** transcription by Kent Fielden

THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES

BY FRANK GEE PATCHIN



CHAPTER I

THE LOVE OF A HORSE

"Oh, let me get up. Let me ride him for two minutes, Walter."

Walter Perkins brought his pony to a slow stop and glanced down
hesitatingly into the pleading blue eyes of the freckle-faced boy at
his side.

"Please! I'll only ride him up to the end of the block and back, and I
won't go fast, either. Let me show you how I can ride him," urged Tad
Butler, with a note of insistence in his voice.

"If I thought you wouldn't fall off----"

"I fall off?" sniffed Tad, contemptuously. "I'd like to see the pony
that could bounce me off his back. Huh! Guess I know how to ride
better than that. Say, Chunky, remember the time when the men from
Texas had those ponies here--brought them here to sell?"

Chunky--the third boy of the group--nodded vigorously.