FRANK AMONG THE RANCHEROS.

CHAPTER I.

A NOVEL BATTLE.


"Pull him along, Carlos! Pull him along!" shouted a young gentleman
about sixteen years of age, as he danced about on the back porch of his
uncle's house, in a state of great excitement; "why don't you pull him
along?"

"He'll come, after awhile," replied the person addressed; "but he is
very wild and obstinate."

The boy on the porch was almost beside himself--so much so, in fact,
that he found it utterly impossible to stand still. He was jumping
wildly about, swinging his arms around his head, and laughing and
shouting at the top of his lungs.

We have met this young gentleman before. We have been with him through
the woods, accompanied him across the prairie, and seen him in some
exciting situations; but, for all that, it is by no means certain that
his most intimate friend, could he have beheld him while he was dancing
about on the porch, would have recognized him. The last time we saw him
he was dressed in a suit of blue jeans, rather the worse for wear, a