The Black Stallion

effort.
    Tom felt the colt's surprise when the lines told him that he could move out of his walk for the first time. His strides lengthened and they were low, even and effortless. There was no indication that having Tom in the seat was any different from pulling an empty one; it was as though he had expected to pull the boy's extra weight in time, and this was the time.
    Bonfire was eager to go faster, but Tom kept him at the jog which Jimmy had ordered. They came around the first lap and passed George and Jimmy. George called and nodded his head to Tom in approval. But Jimmy had eyes only for the colt and his every movement.
    Tom sat back a little more comfortably in his seat and gloried in the feeling of riding behind his colt. He thought of the day Bonfire had been foaled; he remembered the days that followed, his handling him at the farm, the tight halter, the hours spent together in the pasture, the Queen, Uncle Wilmer and finally Coronet again and Bonfire's weaning. There were so many wonderful things to remember—all leading to this moment! Yet there was so much more to come, too. With his colt, Tom looked forward to all that was ahead.
    Bonfire was starting his last half-mile when Tom saw Miss Elsie come onto the track with her Princess Guy.
    The colt snorted but kept to a jog at Tom's command. Yet the distance between filly and colt lessened rapidly until Tom was opposite Miss Elsie; then she let Princess Guy out a little more and the two yearlings went along as a team.
    "How's Jimmy this morning?" Miss Elsie called.
    "He's feeling better, thanks."
    "Anything I can do?" she asked when they entered the backstretch.
    Tom was comparing the action of her filly to his colt, but he turned to Miss Elsie and said, "You've done enough. George and I appreciate it very much."
    Pulling her peaked cap further down over her head, Miss Elsie said, "I haven't done anything, Tom." She clucked to Princess Guy and started moving away from them.
    The colt was impatient to follow and Tom's fingers tapped on the lines before he called out to Miss Elsie's back, "George and I found two hundred more pounds of oats than we paid you for." But the woman only clucked louder to her filly. "And there was more than an extra ton of hay, too," Tom shouted.
    Miss Elsie pulled rapidly away, and never even turned her head in Tom's direction.
    Jimmy and George were still in front of the shed when Tom brought Bonfire off the track.
    Jimmy's eyes were only for the colt as he said quietly, "He's all I could ask. He's
it
for us."
    George smiled. "Just like the black filly with the white stockings is
it
for Miss Elsie?" he asked.
    "Yeah," Jimmy said, without taking his eyes from Bonfire, "about the same, I guess. Nobody 'round here ever saw the like of these two yearlings. Nobody. What's inside of 'em will come out in time; then we'll know more."
    They took Bonfire into the shed and were removing the harness from his sweated body when Tom asked, "Then you think we'll have him ready in time to race next season?"
    Jimmy said, "We'll see, Tom. I think so now, but I don't want to rush him any. He looks like he'll take the work, though. He's big and ready."
    "And maybe we'll even get him to Reading?" Tom asked eagerly. He was thinking of Uncle Wilmer's last letter in which his uncle had told him how much he wanted to see the colt race next season.
    Jimmy removed the bridle from Bonfire's tossing head before saying, "Depends on how much money we have by that time, Tom. Reading is pretty far east."
    George said quickly, "Money problems are my worry, Jimmy. You think only of the colt. Get him ready for us. That's all Tom and I ask."
    Jimmy smiled and turned to Tom again. "You're thinkin' of your Uncle Wilmer seeing him. Is that it, Tom?" And when the boy nodded, Jimmy added, "Then you write and tell him it looks like we'll be there."
    Happier than he'd been in a long, long time, Tom ran the wet sponge quickly over Bonfire's hard body, cleaning his nostrils well and squeezing the water from the sponge until it ran down the colt's face. Bonfire liked that. Things were looking up, Tom thought. Next season would be different, much different, for Jimmy Creech and for all of them.
    Through September and October, life was everything Tom could have asked of it. He drove Bonfire regularly, sharing the colt's workouts with Jimmy. Bonfire was kept at his jogging, and as much as Tom and Jimmy, too, wanted to put the watch on him they resisted the temptation in the best