Then as the rest were driven up they did
as the first ones had done and galloped back where they had been
before Trouble let them out.
One after another the ponies ran back into the corral until every
one was there. Then Uncle Frank closed the gate, and this time he
locked it so that no one could open it without the key. But no one
would try, not even Trouble, for, crying and sobbing to be allowed to
go out and play, he had been given a lesson that he would not soon
forget.
"I'm sorry I had to punish him," said Mother Martin to the
Curlytops, when they came in after the ponies were once more in the
corral, "but I just had to. Work on a ranch is hard enough without
little boys letting the horses run wild after they have once been
caught."
"Oh, well, no great harm was done," said Uncle Frank with a good
-natured laugh, "though it did make us ride pretty hard for a while.
Come on, Trouble, I'll take you ponyback!"
This was what Trouble liked, and he soon dried his tears and sat on
the saddle in front of Uncle Frank as happy as could be. Janet and
Ted got out their ponies, and rode with Uncle Frank and Trouble
around the outside of the corral, looking at the little horses inside
the fence. They were quieter now, and were eating some oats the
cowboys had put out for them.
Two or three days after this, when the ponies had been driven away
to the railroad station to be shipped to a far-off state, a cowboy
came riding in with news that he had seen a band of two or three
Indians pass along the prairie near the rocks where Teddy and Janet
had found Clipclap.
Pages:
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143