"I'll be glad when we get to Uncle Frank's ranch," said Janet as she crawled into the berth above her mother, who slept with Trouble.
"So'll I," agreed Teddy, who climbed up the funny little ladder to go to bed in the berth above his father. "I want a pony ride!"
On through the night rumbled and roared the train, the whistle sounding mournfullyin the darkness as the engineer blew it at the crossings.
Ted and Janet were sleeping soundly, Janet dreaming she had a new doll, dressed like an Indian papoose, or baby, while Ted dreamed he was on a wild pony that wanted to roll over and over instead of galloping straight on.
Suddenly there was a loud crash that sounded through the whole train. The engine whistled shrilly and then came a jar that shook up everyone. Teddy found himself rolling out of his berth and he grabbed the curtains just in time to save himself.
"Oh, Daddy!" he cried, "what's the matter?"
"What is it?" called Jan from her berth, while women in the coach were screaming and men were calling to one another.
"What is it, Dick?" cried Mrs. Martin.
"I think we've had a collision," answered her husband.
"Did our train bunk into another?" asked Ted.
"I'm afraid so," replied his father.
Therewas so much noise in the sleeping-car where the Curlytops and others had been peacefully traveling through the night, that, at first, it was hard to tell what had happened.
All that anyone knew was that there had been a severe jolt—a "bunk" Teddy called it—and that the train had come to a sudden stop. So quickly had it stopped, in fact, that a fat man, who was asleep in a berth just behind Mr. Martin, had tumbled out and now sat in the aisle of the car, gazing about him, a queer look on his sleepy face, for he was not yet fully awake.
"I say!" cried the fat man. "Who pushed me out of bed?"
Even though they were much frightened, Mrs. Martin and some of the other men and women could not help laughing at this. Andthe laughter did more to quiet them than anything else.
"Well, I guess no one here is much hurt—if at all," said Daddy Martin, as he put on a pair of soft slippers he had ready in the little hammock that held his clothes inside the berth. "I'll go and see if I can find out what the matter is."
"An', Daddy, bring me suffin t'eat!" exclaimed Trouble, poking his head out between the curtains of the berth where he had been sleeping with his mother when the collision happened.
"There's one boy that's got sense," said a tall thin man, who was helping the fat man to get to his feet. "He isn't hurt, anyhow."
"Thank goodness, no," said Mrs. Martin, who, as had some of the other women, had on a dressing gown. Mrs. Martin was looking at Trouble, whom she had taken up in her arms. "He hasn't a scratch on him," she said, "though I heard him slam right against the side of the car. He was next to the window."
"It's a mercy we weren't all of us tossed out of the windows when the train stopped so suddenly, the way it did," said a little old woman.
"It's a mercy, too," smiled another woman who had previously made friends with Jan and Teddy, "that the Curlytops did not come hurtling down out of those upper berths."
Mr. Martin, after making sure his family was all right, partly dressed and went out with some of the other men. The train had come to a standstill, and Jan and Ted, looking out of the windows of their berths, could see men moving about in the darkness outside with flaring torches.
"Maybe it's robbers," said Teddy in a whisper.
"Robbers don't stop trains," objected Janet.
"Yes they do!" declared her brother positively. "Train robbers do. Don't they, Mother?"
"Oh, don't talk about such things now, Teddy boy. Be thankful you are all right and hope that no one is hurt in the collision."
"That's what I say!" exclaimed the fat man. "So it's a collision, is it? I dreamed we were in a storm and that I was blown out of bed."
"Well, you fell out, which is much thesame thing," said the thin man. "Our car doesn't seem to be hurt, anyhow."
Ted and Janet came out into the aisle in their pajamas. They looked all about them but, aside from seeing a number of men and women who were greatly excited, nothing else appeared to be the matter. Then in came their father with some of the other men.
"It isn't a bad collision," said Daddy Martin. "Our engine hit a freight car that was on a side track, but too close to our rails to be passed safely. It jarred up our engine and the front cars quite a bit, and our engine is off the track, but no one is hurt."
"That's good!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "I mean that no one is hurt."
"How are they going to get the engine back on the track?" Teddy wanted to know. "Can't I go out and watch 'em?"
"I want to go, too!" exclaimed Janet.
"Indeed you can't—in the dark!" exclaimed her father. "Besides, the railroad men don't want you in the way. They asked us all to go to our coaches and wait. They'll soon have the engine back on the rails they said."
Everyone was awake now, and severalchildren in the car, like Trouble, were hungry. The porter who had been hurrying to and fro said he could get the children some hot milk from the dining-car, and this he did.
Some of the grown folks wanted coffee and sandwiches, and these having been brought in, there was quite a merry picnic in the coach, even if the train had been in a collision.
Then there was much puffing and whistling of the engine. The Curlytops, looking out of the window again, saw more men hurrying here and there with flaring torches which flickered and smoked. These were the trainmen helping to get the engine back on the rails, which they did by using iron wedges or "jumpers," much as a trolley car in your city streets is put back on the rails once it slips off.
At last there was another "bunk" to the train, as Teddy called it. At this several women screamed.
"It's all right," said Daddy Martin. "They've got the engine back on the rails and it has just backed up to couple on, or fasten itself, to the cars again. Now we'll go forward again."
And they did—in a little while. It did not take the Curlytops or Trouble long to fall asleep once more, but some of the older people were kept awake until morning, they said afterward. They were afraid of another collision.
But none came, and though the train was a little late the accident really did not amount to much, though it might have been a bad one had the freight car been a little farther over on the track so the engine had run squarely into it.
All the next day and night the Curlytops traveled in the train, and though Jan and Ted liked to look out of the windows, they grew tired of this after a while and began to ask:
"When shall we be at Uncle Frank's ranch?"
"Pretty soon now," said their father.
I will not tell you all that happened on the journey to the West. Truth to say there was not much except the collision. The Curlytops ate their meals, drank cupful after cupful of water, and Trouble did the same, for children seem to get very thirsty when they travel—much more so than at home.
Then, finally, one afternoon, after a longstop when a new engine was attached to the train, Daddy Martin said:
"We'll be at Rockville in an hour now. So we'd better begin to get together our things."
"Shall we be at Uncle Frank's ranch in an hour?" asked Teddy.
"No, but we'll be at Rockville. From there we go out over the prairies in a wagon."
"A wagon with ponies?" asked Janet.
"Yes, real Western ponies," said her father. "Then we'll be at the ranch."
And it happened just that way. On puffed the train. Then the porter came to help the Martin family off at Rockville.
"Rockville! Rockville! All out for Rockville!" joked Daddy Martin.
"Hurray!" cried Teddy. "Here we are!"
"And I see Uncle Frank!" exclaimed Janet, looking from the window toward the station as the train slowed up to stop.
Out piled the Curlytops, and into the arms of Uncle Frank they rushed. He caught them up and kissed them one after the other—Teddy, Janet and Trouble.
"Well, well!" he cried, "I'm glad to see you! Haven't changed a bit since you weresnowed in! Now pile into the wagon and we'll get right out to Circle O Ranch."
"Where's that?" asked Teddy.
"Why, that's the name of my ranch," said Uncle Frank. "See, there's the sign of it," and he pointed to the flank of one of the small horses, or ponies, hitched to his wagon. Ted and Janet saw a large circle in which was a smaller letter O.
"We call it Circle O," explained the ranchman. "Each place in the West that raises cattle or horses has a certain sign with which the animals are branded, or marked, so their owners can tell them from others in case they get mixed up. My mark is a circle around an O."
"It looks like a ring-around-the-rosy," said Janet.
"Say! So it does!" laughed Uncle Frank. "I never thought of that. Ring Rosy Ranch! That isn't a half bad name! Guess I'll call mine that after this. Come on to Ring Rosy Ranch!" he invited as he laughed at the Curlytops.
And the name Janet gave Uncle Frank's place in fun stuck to it, so that even the cowboys began calling their ranch "Ring Rosy," instead of "Circle O."
Intothe big wagon piled the Curlytops, Mrs. Martin and Trouble, while Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank went to see about the baggage.
Jan and Ted looked curiously about them. It was the first time they had had a chance to look quietly since they had started on the journey, for they had been traveling in the train nearly a week, it seemed.
What they saw was a small railroad station, set in the midst of big rolling fields. There was a water tank near the station, and not far from the tank was a small building in which a pump could be heard chug-chugging away.
"But where is the ranch?" asked Janet of her brother. "I don't see any cows and horses."
"Dere's horses," stated Trouble, pointingto the two sturdy ponies hitched to the wagon.
"Yes, I know," admitted Janet. "But Uncle Frank said he had more'n a hundred horses and——"
"And a thousand steers—that's cattle," interrupted Ted. "I don't see any, either. Maybe we got off at the wrong station, Mother."
"No, you're all right," laughed Mrs. Martin. "Didn't Uncle Frank meet us and didn't Daddy tell us we'd have to drive to the ranch!"
"What's the matter now, Curlytops?" asked their father's uncle, as the two men came back from having seen about the baggage, which had arrived safely. "What are you two youngsters worrying about, Teddy and Janet?"
"They're afraid we're at the wrong place because they can't see the ranch," answered their mother.
"Oh, that's over among the hills," said Uncle Frank, waving his hand toward some low hills that were at the foot of some high mountains. "It wouldn't do," he went on, "to have a ranch too near a railroad station. The trains might scare the horses and cattle.You will soon be there, Curlytops. We'll begin to travel in a minute."
Ted and Janet settled themselves in the seat, where they were side by side, and looked about them. Suddenly Janet clasped her brother by the arm and exclaimed:
"Look, Ted! Look!"
"Where?" he asked.
"Right over there—by the station. It's anIndian!"
"A real one?" asked Teddy, who, at first, did not see where his sister was pointing.
"Helookslike a real one," Janet answered. "He'salive, 'cause he's moving!"
She snuggled closer to her brother. Then Teddy saw where Janet pointed. A big man, whose face was the color of a copper cent, was walking along the station platform. He was wrapped in a dirty blanket, but enough of him could be seen to show that he was a Redman.
"Is that arealIndian, Uncle Frank?" asked Teddy in great excitement.
"What? Him? Oh, yes, he's a real Indian all right. There's a lot of 'em come down to the station to sell baskets and bead-work to the people who go through on the trains."
"Is he atameIndian?" the little boy next wanted to know.
"Oh, he's 'tame' all right. Hi there, Running Horse!" called Uncle Frank to the copper-faced man in the blanket, "sell many baskets to-day?"
"Um few. No good business," answered the Indian in a sort of grunt.
"Oh, do you know him?" asked Ted in surprise.
"Oh, yes. Running Horse often comes to the ranch when he's hungry. There's a reservation of the Indians not far from our place. They won't hurt you, Jan; don't be afraid," said Uncle Frank, as he saw that the little girl kept close to Teddy.
"Was he wild once?" she asked timidly.
"Why, yes; I guess you might have called him a wild Indian once," her uncle admitted. "He's pretty old and I shouldn't wonder but what he had been on the warpath against the white settlers."
"Oh!" exclaimed Janet. "Maybe he'll get wild again!"
"Oh, no he won't!" laughed Uncle Frank. "He's only too glad now to live on the reservation and sell the baskets the squaws make. The Indian men don't like to work."
Running Horse, which was the queer name the Indian had chosen for himself, or which had been given him, walked along, wrapped in his blanket, though the day was a warm one. Perhaps he thought the blanket kept the heat out in summer and the cold in winter.
"Get along now, ponies!" cried Uncle Frank, and the little horses began to trot along the road that wound over the prairies like a dusty ribbon amid the green grass.
On the way to Ring Rosy Ranch Uncle Frank had many questions to ask, some of the children and some of Mr. and Mrs. Martin. Together they laughed about the things that had happened when they were all snowed in.
"Tell Uncle Frank of Trouble's trying to hide Nicknack away so we wouldn't leave him behind," suggested Mrs. Martin.
"Ha! Ha! That was pretty good!" exclaimed the ranchman when Ted and Janet, by turns, had told of Trouble's being found asleep in the goat-wagon. "Well, it's too bad you couldn't bring Nicknack with you. He'd like it out on the ranch, I'm sure, but it would be too long a journey for him. You'll have rides enough—never fear!"
"Pony rides?" asked Teddy.
"Pony rides in plenty!" laughed Uncle Frank. "We'll soon be there now, and you can see the ranch from the top of the next hill."
The prairies were what are called "rolling" land. That is there were many little hills and hollows, and the country seemed to be like the rolling waves of the ocean, if they had suddenly been made still.
Sometimes the wagon, drawn by the two little horses, would be down in a hollow, and again it would be on top of a mound-like hill from which a good view could be had.
Reaching the top of one hill, larger than the others, Uncle Frank pointed off in the distance and said:
"There's Circle O Ranch, Curlytops, or, as Jan has named it, Ring Rosy Ranch. We'll be there in a little while."
The children looked. They saw, off on the prairie, a number of low, red buildings standing close together. Beyond the buildings were big fields, in which were many small dots.
"What are the dots?" asked Janet.
"Those are my horses and cattle—steers we call the last," explained Uncle Frank. "They are eating grass to get fat. You'll soon be closer to them."
"LOOK, TED! LOOK!" "IT'S AN INDIAN."The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's RanchPage65
"Are the Indians near here?" Teddy inquired.
"No, not very near. It's a day's ride to their reservation. But don't worry about them. They won't bother you if you don't bother them," said Uncle Frank.
Teddy was not fully satisfied with this answer, for he hoped very much that the Indians would "bother him"—at least, he thought that was what he wanted.
When the Curlytops drew closer to the ranch they could see that one of the buildings was a house, almost like their own in the East, only not so tall. It was all one story, as were the other buildings, some of which were stables for the horses and some sleeping places, or "bunk houses," for the cowboys, while from one building, as they approached closer, there came the good smell of something cooking.
"That's the cook's place," said Uncle Frank, pointing with his whip. "All the cowboys love him, even if he is a Chinaman."
"Have you a Chinese cook?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Yes, and he's a good one," answered Uncle Frank. "Wait until you taste how he fries chicken."
"I hope we taste some soon," said Daddy Martin. "This ride across the prairies has made me hungry."
"I hungry, too!" exclaimed Trouble. "I wants bread an' milk!"
"And you shall have all you want!" laughed the ranchman. "We've plenty of milk."
"Oh, this is a dandy place!" exclaimed Teddy, as the wagon drove up to the ranch house. "We'll have lots of fun here, Janet!"
"Maybe we will, if—if the Indians don't get us," she said.
"Pooh! I'm not afraid of them," boasted Teddy, and then something happened.
All at once there came a lot of wild yells, and sounds as if a Fourth-of-July celebration of the old-fashioned sort were going on. There was a popping and a banging, and then around the corner of the house rode a lot of roughly-dressed men on ponies which kicked up a cloud of dust.
"Ki-yi! Ki-yi! Yippi-i-yip!" yelled the men.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" exploded their revolvers.
"Oh, dear!" screamed Janet.
Teddy turned a little pale, but he did not make a sound.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Martin, hugging Trouble and his sister closer to her. "Oh, what is it?"
"Don't be afraid!" laughed Uncle Frank. "Those are the cowboys making you welcome to Ring Rosy Ranch. That's their way of having fun!"
Oncame the cowboys, yelling, shouting and shooting off their big revolvers which made noises like giant firecrackers. The men, some of whom wore big leather "pants," as Teddy said afterward, and some of whom had on trousers that seemed to be made from the fleece of sheep, swung their hats in the air. Some of them even stood up in their saddles, "just like circus riders!" as Janet sent word to Aunt Jo, who was spending the summer at Mt. Hope.
"Are they shooting real bullets, Uncle Frank?" asked Teddy, as soon as the noise died down a little and the cowboys were waving their hats to the Curlytops and the other visitors to Ring Rosy Ranch.
"Real bullets? Bless your heart, no!" exclaimed Mr. Barton. "Of course the cowboys sometimes have real bullets in their'guns,' as they call their revolvers, but they don't shoot 'em for fun."
"What makes them shoot?" asked Janet.
"Well, sometimes it's to scare away bad men who might try to steal my cattle or horses, and again it's to scare the cattle themselves. You see," explained Uncle Frank, while the cowboys jumped from their horses and went to the bunk house to wash and get ready for supper, "a ranch is just like a big pasture that your Grandfather Martin has at Cherry Farm. Only my ranch is ever so much bigger than his pastures, even all of them put together. And there are very few fences around any of my fields, so the cattle or horses might easily stray off, or be taken.
"Because of that I have to hire men—cowboys they are called—to watch my cattle and horses, to see that they do not run away and that no white men or Indians come and run away with them.
"But sometimes the cattle take it into their heads to run away themselves. They get frightened—'stampeded' we call it—and they don't care which way they run. Sometimes a prairie fire will make them run and again it may be bad men—thieves. Thecowboys have to stop the cattle from running away, and they do it by firing revolvers in front of them. So it wouldn't do to have real bullets in their guns when the cowboys are firing that way. They use blank cartridges, just as they did now to salute you when they came in."
"Is that what they did?" asked Teddy. "Saluted us?"
"That's it. They just thought they'd have a little fun with you—see if they could scare you, maybe, because you're what they call a 'tenderfoot,' Teddy."
"Pooh, I wasn't afraid!" declared Teddy, perhaps forgetting a little. "I liked it. It was like the Fourth of July!"
"I didn't like it," said Janet, with a shake of her curly head. "And what's a soft-foot, Uncle Frank?"
"A soft-foot? Oh, ho! I see!" he laughed. "You mean a tenderfoot! Well, that's what the Western cowboys call anybody from the East—where you came from. It means, I guess, that their feet are tender because they walk so much and don't ride a horse the way cowboys do. You see out here we folks hardly ever walk. If we've only got what you might call a block to go we hopon a horse and ride. So we get out of the way of walking.
"Now you Eastern folk walk a good bit—that is when you aren't riding in street cars and in your automobiles, and I suppose that's why the cowboys call you tenderfeet. You don't mind, though, do you, Teddy?"
"Nope," he said. "I like it. But I'm going to learn to ride a pony."
"So'm I!" exclaimed Janet.
"I wants a wide, too!" cried Trouble. "Can't I wide, Uncle Frank? We hasn't got Nicknack, but maybe you got a goat," and he looked up at his father's uncle.
"No, I haven't a goat," laughed Uncle Frank, "though there might be some sheep on some of the ranches here. But I guess ponies will suit you children better. When you Curlytops learn to ride you can take Trouble up on the saddle with you and give him a ride. He's too small to ride by himself yet."
"I should say he was, Uncle Frank!" cried Mrs. Martin. "Don't lethimget on a horse!"
"I won't," promised Mr. Barton with a laugh. But Trouble said:
"I likes a pony! I wants a wide, Muzzer!"
"You may ride with me when I learn," promised Janet.
"Dat nice," responded William.
Uncle Frank's wife, whom everyone called Aunt Millie, came out of the ranch house and welcomed the Curlytops and the others. She had not seen them for a number of years.
"My, how big the children are!" she cried as she looked at Janet and Teddy. "And here's one I've never seen," she went on, as she caught Trouble up in her arms and kissed him.
"Now come right in. Hop Sing has supper ready for you."
"Hop Sing!" laughed Mother Martin. "That sounds like a new record on the phonograph."
"It's the name of our Chinese cook," explained Aunt Millie, "and a very good one he is, too!"
"Are the cowboys coming in to eat with us?" asked Teddy, as they all went into the house, where the baggage had been carried by Uncle Frank and Daddy Martin.
"Oh, no. They eat by themselves in theirown building. Not that we wouldn't have them, for they're nice boys, all of them, but they'd rather be by themselves."
"Do any Indians come in?" asked Janet, looking toward the door.
"Bless your heart, no!" exclaimed Aunt Millie. "We wouldn't want them, for they're dirty and not at all nice, though some of them do look like pictures when they wrap themselves around in a red blanket and stick feathers in their hair. We don't want any Indians. Now tell me about your trip."
"We were in a collision!" cried Janet.
"In the middle of the night," added Teddy.
"An' I mos' fell out of my bed!" put in Trouble.
Then, amid laughter, the story of the trip from the East was told. Meanwhile Hop Sing, the Chinese cook, cried out in his funny, squeaky voice that supper was getting cold.
"Well, we'll eat first and talk afterward," said Uncle Frank, as he led the way to the table. "Come on, folks. I expect you all have good appetites. That's what we're noted for at Ring Rosy Ranch."
"What's that?" asked Aunt Millie."Have you given Circle O a new name?"
"One of the Curlytops did," chuckled Uncle Frank. "They said my branding sign looked just like a ring-round-the-rosy, so I'm going to call the ranch that after this."
"It's a nice name," said Aunt Millie. "And now let me see you Curlytops—and Trouble, too—though his hair isn't frizzy like Ted's and Janet's—let me see you eat until you get as fat as a Ring Rosy yourselves. If you don't eat as much as you can of everything, Hop Sing will feel as though he was not a good cook."
The Curlytops were hungry enough to eat without having to be told to, and Hop Sing, looking into the dining-room now and then from where he was busy in the kitchen, smiled and nodded his head as he said to the maid:
"Lil' chillens eat velly good!"
"Indeed they do eat very good," said the maid, as she carried in more of the food which Hop Sing knew so well how to cook.
After supper the Curlytops and the others sat out on the broad porch of the ranch house. Off to one side were the other buildings, some where the farming tools were kept, for Uncle Frank raised some grain aswell as cattle, and some where the cowboys lived, as well as others where they stabled their horses.
"I know what let's do," said Jan, when she and her brother had sat on the porch for some time, listening to the talk of the older folks, and feeling very happy that they were at Uncle Frank's ranch, where, they felt sure, they could have such good times.
"What can we do?" asked Teddy. Very often he let Jan plan some fun, and I might say that she got into trouble doing this as many times as her brother did. Jan was a regular boy, in some things. But then I suppose any girl is who has two nice brothers, even if one is little enough to be called "Baby."
"Let's go and take a walk," suggested Jan. "My legs feel funny yet from ridin' in the cars so much."
"Ri-ding!" yelled Teddy gleefully. "That's the time you forgot your g, Janet."
"Yes, I did," admitted the little girl. "But there's so much to look at here that it's easy to forget. My forgetter works easier than yours does, Ted."
"It does not!"
"It does, too!"
"It does not!"
"I—say—it—does!" and Janet was very positive.
"Now, now, children!" chided their mother. "That isn't nice. What are you disputing about now?"
"Jan says her forgetter's better'n mine!" cried Ted.
"And it is," insisted Janet. "I can forget lots easier than Ted."
"Well, forgetting isn't a very good thing to do," said Mr. Martin. "Remembering is better."
"Oh, that's what I meant!" said Jan. "I thought it was a forgetter. Anyhow mine's better'n Ted's!"
"Now don't start that again," warned Mother Martin, playfully shaking her finger at the two children. "Be nice now. Amuse yourselves in some quiet way. It will soon be time to go to bed. You must be tired. Be nice now."
"Come on, let's go for a walk," proposed Jan again, and Ted, now that the forget-memory dispute was over, was willing to be friendly and kind and go with his sister.
So while Trouble climbed up into his mother's lap, and the older folks were talkingamong themselves, the two Curlytops, not being noticed by the others, slipped off the porch and walked toward the ranch buildings, out near the corrals, or the fenced-in places, where the horses were kept.
There were too many horses to keep them all penned in, or fenced around, just as there are too many cattle on a cattle ranch. But the cowboys who do not want their horses which they ride to get too far away put them in a corral. This is just as good as a barn, except in cold weather.
"There's lots of things to see here," said Teddy, as he and his sister walked along.
"Yes," she agreed. "It's lots of fun. I'm glad I came."
"So'm I. Oh, look at the lots of ponies!" she cried, as she and Ted turned a corner of one of the ranch buildings and came in sight of a new corral. In it were a number of little horses, some of which hung their heads over the fence and watched the Curlytops approaching.
"I'd like to ride one," sighed Teddy wistfully.
"Oh, you mustn't!" cried Jan. "Uncle Frank wouldn't like it, nor mother or father, either. You have to ask first."
"Oh, I don't mean ride now," said Ted. "Anyhow, I haven't got a saddle."
"Can't you ride without a saddle?" asked Janet.
"Well, not very good I guess," Ted answered. "A horse's back has a bone in the middle of it, and that bumps you when you don't have a saddle."
"How do you know?" asked Janet.
"I know, 'cause once the milkman let me sit on his horse and I felt the bone in his back. It didn't feel good."
"Maybe the milkman's horse was awful bony."
"He was," admitted Ted. "But anyhow you've got to have a saddle to ride a horse, lessen you're a Indian and I'm not."
"Well, maybe after a while Uncle Frank'll give you a saddle," said Janet.
"Maybe," agreed her brother. "Oh, see how the ponies look at us!"
"And one's following us all around," added his sister. For the little horses had indeed all come to the side of the corral fence nearest the Curlytops, and were following along as the children walked.
"What do you s'pose they want?" asked Teddy.
"Maybe they're hungry," answered Janet.
"Let's pull some grass for 'em," suggested Teddy, and they did this, feeding it to the horses that stretched their necks over the top rail of the fence and chewed the green bunches as if they very much liked their fodder.
But after a while Jan and Ted tired of even this. And no wonder—there were so many horses, and they all seemed to like the grass so much that the children never could have pulled enough for all of them.
"Look at that one always pushing the others out of the way," said Janet, pointing to one pony, larger than the others, who was always first at the fence, and first to reach his nose toward the bunches of grass.
"And there's a little one that can't get any," said her brother. "I'd like to give him some, Jan."
"So would I. But how can we? Every time I hold out some grass to him the big horse takes it."
Teddy thought for a minute and then he said:
"I know what we can do to keep the big horse from getting it all."
"What?" asked Janet.
"We can both pull some grass. Then you go to one end of the fence, and hold out your bunch. The big horse will come to get it and push the others away, like he always does."
"But then the little pony won't get any," Janet said.
"Oh, yes, he will!" cried Teddy. "'Cause when you're feeding the big horse I'll run up and give thelittlehorse my bunch. Then he'll have some all by himself."
And this the Curlytops did. When the big horse was chewing the grass Janet gave him, Ted held out some to the little horse at the other end of the corral. And he ate it, but only just in time, for the big pony saw what was going on and trotted up to shove the small animal out of the way. But it was too late.
Then Janet and Teddy walked on a little further, until Janet said it was growing late and they had better go back to the porch where the others were still talking.
Evening was coming on. The sun had set, but there was still a golden glow in the sky. Far off in one of the big fields a number of horses and cattle could be seen, and riding out near them were some of the cowboyswho, after their supper, had gone out to see that all was well for the night.
"Is all this your land, Uncle Frank?" asked Teddy as he stood on the porch and looked over the fields.
"Yes, as far as you can see, and farther. If you Curlytops get lost, which I hope you won't, you'll have to go a good way to get off my ranch. But let me tell you now, not to go too far away from the house, unless your father or some of us grown folks are with you."
"Why?" asked Janet.
"Well, youmightget lost, you know, and then—oh, well, don't go off by yourselves, that's all," and Uncle Frank turned to answer a question Daddy Martin asked him.
Ted and Janet wondered why they could not go off by themselves as they had done at Cherry Farm.
"Maybe it's because of the Indians," suggested Jan.
"Pooh, I'm not afraid of them," Teddy announced.
Just then one of the cowboys—later the children learned he was Jim Mason, the foreman—came walking up to the porch. He walked in a funny way, being more usedto going along on a horse than on his own feet.
"Good evening, folks!" he said, taking off his hat and waving it toward the Curlytops and the others.
"Hello, Jim!" was Uncle Frank's greeting. "Everything all right?"
"No, it isn't, I'm sorry to say," answered the foreman. "I've got bad news for you, Mr. Barton!"
TheCurlytops looked at the ranch foreman as he said this. Uncle Frank looked at him, too. The foreman stood twirling his big hat around in his hand. Teddy looked at the big revolver—"gun" the cowboys called it—which dangled from Jim Mason's belt.
"Bad news, is it?" asked Uncle Frank. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope none of the boys is sick. Nobody been shot, has there, during the celebration?"
"Oh, no, the boys are all right," answered the foreman. "But it's bad news about some of your ponies—a lot of them you had out on grass over there," and he pointed to the west—just where Ted and Janet could not see.
"Bad news about the ponies?" repeatedUncle Frank. "Well, now, I'm sorry to hear that. Some of 'em sick?"
"Not as I know of," replied Jim. "But a lot of 'em have been taken away—stolen, I guess I'd better call it."
"A lot of my ponies stolen?" cried Uncle Frank, jumping up from his chair. "That is bad news! When did it happen? Why don't you get the cowboys together and chase after the men who took the ponies?"
"Well, I would have done that if I knew where to go," said the foreman. "But I didn't hear until a little while ago, when one of the cowboys I sent to see if the ponies were all right came in. He got there to find 'em all gone, so I came right over to tell you."
"Well, we'll have to see about this!" exclaimed Uncle Frank. "Who's the cowboy you sent to see about the ponies?"
"Henry Jensen. He just got in a little while ago, after a hard ride."
"And who does he think took the horses?"
"He said it looked as if the Indians had done it!" and at these words from the foreman Ted and Janet looked at one another with widely opened eyes.
"Indians?" said Uncle Frank. "Why, Ididn't think any of them had come off their reservation."
"Some of 'em must have," the foreman went on. "They didn't have any ponies of their own, I guess, so they took yours and rode off on 'em."
"Well, this is too bad!" said Uncle Frank in a low voice. "I guess we'll have to get our boys together and chase after these Indians," he went on. "Yes, that's what I'll do. I've got to get back my ponies."
"Oh, can't I come?" cried Teddy, not understanding all that was going on, but enough to know that his uncle was going somewhere with the cowboys, and Teddy wanted to go, too.
"Oh, I'm afraid you couldn't come—Curlytop," said the foreman, giving Teddy the name almost everyone called him at first sight, and this was the first time Jim Mason had seen Teddy.
"No, you little folks must stay at home," added Uncle Frank.
"Are you really going after Indians?" Teddy wanted to know.
"Yes, to find out if they took any of my ponies. You see," went on Uncle Frank, speaking to Daddy and Mother Martin aswell as to the Curlytops, "the Indians are kept on what is called a 'reservation.' That is, the government gives them certain land for their own and they are told they must stay there, though once in a while some of them come off to sell blankets and bark-work at the railroad stations.
"And, sometimes, maybe once a year, a lot of the Indians get tired of staying on the reservation and some of them will get together and run off. Sometimes they ride away on their own horses, and again they may take some from the nearest ranch. I guess this time they took some of mine."
"And how will you catch them?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Oh, we'll try to find out which way they went and then we'll follow after them until we catch them and get back the ponies."
"It's just like hide-and-go-seek, isn't it, Uncle Frank?" asked Janet.
"Yes, something like that. But it takes longer."
"I wish I could go to hunt the Indians!" murmured Teddy.
"Why, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" exclaimed his mother. "I'msurprisedat you!"
"Well, I would like to go," he said."Could I go if I knew how to ride a pony, Uncle Frank?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm afraid you're too little. But, speaking of riding a pony, to-morrow I'll have one of the cowboys start in to teach you and Janet to ride. Now I guess I'll have to go see this Henry Jensen and ask him about the Indians and my stolen ponies."
"I hope he gets them back," said Teddy to his sister.
"So do I," she agreed. "And I hope those Indians don't come here."
"Pooh! they're tame Indians!" exclaimed Teddy.
"They must be kind of wild when they steal ponies," Janet said.
A little later the Curlytops and Trouble went to bed, for they had been up early that day. They fell asleep almost at once, even though their bed was not moving along in a railroad train, as it had been the last three or four nights.
"Did Uncle Frank find his ponies?" asked Teddy the next morning at the breakfast table.
"No, Curlytop," answered Aunt Millie. "He and some of the cowboys have gone overto the field where the ponies were kept to see if they can get any news of them."
"Can we learn to ride a pony to-day?" asked Janet.
"As soon as Uncle Frank comes back," answered her father. "You and Ted and Trouble play around the house now as much as you like. When Uncle Frank comes back he'll see about getting a pony for you to ride."
"Come on!" called Ted to his sister after breakfast. "We'll have some fun."
"I come, too!" called Trouble. "I wants a wide! I wish we had Nicknack."
"It would be fun if we had our goat here, wouldn't it?" asked Janet of her brother.
"Yes, but I'd rather have a pony. I'm going to be a cowboy, and you can't be a cowboy and ride agoat."
"No, I s'pose not," said Janet. "But a goat isn't so high up as a pony, Ted, and if you fall off a goat's back you don't hurt yourself so much."
"I'm not going to fall off," declared Teddy.
The children wandered about among the ranch buildings, looking in the bunk house where the cowboys slept. There was onlyone person in there, and he was an old man to be called a "boy," thought Janet. But all men, whether young or old, who look after the cattle on a ranch, are called "cowboys," so age does not matter.
"Howdy," said this cowboy with a cheerful smile, as the Curlytops looked in at him. He was mending a broken strap to his saddle. "Where'd you get that curly hair?" he asked. "I lost some just like that. Wonder if you got mine?"
Janet hardly knew what to make of this, but Teddy said:
"No, sir. This isourhair. It's fast to our heads and we've had it a long time."
"It was always curly this way," added Janet.
"Oh, was it? Well, then it can't be mine," said the cowboy with a laugh. "Mine was curly only when I was a baby, and that was a good many years ago. Are you going to live here?"
"We're going to stay all summer," Janet said. "Do you live here?"
"Well, yes; as much as anywhere."
"Could you show us where the Indians are that took Uncle Frank's ponies?" Teddy demanded.
"Wish I could!" exclaimed the cowboy. "If I knew, I'd go after 'em myself and get the ponies back. I guess those Indians are pretty far away from here by now."
"Do they hide?" asked Teddy.
"Yes, they may hide away among the hills and wait for a chance to sell the ponies they stole from your uncle. But don't worry your curly heads about Indians. Have a good time here. It seems good to see little children around a place like this."
"Have you got a lasso?" asked Teddy.
"You mean my rope? Course I got one—every cowboy has," was the answer.
"I wish you'd lasso something," went on Teddy, who had once been to see a Wild West show.
"All right, I'll do a little rope work for you," said the cowboy, with a good-natured smile. "Just wait until I mend my saddle."
In a little while he came riding into the yard in front of the bunk house on a lively little pony. He made the animal race up and down and, while doing this, the cowboy swung his coiled rope, or lasso, about his head, and sent it in curling rings toward posts and benches, hauling the latter afterhim by winding the rope around the horn of his saddle after he had lassoed them.
"Say! that's fine!" cried Teddy with glistening eyes. "I'm going to learn how to lasso."
"I'll show you after a while," the cowboy offered. "You can't learn too young. But I must go now."
"Could I just have a little ride on your pony's back?" asked Teddy.
"To be sure you could," cried the cowboy. "Here you go!"
He leaped from the saddle and lifted Teddy up to it, while Janet and Trouble looked on in wonder. Then holding Ted to his seat by putting an arm around him, while he walked beside the pony and guided it, the cowboy gave the little fellow a ride, much to Teddy's delight.
"Hurray!" he called to Janet "I'm learning to be a cowboy!"
"That's right—you are!" laughed Daddy Martin, coming out just then. "How do you like it?"
"Dandy!" Teddy said. "Come on, Janet!"
"Yes, we ought to have let the ladies go first," said the cowboy. "But I didn't knowwhether the leetle gal cared for horses," he went on to Mr. Martin.
"I like horses," admitted Janet. "But maybe I'll fall off."
"I won't let you," the cowboy answered, as he lifted her to the saddle. Then he led the pony around with her on his back, and Janet liked it very much.
"I wants a wide, too!" cried Trouble.
"Hi! that's so! Mustn't forget you!" laughed the cowboy, and he held Baby William in the saddle, much to the delight of that little fellow.
"Now you mustn't bother any more," said Daddy Martin. "You children have had fun enough. You'll have more ponyback rides later."
"Yes, I'll have to go now," the cowboy said, and, leaping into the saddle, he rode away in a cloud of dust.
The Curlytops and Trouble wandered around among the ranch buildings. Daddy Martin, seeing that the children were all right, left them to themselves.
"I'se hungry," said Trouble, after a bit.
"So'm I," added Teddy. "Do you s'pose that funny Chinaman would give us a cookie, Jan?"
"Chinamen don't know how to make cookies."
"Well, maybe they know how to make something just as good. Let's go around to the cook house—that's what Aunt Millie calls it."
The cook house was easy to find, for from it came a number of good smells, and, as they neared it, the Curlytops saw the laughing face of the Chinese cook peering out at them.
"Lil' gal hungly—li' boy hungly?" asked Hop Sing in his funny talk.
"Got any cookies?" inquired Teddy.
"No glot clooklies—glot him clake," the Chinese answered.
"What does he say?" asked Janet of her brother.
"I guess he means cake," whispered Teddy, and that was just what Hop Sing did mean. He brought out some nice cake on a plate and Trouble and the Curlytops had as much as was good for them, if not quite all they wanted.
"Glood clake?" asked Hop Sing, when nothing but the crumbs were left—and not many of them.
"I guess he means was it good cake,"then whispered Janet to her little brother.
"Yes, it was fine and good!" exclaimed Teddy. "Thank you."
"You mluch welclome—clome some mo'!" laughed Hop Sing, as the children moved away.
They spent the morning playing about the ranch near the house. They made a sea-saw from a board and a barrel, and played some of the games they had learned on Cherry Farm or while camping with Grandpa Martin. Then dinner time came, but Uncle Frank and the cowboys did not come back to it.
"Won't they be hungry?" asked Teddy.
"Oh, they took some bacon, coffee and other things with them," said Aunt Millie. "They often have to camp out for days at a time."
"Say, I wish I could do that!" cried Teddy.
"Wait until you get to be a cowboy," advised his father.
That afternoon Trouble went to lie down with his mother to have a nap, and Teddy and Janet wandered off by themselves, promising not to go too far away from the house.
But the day was so pleasant, and it was so nice to walk over the soft grass that, before they knew it, Teddy and Janet had wandered farther than they meant to. As the land was rolling—here hills and there hollows—they were soon out of sight of the ranch buildings, but they were not afraid, as they knew by going to a high part of the prairie they could see their way back home—or they thought they could. There were no woods around them, though there were trees and a little stream of water farther off.
Suddenly, as the Curlytops were walking along together, they came to a place where there were a lot of rocks piled up in a sort of shelter. Indeed one place looked as though it might be a cave. And as Teddy and Janet were looking at this they heard a strange noise, which came from among the rocks.
Both children stopped and stood perfectly still for a moment.
"Did you hear that?" asked Jan, clasping her brother's arm.
"Yes—I did," he answered.
"Did—did it sound like some one groaning?" she went on.
Teddy nodded his head to show that it had sounded that way to him. Just then the noise came again.
"Oh!" exclaimed Janet, starting to run. "Maybe it's an Indian! Oh, Teddy, come on!"
Teddy Martindid not run away as Jan started to leave the pile of rocks from which the queer sound had come. Instead he stood still and looked as hard as he could toward the hole among the stones—a hole that looked a little like the cave on Star Island, but not so large.
"Come on, Teddy!" begged Janet. "Please come!"
"I want to see what it is," he answered.
"Maybe it's something that—that'll bite you," suggested the little girl. "Come on!"
Just then the noise sounded again. It certainly was a groan.
"There!" exclaimed Janet. "Iknowit's an Indian, Ted! Maybe it's one of the kind that took Uncle Frank's ponies. Oh, please come!"
She had run on a little way from the pile of rocks, but now she stood still, waiting for Teddy to follow.
"Come on!" she begged.
Janet did not want to go alone.
"It can't be an Indian," said Teddy, looking around but still not seeing anything to make that strange sound.
"It could so be an Indian!" declared Janet.
"Well, maybe a sick Indian," Teddy admitted. "And if he's as sick as all that I'm not afraid of him! I'm going to see what it is."
"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" cried Janet, much as she sometimes heard her mother use her brother's name. "Don't you dare!"
"Why not?" asked Teddy, who tried to speak very bravely, though he really did not feel brave. But he was not going to show that before Janet, who was a girl. "Why can't I see what that is?"
"'Cause maybe—maybe it'll—bite you!" and as Janet said this she looked first at the rocks and then over her shoulder, as though something might come up behind her when she least expected it.
"Pooh! I'm not afraid!" declared Teddy."Anyhow, if it does bite me it's got to come out of the rocks first."
"Well, maybe it will come out."
"If it does I can see it and run!" went on the little boy.
"Would you run and leave me all alone?" asked Janet.
"Nope! Course I wouldn't dothat," Teddy declared. "I'd run and I'd help you run. But I don't guess anything'll bite me. Anyhow, Indians don't bite."
"How do you know?" asked Janet. "Some Indians are wild. I heard Uncle Frank say so, and wild things bite!"
"But not Indians," insisted Teddy. "A Indian's mouth, even if he is wild, is just like ours, and it isn't big enough to bite. You've got to have an awful big mouth to bite."
"Henry Watson bit you once, I heard mother say so," declared Janet, as she and her brother still stood by the rocks and listened again for the funny sound to come from the stones. But there was silence.
"Well, Henry Watson's got an awful big mouth," remarked Teddy. "Maybe he's wild, and that's the reason."
"He couldn't be an Indian, could he?" Janet went on.
"Course not!" declared her brother. "He's a boy, same as I am, only his mouth's bigger. That's why he bit me. I 'member it now."
"Did it hurt?" asked Janet.
"Yep," answered her brother. "But I'm going in there and see what that noise was. It won't hurt me."
Teddy began to feel that Janet was asking so many questions in order that he might forget all about what he intended to do. And he surely did want to see what was in among the rocks.
Once more he went closer to them, and then the noise sounded more loudly than before. It came so suddenly that Teddy and Janet jumped back, and there was no doubt but what they were both frightened.
"Oh, I'm not going to stay here another minute!" cried Janet. "Come on, Ted, let's go home!"
"No, wait just a little!" he begged. "I'll go in and come right out again—that is if it's anything that bites. If it isn't you can come in with me."
"No, I'm not going to do that!" and Janet shook her head very decidedly to say "no!" Once more she looked over her shoulder.
"Well, you don't have to come in," Teddy said. "I'll go alone. I'm not scared."
Just then Janet looked across the fields, and she saw a man riding along on a pony.
"Oh, Teddy!" she called to her brother. "Here's a man! We can get him to go in and see what it is."
Teddy looked to where his sister pointed. Surely enough, there was a man going along. He was quite a distance off, but the Curlytops did not mind that. They were fond of walking.
"Holler at him!" advised Janet. "He'll hear us and come to help us find out what's in here."
Teddy raised his voice in the best shout he knew how to give. He had strong lungs and was one of the loudest-shouting boys among his chums.
"Hey, Mister! Come over here!" cried Teddy.
But the man kept on as if he had not heard, as indeed he had not. For on the prairies the air is so clear that people and things look much nearer than they really are. So, though the man seemed to be only a little distance away, he was more than a mile off, and you know it is quite hard to callso as to be heard a mile away; especially if you are a little boy.
Still Teddy called again, and when he had done this two or three times, and Jan had helped him, the two calling in a sort of duet, Teddy said:
"He can't hear us."
"Maybe he's deaf, like Aunt Judy," said Janet, speaking of an elderly woman in the town in which they lived.
"Well, if he is, he can't hear us," said Teddy; "so he won't come to us. I'm going in anyhow."
"No, don't," begged Janet, who did not want her brother to go into danger. "If he can't hear us, Teddy, we must go nearer. We can walk to meet him."
Teddy thought this over a minute.
"Yes," he agreed, "we can do that. But he's a good way off."
"He's coming this way," Janet said, and it did look as though the man had turned his horse toward the children, who stood near the pile of rocks from which the queer noises came.
"Come on!" decided Ted, and, taking Janet's hand, he and she walked toward the man on the horse.
For some little time the two Curlytops tramped over the green, grassy prairies. They kept their eyes on the man, now and then looking back toward the rocks, for they did not want to lose sight either of them or of the horseman.
"I'm going to holler again," said Teddy. "Maybe he can hear me now. We're nearer."
So he stopped, and putting his hands to his mouth, as he had seen Uncle Frank do when he wanted to call to a cowboy who was down at a distant corral, the little boy called:
"Hi there, Mr. Man! Come here, please!"
But the man on the horse gave no sign that he had heard. As a matter of fact, he had not, being too far away, and the wind was blowing from him toward Teddy and Jan. If the wind had been blowing the other way it might have carried the voices of the children toward the man. But it did not.
Then Teddy made a discovery. He stopped, and, shading his eyes with his hands, said:
"Jan, that man's going away from us 'stid of coming toward us. He's getting littlerall the while. And if he was coming to us he'd get bigger."
"Yes, I guess he would," admitted the little girl. "He is going away, Teddy. Oh, dear! Now he can't help us!"
Without a word Teddy started back toward the rocks, and his sister followed. He was close to them when Janet spoke again.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going in there and see what that noise was," Teddy replied.
"Oh, you mustn't!" she cried, hoping to turn him away. But Teddy answered:
"Yes, I am, too! I'm going to see what it is!"
"I'm not!" cried Janet. "I'm going home. You'd better come with me!"
But, though she turned away and went a short distance from the rocks in the direction she thought the ranch house of Ring Rosy Ranch should be, she very soon stopped. She did not like going on alone. She looked back at Ted.
Teddy had walked a little way toward the hole in the rocks. Now he called to his sister.
"The noise comes from in here," he said. "It's in this little cave."
"Are you going in?" asked Janet, trying to pretend she was not afraid.
"I want to see what made that noise," declared Teddy. Since he and his sister had gone camping with Grandpa Martin they were braver than they used to be. Of course, Ted, being a year older than his sister, was a little bolder than she was.
Janet, not feeling that she ought to run on home and leave Teddy there and yet not feeling brave enough to go close to the cave among the rocks with him, hardly knew what to do. She walked back a little way and then, suddenly, the noise came, more loudly than at first.
"Oh, there it goes again!" cried Janet, once more running back.
"I heard it," Teddy said. "It didn't war-whoop like an Indian."
"If he's sick he couldn't," explained Janet.
"And if he's sick he can't hurt us," went on Teddy. "I'm going to holler at him and see what he wants."
"You'd better come back and tell daddy or Uncle Frank," suggested Janet.
Teddy rather thought so himself, but he did not like to give up once he had startedanything. He felt it would be a fine thing if he, all alone, could find one of the Indians.
"And maybe it is one of those who took Uncle Frank's ponies," thought Teddy to himself.
Again the groan sounded, this time not quite so loud, and after it had died away Teddy called:
"Who's in there? What's the matter with you?"
No answer came to this. Then Ted added:
"If you don't come out I'm going to tell my uncle on you. He owns this ranch. Come on out! Who are you?"
This time there came a different sound. It was one that the Curlytops knew well, having heard it before.
"That's a horse whinnying!" cried Teddy.
"Or a pony," added Janet. "Yes, it did sound like that. Oh, Ted, maybe it's a poor horse in there and he can't get out!" she went on.
Again came the whinny of a horse or a pony. There was no mistake about it this time.
"Come on!" cried Teddy. "We've got to get him out, Janet. He's one of UncleFrank's cow ponies and he's hurt in that cave. We've got to get him out!"
"But how can you?" Janet inquired. "It's an awful little cave, and I don't believe a pony could get in there."
"A little pony could," said Teddy.
Janet looked at the cave. She remembered that she had seen some quite small ponies, not only on Ring Rosy Ranch but elsewhere. The cave would be large enough for one of them.
"I'm going in," said Teddy, as he stood at the mouth of the hole among the piled-up rocks.
"He might kick you," warned Janet.
"If he's sick enough to groan that way he can't kick very hard," replied Teddy. "Anyhow, I'll keep out of the way of his feet. That's all you've got to do, Uncle Frank says, when you go around a strange horse. When he gets to know you he won't kick."
"Well, you'd better be careful," warned Janet again.
"Don't you want to come in?" Teddy asked his sister.
"I—I guess not," she answered. "I'll watch you here. Oh, maybe if it's a pony wecan have him for ours, Teddy!" she exclaimed.
"Maybe," he agreed. "I'm going to see what it is."
Slowly he walked to the dark place amid the rocks. The whinnyings and groanings sounded plainer to him than to Janet, and Teddy was sure they came from a horse or a pony. As yet, though, he could see nothing.
Then, as the little boy stepped out of the glaring sun into the shadow cast by the rocks, he began to see better. And in a little while his eyes became used to the gloom.
Then he could see, lying down on the dirt floor of the cave amid the rocks, the form of a pony. The animal raised its head as Teddy came in and gave a sort of whinnying call, followed by a groan.