Frank finished reading and folded up the letter with a flourish. Then the three boys stared at each other.
"On a ranch!" gasped Bob.
"With the cowboys!" shouted Sammy.
"It sounds too good to be true," breathed Frank.
It was no wonder that the news should almost take their breath away. No group of jolly, happy-go-lucky small boys on earth could help being excited over it.
Frank's brother George, who was several years older than he, had written, saying that he and Frank had received an invitation to spend the rest of the Summer on a far Western ranch. The owner of the ranch, Mr. Claxton, was a distant connection of the Haven family; and a year before Mr. Haven had been able to do him a great service in connection with a business matter. Mr. Claxton was very grateful, and in a recent letter he had urged the Haven boys to come out and visit him on his ranch. In the breezy way of Westerners he had told them to bring along some of their friends if they wanted to, as there was plenty of room on the ranch and he liked to have lots of boys around him.
"And George hasn't waited a minute to let us know about it," said Frank. "He only got the invitation yesterday and he sat right down and wrote this letter."
"That's bully of him," remarked Bob.
"I wonder if he knew what a rumpus it would make when we got it," observed Sammy.
"I guess he knew pretty well," laughed Frank. "But say, fellows, isn't it the best thing that ever happened?"