The Clippity-Cloppity Carnival

A Carnival

The girls are enjoying with their plastic horses so much, but they agree it’d be even more fun to see real animals at Mr. Louie’s farm. Camille suggests they can ask Mr. Louie to bring some farm animals to the garden so that their friends and family can see them. The girls ecstatically agree. They can have games and food and a puppet show. It’ll be a carnival!

When Aunt Miranda agrees, they call Mr. Louie and he says he’ll be happy to bring a lamb and some chickens. The girls get to work right away. Willa puts up a beanbag toss game. Camille sets up the cotton candy machine. Ashlyn makes an organized list of everything that needs to be done. Kendall builds a puppet stage, and Emerson makes puppets and plans the show.

Aunt Miranda comes along and says she spoke to Mr. Louie on the phone. As a special treat, Mr. Louie is going to bring a horse, and all the kids can take turns riding it! Willa, Kendall, Camille, and Emerson shriek with joy. They hug each other and jump up and down. But Ashlyn is horrified. That scary horse is coming here?

Aunt Miranda says the horse’s name is Thunderstorm. Kendall explains they saw Thunderstorm at the farm. It’s a dark gray horse with a white streak on its nose like lightning. Thunderstorm is the perfect name for the horse.

Ashlyn takes a deep breath, and says, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring a horse into our garden.” She explains that the horse will stomp on the flowers and tear leaves off branches. It’ll scare Carrot and the little kids. Emerson says to relax, they know all about real horses.

Ashlyn yells that she’s the only one who’s actually met a real horse. She stomps her feet. She’s tired of everybody thinking they know more about horses than she does. She doesn’t want to come to the carnival.

The girls, astonished, call after her, but it’s too late, she’s already running away.