'I like heroes,' Rita went on. 'Daddy tells me stories about them doing such brave things in battles. What grand things have you done, Jack?'
Jack looked puzzled at this question, but Teddy helped him by asking, in an awe-stricken voice: 'Did you kill anybody, Jack?'
'Oh, no!' returned our little friend; 'I never hurt nobody but those Mexican boys as set on me at Las Vegas. I tried to hurt them all I could,' he said honestly, 'but they were too many of 'em and they whipped me.'
'I wish I'd been there,' cried Teddy valiantly. 'I'd have helped you, Jack, and p'raps we'd have beaten them between us.'
'I'm afeared they'd have had the best o' it anyhow,' returned Jack, shaking his head.
Rita listened to this conversation with a frightened look in her brown eyes, but she felt a greater respect than heretofore for Teddy after his brave speech. Mrs. Stuart joined them at this moment, and seemed very pleased to see the work Jack had got through since breakfast.
'You are a useful boy,' she remarked pleasantly. 'You've wasted no time this morning. Now, children, I see you have already made friends with Jack. Help him to carry this firewood into the kitchen, and then take him about and show him the animals.'
Delighted to be useful, Teddy and Rita helped Jack to carry in the logs, and soon the big wood box behind the stove was quite full.
Then they took him off to a stable, where they showed him their two little ponies which their father had brought them from New York. Jack had never seen such tiny creatures before. They were real Shetlands, and their shaggy manes and long flowing tails delighted the Western boy, who lingered near them as if quite fascinated. He utterly failed in his attempt to decide which he liked best, Teddy's black pony Raven, or Rita's white one called Snowball; for if the latter was the prettiest, Raven went the fastest of the two. They were dear little ponies, and so quiet; they followed the children about like a couple of big dogs when they loosed them.
They came in their wanderings to the big corral, or yard, where a great excitement was going on. Some cowboys were breaking in a very wild colt, and it was giving them no end of trouble. Mr. Stuart was present, and when he saw the children he put them into a safe place to watch the proceedings. Jack was very excited, as he had never seen a really wild broncho broken in before, and was most anxious to see it done.