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  “Um, Stevie,” Max said. He sounded as if he had become just a little dubious about his choice.

  “Joke, Max. It’s a joke,” Stevie assured him. “I will be the best Starlight Ride leader you’ve ever known.” Then she thought about the night Carole had led the ride. “Or at least the second best,” she corrected herself, making everybody laugh.

  “All right, then I want you all here by six o’clock to tack up. We’ll have inspection at six-thirty, and the trail ride will begin at seven. It’s going to be cold. Wear proper riding clothes, but also be sure to wear warm jackets and gloves.”

  He went through a long checklist of the things everybody should bring and the things everybody should remember. Stevie knew she should be listening, but her thoughts kept drifting. All she wanted to do was picture herself leading the Starlight Ride.

  What a wonderful Christmas it was turning out to be. First the trip to the Bar None and now this. That meant Wednesday was going to be a busy day. Their plane was supposed to land back in D.C. in the middle of the afternoon. Then they’d have to drive through heavy traffic back to Virginia. They’d make it, though. For something as important as the Starlight Ride, nothing could go wrong.

  “Stevie, do you have any questions?” Max asked before he dismissed the group.

  “Just one,” Stevie said. “Could somebody pinch me?”

  Lisa and Carole were only too happy to oblige.

  Max told all the riders to untack and groom their horses and ponies. The meeting was over.

  Stevie, Carole, and Lisa cross tied their horses in a row so that they could chat as they untacked and groomed. Carole talked practically nonstop about how happy she was for Stevie.

  “It’s really a great honor, you know. We all know you’ve been working hard with Belle ever since you got her, and now we know that Max knows it, too. What’s more, he knows all the progress you’ve made. Just wait until he hands you that torch and you go out in front of all the other riders. It’s the greatest feeling in the world. Belle’s going to like it, too. She’s a show-off, you know. She likes being the center of things—”

  “Oh, Stevie, this is going to be so great!” Lisa said, interrupting Carole’s analysis. “It’s exciting.”

  “And mostly it’s going to be fun,” Stevie said.

  Stevie considered that the most important part of the Starlight Ride—the fact that it was fun.

  For a while the girls worked in silence. Stevie had gotten so excited about the Starlight Ride that she forgot she had to hurry now. Her father had promised to take her to the mall to shop for Lisa and Carole, if and only if she got home by three o’clock. She looked at her watch. She had twenty minutes. She brushed Belle faster.

  Carole’s mind was racing. She had to catch the 3:15 bus to the mall to finish her Christmas shopping. She didn’t think she had much time, but she didn’t want to look at her watch. She didn’t want her friends to know she was in a hurry because she still had to buy them presents.

  Lisa kept glancing through the dingy window of the stable to see if her mother’s car was there yet. Her mother had agreed to pick her up at Pine Hollow to take her out to the mall. Finally the car pulled in. Now the trick was going to be getting out to it without letting her friends know what she was up to. She didn’t want them to know she was going to the mall to look for their Christmas gifts. Lisa looked at her watch. She couldn’t wait any longer. She finished grooming Prancer.

  “Oh boy,” she said, dropping a dandy brush into Prancer’s grooming bucket. “I’ve got to go. Mom’s here. We’re going to my godmother’s for tea this afternoon. You guys doing anything?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Nothing as exciting as tea with your godmother,” Carole said. “I have to catch the three-fifteen bus so I can get home and wash my hair this afternoon.”

  “What about you, Stevie?” Lisa asked.

  “I’m going straight home. I’ve got some, um … I need to … well … ironing. I have to iron all my clothes so I can pack tonight,” Stevie said.

  Well, that answered that. Lisa could head for the mall without worrying about getting caught. She told her friends she’d see them in the morning, then took Prancer back to her stall and hurried out of Pine Hollow.

  Her mother reached over and opened the door to their car. Lisa climbed in. She was glad her friends didn’t remember that her godmother lived in Missouri.

  “MEET ME BACK here in one hour, Stevie, okay?” her father said to her as they got out of the car in the mall parking lot.

  Stevie looked at her watch. It was 3:35. One hour wasn’t much time. She nodded and waved to her father, then ran more than walked into the first store she found.

  I’ve got to get something perfect for Lisa and Carole, she thought. She looked around, her eyes scanning the shelves, convinced that she would see the perfect thing in an instant—or at least in less than an hour.

  There was nothing on the shelves around her, and for a moment she couldn’t understand why. Then it came to her: She was in a hardware store. In a way it wasn’t surprising. That was the store her father was going to. He was giving himself a new power drill for Christmas. But somehow she didn’t think she was going to find the perfect gift for The Saddle Club in a hardware store.

  There isn’t a wrench in the world good enough for my friends! Stevie declared to herself with a giggle as she headed into the main passageway of the mall.

  She was systematic when it came to shopping. She took the escalator up to the top of the mall and began walking quickly down the halls to see what stores might offer possibilities for her friends.

  Clothes? Her friends both had very nice clothes. Stevie looked down at her sweatshirt and jeans, which were covered with a faint dusting of horsehair and hay. She didn’t think she’d be very good at selecting clothes for them.

  There was a record store. Now that had possibilities. They all liked music. The problem was that Carole had recently developed a taste for country-and-western music and Stevie didn’t share that taste. Stevie preferred rock—classic and modern. She was afraid that if she bought an album for Carole that she liked, Carole would hate it. But if Stevie bought something she herself hated, Carole might find out and be insulted. She decided against buying anything in the record store.

  The next shop that caught her eye was the bookstore. She veered into it and, purely from habit, went straight to the horse-book section, where she quickly analyzed everything on the shelf.

  “Got it, got it, don’t want it, Carole has it, Lisa has it, don’t want it, can’t afford it, Carole has it, Lisa’s parents are giving it to her …”

  There was nothing there. She checked out the paperback section and saw that the three of them were completely caught up with the most recent titles in their favorite series. She had to go to another shop.

  She hurried out of the bookstore. She dashed past the scent shop, a candy store, three shoe stores, two electronics stores, a toy store, an athletic store, and a department store.

  She scooted down the stairs to the lower level. She tried another bookstore, with no better luck. She glanced at the little specialty carts in the middle of the aisle. A mug for each of her friends? With their names on them? No, she didn’t think so. Lisa and Carole weren’t exactly coffee drinkers. Earrings with horses on them? No. The nice ones were too expensive and the cheap ones were too tacky.

  She looked at her watch. Fifteen minutes gone and she hadn’t spent a penny! She sighed. Why was it that Stevie had had no trouble buying presents for her three brothers (whom she often hated), but when it came to shopping for her best friends (whom she always loved), it was hard? Maybe because it mattered so much to her that she get exactly the right thing.

  Something ahead of her glinted in the sun. It was at the cart that held specialty glass items. Sometimes there were nice things. Stevie stepped forward and squinted. Was it possible? There were horses made of glass—dozens of them, all different sizes and shapes. And they were pretty. There was one
with a beautiful arch in its neck, and another flipping its tail …

  CAROLE STEPPED OFF the bus. It was a good thing the same bus that went to her house also stopped at the mall. The next one would be there in a little over an hour to take her home. That was all the time she had because she still needed to pack. Until then, she had a very important job to do. She wanted to get the nicest possible Christmas presents for her two best friends.

  She’d done all her other shopping. She’d gotten her father some CDs of classic golden oldies. He loved everything about the 1950s—especially the music. She knew he was going to love the ones she was giving him this year. Also, she and her father had shopped together to buy gifts for their cousins in other parts of the country. Those had gone out in the mail weeks ago. There were things that Colonel Hanson could be Marine Corps–style efficient about. Family Christmas gifts were among them.

  So now all that was left was shopping for Stevie and Lisa. But it wasn’t easy to buy things for people you cared about as much as Carole cared about her best friends.

  Her first stop was the bath store. There were oodles of sweet-smelling bubble baths, shower gels, and scented powders. None of them seemed like something she wanted to give to Stevie and Lisa. She decided to try someplace else.

  There was an earring shop. Some of the earrings were nice, but not nice enough; and on the ones that were nice enough, the price tags made her shudder. She moved on. Next she came to the toy shop. Her friends were much too old for toys—except for model horses. Lisa collected those. There was a nice selection, but Lisa had all of them already, except for one big one, and that was too expensive. Carole hoped Lisa’s parents were getting her that one for Christmas. She wondered if she should call them and tell them about it.

  She headed back into the main walkway of the mall. It was crowded, but what else would she expect on the last Saturday before Christmas? She had to work her way through the masses of people to be able to see into the store windows. There was little in them to interest her. There were scarves, but Lisa and Stevie had perfectly good scarves. Another window displayed a pretty sweater that might look nice on Lisa—if Carole had $180! And there was a coat Stevie would really love for $280. Not exactly in Carole’s budget.

  At that moment a cloud overhead shifted and sunlight streamed into the mall hallway, sparkling brightly on something. Carole blinked and looked ahead. There was something very shiny. Was it glass? She stepped forward to take a closer look.

  LISA’S FAVORITE SHOP at the mall was the tack shop. She made a beeline for it as soon as her mother dropped her off. Surely it would have something right—and by that Lisa meant perfect—for Carole and Stevie. Where better than the tack shop?

  But what?

  Neither of her friends actually needed tack. They both had saddles and bridles for their horses. That was a good thing, too, because tack was very expensive. Unfortunately, they also didn’t need the inexpensive things she could afford. She said no to riding crops, horse shampoo, saddle soap, and polo bandages. There was a really good video on show jumping, but it was way out of her budget. There was one beautiful model horse, but she was the one who collected the models, not her friends. She hoped her parents knew about the big new model and that it would be under the tree on Christmas morning. There was, however, nothing here that she wanted to give Stevie or Carole.

  Her next stop was the fancy candy store. There were some really tempting goodies, but she didn’t like the idea of candy for her friends. It would be gone too soon (especially if she helped eat it), and then there would be nothing to remember of hers from this Christmas. No, she wanted something that would last, something that would make her friends think of her every time they used it or saw it.

  She thought again about the show jumping tape. Maybe she could get an advance on her allowance. No, that wasn’t practical. And she wanted to get something now, today.

  She left the candy store and wandered through the crowd, hoping for inspiration. And then she saw it—there, ahead, on a cart in the main walkway of the mall.

  “Perfect!” she said out loud, stepping forward, almost in disbelief that her wish had come true.

  “Lisa?”

  She stopped. She looked. It was Carole.

  “I thought you were washing your hair,” Lisa said.

  Carole’s hand flew to her head. “I, uh, I had to get some shampoo,” she said.

  Then another voice piped up. “Carole? What are you doing—oh, Lisa!” It was Stevie.

  “What about your ironing?” Carole asked.

  “My what? Oh, right, my ironing,” Stevie said. She gulped. “Well, you know when you use that spray starch, it just makes the ironing go so fast it seems like nothing.” Stevie turned to Lisa. “And tea with your godmother?” she asked. “That was pretty quick.”

  “We had éclairs,” Lisa said. “That’s French for lightning, you know, because that’s how fast you want to eat them. Mom and I cleared the platter in a matter of minutes.”

  Stevie glanced at her watch. “Seconds, I would say,” she corrected her friend skeptically.

  “Well, they were small éclairs,” Lisa said, hoping to add some authenticity to the ridiculous statement she’d just made.

  Lisa glanced over at the booth she’d been heading for. She didn’t want Stevie and Carole to know where she’d been going or why. She had to distract them. She remembered that the Burger Pit was nearby.

  “To tell you the truth, I’m still hungry,” she said. “Anyone interested in ruining her appetite for dinner?”

  “Always!” Stevie said enthusiastically.

  “Lead the way,” Carole said.

  A few minutes later they were seated at a table at the Burger Pit, eating ready-made, none-too-good cheeseburgers. Stevie took a final bite and looked again at her watch.

  “Listen, I just remembered one more blouse I have to iron,” she said. “You guys just relax. No need for you to hurry, but I’ve got to get out of here. See you tomorrow morning.” Before her friends could say a word, she waved a cheery good-bye, dropped her wrappings in the garbage can by the door, and headed back into the crowd.

  Carole and Lisa lingered a few minutes over their fries, chatting about everything except what had brought them to the mall. They both agreed that they were eager to get out to the Bar None and would have a wonderful time with the Devines.

  “And especially with Kate,” Lisa added.

  “And don’t forget Christine,” Carole said. Christine’s family lived near the Bar None, and she would be bunking with the girls during their visit.

  The conversation was stilted. Carole and Lisa had other things on their minds.

  Carole looked at Lisa’s nearly full soda cup and the half serving of fries she had left.

  “I think I’d better get going,” Carole said. “You don’t have to hurry on my account … it’s just that I need to …”

  Lisa sighed. It looked as if Carole was actually leaving. She hoped so—it would give her a chance to finish her errand.

  “So, well, then, I’ll see you tom—” Carole started to say.

  “Okay,” Lisa agreed quickly. “Bye.”

  Finally she was gone. Now all Lisa had to do was to give Carole a good head start so she wouldn’t run into her again and she could—finally—get back to the stand with the pretty glass horses. Carole and Stevie were going to love them!

  “WELCOME TO THE Bar None!” Kate Devine called out to The Saddle Club, even before they could get their bags out of the back of the dude ranch’s wagon.

  They didn’t bother with the bags right away. Hugs and greetings were much more important than suitcases!

  Kate and her mother, Phyllis, were part of the hugs, and they were quickly joined by Christine Lonetree.

  The girls were tired from their long plane ride, but the sight of the Bar None refreshed them.

  “It looks so different!” Lisa said, declaring what each of them had noticed. The Bar None in the winter was totally different from the pl
ace they knew in summertime and fall. There were remnants of a snowstorm on the ground, with neatly shoveled paths from the main house to the guest bunkhouses and from everywhere to the barn.

  Most people thought of dude ranches only for summer vacations, but the Bar None was always open. The cattle needed to be tended every day, and the horses could be ridden year-round. There wasn’t much vegetable farming to be done in the winter, but there were plenty of activities visitors could enjoy.

  “Come on, now, everybody grab a suitcase—or three in Lisa’s case—and let’s get settled into our favorite bunkhouse,” Kate said. “I’ve already brought my pajamas and stuff out there.”

  Lisa took a bag in each hand from the back of the wagon. “I was able to limit my mother’s packing to two bags this time,” she announced proudly.

  “Good, then you’ll only need two bureaus this time instead of the usual three!” Kate teased.

  “Oh, just you wait,” Lisa said. “You’re all going to be wanting to borrow my clothes!”

  “As long as they’re warm,” said Kate. “Because the first thing we’re going to do is go for a ride. Are you up for that?”

  “Definitely,” Stevie assured her. “As long as the horses are.”

  “I warned them about you,” said Kate. “I told them you’d be riding them nonstop from the moment you got here until you left. The horses didn’t seem to mind.”

  “Great,” Carole said as they clattered into the bunkhouse. It was cozy, warm, and welcoming, with a large room that had bunk beds and a bathroom the girls would share. In the middle of the room was an old-fashioned potbellied stove. When the girls had stayed at the ranch in the summer, the stove had seemed like a quaint decoration. Now that it was the middle of winter, a much-needed coal fire glowed in it. Warmth radiated throughout the large room, supplementing the meager heat that came from clanking radiators by the windows.