Cinders (Horse Diaries Special Edition) by Kate Klimo

Author:Kate Klimo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

When she put me back in my stall, she gave me three horse cookies fresh from the oven. I gobbled them down, one right after another, and licked my lips.

Before she left, she hugged me and whispered, “Be patient, Cinders. Your day will come.”

As it turned out, I would not have long to wait.

The air in the fire station always smelled smoky. But by my second year there, it reeked of burning wood as well. There was almost always a fire breaking out somewhere in the city. The horses were scarcely cleaned up from the last fire when the bell went off calling them to the next one. Then out of the stalls they would spring. Down the stairs the men would pound. And off they’d go, returning hours later with faces and arms blackened with soot. I asked Butch one day, Are all Chicago summers this bad?

This is the worst I’ve seen, Butch said.

It’s the heat, said Daisy.

And the drought, said Maisy.

There’s been almost no rain at all, said Maybelle.

The fall brought no relief. The heat and the dryness were bad enough. But on some days, a powerful wind, like the bellows in a smithy, blew from off the prairie. On the street outside the fire station, stray papers and dried leaves rattled past.

It’s a devilish wind, said Butch. Who knows what it will blow our way?

What with our cold-weather coats coming in, we horses sweated and itched beneath our winter-weight fur.

Then, one hot, windy day, Sparky started barking and doing her Fire Dance. Everyone was hoping that, just this once, she was wrong.

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