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goin’?”
    “Come spring after the colts are foaled.”
    “It’s only fair to talk to Ma about it first.”
    So the boys talked with Ruby, eventually made the trip to Kentucky and the Appalachian Mountains, purchased land, returned home and divided up the stock.
    Now here was Bobby looking over his 300 acres, while Jack was taking care of his home and ranch in Kentucky. Bobby chuckled. “And I have Jack’s stallion.”
    Cherokee and Sunee watched Bobby step off the porch and head for Flying Hawk’s corral. The big horse watched without fear as Bobby approached the fence. The two eyed each other for a few moments and then the horse lowered his head and walked to the man. “Well, big fella,” Bobby said as he scratched the horse between the eyes. “How are things in Kentucky?” The horse enjoyed the human touch and relaxed under a master’s hand. Bobby smiled.
    While still scratching the stallion, his eyes wandered over the herd of mares and colts. Dancing Shadow was wary of the man. Bobby watched the spotted mare as she stood aloof from the rest of the mares. He could not tell if she was more wary of the man or the stallion’s reaction to the man. He also noticed flashes of movement and color in the distance that he assumed to be the two wild colts.
    Dancing Shadow was thinking how difficult it would be for her to obey Asga ya galun lati’s order to serve man. She had always been free. Even though her mares and the few colts they had were being well fed and had plenty of water; even though none of her charges was being harmed, she was far from home and she was not free. She worried about Cherokee and Little Sister. She wondered if Sunee and Yellow Bird were safe. She had not seen them in days and doubted if Flying Hawk had either. She wanted to talk to him, but Man was there!
    Bobby stopped petting the stallion and walked to the corral of mares and colts. He selected a small black colt as a possible buggy horse for a lady or child; a yearling filly, chestnut with a white face and two white feet would make a nice riding horse for a little girl; he selected the spotted mare that was watching him so carefully and a big white one for new breeding stock. He would turn the rest of the mares and the chocolate stallion loose in the spring after breeding season. “I’ll write Jack and tell him my plans,” he thought.
    Bobby enjoyed being outdoors in the fall. He went to the stable and saddled his dun mare planning to ride his ranch checking for problems and dangers to his horses and to make sure they weren’t wandering too far afield. Because he had a little more than 300 acres, he didn’t fence in his animals, but this did require more diligence on his part to keep them home.
    He rode half a day without finding any problems. Deciding to turn back toward the ranch house, he reined his mare through some tall red and white oak trees. It was cool and quiet. As he cleared the trees, he noticed that his black walnut trees were spreading again. There were only a dozen or so, but any part of that tree, whether it was the bark, the leaves, or the nut husks, could cripple a horse if it happened to walk through it or graze too near. He made a mental note to have some of the men clean it up. He thought he might even have the trees fenced in to keep his horses out.
    As he was returning to the ranch house, he noticed unfamiliar horse tracks. A man in his business knew the hoof marks his horses left and these he did not know. He was pretty sure they were not Indian ponies. That left only the two horses that had gotten away when his men had rounded up this herd. But there were four sets oftracks! He followed them for a little way, but when they disappeared in the creek he decided to talk to the men and have a couple of them try to find these horses tomorrow.
    J.D. and Marty watched Bobby scratch the stallion, then head off alone on his dun mare. They went about other duties, waiting for their boss to return. He would give them