"What's the matter?" cried Uncle Fred, as the two cowboys rode up to the ranch with Laddie and Russ.
"Stampede!" was the answer. "Big bunch of cattle running away."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "Well, get right after 'em! Stop 'em!"
And this is what the cowboys did. The two who had seen the stampede first, and ridden in to tell the news, bringing Laddie and Russ on the way, were joined by other cowboys. They then rode toward the rushing cattle, to head them off, or turn them back.
A stampede on a ranch means that a lot of steers or horses become so frightened over something that they all run together, and don't pay any attention to where they are going. If one of their number falls, the others trample right over it. So, too, if a cowboy on his horse got too close to the stampeding cattle, he would be trampled on.
To stop a stampede the cowboys try to turn the cattle around. This they do by riding along in front of them, as close as they dare, firing their big revolvers. They try to scare the steers from keeping on. Then if they can turn the front ones back, and get them to run in a circle—"milling," it is called—the others will do the same thing. The cattle stop running, quiet down and can be driven back where they came from.
It is hard work. Still it has to be done.
It soon grew so dark that the children and grown folk, watching from the house, could see nothing. Mrs. Bunker wanted the six little Bunkers to go to bed, but the four older children wanted to stay up and hear what the cowboys had to say when they came back.
"Well, you may stay half an hour," their father told them. "If they aren't back then off to bed you go!"
However, the cowboys came back about fifteen minutes later, saying they had stopped the stampede and turned the cattle back where they belonged.