Autumn Trail by Bonnie Bryant

someone who had never seen a horse before would think of one, but she couldn’t picture it. “It figures you would know something like that,” she told Carole. Carole knew more horse facts, obscure and otherwise, than Stevie could learn in a lifetime. And, as her friends liked to tease her, she was ready to share them with everyone at the drop of a hat.
    “Hey, what’s going on over there?” Lisa demanded from her position on the basket. “Aren’t you listening to my inspiring speech?”
    “Sorry,” Stevie and Carole chorused, doing their very best to sound contrite.
    “Well, that’s okay,” Lisa conceded. “I was just wrapping it up anyway.” She cleared her throat and dramatically concluded, “And so I hereby declare that we will work in harmony with all the people here, and do stuff together, and be thankful, and all that kind of thing.” She concluded with a little bow, and stepped down off the basket.
    “I think it kind of lost something there at the end,” Carole commented.
    But Stevie had already moved on to the next part of the play. “Now you Pilgrims should build houses and plant food and stuff,” she directed Lisa and Veronica.The two girls exchanged a glance and a shrug and began to pantomime the activities Stevie had suggested.
    “What about us?” Carole asked Stevie. “Don’t we get to do anything?”
    “Of course. I was just getting to that,” Stevie said. “We get to be the Native Americans.”
    “Cool,” Carole commented with a grin. “Okay, Pilgrims, here we come!” She and Stevie joined the other two in their playacting, all of them making up the script to their “play” as they went along.
    “Look, the horses are watching us,” Stevie commented. Sure enough, all of the horses seemed to be observing them closely.
    “I hate to disappoint you, Stevie, but I’m afraid it’s not your acting ability,” Veronica said. “They just smell the apples and oats.”
    Stevie grinned, not even minding for once that Veronica had sort of insulted her. The snobby girl had actually made a joke!
    The girls finished their play, stressing the generosity and cooperation exchanged between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans who had helped them survive in the New World. “Okay, time for the feast,” Stevie declared at last.
    The girls hurried over to the table and started passing out the treats to the horses, who accepted them eagerly. “Look, Topside has the Thanksgiving spirit,” Stevie said. The others turned to see the big bay gelding bobbing hishead as he took the pieces of apple Stevie was offering him. “See? He’s saying thank you!”
    The others laughed, but they had to admit that it did seem that way. After all the food was gone, Lisa made another little speech about all the things the Pilgrims had had to be thankful for, and how good it was for people today to take time out not only to be thankful but to think of ways they could help others.
    When she had finished, Stevie clapped enthusiastically. “That’s exactly what I was trying to say with this play,” she told Lisa. “Thank you for saying it better than I ever could.”
    “Well, thank you for inviting me to be a part of this,” Lisa replied graciously.
    “And thank you all for all your help setting it up and everything,” Stevie said.
    “Let me guess,” Carole put in. “Now you’re going to thank us in advance for helping you clean up this mess.”
    Stevie grinned. “You know me too well. And I’m thankful for that.” She grabbed the fake turkey from the table and shoved it back into the bag it had come in.
    As Stevie finished loading the rest of the fake food into the cart, the other girls all pitched in to help lead the horses back to their stalls. Veronica took Garnet’s lead rope and headed out of the ring.
    Lisa was standing closest to Topside, so she turned and began to unfasten his lead from the table. She was smiling, thinking about Stevie’s unusual play, although shewas also wondering if