Curlytops at Uncle Franks Ranch | Page 9

sleepy an' Nicknack he got hungry, so we comed in here."
"And we've been looking everywhere for you!" exclaimed Mrs. Newton. "Well, I'm glad we've found you. Come along, now. Ted, you and Bob hurry along and tell the others. Your mother'll be worried."
And indeed Mrs. Martin was worried, especially when she met Mr. Martin and Janet, who had not found Trouble.
But Teddy and Bob soon met with the other searchers and told them that Baby "William had been found.
"Oh, what will you do next?" cried Mrs. Martin, as she clasped the little fellow in her arms. "Such a fright as you've given us!"
"No want Nicknack to go 'way!" said Trouble.
"I guess that's what he did it for--he thought he could hide the goat so we wouldn't leave him behind," said Daddy Martin. "But we'll have to, just the same. Trouble won't miss him when we get out on the ranch."
So the goat and wagon were left at Bob's house, and though Trouble cried when he realized what was happening, he soon got over it.
The next few days were filled with busy preparations toward going West. Daddy Martin bought the tickets, the packing was completed, last visits to their playmates were paid by Janet and Teddy, whose boy and girl friends all said that they wished they too were going out West to a big ranch.
"We're going to see cowboys and Indians!" Ted told everyone.
Then came the last day in Cresco--that is the last day for some time for the Curlytops. The house was closed, Nora going to stay with friends. Skyrocket, the dog, and Turnover, the cat, were sent to kind neighbors, who promised to look after them. Bob had already started to take care of Nicknack.
"All aboard!" called the conductor of the train the Curlytops and the others took. "All aboard!"
"All aboard for the West!" echoed Daddy Martin, and they were off.
CHAPTER IV
THE COLLISION
Won't we have fun, Jan, when we get to the ranch?"
"I guess so, Teddy. But I don't like it about those Indians."
"Oh, didn't you hear Daddy say they were tame ones--like the kind in the circus and Wild West show? They won't hurt you, Jan."
"Well, I don't like 'em. They've got such funny painted faces."
"Not the tame ones, Jan. Anyhow I'll stay with you."
The Curlytops were talking as they sat together in the railroad car which was being pulled rapidly by the engine out toward the big West, where Uncle Frank's ranch was. In the seat behind them was Mother Martin, holding Trouble, who was asleep, while Daddy Martin was also slumbering.
It was quite a long ride from Cresco to Rockville, which was in Montana. It would take the Curlytops about four days to make the trip, perhaps longer if the trains were late. But they did not mind, for they had comfortable coaches in which to travel. When they were hungry there was the dining-car where they could get something to eat, and when they were sleepy there was the sleeping-car, in which the colored porter made such funny little beds out of the seats.
Jan and Ted thought it quite wonderful. For, though they had traveled in a sleeping-car before, and had seen the porter pull out the seats, let down the shelf overhead and take out the blankets and pillows to make the bed, still they never tired of watching.
There were many other things to interest the Curlytops and Trouble on this journey to Uncle Frank's ranch. Of course there was always something to see when they looked out of the windows of the cars. At times the train would pass through cities, stopping at the stations to let passengers get off and on. But it was not the cities that interested the children most. They liked best to see the fields and woods through which they passed.
In some of the fields were horses, cows or sheep, and while the children did not see any such animals in the woods, except perhaps where the wood was a clump of trees near a farm, they always hoped they might.
Very often, when the train would rattle along through big fields, and then suddenly plunge into a forest, Jan would call:
"Maybe we'll see one now, Ted!"
"Oh, maybe so!" he would exclaim.
Then the two Curlytops would flatten their noses against the window and peer out.
"What are you looking for?" asked Mother Martin, the first time she saw the children do this.
"Indians," answered Teddy, never turning around, for the train was still in the wood and he did not want to miss any chance.
"Indians!" exclaimed his mother, "Why, what in the world put into your head the idea that we should see Indians?"
"Well, Uncle Frank said there were Indians out West, even if they weren't wild ones," answered Teddy, "and me and Jan wants to see some."
"Oh, you won't