be by themselves."
"Do any Indians come in?" asked Janet, looking toward the door.
"Bless your heart, no!" exclaimed Aunt Millie. "We wouldn't want them,
for they're dirty and not at all nice, though some of them do look like
pictures when they wrap themselves around in a red blanket and stick
feathers in their hair. We don't want any Indians. Now tell me about
your trip."
"We were in a collision!" cried Janet.
"In the middle of the night," added Teddy.
"An' I mos' fell out of my bed!" put in Trouble.
Then, amid laughter, the story of the trip from the East was told.
Meanwhile Hop Sing, the Chinese cook, cried out in his funny, squeaky
voice that supper was getting cold.
"Well, we'll eat first and talk afterward," said Uncle Frank, as he led
the way to the table. "Come on, folks. I expect you all have good
appetites. That's what we're noted for at Ring Rosy Ranch."
"What's that?" asked Aunt Millie. "Have you given Circle O a new name?"
"One of the Curlytops did," chuckled Uncle Frank. "They said my branding
sign looked just like a ring-round-the-rosy, so I'm going to call the
ranch that after this."
"It's a nice name," said Aunt Millie. "And now let me see you
Curlytops--and Trouble, too--though his hair isn't frizzy like Ted's and
Janet's--let me see you eat until you get as fat as a Ring Rosy
yourselves. If you don't eat as much as you can of everything, Hop Sing
will feel as though he was not a good cook."
The Curlytops were hungry enough to eat without having to be told to,
and Hop Sing, looking into the dining-room now and then from where he
was busy in the kitchen, smiled and nodded his head as he said to the
maid:
"Lil' chillens eat velly good!"
"Indeed they do eat very good," said the maid, as she carried in more of
the food which Hop Sing knew so well how to cook.
After supper the Curlytops and the others sat out on the broad porch of
the ranch house. Off to one side were the other buildings, some where
the farming tools were kept, for Uncle Frank raised some grain as well
as cattle, and some where the cowboys lived, as well as others where
they stabled their horses.
"I know what let's do," said Jan, when she and her brother had sat on
the porch for some time, listening to the talk of the older folks, and
feeling very happy that they were at Uncle Frank's ranch, where, they
felt sure, they could have such good times.
"What can we do?" asked Teddy. Very often he let Jan plan s
|