The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's Ranch Part 19

"Yes," went on Janet. "We gave him water in our hats, and he's going to be Ted's and mine 'cause Ted found him. But will you please come and cure him so we can have a ride on him? Don't let him die."

"Well," exclaimed Doctor Bond, smiling in a puzzled way at the children, "I don't believe I can come. I don't know anything about curing sick ponies. You need a horse doctor for that."

Ted and Janet looked at one another, not knowing what to say.

CHAPTER XI

TROUBLE MAKES A La.s.sO

Doctor Bond must have seen how disappointed Teddy and Janet were, for he spoke very kindly as he asked:

"Who are you, and where are you from? Tell me about this sick pony with the funny name."

"He is Clipclap," answered Teddy, giving the name he had picked out for his new pet. "And we are the Curlytops."

"Yes, I can see _that_ all right," laughed the doctor with a look at the crisp hair of the little boy and girl. "But where do you live?"

"At Uncle Frank's ranch," Janet answered.

"You mean Mr. Frank Barton, of the Circle O?" the doctor inquired.

"Yes, only we call it the Ring Rosy Ranch now, and so does he,"

explained Teddy.

"The Ring Rosy Ranch, is it? Well, I don't know but what that is a good name for it. Now tell me about yourselves and this pony."

This Teddy and Janet did by turns, relating how they had come out West from Cresco, and what good times they were having. They even told about having gone to Cherry Farm, about camping with Grandpa Martin and about being snowed in.

"Well, you have had some nice adventures!" exclaimed Doctor Bond. "Now about this sick----"

"Is some one ill?" enquired Mrs. Bond, coming in from the chicken yard just then, in time to hear her husband's last words. "Who is it?"

On the Western prairies when one neighbor hears of another's illness he or she wants to help in every way there is. So Mrs. Bond, hearing that some one was ill, wanted to do her share.

"It's a pony," her husband said with a smile.

"A pony!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, these Curlytop children found one in the cave among the rocks.

It's on Circle O Ranch--I should say Ring Rosy," and the doctor gave Uncle Frank's place the new name. "These are Mr. Barton's nephew's children," he went on, for Ted and Janet had told the doctor that it was their father's uncle, and not theirs, at whose home they were visiting.

Though, as a matter of fact, Ted and Janet thought Uncle Frank was as much theirs as he was their father's and, very likely, Uncle Frank thought so himself.

"Can't you come and cure the sick pony?" asked Teddy.

"He's groaning awful hard," went on Janet.

"Well, my dear Curlytops," said Doctor Bond with a smile, "I'd like to come, but, as I said, I don't know anything about curing sick horses or animals. I never studied that. It takes a doctor who knows about them to give them the right kind of medicine."

"I thought all medicine was alike," said Teddy. "What our doctor gives us is always bitter."

"Well, all medicine isn't bitter," laughed Doctor Bond, "though some very good kinds are. However, I wouldn't know whether to give this Clipclap pony bitter or sweet medicine."

"Maybe you could ask one of the cowboys," said Janet. "I heard Mr.

Mason--Jim, Uncle Frank calls him--telling how he cured a sick horse once."

"Oh, yes, your uncle's foreman, Jim Mason, knows a lot about horses,"

said Doctor Bond.

"Then why don't you go with the children and get Jim to help you find out what the matter is with their pony?" suggested Mrs. Bond. "There isn't a regular veterinary around here, and they don't want to see their pet suffer. Go along with them."

"I believe I will," said Doctor Bond. "I could perhaps tell what's the matter with the pony, and if I've got any medicine that might cure it, Jim would know how to give it--I wouldn't."

"We just found the pony in the cave," explained Teddy. "We were taking a walk and we heard him groan."

"Oh, I see," said Mrs. Bond. "Well, I hope the doctor can make him well for you," she went on, as her husband hurried back into the house to get ready for the trip.

He had a small automobile, and in this he and the children were soon hurrying along the road toward Ring Rosy Ranch. It was decided to go there first instead of to the cave where the pony was.

"We'll get Jim Mason and take him back with us," said the doctor.

Uncle Frank and his cowboys had come back from looking after the lost ponies, but had not found them. He, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Martin, were very much surprised when the Curlytops came riding up to the ranch in Doctor Bond's automobile.

"Well, where in the world have you been?" cried Mother Martin. "We were just beginning to get worried about you children. Where were you?"

"We found a pony!" cried Janet.

"And he's sick!" added Teddy.

"And his name is Clipclap!" exclaimed the little girl.

"And he's mine but Janet can have half of him, and we got him water in our hats," came from Teddy.

"And we got the doctor, too!" went on his sister.

"Well, I should say you'd put in quite a busy day," chuckled Uncle Frank. "Now let's hear more about it."

So the Curlytops told, and Doctor Bond said, even if he was not a horse doctor, he'd go out and look at the pony in the cave, if the ranch foreman would come with him.

"Of course I'll come!" cried Jim Mason. "I wouldn't want to see any pony suffer. And I've doctored quite a few of 'em, even if I don't know much about medicine. Come on, Curlytops!"

Jim Mason jumped on his own swift pony, saying he could make as good time over the rough prairie as Doctor Bond could in his automobile. The Curlytops rode in the machine with the physician. Uncle Frank and Daddy Martin went along, for they, too, were interested in the sick pony.

It did not take long to get to the cave amid the rocks. Jim Mason's horse reached there ahead of the automobile, and the foreman had gone into the cave and come out again by the time the Curlytops were getting out of the machine.