Buddy made sure of this, and then started off, following what he had decided was the real trail of the ants.

Most children would have stirred them up with a stick; Buddy let them alone so that he could see what they were doing all by themselves.
The ants led him to a tiny hole with a finely pulverized rim just at the edge of a sprawly cactus.

This last Buddy carefully avoided, for even at four years old he had long ago learned the sting of cactus thorns.

A rattlesnake buzzed warning when he backed away and the shock to Buddy's nerves roused within him the fighting spirit.

Rattlesnakes he knew also, as the common enemy of men and cattle.