"Though there's no telling when it will go dry again," said Uncle Fred. "We'll have to keep watch of it. For nearly every time the spring goes dry I lose some cattle."
"May we go for a ride on our ponies to-day?" asked Russ of his mother one morning. "Laddie and I want a ride."
"Will you be very careful," asked his mother, "not to go outside the big field?"
"Oh, yes, we'll just stay in the big field," promised Laddie. "Come on, Russ! We'll have some fun!"
The four older Bunker children had learned to ride the little Shetland ponies very well. Uncle Fred had let them take, for their own use, four of the best animals, which were kind and gentle. He had also set aside for them a big fenced-in field, where they might ride.
Over to the corral Russ and Laddie ran, and soon they were leading out their own two special ponies. A little later they were riding them around the big fenced-in meadow, playing they were cowboys and Indians, though Russ was not allowed to have a lasso. Uncle Fred had said that if a little boy, like Russ, played with a rope while riding a pony, the cord might get tangled in the pony's legs, and throw it.
"This is lots of fun!" cried Laddie, as he trotted about.
"Most fun we ever had!" agreed Russ.
But as the six little Bunkers said this every place they went, you can take it for what it is worth. Certainly they were having good times at Uncle Fred's.
When Russ and Laddie were giving their ponies a rest in the shade of a tree that grew at one side of the field, they heard a voice calling to them: