"HERE IS ONE OF THE TRAMPS!"
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Janet Martinthought it must have been all of five minutes that she stood staring at the ragged man and he at her, though, very likely, it was only a few seconds. A little while seems very long sometimes; for instance, waiting for a train, or for the day of the party to come.
"Are you looking for anything?" the man asked of Janet after a while.
"He doesn't speak like a tramp," thought the little girl, who had occasionally heard them asking Nora, at the back door at home, for something to eat. "I guess I'll answer him."
So she replied:
"I'm looking for flowers."
"Well, there are some pretty ones here in the woods," went on the ragged man. "I saw some fine red ones a little while ago. IfI had known I should meet you I would have picked them for you."
"I wonder if hecanbe a tramp," thought Janet. "Do tramps pick flowers, or want to pick them?"
What she said was:
"Thank you, but I think I have enough now."
"Yes, you have a nice bouquet," went on the ragged man, still smiling.
He was dressed like a tramp, that was certain. But, somehow or other, Janet did not feel as afraid as she expected she would be when she thought of meeting a tramp.
"Do you live around here?" the man continued.
"Yes, we're camping in a tent," Jan replied. "My grandfather owns part of this island and we're with him—my mother and my brothers. We like it here."
"Yes, it's fine," said the ragged man, who Janet thought must be a tramp, even if he did not talk like most of them. "So you live in a tent? Does the professor stay here all the while?"
"The professor?" repeated Janet, and she wondered what the long word meant. She was sure she had heard it before.Pretty soon she remembered. At school she had heard some of the teachers speak of the principal as "Professor."
"My grandpa isn't a professor," explained Janet with a smile. "He's a farmer."
"Well, some farmers are scientists. Maybe he is a scientist," went on the tramp. "I was wondering if some one else was on this island looking for the same thing I'm looking for. Can you tell me, little girl——?"
But just then, from somewhere back in the woods, a voice called. The ragged man listened a moment, and then he cried:
"All right! I'm coming!"
Janet saw him stoop and pick up off the ground a canvas bag, through the opening of which she saw stones, such as might be picked up on the shore of the lake or almost anywhere on the island.
"I hope I shall see you again, little girl," went on the tramp, as Janet called him afterward when telling the story. "And when I do, I hope I'll have some red flowers for you. Good-bye!"
Janet was so surprised by the quick way in which the man ran off through the woodswith his bag of stones that she did not answer or say good-bye. She just stood looking at the quivering bushes which closed up behind him and showed which way the man had gone. Janet could not see him any longer.
A moment later she heard the bushes behind her crackling, and, turning quickly, she saw Ted and Trouble coming toward her.
"What's the matter?" called her older brother. "Did you see another bear—I mean a fox?"
"No. But I saw a tramp man," replied Janet. "Oh, but he was awful ragged!"
"A tramp!" cried Ted. "Then we'd better get away from here. We'd better go and tell grandpa!"
Janet thought the same thing, and, after telling Ted all that had happened and what she and the man had said, the Curlytops hurried back through the woods to the camp.
"A ragged man on the island; is that it?" asked Grandpa Martin, when Jan told him what had happened. "It must be as Mr. Crittendon said, that there are tramps here. Though what they are doing I don't know. There isn't anything to eat here, except whatwe brought. And you haven't missed anything, have you, Nora? Has anybody been taking your strawberry shortcake or apple dumplings from the tent kitchen?"
"No, Mr. Martin, they haven't," Nora answered.
"Well, maybe it was a tramp and perhaps it wasn't," said Grandpa Martin. "Still it will be a good thing to have a look about the island. I don't want strange men roaming where they please, scaring the children."
"Oh, he didn't scare me, except at first," Janet hastened to say. "He spoke real nice to me, but his clothes were old and awful ragged. He wanted to know if you were a professor."
"Well, I guess I'm professor enough to drive away tramps that won't work, and only want to eat what other people get," returned the farmer. "I'll have a look around this island to-morrow, and drive away the tramps."
"And until then, don't you Curlytops go far away. Stay where I can watch you," went on Mrs. Martin, shaking her finger at them, half in fun, but a great deal in earnest.
"We'll stay near the tent," promised Jan.
"I'm going to help grandpa hunt the tramps," declared Ted.
"No, Curlytop, you'd better stay with your sister and mother," said the farmer. "I don't really believe there are any tramps here."
"But I saw him!" insisted Janet.
"I know you saw some one, Curly Girl," and grandpa smiled at her. "Of course there may be a strange man—maybe two, for you say you heard one call to the other. But they may have just stopped for a little while on this island. I'll have to ask them to go away, though, for we want to be by ourselves while camping. So, as there might be strangers around here who would not be pleasant, you'd better stay here, too, Teddy."
"All right, I'll stay," Teddy promised, and he tried to be happy and contented about it, though he did want to go with his grandfather on the "tramp-hunt" as he called it. But, though Teddy was quite a good-sized boy for his age, there were some things that it was not wise for him to do. This was one of them.
The next day Grandpa Martin, rowing over to the mainland, brought back with himone of his hired men. The two walked all over the island, only stopping for their lunch, and at night they had found no trace of anyone.
"If tramps were here they have gone," said Grandpa Martin. "I can't think why that man who talked to Janet should speak of a professor, though."
"Itisqueer," said Mrs. Martin. "Never mind, I'm glad it is safe for the children to run about now. It has been hard work to keep them about the tents all this day."
"I guess it has been," laughed Grandpa Martin. "Well, to-morrow they can run as much as they like."
Ted and Janet had lots of fun, playing on the shores of Clover Lake. They took off their shoes and stockings, and went wading. Trouble did the same, splashing about in his bare feet until he saw a little crawfish, darting from one stone to another under water to hide away.
"Trouble 'fraid of dem big water-bugs," he said, as he ran out on the grassy bank. "Don't want to wade any more," and Ted and Jan could not get him to come in again that day.
By this time the camp was well settled.They had stored away in the cooking tent many good things to eat, and whenever they wanted anything more Grandpa Martin would row over to the store on the mainland for it.
Daddy Martin wrote from Cresco, where he was looking after his store, that he would soon be back at Cherry Farm, and then he would come out to the camp and spend a week.
The Curlytops played all the games they knew. They took long rides with Nicknack, and often Trouble went with them. But it was not all play. Mrs. Martin thought it wise for Ted and Jan to have some work to do; so, each day, she gave them little tasks. They had to bring a small pail of water from the spring, gather wood for the evening campfire, and also some for Nora to use when she made the fire in the cook-stove. For Nora was a good cook, and many a fine pie or cake came out of the oven. Sometimes Ted and Jan helped around the kitchen by drying the dishes or helping set the table or clear it off.
One afternoon, when it was almost time to get supper, Mrs. Martin sent Ted to the spring for a pail of water. She wanted oneso they could all have a fresh drink, as it was rather warm that day.
"I'll go with you," offered Janet.
"Me come too," added Trouble.
"Yes, take him," said his mother to Janet. "He hasn't been out much to-day." So Trouble toddled off with his brother and sister.
Ted filled the pail at the bubbling spring, which was a large one, out of sight of the tents of the camp. Then he heard a strange bird whistling in a tree overhead, and, setting down the pail, he ran to see what it was.
"Oh, Jan," called her brother a moment later, "it's a big red and black bird. Awful pretty! Come and see him!"
Jan ran to get a look at the scarlet tanager, as grandpa said later it was, and, without thinking, she left Trouble alone.
Well, you can well imagine what Trouble did!
For a long while—ever since he had been in camp, in fact—Baby William had wanted to dip a pail of water out of the spring. But of course he could not be allowed to do this, for he might fall in. Now, however, he saw his chance.
"Trouble bring de water," he said, talking to himself while Teddy and Janet were looking at the pretty bird.
The little fellow carefully emptied the pail his brother had filled. Then with it in his hand he went slowly toward the spring. He leaned over, but longer arms than his were needed to reach the pail down into the bubbling water.
Trouble reached and stretched and reached again, and then——
"Splash!"
Baby William had fallen in!
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Janetand Ted returned from looking at the pretty scarlet bird just in time to see what happened to Trouble. They saw him fall into the spring.
"Oh!" cried Janet, clasping her hands. "Oh, look!"
"He'll be drowned!" yelled Ted, and then he ran as fast as he could toward the place where he had last seen his little brother, for Baby William was not in sight now. He was down in the water.
Perhaps Trouble might not have come to any harm, more than to get wet through by the time Ted reached him. Perhaps the little fellow might not have been drowned. At any rate, no harm came to him, even though Jan and her brother did not get there in time to help.
The two Curlytops, their fuzzy hair flutteringin the wind, were half way to the spring when they saw coming from the bushes a ragged man.
"There he is!" cried Janet.
"Who?" asked Ted.
"The man who—talked to me—while I was picking flowers," and Jan's voice came in gasps, for she was getting out of breath from having run so hard. "There he is!" and she pointed.
"That's the tramp!" cried Ted. "Theyareon the island, only grandpa couldn't find 'em!"
"Do you—do you s'pose he's goin' to take Trouble?" faltered Janet.
Before Ted could answer, the Curlytops saw what the ragged man was going to do. They saw him stoop over the spring, reach down into it and lift something up. The "something" was Baby William, screaming and crying in fright, and dripping wet.
The ragged man set Trouble down on a rock near the spring, and then, waving his hand to Ted and Jan, he cried:
"He's all right—swallowed hardly any water. Take him home as soon as you can, though. I haven't time to stop—have to go to see the professor!"
With that the man seemed to dive in between some high bushes, and the Curlytops could not see him any more. But Trouble was still sitting on the rock, the water from his clothes making a little puddle all around him, and he was crying hard, his tears running down his cheeks.
"Oh, Trouble!" gasped Jan, putting her arms around him, all wet as he was.
"Are you hurt?" asked Ted, looking carefully at his little brother.
"I—I—I fal—falled in an'—an' I's all—all wetted!" wailed Trouble, his breath coming in gasps because of his crying, which he had partly stopped on seeing his brother and sister. "I falled in de spwing, I did!"
"What made you?" asked Ted, while Jan tried to wring some of the water out of the little fellow's waist and rompers.
"I wanted to get de pail full for mamma."
"But I filled the pail, Trouble. You oughtn't to have touched it," said Teddy. He went to the spring and looked down in it. The pail was at the bottom of the little pool.
"It's a good thing that tramp got him out," remarked Janet. "He must be a nice man, even if his clothes are ragged."
"I guess so, too," agreed Ted. "But he said we must take Trouble home. I guess we'd better."
"Yes," assented Jan. "But he isn't hurt."
"He wasn't in very long," Ted said. "The man got him out awful quick—quicker than we could. You lead him home, Jan, and I'll get the pail out of the spring. It's sunk like a ship."
"How're you going to get it?"
"With a stick, I guess. You mustn't lean over the spring any more, Trouble."
"No," promised Baby William.
But the Curlytops could not be sure he would keep his promise. He might for a time, while he remembered what had happened to him.
With a crooked stick Teddy managed to fish up the pail after two or three trials. Then, filling it with water from the spring, he carried it back to camp, while Jan led the wet and dripping Trouble.
"Oh, my goodness! What's happened now?" asked Nora, as she saw the three children coming into camp. "Did you go in swimming with all your clothes on, Trouble?"
"No. I falled into de spwing, I did!"
"And the tramp got him out!" added Jan.
Then she and Teddy, taking turns, told what had happened. Mrs. Martin scolded Trouble a little, to make him more careful the next time. Then Grandpa Martin said:
"Well, there must be strangers on this island after all, though I could not find them. They must be hiding somewhere, and I'd like to know what for."
"Maybe they're living in gypsy wagons," suggested Jan.
"Or in a cave," added Ted. "They look as if they lived in a cave."
"There isn't any cave on the island, as far as I know," his grandfather told Ted. "But I don't like those strange men roaming about our place here. They may not do any harm, but I don't like it. I'll have another look for them."
"So will I," added Teddy, but he did not say this aloud. Teddy had made up his mind to do something. He was going to look for those men himself, either in a cave or a gypsy wagon. Ted wanted to find the ragged man—find all of them if more than one; and there seemed to be at least two, forthe one who had pulled Teddy out of the spring had spoken of another—a "professor."
"What's a professor?" asked Jan.
"Oh, it's a man or a woman who has studied his lessons and teaches them to others," answered her mother. "One who knows a great deal about something, such as about the stars or about the world we live in. Professors find out many things and then tell others—young people generally—about them."
"I'm going to be a professor," said Teddy.
"Are you?" inquired his mother with a smile. "I hope you will get wise enough to be one."
But Teddy did not speak all that was in his mind. If a professor was one who found out things, then the small boy decided he would be one long enough to find out about the tramps, and perhaps find the cave where they lived, and then he could tell Jan.
When Trouble had been put into dry clothes and sent to sleep by his mother's singing, "Ding-dong bell, Pussy's in the well," Jan and Ted sat by themselves, talking over what had happened that day. Ted was making a small boat to sail on the lake,and Jan was mending her doll's dress, where a prickly briar bush had torn a little hole in it.
Early the next morning Ted slipped away from his place at the breakfast table, and motioned to Jan to join him behind the sleeping tent. Ted held his finger over his lips to show his sister that he wanted her to keep very quiet.
"What's the matter?" she whispered, when they were safe by themselves. "Did you see the tramp-man?"
"No, but I'm going to find him!"
"You are?" cried Janet, and her eyes opened wide with wonder and surprise.
"Don't tell anybody," went on Ted. "We don't want Trouble to follow us. Come on off this way," and he pointed to a path that led through the bushes back of the tent.
Trouble was busy just then, playing in the sand on the shore of Clover Lake, while Mrs. Martin and Nora were clearing away the breakfast things. Grandpa Martin was raking up around the tents, so no one saw the Curlytops slip away.
"Which way are you going?" asked Jan of her brother.
"Over to the spring."
"What for? To get more water? Where's your pail?"
"I don't have to get water yet," answered Ted. "I'm going to the spring to look to see if I can tell which way that tramp went. Don't you know how Indians do—look at the leaves and grass in the woods, and they can tell by the marks which way anybody went? Mother read us a story once like that."
"I don't like Indians," remarked Jan somewhat shortly, half turning back.
"Oh, there's no Indians!" exclaimed Ted impatiently. "I was only sayin' what they did. Come on!"
So Jan followed her brother, though she was a little bit afraid. However, she saw nothing to frighten her, and it was nice in the woods. The wind was blowing through the trees, the birds were singing and it was cool and pleasant. The Curlytops soon came to the spring where Trouble had fallen in.
"Now we must look all around," declared Teddy.
"What for?" his sister demanded again.
"To tell which way the tramp-man went. Then we can find his cave."
"Maybe he lives in a wagon or a tent."
"Then we'll find them. Come on, help look!"
"I don't know how," confessed Janet.
"Well, look for a place where the bushes are broken down and where you see footprints in the dirt. That's the way Indians tell. Mother read it out of a book to us."
So Jan and Ted looked all around the spring, and at last Ted found a place where it seemed as if some one had run through in a hurry, for twigs were broken off the bushes, and, by looking down at the ground, he saw the marks of shoes in the dirt.
Of course Ted could not tell who had made them, but he thought surely it must have been the tramp who had pulled Trouble from the spring. Ted was sure they were not the footprints of himself and his sister, for their own were much smaller.
"Come on, Jan!" cried Teddy. "We'll find that tramp now or, anyway, the place where he hides."
He pushed on through the bushes. There seemed to be a sort of path leading away from the spring, which was not the same path that Ted and Grandpa Martin took when they went from the camp to the water-hole to fill the pail each day.
On and on went Ted, with Jan following. She was so excited now at the thought that perhaps they might find something, that she was not a bit frightened.
"Wait a minute! Wait for me, Teddy!" she called, as her brother hurried on ahead of her.
"Come on, Jan!" he called. "There's a good path here, and I guess I see something. Oh, look here! Oh, Jan! Oh! Oh!" suddenly cried Teddy. Then his voice seemed to fade away, as if he had all at once gone down the cellar, and Jan could hear him calling faintly.
"Oh, Teddy! What's the matter? What's the matter?" she cried as she ran on through the bushes.
"I've found the cave!" was his answer, so faint and far away that Jan could hardly hear. "I've found the cave. I fell right into it! Come on!"
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Wonderingwhat had happened to her brother, Jan hurried on toward the place from which his voice came. It sounded more than ever as if he were down a cellar.
"But there can't be any cellars in these woods," thought the little girl.
"Where are you, Teddy?" she called after a bit. "I can't see you!"
"Here I am, right behind you!" was the answer, and Jan, turning quickly, saw the head of her brother sticking up out of a hole in the ground.
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Ted's sister. "Where's the rest of you? Where's your legs and your feet?"
"Down in the hole," explained Teddy. "I'm in the cave. I fell in. That's how I found it."
"Is it a real cave?" asked Janet.
"It is. It goes away back under the ground, only I didn't go in 'cause it's so dark. I'm going to get a light and see what's there."
"I'm not!" said Jan, very decidedly.
"Well, then I'll get grandpa. Maybe this is the cave where the tramps live. Come and look where I am. You won't fall in."
"How did you find it?" asked Janet, as she walked toward the hole, down in which Teddy was standing. It was a little way from the path the two Curlytops had walked along through the woods—the path leading from the spring.
"I just fell in it, I told you," Ted answered. "I was walking along, and, all at once, I slipped down through the dried leaves. First I thought I was going down in a big hole, but it isn't over my head and a lot of leaves went down with me, so I didn't get jounced hardly at all."
Jan went to the edge and looked down in the hole. It seemed to be a large one in between two big rocks, and Ted showed her where the hole slanted downward and went farther underground. It was dark there, and Jan made up her mind she would never go into it, even if Ted did.
"You'd better come up," she said at last. "Maybe mother wouldn't like it. Besides, there might be snakes down in there."
"Oh! I didn't think about them!" exclaimed Ted, and he tried to scramble up, but it was not so easy as he had hoped. He was a little excited, too, since Janet had spoken of snakes. Teddy did not like them, and they might be in among the leaves that had fallen down into the hole with him.
"Can't you get up?" Jan asked, when her brother had slipped back two or three times.
"Maybe I could if you'd let me take hold of your hand," suggested Teddy.
"Then you'd pull me in, and we'd both be down there."
Ted saw that this was so. He tried again to get out, but could not, for mixed with the leaves were many dry, brown pine needles from the trees growing overhead; and if you have ever been in the woods you know how slippery pine needles are when the ground is covered with them. Teddy slipped back again and again.
"Oh, Ted! can't youeverget up?" asked Janet, almost ready to cry.
"Oh. I'll get out somehow," he said. Then dangling down from a tree behind hissister, he saw a long wild grapevine, which was almost like a piece of rope.
"If I had hold of that I could pull myself out," Teddy said. "See if you can reach it to me, Jan."
After two or three trials his sister did this. Then, holding to a loose end of the grapevine while the other end was twined fast round a tree, Teddy pulled himself out of the hole. Once on firm ground he made the loose end of the grapevine fast to a stone that lay near the edge of the hole.
"What made you do that?" asked Janet.
"So the next time I get down there I can pull myself out," Teddy answered.
"Are you going down there again?" Jan queried.
"Course I am!" declared Ted. "I didn't half look in the cave. It's a big place. I could see in only a little way, 'cause it was so dark. I'm goin' to tell grandpa and have him bring a lantern."
Grandpa Martin was surprised when Ted and Jan told him what they had found in the woods.
"I didn't suppose there was a cave on the island," said the farmer. "I must have a look at it."
"And may I come? And will you take a lantern?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"Well, yes, I guess so," said grandpa slowly.
"Oh, Father, do you think it is safe?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Yes, I think so. I won't go very far in with the children. It may be only the den of a fox or some small animal, and not a real cave."
"I think it's a big cave," declared Ted. "Come on, Grandpa."
"Me come!" cried Trouble, as the two Curlytops set off with Grandpa Martin through the woods, toward the place where Teddy had fallen down with the pile of leaves. "Me come!"
"No, you stay with me," laughed Mother Martin, catching him up in her arms. Trouble did not want to stay behind, not having been with his brother and sister of late as much as he wished. "We'll bake a patty-cake!" Mrs. Martin added, and then Trouble laughed, for he liked to help Nora bake. That is, he thought he helped. And at least he helped to eat what Nora took out of the oven.
"Now show me where the cave is," saidGrandpa Martin to Ted, as they neared the place. "But be careful not to fall into it again."
"Oh, I've got a grapevine rope so I can pull myself out," said Jan's brother. "Here it is, over this way."
Teddy Martin was an observing little fellow. He could find his way around in the woods very well, once he had been to a place, and he did not go wrong this time. He led his grandfather right to the entrance of the cave.
And it proved to be a real cave. Grandpa Martin found this out when he jumped down into the place where Teddy had fallen, and when the lantern had been lighted and flashed into the dark hole.
"Yes, it's a cave all right," the children's grandfather said. "And to think the many times I've been on this island I never found it! Well, I'll go in a little way."
"Can't I come?" asked Ted, as he saw his grandfather start into the dark hole which spread out from the open place into which Ted had fallen.
"I'm not coming," declared Janet, "and I don't want to stay here all alone."
"You stay there with your sister, Curlytop,"directed Mr. Martin. "If I find out it's all right and is safe, I'll come back and take you both in a little way."
Grandpa Martin walked into the dark hole, his lantern flickering like a firefly at night. The Curlytops watched it until they could no longer see the gleam. Then they waited expectantly.
"Maybe somethin'll grab grandpa," said Jan, after a bit.
"What?" asked Ted.
"A fox—or somethin'!"
"Pooh, he isn't afraid of a fox!"
"Well, a bear, maybe!"
"There isn't any bears here, Janet Martin! I'm not afraid."
Perhaps Ted said this because, just then, he saw his grandfather coming out of the cave. The farmer had not been gone very long.
"Is it a cave?" called Ted.
"A sure-enough one?" added his sister.
"Yes, it's a sure-enough cave. But there's nothing in it."
"No wild animals?" Jan demanded.
"Not even a mouse, as far as I could see," laughed Mr. Martin. "But some one had been in the cave eating his lunch."
"Maybe there was a picnic, Grandpa," suggested Ted.
"No, I think only one or two persons were in the big hole," said his grandfather. "For itisa big hole, larger than I thought it was. I could stand up straight once I was inside."
"Take us in!" begged Ted.
"Yes, I think it will be all right. Come along, Jan. I'll hold your hand, and there isn't anything of which to be afraid. Come on!"
So Janet and Teddy went into the cave. By the light of grandpa's lantern they could see that it was a large place, a regular underground house—a cave just like those of which they had read in fairy stories.
"And was there somebody here, really?" asked Ted eagerly.
"Yes," answered his grandfather. "See. Here are bits of bread scattered about, and papers in which some one brought his lunch here."
"Maybe it was the tramps," whispered Janet.
"Maybe," agreed Mr. Martin. "I must have another look over the island."
There was not much else in the cave that they could see with the one lantern. GrandpaMartin wanted to look about more, and back in the far corners, but he did not like to take the children along, and Jan held tightly to his hand as if she feared she would lose him.
"I'll come here alone some other time, and see what I can find," thought Grandpa Martin to himself, as they came out.
"I don't like it in there," said Jan, once they were again out in the sunshine. "I don't like caves."
"I do," declared Ted. "When Hal Chester comes to visit me, as he said he would, he and I will look all through this cave."
"Is Hal coming?" asked Jan, remembering the boy, once lame but now cured, who had played with them and told them about Princess Blue Eyes.
"Yes, mother asked him to come and spend a week, and he said he would. We'll have some fun in the cave."
"What do you suppose the big hole can be?" asked Mrs. Martin, when Grandpa Martin and the children reached camp after their visit to the strange place.
"I don't know," he answered. "It doesn't seem to have been dug with picks and shovels. It's just a natural cave I guess, andsome fishermen may have eaten their lunch there one day when it rained. But there is no one in it now."
Ted and Jan talked much about the cave the rest of that day. They went for a ride in the wagon drawn by Nicknack, taking Trouble with them. On their way back Jan said:
"Oh, I wish I had a swing."
"It would be fun," agreed Ted. "Maybe I can make one."
"You'll have to get a rope," said his sister. "Grandpa is going to row over in the boat to-morrow. Ask him to bring us one."
"No, he don't need to bring us a rope," went on her brother.
"Why not?"
"'Cause I can get a rope in the woods."
"A rope in the woods? Oh, Teddy Martin, you can not! Ropes don't grow on trees."
"The kind I mean does," answered Ted with a laugh. "Wait and I'll show you."
When Nicknack had been put in the new stable which Grandpa Martin had built for him, Teddy, followed by Jan and Trouble, walked a little way into the woods. Ted carried with him a piece of old carpet.
"What's that for?" his sister asked.
"For a swing board," he answered.
"But where's the swing rope?"
"Here!" cried Ted suddenly. He pointed to a long wild grapevine, which hung dangling between two trees, around which it was twined. The vine was a very long one, and as thick around as the piece Teddy had used to pull himself out of the hole near the cave. It did seem like a regular swing.
"Well—maybe," murmured Jan.
"Now we can have some fun!" cried Ted. He folded the piece of carpet and laid it over the grapevine. Then he sat down, gave a push on the ground with his feet, and away he swung as nicely as though he was in a regular swing, made with a rope from the store.
"Oh, how nice!" cried Janet. "Let me try it, Teddy."
"Wait till I see if it's strong enough."
He swung back and forward several more times and then let his sister try it. She, too, swayed to and fro in the grapevine swing, which was in a shady place in the woods. Then Trouble, who had seen what was going on, cried:
"I want to swing, too! I want to swing!"
"I'll take you on my lap," offered Janet, and this she did.
"I'll push you," offered Teddy, and he gave his sister and his baby brother a long push in the grapevine swing.
But, just as they were going nicely and Trouble was laughing in delight, there was a sudden cracking sound and Janet cried:
"Oh, I'm falling! I'm falling! The swing is coming down!"
And that is just what happened.
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Witha crackle and a snap the grapevine swing sagged down on one side. Janet tried to hold Trouble in her arms, but he slipped from her lap, just as she slipped off the piece of carpet which Ted had folded for the seat of the swing. Then Janet toppled down as the vine broke, and she and her little brother came together in a heap on the ground.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ted. "Are you hurt?"
Neither Jan nor Trouble answered him for a moment. Then Baby William began to cry. Jan lay still on the ground for a second or two, and then she jumped up with a laugh.
"I'm not hurt a bit!" she said. "I fell right in a pile of leaves, and it was like jouncing up and down in the hay."
"What's the matter with Trouble?" asked Ted.
Baby William kept on crying.
"Never mind!" put in Jan. "Sister'll kiss it and make it all better! Where is you hurt, Trouble dear?"
The little fellow stopped crying and looked up at Jan, his eyes filled with tears.
"My posy-tree is hurted," he said, holding a broken flower out to his sister. "Swing broked my posy-tree!"
Trouble called any weed, flower or bunch of grass he happened to pick a "posy-tree."
"Oh, I guess he isn't hurt," remarked Teddy. "If it's only a broken posy-tree I'll get you another," he said kindly. "Are you all right, Trouble? Can you stand up?" for he feared, after all, lest Baby William's legs might have been hurt, since they were doubled up under him.
Trouble showed he was all right by getting up and walking about. He had stopped crying, and Ted and Jan could see that he, too, had fallen on a pile of soft leaves near the swing, so he was only "jiggled up," as Jan called it.
One side of the grapevine swing had torn loose from the tree, and thus it had come down with Jan and Trouble.
"I guess it wasn't strong enough for two,"said Ted. "Maybe I can find another grapevine."
"I'd like a rope swing better," Janet said. "Then it wouldn't tumble down."
"I guess that's so," agreed her brother. "We'll ask grandpa to get one."
Grandpa Martin laughed when he heard what had happened to the grapevine swing, and promised to make a real one of rope for the Curlytops. This he did a day or so afterward, so that Ted and Jan had a fine swing in their camp on Star Island, as well as one at Cherry Farm. They were two very fortunate children, I think, to have such a grandfather.
"Where are you going now, Grandpa?" called Jan one day, as she saw the farmer getting the boat ready for use.
"I'm going over to the mainland to get some things for our camp," answered Mr. Martin. "They came from a big store in some boxes and crates, and they're at the railroad station. I'm going over to get them. Do you Curlytops want to come along?"
"Well, I just guess we do!" cried Ted.
"Me want to come!" begged Trouble.
"Not this time, Dear," said his mother."You stay with me, and we will have some fun. Let Jan and Ted go."
Trouble was going to cry, but when Nora gave him a cookie he changed his mind and ate the little cake instead, though I think one or two tears splotched down on it and made it a bit salty. But Trouble did not seem to mind.
Ted and Jan had lots of fun riding back in the boat to the main shore with their grandfather. When the boat was almost at the dock Mr. Martin let the two children take hold of one of the oars and help him row. Of course the Curlytops could not pull very much, but they did pretty well, and it helped them to know how a boat is made to go through the water, when it has no steam engine or gasolene motor to make it glide along, or sails on which the wind can blow to push it.
"You can't know too much about boats and the water, especially when you are camping on an island in the middle of a lake," said Grandpa Martin. "When you get bigger, Ted and Jan, you'll be able to row a boat all by yourselves."
"Maybe day after to-morrow," suggested Jan.
"I wish I could now," said Ted.
"Oh, but you're too small!" his grandfather said.
The boat was tied to the wharf, and then, getting an expressman to go to the depot for the boxes and crates, Mr. Martin took the children with him on the wagon.
"We're having lots of fun!" cried Jan, as the horse trotted along. "We're camping and we had a ride in a boat and now we're having a ride in a wagon."
"Lots of fun!" agreed Ted. "I'm glad we've got grandpa!"
"And grandpa is glad he has you two Curlytops to go camping with him!" laughed the farmer, as the expressman made his horse go faster.
At the depot, while the children were waiting to have the boxes and crates of things for the camp loaded into the wagon, Ted saw Arthur Weldon, a boy with whom he sometimes played.
"Hello, Art!" called Ted.
"Hello!" answered Arthur. "I thought you were camping on Star Island."
"We are," answered Teddy.
"It doesn't look so!" laughed Arthur, or "Art," as most of his boy friends called him.
"Well, we just came over to get some things. There's grandpa and the expressman with them now," went on Ted, as the two men came from the freight house with a number of bundles.
"I wish I was camping," went on the other boy. "It isn't any fun around here."
"You can come over to see us sometimes," invited Jan. "I'll ask my mother to let you, and you can play with us."
"He don't want to play girls' games!" cried Ted.
"Well, I guess I can play boys' games as well as girls' games!" exclaimed Janet, with some indignation.
"Oh, yes, course you can," agreed her brother.
"And maybe Art can bring his sister to the island to see us, and then we could play boys' games and girls', too," went on Jan.
"I'll ask my mother," promised Arthur.
Grandpa and the expressman soon had the wagon loaded, and Arthur rode back in it with the Curlytops to the wharf where the boat was tied.
"All aboard for Star Island!" cried Mr. Martin, when the things were in the boat, nearly filling it. "All aboard!"
"I wish I could come now!" sighed Arthur.
"Well, we'd like to take you," said Grandpa Martin, "but it wouldn't be a good thing to take you unless your mother knew you were coming with us, and we haven't time to go up to ask her now. The next time maybe we'll take you back with us."
There was a wistful look on Arthur's face as he watched the boat being rowed away from the main shore and toward the island. Ted and Janet waved their hands to him, and said they would ask their mother to invite him for a visit, which they did a few weeks later.
Once back on the island the things were taken out of the boat and then began the work of taking them out of the boxes and crates. There was a new oil stove, to warm the tent on cool or rainy days, and other things for the camp, and when all had been unpacked there was quite a pile of boards and sticks left.
"I know what we can do with them," said Teddy to Janet, when they had been piled in a heap not far from the shore of the lake, and a little distance away from the tents.
"What?" asked the little girl.
"We can make a raft like Robinson Crusoe did," answered Teddy, for his mother had read him a little about the shipwrecked sailor who, as told in the story book, lived so long alone on an island.
"What's a raft?" asked Janet.
"Oh, it's something like a boat, but it hasn't got any sides to it—only a bottom," answered her brother. "You make it out of flat boards and you have to push it along with a pole. We can make a raft out of all the boards and pieces of wood grandpa took the things out of. It'll be a lot of fun!"
"Will mother let us?" asked Jan.
"Oh, I guess so," answered Teddy.
But he did not go to ask to find out. He found a hammer where grandpa had been using it to knock apart the crates and boxes, and, with the help of Jan, Teddy was soon making his raft. There were plenty of nails which had come out of the boxes and crates. Some of them were rather crooked, but when Ted tried to hammer them straight he pounded his fingers.
"That hurts," he said. "I guess crooked nails are as good as straight ones. Anyhow this raft is going to be crooked."
And it was very crooked and "wobboly,"as Janet called it, when Teddy had shoved it into the water and, taking off his shoes and stockings, got on it.
"Come on, Jan!" he cried, "I'm going to have a ride."
"No, it's too tippy," Janet answered.
"Oh, it can't tip over," said Teddy. "That's what a raft is for—not to tip over. Maybe you can slide off, but it can't tip over. Come on!"
So Janet took off her shoes and stockings.
Now of course she ought not to have done that, nor ought Teddy to have got on the raft without asking his mother or his grandfather. But then the Curlytops were no different from other children.
So on the raft got Teddy and Janet, and for a time they had lots of fun pushing it around a shallow little cove, not far from the shore of Star Island. A clump of trees hid them from the sight of Mother Martin and grandpa at camp.
"Let's go farther out," suggested Teddy, after a bit.
"I'm afraid," replied Janet.
"Aw, it'll be all right!" cried Ted. "I won't let it tip over!"
So Janet let him pole out a little farther,until she saw that the shore was far away, and then she cried:
"I want to go back!"
"All right," answered Ted. "I don't want anybody on my raft who's a skeered. I'll go alone!"
He poled back to shore and Janet got off the raft. Then Teddy shoved the wabbly mass of boards and sticks, fastened together with crooked nails, out into the lake again. He had not gone very far before something happened. One end of the raft tipped up and the other end dipped down, and—off slid Teddy into the water.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed Janet. "You'll be drowned! I'm going to tell grandpa."
She ran to the camp with the news, and Mr. and Mrs. Martin came hurrying back. By this time Teddy had managed to get up and was standing in the water, which was not deep.
"I—I'm all right," he stammered. "Only I—I'm—wet!"
"I should say youwere!" exclaimed his mother. "You mustn't go on any more rafts."
Teddy promised that he would not, and then, when he had put on dry clothes, he andJanet played other games that were not so dangerous. They had lots of fun in the camp on Star Island.
"Come on, Jan!" called her brother one morning after breakfast. "Come on down to the lake."
"What're you goin' to do?" she asked.
"I think he had better look for the 'g' you dropped," said Mrs. Martin with a laugh.
"What 'g?'" asked Jan.
"The one off 'going,'" was the answer. "You must be more careful of your words, Janet dear. Learn to talk nicely, and don't drop your 'g' letters."
She had been trying to teach this to the Curlytops for a long while, and they were almost cured of leaving off the final "g" of their words. But, once in a while, just as Jan did that time, they forgot.
"What are you going to do?" asked Janet, slowly and carefully this time.
"Sail my boat," answered Ted. "I'll give your doll a ride if you want me to."
"Not this one," replied his sister, looking at the one she carried. It had on a fine red dress.
"Why not that doll?" Ted inquired.
"'Cause your boat might tip over andspill my doll in the lake. Then she'd be spoiled and so would her dress. Wait. I'll get my rubber doll. Water won't hurt her."
"My boat won't tip over," Ted declared. "It's a good one."
But even Jan's rubber doll must have been too heavy for Ted's small boat, for, half way across a little shallow cove in the lake, where the Curlytops waded and Ted sailed his ships, the boat tipped to one side, and the doll was thrown into the water.
"There! I told you so!" cried Janet.
"Well, she's rubber, and you can pretend she has on a bathing suit an' has gone in swimming!" declared Ted.
"But maybe a fish'll bite a hole in her and then she can't whistle through the hole in her back!" wailed Jan, ready to cry.
"There's no fish here, only baby ones; and they can't bite," Ted answered. "But I'll get her for you, Jan."
He waded out, set his ship upright again, and brought his sister's doll to shore. Nancy—which was the doll's name—did not seem to have been hurt by falling into the lake. Her painted smile was the same as ever.
"I guess I'll dress her now so she won'tget cold after her bath," said Jan, who sometimes acted as though her dolls were really alive. She liked her playthings very much indeed.
While his sister went back to the tent with her doll Ted sailed his boat. Then Trouble came down to the edge of the little cove, and began to take off his shoes and stockings to go wading as Ted was doing. Ted was not sure whether or not his mother wanted Baby William to do this, so he decided to run up to the camp to ask.
"Don't go in the water until I come back, Trouble," Ted ordered his little brother.
But the sight of the cool, sparkling water was too much for Baby William.
Off came his shoes and stockings without waiting for Ted to come back to say whether or not Mother Martin would let him go splashing in the water. Into the lake Baby William went. And he was not careful about getting wet, either, so that when Ted came back with his mother, who wanted to make sure that her baby boy was all right, they saw him out in the middle of the cove with Ted's boat. And the water was half way up to Trouble's waist, the lower part of his bloomers being soaked.
"Oh, you dear bunch of Trouble!" cried his mother. "You mustn't do that!"
"Havin' fun!" was all Trouble said.
"Come here!" cried Mrs. Martin.
"Wait till I sail boat," and he pushed Ted's toy about in the cove, splashing more water on himself.
"I guess you'll have to get him," said Mrs. Martin to Teddy, who half dragged, half led his little brother to shore. Trouble got wetter than ever during this, and his mother had to take him back to the tent to put dry things on him.
"Trouble," she said, "you are a bad little boy. I'll have to keep you in camp the rest of the day now. After this you must not go in wading until I say you may. If you had had your bathing suit on it would have been all right. Now you must be punished."
Trouble cried and struggled, but it was of no use. When Mother Martin said a thing must be done it was done, and Trouble could not play in the water again that day.
Toward the middle of the afternoon, however, as he had been pretty good playing around the tent, he was allowed to roam farther off, though told he must not go near the water.
"You stay with me, Baby," called Nora. "I'm going to bake a cake and I'll give you some."
"Trouble bake a cake, too?" he asked.
"No, Trouble isn't big enough to bake a cake, but you can watch me. I'll get out the flour and sugar and other things, and I'll make a little cake just for you."
On a table in the cooking tent Nora set out the things she was to use for her baking. There was the bag of flour, some water in a dish and other things. Just as she was about to mix the cake Mrs. Martin called Nora away for a moment.
"Now, Trouble, don't touch anything until I come back!" warned the girl, as she hurried out of the tent. "I won't be gone a minute."
But she was gone longer than that. Left alone in the tent, with many things on the table in front of him, Trouble looked at them. He knew he could have lots of fun with some of the pans, cups, the egg beater, the flour, the water and the eggs. A little smile spread over his tanned, chubby face.
"Trouble bake a cake," he said to himself. "Nora bake a cake—Trouble bake a cake. Yes!"
First Baby William pulled toward him the bag of flour. He managed to do it without upsetting it, for the bag was a small one. Near it was a bowl of water with a spoon in it. Trouble had seen his mother and Nora bake cakes, and he must have remembered that they mixed the flour and water together. Anyhow that was the way to make mud pies—by mixing sand and water.
Trouble looked for something to mix his cake in. The tins and dishes were so far back on the table that he could not get them easily. He must take something else.
Off his head Trouble pulled his white hat—a new one that grandpa had brought only that day from the village store.
"Make cake in dis," murmured Baby William to himself.
He pushed a chair up to the table and climbed upon it. From the chair he got on the table and sat down. Then he began to make his cake in his hat.