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Updated: May 20, 2025
Now we'll go home!" "And we haven't any nice little gopher to take to Trouble," said Janet sadly. "Oh, well, maybe it would bite him if we did catch one," reflected her brother. "I'll take him some of these pretty stones," and he picked up some from the ground. "He'll like to play with these." Teddy whistled for his pony and Clipclap came slowly up to his little master.
If he belonged to some other ranch it must have been far away. "So you may feel that it is all right for you to keep your pony, Curlytop," said Uncle Frank to Teddy. "If anyone should, later, say it belongs to him, and can prove it, we'll give it up, of course." "But I don't want to give Clipclap up!" Teddy cried. "Well, maybe you won't have to," said his father.
Indeed the little animals were thirsty, and after they had rested a while for Uncle Frank had told the children it was not wise to let a horse or pony drink when it was too warm Clipclap and Star Face had some of the cool water that bubbled up among the rocks. "It tastes awful good!" exclaimed Janet, as she took some from the cup Ted filled for her.
After Clipclap had been found at the spring, the time he was hidden in the cave, one of the cowboys had brought a tin cup to the spring, leaving it there, so if anyone passed the spring it would be easy to get a drink without having to use a hat or kneel down on the ground. For horses and cattle there was a little rocky basin into which the cool water flowed.
On and on over the moonlit prairies went Star Face and Clipclap. They seemed to know where they were going and did not stop. Ted and Janet were too tired to guide them. They were both getting sleepy. Pretty soon Janet saw ahead of her something glistening in the stretch of the prairie. The moonlight seemed to sparkle on it. "Oh, look, Ted!" she cried, pointing.
The cowboys' horses, too, could go faster than the ponies Star Pace and Clipclap, for the larger horses had longer legs. All Teddy and Janet thought of was hurrying along as fast as they could go, in order to catch up to the Indian hunters. What would happen after that they did not know. All at once, as the Curlytops were riding along, they heard what they thought was a whistle.
Uncle Frank took Ted and Janet out to the rocks to bring back their pet, but he had to walk very slowly, for he was still weak from the poison. "And hell have to stay in the stable for a week or so," said Jim Mason when Clipclap was safely at the ranch. "After that he will be strong enough to ride. While you Curlytops are waiting I'll give you a few riding lessons."
"But let's go and take a ride on our ponies." "Yes, I'll do that," agreed Janet, and soon, having had one of the cowboys who had been left behind at Ring Rosy Ranch saddle Clipclap and Star Face, the Curlytops started for their ride. "Don't go too far!" called Mrs. Martin after the children. "No, we won't," they promised. "I wants to go wide too!" begged Trouble. "I 'ikes a wide on a ponyback."
"I guess he stepped in a gopher's hole," answered her brother. "Let's look," proposed Janet. Brother and sister went to the place where Clipclap had stumbled. There they saw a little hole in the ground. It was the front, or maybe the back, door of the home of a little animal called a gopher, which burrows under the earth.
If Ted wants to keep Clipclap, as he calls him, I'll give Janet another." "Oh, won't I just love him!" cried the little girl. "And I'll love Clipclap!" said Teddy. There was nothing more that could be done just then for the sick pony, so the Curlytops and the others left him in the cave. The children were glad he did not groan any more.
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