how?”
As usual, none of them had an answer.
After a few minutes of silence, Stevie let out a long sigh. “There’s got to be a way,” she said. “There’s
got
to!”
“Where there’s a will there’s a way,” Carole said. It wasone of her father’s favorite sayings. “We’ve got the will, right? So where’s the way?”
“I hate to say it, but I’m not sure there
is
a way for a bunch of kids to raise thirty thousand dollars in a few days,” Lisa said, switching Major’s lead line from her right hand to her left as the horse wandered over to snuffle at Starlight. “That’s more money than a lot of people earn in a whole year at their jobs.”
“We can’t just give up,” Stevie said, a little annoyed at Lisa’s tone. She knew thirty thousand dollars was a lot of money—they all did. Lisa didn’t have to lecture them about it. “Carole’s right. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Lisa just shrugged, and Stevie bit back the urge to snap at her for being negative. This was no time to start fighting with her friends, even if one friend wasn’t being much of a team player at the moment.
Carole sensed the tension between Stevie and Lisa, and she didn’t like it. “Maybe we should go over the ideas we’ve had so far,” she suggested. “I know none of them seem that great, but maybe they’ll inspire something.”
“So far our best plan is Todd’s idea to hold a giant skateboarding rally,” Stevie admitted sadly. “The others, like getting a list of the richest people in the world and calling them to ask for a donation, don’t seem too likely to work.”
Carole sighed. It seemed hopeless, and for a second shefelt like giving up. But when she thought of the wonderful camp and all its beautiful forested land about to be gobbled up by greedy bulldozers, she knew they couldn’t give up until they’d done everything they could. They wouldn’t be The Saddle Club otherwise. “All right, we’ll keep thinking,” she said. “Let’s just hope someone comes up with something brilliant pretty soon.”
“I wish Piper were here to help us,” Lisa said softly. “She’s so smart—she could come up with a good plan if anyone could.” The night before, she had taken a few minutes out of her reading time and written Piper a letter. Since she wasn’t having any luck reaching her by phone, she decided it was time to try some other way. She had mailed it that morning from the rec hall.
Carole glanced at her watch. “Sorry to change the subject,” she said, “but we’d better get back in the ring, Lisa. Our jump class starts in five minutes.”
“Uh-oh,” Stevie said, glancing automatically at her own wrist before realizing she had left her watch in the cabin again. “That means I have only five minutes to untack Belle and get over to the rec hall for my horsemanship class.” She hurried toward the stable, barely pausing to say good-bye to her friends.
As she quickly untacked Belle, Stevie’s thoughts returned to their problem. Every time she thought of a plan, she was brought up short by the huge amount of money they needed. She had to figure out a way to cut the problem down to size. Maybe then she’d be able to solve it.
Todd was in the same jump class as Carole and Lisa, and he rode forward to greet them as they entered the ring.
“Had any brilliant ideas yet?” he asked.
Carole shook her head. “I was about to ask you the same question.”
Todd grinned. “Not yet,” he replied. “But it’s only a matter of time.” He tapped his forehead meaningfully. “In some states this is registered as a lethal weapon, you know.”
Carole laughed and glanced at Lisa. But Lisa didn’t seem to be paying attention. As Betty entered the ring and called the class to order, Carole couldn’t help wondering what was going on with Lisa these days. Judging from her behavior, it seemed she wasn’t that upset about the camp’s being sold. But Carole knew that Lisa loved Moose
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