Ted Strong in Montana | Page 5

S herd out in the blizzard.
This stirred him to action, and he went back to the kitchen with the
intention of lighting the fire and getting breakfast.
He stopped in the doorway in astonishment. Stella, with her sleeves
rolled to the elbows, was busily engaged at the stove, singing as she
worked.
"Good morning," said Ted. "You beat me to it. Why didn't you wake
me up and put me to work?"
"Hello!" said Stella cheerily. "You looked so tired sitting in that chair
that I thought I'd let you sleep. At any rate, cooking breakfast is no
work for a boy in a house. Get ready. Breakfast will be on the table in a
minute. What do you think I found in the shed behind the house? A
mountain sheep already dressed, and hung up for us. The fellow who
left this house for us certainly was a good one. He knew we'd come in
hungry, and left everything ready for us."
"That was just like Fred Sturgis. He's one of the best fellows in the
world. He's the owner of the ranch. Young New York fellow. Wanted
to spend the winter in the East. That's how I was able to get the ranch.
But I'll bet he'll be back here before the snow melts. You couldn't keep
him off the range for any length of time."
"He certainly has good taste. The house is almost as nice as the Moon
Valley house, but nothing is quite as nice as that."
Mrs. Graham and Carl were roused, and they were soon sitting down to
chops from a mountain sheep and corn bread which Stella had made;
and they all voted that winter life in Montana promised to be a very
jolly thing.
When Ted went outdoors the whole world was simply a glittering

waste where the sun shone on, and was reflected back from the vast
field of snow.
Sultan was in the sheltered corral, and as Ted threw the saddle on his
back he reared and jumped about like a playful kitten.
"Quit your cavorting about, you rascal," said Ted, as Sultan wheeled
away from the saddle with a playful snort, at the same time reaching
around and trying to nip Ted's shoulder with his teeth.
"My, but you're feeling gay this morning," said Ted. "Here, hold still,
won't you? How do you suppose I'm ever going to get this saddle on
you if you don't stand still?"
But the cold weather and the bright sunshine had filled Sultan with
ginger, and he was as full of play as a small boy when he wakes up
some early winter morning and sees the ground covered with the first
snow, and remembers the sled that has lain in the woodshed all
summer.
But at last the saddle was on, and then Ted had his hands full getting
into it.
"Gee, but you're skittish this morning," said Ted, giving Sultan a
vigorous slap on the haunch. "But just you wait a few minutes until I
get on you. I'll take some of that out of you."
But when he tried to find the stirrup with his toe, Sultan wheeled away
from him with a little kick that was as dainty as that of a professional
dancer.
But at last Ted made a leap and landed safely upon Sultan's back, and
gave him a slap with the loose end of his rein. The little horse gave a
leap like a kangaroo, and dashed through the gateway of the corral and
across the white prairie, running like a quarter horse.
The herd was nowhere in sight, but in the far distance Ted saw a thin
blue stream of smoke rising in the still, frosty air.

He knew it to be the camp fire of McCall, and that breakfast was going
forward at the cow camp in the snow.
Heading Sultan toward it, Ted rushed on through the stimulating air of
a Northern winter, and soon came in sight of the chuck wagon, and
several of the boys standing around a fire.
As he dashed forward he raised the long yell, which was gleefully
answered, and soon he was at the camp.
This was where he and Stella had started from the night before.
Turning his eyes back in the direction he had come, Ted could see the
smoke rising from the chimney of the ranch house, although the house
itself was hidden behind a swell in the surface of the prairie.
Had he only known it, he might have driven the herd right up to the
ranch house during the night. As it was, he saw now that he and Stella,
with the carriage, had ridden for almost two hours in the night,
traveling in a circle, and by the merest chance had