The Great Chore-Undoing Scandal

by Audrey

First of all, I would like to say that this happened a couple of years ago. Being fourteen, I am way too old for these kinds of things now!

As all of you may know, I have an extremely bossy older brother that everyone else calls Chad. But I secretly call him “Old Bossy.”

One bright Saturday morning, he started hounding me about my chores first thing. I did my best to ignore him, but it can be pretty hard to ignore Old Bossy. I think the whole ranch heard him!

Old Bossy eventually left to tend to some newborn calves, and I was left with my thoughts. Suddenly, a very devious plan came into my head. No, it’s way too mean! But . . . it might just work.

Mitch told me Chad was going to muck out the stalls tomorrow. Why would he do that? Well, something to do with a bet he had going with the ranch hands, I guess. Early the next morning, I slipped into the barn.

I had recruited Rosa to help me. She tried to stop me. As usual, she attempted to stop me, but I didn’t listen. (I would get into a lot less trouble if I listened to Rosa!) Anyway, it looked like Chad had already finished mucking out the stalls and was doing the other barn chores.

However, he had forgotten to take the dirty straw outside. I quickly started putting the dirty straw back into the stalls. Amidst protests, Rosa undid some other chores he’d finished. I then put the already collected eggs back into the nesting boxes, and did some other crazy things too. I went back in the house, smug and happy. Wasn't Chad in for a surprise!

Later, Mitch went into the barn to do his chores. He came back inside with a puzzled look on his face. He asked Chad if he’d done the chores. Of course Chad said he’d done them!

Then Mitch asked why none of the chores were done! By now, Rosa was scrunched up in a corner, waiting for the wrath of Chad to be released.

I was about to join Rosa in the corner when Chad surprised me. He apologized to Mitch and went out to do the chores again. I started to feel badly for him, and finally decided the prank had gone on long enough.

Not again! Into the trough I go!

I followed Old Bossy outside to explain what I had done to him. I expected him to be furious, but he actually started to laugh! He finally stopped, and then—to my surprise—he picked me up and dunked me in the horse trough!

Brrrr! Why do my brothers always dunk me in the horse trough! Anyway, the Great Chore-Undoing scandal ended okay. Maybe Chad will stop being so bossy. Who knows? 

I am very grateful that Mother was not there that day. Something a lot worse than getting dunked in the horse trough probably would have happened if she had found out about this!