ave. The children were
glad he did not groan any more. A little later Jim Mason sent one of the
cowboys with some clean straw to make a bed for the little horse, and a
pail of the cool, spring water was put where the animal could reach it.

For two days the pony stayed in the cave, and then Doctor Bond said he
was much better and could be led to the ranch. Uncle Frank took Ted and
Janet out to the rocks to bring back their pet, but he had to walk very
slowly, for he was still weak from the poison.

"And he'll have to stay in the stable for a week or so," said Jim Mason
when Clipclap was safely at the ranch. "After that he will be strong
enough to ride. While you Curlytops are waiting I'll give you a few
riding lessons."

"And will you show me how to lasso?" begged Teddy.

"Yes, of course. You'll never be a cowboy, as you say you're going to
be, unless you can use a rope. I'll show you."

So the children's lessons began. Uncle Frank picked out a gentle pony
for them on which to learn how to ride, and this pony was to be Jan's.
She named him Star Face, for he had a white mark, like a star, on his
forehead.

On this pony Jan and Ted took turns riding until they learned to sit in
the saddle alone and let the pony trot along. Of course he did not go
very fast at first.

"And I want to learn to lasso when I'm on his back," said Teddy.

"You'd first better learn to twirl the rope while you're on the ground,"
said Jim Mason, and then the foreman began giving the little boy some
simple lessons in this, using a small rope, for Teddy could not handle
the big ones the cowboys used.

In a few days Teddy could fling the coils of his rope and make them
settle over a post. Of course he had to stand quite close, but even the
cowboys, when they learned, had to do that the foreman said.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Teddy's father asked the little
boy one day, as he started out from the house with a small coil of rope
on one arm, as he had seen the cowboys carry their lariats. "What are
you going to do, Ted?"

"Oh, I'm going to lasso some more," was the answer.

"Why don't you try something else besides a post?" asked one of Uncle
Frank's men, as he, too, noticed Teddy. "Throwing a rope over a post is
all right to start, but if you want to be a real cowboy you'll have to
learn to lasso something that's running on its four legs. That's what
most of our lassoing is--roping ponies or steers, and they don't very
often