CHAPTER XVIIA JOYOUS FIND
Janet and Ted looked at each other and then at Tom and Lola Taylor when the farmer spoke the word “Gypsy.”
“What’s that you say?” asked Mr. Blake, who was a little deaf. “Did you say you knew where the bad dog was that’s been chasing my sheep and taking my chickens, Mr. Addison?”
“I think I can tell you where you might find him,” was the answer. “I was driving past the Gypsy camp the other day, and I saw a lot of dogs near their tents and wagons. You know those Gypsies always do have a lot of dogs.”
“Yes, they seem to be particularly fond of dogs and horses,” agreed the storekeeper, hearing quite well now, for Mr. Addison, the farmer, spoke loudly.
“Well, among the other dogs was one big, ugly, yellow one,” went on Mr. Addison. “I shouldn’t be surprised but what he was the one that’s been around your place, Mr. Blake. And he’s been at my place, too.”
“There may be something in that!” exclaimed the storekeeper. “It surely was a yellow dog that chased my chickens, killing some, and taking others away with him. And it was a yellow dog that my hired man saw chasing my sheep.”
“Do you keep sheep and chickens, as well as run this store?” asked Uncle Ben.
“Yes, I have a farm and a store,” answered Mr. Blake. “And a dog that chases sheep is a bad animal to have around a farm.”
“Our dog wouldn’t chase sheep!” exclaimed Janet.
“I’m glad to know that,” Mr. Blake replied. “Now I think I’ll take a trip over to that Gypsy camp, and if they have a sheep and chicken chasing dog there, I’ll get the constable after them and make them either get rid of the yellow dog or keep him chained up.”
“Oh, could we go with you?” cried Ted, almost before he knew what he was saying.
“Go with me? Why do you want to go to the Gypsy camp?” asked the farmer storekeeper, in surprise.
“Because maybe the Gypsies have our dog Skyrocket,” answered Ted.
“Oh, maybe they have!” cried Janet, clapping her hands excitedly.
“Why, I thought you said your dog ran away,” went on Mr. Blake. And he looked first at Uncle Ben and then at the children.
“But I saw Skyrocket in a Gypsy wagon!” cried Tom. “And maybe these Gypsies have him. Oh, I hope they have!”
“Hum!” said Mr. Blake, as he got up from his seat on a nail keg to weigh out a pound of sugar for a barefooted boy who came into the store. “Hum! Let me hear the whole story, children. There may be more out at this Gypsy camp than we think there is.”
So Janet and Ted told how Skyrocket had been lost, and Tom told how, later on, he had seen one of the Gypsy wagons going along with a black dog in it, that looked just like the Curlytops’ pet.
“And if these Gypsies are the same ones, maybe they have Skyrocket out at their camp now,” finished Tom.
“They surely have a lot of dogs out there—I saw ’em,” said Mr. Addison, the farmer who had first mentioned the Gypsies. “And that big, yellow one looked as savage as a wolf. I’m sure he’s a bad sheep dog. I think he took some of my sheep and chickens, too.”
“Well, we’ll go and take a look!” said Mr. Blake, the storekeeper, after thinking a few minutes. “I’ll get my wife to stay behind the counter to-morrow, and I’ll go up and look over this Gypsy camp.”
“And may we come and bring back Skyrocket—that is, if he’s there?” begged Teddy.
Mr. Blake looked at Uncle Ben.
“I wish you could take the children there,” said the sailor. “How would it be if we all went in the motor boat to-morrow? I could run you up to the end of the lake, and you could go to the camp from there, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, that would be the best way,” answered Mr. Addison. “It’s nearer by water, too, than by going around the road.”
“Could you come with us to show us where the camp is, and where you saw the yellow dog?” asked Mr. Blake.
“Yes, I could go with you,” was the answer.
“Then we’ll make up a party, and go up to the end of the lake the first thing in the morning,” decided Uncle Ben. “I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Martin will let the children go if there is a chance to get back Skyrocket.”
“Oh, I hope you can find him!” whispered Lola to Janet.
“I hope so, too,” replied the little Curlytop girl.
After a little further talk with the two men, Uncle Ben took the things he had bought down to the dock where he had left the boat, and soon he and the children were on their way back across Silver Lake.
All the way home Ted and Janet, with Lola and Tom, talked of nothing but what they had heard of the Gypsy camp, and they wondered if Skyrocket would be found there.
“I wish I could be with you when you go up there to-morrow,” said Daddy Martin, when he heard the story of the yellow dog, the missing chickens, and the sheep that had been chased so hard that some of them died. “But I have to go back to Cresco the first thing in the morning.”
“But we can go look for Skyrocket, can’t we?” asked Ted anxiously.
“Oh, yes, Uncle Ben can take you there,” his father answered. “I guess, with him and the storekeeper, and the farmer you’ll be enough to make the Gypsies be good. And if you see Skyrocket——”
“I’ll just hug him and bring him home!” exclaimed Janet.
“Me want to hug Skywocket, too!” exclaimed Baby William.
“You’ll have to wait until they bring him home, Trouble, dear,” said his mother. “That is, if they are lucky enough to find him.”
When supper was over and after they had played about in the woods a bit, the Curlytops and their visitors went to bed. Trouble, some little time before, had nodded off to sleep in his mother’s arms. Mr. and Mrs. Martin, with Uncle Ben, sat up in the bungalow, talking over what had happened during the day.
“Do you really think Skyrocket may be at the Gypsy camp?” asked Mrs. Martin.
“I don’t see how he could be,” her husband said. “Of course, it may have happened that the children’s dog was stolen by Gypsies, just as it may have been Gypsies that went into Mrs. Ransom’s store and took her queer box and other things. But it would be too much to have it happen that the Gypsies camping at the upper end of this lake are the same ones who took the Curlytops’ pet dog.”
“Well, it could happen,” said Ted’s mother.
“Yes, itcould,” agreed her husband, “but I don’t believe it will. I’m afraid Skyrocket will never be found, though I wish he would, for our Curlytops miss him so much.”
“We’ll know by this time to-morrow whether or not he is in the Gypsy camp,” said Uncle Ben. “We’ll start early in the morning, and make a trip of it. I have to go over to Cardiff to pick up Mr. Blake and Mr. Addison first.”
“Well, I hope you’ll find Skyrocket,” said Mr. Martin, as he went about the bungalow, locking up for the night. “But I’m afraid you will not, and the children will be very much disappointed.”
“I’ll try to give them a good time on the water, in case we don’t find their dog,” answered Uncle Ben.
All was still and quiet in the bungalow a little later. Every one was fast asleep, and I am quite sure the Curlytops, and perhaps Tom and Lola, were dreaming of going to the Gypsy camp and maybe having their fortunes told.
All of a sudden came a loud cry that awakened every one in Sunnyside.
“Oh, I’ve got him! I’ve got him!” shouted the voice of Ted Martin. “I’ve got him! He came back to me! He got away from the Gypsies and now he’s here!”
“Hush, Teddy! Hush, my dear!” called his mother from the next room. “Wake up! Wake up! You’re talking in your sleep!”
But Teddy kept on calling:
“I have him! Oh, I have Skyrocket! My dog has come back!”
“Teddy, be quiet! Wake up. You have the nightmare!” said his father, and, getting up, Mr. Martin hurried into the room of his little son.
Turning on the light, for there were electric lamps at Sunnyside, Mr. Martin saw Teddy sitting up on his cot. There was a strange look on the little boy’s face.
“Where did he go?” he asked his father, in sleepy tones.
“Where did who go?” Mr. Martin asked, while Uncle Ben, from his room, called to know if anything was wrong.
“Only Teddy talking in his sleep,” answered Mr. Martin. “I guess he was dreaming he was at the Gypsy camp and had found Skyrocket; weren’t you?” he asked the little boy.
“I did find Skyrocket,” was the answer. “Skyrocket was right here. I felt his soft fur. He was right in bed with me. Oh, where did he go?”
Teddy spoke so loudly, and seemed so much in earnest that his mother came in and tried to quiet him.
“You’ll wake Trouble up,” she said; “and you know how hard it is to get him to sleep again. And you have already awakened all of us. It’s all right, Tom and Lola!” she called to the visitors. “It was just Teddy talking in his sleep. He thought he had Skyrocket.”
“I really did have him, Mother!” Teddy insisted. “I could feel his soft fur, and he was right in my bed.”
“Nonsense, Teddy!” exclaimed his father. “You just dreamed it!”
“No! Look! Oh, I feel him now!” cried the little boy. “Here he is in bed with me! He’s under the covers, down by my feet!”
His father and mother looked. Surely enough, something was moving under the bed clothes, and it was not Teddy’s toes that were wiggling, for they could be seen, sticking up under the sheet, off to one side.
Daddy Martin, with a quick motion, turned back the sheet. Out on the floor jumped a big gray animal with a very large tail.
“That’s what it was!” cried Teddy. “I knew I felt something soft and fuzzy.”
“It’s a big gray squirrel!” said Mr. Martin. “He must have crawled in bed with Teddy. No wonder you felt something like Skyrocket’s fuzzy coat,” he added.
“Oh, get the squirrel for me!” begged Teddy. But the squirrel did not wait to be caught. It was one thing to be in a soft warm bed in the dark with a little boy, but quite another to have big folks looking at him in the light. So the squirrel scurried out of an open window and disappeared in the darkness off the porch.
“There! it wasn’t a dream, was it?” asked Teddy, when it was certain that the squirrel had gone.
“No, it was part real,” his father said with a laugh. “Now go to sleep.”
Nothing else disturbed the Curlytops or the others in the bungalow that night, and in the morning after breakfast they started for Cardiff, there to get Mr. Blake and Mr. Addison, and then go on to the Gypsy camp.
“THAT’S WHAT IT WAS!” CRIED TEDDY. “I KNEW I FELT SOMETHING SOFT AND FUZZY.”
“THAT’S WHAT IT WAS!” CRIED TEDDY. “I KNEW I FELT SOMETHING SOFT AND FUZZY.”
“THAT’S WHAT IT WAS!” CRIED TEDDY. “I KNEW I FELT SOMETHING SOFT AND FUZZY.”
“Did you lose any more chickens, or were your sheep chased in the night?” asked Uncle Ben of the storekeeper, when the two men came down to the dock.
“Yes,” was the answer. “That bad, yellow dog was around again, and I fired my gun at him, but I didn’t hit him. He ran off toward the place where Mr. Addison says the Gypsy camp is.”
“Well, we’ll soon be there and we can see for ourselves,” replied Uncle Ben.
“Will it be all right for the children?” asked Mr. Addison, as he noticed Ted and Janet and Tom and Lola in the boat.
“Oh, yes,” answered Uncle Ben. “I guess we three men are enough to make the Gypsies be good. Besides, we can have them arrested if they try any tricks.”
Off puffed the motor boat once more, and after about an hour’s ride they reached a little cove, or bay. From there a path led to the Gypsy camp, Mr. Addison said.
The boat was chained and locked to a pier, and then the party started through the woods. The children were very much excited, looking on each side as they went along, each one hoping to get the first sight of the camp.
“There’s the place!” said Mr. Addison, after a while, in a low voice. He pointed through the trees. The Curlytops and the others could see some white tents and a number of red and yellow wagons, with bits of looking-glass fastened on the sides.
It was the Gypsy camp.
Eagerly Ted and Tom pressed forward, running ahead of Uncle Ben and the others. As the boys came out on a little open space, around which were the tents and wagons, Ted caught sight of a small, black dog.
“There he is! There he is!” cried the Curlytop lad. “I’ve found Skyrocket! Hurrah!”
But, as he spoke, he and Tom saw a big, dark-skinned Gypsy man with gold rings in his ears grab the black dog up in his arms and hurry into a tent with him.