Frank was hard at work on his play, and that caused him to stick pretty close to the house. However, he was a person who believed in exercise when he could find it, and so, on the afternoon of the second day, he went out and asked one of the punchers if he could have a pony.
The man looked him over without being able to wholly conceal his contempt.
“Kin you ride?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered Frank, quietly.
“Hawse or kaow?” asked the cowboy.
“If you have a good saddle horse, I’d like to have him,” said Merry. “And be good enough to restrain your sarcasm. I don’t like it.”
The puncher gasped. He was angry. The idea of a tenderfoot speaking to him in such a way!
“All right,” he muttered. “I’ll git ye a critter, but our Western hawses ain’t like your Eastern ladies’ hawses.”
He departed.
Hodge had overheard all this, and he came up.