thought it didn't sound like an Indian.

"A child!" cried still another voice. "Oh, I wonder----"

Then Violet didn't hear any more, for standing right over where she
crouched in the grass was a big man on a big horse and he was looking
right down on her.

"I've found her!" the man cried. "It's one of the six little Bunkers!"

"One of the six little Bunkers!" repeated a voice that Violet well knew.
It was her father's.

"Oh, Daddy! Daddy!" she cried. "Here I am! I got lost, and I can't find
the creek, nor the willow tree, nor Mother, nor anything. Here I am!"

Violet stood up, and a moment later, her father had ridden his horse
over to where she was and, reaching down, took her and the doll up in
his arms.

"Well, how in the world did you get here?" he asked in surprise. "Where
have you been, Violet?"

Then Violet told, and Uncle Fred, who was with Daddy Bunker and some of
the cowboys, said:

"We'd better ride back to the house as fast as we can. Amy is probably
wild now about losing her. Hurry back to the house!"

Then how the horses did gallop! And Vi, sitting in front of Daddy on
his saddle, had a fine ride and forgot she had been lost.

They got back to the house just as Captain Roy and some cowboys were
about to ride away in search of Violet. For Mrs. Bunker and the other
little Bunkers had reached the ranch house with the story of the lost
one.

"How did you find her?" asked Mrs. Bunker of her husband when Violet had
been hugged and kissed.

"We were riding back," said Daddy Bunker, "when one of the cowboys heard
a child crying. He found Violet in the grass, and then I took her up.
How did she get lost?"

Then Mrs. Bunker told about the trip to the creek and how Vi had
wandered away by herself.

"But I'm never going again," said the little girl. "I thought the
Indians were after me!"

"And it was only Daddy Bunker!" laughed her father.

"Did you find the lost cattle?" asked his wife, when supper was over and
they had ceased talking about Vi being lost.

"No, the men who took them must have hurried away with them. We could
not find them at all."

Just as the six little Bunkers were going to bed a cowboy came up to the
ranch house to say that the water was coming back into the spring.

"That's good," said Uncle Fred. "But I certainly would like to know what
makes it go out, and who takes our cattle."

The next day Russ and Laddie asked if they could go fishing in the
creek, if they went t