CHAPTER XX
THE ROUND-UP
Bert and Nan were really too frightened to know what to do. If theyhad been more used to the ways of the West, and had known more aboutcattle and ranches, they would have at once run for their ponies andhave got on the backs of the little animals. Cattle in the West are soused to seeing men on horse back that sometimes if they see them onfoot on the wide prairie, the cattle chase the men, thinking they area strange enemy.
Perhaps it was this way with the wild steer. At any rate, seeing Bertand Nan gathering flowers down in the hollow of the hills, the steer,with loud bellows, started down toward them. The two ponies wereeating grass near by, and Bert and Nan could easily have reached theirpets if they had thought of it.
But they were so frightened that they could not think. As for theponies, those little horses merely looked up. They saw the steer, but,as they saw such animals every day, the ponies were not at allinterested.
"Oh, Bert," cried Nan, "what shall we do?"
She had dropped her flowers and was running toward her brother.
"You get behind me!" cried Bert. "Maybe I can throw a stone at thissteer!"
He, too, had dropped the red blossoms he had gathered, and was lookingabout for a stone. But he could not see any, and the wild steer wascoming on down the slope. I do not mean that the steer was wild, likea wild lion or tiger, but that he was just excited by seeing twochildren off their ponies. If Bert and Nan had been in the saddlesperhaps the steer never would have chased them.
But now with tail flapping in the air, and with angry shakes of hishead, he was running toward them. Nan got behind her brother, and Bertstood ready to do what he could. The children did not realize how muchdanger they were in and they might have been hurt but for somethingthat happened.
At first neither Bert nor Nan knew what this happening was. One momentthey saw the wild steer racing toward them, and the next minute theysaw the big animal, larger than a cow, tumbling down the hill headover heels. The steer seemed to have fallen, and a look toward thecrest of the hill showed what had made him. For up at the top of theslope, sitting on his big horse, was the new foreman, Charley Dayton,and from his saddle horn a rope stretched out. The other end of therope was around the steer's neck, and it was a pull on this rope thathad caused the big beast to turn a somersault.
"Oh, he lassoed the steer! He lassoed him!" cried Bert, as he saw whathad happened.
And that is just what the foreman had done. He had been out ridingover the ranch, and had seen the lone steer on top of the hill whichhe knew led down into a hollow filled with red flowers.
"At first," said Mr. Dayton to Nan and Bert, telling them the storyafterward, "I couldn't imagine why the steer was acting so queerly. Ithought may be he didn't like the red flowers, so I rode up to seewhat the matter was. Then I saw you children down in the hollow andsaw the steer rushing at you.
"There was only one thing I could do, and I did it. I didn't even stopto shout to you Bobbsey twins!" said the foreman. "I just swung mylasso and caught the steer before he caught you."
"You made him turn a somersault, didn't you?" said Nan, as she andBert looked at the big beast which was now lying on the ground.
"Well, he sort of made himself do it," answered the foreman, with alaugh. "He was going so fast, and the lasso rope on his neck made himstop so quickly that he went head over heels. But you had better getinto your saddles now, and I'll let this fellow up."
Mr. Dayton had twisted some coils of his rope around the steer's legsso the animal could not get up until the foreman was ready to let him.But as soon as Bert and Nan had gathered the flowers they had dropped,and had seated themselves in their saddles, and when the foreman hadmounted his horse, he shook loose the coils of the rope, or lasso, andthe steer scrambled to his feet.
"Will he chase us again?" asked Nan.
"No, I guess I taught him a lesson," answered Mr. Dayton.
The steer shook himself and looked at the three figures on the horseand ponies. He did not seem to want to chase anybody now, and after ashake or two of his head the steer walked away, up over the hill andacross the prairie, to join the rest of the herd from which he hadstrayed.
"You want to be careful about getting off your ponies when you see alone steer," the foreman told Bert and Nan. "Some animals think aperson on foot is a new kind of creature and want to give chase rightaway. On a cattle ranch keep in the saddle as much as you can when youare among the steers."
Bert and his sister said they would do this, and then they rode homewith the red flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey thanked the foreman foragain saving the children from harm.
Mr. Charles Dayton seemed to fit in well at Three Star ranch. He wasas good a ranchman as his brother Bill was a lumberman. And, true tothe promise he had given Mrs. Bobbsey, the ranch foreman wrote toBill, giving the address of Three Star.
"I had a letter from Bill to-day, Mrs. Bobbsey," said the ranchforeman to the children's mother one afternoon.
"Did you? That's good!" she answered.
"And he says he'd like to see me," went on Mr. Charles Dayton. "Hesays he has something to tell me."
"Did he say what it was about?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, while Bert and Nanstood near by. They were waiting for the foreman to saddle the poniesfor them, as he always wanted to be sure the girths were made tightenough before the twins set out for a ride.
"No, Bill didn't say what it was he wanted to tell me," went onCharley. "And he writes rather queerly."
"Your brother seemed to me to be a bit odd," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "As ifhe had some sort of a secret."
"Oh, well, I guess he has had his troubles, the same as I have," saidthe ranch foreman.
"We were boys together, and we didn't have a very good time. I supposeit was as much our fault as any one's. But you don't think of that atthe time. Well, I'll be glad to see Bill again, but I don't know whenwe'll get together. Are you waiting for me, Bobbsey twins?" he asked.
"Yes, if you please," answered Nan.
"We'd like our ponies," added Bert, "and you promised to show me somemore how to lasso."
"And so I will!" promised the foreman. He had already given Bert a fewlessons in casting the rope. Of course Bert could not use a lasso ofthe regulation size, so one of the cowboys had made him a little one.With this Bert did very well. Freddie also had to have one, but hiswas only a toy. Freddie wanted his father to call him "little cowboy"now, instead of "little fireman," and, to please Freddie, Mr. Bobbseydid so once in a while.
After Bert had been given a few more lessons in casting the lasso, thetwo older Bobbsey twins went for a ride on their ponies, while Mrs.Bobbsey took Flossie and Freddie for a ride in the pony cart.
It was about a week after this that the Bobbsey twins were awakenedone morning by a loud shouting outside the ranch house where theyslept.
"What's the matter? Have the Indians come?" asked Bert, for some ofthe cowboys had said a few Indians from a neighboring reservationusually dropped in for a visit about this time of year.
"No, I don't see any Indians," answered Nan, who had looked out of awindow, after hurriedly getting dressed. "But I see a lot of thecowboys."
"Oh, maybe they're going after the Indians!" exclaimed Bert. "I'm goingto ask mother if I can go along!"
"I want to go, too, and get an Indian doll!" exclaimed Nan.
But when they went out into the main room, where their father andmother were eating breakfast, and when the two Bobbsey twins hadbegged to be allowed to go with the cowboys to see the Indians, Mr.Bobbsey said: "This hasn't anything to do with Indians, Bert."
"What's it all about then?" asked the boy.
"It's the round-up," answered his father. "The cowboys are gettingready for the half-yearly round-up, and that's what they're so excitedabout."
"Oh, may I see the round-up?" begged Bert,
"What is it?" asked Nan. "What's a round-up?"
Before Mr. Bobbsey could answer Mr. Dayton, the foreman, came hurryinginto the room. He se
emed quite excited.
"Excuse me for disturbing your breakfast," he said to Mr. and Mrs.Bobbsey. "But I have some news for you. Some Indians have run off partof your cattle!"