Mustang Road

My name is Clayton Oldham. I was seventeen yesterday. I am not happy with my life and I intend to change it right away. My father is the manager of the Hotel Nobel. He sits in an office all day telling people what to do. I am unhappy because while he sits there in comfort, he has dumped an eighty-acre cotton farm on my mother and me. I am trying to save enough money to buy a horse. I work from sun up to sun down for nothing. I have been doing the plowing and planting since I turned thirteen. My mother supervises the cotton pickers during the fall. I am one of them doing the picking, and I don't even get paid for that. After the cotton is all in, I do odd jobs around town and make a little money. I work in the general store some, and I help the local carpenter when he has a job going. I do the lifting and carrying for him. He pays best, but he isn't working all the time. I clean stalls at the livery anytime I don't have anything going. The thing about that, is they always need cleaning. I have sixty five dollars saved and when I have enough for a horse and saddle, I am gone. I will have regrets about leaving my mother alone with the farm but the skinflint will have to hire some help for her. I will not be back.