"Yes, I guess you did," admitted Teddy, getting up and brushing the
dust off his clothes. "But I'd 'a' beaten you, only my pony stumbled
and he threw me over his head. I went right over his head; didn't I
Janet?"

"Yes, you did, Teddy. And you looked awful funny! But I'm glad
you're not hurt."

"So'm I."

"What made Clipclap stumble?" asked the little girl.

"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. A gopher is a sort of squirrel-like
rat, and on the prairies they make many holes which are dangerous if
a horse suddenly steps into them. Prairie dogs are another species of
animal that burrow on the Western plains, making holes into which
horses or ponies often step, breaking their legs and throwing their
riders.

This time nothing had happened except that Teddy and the pony had
been shaken up. The pony might have broken a leg but did not, nor was
Teddy even scratched.