The Pony Rider Boys in Texas | Page 9

nose it around. The animal resisted and swung its sharp
horns perilously near to the side of the horse, which quickly leaped to
one side, almost upsetting its rider.
"Guess I'd better let the pony do it himself. He knows how and I don't,"
muttered Tad, slackening on the reins.
The straying animal was quickly turned and headed toward the herd,
after which the pony whirled and went after one of the others, turning
this one, as it did the others. In a short time the truants were all back in
the herd.
"That's the way to do it, young fellow. I told the gang back there that
the Pinto had the stuff in him."
Tad turned sharply to meet the smiling face of Big-foot Sanders, who,
sitting on his pony, had been watching the boy's efforts and nodding an
emphatic approval.
"You'll make a cowman all right," said Big-foot.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP

The camp-fire was burning brightly when the first guard, having
completed its tour of duty, came galloping in.
In a few moments the sound of singing was borne to the ears of the
campers.
"What's the noise?" demanded Stacy Brown, sitting up with a half
scared look on his face.
"It's the 'Cowboy's Lament,'" laughed Bob Stallings. "Listen."
Off on the plain they heard a rich tenor voice raised in the song of the
cowman.
"Little black bull came down the hillside, Down the hillside, down the
hillside, Little black bull came down the hillside, Long time ago."
"I don't call that much of a song," sniffed Chunky contemptuously after
a moment of silence on the part of the group. "Even if I can't sing, I can
beat that."
"Better not try it out on the range," smiled the foreman.
"Not on the range? Why not?" demanded the boy.
"Bob thinks it might stampede the herd," spoke up Big-foot Sanders.
A loud laugh followed at Chunky's expense.
"When you get to be half as good a man on cows as your friend the
Pinto, here, you'll be a full grown man," added Big-foot. "The Pinto
rounded up a bunch of stray cows to-night as well as I could do it
myself, and he didn't go about it with a brass band either."
The foreman nodded, with an approving glance at Tad.
Tad's eyes were sparkling from the experiences of the evening, as well
as from the praise bestowed upon him by the big cowpuncher.

"The pony did most of it," admitted the lad. "I just gave him his head,
and that's all there was to it."
"More than most tenderfeet would have done," growled Big-foot.
Walter had gone out with the second guard, and the others had gathered
around the camp-fire for their nightly story-telling.
"Now, I don't want you fellows sitting up all night," objected the
foreman. "None of you will be fit for duty to-morrow. We've got a hard
drive before us, and every man must be fit as a fiddle. You can enjoy
yourselves sleeping just as well as sitting up."
"Humph!" grunted Curley Adams. "I'll give it as a horseback opinion
that the only way to enjoy such a night as this, is to sit up until you fall
asleep with your boots on. That's the way I'm going to do it, to-night."
The cowboy did this very thing, but within an hour he found himself
alone, the others having turned in one by one.
"Where are your beds?" asked Stacy after the foreman had urged the
boys to get to sleep.
"Beds?" grunted Big-foot. "Anywhere--everywhere. Our beds, on the
plains, are wherever we happen to pull our boots off."
"You will find your stuff rolled up under the chuck wagon, boys," said
Stallings. "I had Pong get out the blankets for you, seeing that you have
only your slickers with you."
The lads found that a pair of blankets had been assigned to each of
them, with an ordinary wagon sheet doubled for a tarpaulin. These they
spread out on the ground, using boots wrapped in coats for pillows.
Stacy Brown proved the only grumbler in the lot, declaring that he
could not sleep a wink on such a bed as that.
In floundering about, making up his bunk, the lad had fallen over two
cowboys and stepped full on the face of a third.

Instantly there was a chorus of yells and snarls from the disturbed
cowpunchers, accompanied by dire threats as to what they would do to
the gopher did he ever disturb their rest in that way again.
This effectually quieted the boy for the night, and the camp settled
down to silence and to sleep.
The horses of the outfit, save those that were on night duty and two or
three others that had developed a habit