Canutito ‘estaba loco’ for horses
Ahora que los días comenzaban a calentar otra vez, Canutito began spending more and more time outside in the warm sunshine. He loved nothing more than to find una jara seca que podía usar como un stick horse and gallop through the fields haciendo pretend que andaba a caballito. All winter long él había hecho practice by riding around en la escoba cada vez que he had helped Grama Cuca sweep la cocina .He had even named asu willow stick horse el “Prince” como el caballo que su grampo tenía in the corral. It had never even occurred to Canutito to ride a real horse siendo que sus caballitos de jara never bucked him off and he could always pescarlos muy fácil right where he had left them.
Canutito had always liked pretending que era un cowboy. In fact, en los Saturday mornings he loved to watch programas como “My Friend Flicka” y “Fury” en la televisión. Canutito even knew que el caballo del Gene Autrey was named Champion y que el caballo del Lone Ranger was named Silver. He also knew que el caballo del Tonto era Scout y el caballo del Roy Rogers se llamaba Trigger. No nomás eso; he also knew that Antonio Aguilar’s horse se llamaba Grano de Oro.
Sometimes when he went pa’l reparto del agua with Grampo Caralampio in the evenings, los parciantes; who were the water users at the ditch meeting, would take turns quizzing Canutito about los caballos famosos que conocía just to hear al muchachito ricite los nombres de todos los horses.
‘Mano Leandro would begin by asking him: “M’hijo, ¿cómo se llamaba el caballo de la Dale Evans?” Immediately Canutito would answer: “Her horse se llamaba Buttercup.” Y cuando ‘Mano Eulogio asked him: “M’hijo, ¿cómo se llamaba el caballo del Tex Ritter?” Without even thinking, he would answer: “Su caballo se llamaba White Flash.” ‘Mano Toribio would even try to trip him up preguntándole cosas como: “What was the name del caballo del Lash Larue?” Canutito hacía smile at the trick question y le respondía: “A veces su caballo is called Rush y a veces his horse’s name is Black Diamond.” No había ninguna doubt que Canutito had real horse sense.
El día se llegó cuando los parciantes even forgot de pedir agua pa’ regar and began to bet money, apostando dinero on the names of the horses, siempre con la esperanza que Canutito wouldn’t know them. They won and lost mucho dinero en los caballos de los lesserknown cowboys. Pero when it came time to go home en la tarde, los hombres would know que el caballo del Hop Along Cassidy se llamaba Topper, y que el caballo de la Annie Oakley was named Target. On the way home they laughed about the idea que el caballo del Red Ryder se llamaba Thunder y que el caballo del Marshall Matt Dillon en Gunsmoke se llamaba Buck.
That same summer, no había mucha agua in the acequia because it hadn’t rained much. No había suficiente agua for everybody to irrigate their fields. Iban a tener que tomar turns watering. That’s when Grampo Caralampio had una buena idea. He went over pa’l reparto and he announced to them: “If you can come up con dos preguntas que Canutito can’t answer about caballos famosos ,I will give you all my share de agua por el verano. That evening, los water users all put their heads together and came up con dos preguntas :“¿Como se llamaba el caballo del Festus en Gunsmoke?” And, “can you come up with four horses owned por el Wild Bill Hickok?” They were sure que esta vez they would win toda el agua del grampo.
Canutito just looked at them and replied: “Primero, el Festus no tenía un caballo; he used to ride around en una mula named Ruth y cuatro de los caballos del Wild Bill Hickok se llamaban Duke, Isham, Charlie, y Brigham.” He luego he added: “Please, señores, you are dealing con un professional. …”
Grampo Caralampio got to claim toda el agua esa noche …