UCKING BRONCO 140

XIII MISSING CATTLE 153

XIV LOOKING FOR INDIANS 167

XV TROUBLE "HELPS" 175

XVI ON THE TRAIL 189

XVII THE CURLYTOPS ALONE 196

XVIII LOST 209

XIX THE HIDDEN VALLEY 222

XX BACK TO RING ROSY 237

THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK'S RANCH

CHAPTER I

TROUBLE'S TUMBLE

"Say, Jan, this isn't any fun!"

"What do you want to play then, Ted?"

Janet Martin looked at her brother, who was dressed in one of his
father's coats and hats while across his nose was a pair of spectacles
much too large for him. Janet, wearing one of her mother's skirts, was
sitting in a chair holding a doll.

"Well, I'm tired of playing doctor, Jan, and giving your make-believe
sick doll bread pills. I want to do something else," and Teddy began
taking off the coat, which was so long for him that it dragged on the
ground.

"Oh, I know what we can do that'll be lots of fun!" cried Janet, getting
up from the chair so quickly that she forgot about her doll, which fell
to the floor with a crash that might have broken her head.

"Oh, my _dear_!" cried Janet, as she had often heard her mother call
when Baby William tumbled and hurt himself. "Oh, are you hurt?" and
Janet clasped the doll in her arms, and hugged it as though it were a
real child.

"Is she busted?" Ted demanded, but he did not ask as a real doctor might
inquire. In fact, he had stopped playing doctor.

"No, she isn't hurt, I guess," Jan answered, feeling of her doll's head.
"I forgot all about her being in my lap. Oh, aren't you going to play
any more, Ted?" she asked as she saw her brother toss the big coat on a
chair and take off the spectacles.

"No. I want to do something else. This is no fun!"

"Well, let's make-believe you're sick and I can be a Red Cross nurse,
like some of those we saw in the drugstore window down the street,
making bandages for the soldiers. You could be a soldier, Ted, and I
could be the nurse, and I'd make some sugar pills for you, if you don't
like the rolled-up bread ones you gave my doll."

Teddy Martin thought this over for a few seconds. He seemed to like it.
And then he shook his head.

"No," he answered his sister, "I couldn't be a soldier."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I haven't got a gun and there isn't any tent."

"We could make a tent with a sheet off the b