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    Stagecoach Summer
    Stagecoach Summer
    Stagecoach Summer
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    Stagecoach Summer

    By Judith Wade

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Four friends and their horses, a farm in trouble, an antique stagecoach and a ghost that just won't quit.  Combine them, and what do you get? A summer of fun, with a dash of spine-tingling adventure!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRiley Press
    Release dateJan 15, 2019
    ISBN9781386555506
    Stagecoach Summer

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      Book preview

      Stagecoach Summer - Judith Wade

      Stagecoach

      Summer

      Judith Wade

      ––––––––

      rileysmall

      Published by Riley Press

      Eagle, Michigan

      Stagecoach Summer

      A Riley Press Publication

      Eagle, MI 48822

      [email protected]

      ––––––––

      Riley logo by Tina Evans, Kingsley, Michigan

      Cover photo by Callipso/Shutterstock.com

      ––––––––

      Copyright © 2019 Loraine J. Hudson

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without advance written permission from the publisher.

      This publication is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. 

      ––––––––

      Stagecoach

      Summer

      Prologue

      I’m not going to lie. I don’t like ghosts.

      I don’t like how they’re around when you wish they weren’t—like when it’s getting dark and the bushes keep rustling and rattling, sounding as if a ghost is hiding behind each branch, ready to leap out at you.

      I don’t like how ghosts aren’t there when you wish they were—like when you want the answer to number fourteen on your science test, but no matter how hard you listen, no friendly spirit whispers a hint in your ear.

      When I was little and I had to walk in the dark down the hall from our den, sometimes I was positive I heard a ghost, and not a friendly one either. It scared me so much that I ran faster and faster and faster until I went thumping and scrambling and panting into the kitchen, and my dad would holler, Kevin, for crying out loud!

      I don’t run anymore because I really don’t want anyone to know how I feel about ghosts. So now, when I think I might hear the ghost in the hallway, I make myself walk very, very slowly until I’m out with the rest of the family. Unfortunately, whenever I do that my legs get sort of stiff and petrified, no matter how hard I try to make them be regular. And being petrified is no fun.

      Ghosts are a big pain.

      And even though I don’t like ghosts, a ghost plays a pretty big part in the story I’m going to tell, the story of how we had one of the most exciting summers of our lives.  

      CHAPTER ONE

      It all began when Steven broke his shoulder falling through a big hole up in the hayloft at the Double S barn. Steven and his wife, Stephanie, were trying to fix the hole before they filled the barn with hay for the winter. But suddenly, the floor gave way and Steven fell. He had his arm in a sling for what seemed like forever, and that meant trouble for Double S.

      He had special exercises to do, and he did them all winter long. But then his arm and back also started to hurt, and by spring he had to go on sick leave from his job at the lumberyard. That made him really sad. After a while, he didn’t come out to the barn to joke with us anymore or anything. He just sat in the house watching TV, and that made all of us sad, too.

      Double S was where my friends, Raj, Barbara and Sally, and I kept our horses. When Steven’s shoulder didn’t get better, we all tried to help out so Steven and Stephanie would have less work to do. We took the bus straight to the farm every evening after school so we could do things like clean out our own stalls, check the fences and pick rocks out of the riding arena. When Stephanie had to work late, one of us stayed to give the horses their evening meals, and we did our homework sitting on our trunks in the tack room.

      We didn’t mind spending extra time at the farm, because we were out at Double S all the time anyway, riding or just messing around in the barn. We all liked to be around our horses more than we liked just about anything.

      Raj had a roan quarter horse named Blue. Blue’s coat was a mix of red and white hairs that made him look sort of pink in the sunshine and not blue at all, but I guess it would have been funny to call a horse Pink, and besides, Blue’s owners before Raj named him and not Raj. Raj treated Blue like a prince. He was always brushing him and making sure Blue had absolutely everything a horse could want.

      My horse, Copper, was a dark red chestnut with a long, crooked white blaze. I liked how his blaze made his face look sort of lopsided—like he had a little half smile or something. I sometimes worried he wished he belonged to Raj. That way he would have had his feet picked out every single day and the dust brushed away from his ears. I knew I shouldn’t skip brushing around Copper’s ears. My dad said sometimes I’m a tiny bit lazy, and I guess I am. But I can’t seem to help it—just like I can’t seem to help getting petrified when I think about ghosts.

      Barbara’s horse was named Whisper, a chocolate brown mare with four white socks. Barbara had all turquoise things for Whisper, like a turquoise saddle pad and a turquoise blanket. Barbara and our friend Sally did just about everything together, like taking the same classes at school, and emailing and texting each other all the time, and wearing the same clothes. Sally even bought her bay Arabian horse, Maliki, a turquoise saddle blanket so he would match Whisper. Whisper and Maliki hung out together in the field and swished each other with their tails to help keep the flies away. Maliki had the longest tail you ever saw, so Whisper had a pretty good deal when Maliki swished her.

      Taking care of the horses at Double S let us spend more time with them, and we loved that. But even with all our extra help, there was a problem. Stephanie and Steven raised beans and corn, and they needed to plant the crops that they would sell in the fall. They also had to cut and bale the hay to feed the horses for the winter.

      Raj, Sally, Barbara and I wanted to help with the beans and corn and hay, but we couldn’t do much because they used huge machines in the fields that none of us could run. Then Stephanie took time off work to get caught up and do the planting, and right away it started to rain. It poured for five days straight. The fields turned to big muddy messes and Steven and Stephanie decided they wouldn’t be able to put in the beans and corn after all.

      By the time school was out in June, the Staleys hadn’t been able to put up any hay yet for the horses, and Stephanie had to work overtime to raise extra money. One day she left a note on the chalkboard that there would be a barn meeting on Thursday, and everyone got very scared.

      What do you think they’re going to tell us? Sally whispered to Barbara.

      I overheard her because I was standing nearby cleaning Copper’s bridle, which was taking forever to clean because it was really dirty. Raj was helping me by scrubbing the gunk off the bit, which was nice of him because the bit was very gunky.

      It’s probably going to be bad news, Barbara answered, and she looked down at the saddle she was holding as if she didn’t know where to put it.

      I cleared my throat. "My mom says

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