l go look, too,
Vi."

"Me want to pick flowers!" cried Mun Bun eagerly.

He always wanted to do anything the older children did. And picking
flowers was one thing Mun Bun could do pretty well, little as he was.
Holding a hand each of Rose and Vi he trudged off from the ranch house.
Russ and Margy and Laddie came after. Russ and Laddie were still
discussing the matter of putting on their cowboy suits so as to help
herd the cattle with Cowboy Jack's "other hands." Just at this time,
however, they became more interested in picking flowers.

For they did find pretty blossoms along the wagon track they followed.
The ranch house was soon out of sight, for the children went over a
little ridge and then down into a swale in which were clumps of low
trees. It was quite a pretty country, and there was much to interest
them.

At one place something jumped out of the shrub and went leaping away
along the wagon track with great bounds.

"A rabbit!" cried Laddie. "Oh, such a big rabbit!"

"The very longest legs I ever saw," agreed Russ. "And long ears--like
those on the mules in the corral."

"And he thumps the ground just like a horse stamping," said Rose. "There
he goes out of sight. I--I believe I would be afraid of that rabbit if
he came at me."

"Well, he is going, not coming," remarked Russ. "I want to see where he
went."

He and Laddie started on the run to mount the little ridge over which
the jackrabbit had disappeared. This ridge crossed the swale, or valley,
and divided what lay beyond from the view of the six little Bunkers.
When the children climbed the rise and came to the top, they all
stopped. Even Russ did not say a word for a full minute; nor did Vi ask
a question, so astonished was she by what she saw.

There, on the low land beside a stream of water, was a log cabin. It
looked like a dilapidated cabin, for there were no windows and the door
was off its leather hinges. There was a bonfire by the doorstep and a
black kettle was hung over the fire from the tripod of smoke-blackened
sticks.

On the doorstep sat a woman who appeared to be rocking her baby to sleep
in her arms. She was watching whatever was cooking in the pot. A man was
chopping wood a little way; from the doorstep. He wore a funny fur cap,
with the tail of some animal hanging from it down to his shoulder, and
his hair was tied in a funny looking queue--the strangest way for a man
to dress his hair the little Bunkers had ever seen.

Sud