in and got in his lap.- ' Good morning, there,) iust
.. he said, as he ran his hand through his boy’ s hair Little Lonny just sat there trying to wake L
AH of a sudden Helen rattled a pan on the stove and putting her hand to her stomach, left m a hurry. her way out she said, W atch the eggs... ni b right back." Lonny knew something was wrong. After removing the scrambled eggs from the stove, he went into the bedroom. Helen was in the bathroom, obviously sick.
" Are you sure, Mrs. Barnes, that you know what you’ re talking about?'’ Lonny asked with a smile on his face. Helen was still lying on the bed with a cold wet towel on her forehead. She said, " Yes,. l-’ m sure, ' the doctor said 1 was definitely in foal and v was due tn have another colt sometime in Au *
MTV QUEST
If- _ _ i-- J I _____ 1^. ^ * AA / sntk \
( Continued from Last Month) by Charles Barry Sanderson
As Lonny Barnes took stock of his personal attitude he was rather pleased with himself. He would be thirty years old the following month and he and his wife Helen were pretty well fixed. They had a nice home and a stable that they were able to make payments on. In addition to his pickup truck, he had a new automobile and a used tractor that were both in running order. Lonny,-junior was six years old and doing fine in kindergarten, and Ralphy was growing like a weed for a four-year-old. Lonny reflected that he had done quite well since going into business for himself and, for a Professional Walking Horse trainer, was fairly successful. He had won the Two-Year-Old World Championship the year before and this past year had tied high in the two-year-old class as well as making a good showing in the stake. It was not a great claim to fame, but he was happy with his accomplishments nevertheless.
His line of thought was broken by the alarm clock. He sat up in bed, brushed his black hair out of his eyes and turned off the alarm. He had been awake for about twenty minutes, but it still shook him up when the clock went off that early in the morning. Rolling out of bed, he walked into the kitchen to fix coffee. He was particular about his ■joe," and Helen had never learned to fix it to suit him... especially in the morning. After a shower and shave Lonny went into the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee and settled back to read the morning paper.
He checked the headlines and then scanned the weather prediction. " More cold, nasty weather..." he said to himself as he turned the page. This was the time of day that he really enjoyed. It was still only 6:30 AM and he had been up for almost fortyfive minutes. He enjoyed the quiet and the time to himself. Later, walking into the bedroom, he leaned over the pile of covers. Picking his spot, he laid a firm hand on Helen’ s bottom-side with a resounding whack. " Get up... get up... get up!" he said. " It’ s time to rise and shine!” Helen was not too receptive to his playful attitude and rolled over muttering, " It’ s not time to get up already, is it?"
They always let little Ralphy sleep in the morning, but Lonny,-Jr. had to get up for kindergarten. Lonny sat down at the kitchen table as a sleepyhead came
12 her. " Well, that’ s just fine! Maybe we will get that girl we’ ve wanted." Helen sat up on the edge of the bed and said, " Yes, but do you know what happens in August? The annual Walking Horse Festival comes up then." All Lonny could say was, " Oh, boy... that’ s all we need— to have you in the hospital having a baby during the Walking Horse Festival!”
Several hours had passed since Lonny had learned of their upcoming " blessed event." He was not too disturbed with Helen’ s timing... figuring that he had played a small part in the situation. His line of thought was broken by the jangled ringing of his stable telephone. Dismounting, he yelled to Martin Luther, " Hold this colt while I get the phone." His new stablehand dropped a pitchfork and ran to get the colt. Lonny answered the phone and was obviously interested in the proposition that he was hearing. " Well, sure, Doc..." he said. " I was planning to take at least two horses to the Florida shows but I believe I can make it back before then. How long should it take to drive out there?" He listened a few minutes and then said, " All right... I can get Don Wells to feed for me, and I’ ll take my new boy and we’ ll just go." Getting the details again, he made a few notes and thanked Dr. Greely for the call.
Two days later Lonny Barnes and Martin Luther were on their way to Pierre, South Dakota with a load of six horses. He had said goodby to Helen on a cold, dark morning and had gone to Dr. Greely’ s farm and picked up four broodmares and a couple of
two-year-olds that the doctor had sold to a rancher in South Dakota. His six-horse van was in good shape and he was confident that they could make the trip easily. It was a long way and the weather was rough up there, but with mud-grips on his truck he should do all right. As they rolled along the highway, Lonny
was thinking to himself that it sure was nice to have friends like Dr. Greely. The doctor had made him a
real good deal: he was getting milage for the trip and a commission on the six horses. Altogether he should make about six hundred dollars on the trip. " Not ba lor a week’ s work," he told himself.
1 hey had stopped over at a friend’ s place in MlS‘ souri to let the horses rest, and headed out again
ior Omaha and then on to Pierre. Martin Luther had
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horst