could not think up any way to have fun by
themselves, they could run down the street and find some other boys and
girls. But here there were no streets, and no other boys or girls unless
Teddy and Janet went a long way to look for them, and they could not do
that.

"I know what we can do," said Teddy, after a while. "We can get some
blankets and cookies and play cowboy."

"How can you play cowboy with cookies and blankets?"

"I'll show you," Teddy answered, as he went into the house to get the
things he wanted. He soon came out with some old quilts and the cookies,
which were in a paper bag.

"Now," went on Janet's brother, "We'll go off on the prairie and make
believe it's night and we have to stay out like the cowboys when they
went after Uncle Frank's horses."

"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Janet, and then she and Ted rolled
themselves up in the old quilts and pretended to go to sleep on the soft
grass of the prairie, making believe it was night, though of course it
was not, for the sun was shining. Then they ate the cookies, pretending
they were bacon, sandwiches, cake and other things that cowboys like.

Two or three days later Uncle Frank and the cowboys went out again to
look for the Indians, but they did not find them. From other ranches
word came of cattle and horses that had been stolen, and more cowboys
were hired to keep watch over the animals that had to be left out in the
big fields to eat their fill of grass. No barn was large enough to hold
them.

Meanwhile Teddy and Janet were learning how to ride better each day.
They could go quite fast now, though they were not allowed to make their
ponies gallop except on ground where Uncle Frank knew there were no
holes in which the animals might stumble.

Sometimes Daddy and Mother Martin went to ride with the children, and
then they had good times together, taking their lunch and staying all
day out on the prairie or in a shady grove of trees.

One day Ted and Janet saw some cowboys driving a number of ponies to the
corral near the ranch buildings. Some of the animals were quite wild and
went racing about as though they would like to run far off and not come
back.

But the cowboys knew how to take care of the ponies. They rode around
them, keeping them together in a bunch, and if one started to get away
the cowboys would fire their revolvers and yell, so the pony would
become frightened and turn back.

"Did you take these ponies away from the Indians