ng?" asked Mrs. Bunker.

"Bill Johnson," was the answer. "He's a fine cook, too."

"Is he a _man_?" asked Rose, in some surprise.

"When you see him you'll say so!" exclaimed her uncle. "Bill is about
six feet tall, and as thin as a rail. But he certainly can cook."

"I didn't think a _man_ could cook," went on Rose.

"Of course they can!" laughed her father. "You ought to see me cook when
I go camping and fishing. And the cook we had in the train coming here
was a man."

"Was he?" asked Rose. "How funny!"

"Here he comes now," said Uncle Fred, as a tall, thin man, wearing a
white apron and a cap came into the room with a big tray balanced on his
hands. "Bill, this little girl thinks you can't cook because you're a
man!"

"Oh, I only said--I only said----" and Rose blushed and hung her head.

"That's all right!" laughed Bill Johnson. "If she doesn't like my
cooking I'll have her come out and show me how to make a pie or a cake!"
and he laughed at Rose.

But the six little Bunkers all agreed that they never had a better meal
than that first one at Uncle Fred's, even if it was cooked by a man who
used to be a cowboy, as he told them later.

"It was as good as Grandma Bell's," said Russ.

"And as good as Aunt Jo's," added Rose.

"I'm glad we came!" declared Laddie, as he pulled a cookie out of his
pocket. He had taken it away with him from the table.

After supper the children and grown folk walked around the ranch near
the house. They saw where the cowboys slept in the "bunk house," and
looked in the corral where the ponies were kept when they were not being
ridden.

"Where are the little ponies we are to ride?" asked Rose of her uncle.

"I'll show them to you to-morrow," he promised. "It's too far to go over
to their corral to-night."

"Will the cowboys shoot any more?" Laddie wanted to know.

"No, not to-night," said his father. "I guess they want a rest as much
as you children do."

Indeed the six little Bunkers were very willing to go to bed that
night. They were tired with their long journey, and sleeping in a
regular bed was different from curling up in a berth made from seats in
a car. Even Mun Bun slept soundly, and did not walk in his sleep and get
in bed with any one else.

Early in the morning the children were down to breakfast. They found
that Bill Johnson could get that sort of meal just as well as he could
cook a supper, and after taking plenty of milk and oatmeal, with some
bread