"Can we learn to ride a pony to-day?" asked Janet.
"As soon as Uncle Frank comes back," answered her father. "You and Ted and Trouble play around the house now as much as you like. When Uncle Frank comes back he'll see about getting a pony for you to ride."
"Come on!" called Ted to his sister after breakfast. "We'll have some fun."
"I come, too!" called Trouble. "I wants a wide! I wish we had Nicknack."
"It would be fun if we had our goat here, wouldn't it?" asked Janet of her brother.
"Yes, but I'd rather have a pony. I'm going to be a cowboy, and you can't be a cowboy and ride a goat."
"No, I s'pose not," said Janet. "But a goat isn't so high up as a pony, Ted, and if you fall off a goat's back you don't hurt yourself so much."
"I'm not going to fall off," declared Teddy.
The children wandered about among the ranch buildings, looking in the bunk house where the cowboys slept. There was only one person in there, and he was an old man to be called a "boy," thought Janet. But all men, whether young or old, who look after the cattle on a ranch, are called "cowboys" so age does not matter.
"Howdy," said this cowboy with a cheerful smile, as the Curlytops looked in at him. He was mending a broken strap to his saddle. "Where'd you get that curly hair?" he asked. "I lost some just like that. Wonder if you got mine?"