ed
the ranchman, "but I'm afraid we couldn't take you along, Curlytop."

"Why not, Uncle Frank?"

"Oh, you might get hurt."

"Well, can I see the Indians after you catch 'em?"

"Oh, yes, I guess I can promise you _that_," and Uncle Frank smiled at
Daddy Martin.

"And can I ask them to make me a bow and arrows?" went on Teddy.

"Yes, you can _ask_ them, but I don't believe they will," Uncle Frank
replied. "These Indians aren't very nice. They're quite bad, in fact,
and we all wish they'd stay where they belong and not come off their
reservation and steal our cattle and horses."

"Well, I'm going to ask one to make me a bow and some arrows when you
catch 'em," decided Teddy.

That afternoon Teddy saw his sister trying to do something with bits of
string and sticks in a shady spot on the porch.

"What are you making, Jan," he asked. "A cat's cradle?"

"Pooh! you don't make a cat's cradle with sticks," said the little girl.

"Well, I thought maybe it was a new kind, or maybe a _kitten's_ cradle,"
laughed Teddy.

"Nope; it isn't that either," went on Janet, as she kept on twisting the
strings around the sticks.

"Well, what _are_ you making?"

"A bow and arrow."

"Ho! Ho!" laughed Jan's brother. "You can't make a bow and arrow _that_
way. Anyhow you don't need a string for an arrow."

"I know _that_!" Jan said. "But I'm making the bow first, and then I'm
going to make the arrow. The arrow part is what you shoot, isn't it,
Ted?"

"Yes," he answered. "I'll help you, Jan. I didn't mean to laugh at you,"
he went on, for he saw that Janet was very much in earnest about what
she was doing. "I know how to make a bow and arrows."

"Oh, please show me!" begged Janet. "I want to know how to shoot like
the Indians."

Teddy, however, did not have much better luck making the bow than his
sister had had. The trouble was that the sticks Janet had picked up were
not the right kind. They would not bend, and to make a bow that shoots
arrows a piece of wood that springs, or bends, is needed. For it is the
springy action of the wood that shoots the arrow on its way.

After trying two or three times, each time finding something wrong,
Teddy said:

"Oh, I don't guess I can make a bow, either. Let's play something else."

"What'll we play?" asked Janet.

Teddy thought for a few moments. Playing out at Uncle Frank's ranch was
different from playing at home. In some ways it was not so easy, for at
home if the Curlytops