CHAPTER XVION AGAIN
WhenMrs. Martin called Janet the next morning, to tell the Curlytop girl to get up, dress and have breakfast, ready to start touring again, Janet, with her eyes still closed, began to call:
“Let me out! Let me out! Oh, don’t let the bears come in!”
This awakened Trouble, and he wanted to know what the matter was.
“I guess Janet thinks she is back in the box trap again,” said Mrs. Martin, with a smile. “Wake up, my dear! Wake up,” she went on, giving her daughter a gentle shake. “You’re all right, Janet.”
“Oh! Oh!” gasped the little girl, as she opened her eyes. She was plainly surprised to find herself safe in bed in the room with her mother and Trouble. “I—I thought I was in the box trap and a bear was trying to come in with me,” she said.
“I thought that was it,” replied her mother. “It was quite an adventure for you, but don’t think any more about it.”
And Janet tried not to.
“I’m sorry to see you folks go,” Mr. Dawson said to Mr. Martin, when the Curlytop family was at breakfast. “The old farm will be a lonesome place with you and the movie people leaving. The last of them will go to-day, too.”
“We have enjoyed it here,” said Mrs. Martin.
“We’ll come back again,” promised Trouble, as he finished the last of his boiled egg and drank the glass of milk. “I like it here a lot.”
“I’m glad you do, my dear,” said motherly Mrs. Dawson.
The big touring car was brought around to the side porch, and into it the Martin family baggage was piled. Mr. Martin made sure that the box Mr. Portnay had sent from New York was in a safe place.
“I hope nothing more happens to that box before I deliver it to Mr. Cardwell in Bentville,” said Ted’s father, with a sigh of relief as he put the small chest under some robes. “If I had known all the anxiety itwas going to give us, I’d never have promised to deliver it for my neighbor,” he told Mr. Dawson.
“Well, when you have a lot of worry it’s best to get it over with,” said the farmer. “Be sure and stop off to see us when you come this way again.”
“We will,” promised Mrs. Martin.
Then the Curlytops were off again on their summer touring trip. More adventures lay ahead of them.
“Where are we going now, Daddy?” asked Janet, as they rode along a pleasant country highway.
“The next big place at which we expect to stop is called Evenham,” was the answer. “But we won’t be there before to-morrow or next day.”
“Where do you expect to stop to-night?” asked Mrs. Martin.
“What would you say to camping out?” her husband wanted to know.
“In the tent?” cried Ted.
“Oh, what fun!” echoed Jan.
“I goin’ to make a campfire!” declared Trouble.
“We’ll see about that,” his father answered. “Yes, if your mother thinks well ofit, we can stop in some good place, rig the tent up to the side of the car, and stay there all night,” Mr. Martin went on to Ted and Janet. “It’s going to be a warm, pleasant night.”
“And can we cook a meal?” Ted wanted to know. “It isn’t like camping out if you don’t cook your own meal.”
“Yes, we can do that, too,” said Mrs. Martin, who liked camp life and roughing it almost as much as did the Curlytops.
So it was decided, and in the next town they stopped to purchase some bacon, coffee and other things they could cook over their alcohol stoves. They carried two small stoves.
About noon the auto was rolling along a quiet country road, and, finding a lane which did not seem to be much traveled, Mr. Martin turned off on that to be out of the way of traffic while lunch was being got ready.
Then such a good time as the Curlytops had, and Trouble also!
For they prepared a meal out in the open, and the table that was set was the running-board of the car, papers being spread on it for a cloth.
“Oh, I just love it here! Don’t you,Ted?” murmured Janet, her mouth half filled with part of a peanut butter sandwich.
“It’s dandy!” Ted exclaimed, as he reached for another slice of bacon, for Mrs. Martin had fried some in a little pan over the stove which burned solid chunks of alcohol. And such a wonderful odor as that bacon gave off in the woods! It was worth going miles just to get a whiff of it.
After the meal Mr. and Mrs. Martin strolled about in the woods while the children played near by. The radiator of the car was filled with fresh water from a clear, bubbling spring, and then the touring party started on again.
“We must be looking for a good place to make our night camp,” Mrs. Martin said, later in the afternoon. “We don’t have to go on to any certain place, so if we find a good spot we might as well stop there and begin to put up the tent. We want to get everything in readiness before dark.”
“That’s right,” agreed her husband. “So keep your eyes open, children.”
Ted and Janet did, with the result that they pointed out several more or less good spots for a night camp. There were objections to most of these, however. But at lastMrs. Martin spied what seemed to all of them to be a delightful place. It was in a meadow, on the edge of a clump of woods, and there was a spring of water near by. It is always wise to camp near water.
“This seems all right,” agreed Mr. Martin, as he drove the auto into the glade. “And there aren’t any neighbors.”
He spoke truly, for there was not a house in sight. It was a beautiful spot, very quiet and restful.
“Not even a cow,” said Janet.
Ted helped his father get the portable tent out and attach it to the sides of the car while Mrs. Martin prepared the evening meal. There were folding cots which, when spread out, made comfortable little beds.
It was arranged that Trouble and Janet would sleep on the seats of the auto, with the side curtains put up so they would be snug and comfortable. And on cots, under the extended tent, Ted, his mother and his father would pass the night.
Supper was eaten with keen appetites, and then the Martin family sat about in the beautiful evening glow, singing songs and telling stories. They saw no signs of life, no near-by farmers happened along, and notso much as one car passed up or down the road.
The frogs in a distant pond began to croak as night fell, and pretty soon Mrs. Martin noticed that Trouble’s eyes were closing.
“Bedtime!” she announced, and though Ted and Janet declared they weren’t a bit sleepy, their parents said they had better “turn in.”
“We’ll get an early start in the morning,” said Mr. Martin.
Trouble was asleep almost as soon as he had been tucked in on the comfortable auto seat, and Janet was not far behind him in journeying to slumberland.
But to Ted, out in the tent with his father and his mother, sleep did not come so quickly. The little boy pretended he was a cowboy, sleeping out on the plains, with a big herd of cattle near by.
Perhaps his lively thoughts kept Ted awake. At any rate, something did; but at last he, too, closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep.
Just how long it was afterward he did not know. But he was suddenly awakened by feeling something touch him on the side. Itwas as though some one had “punched him in the ribs,” Ted said afterward.
The little fellow opened his eyes and murmured:
“Is it morning, Mother?”
He imagined it was his mother rousing him by shaking him, as she sometimes did.
His mother did not answer. Then Teddy saw that the tent was dark. The sun was not streaming in. But through a crack the lad caught sight of a distant star. He knew it was still night.
But something had awakened him by touching him on the side. He raised himself on his elbow and listened. He could tell, by the deep, regular breathing of his father and mother that they were sleeping soundly on their cots.
Then from the outside of the tent something reached in and gave Teddy such a blow that he was knocked back on his cot.