The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
by William Saroyan
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The story is about two poor Armenian boys, Aram (the nine-year-old narrator) and his cousin Mourad, who belong to the Garoghlanian tribe, famous for eleven centuries for its honesty. One early morning Mourad, considered the crazy descendant of the family's crazy streak, arrives on a beautiful white horse and invites Aram to ride. Aram cannot believe it because the family is too poor to buy a horse and too honest to steal one. The boys ride joyfully every morning and hide the horse in the barn of a deserted vineyard. The horse actually belongs to a farmer, John Byro, who visits and laments its loss. Though the boys keep the horse for a while, Mourad refuses to sell it, insisting a Garoghlanian could never steal. When John Byro nearly recognises his horse but trusts the family's reputation for honesty, the boys' conscience is stirred and they quietly return the horse. Byro finds the horse stronger and better-tempered than before.
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The story explores the conflict between a deep love for horses and the strict code of honesty of the Garoghlanian tribe. It gently shows that even a childish 'theft' driven by innocent passion is redeemed by conscience and the family's inherited moral integrity.
The impossible white horse
At four in the morning Mourad taps on Aram's window, sitting on a magnificent white horse. Aram is thrilled, for his earliest longing had always been to ride, but he is also troubled: the Garoghlanian family is comically poor yet has been famous for its honesty for eleven centuries. Aram reasons that riding a stolen horse is not the same as stealing money, and that it will only truly become stealing if they ever try to sell it, which he is certain they never will.
The joy of the ride and the family's crazy streak
The boys ride out into the country, Mourad singing and roaring with the sheer joy of being alive. Aram recalls that every family has a crazy streak, and in their tribe it had passed from Uncle Khosrove, a furious man who silenced every problem by roaring 'It is no harm; pay no attention to it', to Mourad, though Mourad's own father Zorab was merely practical. When Aram tries to ride alone, the horse throws him and runs away, and Mourad has to spend half an hour recovering it.
John Byro's loss
That afternoon the farmer John Byro, an Assyrian who had learnt Armenian out of loneliness, visits and mournfully reports that his white horse, stolen a month ago, is still missing along with the use of his surrey. Aram realises Mourad has secretly been riding the horse for a whole month. Aram begs Mourad to keep it until he learns to ride, but Mourad, offended, insists the horse must go back to its true owner and gives it six months at the latest.
Honesty triumphs
One morning the boys meet John Byro on the road. He studies the horse closely, admits it is the twin of his own stolen horse, but says a suspicious man would believe his eyes rather than his heart, and because the fame of the Garoghlanian family for honesty is well known to him, he trusts them. The very next morning the boys quietly return the horse to Byro's barn. Later Byro tells Aram's mother the horse is stronger and better-tempered than ever, and Uncle Khosrove roars that it has been returned, so pay no attention to it.