ammered Laddie excitedly.

"Oh, dear! Now you spoiled it," declared Vi. "Didn't he, Rose?"

"He can't make the wish after he has spoken," agreed the older sister.
"No, Laddie; it is too late now."

Margy began to wave her hands and evidently wanted to speak.

"Did you wish, Margy?" asked Vi.

The smaller girl nodded vigorously. Cowboy Jack laughed very heartily,
but Rose said to the little girl:

"You can talk now, Margy."

"I wished we'd have waffles for supper," announced Margy, hungrily. "I
like waffles."

"And I bet we have 'em!" cried their host, laughing again. "Maria can
make dandy waffles."

"Well, I would have wished for something--just as nice if you'd let me,"
Laddie broke in. "I don't see why I couldn't wish, even if I did speak
first."

"That's something mighty mysterious," said the ranchman soberly. "We
can't change the laws about wishing. That would bust up everything."

He talked so queerly that sometimes the little Bunkers were not sure
whether he was in earnest, or only joking. But they all liked Cowboy
Jack very much. And best of all--so Rose thought--they did not have to
call him by his right name!

The sun was very low when the cars got into a winding road through a
scrubby sort of wood and then climbed into the range of hills that they
had been approaching for two hours. Mun Bun was asleep. But the
children in the ranchman's car were all eagerly on the outlook for the
first sight of the ranch houses which Cowboy Jack told them would soon
appear.

"And then for the surprise," said Russ to Rose. "I wonder what it can
be?"

"Something nice, I am sure," sighed his sister contentedly. "It must be
something nice, or Mr. Cowboy Jack would not have mentioned it."

CHAPTER XIV

AN INDIAN RAID

It did seem, however, that the ranchman must have forgotten the surprise
he had in store for the six little Bunkers. He was so busy getting his
Mexican cook to make waffles for supper and seeing that the rooms had
all been made ready by his Mexican house boys for the use of the Bunker
family and doing a dozen other pleasant things for the comfort of his
guests that he did not say a word about the surprise.

It had been almost dark when the party arrived at the broad, low house
in which Cowboy Jack and his household lived. If the surprise was
outside the house the children would have been unable to see it.

Mun Bun fell sound asleep over his supper, and Margy had to "prop her
eyes open