The Pony Express

Author's Note: This is a historical fiction piece I write for Social Studies. The numbers are the facts I used from the sources I used on which are given credit at the bottom of the page. In Social Studies we needed a minimum of 8 facts in our paper so I just numbered them to make that easier for my teacher. :)

Today is the day that I have been dreading. Sighing, I yanked on my blouse, tying it into place so it’d fit properly. The Pony Express inventor is picking up all the orphans (1) in St. Joseph, Missouri through Sacramento, California (2) today, April 3^rd, 1860 (3) to “voluntarily” deliver mail for the Pony Express. It was made to deliver mail fast. (4) Luckily I had my brother Jonathan alongside me to share the pain.

Someone came knocking on the small one room (5) cottage door. I creaked it open to reveal two men. (6) One of them was shorter and buff, wearing a fancy black coat made from sheep wool. The other was about 7 inches taller and skinny, wearing a leather button up jacket with matching jet black leather boots. Gulping silently, I motioned over to Jonathan to come to the door. He came bringing a small satchel full of our remaining  food and a few keepsakes that go wherever we do.

The two men helped us mount their horses. My horse felt warm beneath my blouse, its pelt shining brightly in the sun. One of the men let out a high pitched whistle and we were off.  Hair the color of nutmeg blurred my vision. Leaves flew all around us and landed softly in its frizzy curly waves. I brushed it out of the way, but more leaves and twigs continued to get caught in it so I gave up. After what seemed like only a few short minutes the horses halted beside a cottage. “Go on,” one of the men bellowed, practically shoving me to the ground off the horse.

I hobbled toward the house carrying the parcel that whoever is living there was sent. This continued on and off for 18 months. (7) That was the longest year and a half of my life. I hardly was able to see Jonathan at all! At least the Pony Express had to come to a halt because the telegraph was invented. (8) Not to mention that they didn’t make any money. (9) But I wouldn’t say it was a complete failure because we carried a total of 34,753 pieces of mail (10), traveled a total of 650,000 miles (11) with about 300 men on horses. (12) Although I will always remember my hair blowing in the wind and the rush I got from the horses.

Works Cited

·         Arago: Pony Express Mail. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 February 2013.

·         Pony Express. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 February 2013.

·         Pony Express National Trail Back Country Byway. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 Febuary 2013.