In the Beginning

John Martinez holds book reports up that he and his brother did. This is the report from John for In the Beginning, Volume 1: One day Ethan and Cal got some flashlights and asked their grandparents if they could go explore one late night. Grandpa said yes, but not to stay too late. Gus and Luke also went with the boys. The boys could only go to the barn and back. Ethan and Cal went outside shining their flashlights and saw some eyes shining back at them. They were scared but when they got closer they saw it was just deer looking at them. The boys started walking again to the barn pointing their flashlights to the ground and saw footprints in the mud and it had just rained. Ethan and Cal turned off their flashlights and walked close to the barn and saw a man near there with a truck and trailer. He was stealing Grandpa's cows! When Gus and Luke saw that the man was trying to load the cows in the trailer they herded the cows away from the thieves. Ethan and Cal ran to get Grandpa to call the cops. The cops got the thieves before they could get away. The next day, the sheriff went to Grandpa's house and told the boys they were heroes and thanked the boys for helping to catch the thieves. Gus and Luke helped capture the thieves too. Ethan and Cal got a big reward. They each put some of the money in savings for college and they each bought their own horse for the ranch. Ethan and Cal said, "Gus and Luke are Heroes."

From Joshua Martinez for the same story: Ethan and Cal are best friends, and they love going to their grandpa's house in the summer. Their grandpa would tell them stories about Indians and about how his great-great grandpa built the house in the 1870s. When grandpa took them exploring they found arrowheads and spearheads. Their grandpa would also teach them about trees, animals and plants. One day when Ethan was big, he asked his grandpa if he could go exploring and his grandpa said yes. While he was exploring, it started to get dark and he saw some eyes looking at him and it almost looked like a ghost! Ethan was afraid but he got close and saw it was a puppy. The puppy had a gray face and dark ears. Ethan told the puppy he was going to name him Gus the Ghost-Face Dog. Ethan took the scared puppy home and gave him food and water. Grandpa told Ethan that the puppy was a cow dog, a Blue Heeler. Grandpa also said when the puppy got older he could help him around the ranch. Next summer Ethan and Cal went to see Grandpa, and Gus now was a big guard dog. He would take care of them from snakes and other dangers. Cal brought his dog named Luke, a Yellow Lab. The boys would go swimming at the creek named Lucy Creek and throw toys and sticks and Gus and Luke would go in the water and get them. Ethan and Cal would help Grandpa with the ranch. They did everything together.