Read Online Ticket to Curlew by Celia Lottridge - Free Book Online Page B

father hired him out to work for someone who is trying to get a house and a barn built in a hurry,” said Sam. “I guess his family needs cash. Maybe he can learn some English working anyway.”
    â€œNo, he can’t,” said Josie. “Mrs. Pratt said the people building the house only speak German. We’re lucky. At least we can talk to some people who aren’t in our family.”
    As they jogged along, Sam thought that for Josie, having people to talk to was luck. For him luck was not having to work all the time. School was work, in a way, but it was better than spending every day fetching and carrying to build a house you would never live in yourself. He liked doing chores on their own place better. That made sense. And when Prince was included in the job, it hardly even seemed like work.
    Prince was turning out to be a reliable horse. That’s what Pa said. Except for wanting his afterschool treat every day, he wasn’t temperamental. He even seemed to have a built-in clock. If school didn’t let out exactly at three-thirty, he came and stuck his nose in the open window of the schoolhouse. He didn’t look at Miss Barnett, only at Sam. He never made a sound, but his unblinking eyes drew everyone’s attention and Miss Barnett would say, “Prince, I think your watch is faster than mine. I’m just about to dismiss them.”
    When Sam thought about luck, he had to include Miss Barnett. She was a teacher who could laugh, and she never punished pupils with the strap. If one of them was daydreaming or pestering other children, she said, “Learning is a privilege and if you don’t wish to learn you can spend the day in the cloakroom doing nothing at all.” Being a bit of a daydreamer, Sam had spent some time there himself, and he had to admit it was boring. Especially because Miss Barnett checked every so often to be sure you weren’t just sleeping.
    No, school wasn’t bad. Still, Sam was always glad when the time came for the ride home. They never hurried; the ride was a break between schoolwork and chores. Prince was happy to jog along at a steady pace. Like a lot of people, Prince preferred not to exert himself.
    One afternoon as they neared the Martingale place, Adam came running out of the barn. “Stop, Sam, stop!” he shouted, waving his arms.
    â€œWhoa, Prince,” said Sam. He wondered whether to jump down. Maybe the barn was on fire. But Adam ran right over to them.
    â€œI’m sorry to shout at you,” he said, “but I’m most worried. The oxen have wandered off. They were in the field for their mid-day grazing and I suppose the gate was left open because they were gone when I came out. You know that we have only one horse and John has ridden off to the west to search. Unfortunately my father and yours have taken a team and gone north to talk to a man who may have some seed wheat. I’m going to borrow Goldie and go to the east. Could you take Prince and go south? I only hope the oxen haven’t gone too far. They are wearing their harness. Take some rope so that you can lead them home if you find them.”
    None of the children had ever heard Adam say more than six words together, but this was a real emergency. Even Matt knew that it was the oxen that made the Martingales’ farming possible. To replace them would be very costly, and Sam suspected that for all their books and learned speech, the Martingales were like everyone else out on the prairie, cash poor.
    â€œOf course I’ll go,” he said. “I just have to stop on the way to take Josie and Matt home and tell Mama where I’m going.”
    Josie said, “I’m sure they’ll turn up, Adam. It would be hard to lose anything that big for very long.”
    But Sam saw Adam’s eyes taking in the vast land all around them. He knew what Adam was thinking. In all that space his oxen could be lost forever.
    Mama