  

“Why, hello.  It is nice to meet you too.  I have heard so much about you.  Unfortunately, I have to get our curriculum so…,” said mrs. Cany.  

“We should go?”, said Amanda, finishing Mrs. Cany’s sentence.  

They politely left the mansion and hustled to the cottage.  They were so excited to see Vanessa three times a week.  By the time they arrived home, got dinner, brushed their teeth and put on snuggly pajamas, it was 8:30pm.  The girls responsibly went to bed without being told.  

The girls woke up and got ready for church.  Sarah was wearing her light blue, short sleeved, knee length spring dress.  She had her hair in a braid with a blue tulip bow.  She was wearing her white, sparkly slip ons.  Amanda was wearing a pink, short sleeved, knee length floral summer dress.  Amanda’s silky black hair was in low pigtails on the side of her back.  She was wearing white flip flops with a pink flower on the top.  The girls looked magnificent in their outfits.

The grandparents and the stunning girls walked out onto the porch and soaked up the fresh mountain air.  After five minutes of soaking up the air, they got in the car and headed to church.  At church, they read from Genesis 41.  The girls loved studying this part of the Bible.  

They started to walk to the car when a tiny white poodle came bursting out of the beautiful blossoming bushes.  The poodle had a twinkling pink collar with a tag that said “sweetie pie.”  The address on the tag was for Ms. Vanessa’s house.  

“Oh!  That’s Sherry’s dog.  We should take her to them.  She has been missing for weeks,”   Said Mrs. Robertson.  They took her home and reunited her with the family.  

Chapter 4- The Storm Came

    One week passed and the clouds grew darker and darker.  Mr.  Robertson was worried about it.  He went to the nearest town and stocked up on food, wood and supplies.  He brought them home and asked if he could talk about something with the girls and Mrs. Robertson.  

The three of them looked very nervous.  Mr. Robertson said they would be having a huge storm soon.  He also said not to worry because he had seen the storm coming and had stored up enough food for one month, so they would be ready  for any length of storm.  The whole house was silent for a very long time.  Then Mr Robertson said that it would hit tonight.  One question came up.  That question was:  how were they going to do their summer school tomorrow.  Finally, Amanda asked and Mr. Robertson remembered that Mrs. Cany had heard about the storm and she prepared each girl a packet that had the school for a month for each girl.  She also included what she called a “questions sheet” where the girls could write any questions they may have for her on it.   

Mrs. Robertson told the girls to run as fast as they could to get the packets from Mrs. Cany.    When the girls left the house, the wind was so strong it was almost blowing them over.  Sarah looked at the sky and saw that the darkest cloud she had ever seen in her live was already over one peak of the mountain.  They ran to the house and struggled to knock at the door.   Finally, they were able to knock as loud as they could with the wind against them.  mrs. Cany opened the door and quickly gave the girls the appropriate packages.  She told them to run as fast as they could and not stop until they were back at the cottage.  

When they finally arrived at the cottage, they were not able to close the front door  because the wind was so strong.  They ran to get Mr. Robertson.  With a little  trouble, he closed the door tightly.  They all sat on the couch and turned on the news because they wanted to know what would happen.  The news said this mystery storm would likely knock out the power and that the wids could be up to 60 miles per hour.  Then, an alert came in and the weatherman said “you should bolt up your doors and windows.”  

Then, the storm hit the house and all the power was knocked out.  Mr. Robertson ran to the door of the storage closet and grabbed his favorite hammer, ten lead nails, a strong board and his trusty safety gloves.  Mrs. Robertson ran to light all of the candles around the house.  Mr. Robertson bolted the door and ran to the back door and did the same.  Then he secured all the windows.   “What about diamond,” exclaimed Sarah very worried?

“She will be ok.  I filled her through with enough food and water for one month, “ reassured Mr. Robertson.  Because it was so late, the girls were told to go to bed.  They had summer school to work on in the morning.  

When it was about midnight, both of the girls woke up to a large crash.  They looked out the circular window by the loft and saw a flash of lightning that had split one of the trees in half.    When they looked at the mountains, they saw that there was a wave of water coming down the mountain straight towards them.  THey could feel the water crashing up against the house.  After about an hour of the excitement, they girls fell back asleep.   

In the morning, the girls came down from the loft and were greeted with cinnamon sugar toast on the table.  To their surprise, Mr. and Mrs. Robertson were sitting at the table together drinking their coffee.  The girls sat down at the table and ate breakfast with the grandparents.   They talked and played cards and enjoyed themselves until 10:00 a.m.. Then the girls went to the old school room from when Amanda’s dad was little. The girls enjoyed their school and were sad when the end of the scheduled first day came to an end.  They wanted to go ahead but when they got to the last page there was a note that read:

“Dear girls,

Please do not go ahead. I want you to do each day on that day. I have a reason to ask you to do this.

Love, Mrs. Cany”

“Grandma I’m Finished!” Yelled Amanda.  

Just then, Sarah finished her school.  They went to the kitchen which was on the other side of the cottage.  They grabbed bread, peanut butter, brown sugar, one knife and one spoon.   For lunch, they prepared their lunch of peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches.  Sarah had never had this.  She always ate plain old PB&J.  She loved this meal and was going to tell her mom and Shelly, her 15 year old sister.  She thought it would be a good lunch at school.  

    After lunch, they wanted to watch the pounding rain.  Amanda Discovered what had made the ig wave of water.  She decided it was:  The lake on the top of the mountain that she swam in last summer.    It must have filled up and overflowed.  The girls took a “slight” nap because they didn’t get good sleep the night before.  The girls’ “slight nap” turned into a four hour nap.  When they woke up, it was 6:00., which was dinnertime.  After dinner, the girls went to bed and soundly slept. through the storm.  

    One long week passed and the girls noticed that there was less and less rain until one day…

“Have you noticed that the rain has died down!” Asked Amanda.

    “Yes, I have.  Maybe that means that the storm is ending, “ replied Sarah.  Just then a strong gust of wind blew in.  Then the girls heard an extremely loud crash and the horse panicking.   Mr. Robertson grabbed a lead rope and darted to the door.   He unbolted the door and ran out.  Then they heard Mr. Robertson calming down Diamond.   They both ran to the window and tried to unlatch it, but they broke one of the shutters.  They looked through the hole that they had created and saw that Mr. Robertson had managed to get the lead rope on Diamond.   They watched him tie it to  one of the poles of the horses’ stable that was still standing.  After the rope was secure, he started to clear the  debris.  He did that for about fifteen minutes.  Then, he came inside.  

His hands were scratched from the rusted sharp nails.  When he got inside, he placed bandages and neosporin on his hands.  After he did that,  he called all the neighbors to come start the rebuild of the stables.  The three other hardworking men came through the  sticky mud as fast as they could to reach him.  Mr. Robertson told them that the horse, Diamond,  was  going to have a baby soon, so they needed to work fast.  Mr. Robertson showed them the destruction and told the men where he wanted the new stable.  

The men rapidly went to work, because they did not have a lot of time.  By the time night fell, they had already cut the wood that was needed to build the new stable.  Late that night, Mr. Robertson came in from the hard work and he was  intensely ravenous.  After a quick dinner, he went straight to bed.  

Early the next morning, he woke up and Mr. Canny, Mr. Fascof, and Mr.  Lasho were already  at the house waiting for the day’s instructions.  Mr. Robertson quickly apologized to them for being late.  The other men accepted his apology graciously.  Mr. Robertson went back into the cottage and returned with the girls carrying hot coffee that Mr. Robertson had made for the gentlemen.  The men all sat and talked for fifteen whole minutes.  

When they finally realized that they were wasting daylight, they put down their  half-finished coffee and started the work on the new stable.  The next few days passed with about the same things as: the constant banging of the hammers, sleepless nights and the pressure of getting the new stable finished in time for the new colt.  Finally, after six days, a man crashed through the cottage door and ran in.  They started to yell, “The stable is finished!”  All the men picked the comfiest chairs and eagerly sat down in them to talk.  Mrs. Robertson brought out freshly baked  cookies that she baked  for them even if they didn’t finish the task.  When the girls smelled the delicious smell of grandmothers peanut butter cookies, they came running in from the pond.  They  quickly grabbed a cookie, stuffed them  in their mouths and darted to the couch.  

Chapter 5  The New Addition

    “Wake up sleepyhead!  Something strange just happened, “ Said Amanda eagerly.  

    “Wait, what?  What happened?” exclaimed Sarah Excitedly.

    “I don’t know, “ replied Amanda.

    “We should totally find out,” Said Amanda and Sarah together.  

The girls climbed out of the loft in their matching horse pants and school shirts.  The girls slipped on their horse slippers and ran outside.  There they thought that they would see a baby horse that looked just like the mother, Diamond.  But it was not!

Instead, there was a chestnut horse, but she had chocolate colored legs, mane and tail.  The first question Sarah asked was, “what shall we name her?”  

“Reece, like the reeces peanut butter cup candy,” replied Amanda, gazing down at the colt.  The girls ran inside to tell their grandparents about their discovery.  As soon as Mr. Robertson heard the news, he told the girls to follow behind him if they wanted to go just  in case the mother horse got protective and started to kick.  Thankfully, she didn’t kick and just let them pass.  

Mr. Robertson was a veterinarian, so he checked the colt for different diseases.  Thankfully, Reece did not have any problems, she was perfectly fine.  The girls were elated that she was healthy.  Mr. Robertson gave the mom some more food for the day and the three of them went inside to give the horses their space.  

Over the next few days the girls noticed that the baby horse was not walking as it should be.  To try to fix this, they tied an apple to a string and hung it in front of Reece.  Reece did not like that she could not reach it, but soon she realized that there was a treat waiting for her when she stood up and walked.  Before the girls knew it, Reece was running into the sunset.  

Chapter 6- Departing

    Sadly about a week later, the time came for the girls to leave.  Vanessa, who they had stopped school with, was working on a going away party for Amanda and Sarah.  Early on the last day that they were going to be on the mountain, the girls went to the stables to say their goodbyes to the two horses, Diamond and Reece.  When they arrived, they saw all of Vanessa’s family in the stable.  The girls tried to remember all of Vanessa’s family:  all 10 names, and they could!  Vanessa asked if they could, and they replied,  “Job, Mallory, Vanessa, Isabella, Madison, Michael, Matthew, John,  Mr. Robertson and Mrs. Robertson?”  

“Yes, that’s it, but just not in age order, “ exclaimed Vanessa impressed.  Mallory brought in a cake that was vanilla with two horses on it for the girls.  After they had each had a slice, Amanda’s mom pulled up and told the girls to get in the car.  They had a long drive ahead of them all the way back to philadelphia.  The girls gave everyone a hug and thanked Vanessa, Mr. Robertson, Mrs. Robertson and Mrs. Canny for the time they took to plan their time in the mountains.  After that, they climbed into the car, rolled down the windows and said their last goodbyes until next summer.  

The End.