The Vegetable Cart Sank Half a Wheel, and Mudbray Took Another Nap

On Mudbray's first night in the Zhao household, an autumn rain fell over the village.

The rain was neither heavy nor urgent, stopping and starting until it finally ceased at dawn. The newly installed wooden boards beneath the western shed blocked the chill wind, the eaves did not leak, and the shallow clay basin had not been knocked over.

Mudbray got up once in the middle of the night to drink, then returned to lie down where the hay met the dirt floor. The mud around its four hooves remained resilient after a night of rain and had not hardened into a crust.

Just as dawn was beginning to break, a dull thud suddenly sounded at the village entrance.

The vegetable cart that had brought it back yesterday had sunk by the roadside.

Eight baskets of greens were loaded on the cart. Its left wheel had pressed into rain-softened mud, burying half the wheel. The old yellow horse pulling it strained forward twice, the breast collar growing tighter and tighter, but the cart merely swayed.

"Stop." Zhao He ran out of the yard.

The driver quickly loosened the reins. The two men first unhitched the shafts and led the yellow horse onto solid ground. Zhao He felt all four of its legs, then checked the straps across its chest. Only after confirming it was uninjured did he let out a breath.

His father hurried out in an outer robe. "Call Mudbray!"

"Call it to look at the cart?"

"To pull it, of course!"

"It hasn't learned how."

"It stands steady on four legs. One try and it'll know."

Zhao He pointed toward the western shed. "The first time you were hitched to a cart, did you wake up already knowing how?"

The old man fell silent.

Hearing the hoofbeats, Mudbray