Dude Ranch by Bonnie Bryant

announced.
    Stevie couldn’t believe it—presents, too?
    When she saw the stack, she was even more astonished. “Why you guys must have brought four truckloads up here!”
    “Five,” Frank corrected her.
    “Why do you think we had to be ‘lost’ for so long?” Carole asked.
    Everybody laughed. “We watched you circling thisplace,” Kate said. “We thought you did a pretty good job of it. We timed the truck runs with your circles.”
    “What a terrific bunch of people you are,” Stevie said. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
    “You won’t know
what
you’re thanking us for until you open your presents,” Christine reminded her.
    Stevie picked up the first package, which was from Kate’s parents. It was a red Western bandanna.
    “Great, that’ll keep the dust off my face on my next cattle drive—in Willow Creek,” she said, slipping it up over her nose and mouth, cowboy-style. “Or maybe I’ll rob a bank!”
    The next was a present from The Saddle Club. Carole and Lisa had pitched in together to buy her a pair of beautiful black kidskin riding gloves.
    “They’re for your next show,” Lisa said. “You’ll be in dressage competitions soon, and you should have them.”
    Stevie smiled. They made her think of home, Pine Hollow Stables, and Comanche, her horse at the stable. She sniffed them. They had the wonderful rich smell of fine leather.
    “They’re perfect,” she said, hugging her friends.
    “And this is from me,” Kate said, handing Stevie a very long package. Stevie opened it expectantly. It was a dressage whip, and it had been used many times.
    “This is
yours
?” Stevie asked. Kate nodded. “You’d give me your very own riding whip?”
    “I’ve hung up my spurs for English-riding competition,” Kate reminded her. “You’ll need it, and you’ll use it well.”
    Kate had been a championship rider. Stevie knew it was a great honor for Kate to pass on her own riding whip to her.
    “Thank you,” she said, near tears.
    “Come on, now, there are more gifts here to open,” Frank said.
    The other guests at the ranch gave Stevie nice gifts. She got a small bottle of cologne from one of the families, and a piece of primitive Indian pottery from the older couples. Stevie wondered if this was Mrs. Lonetree’s work. She glanced at Christine, who shook her head ever so slightly. “It’s beautiful,” Stevie said.
    There were two packages left. The first was small and square. The card said it was from Eli. Stevie opened it carefully, wondering what a wrangler would give a dude for a birthday present.
    Inside the box was a tooled leather belt with an intricately decorated silver buckle, inlaid with turquoise.
    She looked slyly at Eli. “Is this the kind of thing a dude would wear?” she asked him.
    “No way,” he said.
    She stood up and removed the plain leather belt shehad on her jeans. She slipped her new one through and then buckled it snugly.
    “It guess that means I’m not a dude anymore, huh?”
    “Don’t think you ever really were,” Eli told her.
    “That’s the nicest thing you ever said to anybody, isn’t it?” she teased him. He smiled at her. “Well, thank you, Eli. It’s beautiful.” She wanted to hug him, but she thought it would embarrass him, so she just shook his hand again. That seemed to embarrass him anyway.
    Stevie reached for the final box. It was from Christine and it was very heavy. She lifted it carefully and untied the bow. When she’d taken the paper off, she opened the box. There was a lot of tissue paper. She removed it slowly.
    When she was done unwrapping it, Stevie found herself holding a clay figurine of a German shepherd who was unmistakably Tomahawk. Stevie gasped softly.
    “My mother made it,” Christine said. “She made it last year. There are two of them. I have the other.”
    Stevie felt the tears well up in her eyes. She was sad, she was happy. She was overflowing with emotions. She had new friends, and old ones, and this