Read Online Mary and Jody in the Movies by JoAnn S. Dawson - Free Book Online Page A

whole barn, and then I want you to take a seat in
     the risers along the sale ring. Me and Twister have work to do.”
    Mary and Jody tried to follow Willie and Twister down the very center of the aisle, but it was difficult not to bump into
     all the other spectators who were attempting the same route. The awestruck girls, elbowing their way through the crowd, gazed
     from right to left at the array of horses of all colors, shapes, and sizes. They finally made their way to the end of the
     barn, where a wide exit opened into an outdoor courtyard. In this long rectangular space were even more horses, these with
     riders showing off the horses’ abilities to prospective buyers. Willie and Twister stopped for a moment to watch, then continued
     around the corner to the second section of the barn, which looked much like the first, with two rows of horses tied in the
     same manner. The one difference was in the size of the inhabitants.
    In the long row on the left were donkeys, miniature horses, and ponies of all colors. On the right stood the draft horses:
     Belgians, Clydesdales, Percherons, and Shires, their enormous hindquarters towering above the heads of the girls.
    “Oh my gosh, they’re huge!” Mary exclaimed. “Look how big their feet are, too!”
    “And their heads,” Jody marveled. “I think that one’s head is as big as half my body!”
    “The Amish use them in the fields to work up the ground and harvest the crops,” Willie explained. “They hitch them up four
     across.”
    “And look how cute the ponies are!” Jody continued, turning to the other side of the aisle. “Oh,Willie, can’t we squeeze in
     next to one of themand pet him?”
    “No goin’ between two ponies,” Willie warned. “But you could pat that one at the very end of the row there.”
    The pony on the end was the color of butterscotch with a cream-colored mane and tail and odd-shaped white patches on various
     places over his body. When Mary reached out and patted him on the shoulder, he turned his head as far as his rope would allow
     and rested his chin in the crook of her arm, gazing up at her with liquid brown eyes.
    “Oh, Willie, can’t we buy this one?” Mary beseeched. “He’s adorable!”
    “I knew this was gonna happen,” Willie mumbled to Twister. “Mary, we can’t buy everything we see that looks cute. We’re lookin’
     for some real specific horses here today, and that ain’t gonna be one of ’em.”
    “Ooh,” Mary and Jody cooed, stroking the neck and muzzle of the butterscotch pony. “Well, maybe we’ll get something else just
     as cute.”
    “Speakin’ of that, the sale’s about to start. You girls git a seat up in the risers by the ring there, and me and Twister
     will be along shortly. We have to do some more lookin’ around.”
    Mary and Jody made their way with much of the crowd to the rows of wooden bleacher seats rising along either side of another
     long, rectangular space, this one inside the building. A thick bed of sand covered the floor inside the space and a four-foot-high
     fence separated the ring from the potential buyers. Mary and Jody found a seat about halfway up the risers, across from a
     raised platform where the auctioneer sat.
    “Look, Mare, there’s a lot of the Amish people here that Willie told us about,” Jody observed, looking around at the crowd.
     “The men all have beards and straw hats and wear black pants and jackets.”
    “And the women all have their hair pulled back with those little white hats on,” Mary added. “Look, even the little girls
     wear the bonnets.”
    Before Jody could reply, the girls’ attention was drawn away from the wardrobe of the Amish to the voice of the auctioneer.
    “Test, test,” he said into the microphone and then cleared his throat. Mary and Jody searched the faces in the crowd standing
     along the ring fence, trying to spot Twister and Willie, but they were nowhere to be seen.
    “I wonder if Willie is out back watching