"Thunder?" asked Laddie. "Is it thunder?"
"It sounds like it," said Russ, "but I don't see any lightning. I guess we'd better go home, anyhow."
They started away from the spring, and then Laddie suddenly cried:
"Oh, look! Look at Uncle Fred's cows all running away!"
Russ looked, and saw a big bunch of cattle rushing and thundering across the plain. It was the hoofs of the cattle beating on the ground that made the sound like thunder.
"Oh, what is it? What is it?" cried Laddie. "What makes 'em run like that?"
"It's a cattle stampede!" shouted a voice, almost in the ears of the boys. "Look out! Up you come!"
"It's a cattle stampede!"
Before Russ and Laddie had a chance to think what this meant, though Uncle Fred had told them in his stories, each little boy felt himself caught up in strong arms, and set on a horse in front of a cowboy.
What had happened was that two of Uncle Fred's cowboys had ridden along when Russ and Laddie were at the spring, and, fearing the little lads might get into danger, they had taken them up on their saddles.
"Where are we going?" asked Laddie, undecided whether or not to cry.
"We are going home—that is, I'm going to take you home," said the cowboy, smiling down at Laddie. "Then we'll try to stop these cattle from running away."
"Are the cattle running away?" asked Russof the cowboy who held him so firmly in front on his saddle.
"That's what they are, little man," was the answer. "Something frightened the steers, and they started to run. We've got to stop 'em, too!"
"Will they run far?" asked Russ.
"Well, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't," answered the cowboy. "It all depends. Out here on the plain, where there isn't any high land or cliffs for them to topple over, there isn't much danger. The cattle will run until they get tired out. But, of course, some of 'em get stepped on and hurt, and that's bad. And sometimes our cattle get mixed in with another herd, when they stampede this way, and it's hard to get 'em unmixed again. But we're going to take you two boys to the ranch house, and then we'll try to stop the stampede. What were you doing out here, anyhow?"
"Looking at the spring," answered Russ. "It's gone dry again."
"Has it?" asked the cowboy. "Then that means we'll lose more cattle, I reckon. Maybe the men started this stampede."
"No, I think this stampede was started by Indians," said the cowboy who had Laddie, and who had just ridden up alongside Russ in order to speak to "his cowboy" as Russ afterward called him.
"Indians!" cried Russ.
"Yes. Sometimes they come off the reservation, and start to travel to see some of their friends. A band of Indians will stampede a bunch of cattle as soon as anything else."
"Could we see the Indians?" asked Laddie.
"Well, maybe you can, if they come to the ranch. Some do to get something to eat," was the answer. "But hold tight now, we've got to ride faster, if we want to get help in time to stop the runaway cattle."
So the two little boys held tightly to the horn, which is that part of the saddle which was directly in front of them. This horn is what the cowboys fasten their lassos around when they catch a wild steer or a pony.
Behind the boys could be heard the thunder of the hoofs of the stampeding steers. They were running close together, and, even in the half-darkness of the evening, a big cloud of dust raised by the many feet could be seen.
"What's the matter?" cried Uncle Fred, as the two cowboys rode up to the ranch with Laddie and Russ.
"Stampede!" was the answer. "Big bunch of cattle running away."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "Well, get right after 'em! Stop 'em!"
And this is what the cowboys did. The two who had seen the stampede first, and ridden in to tell the news, bringing Laddie and Russ on the way, were joined by other cowboys. They then rode toward the rushing cattle, to head them off, or turn them back.
A stampede on a ranch means that a lot of steers or horses become so frightened over something that they all run together, and don't pay any attention to where they are going. If one of their number falls, the others trample right over it. So, too, if a cowboy on his horse got too close to the stampeding cattle, he would be trampled on.
To stop a stampede the cowboys try to turn the cattle around. This they do by riding along in front of them, as close as they dare, firing their big revolvers. They try to scare the steers from keeping on. Then if theycan turn the front ones back, and get them to run in a circle—"milling," it is called—the others will do the same thing. The cattle stop running, quiet down and can be driven back where they came from.
It is hard work. Still it has to be done.
It soon grew so dark that the children and grown folk, watching from the house, could see nothing. Mrs. Bunker wanted the six little Bunkers to go to bed, but the four older children wanted to stay up and hear what the cowboys had to say when they came back.
"Well, you may stay half an hour," their father told them. "If they aren't back then off to bed you go!"
However, the cowboys came back about fifteen minutes later, saying they had stopped the stampede and turned the cattle back where they belonged.
"That's good," said Uncle Fred. "What with the fire and a stampede these are busy times at Three Star Ranch."
"And the spring is dried up again!" said Russ. "We forgot to tell you, Uncle Fred."
"The spring dried up once more? Well, I suppose that means more trouble and morecattle missing. I do wish I could find out this puzzle. Laddie, why can't you solve that riddle for me?"
"I don't know, Uncle Fred. I wish I could," said Laddie, as he was taken off to bed.
The next day Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker went out to look at the spring, to take some more pictures of it with the camera, and see if they could find any reason for its going dry. Laddie and Russ and Vi, who usually wanted to go where her twin did, went with them, the other children staying at home to play.
"Yes, there's hardly any water in it," said Uncle Fred, as he looked down in the rocky basin at which Laddie and Russ had taken a drink the night before. "I think we'll have to dig back of those rocks," he said to Daddy Bunker, "and see what's behind them."
"It might be a good plan," agreed the children's father. "There may be some sort of secret channel through which the water runs out under the ground. I think I would dig, if I were you."
"I will," said Uncle Fred. "I'll go backto the house now and get picks and shovels. You can wait here for me."
"I'll come with you," said Daddy Bunker. "The children will be all right here."
"I'll go with you, Daddy," said Vi. "I must look after my mud pie I left in the sun to bake."
Uncle Fred started back toward the ranch buildings with Mr. Bunker and Vi, while Laddie and Russ sat down near the spring to wait. There was just a faint trickle of water coming through the rocks.
Suddenly the boys were surprised to hear a sort of grunt behind them, and, turning quickly, they saw a figure such as they had often seen in pictures.
"An Indian!" gasped Russ. "Oh, Laddie! It's an Indian!"
There was no doubt about it. Standing in front of Laddie and Russ was an Indian. He was a tall man, with dark skin.
The Indian had a blanket wrapped around him, and on his feet were what seemed to be slippers, made of soft skin. Later the boys learned that these were moccasins.
In his hair the Indian had stuck two or three brightly-colored feathers. He was not a nice-looking man, but he smiled, in what he most likely meant to be a kind way, at the boys, and, pointing to the spring, said:
"Water? Indian get drink water?"
For a moment Russ or Laddie did not know what to think. The coming of an Indian was so sudden that it surprised them. They were all alone, too, for Uncle Fred and their father had gone back to the house to get shovelsand picks to dig up the rocks back of the spring.
"Water? Indian get drink water?" asked the Redman again.
"Oh, he is a real Indian!" whispered Russ to his brother. "I see the feathers."
"Yes, and he's got a blanket on, same as the Indians have in the picture Mother showed us," added Laddie.
"Indian get drink!" went on the Redman, as he opened his blanket. The boys saw that he wore a pair of old and rather dirty trousers and a red shirt without a collar. Aside from the blanket and the feathers in his hair, he was not dressed much like an Indian, so the boys decided.
"There isn't much water here," said Russ, "but I guess you can get a drink. The spring has gone dry."
"Spring gone dry? That funny—plenty rain," said the Indian.
He stooped down and dipped the cocoanut shell in what little water was in the bottom of the spring.
However the Indian managed to get enough to drink, and then he seemed to feelbetter. He sat down on the ground near the two boys and pulled a package from inside his shirt. It was wrapped in paper and, opening it, the Indian took out some bread and what seemed to be pieces of dried meat. Then he began to eat, paying no attention to the boys.
RUSS AND LADDIE WATCHED THE INDIAN WITH WIDE-OPEN EYES.RUSS AND LADDIE WATCHED THE INDIAN WITH WIDE-OPEN EYES.
Russ and Laddie watched the Indian with wide-open eyes. This was the first one they had ever seen outside of a circus or a Wild-West show, and he was not like the Indians there. They all wore gaily-colored suits, and had many more feathers on their heads than this man did. But that he was a real Indian, Russ and Laddie never doubted.
Having finished his meal, and taken another drink of water, the Indian looked at the boys again and said:
"You live here?" and he waved his hand in a circle.
"Not—not zactly," stammered Laddie.
"We're staying with our Uncle Fred at Three Star Ranch," said Russ.
"Oh, Three Star Ranch. Huh! Me know! Good place. Bill Johnson him cook!"
"That's right!" exclaimed Laddie. "Heknows Uncle Fred's cook. He must be a good Indian, Russ."
"I guess he is. Maybe he wants to see Uncle Fred."
"Here they come back," remarked Laddie, and he pointed to his father and Uncle Fred, who could now be seen coming toward the spring, carrying picks and shovels over their shoulders.
"You got papoose your house?" asked the Indian, pointing in the direction of the ranch houses. "You got little papoose?"
"What's a papoose?" asked Russ.
Laddie didn't know, and the Indian was trying to explain what he meant when Uncle Fred came along.
"Hello! You boys have company, I see," said the ranchman. "Where did the Indian come from?" and he looked at the Redman, as Indians are sometimes called.
"He just walked here," explained Russ. "He was thirsty and he ate some bread he had in his shirt, and now he asked us if we had a papoose at our house."
"He means small children," said Uncle Fred. "Papoose is the Indian word for baby—that is, it is with some Indians. They don't all speak the same language.
"Where are you from, and what do you want?" Uncle Fred asked the Indian. "What's your name?"
"Me Red Feather," answered the Indian, at the same time touching a red feather in his black hair. "Me look for papoose. You got?"
"We haven't got any for you," said Uncle Fred with a laugh. "I guess none of the six little Bunkers would want to go to live with you, though you may be a good Indian. But where are you from, and what do you want?"
The Indian began to talk in his own language, but Uncle Fred shook his head.
"I don't know what you're saying," he said. "If you're lost, and hungry, go back there and they'll feed you."
"Bill Johnson?" asked the Indian.
"So you know my ranch cook, do you?" asked Uncle Fred quickly. "I suppose some one told you to ask for him. Well, he'll give you a meal, and maybe he can understand your talk. I can't. Go back there!" and he pointed to the ranch house.
The Indian got up, and as he walked away he was seen to limp.
"What's the matter? Hurt your foot?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"Much hurt—yes," was the answer, but the Indian did not stop. He kept on his limping way to the ranch houses.
"Is it all right for him to wander around over your ranch this way?" asked Daddy Bunker of Uncle Fred. "Won't he take some of your horses or cattle?"
"Oh, no, the cowboys will be on the watch. I guess Red Feather is all right, though I never saw him before. The Indians often get tired of staying on the reservation and wander off. They go visiting. They stop here now and then, and Bill Johnson feeds 'em. He sort of likes the Indians. I suppose one he fed some time ago has told the others, so Bill has a good name among the Indians. Well, now we'll dig, and see what we can find out about this queer spring."
"Could we go to see the Indian eat?" asked Russ.
"I like him—he talks so funny," said Laddie. "Maybe he knows some new riddles."
"Maybe he does," laughed Daddy Bunker. "You can try him if you like. Yes, go along to the house, if you wish, and if Bill Johnson asks you why, say Uncle Fred sent Red Feather to be fed."
"Come on!" called Russ to Laddie. "We'll go back to the house and talk some more to the Indian."
Laddie and Russ reached the house just as Red Feather arrived, for he walked slowly.
"So you're hungry, eh?" asked Bill Johnson, when the Indian had spoken to him. "Well, I guess I can feed you. Where did you come from, and where are you going?"
The Indian waved his hand toward the west, as if to say he had come from that direction, but where he was going he did not tell. Bill tried to talk to him in two or three different Indian dialects, but Red Feather shook his head.
He knew a little English, and his own talk, and that was all. But, every now and then, as he ate, he looked up at Laddie and Russ, who sat near, and said:
"You got more papoose?"
"I guess he wants to see the rest of youlittle Bunkers!" said Bill Johnson. "Maybe he heard there were several children here, and he wants to see all of you. Some Indians like children more than others. Yes, we have more papooses, Red Feather, though these are the biggest," and he pointed to Russ and Laddie.
"No got um so high?" asked the Indian, and he held his hand about a foot over the head of Russ. "Got papoose so big?"
"No, none of the six little Bunkers is as big as that," explained Bill Johnson. "Russ is the biggest. But what's the matter with your foot?" he asked Red Feather, for the Indian limped badly when he walked.
The Indian spoke something in his own language and pointed to his foot.
"It's swelled," said Bill. "Reckon you must have cut it on a stone. Well, you sit down in the shade, and when Hank Nelson comes in I'll have him look at it. Hank's a sort of doctor among the cowboys," Bill explained to Laddie and Russ.
While the Indian was resting in the shade, Laddie and Russ ran to tell their mother and the other little Bunkers about him.
"Is he areal, wild Indian?" asked Rose.
"He'sreal, but he isn'twild," Russ answered. "I like him. He likes children, too, 'cause he's always talking about a papoose. Papoose is Indian for baby," he told his sister.
The other little Bunkers gathered around Red Feather, as he sat outside the cook-house, and he smiled at the children. He seemed to want to tell them something as he looked eagerly at them, but all he could make them, or the men at the ranch, understand, was that he wanted to see a "papoose" who was larger than Russ.
"Maybe he wants a boy to go along with him and help him 'cause he's lame," suggested Laddie.
"No, it isn't that," said Uncle Fred, who, with Daddy Bunker, had come back from the spring. "He's worrying about something, but I can't make out what it is. Maybe some of the other cowboys can talk his language. We'll wait until they come in."
Hank Nelson, the cowboy who "doctored" the others, came riding in, and he agreed to look at the Indian's lame foot. Hank said itwas badly cut, and he put some salve and a clean bandage on it, for which Red Feather seemed very grateful.
"No can walk good," he said, when his foot was wrapped up. "I go sleep out there!" and he pointed to the tall grass of the plain.
"Oh, no, I guess we can fix you up a place to sleep," said Uncle Fred kindly. "There are some bunks in the barn where the extra cowboys used to sleep. You can stay there until your foot gets well, and Bill Johnson can give you something to eat now and then."
"Oh, I'll feed him all right," said the cook. "He seems like a good Indian. I wish I knew what he meant by that 'papoose' he's always talking about."
But Red Feather could not tell, though he tried hard, and none of the cowboys spoke his kind of language. So he went to sleep in the barn, on a pile of clean straw, and seemed very thankful to all who had helped him.
"Did you find out anything about the queer spring?" asked Mrs. Bunker of her husbandand Uncle Fred that night, when the children had gone to bed.
"No, nothing. We dug up back of the rocks, but found nothing that would show where the water runs away to."
"And did you hear of any more of your cattle being taken away?" asked Captain Roy, who had been visiting his son at the nearest army post. This son was also Captain Robert Roy, for he was named Robert for his father, and was now a captain in the regular army. Captain Roy, the father, had just come back.
"Yes, a few were driven off, as almost always happens when the spring goes dry," said the ranchman in answer to Captain Roy's question. "It is a puzzle—beats Laddie's riddles all to pieces."
"I suppose he'll be getting up some new ones about the Indian to-morrow," said Captain Roy.
"If the Indian doesn't run off in the night with one of the ponies," said Daddy Bunker.
"Oh, he won't go," declared Uncle Fred. "He's being treated too nicely here. He'll stay until his foot gets better."
And, surely enough, Red Feather was on hand for his breakfast the next morning. The six little Bunkers ran out to see him. He looked eagerly and anxiously at them, as if seeking for the "papoose" who was a little larger than Russ.
It was that afternoon, when the children had been having fun playing different games around the house, corrals and barn, that Rose walked off by herself to gather some flowers for the table, as she often did.
"Don't go too far!" her mother called to her.
"I won't," Rose promised.
A little later Mrs. Bunker, who was washing Mun Bun and Margy, and putting clean clothes on them, heard Rose calling from the side porch.
"Oh, Mother! Come here! Look what I found!"
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "I can't come now. Tell me what it is, Rose."
"It's the papoose Red Feather was looking for, I guess!" was the answer of Rose Bunker.
Mrs. Bunker had Mun Bun in her lap, finishing the buttoning of his shoes, but, when Rose called out about the papoose, her mother quickly set the little fellow down on the floor, and ran to the window from where she could see her daughter on the porch.
"What did you say you had found, Rose?" she called.
"I don't know, for sure," said Rose, "but I guess it's the papoose Red Feather wants. Anyhow it's a little Indian girl, and she's bigger than Russ. Come on down!"
Mrs. Bunker hurried down to the porch, and there she saw Rose standing beside a little girl dressed in rather a ragged calico dress. The little girl was very dark, as though she had lived all her life out in the sun, getting tanned all the while, as the sixlittle Bunkers were tanned at Cousin Tom's.
The little girl had long, straight hair, and it was very black, and, even without this, Mrs. Bunker would have known her to be an Indian.
"Where did you get her, Rose?" asked Mother Bunker.
"I found her out on the plain. She was lost, I guess. I told her to come along, 'cause we had an Indian man at Three Star Ranch. I don't guess she knew what I meant, but she came along with me, and here she is."
"Yes, so I see!" exclaimed the puzzled Mrs. Bunker. "Here she is! But what am I going to do with her?"
The Indian girl smiled, showing her white teeth.
"I'll tell Uncle Fred," said Rose.
"Yes, I guess that's what you'd better do," replied her mother. "Come up and sit down," she said to the Indian girl, but the little maiden Rose had found on the plain did not seem to understand. She looked at the chair which Mrs. Bunker pulled out from against the house, however, and then, with another shy smile, sat down in it.
"Poor thing," said Mrs. Bunker. "Maybe she belongs to Red Feather, and she may be lost. I wish she could talk to me, or that I could speak her language. I wonder——"
But just then Rose came hurrying back, not only with Uncle Fred, but with Daddy Bunker and Red Feather.
"What's all this I hear, about Rose going out in the fields and finding a lost papoose?" asked Uncle Fred.
"Well, here she is!" replied Mother Bunker.
Before any one else could say or do anything, Red Feather sprang forward, as well as he could on his lame foot, and, a moment later, had clasped the Indian girl in his arms. She clung to him, and they talked very fast in their own language.
Then Red Feather turned to Uncle Fred, and, motioning to Rose, said:
"She find lost papoose. Me glad!"
"So that's what he was trying to tell us!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "Red Feather lost his little girl (his papoose as he calls her, though she isn't a baby), and he set out to find her. Then he hurt his foot and couldn't walk verywell, so he came here. And that's what he meant when he tried to ask us if we had another—an Indian child—larger than Russ. This girl is bigger than Russ."
"Oh, I'm so glad she's found her father!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.
And that is just what the Indian girl had done. Later they heard the story, and it was just as Uncle Fred had said.
Red Feather and some other Indians, with their squaws, children, and little papooses, had left their reservation and started out to see some friends. On the way Sage Flower, which was the name of the Indian girl, became lost. She wandered away from the camp.
Her father and some of the other Indians started out after her, but did not find her. Then Red Feather, wandering about alone, hurt his foot, and managed to get to the spring when Laddie and Russ were waiting at it.
Red Feather tried to tell those at Three Star Ranch about his little lost girl, but could not make himself understood. Then his foot became so bad that he could not walkand he had to stay. And, all the while, he was wondering what had happened to Sage Flower.
The little Indian girl wandered about the plains, sleeping wherever she could find a little shelter, and eating some food she found at a place where some cowboys had been camping. They had gone off and left some bread and meat behind.
Poor little Sage Flower was very tired and hungry when Rose found her on the plain. The Indian girl did not know her father was at Three Star Ranch. She only knew she might get something to eat there and a place to sleep. So when Rose told her to come along Sage Flower was very glad to do so.
And oh! how glad and surprised she was when she found her own father there waiting for her. Sage Flower cried for joy. Mrs. Bunker then took care of her, seeing that she was washed and combed, and had something to eat.
The Indian girl could not speak her thanks in the language the six little Bunkers talked, but she looked her thanks from her eyes and in her smile.
A few days later Red Feather's foot was well enough to be used, and then he and his daughter were put in one of the ranch wagons and sent to the place where the other Indians were camping. The Redmen were very glad to see Red Feather and Sage Flower come back to them.
"Well, it's a good thing you found Sage Flower," said Daddy Bunker, "or the poor thing might have wandered on and on, and been lost for good. Her father, too, would have felt very bad."
But everything came out all right, you see, and Red Feather, to show how grateful he was to Rose, brought her, a week or so later, a beautiful basket, woven of sweet grass that smelled for a long time like the woods and fields.
With this Rose was immensely pleased.
There were many happy days at Three Star Ranch. The prairies did not get on fire again, and the cattle seemed to quiet down, and not want to stampede to make work for every one.
Russ and Laddie and Rose and Vi had fine fun riding their ponies to and fro, for theywere allowed to go out alone, if they did not ride too far.
One day, after breakfast, Russ and Laddie came in to ask if they could go for a long ride all alone.
Rose was helping Bill Johnson in the kitchen, and Vi was busy lining a box in which to bury a dead bird she had found. Later there was to be a formal funeral with willow whistles for a band and as many people as would go in the funeral procession.
"I want to see if I can think of a riddle," said Laddie. "I haven't made up one for a long while."
"And I want to see if I can find that Indian, Red Feather," put in Russ. "Maybe he'll make me a bow and arrow."
"I'd rather you wouldn't go now," said their mother. "Don't you want to come with us?"
"Where are you going?" asked Laddie.
"Off to the woods for a little picnic. Bill Johnson is going to put us up a little lunch, and we will stay all day and have fun in the woods."
"Oh, yes, we'll go!" cried Russ. "We canride our ponies some other time," he added to his brother.
"All right," Laddie agreed. "Maybe I can think of a riddle in the woods."
"What makes them call it a 'woods,' Mother?" asked Vi later, when the lunch baskets were ready and the picnic party was about to set off. "Why don't they call it a 'trees' insteads of a woods? There's a lot of trees there."
"You may call it that, if you like," said Mother Bunker. "We'll go to the 'trees' and have some fun. Come on all my six little Bunkers!"
And away they went to the woods or the trees, whichever you like. There was a large clump of trees not far from the house on Three Star Ranch, and in that the children had their picnic. They played under the green boughs, had games of tag and ate their lunch. Then they rested and, after a while, Russ called:
"Come on! Let's have a game of hide-and-go-seek! I'll be it, and I'll blind and all the rest of you can hide."
"Oh, that'll be lots of fun!" said Rose.
So they played this game. Russ easily saw where Margy and Mun Bun hid themselves, behind bushes near the tree where he was "blinding," but he let them "in free." Then he caught Rose, and she had to be "it" the next time. Violet came in free, for she had picked out a good hiding-place.
"Now I have to find Laddie!" cried Russ. He hunted all over, but he could not find his little brother.
"Oh, tell him he can come in free!" exclaimed Rose. "Then we can go on with the game."
So Russ called:
"Givie up! Givie up! Come on in free, Laddie!"
But Laddie did not come. Where could he be?
"What's the matter, children? Why are you shouting so?" asked Mrs. Bunker, who had walked on a little way through the woods to get some flowers. "Can't you play more quietly? You're as bad as the cowboys!"
"We're hollering for Laddie, Mother!" explained Russ. "We can't find him."
"Can't find him?"
"No. I was blinding, 'cause I was it, and he went off to hide. I found all the others, or they came in free, but I can't find Laddie, and he doesn't answer when I say I'll givie up."
"Perhaps he is hiding near here, and only laughing at you," said Mrs. Bunker. "We must take a look."
"Come on!" cried Russ to his brother and sisters. "We'll all look for Laddie. If he'sdoing this on purpose we won't let him play any more, either."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said Mrs. Bunker softly. "And, after all, maybe he went so far away that he can't hear you telling him that he may come in free. So it wouldn't be fair not to let him play with you again. First find him, and then you can ask him why he hid away so long."
"All right, we will," agreed Russ.
So he and the others started through the woods, looking behind trees, under logs and back of bushes, hoping to catch sight of Laddie. But they did not see him.
Then they shouted and called.
"Givie up! Givie up!" echoed through the woods, that being the way to call when you want a person to come in from playing hide-and-go-seek. But Laddie did not answer.
"Where can he be, Mother?" asked Rose. "Is he hiding for fun, or is he lost?"
"I don't see how he can be lost, my dear," answered Mrs. Bunker. "He went to hide, and surely he wouldn't go very far away, because he would want a chance to run in free himself. No, I think Laddie must be doinga puzzle trick to make you find him. He probably is near by, but he is so well hidden that you can't find him. Try once more!"
So the children tried again, shouting and calling, but there was no Laddie.
"I think I'll go and get your father and Uncle Fred," Laddie's mother said to Rose and Russ. "They'll know how to find Laddie. You children stay here, and all keep together so none of you will be lost."
Mrs. Bunker did not have to go for help, for, just at that moment, her husband came up to them.
"Is anything the matter?" asked Daddy Bunker. "I was taking a walk over to the spring, to see if anything had happened to the water there, when I heard shouting and calling. Is anything wrong?"
"We can't find Laddie!" exclaimed Russ.
"He went to hide, but he won't come in," added Rose.
"I really am a little worried," said Mrs. Bunker. "Perhaps you had better get Fred and——"
"I'll find him!" said Daddy Bunker with a laugh. "He can't be far away. Show mewhere you blinded, Russ, when the others went to hide."
Russ showed his father where he had stood against a tree, hiding his head in his arms, so he would not see where the others were hiding. Standing at the same tree Mr. Bunker looked all around. Then he started off, walking this way and that, looking up and down and all around in the woods, until finally he stopped before a rather high stump, and said:
"Laddie is here!"
"Where?" cried some of the little Bunkers.
"I don't see him," said others.
"What's this?" asked Daddy Bunker, reaching up on the tree stump, and lifting down a cap.
"Why—why—that's Laddie's!" stammered Russ. "I saw it there before, but I thought he hung it there so it wouldn't fall off when he was playing."
"Well, we'll see what's inside this stump, for it is hollow," went on Mr. Bunker with a smile. "Unless I'm much mistaken we'll find in here——"
And just then, from inside the middle ofthe stump there stuck up a tousled head of hair, and Laddie's rather surprised face looked down at his father and mother and brothers and sisters.
"Oh, you found me!" he exclaimed. "I was going to run in free!"
"Why didn't you?" asked Russ. "I called 'givie up!' a lot of times."
"I—I didn't hear you," said Laddie, rubbing his eyes. "I guess I must have fallen asleep."
"That's what happened," said Daddy Bunker. "When I saw your cap hanging on a splinter outside the hollow stump I thought you must have hung it there while you climbed inside. Did you?"
"Yes," answered Laddie. "I was looking for a good place to hide, and when I climbed up on a stone, outside, and saw the stump was hollow I knew I could fool Russ. So I left my cap outside, and I got in. And it was so nice and soft there that I just snuggled down and—and I fell asleep. I was sleepy anyhow."
"Didn't you hear us calling?" asked Rose.
"Nope!"
"And didn't you hear me tell you to come in free?" Russ wanted to know.
"Nope. I guess I must have slept a lot," said Laddie.
"Well, I guess you did," agreed his mother. "We were alarmed about you. Don't do anything like that again."
Laddie promised that he wouldn't, and then he climbed out of the hollow stump. It was just high enough from the ground to prevent any one, passing along, from looking down into it. And Laddie could not have climbed up and gotten in if he had not used a stone to step on. The other children took a peep inside, Margy and Mun Bun having to be lifted up, of course.
The stump was partly filled with dried leaves, which made a soft bed on which Laddie had really gone to sleep. He had just curled up in a sort of nest and there he had stayed while the others were hunting for him.
"Are we going to play hide-and-go-seek any more?" asked Laddie, when he had climbed out of the stump and brushed the pieces of leaves off his clothes.
"I'm hungry," announced Mun Bun. "I want some bread and peaches."
"So do I!" added Margy.
Bill Johnson, the good-natured cook, did not have jam to give the children, as Grandmother Ford had done when they were at Great Hedge, so he gave them canned peaches instead. And they liked these almost as much.
"Well, I'll take Mun Bun and Margy to the house," said Mrs. Bunker. "You other children can play here in the woods, if you like. But don't any of you get lost again."
They promised that they would not, and, after Margy and Mun Bun had gone with their father and mother, Russ and Laddie, with Rose and Violet, played the hiding game some more.
But finally the two girls grew tired, and said they were going to play keep house with their dolls.
"Well, it's no fun for us two to play hide from each other," said Russ to Laddie. "What'll we do?"
"Let's guess riddles," suggested Laddie.
"No, that isn't any fun, either," said Russ."You'd think of all the riddles and I'd have to think of all the answers. I know what let's do!"
"What?"
"Let's dig a hole."
"A hole? What for?"
"Oh, just for fun. Let's see how deep we can dig a hole."
"All right," agreed Laddie, after a while. "Maybe we can dig one deep enough for a well, and then Uncle Fred won't have to go to the creek after water when the spring goes dry. We'll dig a well!"
"We'll dig a hole, anyhow," said Russ. "Maybe there won't any water come in it and then it wouldn't be a well. But we'll dig a hole anyhow."
So Russ got some shovels at the barn, and he and Laddie began to dig a hole, starting it not far from the spring, though not close enough to get any dirt in the clear water that was so cool and sweet to drink.
"Are you going to make a big hole so we both can get in at the same time?" asked Laddie of Russ, as the older boy began to shovel out the dirt.
"No, we'll take turns digging. If we made such a big hole it would take too long. First I'll dig and throw out the dirt, and you can throw it farther on, so it won't roll back in the hole. Then, when I get tired of digging in the hole, you can get in and dig."
"That'll be lots of fun!" exclaimed Laddie. "Won't Uncle Fred be s'prised when he sees a well full of water?"
"Maybe it won't be quitefull," said Russ. "But we may get some."
The boys, of course, could not dig very fast. The shovels they had were rather small, and did not hold much dirt. But they werefully large enough for two such little boys.
The earth was somewhat sandy, and there were not many large stones on Uncle Fred's ranch. Of course, the digging was not as easy as it had been at the beach where Cousin Tom lived, but Russ and Laddie did not mind this. They were digging for fun, as much as for anything else, and they really did not have to do it.
So they dug away, first one and then the other getting down in the hole, until they had made it so large that, even when Laddie stood up in it, his head hardly came up to the top of the ground. Russ, being taller, stuck a little more out of the hole than did his brother.
"Do you see any water yet?" asked Laddie, when Russ had been digging, in his turn, for some little time.
"No, not yet," was the answer. "It's awful dry."
"We could get some water from the spring and pour it in," said Laddie. "Then it would look like a well."
"But all the water would run out, if we just poured it in, same as it ran out when wedug a hole at the beach and let the waves fill it," objected Russ. "We'll dig down until we come to some regular water. Then it will be a real well."
But long before they reached water Laddie and Russ became tired of digging. They got to a place where the earth was packed hard, and it was not easy to shovel it out, and finally Russ said:
"Oh, I'm not going to make a well!"
"I'm not, either," declared Laddie. "What'll we do?"
"Let's go for a ride on our ponies," suggested Russ.
"All right!" agreed Laddie. "That'll be fun."
So, dropping the shovels at the side of the hole they had dug, instead of taking them back to the barn, as they should have done, Russ and Laddie went to the house to ask their father or mother if they might go for a ride on the little ponies.
Mr. Bunker was out on the ranch with Uncle Fred, but Mother Bunker said the two boys might ride over the plain if they did not go too far.
Russ and Laddie went to the corral to get their ponies. The boys got one of the cowboys, who was working around the barn, to put the saddles on for them, as this they could not do for themselves, and then they set off, Russ on "Star," as he called his pony, for it had a white star on its forehead, while Laddie rode "Stocking." His pony had been named that because one leg, about half-way up from the hoof, was white, just as if the little horse had on one white stocking.
"Gid-dap!" cried Russ to Star.
"Gid-dap!" called Laddie to Stocking.
And off and away, over the plain, the two ponies galloped.
"They sure are two nice little boys," said Bill Johnson to Mrs. Bunker, as they watched Laddie and Russ ride away.
"Yes, they try to be good, though they do get into mischief now and then," answered the little boys' mother.
On and on rode Laddie and Russ, their ponies trotting over the grassy plain. The day was warm and sunny, and the two boys were having a grand time.
"I wish I was an Indian," said Russ, witha sigh, as he let his pony walk a way, for it seemed tired.
"I'd rather be a cowboy," said Laddie.
"But Indians can live in a tent," went on Russ. "And if they don't like it in one place they can take their tent to another place. If you're a cowboy and live in a house, like Uncle Fred's, you have to stay where the house is."
"Yes," said Laddie, after thinking it over a bit. "You have to do that. I guess maybe I'll be an Indian, too."
"Let's both make believe we're Indians now," proposed Russ.
"We'll pretend we're out hunting buffaloes," agreed Laddie.
"And if we see any of Uncle Fred's cattle we'll make believe they are buffaloes and we'll lasso them," went on Russ.
"Yes, and we'll shoot 'em, too," declared Laddie.
"Only make believe, though!" exclaimed his brother. "I wouldn't want to shoot a cow really."
"No, I wouldn't either. But do Indians have guns, Russ?"
"Course they do. Didn't you hear Bill Johnson tell about how he saw a whole lot of Indians with guns?"
"Oh, yes. Then we'll be gun-Indians, and not the bow-and-arrow kind."
"Sure!" agreed Russ. "We'll get some sticks for guns."
They stopped on the edge of the woods to get sticks that would answer for guns. Then, after resting in the shade for a while, they rode on.
"Woo! Wah! Hoo!" suddenly yelled Russ.
"What's the matter?" asked Laddie, looking around at his brother, who was riding behind him. "What did you yell that way for?"
"'Cause I'm an Indian!" answered Russ. "You have to yell that way, too. Indians always yell."
"Oh, all right. I'll yell," said Laddie. "I thought maybe you'd hurt yourself. Oh, hoo! Doodle-doodle-oo!" he shouted.
"Hey, that's no way to yell like an Indian!" objected Russ.
"Why isn't it?"
"'Cause it sounds more like a rooster crowing. Yell like this: 'Wah-hoo! Zoo! Zoop! Wah! Wah!'"
"Oh, you want me to yell that way. Well, I will," said Laddie. And he yelled as nearly as he could like his brother.
So the two boys rode on and on, crossing the plain this way and that, so as not to get too far from the house. They could see the ranch buildings each time they got on top of the little knolls that were scattered here and there over the plain.
"Let's have a race!" suggested Laddie, after a bit. "I don't guess we are going to see any of Uncle Fred's cattle over here to make believe they're buffaloes. Let's have a race!"
"All right!" agreed Russ. "And I don't have to give you any head start this time, 'cause your pony's legs are going to run, and not your legs, and your pony's legs are every bit as long as my pony's. So we can start even."
"Yes," said Laddie, "we can start even."
They rode their ponies up alongside of each other, and got them in line. Then Russ said:
"We'll ride to the bridge. The first one there wins the race."
"Yes," said Laddie, "we'll race to the bridge."
This bridge was one across the creek, at a place where the water was deeper than anywhere else on Uncle Fred's ranch. The boys were told they must not cross the bridge unless some older person was with them, and they were not allowed to ride into the creek near the bridge because of the deep water.
"All ready?" asked Russ of his brother, as they sat on their ponies.
"All ready, yes."
"Then go!"
"Gid-dap!" cried Laddie.
"Gid-dap!" yelled Russ.
The ponies began to trot. Russ and Laddie did not have whips, and they would not have used them if they had had, for they loved their ponies and were very kind to them. But they tapped the ponies with their hands or their heels and shook the reins and called to them. This made the ponies run almost as fast as if they had been whipped, and was a great deal nicer. Besides, Russ and Laddie did not want to ride too fast, for they might have fallen off.
On and on they raced. Sometimes Russ was ahead, and again Laddie would be. But, just as they came near the bridge, the pony Russ was on slowed up a bit. Laddie's pony kept on, and so he won the race.
"But I don't care," said Russ kindly. "After we rest a bit at the bridge we'll have another race and I'll win that one."
"I hope you do, then we'll be even," said Laddie.
The little boys got off their ponies and looked about them. The ponies began to eat the green grass, and Laddie and Russ were looking for a shady place in which to cool off when they suddenly heard a groan. It was quite loud, and seemed to come from near the bridge. Then a voice called:
"Water! Oh, some one get me a drink of water!"
"Did you hear that?" asked Russ of Laddie, as they stared about them.
"Course I heard it."
"What did it sound like?"
"Like the ghost at Great Hedge," said Laddie.
"Yes," agreed Russ, "that's what it did sound like—a sort of groan. But there can't be any ghost here."
"Course not. But what was it?"
Laddie and Russ looked across the bridge, but could see no one on the other side.
Then the groan sounded again, quite near them, and the voice again called:
"Water! Water!"
"Somebody wants a drink," said Laddie.
"But who is it?" asked Russ. "I don't see anybody."
"It sounds like a man," replied Laddie.
"Maybe it's an Indian," said Russ. "But I don't guess Indians would talk as plain as that. Maybe it's one of Uncle Fred's cowboys, and he fell off his horse and is hurt."
"Oh, maybe 'tis!" exclaimed Laddie. "But if it's a strange cowboy we must ride right home. Mother said so."
"We got to get him a drink first," decided Russ. "You always have to do that. You have to do that even to an enemy, 'cause we learned that in Sunday-school. Let's see if we can find who 'tis wants a drink."
Suddenly the voice called again, so loudly and so close to them that Russ and Laddie both jumped when they heard it.
"Whoever you are, please get me some water!" said the voice. "I'm a cowboy and I've fallen off my horse and broken my leg."
"Where—where are you?" asked Russ, looking about.
"In the tall grass, right at the end of the bridge. I can see you boys, but you can't see me because I'm hidden in the grass. I was going to ride over the bridge, but my pony slipped and threw me and I've been here sometime with a broken leg. Get me a drink if you can."
Russ and Laddie looked at each other. Then they looked toward the end of the bridge, where the voice sounded, and they saw the long grass moving.
"He must be in there," said Laddie, pointing.
"He is," answered Russ. "Here, you hold Star and I'll get him a drink," and Russ slipped off his pony, taking off the cap he wore. Russ had an idea he could carry some water to the cowboy in the cap, and in this he was right.
Going down to the edge of the creek, at one side of the bridge, Russ dented in the outside top of his cap, and filled it with water.
Then, carrying the cap as carefully as he could, Russ made his way to where the cowboy had called from. The little boy found the injured man lying in the tall grass.
"Ah! That's good!" exclaimed the cowboy, as he drank the water. "Now if you could catch my horse for me maybe I could get up on him, and ride him to where I belong. Do you see my horse anywhere?"
Russ looked all about. At first he saw nothing, but, as he gazed across the bridge he saw, on the other side of the creek, a big horse eating grass.
"I see him!" said Russ to the cowboy. "He's over the bridge."
"Is he? That's good. Then he didn't go very far away, after all. Now, look here, you seem to be a pretty smart boy," and the cowboy spoke in a stronger voice, now that he had had a drink of water. "Do you want to help me?"
"Yes," said Russ, "I'd like to help you. My mother says we must help everybody, and give them a drink of cold water, even our enemies, and I know you're not an enemy."
"I don't know about that," said the cowboy with a queer laugh, and he turned his head away and seemed to be looking at his horse, which was on the other side of the bridge, eating grass.
"No, you're not an enemy," went on Russ. "An enemy is a bad man, and you're not that."
"I wouldn't be so sure on that point, either," returned the cowboy. "But I won'thurt you, that's certain. Now look here, boy——"
"My name is Russ Bunker," interrupted the lad.
"Well, Russ, do you think you could go across the bridge and get my horse for me? If I had him I could ride away, now that I feel better after having had a drink. Will you cross the bridge and get my horse for me?"
"No," said Russ slowly, "I couldn't do that."
"Why not? The horse won't hurt you. He's so tame you could walk right up to him, and get hold of the reins. He won't run the way some horses do. You know something about horses or you wouldn't be riding one. Why won't you get mine?"
"'Cause Mother said I wasn't to cross the bridge alone," answered Russ. "Me or Laddie—we can't go across the bridge alone."
"Oh," said the cowboy. "But then your mother didn't know you were going to meet a sick man—one that couldn't walk. She'd let you cross the bridge if she was here."
"But she isn't here," said Russ. "I knowwhat I can do, though! I can ride back and ask her if Laddie and I can go across the bridge for your horse. I'll do it!"
"No! Wait! Hold on a minute!" cried the cowboy. "I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to ride and tell any one I'm here. I'd rather you'd get my horse for me yourself. Just ride your horse across the bridge and get mine."
"I haven't a horse. I have one of Uncle Fred's ponies," said Russ. "And my brother Laddie's got a pony, too. But I can't go across the bridge. Mother said I wasn't to. But I'll ride to Three Star Ranch——"
"Are you from Three Star Ranch?" asked the cowboy quickly.
"Yes," answered Russ.
"Oh!" and the cowboy seemed much surprised. "Well, I guess I'd better get my own horse then," he said. "I guess no one from Three Star Ranch would want to help me if they knew what I'd done. Ride along, boy—Russ you said your name was, didn't you? Ride along, and I'll see if I can't crawl over and get my own horse."
Russ did not know what to do. He wantedto help the cowboy, who seemed in much pain, but the little boy was not going to cross the bridge when his mother had told him not to.
"Hey!" called Laddie. "Come on, Russ. I'm tired of holding your pony."
"All right," said Russ. "I'm coming. We have to ride back and ask Mother if we can cross the bridge to catch that horse!" and he pointed to the cowboy's animal, still cropping grass on the other side of the creek.
"No, don't bother about me," said the man in the grass. "I'll get my own horse. Always be a good boy and mind your mother. Then you won't get into trouble. I wish I had minded mine. Maybe I wouldn't be here now. Ride on home, but don't say anything about me."
Russ turned back to join Laddie. As he did so he saw the cowboy try to rise up and walk. But the man, as soon as he put one leg to the ground, uttered a loud cry and fell back. Then he lay very still and quiet.
"What's the matter with him?" asked Laddie, in a low voice.
"I don't know," answered Russ. "But I guess we'd better ride back and tell Daddy orUncle Fred. They'll know what to do. We can't cross the bridge, but we can go for help. Come on!"
Russ got on his pony again, and he and Laddie rode away as fast as they could, leaving the cowboy very still and quiet, lying in the long grass at the end of the bridge.
Meanwhile something was going on back at the Three Star Ranch house. Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker, who had been out riding on the plains, came galloping back.
"Where are Russ and Laddie?" asked their father of his wife.
"They went for a ride down by the creek," she answered. "They said they'd go only as far as the bridge. But they've been gone a long while, and I wish you'd ride after them and bring them back."
"I will," said Mr. Bunker. "Want to come for a ride, Rose?"
"Yes, Daddy."
"Well, I'll get your pony out of the corral, and saddle him for you. Then we'll ride and get Russ and Laddie."
A little later Rose and her father started out on their ride. As they passed near thequeer spring, which, for the last day or so had not emptied itself of water, Daddy Bunker saw quite a hole in the ground.
"What's that?" he asked Rose.
"Oh, it's where Russ and Laddie started to make a well," she answered. "But I guess they didn't find any water."
Daddy Bunker got off his horse to take a look. He bent over the well the boys had dug, and stooped close down to it. As he did so a queer look came over his face.
"I wonder if this can be the place?" he said to himself.
"What is it?" asked Rose.
"I don't know," her father answered. "But it sounds to me like running water down near where Russ and Laddie have been digging. If it is, it may mean we can find out the secret of Uncle Fred's spring. I guess I'd better go and tell him. It won't take long, and then we can all ride on and get Russ and Laddie, if they aren't back by then.
"Yes, I shouldn't be surprised but what those two boys had started to solve the riddle of the spring. I must tell Uncle Fred!"