It had been almost dark when the party arrived at the broad, low house in which Cowboy Jack and his household lived. If the surprise was outside the house the children would have been unable to see it.
Mun Bun fell sound asleep over his supper, and Margy had to "prop her eyes open," as daddy declared, before the meal was done. Both these youngest Bunkers made no objection to going off to bed. But Vi and Laddie wanted to stay up as long as Russ and Rose did.
"We're almost as big as they are," declared Laddie, when he was questioned on this point. "And if Rose and Russ would only stop and wait for us a little, Vi and I would catch up to them--so now!"
But Russ and Rose were quite as eager to grow up as were Laddie and Vi; so they were not willing to wait, could they have done so. Daddy pointed out the fact of the "march of time" to the little folks and explained that everybody had to grow older each tiny second.
"Why can't we stop and wait?" demanded Vi. "We can stop an automobile and get out and wait."
"Or get lost from a train," put in Laddie, who was sitting on what Cowboy Jack called a "hassock"--a low seat--and studying a paper he had found. "I ought to make up a riddle about Vi and me being lost from the train that time."
"I'll give you a riddle," said Cowboy Jack, with one of his booming laughs.
"Please do!" cried Laddie. "I just love riddles."
"Well, here is one," said the ranchman. "'What is it that is black and white, but red all over?'"
"Black--white--and red?" repeated Laddie, puzzled, for if he had ever heard that riddle he had forgotten it.
"I know what is red, white and blue!" cried Vi. "That's the flag."
"Three cheers!" returned Cowboy Jack. "So you do, little girl. You've got the flag quite right. But this isn't the flag I am talking about."
"I don't believe I ever saw anything that was black and white but red, too," confessed Laddie slowly.
"Oh, yes, you have," said their big friend, apparently just as much entertained by the riddle as the little folks.
"I guess you must be mistaken, Mr. Cowboy Jack," said Laddie soberly. "I can't think of a single thing that is black and white, besides being red all over."
"Why, look at what you have in your hand!" exclaimed the ranchman.