The next morning after breakfast, Leroy Ninker put his hat on his head and his boots on his feet. He consulted the ad from the Gizzford Gazette. He read aloud the address of the horse for sale.

“‘Route sixteen, third house on the left,’” said Leroy Ninker. And then he said it again, “Route sixteen, third house on the left,” just to make sure he had it right.

Leroy folded the ad back up. He put it in his wallet. He adjusted his hat. He was now prepared to take fate in his hands and wrestle it to the ground. He was ready to procure a horse. Leroy set out walking.

The sun was high above his head, and the sky was very blue. As Leroy walked, he imagined that he was on the open plain.

A car drove by. “Look, Mama!” A boy in the backseat of the car pointed at Leroy. “It’s a very tiny cowboy.”

Leroy stood up straighter.

“I am a cowboy on his way to procure a horse,” he said. “I am a man wrestling fate to the ground.”

Another car drove by. Someone threw a can out the window. The can hit Leroy Ninker in the head.

“Dang nib it,” said Leroy. He stopped and took off his hat. He rubbed at his head. “Don’t get agitated,” he told himself. “Just keep thinking about your horse.”

Leroy Ninker put his hat back on his head and started walking again. He thought about his horse. I hope he is a fast horse, he thought. And I hope that he is strong. I will call him Tornado.

Leroy found this name so pleasing that he had to stop walking and hold himself very still and properly consider the glory of the word.

“Tornado,” Leroy whispered.

And then he shouted it: “Tornado!”

It was the most perfect name for a horse ever.

“Tornado!” shouted Leroy Ninker again. “Yippie-i-oh.”

The cowboy started to run. He was heading to meet the horse of his dreams! There was no time to waste!

“I’m on my way, Tornado!” shouted Leroy Ninker as he ran down the side of the road.

By the time Leroy made it to his destination, it was late afternoon and his feet hurt.

“What can I do for you?” said the woman who answered the door.

“I am here about the horse,” said Leroy.

“You’re interested in Maybelline?” said the woman.

“Maybelline?” said Leroy.

“Follow me, Hank,” said the woman.

“Hank?” said Leroy.

The woman walked to the back of the house. Leroy followed her. “Since you are asking,” said the woman over her shoulder, “my name is Patty LeMarque. Maybelline is right over here.”

Patty LeMarque climbed a fence.

Leroy climbed the fence, too.

“There she is,” said Patty LeMarque. She waved her arm in the direction of a horse standing in a field. “There is Maybelline.”

At the sound of her name, the horse turned and came trotting toward them. She whinnied. She was a big horse, and her whinny was very loud.

“Maybelline,” said Patty LeMarque, “meet Hank.”

The horse whinnied again. She opened her mouth wide. Leroy took advantage of her mouth being open to look at her teeth. There weren’t a lot of them. As far as he could tell, there were four in total.

How many teeth was a horse supposed to have? Beatrice Leapaleoni had not said.

Leroy Ninker looked down at the horse’s hooves. There were four of them, too.

That seemed good.

“Yippie-i-oh,” said Leroy Ninker.

The horse put her nose right up in his face. It was a large nose. There were whiskers on it, and it smelled very much like the nose of a horse.

“She likes you,” said Patty LeMarque. “Ain’t that something? Maybelline don’t like everybody. In fact, there’s a whole raft of people she don’t like. She is a particular horse, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“I don’t mind you saying so,” said Leroy.

He put out his hand and touched the horse’s nose. It was damp and velvety. Leroy felt his heart tumble and roll inside of him. Oh, to be a cowboy with a horse! To ride into the sunset! To ride into the wind! To be brave and true and cast a large, horsey shadow!

“Maybelline,” said Leroy Ninker.

“That’s her name,” said Patty LeMarque.

“I’ll take her,” said Leroy.