e red pony standing out in the corral. Jody trusts and respects Billy because of his knowledge and experience. He thinks that Billy is infallible. However, he realizes that Billy made a mistake when the rain comes down when he is at school. "Billy Buck wasn't wrong about many things. . . But he was wrong about the weather for that day, for a little after noon the clouds pushed over the hills and the rain began to pour down" (22). Because of the downpour, the red pony falls ill and despite all of Billy's treatment and effort, it dies. Jody comes to the horrific realization that Billy is fallible. Before, Jody viewed Billy as perfect, but he now knows that Billy made a mistake and the pony is dead because of it. Jody is angered at Billy for this reason; he never expected this to happen. "He look reproachfully at Billy Buck and Billy felt guilty. . . He had no right to be fallible, and he knew it" (23). The understanding that Billy makes mistakes gives Jody the knowledge that Billy is not perfect. This is a loss of innocence for Jody, because he didn't know that it was possible for a wise grown-up to make such a huge and fatal mistake.
             Jody experiences another loss of innocence in book one when he feels death on a personal basis for the first time in his young life. In the beginning of the first book, he sees black buzzards flying about the area because of newly dead animals, and he acknowledges it with no emotion or personal reaction. "Over the hillside two big black buzzards sailed low to the ground and their shadows slipped smoothly and quickly ahead of them. Some animal had died in the vicinity. Jody knew it" (4-5). But when they finally surround his red pony at the moment of its death, he becomes furious and lashes out in rage against them, even killing one in the frustration of the red pony's demise. "He struck again and again, until the buzzard lay dead...