Dude Ranch (12 page)

It was a wonderful end to a wonderful party, Stevie thought, gazing at the pile of gifts at her feet.

“W
HERE’D
S
TEVIE GO
?” Lisa asked Carole late that afternoon after they’d returned to The Bar None. They were with Kate in their bunkhouse, removing their riding clothes and donning bathing suits for a cool swim in the creek.

“Beats me,” Carole said. “Do you know, Kate?”

“I saw her march off to the barn after Stewball was in the paddock, but I don’t know what she was doing there. Maybe she just wanted to thank Eli again.”

“Maybe,” Lisa said. “But I thought Eli was done for the day after the horses were let out into the paddocks. Wouldn’t he have gone to the wranglers’ bunkhouse?”

“Oh, there’s never any telling
where
Eli is,” Kate said. “He’s always full of surprises.”

“And speaking of surprises,” Lisa said, grinning
proudly. “We sure had one for Stevie today, didn’t we? It was terrific. At least I thought so.”

“I thought so, too,” Stevie said, climbing up the steps of the bunkhouse. She’d heard their conversation through the open window. “It was an absolutely fabulous surprise. You had me totally fooled. I thought I was the only one in the world who remembered my birthday.”

“You thought we were all deaf, dumb, and blind?” Carole asked. Stevie grinned. She had the feeling she was going to deserve what Carole was about to say to her. “You only mentioned it about forty-two times in the last few days. You must have thought we were pretty awful to be so coldhearted toward you.”

“I did,” Stevie said. “And I should have known you guys better! You did have a surprise for me. Surprises are so great. Both for the surpris
er
and the surpris
ee
.” She smiled sagely, like a cat licking her chops after consuming a canary. Stevie sat down on her lower bunk and began yanking off her hot boots. She wiggled her toes. “Oh, that feels good. And the swim is going to feel even better.”

“Wait a minute, there, Stevie,” Kate said, holding her hand up in protest. “You were talking like you’ve got some kind of surprise planned. Do you know something we ought to know?”

Stevie feigned the most innocent look she could
manage. “Why,
whatever
could you be talking about?” she asked.

Carole, Lisa, and Kate suspected they wouldn’t be able to get another word out of Stevie on the subject of surprises, but that didn’t keep them from trying.

As the girls walked over to the swimming hole, towels over their shoulders, they pumped her for information. One by one, as they jumped into the crystal-clear waters, they pumped her. One by one, as they threatened to dunk her, they pumped her, but they didn’t learn anything more useful. Stevie just kept on grinning happily. And, since she was a very good swimmer, she dunked them back.

T
HE NEXT MORNING
, Stevie arose before her friends. They all had to get up early so they could be packed and ready to leave for the airport. As far as Stevie was concerned, that was a
terrible
reason to get up early. But Stevie had a better reason than that.

They’d made a date with Christine. They didn’t have time to go for a dawn ride with her, but she’d agreed to come to their bunkhouse for a visit after she’d watched the sunrise and then join them all for a farewell breakfast of steak and eggs.

Stevie slipped out of her bunk and put on a clean pair of jeans, her new belt from Eli, a cowboy shirt, and her red bandanna. She decided she didn’t care
how
out of place she’d look in the Washington airport, she wanted to wear her cowboy clothes.

When she was dressed, she left the bunkhouse, creeping silently into the gray dawn. She could see the first streaks of color coming over the mountains and she knew Christine would be there soon. She wanted to be ready.

She walked to the back of the barn and turned the knob on the cobweb-covered door, retracing her steps from her several visits to Mel and her puppies. This time, when she opened the final door to see the golden-colored mother and her puppies, Mel’s tail wagged happily in greeting.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Stevie said. “I need to borrow one of your puppies for a while.” Mel regarded her carefully. Stevie had the feeling that Mel knew she could trust her. “I’ll take care of it,” she promised. “And I’ll bring it back.”

Mel lay down and put her chin on her outstretched front paws. She watched every move Stevie made.

The puppies were waking up as the sun began filtering into their little room. It was a fact of life that all puppies were cute, Stevie thought. But which was the cutest?

The variety was astonishing. Some of them seemed to have more retriever blood than anything else. A couple of them looked like there was English sheepdog
blood in them. Two tended toward a shepherd look. Stevie didn’t think that was a good idea. And one had curly brown-and-white fur. His markings reminded Stevie of Stewball and she thought that was a good idea for what she had planned. She stroked the puppy’s head gently as he slept. His eyes popped open and he stared at her for a second. Then, as if to thank her, he began licking her hand. His soft tongue tickled her skin. As he licked, Stevie could see that his hindquarters were going into action. In a flash, the little puppy was standing up because his tail was wagging so excitedly that he had to.

“I know a winner,” she said, patting the puppy for a few more seconds. Then, while Mel watched dubiously, Stevie picked up her puppy. She gave the mother one more reassuring pat and left the room, closing the door carefully behind her.

In a few minutes, Stevie was back at the bunkhouse. During her absence, her friends had awakened to their alarm clock and had dressed as she had.

“Where have you been?” Carole asked.

“I’ve been working on my surprise,” Stevie told her friends. And then, as she stepped up onto the porch, she produced the puppy.

“Where did
that
come from?” Carole asked, enchanted.

“It came from the barn,” Stevie began to explain.
She sat down on the floor of the bunkhouse and crossed her legs to make a little pen for the puppy. She put him down gently and began playing with him as she explained. Her friends took turns patting the puppy, and having their hands licked, while Stevie talked.

“Eli has this dog, Mel,” she began. “She had a litter of puppies and Eli wanted to keep it a secret so a whole bunch of dudes wouldn’t bother the puppies too much. But they’re almost old enough to be weaned now, and he wants to find homes for them.”

“What on earth will your mother say?” Lisa asked, trying to think how she would explain it to her mother if she showed up with a puppy from a dude ranch.

“My mother?” Stevie said in surprise. “What’s she got to do with it?”

“Aren’t you planning to take him home?” Carole asked.

“Oh, no,” Stevie said. “It’s not for me. It’s—”

There was the sound of steps on the bunkhouse porch. “Good morning!” Christine called to her friends. “You guys up now that the sun’s already been up for a half an hour?” she teased.

And then all of The Saddle Club members understood what Stevie’s surprise really was about.

“Come on in,” Kate welcomed Christine. “We were just talking about you—or at least we were about to, weren’t we, Stevie?”

Stevie nodded.

Christine opened the screen door and walked in. The four girls were sitting in a circle, surrounding a puppy who seemed intent on sniffing and exploring the entire universe in the next few moments.

“Oh, he’s cute!” Christine said, leaning down between Carole and Lisa. “Whose is he?”

“He’s Eli’s now,” Stevie said. “But he wants to find a good home for him. Tells me his mother’s the finest herder he ever had. Don’t know much about his father, though, but Eli thinks it’s another herder.”

“Eli knows good dogs, doesn’t he?” Christine asked.

“Yes,” Stevie said. “And I know good owners.”

“Are you taking him back to Virginia with you?”

“Nope,” Stevie said. “This dog belongs on the range. He belongs with horses and cattle. He doesn’t look like much now—”

“Sure he does,” Christine interrupted her. “He looks a
lot
like Stewball.”

“My thought exactly,” Stevie said. “See, we think alike.” Christine laughed. “But I’m serious now,” Stevie continued. “I’m always serious when it comes to animals and their owners.”

Christine glanced at Stevie curiously. The puppy loped over to greet the newest arrival. Christine squatted down and automatically reached out to pat him. He automatically began licking her hand. When Christine picked him up, he began licking her neck.
She giggled from the tickling and fell over backward. The puppy started nibbling at her earlobes. Christine, who was normally quite reserved, couldn’t stop laughing—or patting the puppy.

“See,” Stevie said. “You’ve got to have him.”

Christine’s smile disappeared. “Stevie, I can’t replace Tomahawk. No dog could replace him for me. I know you feel responsible, but you shouldn’t. It wasn’t your fault. It was a rattlesnake. They live here. Sometimes they kill dogs.”

“I know,” Stevie said. “I understand that now, though it wasn’t easy for me to realize it. I also know that you can’t replace Tomahawk. No dog can replace Tomahawk. He was one of a kind. But this little guy—well, he’s one of another kind. Seems to me that he’s another kind of dog you ought to have.”

Christine removed the puppy’s paws from her shoulder and lifted him into her lap. She patted his head and scratched him behind the ears as she spoke. “You could be right,” she began, “but I’m not sure I can decide.”

“I’m not sure it’s you who’s doing the deciding here,” Stevie said sensibly. “Looks to me like it’s already been done.”

She pointed to the puppy who, exhausted from his exploring, tail wagging, and licking, had suddenly fallen sound asleep on Christine’s legs.

“Oh,” Christine said, as the puppy sighed contentedly. Then she smiled. “I guess it is decided.” She hugged her new puppy very gently, so as not to wake him.

Then, while the puppy slept, the girls returned him to his mother. Eli had told Stevie they’d all be ready to leave Mel and go to their own homes in one week. Christine could have her pick of the litter, but it was clear that Stevie and the puppy had made the choice for her. They put the sleeping puppy down next to his mother. He snuggled up to Mel and then, still half-asleep, began nursing. Mel licked him.

The girls left the mother and her puppies, tiptoeing out of the room. It was time for their breakfast. It was time to finish packing. It was almost time to go.

“I’ve got it!” Christine announced at the breakfast table as she ate her steak.

“What have you got?” Stevie asked her.

“I’ve got the puppy’s name,” Christine told them all. They looked at her expectantly. “His name is Dude,” she announced. “And every time I call him, I’ll think of you all. That’ll be great!”

Stevie and her friends thought so, too.

“W
HERE ARE WE
now?” Lisa asked Carole wearily. “I keep losing track.” The three girls were sitting in a row of identical chrome-and-plastic chairs in an airport that looked very much like the previous two they’d been in—only bigger.

“We’re in Denver,” Carole said. “Stapleton Airport, it’s called. We just have one more flight and it’s going to leave in a half an hour from that gate there.” She pointed to a desk where they had already checked in for their flight. “Until then, we wait.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I had a great time at The Bar None Ranch.”

“Me, too,” Carole said.

“Especially me,” Stevie added. “It hardly seems possible
that only a week ago, we’d never ridden Western, never herded cattle, never met Christine or Eli. Now it all seems familiar, and they seem like good friends.”

“Is it going to be hard going back to
English
riding?” Lisa wondered out loud.

“I don’t think so,” Carole said. “After all, if we learned anything from our Western riding experience, it’s that horses are horses and the kind of saddle you put on them doesn’t change that. But don’t forget to post when you trot.”