. "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 a _goat_."

"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 only one 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 is _our_ hair. 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
ho