The railroad ran beside the County road all the way to my home in Royston. It would be easy to look for the mare, and we did look all the way home. But there was nothing, no horse, no cow, no sign of any animal of any kind, except maybe a few jackrabbits. There were not even any horse tracks.
Well that was the last straw. As far as I was concerned, the mare was gone for good. I gave up. I had spent too much time away from my farming already. There was work to be done and I had better get with it. I knew we would miss Old Nancy, but we could live without her.
Then at home, while I was getting ready to get back to plowing, some thoughts were running through my mind. I read the telegram again.". . .along the railroad which runs into Rotan from Nugent." I knew it didn't run from Nugent, but then it did run to Rotan. I couldn't see anything wrong with that. But wait— something still wasn't clear. I was trying to figure whether there was something I was overlooking. I read a little further, ". . .about three miles from home, "THAT'S IT, HOME. Where was my home? Was it Royston? Was it my house? Come to think of it, neither of those places was mentioned in my telegram to Ethel, Rotan was the only place mentioned. That had to be it, three miles from Rotan. That would be about nine miles from my home.
I got back in my car and drove almost to Rotan. When I thought Rotan was still about three miles away, I pulled up to a farm house and asked a farmer whether he had seen a stray mare.
"How long she been gone?" the farmer asked.
"One week today," I answered.
"Nope, haven't seen her. Got one been here two weeks; couldn't be yorn."
"Mind if I see her?"
"Nope, she's out in the lot with the other horses."
We walked to the horse lot and I looked.