2 Sisters, 1 Horse

This true story happened to Elizabeth and Harriett, Crandalls both, in the mid 1920's.  

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Once upon a time in a very small town in Iowa, there lived a very large family.  In the family there were the Father and the Mother and 6 boys and 6 girls.  Some of the children had grown up moved on to start their own lives and families, but there were still 4 boys and 2 girls at home.  The 2 girls were the youngest of the whole family.  One day as a treat for the girls, the father borrowed a horse from a farmer in lieu of a debt the farmer owed him.  And the little girls squealed in delight.  The little girls were named Elizabeth and Harriett.  The father said, "Now girls I want you to take turns riding the horse.  Elizabeth you are the older and I expect you to share and let Harriett ride her share too."  And he went inside to work on his papers.  

Elizabeth turned to Harriett and said, "I'll go first and then I'll let you ride.  You wait here in the shade of this tree."  And Harriett nodded and waited.  Elizabeth rode the horse through their very, very big back yard, past the cherry tree,  past the gooseberry bushes, down the side fence past the apple tree all the way to the chicken yard at the very back and then around the clothes line and carefully avoiding her Mother's vegetable garden coming back up the other side through the hollyhocks behind the garage to where Harriett waited.  Riding the horse was so much fun, Elizabeth didn't want to get off.  But she had promised her Father that she would take turns with Harriett. And so she did.  She came back to where Harriett waited and got off the horse.  She told Harriett to ride the same places where she had ridden and helped her up onto the horse.  

Harriett rode off.  But she was 2 years younger and not as good at riding as Elizabeth.  Harriett let the horse get her too close to the cherry tree and she got smacked in the face by the branches.  And when they passed the gooseberry bushes she got her ankles scratched.  The horse went right under a branch of the apple tree and Harriett had to duck down fast! They passed the chicken yard safely enough but the clothesline was coming next!  Harriett ducked down in anticipation of coming disaster but the horse turned and went around the clothes line.  And headed for the fence of her Mother's vegetable garden!!  "Turn him to the left," yelled Elizabeth.  Harriett pulled the reins back and to the left and the horse went a little faster - straight ahead.  At the last moment, the horse turned toward the hollyhocks.  Harriett had to grab the pommel of the saddle to stay on the horse so sharply did he turn.  And they were off for the hollyhocks.  Right into the hollyhocks and through the lovely pink flowered stalks to the garage.  Then, finally, they got to the place that Elizabeth waited.  "Oh my, Harriett, you need to learn to use the reins more, you didn't even try to turn the horse until you got to the garden."  

"I was so busy getting smacked by the cherry tree and scratched by the gooseberries and ducking under the apple branch, I forgot about the reins." Harriett said, her knees shaking as she got off the horse.  "I wouldn't have remembered at the garden if you hadn't yelled to do it."

At that moment the back door opened and their Father came out, his eyes snapping.  "Girls!  Your Mother tells me her hollyhocks are trampled flat!  Have you been riding that horse over her flowers?"

Harriett looked at Elizabeth and Elizabeth looked at Harriett and they both looked at their Father.  "I d-d-d-didn't mean to, Father, the horse just kind of w-w-w-went there,"  said Harriett in a small shaky voice.

Then as their Father took a little better look at Harriett, his eyes softened and he said, "You do look a bit the worse for wear.  Perhaps we should put the horse away now."

"Oh no, oh no, we want to ride more!" said both girls together.

"Well, alright, but I think you should both ride together and Elizabeth can rein the horse.  Maybe you are still too small to ride by yourself, Harriett."  said their Father.  

And so the girls got back on the horse, Elizabeth in front and rode around the yard several times without incident.  And they were making their 5th circuit of the yard past the cherry tree, when the horse edged a bit too close to the gooseberry bushes.  But Elizabeth turned the reins and he went away from those thorny bushes and headed straight for the middle of the apple tree.  And again Elizabeth tugged on the reins and the horse turned and passed the chicken yard at the very back and headed toward the clothesline.  That horse headed straight for the clothesline and he was speeding up too.  Elizabeth tugged on the reins and the horse just kept going toward the clothesline.  Elizabeth said very loudly, "Duck down, the clothes line!"  And she ducked down.  But Harriett was looking at all the pretty hollyhocks laying on the ground and feeling sorry that she had not kept the horse out of them and she did not even hear her sister talking to her.  And that horse went right under the clothesline with Elizabeth laying down close to his neck.  Harriett stopped very quickly as the clothesline came up tight right under her chin and then stretched a little bit as the horse continued on.  And suddenly she was not on the horse any more,  she was hanging on the clothesline like a clean wet dress. Then the clothesline was springing back the other way and Harriett was going with it.  Back though the air toward her Mother's garden where she lit with a thump right in the middle of a cabbage plant.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth saw Harriett go off the back of the horse on the clothesline.  Elizabeth wondered that Harriett didn't even make a squeak as it happened.  As quickly as ever she could she turned the horse around and yelling for their Father and Mother headed back for the garden where the dazed Harriett was sitting on a cabbage plant. 

Their Father and Mother came out of the back door and ran for the vegetable garden.  "Are you alright, Harriett?" cried their Mother.  "What happened?" called their Father.  As they both started checking Harriett for damage and injury Elizabeth explained how the horse went under the clothesline and how she told her sister to "duck" but she hadn't.  And she told then how the clothesline went right under Harriett's chin and then kind of stretched forward.  And it quit stretching forward and Harriett flew backward into the garden and thumped down onto the cabbage plant.  Elizabeth saw that her Mother was close to tears as she saw that Harriett was not badly hurt and said, "Dear Mother,  did we break the cabbage?"  

Later that afternoon the Dr. had assured them all that Harriett would be fine.  She would have a sore throat for a few days but there were no broken bones and she would recover well.   Harriett was enjoying the little pad of paper they gave her to write communications.  And as the Dr. was leaving, she scribbled very quickly, "May I ride the horse, please?"

~ The End ~

Crandall Note:  Harriett was my mother.

Hope you enjoyed this little family story.  Until next time - Happy Searching!

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