"Is all this your land, Uncle Frank!" asked Teddy as he stood on the porch and looked over the fields.
"Yes, as far as you can see, and farther. If you Curlytops get lost, which I hope you won't, you'll have to go a good way to get off my ranch. But let me tell you now, not to go too far away from the house, unless your father or some of us grown folks are with you."
"Why?" asked Janet.
"Well, you might get lost, you know, and then—oh, well, don't go off by yourselves, that's all," and Uncle Frank turned to answer a question Daddy Martin asked him.
Ted and Janet wondered why they could not go off by themselves as they had done at Cherry Farm.
"Maybe it's because of the Indians," suggested Jan.
"Pooh, I'm not afraid of them," Teddy announced.
Just then one of the cowboys—later the children learned he was Jim Mason, the foreman—came walking up to the porch. He walked in a funny way, being more used to going along on a horse than on his own feet.
"Good evening, folks!" he said, taking off his hat and waving it toward the Curlytops and the others.
"Hello, Jim!" was Uncle Frank's greeting. "Everything all right?"