Excerpt from ‘The Case of the Dancing Cowboy’

Editor’s note: Below is an excerpt from the children’s book, “The Case of the Dancing Cowboy,” written by John R. Erickson and reprinted with permission via Newspapers in Education. To catch up on the story, read the previous excerpt in the epaper edition of Tuesday, May 19.

Chapter 10 (cont.)

And all at once I understood what had happened.

She’d wanted to go to the dance with Slim, see, but she’d figured out that he was too bashful to ask her, so she’d made up an excuse to “drop by” his house — she’d pulled off one of the spark plug wires, a clever little trick which only a country girl would know about.

And then she’d found an opportunity to trim up his scorched hair, which should have solved his mainest reason for not wanting to attend the dance.

It was a nice idea and it should have worked, only Slim was too...I’d tried to tell him. I did all a loyal dog could do, but did he listened to me? Oh no.

And now he’d made her cry and had broken her sweet little heart, and I should have bitten him on the leg when I had the chance, the big oaf.

She wasn’t a “common hussy” and she wasn’t just an “old maid.” She was one of the sweetest, finest ladies I’d ever met, and why some cowboy hadn’t latched onto her years ago, I couldn’t imagine — except that some cowboys (we won’t mention any names) were just DUMB.

All at once I forgot about Sardine Sickness and everything else but her sadness. All my cowdog instincts came boiling to the surface, and I hopped over the seat and laid my head in her lap.

“AHHHHHHHH!”