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ride horses, anyway?” Stevie asked in a rude and hysterically funny imitation of Chad.
    “That’s easy,” Carole said in a deep radio announcer’s voice. She grabbed a hairbrush to use as a microphone. “Cats are too small, sloths are too slow, and giraffes are too big.”
    “And what about the smell?” Stevie continued, still pretending to be Chad.
    “I admit it bothers us a little,” Carole said into the hairbrush, “but don’t worry, Chad, I don’t think the horses will mind.” Carole and Lisa shrieked with laughter.
    Stevie grinned. “Here’s another—see if you can guess who this is.
Actshually, I dain’t laike Paine Haullow
.”
    Lisa shook her head. “I understand the words, but sorry, I haven’t got a clue who you’re trying to be.”
    “Oh, come on!” Stevie said. “It’s Janey! Who else?”
    “I guess,” Lisa said. “I haven’t really talked to her much, but I don’t have a hard time understanding her. I don’t think her accent’s that strong.”
    “I probably just didn’t imitate it very well,” Stevie said. “That would be par for the course, as far as Janey and I are concerned.”
    “Is she still being difficult?” Carole asked, putting down the hairbrush.
    Stevie looked discouraged. “I’m supposed to be her big sister, and she doesn’t want anything to do with me,” she said. “She’s really not very friendly. Yesterday after school I saw her at the stable, so I took her over to our good-luck horseshoe and told her all about the Pine Hollow tradition.”
    The others nodded. Every rider at Pine Hollow touched the good-luck horseshoe before beginning a ride. No rider at Pine Hollow had ever been seriously injured.
    Stevie shook her head. “All she did was look at me and say, ‘That’s barmy,’ and walk away! I don’t even know what
barmy
means!”
    “Nuts,” Lisa translated. “It means she thinks it’s a silly tradition.”
    “She’s like that all the time,” said Stevie. “Every time I tell her anything, she just gets this sullen look on her face and shrugs. The only thing she ever says is how Pine Hollow and Nickel aren’t fancy enough for her. She wants everything to be fancy. I call that rude. Pine Hollow’s not like one of those million-dollar show stables, but it’s a great place, and if she wanted a million-dollar show stable, she should have gone to one.”
    Lisa scooted over by the bed. Stevie seemed reallyupset. “She sure seemed bratty last Saturday,” she said. “It can’t be much fun to have to deal with her. I’m sorry.”
    Stevie sat next to her. “I’m sorry, too. I’m really trying. Every time I see her, I make myself go tell her something. I want to be a good big sister. Max will be disappointed if I’m not. But I can’t be one if Janey won’t let me. I don’t think she wants to be a little sister. Or maybe she just doesn’t like me. I don’t know what to do.”
    “I guess since you’re her big sister, you’ve got to keep trying,” Carole said. “Maybe a few months at Pine Hollow will be good for her—cure her attitude. Anyway, Lisa and I will try to help you think of something.”
    “We’ll do our best,” Lisa promised. “The Saddle Club never fails. Unless she really is like Veronica, in which case, of course, curing her would be hopeless. But even then we’ll try to help you endure her.”
    “Thanks,” Stevie said. “I’d really appreciate it. Right now I haven’t got a clue what to do.”
    “But I don’t think we should have a Janey voice for
Horse Talk
,” Carole said. “In the first place, I don’t think making fun of her would help your relationship with her, Stevie—”
    “Of course not!” Stevie said. “That was just for in here—”
    “—and in the second place, you don’t sound that much like her,” Carole said. “But I bet you could do a good little boy. Try for one about Michael’s age.”
    Stevie screwed up her face, thinking about her younger brother’s voice.
    Lisa lay back