The Home - 16. Chapter 16

The boys went home for Thanksgiving. I told them no more peeps. When they returned, Charlie was with them, but they also had a trailer. When I looked, they had two black horses. “Tony, we were talking about the house and building the barn. My dad wanted to know why you needed a barn. With Charlie telling them about the cars and carriage, I told Dad about getting horses to pull it and you wanting black horses. He called someone, and the next thing I knew, this truck came with that trailer and those two black horses. You need to call this guy and, smiling, that’s his bill for the horses.”

I didn’t look at the bill. I kept looking at the horses. When I went close to them, they didn’t shy away. I reached out, rubbed my hand on their neck. They remained calm. “Boys, we need to take them to the barn. You need to go and get a few bales of hay and feed for them.”

Brad opened the trunk of his car. He had a bag of oats and two feeding bowls, two rugs to cover the horses. They had a halter on, which made it easier to lead them. “You’ll need water buckets.”

“For now, we can lead them to the spring.”

“We need to go to town and check at the feed store. I’ll call Dad; he’ll know where I need to go.”

The boys led the horses to the barn. I watched as they left. The horses didn’t walk, they pranced. After the boys left with the horses, “Tony, I don’t know what you paid for those horses, but you need to know they came from a circus.”

“From a circus?”

“Yes, Brad’s dad knew of a circus that was having financial problems. Check the bill.”

I did, 2000 dollars for each horse. I looked at Charlie, “Charlie, 2000 dollars per horse!”

“Yes, those horses are trained to pull that carriage. You will need two more.”

When the boys came back, they were all smiles. “We took the horses to the stream, and they got a drink. On the way back to the barn, they stopped and ate an apple. I think they are going to like it here.”

The 4000 dollars would hit the wallet hard. I’ll need to check out the safe. “Do either of you have the address to send the payment for the horses?”

Brad handed me a letter from his father. I opened the letter, “Dear Dr, Carignano, I hope the price tag on these horses doesn’t shock you too much. If you bought untrained horses, you would end up paying more. It takes over a year to teach a horse to pull a carriage. I’m not talking about a small, light two-wheel carriage, but from what the boys tell me, your carriage is even bigger than the carriage those horses pulled at the circus. He was two more, but they aren’t fully trained. Talk to Brad; he can explain it.”

“Okay, your dad said you could explain it.” Brad started, “Wait, let’s get a cup of coffee. Charlie, your room is as you left it. The sheets are clean.”

With our coffee, we sat at the table while Brad explained about the horses. He had pictures of the carriage they pulled at the circus. There were four horses attached to that carriage. “Are these the horses that are in training?”

“Yes, they are placed behind the trained horses, which you now own. They will copy the lead horses. What do you think, Charlie, about a year they should l be as good as the ones we brought?”

“Yes, maybe sooner, you’ll have to take the carriage out often, at least once a week.”

“When are you going back, Charlie?”

“I’ll be here until the boys go back for Christmas.”

“If I want the horses sooner?”

“They will deliver them and take the horse trailer back with them.

I knew if I did that, I’d have to pay them for the horses and their expenses. The idea of using the carriage for special events was going to cost a lot more than I thought. “I need to think about this. We can discuss it at dinner tomorrow.”

“While you are thinking about that, we need to get some heavy covers for the horses. It’s getting cold now, and they will need those covers.”

“Brad, since you brought that up, suppose you take the lead. Just show me what you are buying before you buy. Let’s go and see how the horses are doing.”

Walking back to the barn, I noticed the air getting a little nippy. I wondered how they kept the horses warm when Grandfather had them. “What do you think about providing heating in the barn?”

“How would you do that? You can’t build a fireplace as you have in the house.”

“How about the old wood stove from the apartment?”

“The problem is when it gets cold. Someone will have to be here and check on that stove often,”

“What about a propane tank like you use with a barbecue grill. We could even build something on the outside and pipe the heat into the barn.”

I looked at Charlie, and he had a smile on his face. “The circus just went south in the winter, but you can’t do that. But a heating system with propane might work.”

I’ll talk with Dad when they come over on Sunday. The boys stayed and checked for eggs as Charlie and I walked back to the house.

That evening, I checked the money in the safe. One of the boxes had a mix of bills. Checking the dates on the bills, it appeared that the money on this box came from Nonna and Pa. The other tins contained money minted in the early 1900s, and some were backed by gold which meant it was coined in the late 1800s. There was money that was minted in Italy. That money had no value except for a collector. The real treasure was the gold coins and bars of gold. Closing the safe, I decided to buy the other two horses and to heat the barn.

In the morning, over coffee, I told the boys my decision. Brad called his dad to inform him I wanted the other two horses.

When Mom and Dad came over on Sunday, I told them about buying two additional horses. As we walked to the barn, I asked Dad what he thought about putting heat in the barn.

“You could do that, but you would have to be very careful. The barn is wood, and you have hay in there as well.”

“What if I built a shed and piped the heat into the barn.”

“I think that would work. You would have to insulate the pipes, or you will lose a lot of heat.”

Walking into the barn, the boys were showing Mom the chickens. Charlie was brushing the horses. Dad went to help Charlie, and I went to talk to the boys and Mom.

“Mom, when you go home today, take a couple of these chickens with you. The boys missed a few eggs, our chicken population has doubled.”

Later that evening, after Mom and Dad left, I told them about heating the barn. The boys immediately volunteered to build the shed. Charlie said that what I proposed would work. Now I had another task.