"Oh, Daddy!" burst out Rose, clinging to his hand, "are you going so far away from us all? Aren't you going to take us to Cowboy Jack's?"
"Why do they call him that?" asked Vi. "Is he part cow and part boy?"
But Daddy Bunker replied to Rose's question quite seriously:
"That is a hard matter to decide. It is a long journey, and you know school will soon begin at Pineville. And you must not miss school."
"But, Daddy," said Russ, very gravely, "you know you take us 'most everywhere you go. It—it wouldn't be fair to Cowboy Jack not to take us to see him, would it?"
Mr. Bunker laughed very much at this suggestion, and hurried them all through the rain toward Captain Ben's bungalow.
CHAPTER III
THE SILVER LINING
One might think that the accident at the old house would have been excitement enough for the six little Bunkers for one forenoon. But Russ and Rose, at least, and soon all the other children, were bubbling with the thought of Daddy Bunker's going West again to look into a big ranch property to which one of his customers had recently fallen heir.