"Hello," answered Teddy, but he did not speak in a jolly voice.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Baldy with a laugh, as he limped to the bench and sat down near the two children. "You act as sad and gloomy as if there wasn't a Christmas or a New Year's any more, to say nothing of Fourth of July and birthdays! What's the matter? Seems to me, if I had all the nice, curly hair you two have, I'd be as happy as a horned toad and I'd go around singing all day long," and Baldy rubbed his hand over his own smooth head and laughed.
"I don't like my hair," grumbled Teddy. "It's always getting snarled and the comb gets stuck in it."
"And it does in mine, too," added Janet. "And mother pulls when she tries to untangle it. Mine's longer than Ted's."
"Yes, and nicer, for that reason," went on Baldy. "Though I'd be glad if I had even half of yours, Teddy. But never mind about that. I won't take your hair, though I'd like to know what makes you both so gloomy-like. Can't you smile?"
Ted and Janet could not help laughing at Baldy, he seemed so funny. He was a good friend of theirs.
"We can't go on the trail after Indians," said Janet. "We want to go, but we've got to stay here."
"And we can ride our ponies good, too," went on Teddy. "Uncle Frank said we could."
"Yes, you're getting to be pretty good riders," admitted Baldy. "But that isn't saying you're big enough to go on a trail after Indians. Of course these Indians may not be very bad, and maybe they aren't the ones that took our horses. But riding on a trail takes a long while, and maybe the boys will be out all night in the open. You wouldn't like that."
"We went camping with our grandpa once," declared Teddy.