Saving Itsy Bitsy

by Rebecca Johnson

  ‘Let’s take the horses for a ride this afternoon,’ said Hannah as they walked back up to class. ‘Mr McPhail says we can ride as far as the showgrounds.’

  ‘We could talk about the talent quest on the way,’ said Talika, still sounding very worried.

  Walking to maths, they passed Miss Beckett talking in low whispers to Mrs Parry. When the teachers saw the girls, they waved them over. ‘Where’s Bitsy?’ said Mrs Parry, a little concerned.

  ‘She’s with Mr McPhail. Dr Brown is popping by to check on her,’ said Abbey.

  ‘She’s still lapping, but not drinking from the bottle yet,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Hopefully she’ll build up more strength soon,’ said Miss Beckett. ‘Mrs Parry and I were just talking about where she’ll sleep.’

  ‘What did you decide?’ said Abbey.

  ‘We think she should be in with me,’ said Miss Beckett. ‘I quite enjoyed getting up to feed the lambs when we cared for them.’

  ‘That’s a great idea,’ smiled Abbey. ‘We promise we won’t sneak out to visit during the night. Last time it caused so much trouble.’

  Hannah nodded in agreement. ‘It sure did,’ she sighed.

  As soon as their maths class was over that afternoon, they changed into their riding clothes and raced down to the stables.

  ‘I’m really worried about Milly and Clare,’ said Talika on the way down. ‘They seem to be getting more and more homesick every day.’

  ‘I saw Ms Sterling talking to Milly,’ said Hannah. ‘I know Elizabeth can be bossy, but I have to admit, it’s nice to have someone from my family here.’

  Abbey nodded. She was still missing her family terribly. It was such a long time until the holidays when she could finally go home for a while.

  ‘What did Dr Brown say?’ said Abbey when they reached Mr McPhail’s office.

  ‘She was pleased that Bitsy was gaining a little more strength and best of all, Dr Brown got her to suckle the bottle and drink about 10 millilitres of milk.’

  Right on cue, there was a happy little grunting noise coming from under his shirt.

  ‘Speaking of piglets!’ laughed Hannah.

  Mr McPhail pulled out the little pouch and a much more perky, but still ever-so-weak piglet peeped out, her little nose sniffing the air around her.

  ‘Time for more milk?’ said Abbey.

  ‘I’ve just warmed some up,’ said Mr McPhail.

  ‘Sir, do you think we could show Bitsy to the other girls now?’ said Talika. ‘She seems to be coming along so well, and I think Milly and Clare could really do with something to cheer them up.’

  Mr McPhail thought for a moment. ‘She’s not totally out of the woods yet,’ he said, ‘but I think we can take a chance.’

  Hannah and Abbey agreed.

  ‘Look, here they come!’ said Hannah.

  Two girls were walking slowly down the path to the stables. They looked up when they saw everyone staring at them.

  ‘Milly and Clare, do you have a minute?’ called Mr McPhail.

  ‘Sure,’ said Clare as they approached. ‘We just came to visit the piglets.’ Abbey could see that Milly had been crying.

  ‘Well, that’s lucky,’ said Mr McPhail, brightly, ‘because we have someone we’d like you to meet.’

  The girls looked a little confused, then Abbey pulled back the top of the fluffy bag. Bitsy poked the tip of her nose out.

  Clare slapped her hand over her mouth and Milly gasped.

  ‘Oh my goodness, it’s so tiny!’ whispered Milly.

  ‘Her name is Bitsy,’ said Mr McPhail, ‘and we need your help.’

  Milly and Clare were beside themselves with excitement. The girls told them all about the secret they had been keeping.

  ‘So you had Bitsy under your coat in the dining hall?’ said Clare. ‘I thought that was a really odd sound!’

  Milly was killing herself laughing, which made them all laugh.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Mr McPhail, ‘for the first week or so, Bitsy needs some very special care. No one has the time to care for her full-time, so we’re sharing the job.’

  ‘Who’s we?’ said Clare, obviously overjoyed to be part of the secret pact.

  ‘Mrs Parry, Miss Beckett and now, you five girls,’ said Mr McPhail.

  ‘Why can’t Ms Sterling know?’ said Milly.

  ‘There are strict rules about animals in the boarding house, and when she let us have lambs in the laundry recently, it didn’t end all that well. I actually think Ms Sterling will be happier not knowing, so that she doesn’t have to change the rule. It will only be for a week or so, until little Bitsy can start to lap her own milk. Then she can have a pen down here next to her family.’

  Milly and Clare nodded. ‘So what do you need us to do?’ said Milly.

  ‘Well, if I show you how to feed her, then we can all take it in turns to look after her, and avoid running into any trouble,’ explained Mr McPhail.

  ‘Bitsy is happiest when she’s tucked inside someone’s coat, because she needs to stay really warm and she seems to like the movement,’ said Abbey. ‘Mrs Bristow is the one to look out for at mealtimes, so maybe some of us eat early, then others line up at the end of the line, and we can swap Bitsy over halfway.’

  Everyone nodded.

  ‘Mrs Parry is happy to have Bitsy come to science of course, and she looks after her whenever she can, and Miss Beckett says she’ll do the night feeds,’ said Talika.

  ‘I can’t carry her around all day when I’m teaching and lugging bales of hay, and I’m worried about having her in my house with Drover, my dog,’ said Mr McPhail, ‘but I can help out before and after school.’

  Milly and Clare understood the whole situation now. ‘We can’t wait to help,’ said Clare with a huge smile on her face.

  ‘Can we go for a ride while you show Clare and Milly how to feed Bitsy?’ said Hannah.

  ‘Sure,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘Don’t go past the showgrounds.’

  ‘Can Drover come with us?’ said Abbey.

  ‘He sure can,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘I reckon he’d love some attention.’

  ‘Pudding, come on!’ called Talika. The fat pony just stood in the paddock and stared at her, refusing to move.

  Hannah and Abbey called their horses, and Pepper and Bedazzled came straight over.

  ‘Pudding!’ Talika called again, a little less sweetly.

  She rolled her eyes and took a bread bag from her pocket and shook it. Pudding came trotting over happily. ‘Honestly,’ sighed Talika, feeding him half a slice of bread, ‘do you ever do anything without eating?’

  The girls saddled their horses and headed down the road. They stopped on the way to pick up Drover.

  ‘Come on, mate,’ called Abbey, when they reached Mr McPhail’s yard.

  The dog leapt off his bed, then from the top step of the verandah to the ground.

  ‘Did you see how far he jumped?’ laughed Hannah, as Abbey opened the gate to let the dog out.

  The girls began walking their horses down the long street and Drover ran beside them.

  ‘It seems to me that every time I get Pudding out of a bad habit, he begins another one,’ grumbled Talika as she rode up beside Bedazzled.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Hannah.

  ‘Well, Pudding has finally got the message about not pulling his head down to eat when I am riding him, but now that he knows he’s not allowed to eat when we go out for a ride, he’s getting more and more difficult to catch.’

  Hannah nodded sympathetically.

  Talika went on. ‘And lately, when I put his bridle on, he keeps pulling his head away. The only reason I can still get it on is because he’s so short, otherwise it would be impossible!’

  ‘I read in a book once that the trick is to make a horse think that what you want it to do is their idea,’ said Hannah. ‘I can show you what they mean when we get back, if you like.’

  ‘I would love that. Thank you, Hannah,’ smiled Talika.

  Halfway to th
e showgrounds was a large park with a big tree surrounded by lush green grass. ‘Let’s stop here and have a picnic and talk about the talent quest,’ suggested Abbey.

  ‘I’m all for talking about the talent quest,’ said Talika, ‘but don’t you need food to have a picnic?’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Abbey, slipping off her backpack and fishing around inside. ‘Lucky I’ve got these.’

  ‘Macarons!’ gasped Hannah. ‘Where did you get those?’

  ‘Mum posted them to me. I told her I was feeling a bit homesick so she sent me some of my favourite things in the mail,’ said Abbey.

  ‘What else did she send you?’ said Talika, excitedly.

  ‘You’ll have to take me on another picnic to find out,’ laughed Abbey.

  The girls put halters and lead ropes on their horses and tethered them to the fence where they could eat, then they lay back on the grass in the shade and nibbled on the biscuits.

  ‘What if we tried to do a skit, or short play?’ said Hannah. ‘None of us have any other obvious talents.’

  ‘But what would it be about?’ said Talika. ‘I don’t think I am a very good actor either.’

  Abbey sat up. She had pulled the two sides of her biscuit apart and was licking off the cream.

  ‘One of us must be able to do something!’ Hannah and Talika shrugged.

  ‘Does anyone know a magic trick?’ said Hannah.

  ‘Nope,’ said Talika.

  ‘Gymnastics?’ said Abbey.

  ‘Nope,’ said Hannah.

  ‘I heard you sing in the shower once, Hannah. It sounded pretty good,’ suggested Abbey.

  ‘There is no way I’m singing in public,’ laughed Hannah.

  ‘Abbey,’ gasped Talika, ‘hold really still. Don’t move . . .’

  Abbey’s eyes were wide. ‘What is it? Is it a spider? A snake?’ Abbey kept her head still but her eyes were bulging as she tried to see what was behind her.

  ‘Hold still,’ said Talika, as Abbey started to twitch. Taking her phone from her pocket, she lined it up and took a photo of Abbey.

  ‘What is it?’ said Abbey, impatiently.

  Talika and Hannah smiled at each other and looked at the phone.

  ‘It’s our entry into the talent quest!’ said Talika.

  ‘I didn’t know Drover knew how to beg!’ said Abbey, staring at the picture on the phone.

  ‘And we saw how far he can jump when he leapt off the top of the stairs,’ said Hannah.

  ‘We can train him to do some tricks and that can be our entry to the talent quest. We just have to come up with a bit of a performance for him,’ said Talika.

  ‘This is brilliant, Talika!’ said Abbey. ‘Do you think Mr McPhail will be okay with it?’

  ‘I’m sure he will,’ beamed Hannah. ‘He’s put so much time into training Drover properly since he adopted him. He might even be able to tell us some other things he can do.’

  The girls jumped back onto their horses and cantered towards the showgrounds.

  Suddenly Abbey pulled Pepper up sharply. ‘Whoa,’ she said. Pudding almost ran into the back of him.

  ‘What is it?’ said Hannah, rubbing Bedazzled on the neck to try to calm him down.

  ‘Listen!’ said Abbey, holding up her hand. ‘Something’s wrong. Quick, get off the road and to the side as much as you can!’

  The girls followed Abbey’s lead and steered their horses sideways.

  They could all hear it now, and it was terrifying.

  ‘It’s cattle and they’re stampeding!’ yelled Abbey, a sound like rolling thunder almost drowning her out.

  Abbey had only seen cattle stampede once in her life, and it was one of the scariest things she had ever witnessed. When cattle were frightened by something, they would sometimes start to run in a blind panic, and could do the most dangerous and stupid things in the process. Anything in their way could be trampled.

  The horses’ nostrils flared and they all stood tense and terrified. Bedazzled pranced on the spot and broke out into a sweat. He snorted and circled round and round.

  Abbey tried to work out which direction the sound was coming from. She looked up and down the narrow road, but could see nothing past the rise at each end. They were hemmed in by the fences that ran down either side. The noise grew louder and louder, seeming to surround them.

  Talika started to cry. It was almost impossible for Abbey to work out how far away the noise was, but it was without mistake the sound of a large mob of cattle galloping on a road. She looked around desperately for a solution. She reached down and grabbed the side of Pudding’s bridle.

  ‘Should we gallop back up the road to get away?’ yelled Hannah.

  Abbey looked down at Talika on her tiny pony, then back at Hannah. Abbey knew her friend was thinking the same thing as her – Pudding could never keep up, and Talika had never galloped before and might fall. They were trapped between fences on either side of the road and had nowhere else to go. Worse still, they could misjudge and find themselves heading for the crazed herd.

  Abbey heard Drover bark and saw that he had climbed through the fence and was standing on the other side. ‘We have to let the horses go!’ she screamed. ‘And climb through the fence with Drover.’

  The look of horror on Hannah’s face scared Abbey even more.

  ‘Hannah, it’s their best chance! They can outrun the cattle without us on their backs, and I’m sure they’ll go home. If we don’t, we could all be trampled.’

  Talika screamed and pointed up the road to the right. Coming over the rise in the distance now was an enormous herd of cattle and calves running at full speed down the road towards them.

  Abbey leapt off Pepper, who was quivering all over and holding his head so high that she struggled to get her reins over his head.

  ‘Get their saddles off!’ she screamed at her friends. Her horse’s flanks heaved with fear.

  The other girls did as they were told and unbuckled the girths, letting their saddles crash to the ground. The three had never been in such danger as the horses spun around in panic and pulled back on their reins. Abbey knew they risked being trampled by their own horses before the cattle even arrived.

  ‘Get their bridles off too!’ she bellowed. Abbey could hear Hannah crying now too, and her own hands shook so badly she struggled with the buckles and clasps.

  Their gear was strewn all around them. As Pepper’s bit fell from his mouth he pulled back and spun around. Pudding was free now too, and the two horses began to bolt down the road, but Hannah was still trying to get the bridle off her horse. He kept pulling backwards and throwing his head into the air, keen to follow Pudding and Pepper. Foam flicked from his mouth and he reared back as both Abbey and Hannah tried to pull his head down.

  ‘Undo the reins,’ said Abbey, as they each took a side of the bit to work on, willing her fingers to undo the buckles. One side was loose now, but Bedazzled pulled back again and reefed the rein from Abbey’s grasp, and was off down the street with the long rein flying behind him. The huge horse was gaining quickly on the smaller horses that had bolted ahead.

  Hannah was beside herself as Abbey grabbed her by the shirt and dragged her towards the fence. Talika had already climbed through, and held the barbed wire apart as the other girls clambered between the spikes.

  They tumbled into the paddock seconds before the first of the cattle stampeded past.

  The girls crouched in the paddock and hugged each other in fear as the cattle kept coming. With only a few metres between them and the deadly hooves, the sound was terrifying.

  ‘Why is this happening?’ screamed Talika, her hands covering her ears and her eyes squeezed shut.

  Abbey looked over at Hannah. Her face was as white as a bedsheet and tears streamed from her eyes as she stared up the road in the direction their horses had galloped.

  Suddenly Abbey felt a warm tongue on her face. She wrapped her arms around Drover’s neck and buried her face in his fur and sobbed.

  It was over
as quickly as it had begun. The dust settled and the girls sat in stunned silence.

  ‘What if they run onto the highway?’ said Hannah. Her voice sounded small and wooden, as if she was scared that saying it any louder would make it more real.

  ‘I didn’t know what else to do, Han,’ sniffed Abbey.

  The girls stood up and brushed themselves off. Only when they looked over the fence did the true reality hit them of the danger they had just sidestepped. Their saddles lay trampled in the grass, torn and grazed from hooves thundering over them.

  ‘That could have been us,’ said Talika, quietly. She turned to hug Abbey. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

  Together they stacked what was left of their gear beside the fence and started the long walk back to school. No one said anything for a few minutes.

  ‘I’ll never find another horse like Bedazzled,’ sniffed Hannah, swiping at tears and leaving dirt smears across her cheeks.

  ‘We’ve got to hope with all our hearts that they ran home,’ said Abbey. ‘They’re smart horses, Hannah. Please don’t give up hope.’

  ‘But his rein. He could have tripped on it. He could have broken his leg.’

  ‘Either way, we’ll find out soon enough,’ mumbled Abbey. ‘You can’t have a cattle stampede without a whole lot of people noticing.’

  No sooner had she said the words, a four-wheel drive came into view. There was no mistaking that it was Mr McPhail’s vehicle. He sped down the road towards them, and the doors were thrown open before it had even fully stopped. Ms Sterling and Mr McPhail leapt from the four-wheel drive and ran towards the girls, who collapsed into their arms with great sobs.

  ‘Bedazzled?’ whispered Hannah, as Ms Sterling held her close.

  ‘All safe,’ she said. ‘They’re all safe.’

  Hannah, Abbey and Talika hugged each other then and sobbed in the way you do after a big fright. It was a kind of half laugh, half cry, and suddenly Abbey felt absolutely exhausted.

  Ms Sterling pulled her phone from her pocket and rang a number. ‘We’ve found them and they’re safe,’ was all she said.

  Mr McPhail drove them all slowly back to school. He said he would come and collect what was left of their gear later.