uggested Janet. "Oh, it _was_!" she went on.
"Trouble must have opened the gate and let the ponies loose!"

CHAPTER XVI

ON THE TRAIL

Trouble had done that very thing. The little fellow had not meant to do
any harm, and certainly thought he was doing something to help, but
really he made a great deal of work for Uncle Frank and the cowboys.

The corral, or yard where the half-tamed horses were kept while they
were being got ready to send away, was closed by a large gate, but one
easy to open if you knew how. All one had to do was to pull on a little
handle, which snapped a spring and the gate would swing open.

Horses and cattle could not open the gate, for they could not reach the
handle, even if any of them had known enough to do anything like that.

But Trouble had watched Uncle Frank or some of the cowboys open the gate
by pulling on the handle; and now he did it himself. Then, of course,
when the ponies saw the open gate they raced out.

"Get after 'em!" cried Uncle Frank who came galloping up on his horse to
find out what was the matter. "Get after the ponies, boys! Round them
up!"

"Round up," is what cowboys call riding around a lot of horses or cattle
to keep the animals in one place or to drive them where they should go.
Uncle Frank wanted his cowboys to ride after the runaway ponies and
drive them back into the corral.

As the wild little horses trotted out through the gate, behind which
Trouble stood, well out of danger, the cowboys rode after them, yelling
and shouting and shooting their revolvers.

"What a lot of noise!" cried Janet, covering her ears with her hands as
she got down off the fence.

"I like it!" laughed Teddy. "It's like a Wild West show!"

Indeed it was, in a way, but it meant a lot of work for Uncle Frank and
his men. For all the ponies ran out of the corral and were scattering
over the prairie.

"Oh, Trouble! did you let the horses out?" asked Janet, as her little
brother came out from behind the gate and toddled toward her and Ted.
The runaway horses were now well out of the way. "Did you open the
gate?"

"Yes. I did open gate," Trouble answered, smiling.

"What for?" asked Teddy.

"Help little horses get out," said Trouble. "Them want to get out and
Trouble help them. Trouble 'ike ponies!"

"Oh, but, my dear, you shouldn't have done it!" chided Mother Martin,
who had come out of the house to find out what all the excitement was
about. "That was very naught