The Great Pony Hassle Read Online Free PDF Page A

want,” said Toni. “We’re not joined together at the hips.” Toni went out, closing the door hard behind her.
    At the garage door she paused, looking at the bug repellent. Then she tilted her chin up a notch, walked on past it and out into the itchy, buggy back lot where Paisley was still trying to untangle her coil of wire.
    â€œHi,” said Toni.
    Paisley looked up. Dirt and sweat and maybe tears were streaked over the red bumps on her cheeks. “If you’re coming to laugh,” she said, “don’t.” She didn’t look as if she had any smiles left in her.
    â€œIt’s a two-person job.” Toni picked up the wire coil. “I stretch, you fasten. Okay?”
    Paisley didn’t say anything. She just handed Toni the work gloves and hunted in the grass for the pliers. She found them. Also, somewhere she found a smile.
    When Paisley and Toni went in for supper, the fence was strung. Paisley had 139 chigger bites. Toni had 57.

6
    In Which Noodles Becomes a McPherson
    â€œHoly cats.” Standing out behind the house that same evening, Bruce McPherson scanned the paddock his daughter had made, then turned to his new wife with a dazed look on his face. “I don’t believe this. We go away, come back a couple days later, and the backyard’s turned into a pony farm.”
    â€œBruce, didn’t you have any idea what you were getting yourself into?” Cathy’s tone was tender.
    â€œMarrying you?” he teased. “If I did, I probably would have run.”
    â€œI meant pony-wise, smartie.”
    â€œHuh. Pony-wise, I’m afraid to ask. Looks like I’m in for …” Bruce McPherson took another look. “For a pony circus,” he said. “How come all the doodads, Paisley? Did you want your pony’s pen to look pretty?”
    The strips of many-colored rag Paisley and Toni had tied to the wires fluttered extra bright in the evening light. In a few months sun and rain would weather them all to the same whitish shade, but for now they did make the paddock look pretty, Staci admitted sourly to herself. If you liked a paddock that looked like a used-car lot.
    â€œDad . They’re so the pony can see where the fence is! Otherwise he might hurt himself on the wire. And here’s the gate, see?” She showed off the wire gate with its shock-proof orange plastic handle. “What do you think, Dad?” she rushed on. “The man’s coming tomorrow to hook up the box, and then we’ll be all set. See, the pony has some trees for shade, and we can keep the feed in the garage. All we need is a big bucket for water, and a salt lick, and—”
    â€œAnd a barn, I suppose.” Bruce McPherson tried to sound gruff, but everybody could see he was proud of what Paisley had done.
    â€œNuh-uh, Dad! Just a run-in shelter. That’s why I put the fence right up to the garage.”
    â€œPaisley,” said Cathy, “well, um, I don’t think …”
    â€œShe doesn’t want a pony in the garage.” At once Toni spoke up for her mother. Cathy seemed even more nervous and hesitant than usual, trying to deal with this new, loud, excited daughter.
    â€œNeither do I!” declared the daughter in question. “You don’t put a pony on concrete.” Paisley looked shocked at the idea. “I thought maybe you could build a little shed up against the garage, Dad. Just a roof the pony can get under. Ponies are tough, and it’s good for them to be out in all kinds of weather.”
    Bruce McPherson blinked at his daughter. “How come you know so much about ponies?”
    â€œBooks, Dad! I started reading up the day I—the day you promised me a pony. Lots of library books. I took notes too.”
    â€œHuh.” Bruce McPherson shook himself like an old plow horse trying to wake up. “You’re really serious about this pony business.”
    â€œOf course I