The wind tossed the snow around with a vengeance. Even the snow wanted to escape its force by allowing the wind to blow it through the cracks in the barn.

Inside, was a repeat of the last several days - eat, sleep, lie down, get up and do it all over again. There wasn’t much to do when the weather was bad.  Even talking with each other was getting to be a bit boring. Annie peeked through the boards of her stall

“What are you doing Scout?”

“Nothing Annie”

“Can you see anything through that tiny hole in your window Scout?” Annie wanted to know

“Maybe I can.  I might take a look later Annie”

“There you go Scout you have got something to do now”

“I suppose I do Annie’

“What do you think you’ll see when you take a look later Scout?” Baby asked

“I imagine about the same as yesterday and the day before that…snow snow and more snow plus wind”

“Oh Scout, you are just guessing.  It may have changed, can you take a look please?” asked Baby

“What do you except Scout to see?  The sun shining and birds singing?” said Joseph

“Oh Jospeh, something may have changed. We don’t know. Wouldn’t it be great if it has?”

“I doubt it” Joseph mumbled

“Scout, please, can you take a look?” Baby asked

 “Open your window Scout” Annie said

Baby looked at Joseph “Is Annie for real?????”

“Sometimes I wonder”

“If it will keep all of you quiet I will”

“Okay Scout I will be quiet” answered Annie

“You promise?” Scout said as he turned his attention to Annie

“Promise what?”

Just what I thought, Scout said to himself, knowing Annie didn’t have a clue what promise meant.

 “Can you open your window?” asked Baby

“I think I could if I wanted too” answered Scout

“I wouldn’t mind seeing what was happening out there”

“Well then let’s give it a try and see what happens” Scout started wiggling his nose on the latch in such a way that the window opened……

A big gust of wind and snow came rushing towards Scout.

“WOW!!” Scout shouted as he ran towards the back of his stall. Scout was completely white with snow on his face. Only his eyes were visible and they looked as big as dinner plates.

TC could hear the commotion and decided to investigate.

“What has happened over here?” asked TC

“Scout opened his window” replied Annie

“Oh really! I wonder why?” answered TC as she looked at Scout knowing only too well the Little Ones played some part in this.

“Baby wanted to see what was outside” Annie answered as she stood tall in her stall.

“ME!!!!…….Annie you started it” Baby yelled back

“No I didn’t”

“Ok kids, the truth is you all have had something to say I do believe. It doesn’t matter who started it, what are we going to do now? Scout has a blanket of snow in his stall” TC answered with a motherly tone to her voice.

“Scout can move in with me if he wants” Baby answered

“I guess that is the right thing to do Baby, seeing where it was you that wanted to see outside” Joseph replied

Baby was about to say something to Joseph when Scout said,

“Thanks Baby but the two of us can’t fit in your stall”

“We can make it work Scout”

Joseph was looking at Baby and he knew there was something more that Baby wanted to say.

“It’s okay Baby you can say whatever it is that you are holding back”

“I’m not holding back anything Joseph”

“We have been stall mates too long Baby for me not to know”

“Are you sure it will be alright?”

“Baby,  sometimes you just have to jump buildings and use your wings on the way down”

“Thanks Joseph for caring”

“Scout, I’m sorry that I asked you to open the window”

“Me too” came a small voice from Annie’s stall

“It’s alright, you realize I could have said no but said yes instead.  When you do that then you have to be responsible to what you said yes to in the first place” Scout answered as he turned to TC

“You will never stop being a kid at heart will you Scout?  I am very pleased with the way you took responsibility too” TC said in a low voice

Scout just smiled and TC knew he understood. Just then the owners opened the door and saw what had happened. Everyone looked at one another wondering what they were going to say. The door was left open and Joseph looked out the door noticing that the wind had stopped blowing.

“Baby listen, can you hear the wind anymore?”

“No and it is not snowing either.”  Scout looked out the door.

“I see it. Remember my window is open”

Instead of cleaning the snow from Scout’s stall the owners reached for a halter.

“TC, does this mean we are going out?” asked Annie

“It could be Annie, maybe for just a walk”

From Joseph came “Right now I’ll take anything”

“Me too Joseph.  I wonder how long we have been in because of the bad weather. TC or Scout do you know?” asked Baby

 “I would have to say Baby that it has been about 30 days since we were out” answered TC

“Wow!! That is old, older than me!” Annie answered

“Oh Annie that is not years,  it’s days.”

“Oh!  It is still a long time. I wonder who will be going first” Annie wanted to know

“I hope it will be me” said Joseph

“Maybe me” Baby answered

“Well seeing where Scout is the oldest maybe he will be going first” TC added

“You would go before me Baby” Joseph replied

“That’s right Joseph I am a few months other than you”

“I’m the baby.   I should go first” Annie answered

“Oh no Annie it will be dark before you get back” Joseph replied

“That wasn’t very nice Joseph”

“Well Annie you walk, too too slow was what I meant”

“We will just have to wait and see who goes first” TC whispered as she made her way back to the sidelines to watch it all unfold.

With halter in hand one of the owners made his way to Annie’s stall. Annie was so excited she was jumping up and down.

“Guess we will have to pray for nice weather tomorrow. They won’t get back in time” said Joseph

“Maybe it will be a short walk Joseph” Baby added

As Annie walked by she put on her girly charm, looked at Baby and Joseph saying, “I told you I was the baby and was going first” as she disappeared on the other side of the doors.

“That’s it!!!!! We won’t get out today.  Annie has one gear and that’s slow. If they go as far as the pond it will be dark before we see them again” Joseph said in an unhappy tone.

“Our owners are fair Joseph and they will make sure we all have time out” Scout replied as he settled down to eat some hay

“They gave us something to eat before they left Joseph” Baby added

“Yea, they just wanted us to forget about how long they were going to be gone. Why did they leave the door open a little? That makes it even worse as I can see outside”

“Oh Joseph you are getting grumpy”

“Call it what you may, I just want to get out”

Baby decided that it was better to eat his hay and leave Joseph alone for a little while.

Joseph settled down and was telling Baby he was sorry for being grumpy when they heard…………………….

“HURRY!!! HURRY!!!…….CLOSE THE BARN DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Upon hearing this, the other owner came running from the other side to close the door.

“IT’S CLOSED” was the answer back

No one knew what was going on.

“Joseph, can you see through that other hole where the snow was coming in?” Baby asked in an anxious voice. He was worried something had happen to Annie

Joseph pushed his eye as close to the hole as he could and in seconds he was rolling on the floor in laughter.

“Joseph what is going on” Baby yelled but Joseph couldn’t answer

“Move over Joseph so we can see” both Baby and Scout replied at the same time.

What they saw broke them into a fit of laughter as well and then they heard…………………

“KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED I’M COMING FOR THE WALL”

“OKAY!!!!” replied the other owner

When Joseph was back on his feet, room was made for him to see as well and this is what they saw…………..

Somewhere during the walk one might say that Annie woke up. She caught the owner completely off guard when she started picking up speed on the way back to the barn. Annie was on a mission but the owner didn’t know what. She had bolted ahead in such a way that he lost his footing in the snow and there he was on his belly holding on to the reins parting the snow like a plow. Every once in a while they would see little diamonds of snow being blown into the air. The owner was trying to keep his eyes clear to see. Suddenly there was a THUMP……..

“What was that?” Baby asked

“Annie’s hooves hitting the barn”

“WHAT….is she alright?”

“Remember Baby the time you were in a rush to get back from the cart drive and the owner stopped you by letting your head hit the wall of the barn to slow you down?” Scout reminded Baby

“Oh, I remember now and that is what just happened to Annie, right?”

“You got it”

Everyone found a place to stand in the barn so they could see everything when the doors opened. Even Seeker came to watch. Suddenly the doors opened…….

“WOW!! The owner has more snow on him than Scout did”

“I guess he would Baby, he was at ground level and I was up higher looking out my window” Scout answered

Annie came in with the biggest smile on her face as she made her way to her stall.

“There you go Joseph I’m back before dark!!!! Annie said with a smile on her face.

Well Joseph had only one thing to say as he looked at Baby and Scout

“Looks like she found fifth gear – super speed” Everyone smiled

“Maybe after today I’ll get a spot in the Olympics” Annie said with a big girl voice.

“Where did that come from and what are the Olympics anyway?” Baby questioned

“Who knows?”

The owners didn’t pick up any other halters.  They opened the barn doors letting everyone out for a few hours in the snow. Snow baths were the first thing on the list even for Joseph

“Why are you having a snow bath Joseph, you don’t like them?”

“I need something to clear my head after the remark about the Olympics.”  Joseph answered as he rolled.

“Why didn’t Annie come out Scout?” Baby asked

“Annie’s legs aren’t long enough for this snow that is why she went for a walk.”

Annie stood looking out her door as the others were playing in the snow. She was happy with herself even though she couldn’t join the others. She had wanted to prove to Joseph that she wasn’t slow and she had done just that.

“What are Olympics?” Baby asked as they made their way back to the barn.

“I guess I am going to have to get my big ears on better alert because I missed that one” Joseph said as he played with his ears.

“You never miss anything Joseph”

“I don’t want to go there Baby’

Have a good sleep Little Ones; you had a day filled with lots of excitement.

“We sure did Good Night everyone!”

Hi everyone, we hope you enjoyed our story. We learned a lot this time and the most important thing of all was when you decide to do nothing and something happens, you have to be responsible for what you do like Scout was. See you next time when we tell you about “Allergies and Asthma” See you then

Baby, Joseph, Scout and Little Annie