Strange cowboys began to drift into the camp; but all seemed well
behaved, and they were the easiest men in the world to get along
with. They all put themselves out to give the visitors any
information in their power.

"We're going to have a bully time here," Bess declared to Nan. "I
do not really want to go to bed to-night. I'd rather hang about the
campfires and listen to the boys who are off watch tell stories."

But Rhoda would not agree to this, and the four girls retired at a
reasonable hour. Walter slept under one of the cook wagons, rolled
up in a blanket like the cowboys themselves. Everything seemed
peaceful when they went to bed, and there surely was no sign of one
of the tornadoes Mr. Hammond had talked about. The girls, at least,
slept just as soundly in their tent as they had in the beds at the
ranch house.

The camp was aroused betimes the next morning. Breakfast was eaten
by starlight. Immediately the first gang of horses, cut out of the
main herd, was driven down.

Walter and the girls were in the saddle as early as anybody. Of
course, none of the visitors could swing a rope; but Rhoda showed
them how to ride on the flank of the herd and keep the young and
wild horses from running free. They had all to be driven into the
wide entrance to the corral.

It was inside this barrier that the cowboys rode among the
frightened herd and roped those that were to be branded. Even Rhoda
did a little of this before the day was over, and her friends