Summer of the Monkeys

Jay Berry takes off so quickly for Grandpa’s store that Daisy yells after him to keep his money safe. He runs the whole way, holding the money in his pocket for the duration of the trip. Grandpa seems strangely unexcited, but Jay Berry assumes it is his imagination. Grandpa says the Native man who trades horses, “Indian Tom” (238), wants $100 for the roan pony and $75 for the paint pony. Grandpa says Jay Berry must be the one to choose, as a boy’s first pony is “something [he] will always remember” (238). Jay Berry thinks he will take the taller, slenderer, and calmer paint, a pretty female “built for speed” (239).

Then, however, Jay Berry notices an injury to the horse’s back foot, a bloody wound that needs to be treated for infection and flies. Grandpa assures Jay Berry that the wound will heal completely as it does not affect the tendon, but that Jay Berry must walk the pony home and not ride her until she’s recovered. Jay Berry is impatient to finally ride his pony and briefly reconsiders the roan; in the end, though, he cannot leave the paint, who begins to follow him and nuzzle him.