He had heard the van and gone to help unload. He had been too drowsy to notice much, and now he was too sleepy to remember anything at all about the new filly. It would take him a little time. The ammoniated smells of the barns would clear everything up; they always did.

Leaving his room, Alec stumbled down the narrow, winding stairs of the old stone house, and entered the living room with its hand-hewn beams stretched across the ceiling. He passed through a door into the kitchen of the modern one-story addition his family had built. Because his mother and father were asleep in their bedroom at the end of the hall, Alec moved quietly. In the dining room he pushed the thermostat higher. A large picture window was directly opposite him, and during the day he could look out upon the paddocks and pastures. But in this early-morning darkness he couldn’t see a thing. He couldn’t tell if it was snowing again or not.

Going to a closet, Alec put on his jacket and got a flashlight. Then he went out the door. It wasn’t very cold; a breeze swept his face, promising rain rather than snow. The ground was soft beneath his feet and his boots made deep sucking noises in the mud as he walked toward the stallion barn. The snow of a few days ago had completely disappeared. He would turn the horses out later in the morning if it didn’t rain. Mud wouldn’t hurt them any. But a cold rain falling on their backs at the same time would invite any number of illnesses.

The Black, Satan and Napoleon greeted Alec in unison when he entered the stallion barn and switched on the lights. He stopped to take three great breaths. Sure enough, his head cleared with the smells of the barn, and he felt more wide awake. He threw down a few bales of hay from the loft above. Then he went down the line, first to Satan, then to Napoleon, and then to the Black in the end stall. As he pitched the hay on the floor for each horse, he thought again of Henry, who had insisted on tearing out the overhead hay racks.

“Feed the hay on the stall floor,” Henry had said. “It’s natural for a horse to graze with his head down. That way you keep any dust from gettin’ into his eyes and nose. Sure we’ll waste some hay. But it’ll be worth it.”

Alec freshened the water in each stall trough, and then fed the grain. He had learned so much from Henry. Everything they had here was the result of Henry’s guidance and help. Without him Hopeful Farm never would have existed.

Alec stood beside the Black, watching him blow into his feedbox while he ate. “Did you know you have a daughter?” he asked.