Karen's Pony

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Stephanie Calmenson

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 E-I-E-I-O!

  2 A Story of Two Houses

  3 Family Day

  4 The Sale

  5 Blueberry

  6 The Coopers’ Farm

  7 Emergency!

  8 Nurse Karen

  9 Lonely

  10 Kristy Is Sick

  11 Maggie

  12 Roddie

  13 Ouch! Ouch!

  14 Spooky!

  15 The Search

  16 Blueberry’s Problem

  17 A New Home for Blueberry

  18 The Mystery

  19 The Good-Luck Ring

  20 My Beautiful Pony

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  E-I-E-I-O!

  Old MacDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O!

  And on this farm he had some gorillas. E-I-E-I-O!

  I was walking down the street with my best friend, Hannie. We had been singing that song all the way home on the school bus. When we ran out of farm animals, we started on jungle animals.

  “See you tomorrow, Hannie,” I said.

  We had reached the big house. That is where I was living for the month of April. (I have two houses. A big house and a little house. I will tell you about them later.) I opened the door and raced inside.

  “E-I-E-I-O!” I called. “Anybody home?”

  “I am in the kitchen,” replied Nannie. Nannie is my stepgrandmother. I love her a lot.

  “I am here, too,” said Andrew. Andrew is my little brother. He is four going on five.

  “Me, too! Me, too!” said Emily Michelle. She is my little sister. She is two and a half.

  I dropped my knapsack and skipped into the kitchen singing, “E-I-E-I-O!”

  “Come wash up and have a snack with us,” said Nannie.

  Andrew and Emily were having peanut butter on crackers and apple juice. That looked like a very good snack to me. I washed my hands, then sat down at the table with them.

  “Pass the peanut butter and crackers, please,” I said.

  I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bunch of freckles. I wear glasses, too. I even have two pairs. I have a blue pair for reading. I have a pink pair for the rest of the time.

  “Hello, hello! Anybody home?” called a voice.

  “We are in the kitchen!” I replied.

  The door opened and Kristy came in. Kristy is my stepsister. She is thirteen and the best stepsister ever.

  “Mmm, looks good,” said Kristy. She joined Andrew, Emily, and me.

  Then David Michael marched into the kitchen. He is my stepbrother. He is seven, like me.

  “Pull up a chair,” said Nannie.

  Sam and Charlie walked in next. They are my other stepbrothers. They are so old they are in high school. But they are not too old for an afternoon snack.

  “How is everyone?” asked Charlie, between bites of peanut butter and crackers.

  Daddy and Elizabeth were the last ones to come home. (Elizabeth is my very nice stepmother.)

  “May we join the peanut butter party?” asked Daddy, even though it was almost dinnertime.

  I looked around at my big-house family and started giggling.

  “We are like Old MacDonald’s Farm,” I said. “Only he had lots of animals. And we have lots of people.”

  Ring, ring.

  “I will get it,” I said. I picked up the phone. But I did not say “hello.” I said, “E-I-E-I-O!”

  Luckily it was Mommy. She wanted to say hi to me and Andrew. She was calling us from the little house.

  Andrew and I live at the big house one month. Then we switch and live at the little house. Do you want to know why? I will tell you the story.

  A Story of Two Houses

  Once upon a time, when I was really little, I lived in one big house in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, with Mommy, Daddy, and Andrew. Then Mommy and Daddy started to fight a lot. They tried their best to get along. But they just could not do it. Mommy and Daddy told Andrew and me that they loved us very much. But they did not love each other anymore. So they got divorced.

  Mommy moved with Andrew and me to a little house that was not too far away. Not long after the divorce, Mommy met a nice man named Seth. Seth and Mommy got married. So now Seth is my stepfather. He lives at the little house, too. There are also some pets at the little house. They are Rocky, Seth’s cat; Midgie, Seth’s dog; Emily Junior, my pet rat (I named her after Emily Michelle); and Bob, Andrew’s hermit crab.

  After the divorce, Daddy stayed at the big house. (It is the house he grew up in.) He met someone new after the divorce, too. The person he met is Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Daddy got married. That is how Elizabeth got to be my stepmother. Elizabeth had been married before. Her children are my stepbrothers and stepsister. You already know about them. They are David Michael, Kristy, Sam, and Charlie.

  And you know about my little sister, Emily Michelle. But I did not tell you yet that she was adopted. She came from a faraway country called Vietnam.

  Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother. She moved into the big house when Emily did. She helps take care of Emily and everyone else, too.

  Now I will tell you about the pets who live at the big house. They are Shannon, David Michael’s Bernese mountain dog puppy; Boo-Boo, Daddy’s cranky old cat; Crystal Light the Second, my goldfish; and Goldfishie, Andrew’s hippopotamus. (Just kidding! Goldfishie is a you-know-what.) Oh, I almost forgot. Emily Junior and Bob live at the big house whenever Andrew and I live there.

  I have a special name for Andrew and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I got that name from a book my teacher read to our class called, Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) Andrew and I are two-twos because we have two of so many things. We have two houses and two families, two mommies and two daddies, two cats and two dogs. We have two sets of clothes and books and toys, one at each house. I have two stuffed cats. (Goosie is my little-house cat. Moosie is my big-house cat.) I have two pieces of Tickly, my special blanket. And I have two best friends. Hannie Papadakis lives across the street from the big house. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. (We call ourselves the Three Musketeers.)

  It helps a lot to have two sets of things. That way Andrew and I do not have to carry so much back and forth when we switch houses each month.

  Now you know the story of my two houses.

  Family Day

  I woke up on Saturday morning with the sun shining through my window. There were no April showers in sight.

  “This is good news,” I said to Moosie. “There is a lot I want to do today.”

  I wanted to roller skate with Hannie, fly my kite with Andrew, bake cupcakes with Nannie, and ride my bike with Kristy.

  “I better get started, Moosie,” I said.

  I quickly got dressed and ran downstairs to have breakfast. Everyone was up and talking about their plans for the day.

  “Ahem, ahem,” said Daddy. “Your attention, please.”

  We stopped talking and turned to look at Daddy.

  “Elizabeth and I are going to drive to an estate sale this morning. We would like all of you to come with us,” he said.

  “No!!!” we cried together.

  Daddy and Elizabeth love estate sales. They go all the time. But we kids think they are boring.

  “We have not been on an outing together in ages,” said Daddy.

  “We can go another day. A rainy, soggy day,” I said.

  “Today is a beautiful day for a drive,” said Daddy. “In fact I now declare today Family Day.”

&nbs
p; That did it. We groaned. But finally we agreed to go. We could see the day was really important to Daddy. The last Family Day we had was gigundoly fun. Maybe this day would turn out to be fun, too.

  We took turns calling our friends on the phone to cancel our plans. I told Nancy about the estate sale.

  “Hey, do you want to come along? I could ask Daddy,” I said.

  “No way,” Nancy replied. I did not blame her one bit.

  After we made our phone calls, we piled into the van and buckled up. We were on our way.

  Going to an estate sale can take a very long time. So we said sad good-byes to our Stoneybrook streets.

  “Boo-hoo-hoo, good-bye!” I said. “I will probably be old and gray by the time I get back.”

  “I will have a beard down to my toes like Rip Van Winkle,” said Sam.

  “The kids I baby-sit for will be grown up by the time I come back home,” said Kristy.

  Then we started singing and telling jokes in the backseats. Before we knew it our Stoneybrook streets had disappeared. We were in the countryside.

  It seemed as if we drove forever. Then Daddy said, “According to the notice in the paper, this should be our turn here.”

  He swung the van onto a back road with a SALE sign tacked up to a tree. There were more signs with big arrows pointing to an old, run-down house. The road was not paved, so it was pretty bumpy.

  “Whee!” cried Emily as she bounced up and down in her car seat.

  “Oh, my. This cannot be the right place,” said Elizabeth.

  “I think you are right. This looks like a farm that is going out of business,” said Daddy, stopping the van. “I guess we better turn around.”

  “No, wait! This looks like a great sale,” I said.

  The grown-ups were not too sure about the sale. But the kids liked it. We started piling out of the van before Daddy could change our minds.

  There was neat stuff for sale everywhere we looked. There were even animals. We hurried off to start exploring.

  This Family Day was going to be all right after all.

  The Sale

  I looked at the name on the mailbox and blinked twice. For a minute I thought I was on Old MacDonald’s farm. But I looked again saw the name was Macdonell, not MacDonald.

  The Macdonells’ farm had animals, but not too many. I saw a goat, three droopy chickens, and a tired pony standing in a fenced-off area.

  “Emmy go riding,” said Emily.

  “I do not think so,” said Sam. “That pony is too old and tired to give anyone a ride. He’s a mangy thing.”

  Sam went off to look at a table with radios and clocks on it. Kristy went to look in some shoeboxes filled with old watches.

  Soon my whole family was walking around looking at the things for sale. But I did not feel like shopping. I was too busy worrying about the poor animals on the farm. I leaned against a fence and watched them for awhile.

  Then I heard something interesting. Very interesting. A man and woman were offering to buy the goat and the chickens. They talked with Mr. and Mrs. Macdonell until they agreed on a price they all thought was fair.

  “We have our van out back,” said the man. “We can drive the animals to our farm if you would help us load them up.”

  “I will have them in your van in no time,” said Mr. Macdonell.

  He rounded up the goat and the chickens and shooed them into the van. That left just the pony. The poor old pony. Now he was all alone.

  As the van was pulling out of the yard, I heard Mr. Macdonell say to Mrs. Macdonell, “I wish we could sell the pony, too. If no one buys him, we will have to take him to the shelter.”

  “Daddy! Daddy would you come here, please?” I called.

  “What is it, Karen?” asked Daddy.

  I explained to him about the pony. I explained how he was alone now.

  “And if no one buys him, he will have to go to the shelter,” I said.

  “Hmm,” said Daddy. “That would be too bad.”

  I could see Daddy was thinking hard about the pony. I decided to leave him alone and not pester him. I joined my brothers and sisters. They were still poking through the junk in the yard.

  “Look at these cups,” said Kristy. “There must be a hundred, and not one of them matches.”

  “How about this ring,” said Charlie. “It would be very cool to wear a ring like this to school.”

  He held up a silver ring with a fancy design and a big purple stone in the center. It looked like an ancient crown from some exotic place.

  “Can I hold it?” I asked. Charlie passed me the ring. As soon as I took it, the top popped open.

  “Wow, neat!” I said. “It has a secret compartment. This would be a perfect place to keep my favorite fortune-cookie fortunes.”

  “Can I see it?” asked Kristy. “I have never seen a ring like it before.”

  My brothers and sisters gathered around to look at the ring. We passed it from hand to hand. Then Elizabeth came out. (She had been exploring inside the farmhouse.) We showed the ring to her.

  “You kids have been such good sports about this day,” she said. “If you agree to share the ring, I will buy it for you.”

  “All right!” we shouted. We told Elizabeth we would definitely take turns wearing it.

  While Elizabeth paid for the ring, I went to look for Daddy.

  Blueberry

  Daddy was still standing by the pony. He and Mr. Macdonell were having a big conversation. I wondered what they were talking about.

  I crept closer to them. I heard Daddy ask, “May I make a quick phone call?”

  “Sure,” replied Mr. Macdonell. He walked Daddy to the house.

  “I will be right back,” Daddy called to me.

  While I waited for Daddy to return, I watched the pony. He was eating hay and using his tail to swat flies off his back.

  I watched until Daddy came out of the house. He hurried over to me with a big smile on his face.

  “Well, Karen,” he said. “It looks like you have a pony.”

  “I do? Oh, Daddy, thank you! Thank you so much!” I said.

  “I could not bear to see that pony go to the shelter,” said Daddy. “So I called my friend, Joe Cooper. Joe has a big farm. He says he has plenty of room to board a pony. So I went ahead and bought Blueberry.”

  “Blueberry?” I asked. “Is that my pony’s name?”

  “That is the name the Macdonells gave him. I figured if you liked the name, we would keep it,” said Daddy.

  “I love it. It is a perfect pony name,” I replied.

  I could hardly wait to get home to call Hannie and Nancy. I had a pony. My very own pony. I did not care if he was too old and tired to ride. I did not care if my brothers and sisters thought he was mangy. I loved him anyway. And it was a gigundoly good thing that we saved him from the shelter.

  I saw the rest of my family standing by the table with the ring. I wanted to tell them the news. But I decided it was more important to wait with Daddy and Blueberry. The truck that was going to take Blueberry to Mr. Cooper’s farm was already on its way.

  Soon the others came over. Charlie was wearing the ring. He was waving it around for me to see.

  “We could not find you. So we went ahead and drew straws to see who would wear the ring first. I won,” said Charlie.

  That seemed fair since Charlie found the ring in the first place.

  “I was here with my pony. His name is Blueberry,” I said proudly.

  “Did you really buy the pony, Watson?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Yes, I did,” replied Daddy. “He needed to be saved from the shelter. And Joe Cooper will board him on his farm.”

  Just then, Blueberry threw back his head and whinnied.

  “That is right, Blueberry. You do not have to worry about going to the shelter anymore,” I said. “You are my pony now.”

  Blueberry whinnied again. I could see the news made him very happy.

  We waited together until the truck came to take
Blueberry to his new home.

  The Coopers’ Farm

  Hannie and Nancy were very excited when I told them I owned a real, live pony. They both wanted to meet him. Daddy was taking me to see Blueberry in the morning. So I asked him if my friends could come along.

  “That would be fine,” said Daddy. “We can spend the day there.”

  Nancy’s parents dropped her off early Sunday morning. Then Hannie ran across the street, and we all drove out to the Coopers’ farm. This time I was happy to be waving good-bye to the Stoneybrook streets. I was happy to be going to the country to see my pony.

  We drove for about half an hour. Then we turned off the highway onto a smooth road that led to the Coopers’ farm. It was beautiful. Everything looked as if it had a fresh coat of paint on it. The grass and trees and flowers were bright. Even they looked freshly painted.

  It was a big farm, too, with plenty of room to run in. Two big dogs and a long-haired cat came out to greet us.

  “Welcome, everyone, welcome!” called Mr. Cooper.

  “We are so glad to see you,” said Mrs. Cooper.

  I had not met the Coopers before. I was a little surprised they were so old. They looked about as old as my grandparents.

  “Would you like to come inside and have some pie?” asked Mrs. Cooper.

  “Thank you. But we would really like to visit my pony, if that is okay,” I said.

  “Of course,” said Mr. Cooper. “You girls run along. Your pony is on the other side of the barn.”

  Hannie, Nancy, and I raced off to find Blueberry. He was in a pasture with some other horses. I could see he had not made friends with them yet. He was standing by the fence all alone.

  “Here we are, Blueberry! We came to visit you,’ I called. Blueberry lifted his head and whinnied.

  “Oh, look. He is saying hello to you,” said Nancy.

  “Maybe he is an old pony, but he is very sweet,” said Hannie.

  “Come closer, Blueberry. I have some carrots for you to eat,” I said.

  Nannie had given me carrots before I left. She had shown me how to hold them in the palm of my hand, so my fingers would not get nipped by mistake.