er his head. I went right over his head; didn't I Janet?"

"Yes, you did, Teddy. And you looked awful funny! But I'm glad you're
not hurt."

"So'm I."

"What made Clipclap stumble?" asked the little girl.

"I guess he stepped in a gopher's hole," answered her brother.

"Let's look," proposed Janet.

Brother and sister went to the place where Clipclap had stumbled. There
they saw a little hole in the ground. It was the front, or maybe the
back, door of the home of a little animal called a gopher, which burrows
under the earth. A gopher is a sort of squirrel-like rat, and on the
prairies they make many holes which are dangerous if a horse suddenly
steps into them. Prairie dogs are another species of animal that burrow
on the Western plains, making holes into which horses or ponies often
step, breaking their legs and throwing their riders.

This time nothing had happened except that Teddy and the pony had been
shaken up. The pony might have broken a leg but did not, nor was Teddy
even scratched.

Cowboys always dread gopher and prairie dog holes, especially at night
when they can not be so easily seen.

"Oh, I know what let's do!" exclaimed Janet, when she found that her
brother was all right.

"What?" asked Teddy.

"Let's wait here until the gopher comes up!"

"All right. Then we'll catch him and take him home to Trouble."

CHAPTER XV

TROUBLE "HELPS"

Janet and Teddy sat beside the gopher hole, while their ponies, not far
from them, ate the sweet grass of the prairie. Clipclap and Star Face
did not wander away, even if they were not tied to a hitching post. For
Western horses and cow ponies are trained to stand where their master
leaves them, if he will but toss the reins over their heads and let them
rest on the ground.

When a pony sees that this has been done he will never run away, unless
perhaps something frightens him very much. It may be that he thinks,
when the reins are over his head and down on the ground, they are tied
to something, so he could not run away if he wanted to.

At any rate, Clipclap and Star Face stayed where Ted and Janet left
them, and the little Curlytops watched the gopher hole.

"I wonder when he'll come out," said Janet after a bit.

"Shs-s-s-s!" whispered Teddy. "Don't talk!"

"Why not?" asked his sister.

"'Cause you might scare him. You mustn't talk any more than if you were
fishing."

"A gopher isn't a fish!"

"I know it," said Teddy. "But you've g