A Trial Brother for Billy

When we were about eleven, Billy Johnson got a sad, old, brown and white Shetland pony named Gypsy. She was blind in one eye, had patches of fur missing and was swaybacked and fat. We all thought she was very wonderful though, and that only someone as rich as the Johnsons could ever afford such a luxury. All the neighbor kids gathered around to see her when she arrived. Tom Johnson, who we all feared because of his stern manner and deep voice, stood watching from the porch as Billy rode Gypsy around the peony bushes in the middle of their beautiful side yard. Billy dismounted, and holding his new pony by the rein, invited all of us to pet her. Suddenly, Ray Rohrer, the terror of the neighborhood, came running up from his house in the rear and mounted Gypsy Roy Rogers style by leapfrogging over her rump up onto her back. She whinnied and snorted and Tom Johnson just came unglued. Gypsy went back to the farm she came from shortly after that because, “You kids couldn’t act civilized around her.” To replace the pony, they got Billy an older brother at the local orphanage. Ruth and Tom decided he needed companionship to solve what they perceived as a discipline problem. (Actually, they were just Fascistic about his obeying what we Guilds considered absurd, overly-strict rules.) Trouble was, the trial brother, though he was a nice boy who could make the most realistic crepe paper roses, was well into raging puberty and fell in love with every eligible girl in the neighborhood, so, unfortunately, he was never home to be Billy’s companion. He went back just like Gypsy. No, not to the farm! To the orphanage.