A Burro's Tale: The Original Story

By P. Day

The author, P. J. Day and his two brothers and two sisters grew up in the magical valley of Tesuque, located just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of the family pets was a one-year-old little gray burro named Pedro. While reminiscing about that marvelous childhood Christmas Day in 2001, P. J. wrote a short poem for his daughter Jordyn, placing Pedro smack-dab in the middle of the first Christmas. A Burro's Tale evolved from that poem conceived on Christmas Day, 2001. The setting for A Burro's Tale is in fact the Tesuque Valley. Raphael's family business in the story is renting out his burros to the townsfolk who do not have a burro of their own. The burros are rented for travel, pulling carts, plowing fields, and carrying goods from the market. Pedro, the central character in A Burro's Tale, is younger and a bit smaller than the rest of the burros and has not yet been chosen for his first day of work. Pedro's journey throughout the story is really about the coming of age that all youngsters eventually face and learning to take his responsibilities seriously. Kids can be cruel, and Pedro's peer group in the story is no different. In order to gain acceptance, he must learn to ignore the relentless teasing from the other burros on the ranch (and a couple of mischievous horseflies) and work very hard to prove his worth. The story is filled with many valuable life lessons that all kids and young adults will relate to, because they will all go through them one day, or are being tested at this very moment. At all cost, it's about doing the right thing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644583692

Book preview

About the Author

The author lives in Reno with his dog, Button, and his burro, Pedro. As a matter of fact, it is merely a few miles from the wild horse and burro adoption facility where Pedro was adopted when he was just a year old. Growing up in the country with his two brothers and two sisters, the author and his siblings were generally allowed to keep whatever animals they brought home, provided they cared for them. This allowed for an interesting coming and going of an assortment of pets over those childhood years. The most valuable lesson he learned from those years is that you are responsible for what you tame. When an animal agrees to become your friend, he makes himself completely vulnerable to you. They rely on you for food and water, yes, but more importantly they rely on you for friendship and affection. That is a lesson we should all take with us throughout the rest of our lives, including the two-legged varieties we adopt.

In the adult years, PJ was employed as a chef in the food and beverage industry for many years. Don’t be surprised if you walk away from a simple family meal in the book surprisingly hungry and need to take a break to raid the fridge before continuing reading.

About the Story

ABurro’s Tale is the story of one young burro coming of age and the important task he completes that gains him the acceptance he has longed for from the adult working burros in the stable and inadvertently places him at the heart of perhaps the most famous story ever told. A Burro’s Tale is a magical mixture of fact and fiction and is meant to whisk the reader away to a simpler time, when the little everyday things in life were the important things. The setting for this story is Old Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the surrounding valleys. Jerusalem, for the purposes of this story, has been transformed into Old Santa Fe, and the story has a warm Hispanic blanket wrapped around it.

The story takes place at a time when burros were at the center of commerce, used for travel, plowing fields, pulling carts, and carrying goods from the market. Raphael’s family lives close to the land, and the family business is renting out burros to the townsfolk who do not have the facilities to keep a burro of their own. He is known for having some of the finest working burros in the valley, and the burros in his stable pride themselves on putting forth their best effort in gratitude for the excellent care Raphael provides for them.

Raphael has employed a local carpenter throughout the summer to help with some repairs around the ranch. As their friendship grows, Raphael learns that Joseph’s wife, Maria, is going to have a child. Winter is rolling in, and everyone in the area is grumbling over a mandate from the capital stating that they must all travel to the city for a census. Raphael’s burros have all been rented, with the exception of Pedro, when Joseph and Maria arrive in need of a burro to assist them on their journey. Raphael’s family accompanies Joseph, Maria, and Pedro on the trip, and they unexpectedly wind up smack-dab in the middle of the first Christmas.

The story is meant to be enjoyed by the whole family and, in particular, leave the teens and young adults with the understanding that a strong work ethic and having pride in a job well done will follow them and benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Dedication

This story was barely finished in time to present to my mother on her eightieth birthday, December 17, 2009. In many ways, Mama in this story represents my mother. Like all mothers around the world who clothe us and keep us fed, safe, and warm, she is the one most responsible for the wonderful, carefree memories of childhood that (thank God!) still live on in my heart and mind today.

I have fond memories of growing up with my two brothers and two sisters in the sleepy valley of Tesuque, New Mexico, located just outside of Santa Fe. In this story, Raphael’s family farm is in fact that very home in the Tesuque Valley. This was also the home of Smokey the Bear, who was nursed back to health after being badly burned in a forest fire in the Pecos Mountains in 1950.

In memory of Pedro: A little gray burro, who was six months old when he came to live with us, gave us countless hours of entertainment and companionship. Our horses loved him, and so did our dad. He would open a beer as soon as he returned home from work and walk out to the pasture to share his thoughts about the day with Pedro. The little burro would follow him around the pasture, stopping when he stopped, twitching his ears back and forth, listening to every word he said.

I am grateful to the Latino culture for the great gifts of food, art, and music that have taken up residence in my very soul. And even more importantly, I am indebted to my lifelong friend Jerry Lopez, who has found promise in A Burro’s Tale, since its very inception, after a couple of glasses of single malt scotch on Christmas Day 2001.

01

Rise and Shine

Anew day arrived in the sleepy valley of Jerusalem. Still half asleep, Juan and Rachel shuffled into the kitchen, where a steaming pot of pintos and fresh tortillas were being warmed on the stove for breakfast. Papa returned with an armload of wood, opened the front door of the stove, and added a couple of small logs to the coals that were still burning from the night before. Mama scolded him for tracking in the snow on his boots. Raphael, seeing the mess he had made, quickly walked back to the kitchen door and kicked off his muddy boots.

After shoveling down a couple of fresh tortillas and some beans, Raphael took one last slurp of his coffee, bundled up in his poncho and old beat-up straw hat, then headed out to the stables. The sun was just beginning to rise, and even though he had a hard day’s work ahead and it was getting chilly this time of year, Raphael was excited to see his burros. He loved his farm, his family, and the animals. He left the house with the hope that this would be yet another good day and that all of the burros in his stable would be fully rented out to the townspeople.

Mama hurried Juan and Rachel into their school clothes and walked them down to the road, where they joined the other schoolchildren in a long procession toward the little schoolhouse in town. Juan was six and a half, and Rachel had just turned five. It was Rachel’s first year attending school, and Juan had been instructed to look after his younger sister and help her to get adjusted. Mama heaved a sigh of relief as she watched her children disappear over the first small hill. She turned and headed back to the kitchen, where it was still warm, to clean up after breakfast. Before she was finished tidying up, she was already thinking about what she would make for the family for dinner that night.

Raphael busied himself filling the feed bags for the burros, as he did every morning and night. He added an extra portion of grain over what was fed at many of the other stables in town, and he topped off each feed bag with a little molasses and a fresh apple. His secret formula ensured that Rafael’s burros would have plenty of endurance to get through any challenges they might face in a given workday. The apple was an extra special treat that the burros loved. Raphael’s burros knew how good they had it and prided themselves on being known for putting in an honest day’s work, which in turn also ensured that they would remain in Raphael’s stable. Raphael kept only the best workers; any shirker or poorly behaved burro was sent off to a lower-end stable.

The burros, finishing their hearty breakfast, shook off the light covering of snow from the year’s first dusting, which had fallen early that morning. Raphael quickly brushed down the burros so that they would look their very best as people from town would begin to show up any time now to rent the burros for their respective chores. Sampson (the strongest of his workers) was often selected first because of his size and muscular build. Sampson was able to work longer and harder than most other burros without tiring. Farmers or home builders with unusually heavy work to be done would try to get to Raphael’s stable extra early so that they might be able to secure Sampson. Raphael patted Sampson on the rump and gave him a wink as he left the stable that morning. Sampson was his pride and joy, and he was even able to request a higher rental for Sampson because of his widespread reputation in the valley.

Snowball, the only albino burro in Jerusalem, was the most sure-footed of the bunch, and almost as tall as Sampson. She was selected often for work in town, as she was known for her care in transporting packages. She prided herself on her record of never damaging a box or package that had been placed in her packs. Raphael outfitted her with a dazzling packsaddle with large colorful-decorated chests on each side in which to secure the purchases made from the merchants in the market. People who needed to secure a burro from Raphael’s stable to be used for shopping often tried to get there early as well in order to secure Snowball. This was not only because of her excellent reputation, but also because she attracted attention wherever she went. Her pure white coat, pink nose, and unusual topaz-blue eyes had a tendency to fascinate all who saw her for the first time.

The other three workers in Raphael’s crew were very rare triplets, two brothers and a sister, which had been born on a neighboring farm. They were named Uno, Dos, and Tres, for their markings at birth. Uno had a small white blaze down the middle of his forehead that looked like a number one, Dos had two white-tipped ears, and Tres had white stockings on three of her legs. They had been forced to work long hours and had been fed sparse portions of grain. When Raphael first brought them home, they were skin and bones and hung their heads in shame when they walked. They had become known for not putting in much of a day’s work, which was not something a burro prided himself on. It was not their fault, though; they had not been fed enough to carry them through the day, and the thinner they got, the less work they were able to perform.

After being in Raphael’s stable for a couple of months, they had put on some much-needed weight by eating the secret formula Raphael had developed for his workers. The triplets knew just how good they had it here at Raphael’s stable, and they were now able to work as hard and as long as any other burro in the valley, with the exception of Sampson.

It was turning out to be the start of yet another good day in Raphael’s stable. All of his workers were rented out for the day. With a full stable of good workers, he had finally been able to catch up a bit, and he had been able to begin making a few badly needed improvements to his family’s home and farm. He had even gotten enough ahead this year that he had been able to purchase a couple of young orphaned burros, and they were growing up just fine. A neighbor had purchased the pair earlier in the spring and had not been able to make a go of his farm, so he had offered Pedro and Jenny to Raphael at an incredibly reasonable price.

Pedro was just over a year old, and Jenny was even younger. They were not old enough or disciplined enough to rent out for work this year, but Raphael hoped that next year he could at least add Pedro to his stable of workers. He would then have the largest herd of working burros in the valley.

Raphael stopped briefly to talk to his old friend Gabriel, who had been his very first worker. There had been none finer in his day. Gabriel was a mule, and mules were much bigger and stronger than burros, so in his prime he could do the work of three burros. Old and sway-backed from all of his years of tireless work, Gabriel had been retired now for two years. Raphael could not bear to get rid of him; after all, he had been the first worker in his stable and had provided the income to feed his family and to slowly purchase the fine herd of burros that he possessed today.

All of the working burros were now out for the day. The chickens were fed, and the stables were completely mucked out. Raphael located a clean bed of warm straw that had been warmed by the sun that crept in through some broken boards in the barn, and figured he’d catch a short morning nap.

02

Zippo and Pop

Two other characters that had made Raphael’s stable their home over the summer awoke with the rising sun. They had set up residence in an old abandoned bird’s nest beneath one of the eaves of the barn. Zippo and Pop were a colorful lot. Zippo was a feisty young horsefly with a purple cape and yellow goggles. Pop was an older horsefly who was proud of his beer belly and never left home without his ratty old fedora and his stub of a cigar.

Go find some grounds, kid, and I’ll heat the water, Pop said. Zippo straightened his goggles and zipped down to the garbage, quickly returning with a sack full of coffee grounds that had been discarded after the family’s morning meal. Zippo and Pop slurped some coffee made from the melting snow and the slightly used coffee grounds. They’d made a makeshift hot plate from a bottle cap and used a chard of glass set up as a magnifying glass to heat the melting snow and