The six little Bunkers gathered about his chair, and, laying aside the book that the special delivery messenger had brought, the ranchman told the children some wonderful stories.
He told them how, once, his cattle all ran away in a mad rush called a "stampede," and how he and his cowboys had to ride after them on ponies, firing their big revolvers, to turn the steers back from a deep gully.
"And did you stop 'em?" asked Russ, his eyes wide open in wonder and excitement.
"Oh, yes. But it was hard work," answered his uncle.
Then Mr. Bell told about a big prairie fire. On the flat, level fields, where he pastured his cattle, grew long grass. When this gets dry it burns very easily, and, once started, it is hard to stop.
"And how did you stop it?" asked Rose, when her uncle had told about the blazing miles of grass.
"We got a lot of men and horses and plows," he answered, "and plowed a wide strip of land in front of the fire. When the flames got to the bare ground there was nothing for them to burn, and the wind was not strong enough to carry them over to where there was more grass. So we saved our ranch houses."
"Do you live in a house on your ranch?" asked Laddie.
"Why, of course we do!" laughed Uncle Fred. "What did you think we lived in?"
"Tents, like the Indians."