Ben

Ben is Lizzy Enders’s saddle pony, traveling companion, and one of her most dependable sources of comfort. Useful on the journey west, he becomes more than transportation: his presence carries memories of her family, answers her grief with familiar affection, and gives her a practical means of escape and movement through danger. The novel repeatedly places him beside Lizzy at moments when she feels abandoned or physically vulnerable, making their bond a quiet counterpoint to the instability of her human relationships.

Identity and Place in the Journey

Ben is the saddle pony Lizzy is allowed to bring on the Santa Fe Trail. She rides beside the wagon while the caravan carries cargo and supplies, including goods intended for the girls’ school in Santa Fe. His usefulness is practical, but his place in the family is also personal: among the animals Lizzy must leave behind are three cats and a large litter of kittens, while Ben is permitted to travel with her. The distinction makes him the animal companion she can keep as her life is uprooted.

His presence also shapes the family’s arrangements on the road. When Elinora becomes jealous of Lizzy riding Ben and cries, Lizzy has to sit in the wagon with her or let Elinora ride. After Elinora falls and nearly injures herself, Mama forbids her from riding him again. Ben is thus part of the ordinary negotiations of a crowded journey, not simply a symbol observed from a distance: his availability affects who rides, and the adults’ decisions about his use reflect the competing needs of the girls and the caravan.

A Companion in Grief

After Mama dies, Lizzy stays with Ben while he is being fed for the night. She gives him sugar, presses her face close to his, and understands his presence as responsive to her grief. The comfort she finds there is associated with Mama’s own teaching that animals know when a person is grieving. Lizzy tells Ben that they will continue to Colorado to look for gold and someday return to bring Mama home for a proper burial. The promise gives shape to her immediate future, and she shares it with the animal who has been with her on the Trail.

Ben’s association with home is made explicit when Lizzy later finds him in the stable at Santa Fe. Before she can settle into her new surroundings, she panics at the thought that her father may have taken him away. Once she hears him and reaches his stall, she clings to his neck and recalls riding in the fields outside Independence, Missouri, riding with Uncle William when he was home, and riding with her father. She also remembers Mama’s treats for Ben and the ribbons Mama taught her to weave into his mane. These details gather family life into the figure of the pony: seeing him again reconnects Lizzy with people and routines that have otherwise been lost to her.

The reunion is bodily as well as remembered. Lizzy hugs Ben, weeps while holding him, and takes comfort when he nuzzles her. To her, his behavior expresses a promise of continued presence, set against her sense that everyone else has abandoned her. That interpretation belongs to Lizzy’s perception; the scene does not give Ben human speech or intention. Instead, familiar contact and his response allow her to experience companionship without needing to explain her grief.

Agency, Movement, and Danger

The reunion soon becomes a turning point in Lizzy’s actions. She feeds Ben oats, gives him water, and notices his blanket, saddle, and bridle. As she prepares him for a ride, he becomes anxious at the touch of the blanket on his flanks, appearing to recognize that they are about to set off. Lizzy leads him out of the stable and mounts him while a morning star is still visible. Her escape plan is not only a private resolve: it depends on the animal she has recovered, the equipment at hand, and her ability to leave the grounds on horseback. Ramona appears near the gate, but Ben has already made Lizzy’s attempted departure possible.

Ben also enables Lizzy to accompany Violate Lacey down a hill. Because riding would not be seemly, Lizzy walks him while firmly supporting Violate’s arm. The scene gives him a different kind of practical role: he is present but not ridden, while Lizzy’s attention is divided between managing him and helping her companion over difficult ground. His usefulness therefore changes with circumstance, from mount to led animal, without diminishing his place beside Lizzy.

Later, after a man attacks Lizzy at Fort Marcy, she awakens to Ben nuzzling her face and pushing her. The attacker is gone; blood and signs of a struggle remain nearby, but Lizzy does not know who intervened. Ben has not been shown stopping the assault or driving the attacker away, and the rescuer remains unidentified. What the scene establishes is more modest and more immediate: when Lizzy regains consciousness, Ben is there, prompting her to wake and helping her orient herself after the violence.

Relationship and Narrative Significance

Ben’s connection with Lizzy is expressed through repeated acts of care rather than through any stated human-like understanding. She feeds him sugar, oats, and water; attends to him for the night; and remembers Mama’s care in the treats and ribbons associated with him. He, in turn, nuzzles her when she is grieving and again after the attack. The repetition makes his presence legible as reciprocal companionship while keeping the evidence grounded in the animal’s observable actions and Lizzy’s interpretation of them.

Across these scenes, Ben accompanies Lizzy through distinct kinds of vulnerability: bereavement on the Trail, fear of separation in Santa Fe, the risk of leaving the convent grounds, and the aftermath of an assault. He cannot restore her lost family or explain who rescued her, but his familiar body and dependable presence help her endure the immediate moment. As a character in Lizzy’s story, he joins memory to action: the pony who carries traces of home is also the one she can prepare and ride toward a new decision.