The Haymeadow by Gary Paulsen

Author:Gary Paulsen [Paulsen, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-80394-8
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

THE DAY PASSED, somehow, with nothing truly getting done.

He found some saddle oil in a box in the trailer and cleaned and oiled his saddle and put it under the wagon. Then he started to unload and rearrange the inside of the wagon so that he could sleep there for the night and he found a needle and thread and he tried to patch his shirt and pants and in some way the whole day went that way. One thing to another until it was dark and he really couldn’t see that anything was done. Even the wagon wasn’t squared away. The bunk was clear, but the rest of it was still a shambles and when dark came he lighted the lantern, hung it from the bow holding the canvas up, and sat in the yellow glow and ate a can of cold beef stew with a metal spoon. He caught himself starting to wipe the spoon on his pants leg, smiled, and went outside and washed it in the stream, using sand to clean it and rinsing it when it was spotless.

He went to bed not so much because he was tired as to get away from the day, his first day, and he was nearly asleep when he remembered he hadn’t put down dog food. He climbed out barefoot and put a pan down, kicking himself mentally for being so stupid. All four of the dogs were there to eat, sitting watching him, waiting for the food, and he relighted the lantern and used the light to examine Pete’s foot.

The pad had already worked back into place and seemed to be sticking there, healing in. It was impossible, but it was there. He touched it and Pete jerked his paw away, went back to eating, and when he was done he returned to the herd at a run. He still limped, but he was moving better and John went back to sleep wondering how it could begin to heal that fast.

The first smash of thunder awakened him, seemed to come from inside his mind. It was close, so close he could smell the stink of burned air and he was sitting up, awake, before he realized what had done it.

He knew mountain thunder was worst—because you were right inside it, right in the clouds. And he’d heard it before. But it still surprised him, to be in the middle of a storm.

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