Autumn Trail by Bonnie Bryant Page B

to her friends. “Good,” Stevie said. “That must mean that the medicine is working and he’s getting better.”
    “I hope so,” Carole said, although Lisa thought shedidn’t sound quite as certain as Stevie did. “Anyway, I think we can give him another dose now.”
    “Okay, let’s do it,” Stevie said briskly. “Pepper, you’ll be better in no time, now that the world-famous Saddle Club medical team is on your case.”
    Lisa found herself smiling despite her worry. Things really didn’t seem so gloomy now that she’d told her friends about Pepper. She wished now that she had confided in them earlier. She should have known they’d see things the same way she did. And she knew that if anybody could help Pepper, it was The Saddle Club. They’d solved lots of seemingly hopeless problems before.
    Lisa administered Pepper’s medicine, and then all three girls stayed with him for a while. As they petted him and talked to him, he seemed to perk up.
    “Either his medicine is working, or he’s just enjoying all this attention,” Carole said as Pepper lifted his head to nuzzle her curly black hair.
    “Probably both,” Stevie decided. “See, that proves it. If he keeps taking that medicine for a while, he’ll get better. Judy was just being pessimistic. She doesn’t realize how brave and strong Pepper really is, and how much he has to live for.”
    “You’re right,” Lisa said. And looking at Pepper, she believed that Stevie really could be right. The old horse looked much better than he had a few minutes ago, although he still seemed tired.
    “Come on,” Carole said, giving Pepper a last pat onthe neck before leaving his stall. “We’d better go help Veronica finish up with Garnet. It’s getting late.”
    Stevie and Lisa said good-bye to Pepper and followed Carole out of the stall. As they walked away, Lisa glanced back to see Pepper’s head peering down the corridor after them. Lisa smiled.

L ISA AWOKE BEFORE dawn. She knew she had been having a bad dream, and that Pepper had been in it. She didn’t recall much else about the dream, except that Pepper had been in trouble and she had been helpless to do anything for him. She couldn’t remember any details very clearly. All she knew was that she had been so worried about Pepper that it had made her wake up.
    She glanced at the glowing green numbers on her clock radio and groaned. It was much too early even to think about getting up. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
    It was no use. She couldn’t get Pepper out of her mind. She wasn’t sure why she was so worried, since he had seemed to be feeling a little better the day before when she and her friends had been with him. UsuallyLisa was too sensible to let herself be bothered by bad dreams, but there had been something in this one that had scared her more than the monsters and goblins she had sometimes dreamed about when she was younger, although she couldn’t quite remember what it was.
    She got up and quickly pulled on the jeans and sweater she’d worn the day before, trying not to wake Stevie, who was sound asleep in the other half of the four-poster bed. Even with the heat on, it was chilly in the house at this hour, and the wide wooden floorboards in Lisa’s room felt like ice beneath her bare feet. She carefully slid open the top drawer of her dresser and located some warm woolen socks. She put them on, but left her shoes off for the moment so she could walk more quietly.
    Lisa managed to find a pen and a piece of paper on her desk without turning on the lights. She quickly scribbled a note to Stevie and set it on her bedside table. In exchange for the note, she picked up the keys to Pine Hollow that Max had given to Stevie and that Stevie had tossed on the bedside table the night before.
    Pocketing the keys, along with Pepper’s medicine, Lisa wrote another note, this time to her mother. She went downstairs and propped the note on the kitchen table, where Mrs. Atwood would