Free Letters from Hillside Farm by Jerry Apps

Ross Caves is his name. Mr. Caves stepped down from the truck and asked if Pa was around. I said he was in the barn and I’d go fetch him. When I told Pa the trucker was here and wanted to see him, he started smiling—just a little smile that Pa sometimes gets when he is feeling good about something.
    â€œHello there, Adolph,” the trucker said. “Where do you want me to unload him?”
    Now I wondered what Pa had bought. We already have horses and cows, and Ma has her chickens. I thought maybe Pa had bought a hog somewhere. Mr. Caves let down the ramp at the back of the truck and walked inside. When he appeared again at the top of the ramp, he was leading a pony, a little Shetland. Slowly Mr. Caves and the pony walked down the ramp, and then he handed the halter rope to me and said that this must be my new pony. It sure wasn’t a hog.
    I took the rope, but I just stood there looking dumb. I don’t know anything about ponies. Pa asked about the pony’s name.
    â€œGinger,” said Mr. Caves. “He’s been injured at one time or another—you can see his front knees are overly large—and he’s pretty old. But otherwise he seems okay. Very gentle. Seems to like people.”
    Ginger stood beside me, not moving, just looking at me as if to say, “Who are you?” I rubbed his forehead with my free hand, which he seemed to like, as he moved his head up and down against my hand.
    Mr. Caves put up the ramp, crawled into his truck, waved goodbye, and drove away. When the truck was out of sight, I asked if this was really my pony. Pa said it is but I will have to share Ginger with Annie, and because I am older it will be my responsibility to take care of him.
    I asked Pa where he had found the pony. Pa explained that Ginger was a circus pony and had performed for several years with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. But he is getting old, so the circus sold him to Mr. Caves. Mr. Caves knew Pa has kids and thought he might be interested. Pa said he paid only ten dollars for Ginger.
    Now Annie came running from the house, yelling at the top of her lungs, “It’s a pony! It’s a pony! Can I ride him? Can I ride him?”
    Pa lifted Annie onto Ginger’s back and told her to hold onto his mane so she wouldn’t fall off. Then I led Ginger around the yard a couple times, with Annie holding on tight and grinning from ear to ear.
    Pa said Mr. Caves told him Ginger knows a bunch of tricks. I asked what kind of tricks—I’m still thinking about putting on my own circus, and having a pony do tricks will surely make it more interesting. Pa said we’ll wait a few days for Ginger to get acquainted with his new surroundings, and then we’ll see what tricks he knows.
    After a few turns around the yard, Pa said that Ginger was probably tired after arriving on the circus train to Willow River and then being trucked out here to the farm. Annie slid off him and I led him into the barn and tied him in his new stall, which Pa built in the barn while I was at school today.
    Imagine, Grandma, now I have both a dog and a pony. What more could a kid want?

    Your grandson,
    George

Dear George,
    Have you ever heard of a “dog and pony show?” Well, now that’s just what you can do with the circus you are planning. And you have a real circus pony—how lucky can you be? I’ll bet your little sister is just smiling like everything. I know I would be if I had both a puppy and a pony.
    Do you know yet what kinds of tricks your pony can do? When you find out, let me know.
    Congratulations. You are a lucky boy!

    Love,
    Grandma S.

May 11, 1938
    Wednesday

    Dear Grandma,
    Our school plays Forest Grove School in softball next week. Forest Grove won last year 7 to 6, and Miss Harvey says we can’t let that happen again. Our team practices every noon and every recess, too. I don’t practice much, though. I can’t run fast enough to