Continued From Day 15…

Then he read that the breed became nearly extinct many times, but the modern day Friesian was gaining in popularity and was making a comeback, particularly as a harness horse and in the field of dressage.  Jeff loved the way the coat, mane, and tail shimmered in the sun in all of the pictures of the black ones.  Their average height was just over fifteen hands, which was a shade taller than King.  Their legs have long, silky hair, sort of like a Clydesdale, but not that thick and fluffy.

Jeff was obsessed with Friesians.  He checked out as many horse books as he could find that had anything to do with the powerful breed.  A few times he had gone to the library to check out more books, but the librarian told him he already had too many checked out, and often they were overdue, and the fine was twenty-five cents per week.

Jeff hated going to his father to ask for money for overdue books.  John told him that if he was going to continually incur overdue fees, he had to either take them back on-time or find a way to support his “habit” by making some money on his own.  That’s when Jeff had an idea.  His worm farm in the barn had the fattest night crawlers anywhere, and when he went fishing, the guys always begged for them.  Jeff always caught the biggest fish.

His favorite kind of fish to catch was a big, fat carp.  Carp were considered useless to most.  They fought like crazy, and nobody really wanted to eat one unless it had been smoked.  Many lines had been broken by even the smallest of them, which angered most fishermen.  Expensive lures were lost.  High-quality Berkeley fishing rods had been broken like twigs.  The carp was a hated fish, but not to Jeff.  He loved fighting them, and if he knew he couldn’t land one of the big ones, he would fight as much as he could and then just cut the line.  A hook and sinker were a small price to pay, considering they were so cheap at Stan’s Bait & Tackle on the edge of town.

To be Continued…