e Curlytops saw the laughing face of
the Chinese cook peering out at them.

"Lil' gal hungly--li' boy hungly?" asked Hop Sing in his funny talk.

"Got any cookies?" inquired Teddy.

"No glot clooklies--glot him clake," the Chinese answered.

"What does he say?" asked Janet of her brother.

"I guess he means cake," whispered Teddy, and that was just what Hop
Sing did mean. He brought out some nice cake on a plate and Trouble and
the Curlytops had as much as was good for them, if not quite all they
wanted.

"Glood clake?" asked Hop Sing, when nothing but the crumbs were
left--and not many of them.

"I guess he means was it good cake," then whispered Janet to her little
brother.

"Yes, it was fine and good!" exclaimed Teddy. "Thank you."

"You mluch welclome--clome some mo'!" laughed Hop Sing, as the children
moved away.

They spent the morning playing about the ranch near the house. They made
a sea-saw from a board and a barrel, and played some of the games they
had learned on Cherry Farm or while camping with Grandpa Martin. Then
dinner time came, but Uncle Frank and the cowboys did not come back to
it.

"Won't they be hungry?" asked Teddy.

"Oh, they took some bacon, coffee and other things with them," said Aunt
Millie. "They often have to camp out for days at a time."

"Say, I wish I could do that!" cried Teddy.

"Wait until you get to be a cowboy," advised his father.

That afternoon Trouble went to lie down with his mother to have a nap,
and Teddy and Janet wandered off by themselves, promising not to go too
far away from the house.

But the day was so pleasant, and it was so nice to walk over the soft
grass that, before they knew it, Teddy and Janet had wandered farther
than they meant to. As the land was rolling--here hills and there
hollows--they were soon out of sight of the ranch buildings, but they
were not afraid, as they knew by going to a high part of the prairie
they could see their way back home--or they thought they could. There
were no woods around them, though there were trees and a little stream
of water farther off.

Suddenly, as the Curlytops were walking along together, they came to a
place where there were a lot of rocks piled up in a sort of shelter.
Indeed one place looked as though it might be a cave. And as Teddy and
Janet were looking at this they heard a strange noise, which came from
among the rocks.

Both children stopped and stood perfectly still for a moment.

"D