Calvin Coolidge and I: How We The cart was light and easy to pull, and it was not long before we rolled it to a stop in front of Bonnie's stall in the barn where she was being kept. At first she eyed the cart with some surprise, and then with obvious annoyance she laid her impudent ears back against her head and turned aside as if to ignore us. I soon learned what it means when a pony does that--but I am getting ahead of my story.
Spent the Day on March 4, 1925 (Cont.)
Screen 3 of 7We laid out our plan of action. First, we would dig up the fishing worms in the corner of the barn lot and put them along with some dirt in an old can we had found close by. Then we would tie the fishing poles along the right side of the cart and "stick their tip ends into the harness." (Lindsey suggested this; he always had good ideas.) Next, we would put the bridle and harness on Bonnie, back her in between the long, slender shafts of the cart, and then attach the leather traces to the whippletree. (I had suggested that we pull the shafts up to and then on either side of Bonnie; but Lindsey argued that we should back her into them instead, and since Lindsey was three months older than I was I felt sure he must be right. Besides, he already knew what a "whippletree" was and I didn't. So we backed her in!)
Our plan worked very well; or at least we thought so. All these steps were taken with much care, though admittedly with some haste. I remember we were already thinking about all those blue gills and catfish we were surely going to catch and bring home, to the envy of our older brothers who were always saying we couldn't do anything without them.
Just one point was overlooked. We had not consulted Bonnie about all this. And while we were hitching her up to the cart, she first edged forward, then shied backward--especially when we were backing her up into the shafts (I had told Lindsey that was not the way to do it)--and she even jumped sideways when we were adjusting the breeching around behind her haunches. I am sure now that the hurried instructions Mr. Harris had given us about harnessing a pony to a cart, along with our own ineptitude, caused us to be somewhat clumsy; and Bonnie was quick to sense that we were no experts in such matters. For in addition to her erratic movements, she also gave out several uncertain whinnies and then later a very strange, guttural neigh. Anyone experienced with horses would have understood these things as clear signals of what was to come, but to these two "town-grown" 13-year olds bent on early spring fishing they meant nothing.
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