Flame the Desert Pony by Poppy Shire

Author:Poppy Shire
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

The two girls took everything into the stable, then settled Flame next to Flicker. Mina shooed her fluffy black cat out of the hay store so they could each make a soft pile to sit on. The cat watched them, licking its paws, as they snuggled into the hay and started work. It was such a cozy place to be that it didn’t feel like work at all! First, they embroidered the silk. Then they stitched the silk onto the felt underside, and Mina explained how she’d made pretty patterns with the thread.

“Let’s do the silver part first,” she said. “We can weave the golden parts in afterward, with strands of Flame’s tail.”

“All right,” Chloe said. “I’ll start at the opposite end so we meet in the middle.” Chloe’s grandma had taught Chloe how to embroider last summer.

The girls worked in silence, concentrating hard. After a while, Mina looked up. “Are you hungry yet?” she asked.

Just then, Chloe’s tummy rumbled, and they both laughed.

“I think that’s a yes!” said Mina. “Here, have some bread. My mom makes it herself. And here’s hummus to dip it in, and baba ghanoush—that’s made with eggplant—and there’s some cold lamb, too.”

The two girls quickly finished their meal and filled the rack in the stable with fresh hay so their ponies could have supper, too. Then they went back to the sewing. Soon it began to get dark, and Mina fetched oil lamps. They made the stable look really pretty, casting a gentle orangey-yellow glow on the walls. Chloe looked at Flame, who had finished her hay and was dozing with her weight on three legs and one hoof tipped. Her golden coat looked beautiful in the soft lamplight.

The saddlecloth was beginning to take shape, though there was a lot of stitching to do. Once the silver thread was used up, Mina handed Chloe her sewing scissors, and she went over to Flame to cut some of her golden tail hairs.

Chloe ran back to Mina and showed her the hairs from Flame’s tail. They shone in the lamplight, exactly like gold.

“They’re beautiful,” Mina said. She threaded one through her needle. “I think I’ll do a bird first,” she said.

Chloe threaded her own needle and joined in.

At last, Mina sewed the final stitch—the top of a golden palm tree—and held up the cloth.

“Wow!” Chloe whispered. “I can’t believe I’ve helped to make something so beautiful!”

Mina gave her a hug. “Well, you did,” she said happily. She placed the saddlecloth safely to one side and sank back onto the hay.

Chloe yawned, stretching her arms above her head.

“I suppose we should go back into the house,” Mina said sleepily, “but it’s so comfortable here….”

“I think I’m too tired to move,” Chloe muttered. She felt her eyes closing…closing…She wriggled deeper into the soft warm hay and fell fast asleep.

She woke up with a jolt. The lamps were still burning, and it was very dark outside. Mina was asleep beside her, curled up on the hay. Chloe sat up. Something had woken her up.

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