The Black Stallion

running around with fellows his own age anyway, instead of hanging out with us old fogies."
    The footsteps behind him had stopped, but Jimmy's tense voice came easily to George. "He'll never forget the Queen—or horses. It's in him deep, just as it was in me."
    The footsteps came again, but this time they were retreating and George knew that Jimmy Creech had gone to find the buyer from Hanover Farms.
    George was still walking Symbol when he saw Jimmy Creech returning. Jimmy's head was burrowed deep in his brown muffler, but his skinny legs moved quickly over the road. George stopped walking Symbol.
    "Shall I get the mare out?" George asked when Jimmy was within hearing distance. "Does he want to take her now?"
    Jimmy raised his thin face, and the only thing about him that seemed alive were his hazel eyes flecked with tiny pinpoints of brown. "No," he said. "He didn't buy her." His gaze dropped as he added. "He wouldn't give me my price."
    "Uh-huh," George said.
    Jimmy looked up at him. "He tried to talk me down, but I wouldn't have any of it."
    "Sure," George returned, smiling. "Sure, Jimmy."
    Their gazes met and held.
    "That's the story," Jimmy said.
    "That's
your
story," George replied. He motioned with his head in the direction of the shed. "Go in and tell Tom. He'll be anxious to hear it."
    Jimmy moved away. "Yes, I'd better," he said, "because he'll be taking care of the Queen this summer—"
    "And the foal," George interrupted, laughing. "Don't forget to tell him what to do when the foal comes."
    George watched Jimmy until he had disappeared inside the shed; then he turned to the sun, shining brightly now in a cloudless sky. "Summer," he said. "Good old summer. What it can do to a man! The sun and the kid. What a combination! Maybe it's not the end of Jimmy Creech, professional reinsman, after all. Maybe not by a long shot." And humming, George continued walking Symbol.

The Foal to Come
2
    Ten days later Tom Messenger stood anxiously at a fork in the road, awaiting the Queen. He had been there for many hours, watching the heavy traffic come over the hill, most of it speeding by to his left on its way to Philadelphia. To his right was the blacktop road which led through rolling fields beyond to the sanctuary of his uncle's farm, where the Queen would have quiet and peace to bring her foal into the world.
    Very often Tom would glance at the clock on the gas station behind him. It was well after three o'clock. If Jimmy had shipped the Queen at dawn, as he had planned to do, the truck should have arrived an hour ago. It would be an open truck, a two-and-a-half ton truck, Jimmy had said. He couldn't miss it, for the Queen would be standing right there for him to see. She would have been on the road nine hours by now. Would it have hurt her any? In her condition, he meant. The Queen was due to foal sometime next week. Jimmy had said the trip wouldn't hurt her. He'd said he had shipped many mares only a few days before they foaled, and it had never bothered them. Tom hoped Jimmy was right. He hoped desperately that Jimmy was right. He didn't want anything to happen to the Queen—or the Queen's foal to come.
    The boy's eyes remained on the traffic coming over the hill. He wouldn't look at the clock again, he decided. It didn't make any difference how late the Queen got here, just so long as she got here. That it was late was so much the better. It meant that Jimmy had hired a good driver, one who was going slowly, taking it easy for the Queen's sake.
So there's no rush
, Tom thought.
I've got all the time in the world. Just take it easy with the Queen, Mr. Driver, and I'll be here whenever you come
.
    While Tom waited patiently, he let himself think of what it would mean to care for the Queen all by himself. There would be just the Queen and himself this week, but maybe next week there would be three. He'd always dreamed of something like this happening to him. And Jimmy Creech had made it possible.
    "I know the Queen will be in good hands, Tom," Jimmy had said. "I know how much you love her, and that's more important than anything else at this point. Just take good care of her, as I know you will, and nature will do the rest."
    Jimmy had made it sound so easy. But then Jimmy had seen a countless number of foals born, while this would be Tom's first experience. As he thought about it, Tom felt a little queasy. What if something went wrong? Jimmy had said it wouldn't be necessary to get a veterinary unless