It felt all loose and useless, so Buddy stopped long enough to pull the apron off and throw it beside Sister before he crawled under the canvas flap and walked down the spokes of a rear wheel.

He did not mean to get in the way of the wild cow, but he did want action for his restless legs.

He thought that if he went away from the wagon and the herd and played while they were catching the wild cow, it would be just the same as if he took a nap.
Mother hadn't thought of it, or she might have suggested it.
So Buddy went away from the wagon and down into a shallow dry wash where the wild cow would not come, and played.

The first thing he saw was a scorpion-nasty old bug that will bite hard-and he threw rocks at it until it scuttled under a ledge out of sight.

The next thing he saw that interested him at all was a horned toad; a hawn-toe, he called it, after Ezra's manner of speaking.