Read the excerpt from The Land.



"Whoa there, Wind," I said softly as I tried to get near the stallion. "It's me, boy. It's Paul." I extended my hand slowly. "Let me take a look at you now. It’s all right. It's all right." The stallion pulled back at first. I kept talking, and he finally allowed me to touch him. He whinnied just a bit, and I patted him gingerly, trying to make him know me; then, when he was still, I took a closer look at his leg. There was a bad tear along his right foreleg, and there were scratches from the branches that had ripped along his sleek white coat. The scratches I knew would heal, but I wasn't sure about the leg. The way Ghost Wind had pulled back, I feared a ligament might be torn or even his leg fractured.



"He all right?" asked Mitchell, on his feet now.



Without looking at him, I shook my head. "Don't know. We got to get him back to the barn."



"Your daddy's gonna kill me," he said solemnly, yet with no fear in his voice, just a voice of matter of fact.



From their reactions, what are both Paul and Mitchell most concerned with right after the accident?

whether Mitchell is injured
whether Paul will be punished
whether Ghost Wind is injured
whether Mitchell will be punished