The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater

Author:Daniel Pinkwater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

CHAPTER 37

Death

We had lunch in the farmhouse. All the trainers and animal keepers and farm workers were there, along with Al’s mother and father, and us three kids. There was a big kitchen, with a long table, and that’s where we ate. The cook, Miss Mildred, had been a circus cook for fifty years, and she was great. There must have been fifteen or twenty different dishes, plus three kinds of pie, and everything was good. All the workers were strong-looking guys, and they discussed how the training was going, and told stories about the animals. Some of them had really neat scars, and they told about how they had gotten them. I sort of wished I had a scar from being clawed by a tiger or a bear.

“You know, I work with the circus in the summertime,” Al said. “I get paid and everything.”

Seamus and I admired Al like crazy. He had the best life of any kid we had ever heard of.

At the end of the meal, the men wandered off, back to work, and Al took Seamus and me out to see more things around the place. We saw a couple of guys leading a nice old brown horse. They took it down into a little pasture with a tree in the middle. Under the tree, one of them took out a pistol, and shot the horse in the head! It pitched over, dead! I felt all cold and sweaty all of a sudden, and like I was going to lose my lunch. Seamus was looking white.

The men had picked up tools that were leaning against the tree and were busy cutting up the nice old horse that had been alive a couple of minutes ago.

My mouth was dry, and my voice sounded funny to me.

“They . . . killed that horse,” I said.

“I don’t like it either,” Al said. “But what did you think lions eat? You want to go see them get fed?”

“Please, no,” Seamus said. “I mean, no, thanks. Can we go hang out with the elephants some more?”

“Yes, can we do that?” I asked.

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