Riders In The Rain

By Emi Ceigh

Rain has a tendency to grind all activity to a halt. Rock Creek Pony Express Station is no exception. The constant downpour last Saturday stopped all but the most pressing duties. The station regularly houses seven young riders. Each of these had been given a special chore to do by either Teaspoon, who is the station master and sheriff of the town, or Rachel, who is the station's cook and housekeeper. Using the clues below, find out what task (such as mucking-out the corral) Jimmy and the other riders were assigned to do, which riders completed their tasks in spite of the rain, and what the remaining riders did to pass the time.

The one that was supposed to be repairing the porch, who wasn't Cody, didn't end up reading or drawing. Noah didn't read either. Lou and the person who worked on the corral fence spent their free time writing.

If Buck made the run to Mill Crossing, the Kid finished cleaning the barn and Cody worked on one of the 2 repair jobs. Otherwise, Cody made the run, Ike finished loading hay, and Lou chopped wood.

The one who was told to load up the hay (who wasn't Noah) didn't wind up using a pencil. Ike wasn't told to clean the barn (which wasn't a task that was rained-out), but he did borrow Noah's only pencil.

Rachel was happy to find all of the firewood cut and neatly stacked outside the back door. Neither Ike, who did no repair work, nor Cody wrote letters.

Riders: Buck, Kid, Lou, Noah, Jimmy, Cody, and Ike

Tasks: loading hay, mucking the corral, repairing the corral fence, chopping fire wood, repairing the porch steps, cleaning the barn, and making the mail-run to Mill Crossing.

Free-time activities: Writing letters, writing stories, drawing (all of which require a paper and pencil), and reading. *Note: The three riders that completed their jobs had no free-time activities.

The answer