Hook 'Em Snotty
Authors: Gary Paulsen
Bobbie chewed the inside of her lip. “If you’re coming with me, you better get ready. I’m leaving in a half hour. I already fed your horse. He’s the strawberry roan in the pen. Saddles are in the tack shed.”
Bobbie moved past her cousin and grabbed a tarp off a peg on the wall. She took it outside and wrapped it in her bedroll.
In a few minutes Alex returned, leading the roan. Bobbie frowned. The horse’s back was still bare. “I told you the saddles are in the tack shed—over there.”
“All I could find were Western saddles. I’m used to riding English.”
“You mean those itty-bitty things with hardly any leather on ’em and no saddle horn?”
Alex nodded.
“Look, Al, we’re not going on an Easter egg hunt. We’re looking for stray cattle. Some of them are mean and all of them are wild. You’ll be spending all day in the saddle. Maybe you should tell Grandpa you want to stay here until I get back. It’ll only be a week.”
“You wish.” Alex turned and led the roan toward the tack shed again. “Don’t worry about me, hotshot. If you can handle it, so can I.”
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YEARLING BOOKS
are designed especially to entertain and enlighten young people. Patricia Reilly Giff, consultant to this series, received her bachelor’s degree from Marymount College and a master’s degree in history from St. John’s University. She holds a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University. She was a teacher and reading consultant for many years, and is the author of numerous books for young readers.
For a complete listing of all Yearling titles,
write to
Dell Readers Service,
P.O. Box 1045,
South Holland, IL 60473.
Published by
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers
a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
Copyright © 1995 by Gary Paulsen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
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®
and Dell
®
are registered in the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80389-4
Interior illustration by Michael David Biegel
v3.1
Dear Readers:
Real adventure is many things—it’s danger and daring and sometimes even a struggle for life or death. From competing in the Iditarod dogsled race across Alaska to sailing the Pacific Ocean, I’ve experienced some of this adventure myself. I try to capture this spirit in my stories, and each time I sit down to write, that challenge is a bit of an adventure in itself.
You’re all a part of this adventure as well. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of talking with many of you in schools, and this book is the result of hearing firsthand what you want to read about most—power-packed action and excitement.
You asked for it—so hang on tight while we jump into another thrilling story in my World of Adventure.
C
HAPTER
1
Bobbie Walker slapped her worn-out cowboy hat against the leg of her faded jeans. It caused a small cloud of dust but she didn’t notice. Something else had her attention. Her grandpa’s old white Ford pickup was rumbling up the road toward the Rocking W Ranch.
The day she had dreaded was finally here. Bobbie’s cousin from Los Angeles was coming to the ranch to visit for a few weeks. Grandpa had left early this morning to go to the airport in Winston—nearly seventy-five miles away.
Bobbie had refused to go along. She wanted
it well understood from the start that bringing Alex out here wasn’t her idea. The last thing they needed right now was a city greenhorn getting in the way of the annual wild cow roundup.
The old truck stopped in front of the house. Bobbie pulled her hat down low and moved away from the corrals. She walked to the bed of the pickup and lifted out her cousin’s expensive leather suitcase.
The passenger door opened. A tall, slender girl with long brown hair, the same color as Bobbie’s, stepped out. Her hair was parted on the side and she moved it off her face with her hand.
Bobbie looked her up and down. She wasn’t impressed and it showed. The girl was wearing tight black shorts and a black T-shirt that said
PRODUCT OF THE CITY
. Bobbie winced when she noticed her cousin’s feet.
Sandals.
One side of Bobbie’s mouth went up. It always twitched like that when she didn’t like something. She barely nodded at the girl and started for the house.
“Bobbie.”
It was Grandpa. His voice held a note of displeasure. “Yes, sir?”
The tips of his thumb and forefinger smoothed down his gray handlebar mustache. “I want you to say hello to your cousin Alex.”
Bobbie turned. Alex gave her a bored look under nearly closed eyelids. Bobbie shifted the suitcase and halfheartedly stuck out her hand.
Alex folded her arms in front of her. “I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”
Bobbie put her hand down.
“Gramps tells me there’s a lot to do out here in the sticks.” Alex cocked her head. “What do you do for fun, cousin, wait till Saturday night and count the flies on manure piles?”
“I’m sure Grandpa will find plenty to keep you busy.”
“He told me
you
were going to show me around.”
Bobbie pushed her hat back. “I really hate to disappoint you, Al, but I’m leaving tomorrow. I’ll be gone for more than a week chasing stray cattle in the brush country.”
“The name is Alex.”
“Like I said,
Alex
, every year, after we gather in the flats, we go up in the hills to look for wild cows.”
“Oh gee,” Alex mocked, “and I was really looking forward to getting to know you better—cousin.”
Bobbie held the suitcase out in front of her and let it drop at Alex’s feet. “Yeah, it’s too bad there’s not going to be time for that.”
HAPTER
2
The next morning Bobbie was up early. Grandpa was already downstairs making breakfast. She took the stairs two at a time and burst into the kitchen.
“It won’t work, Grandpa. She’s so green … you know how it is up there. She won’t last a day.”
“I told her she could go.”
Bobbie could hear the final edge in her grandpa’s voice. But she couldn’t help trying one more time. “What if she can’t ride?”
“She rides. She’s been to one of those equestrian schools.”
Bobbie knew it was useless. She sighed and headed for the barn. When her grandpa made a decision, that was it. She would just have to get used to the idea of baby-sitting her cousin for the next week. She threw a feed can across the barn and it crashed into the wall above the door.