Pony Problems by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2006-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

The girls were surprised.

“Paint?” Bess cried. “Like the red paint Amanda Johnson was using yesterday!”

Nancy immediately pulled out her notebook and pencil. In the clue column, she wrote down: Red paint on Buttons’s hoof.

“Maybe Amanda got paint on the ground and Buttons stepped in it?” George asked.

“I don’t think so,” Bess replied. “Amanda was outside the fence painting. Buttons was inside with the other animals.”

“Weird.” Nancy tapped her temple with the pencil eraser. Since Mrs. Fayne knew about ponies, Nancy asked her, “Can Shetland ponies jump?”

“Do you think Buttons might have jumped over the petting zoo fence?” Bess cut in. “Maybe he dragged his hoof on the rail at the last second?”

“I was just thinking.” Nancy shrugged. “Jumping would explain the paint. And possibly solve the mystery.”]

Mrs. Fayne gave Buttons a final pat on the back and stepped away. “We didn’t have Shetlands on our farm in Ohio.” She came over to where the girls were standing. “I don’t know how high Shetlands can jump. They’re different from other ponies.” A truck engine vroomed as it turned onto George’s street. “Here comes Mr. Johnson. Why don’t you ask him?”

Mr. Johnson parked the truck and pony trailer in front of George’s house. The girls waited for him to get his rope and tie it around Buttons’s neck. Before he put the pony in the trailer, Nancy showed him the paint marking on Buttons’s hoof.

“Can Shetland ponies jump?” George asked.

“They can,” Mr. Johnson answered. For a second, Nancy thought they’d solved the mystery. “But that’s why I built the extra-tall fence around the animal pen.” Nancy recalled noticing that the fence was above her head. “Shetland ponies can’t jump that high,” Mr. Johnson said. “Nope. There’s no way Buttons jumped over that fence.”

The zoo owner put Buttons in the trailer for the ride back to the petting zoo. “Why don’t you come back to the petting zoo again today? We’re open all day on Sundays, and I have a reporter from the newspaper coming. You can tell her about the Clue Crew and how you are working to solve this mystery.”

Mrs. Fayne agreed to take the girls back to the petting zoo as long as she could take George’s two-year-old brother Scott along.

“The petting zoo’s the perfect place to bring Scott,” Mr. Johnson told her. “He’s going to love it. And because of the trouble Buttons caused this morning, I’ll give him a ride on the pony for free.”

“Your brother is a nut,” Nancy said to George. George laughed.

Little Scott was riding Buttons, clapping his hands, totally excited to be on the back of the pony. Mrs. Fayne kept telling him to hold on, and Mr. Johnson repeatedly showed him how to hold on to the pony’s long mane. They had gone outside the animal pen and were walking around a small track Mr. Johnson had made just beyond the barn.

The reporter was there. She was taking pictures of Scott on the pony. Nancy had overheard the reporter ask permission from Mrs. Fayne to take a few pictures for the article.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.