Cross Country Pony by Patricia Leitch

Author:Patricia Leitch [Leitch, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jane Badger Books

* * *

Next morning I dragged myself unwillingly out bed. I was late and to my dismay the back tyre of the bicycle was flat. Optimistically I pumped it up, telling myself that it couldn’t possibly be a puncture. But it was.

I bumped my way round all morning, stopping nearly every ten minutes to blow up the wretched tyre.

‘Need to get it mended for next Friday,’ Mr Kerr said. ‘Can’t have breakdowns in the delivery service.’

At twelve o’clock I was banging my way back to the butcher’s hoping that that would be me finished for the day. I’d given up trying to keep any air in the tyre and was just riding on the rim of the wheel: I didn’t like to think what Nick would say if she could see me because the bike was really hers. Daddy gave it to her when she passed her Scholarship but gradually it had become communal property. And now Nick only remembered it was hers when she saw someone doing something drastic with it.

‘One more, Jinty,’ Mr Kerr told me. ‘Miss Lofts wants tripe. She’s phoned up just now. It’s out your way so don’t bother to come back. The scraps I gave you yesterday will do you till Monday, won’t they? You can come back for some more then.’

I took the wet cold parcel and looked at the address.

‘Rowanlea,’ I read. ‘That’s miles away. We used to go there for picnics. It’s a big black and white house standing on its own on top of a hill, isn’t it?’

Mr Kerr grinned and said something about young bones like mine not feeling it.

‘Don’t they just,’ I said grimly. ‘You should try sitting on that bike when the tyre’s flat!’

I met Mummy and Spud coming down our road.

‘I’ll not be back for ages,’ I told her. ‘I’m going to Rowanlea.’

‘You can’t go on that bike,’ Mummy stated definitely. ‘If Nick saw it she’d have a pink fit. You’re bending the rim of the wheel riding it when like that.’

‘I can’t walk,’ I moaned.

‘Spud’ll come,’ suggested Spud gaily. ‘Spud’ll piggy back.’

‘No,’ Mummy said automatically.

‘Not on your life,’ I said.

‘Poor Spud,’ Spud said.

I wheeled the bike down to the shed. There was no sign of Nick or Pip and only Porteous was in his kennel so I supposed that they must have the Boxers and Joe out for a walk. As I wheeled the bike into the shed the idea struck me. Why walk all the way to Rowanlea when I had Harold to ride?

‘If I can catch him I’ll take him,’ I thought and picking up half a slice of bread that had been left lying on the shed table I went hopefully to the field. ‘Harold, Harold!’ I shouted. All three ponies looked up. I climbed over the gate and walked toward Harold, the halter behind my back. Klondyke and Sapphire walked away from me but Harold stood still. His headcollar was in the shed so I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if he had galloped off to the other end of the field.

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.