don't come in packages, unless there's a lot of 'em, and I hardly
would get that many. I'll see what it is."

The boy was not a telegraph messenger after all, but a special delivery
lad from the post-office, and the package he had for Uncle Fred was a
book.

"Oh, it's a book I sent for to New York," said the ranchman after he had
given the boy ten cents, and had opened the package.

"It's a book that tells about springs, and the rocks underneath the
earth where the water comes from. I thought I'd read about springs so
I'd learn something about the queer one on my ranch," Uncle Fred said to
Daddy Bunker. "I heard about this book, sent to New York for it, and
asked them to send it to me here by special delivery. Now I can read
what I want to know about water."

"Will you read us a story out of the book?" asked Margy. "I like
stories."

"I don't believe there are any stories in this book," said Uncle Fred
with a laugh.

"Could you tell us one?" asked Mun Bun.

"About cowboys!" exclaimed Russ.

"And Indians!" added Laddie.

"Well, I guess I could think of a story, if I tried real hard," answered
Uncle Fred, laughing.

The six little Bunkers gathered about his chair, and, laying aside the
book that the special delivery messenger had brought, the ranchman told
the children some wonderful stories.

He told them how, once, his cattle all ran away in a mad rush called a
"stampede," and how he and his cowboys had to ride after them on
ponies, firing their big revolvers, to turn the steers back from a deep
gully.

"And did you stop 'em?" asked Russ, his eyes wide open in wonder and
excitement.

"Oh, yes. But it was hard work," answered his uncle.

Then Mr. Bell told about a big prairie fire. On the flat, level fields,
where he pastured his cattle, grew long grass. When this gets dry it
burns very easily, and, once started, it is hard to stop.

"And how did you stop it?" asked Rose, when her uncle had told about the
blazing miles of grass.

"We got a lot of men and horses and plows," he answered, "and plowed a
wide strip of land in front of the fire. When the flames got to the bare
ground there was nothing for them to burn, and the wind was not strong
enough to carry them over to where there was more grass. So we saved our
ranch houses."

"Do you live in a house on your ranch?" asked Laddie.

"Why, of course we do!" laughed Uncle Fred. "What did you think we
lived in?"

"Tents, like the Indians."

"Oh,