Fire!

One hot night late in the summer, Lily was laying on her bed reading. She was supposed to be sleeping, but she was so intrigued by the story she was reading that she just couldn’t put it down. Suddenly she heard the sound of Black Knight screaming. At first, she thought it was just her imagination making sound effects for the book she was reading, but then she kept hearing it. Lily stopped reading and walked to the window. The stable roof was in flames! She ran down the stairs shouting, “Fire, fire!” Her mom and Samuel soon joined her and together they began filling buckets with water to put the fire out. Lily heard Black Knight scream again and, without stopping at Samuel’s shouts, raced inside.

            Samuel and Mrs. Starr kept throwing water on the fire and kept an eye on the door, watching for Lily. They heard a motor behind them and, when they turned, they saw Leslie and five men jump out of Leslie’s truck. Immediately they began helping to put out the fire. Suddenly, Lily, Black Knight, Sheilah and Old Jake appeared in the doorway and they were running out of there as fast as they could. No sooner had they made it out when the whole roof came crashing down and the whole barn collapsed in flames. There was nothing left to do, but watch it burn to ashes.

 After a while, one of the men turned and said to Lily, “I saw someone leaving your stable about five minutes before the fire started on the roof.” Lily frowned, “What kind of someone?” The man tilted his head in deep thought, then, “Well, if I remember correctly, it was a man with a jacket on. Yes, that’s it! He had a jacket on and I thought ‘How strange, to be wearing a jacket in this weather.’ The man was tall and very thin, but that’s all I could see.” Lily sighed, “Well, at least he didn’t steal Black Knight or something like that.” Samuel shook his head, “What I want to know is why he would burn down the barn in the first place?” Lily shrugged. She could not understand it herself. The only explanation she could offer was that maybe the man knew something that she didn’t. 

For the rest of the month, they were all busy cleaning up the mess and building a new barn. Jedidiah didn’t enjoy the fact that he could have lost his mule that night and vowed to find the man and “give him a licking he’d never forget, no suh, never.” Lily thought constantly about it and tried to think of the reason behind the mysterious stranger’s visit to the barn to burn it down.

            Now, they were standing in front of the huge, double doors of the new barn with a feeling that they did something worthwhile and great.

Leslie smiled and turned to Lily, “Well, that wasn’t so bad. And it was worth all the money and labor. Now all you need is some more horses to fill those extra stalls.” Lily agreed and Samuel said, “I agree, but it took all the money we had to build the barn, so it’ll be a while. Sure n’ I’d love to have more horses, but that’s not possible yet.” Leslie smiled mischievously and Lily knew there was something up. As if in answer to Lily’s thought, Leslie suggested, “Why don’t you race for the money?” Lily gasped and Samuel frowned, “That’s impossible. We don’t have Black Knight’s papers and I don’t think he has any. You know as well as I do that a horse can’t race without them.” Leslie frowned, “I forgot about that. But, you can race him in the small races that don’t have that rule.” Samuel shook his head and Lily shrugged. But Lily thought, The track staff haven’t wrote back yet. Maybe we still have hope.

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