CHAPTER X
THE GRAPEVINE SWING
Wondering what 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 you ever get up?" asked Janet, almost ready to cry.
"Oh, I'll get out somehow," he said. Then dangling down from a tree behind his sister, 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," said Grandpa 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 it is a 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. Grandpa Martin 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, and some 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.
CHAPTER XI
TROUBLE MAKES A CAKE
With a 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 know 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 you were!" 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 and Janet 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 and spill 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't get 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.
CHAPTER XII
THE CURLYTOPS GO SWIMMING
"Trouble make a cake—Trouble make a nice cake for Jan an' Ted," murmured Baby William to himself. Certainly he thought he was going to do that—make a nice cake—but it did not turn out just that way.
Trouble's hat, being of felt, held water just as a dish or a basin would have done, but the little fellow had to hold it very carefully in his lap between his knees as he sat on the table, or he would have squeezed his hat and the water would have spilled out. But when Trouble really wanted to do anything he could be very careful. And he wanted, very much this time, to make that cake.
So, when he had the water in his hat he began to dip up some flour from the bag with a large spoon.
When the little fellow thought he had enough flour sifted into the water in his hat he began to stir it, just as he had seen Nora stir her cake batter. Around and around he stirred it, and then he found that his cake was much too wet. He had not enough flour in it, just as, sometimes, when he and Jan made mud pies, they did not have enough sand or dirt in the water to make the stuff for the pies as thick as they wanted it.
So Trouble stirred in more flour. And then, just as you can easily guess, he made it too thick, and had to put in more water.
By this time Troubles small hat was almost full of flour and water, and some dough began to run over the edges, down on his little bare legs, and also on his rompers and on the table and even to the floor of the kitchen tent.
Trouble did not like that. He wanted to get his cake mixed before Nora came back, so she could bake it in the oven for him. For he knew cakes must be baked to make them good to eat, and he really hoped, knowing no better, that his cake would be good enough to eat.
"Trouble make a big cake," he said, as he slowly put a little more water into his hat, and stirred the dough some more. He splashed some of the flour and water on the end of his stubby nose, and wiped it off on the back of his hand. Then, as he kept on stirring, some more of the dough splashed on his cheeks, and he had to wipe that off. So that, by this time, Baby William had on his hands and face at least as much dough as there was in the spoon.
But finally the little mischief-maker got the dough in his hat just about thick enough—not too much flour and not too much water in it. When this point was reached he knew that it was time to get ready for the baking part—putting the dough in the pans so it would go into the oven.
Trouble wanted to do as much toward making his own cake as he could without asking Nora to help. So now he thought he could put the dough in the baking pans himself. But they were on the table beyond his reach. He must get up to reach them.
So Trouble got up, and then—
Well, you can just imagine what happened. He forgot that he was holding in his lap the hat full of dough and as soon as he stood up of course that slipped from his lap and the table and went splashing all over the floor.
"Squee-squish-squash!" the hat full of dough dropped.
"Oh!" exclaimed Trouble. "Oh!"
His feet were covered with the white flour and water. Some splashed on Nora's chair near the table, some splashed on the table legs and more spread over the tent floor and ran in little streams toward the far edges. And, in the midst of it, like a little island in the middle of a lake of dough, was Trouble's new hat. Only now you could hardly tell which was the hat and which was the dough.
"Trouble's cake all gone!" said the little fellow sadly, and just as he said that back came Nora. She gave one look inside her nice, clean tent-kitchen—at least it had been clean when she left it—and then she cried:
"Oh, Trouble Martin! What have you gone and done?"
"Trouble make a cake but it spill," he said slowly, climbing down from the table.
"Spill! I should say it did spill!" cried Nora. "Oh, what a sight you are! And what will your mother say!"
"What is it now, Nora?" asked Mrs. Martin, who heard the noise in the kitchen.
"Oh, it's Trouble, as you might guess. He's tried to make a cake. But —such a mess!"
Mrs. Martin looked in. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, but, as that is rather hard to do, she did neither. She just stood and looked at Trouble. He had picked up his hat, which still had a little of the paste in it, and this was now dripping down the front of his rompers.
"Well, it's clean dirt, not like the time he was stuck in the mud of the brook at home, that's one consolation," said Nora at last. Nora had a good habit of trying to make the best of everything.
"Yes, it's clean dirt and it will wash off," agreed Mother Martin.
"But, oh, Trouble! You are such a sight! And so is Nora's kitchen."
"Oh, well, I don't mind cleaning up," paid the good-natured maid. "Come on, Trouble, I'll let your mother wash you and then I'll finish the cake."
"Make a cake for Trouble?" asked Baby William.
"Yes, I guess I'll have to, since you couldn't make one for yourself," laughed Nora. "Never mind, you'll be a man when you grow up and you won't have to mess around a kitchen. Here you are!" and she caught him up, all doughy as he was, and carried him to the big tent where his mother soon had him washed and in clean clothes.
Then Nora cleaned up the kitchen and made some real cakes and cookies which Ted and Jan, as well as Trouble, ate a little later. The Curlytops laughed when told of Trouble's attempt to make a cake, and for a long time after that whenever they were telling any of their friends about the queer things their baby brother did, they always told first about the cake he made in his hat one day.
"Oh, Ted, I know what let's do!" cried Janet one day, about a week after Trouble had played with the flour and water.
"What?" asked her brother. "Go fishing?"
"No, I don't like fishing. Anyhow we went fishing once, and I don't like to see the worms wiggle. Let's make a little play tent for ourselves in the woods."
"We haven't any cloth."
"We can make one of leaves and branches, just like the bower we made for Nicknack before grandpa put up the little board barn for him."
"Yes, we can do that," agreed Ted. "It'll be fun. Come on."
A little later the two Curlytops were cutting down branches from low trees, sticking the ends into the soft ground, and tying the leafy tops together with string. This made a sort of tent, and though there were holes in it, where the leaves did not quite come together, it made a shady place.
Jan brought in her dolls, and Ted his sailboat and other toys, and there the two children played for some little time. Trouble was not with them.
"But he'll be along pretty soon," remarked Janet, "and he'll want part of the tent for his. Is it big enough for three, Teddy?"
"Well, we can make Trouble a little bower for himself right next door. He'll want to bring in a lot of old stones and mud pies anyhow, and we don't want them. We'll make a little bower for him when he comes along."
So, waiting for their little brother to hunt them out, which he always did sooner or later if they went off to play without him, Ted and Jan had fun in the little leafy house they had made for themselves.
They were having a good time, and were wondering if Grandpa Martin would ever find the queer ragged man or if they would see the strange blue light again, when Jan suddenly gave a scream.
"What's the matter?" asked Ted.
"Something tickled the back of my neck," explained his sister. "Maybe it's a big worm, or a caterpillar! Look, Ted, will you?"
Teddy turned to look, but, as he did so, he gave a cry of surprise.
"It's a goat! It's our goat! It's Nicknack!" yelled Teddy. "He's stuck his head right through the bower and, oh, Jan! he's eating it!"
And so Nicknack was. His head was halfway through the side of the tree-tent nearest Jan and the goat was chewing some of the green leaves. It was Nicknack's whiskers that had, tickled Jan on the back of her neck.
"Whoa there, Nicknack!" called Ted, as the goat from the outside pushed his way farther into the tent. "Whoa, there! You'll upset this place in a minute!"
And so it seemed Nicknack would do, for he was hungrily eating the leaves of the branches from which Jan and Ted had made their playhouse.
"How'd he get loose?" asked Jan.
"I don't know," Ted answered. "I tied him good and tight by his rope.
I wonder if—" Just then a voice called:
"Wait for me, Nicknack! Wait for me!"
"It's Trouble!" cried Jan and Ted together.
Ted looked out through the hole the goat had eaten in the side of the bower, and saw Baby William toddling toward him.
"Did you let Nicknack loose?" demanded Ted.
"Ess, I did," answered Trouble. "I cutted his wope with a knife, I did. I wants a wide. Wait for me, Nicknack!"
The goat was in no hurry to get away, for he liked to eat the green leaves, and Ted, coming out of the bower, which was almost ready to fall down now that the goat was half-way inside it, saw where the rope, fast around his pet's horns, had been cut.
"You mustn't do that, Trouble," Ted said to his little brother. "You mustn't cut Nicknack's rope. He might run away into the lake."
"Trouble wants a wide."
"Well, we'll give you a ride," added Jan. "But did mother or Nora give you the knife to cut the rope?"
"No. Trouble got knife offen table."
"Oh, you must never do that!" cried Jan. "You might fall on the sharp knife and cut yourself. Trouble was bad!"
The little fellow had really taken a knife from the table, and had sawed away with it on Nicknack's rope until he had cut it through. Then Nicknack had wandered over to the green bower to get something to eat, and Trouble, dropping the knife, had followed.
Mrs. Martin, to punish Baby William so he would remember not to take knives again, would not let him have a goat ride, and he cried very hard when Ted and Jan went off without him. But even little boys must learn not to do what is wrong, and Trouble was no different from any others.
One afternoon, when the Curlytops had been wandering around the woods of the island, looking to see if any berries were yet ripe, they came back to camp rather tired and warm.
"I know what would be nice for you," said Nora, who came to the flap doorway of the kitchen tent. "Yes, I know two things that would be nice for you."
"What?" asked Jan, fanning herself with her sunbonnet.
"I hope it's something good to eat," sighed Teddy, as he sat down in the shade.
"Part of it," answered Nora. "How would you like some cool lemonade— that is, when you are not so warm," she added quickly, for Teddy had jumped up on hearing this, and was about to make a rush for the kind cook. "You must always rest a bit, when you are so warm from running, walking or playing, before you take a cold drink of anything."
"But have you any lemonade?" asked Janet, for she, too, was tired and thirsty.
"I'll make some, and you may have it when you are not so heated," went on the cook. "And I'll get some sweet crackers for you."
"That's nice," said Janet. "Are they the two things you were going to tell us to do, Nora?"
"No, I'll count the lemonade and crackers as one," went on the cook with a smile. "The other thing I was going to tell you to do is to take Nicknack and have a ride. That will cool you off if you go in the shade."
"Oh, so it will!" cried Ted. "We'll do it! And can we take the lemonade in a bottle, and the crackers in a bag, and put them in the goat-wagon?"
"Do you mean to give the crackers and lemonade a ride, too?" asked
Mother Martin, who came out of her tent just then.
"No, but we can take them with us, and have a little picnic in the woods," explained Teddy. "We didn't find any berries, and so we didn't have any picnic."
"All right, Nora, give them the lemonade and crackers to take with them," said Mrs. Martin, smiling at the Curlytops.
"I'll go and make the cool drink now," said the cook.
"And I'll get the crackers," said the children's mother.
"And we'll go and get Nicknack and harness him to the cart," added
Ted.
He and Janet were soon on their way to the little leafy bower where the goat was kept, for it was so warm on Star Island that the goat did not stay more than half the time in the stable Grandpa Martin had made for him.
"Here, Nicknack! where are you?" called Teddy, as he neared the bower.
"Here, Nicknack!" called Janet.
But the goat did not answer. Nearly always, when he was called to in that way, he did, giving a loud "Baa-a-a-a-a!" that could be heard a long way.
"Oh, Nicknack isn't here!" cried Jan, when she saw the empty place.
"Maybe he's run away, Ted."
"He must be on the island somewhere," said the little boy. "He can't row a boat and get off, and he doesn't like to swim, I guess, though he did fall into the water once."
"But where is he?" asked Janet.
"We'll look," Teddy said.
So the children peered about in the bushes, but not a sign of Nicknack could they see. They called and called, but the goat did not bleat back to them.
"Oh, where can he be?" asked Janet, and her eyes filled with tears, for she loved the pet animal very much.
"We'll look," said Teddy. "And if we can't find him we'll ask grandpa to help us look."
They wandered about, but not going too far from the leafy bower, and, all at once, Ted cried:
"Hark! I hear him!"
"So do I!" added Janet. "Oh, where is he?"
"Listen!" returned her brother.
They both listened, hardly breathing, so as to make as little noise as possible. Once more they heard the cry of the goat:
"Baa-a-a-a-a-a!" went Nicknack. "Baa-a-a-a!"
"He's over this way!" cried Teddy, and he started to run to the left.
"No, I think he's here," and Janet pointed to the right.
"What's the matter, Curlytops?" asked Mrs. Martin, who came out just then to see what was keeping the children.
"We can hear Nicknack, but we can't see him," answered Ted.
Mrs. Martin listened to the goat's call.
"I think he's down this path," she said, and she took one midway between those Ted and Janet would have taken. "Come along!" she called back to the two children. "We'll soon find Nicknack."
"Here, Nicknack! Here, Nicknack!" called Ted.
"Come on, we want you to give us a ride!" added Janet.
But though the goat answered, as he nearly always did, his voice sounded afar off, and he did not come running to see his little friends.
"Oh, I wonder if anything is the matter with him?" asked Ted.
"We'll soon see," said Mrs. Martin.
Just then the barking of a dog was heard.
"Oh, I wonder if that's Skyrocket?" asked Janet.
"No, we left our dog home," said Mrs. Martin. "That sounds like a strange dog, and he seems to be barking at Nicknack. Come on, children. We'll see what the matter is!"
They hurried on, and, in a little while, they saw what had happened. Nicknack was caught in a thick bush by the rope around his horns. He had pulled the rope loose from his leafy bower, and it had dragged along after him as he wandered away. Then the end of the rope had become tangled in a thick bush and the goat could not pull it loose. He was held as tightly as if tied.
In front of him, but far enough away so the goat could not butt him with his horns, which Nicknack tried to do, was a big, and not very nice-looking, dog. This dog was barking fiercely at Nicknack, and the goat could not make him go away.
"Oh, Mother! don't let the dog hurt our goat!" begged Janet.
"I'll drive him away," cried Ted, catching up a stone. "No, you had better let me do it," said Mrs. Martin. She picked up a stick and walked toward the dog, but he did not wait for her to get very close. With a last howl and a bark at Nicknack, the dog ran away, jumped into the lake and swam off toward shore. Then the rope was loosed and Nicknack, who was badly frightened, was led back by Ted and Jan and hitched to the wagon. He then gave them a fine ride. The dog was a stray one, which had swum over from the mainland, Grandpa Martin said.
Ted and Janet took the lemonade and crackers with them in the goat- wagon and had a nice little picnic in the woods.
"What can we do to-day?" asked Janet, as she and Teddy finished breakfast in the tent one morning, and, after playing about on the beach of the lake, wanted some other fun.
"Let's go swimming!" cried Teddy.
"And take Trouble with us," added Ms sister.
In their bathing suits and with Nora on the bank to watch them, the children were soon splashing in the cool water. Ted could swim a little bit, and Jan was just learning.
"Come on out where it's a little deeper," Ted urged his sister. "It isn't up to your knees here, and you can't swim in such shallow water."
"I'm afraid to go out," she said.
"Afraid of what?"
"Big fish or a crab."
"Pooh! those little crabs won't bite you, and when we splash around we scare away all the fish. They wouldn't bite you anyhow."
"Maybe a water snake would."
"No, it wouldn't," declared Ted. "Come on and see me swim."
So Jan waded out a little way with him. Ted was just taking a few strokes, really swimming quite well for so small a boy, when, all at once, he heard a cry from his sister.
"Oh, Ted! Ted!" she called. "Come on in, quick. A big fish is goin' to bite you!"
Ted gave one look over his shoulder and saw something with a pointed nose, long whiskers and two bright eyes swimming toward him.
"Oh!" yelled Ted, and he began running for shore as fast as he could splash through the water.
CHAPTER XIII
JAN'S QUEER RIDE
"What's the matter? What is it?" cried Nora from the bank where she was tossing bits of wood into the lake for Trouble to pretend they were little boats. "Have you got a cramp, Teddy boy?"
"It's a—a big fish—or—somethin'," he panted, as he kept on running and splashing the water all about, which, after all, did not matter as he was in his bathing suit.
"It's a shark after him!" cried Jan, who, by this time, was safe on shore, stopping on her way to grasp Trouble by the hand and lead him also to safety. "It's a shark!"
She had heard her mother read of bathers in the ocean being sometimes frightened by sharks, or by big fish that looked like sharks.
"Oh, a shark! Good land! We mustn't bathe here any more!" cried Nora.
By this time Ted was in such shallow water that it was not much above his ankles. He could see the bottom, and he hoped no very big fish could swim in so little water. So he thought it would be safe to stop and look back.
"Oh, it's coming some more!" cried Jan, from where she stood on the bank with Nora and Trouble. "Look, Ted! It's coming."
The animal, fish, or whatever it was, indeed seemed to be coming straight for the shore near the place where the Curlytops were playing. Ted, Jan and Nora could see the sharp nose and the bright eyes more plainly now. As for Trouble, he did not know what it was all about, and he wanted to go back in the water to wade, which was as near swimming as he ever came.
Then the strange creature turned and suddenly made for a small rock, which stood out of the water a little way from the sandy beach. It climbed out on the rock, while the children and Nora watched eagerly, and then Ted gave a laugh.
"Why!" he exclaimed, "it's nothing but a big muskrat!"
"A muskrat?" echoed Jan.
"Yes."
"And see, he has a mussel, or fresh-water clam," said Nora. "Look at him crack the shell."
And this is what the muskrat was really doing. It had been swimming in the lake—for muskrats are good swimmers—when it had found a fresh- water mussel, which is like a clam except that it has a longer shell that is black instead of white. Muskrats like mussels, but they cannot eat them in water.
They have to bring them up on shore, or to a flat rock or stump that sticks up out of water, where they can crack the shell and eat the mussel inside.
"If I'd a known what it was I wouldn't 'a' been scared," said Ted, who felt a little ashamed of himself for hurrying toward shore. "You frightened me yelling so, Jan."
"Well, I didn't want to see you get bit by a shark, Teddy. First I thought it was a shark."
"Well, sharks live in the ocean, where the water is salty," declared
Ted.
"Anyhow maybe a muskrat bites," went on Janet.
"Well, maybe," agreed Ted. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't stay there when he came swimming in," for the big rat passed right over the place where Ted had been about to swim. "I'm glad you yelled, Janet."
"So'm I. I'm not going in swimming here anymore."
"Oh, he won't come back," Ted said. "Come on!"
But Janet would not go, and as it was no fun for Ted to splash in the water all alone he stayed near shore and went wading with Trouble and his sister.
This was fun, and the Curlytops had a good time, while Nora, now that she knew there was no danger from sharks, sat in the shade and mended holes in the children's stockings.
"I wish we had a boat," said Ted after a while.
"Why, we have," answered Jan.
"Yes, I know, the big rowboat. But that's too heavy for me and you—I mean you and me," and Ted quickly corrected himself, for he knew it was polite always to name oneself last. "But I want a little boat that we can paddle around in."
Jan thought for a moment and then cried:
"Oh, I know the very thing!"
"What?" asked Ted eagerly.
"One of the boxes grandpa brought the things in from the store.
They're long, and we can make box-boats of them. There's two of 'em!"
"That's what we can!" cried Teddy, as he thought of the boxes his sister meant. Groceries from the store had been sent to the camp in them. The boxes were strong, and long; big enough for Jan or Ted to sit down in them and reach over the sides to paddle, not being too high.
Mother Martin said they might take the boxes and make of them the play-boats they wanted, and, in great delight, Ted and his sister ran to get their new playthings.
Grandpa Martin pulled out all the nails that might scratch the children, and he also fastened strips of wood over the largest cracks in the boxes.
"That will keep out some of the water, but not all," he said. "Your box-boats won't float very long. They'll sink as soon as enough water runs in through the other cracks."
"Oh, well, we'll paddle in them in shallow water," promised Ted. "And sinking won't hurt, 'cause we've got on our bathing suits. Come on, Jan!"
Trouble wanted to sail in the new boats, also, but they were not large enough for two. Besides Mrs. Martin did not want the baby to be in the water too much. So she carried him away, Trouble crying and screaming to be allowed to stay, while Jan and Ted got ready for their first trip. They pretended the boats were ocean steamers and that the cove in the lake, near grandpa's camp, was the big ocean.
They had pieces of wood which their grandfather had whittled out for them to use as paddles, and, as Ted said, they could sit down in the bottoms of the box-boats and never mind how much water came in, for they still had on their bathing suits.
"All aboard!" called Teddy, as he got into his boat.
"I'm coming," answered Janet, pushing off from shore.
"Oh, I can really paddle!" cried Ted in delight, as he found that his box floated with him in it and he could send it along by using the board for a paddle, as one does in a canoe. "Isn't this great, Janet?"
"Oh, it's lots of fun!"
"I'm glad you thought of it. I never would," went on Ted. He was a good brother, for, whenever his sister did anything unusual like this he always gave her credit for it.
Around and around in the little cove paddled the Curlytops, having fun in their box-boats.
"I'm going to let the wind blow me," said Jan, after a bit. "I'm tired of paddling."
"There isn't any wind," Ted remarked.
"Well, what makes me go along, then?" asked his sister. "Look, I'm moving and I'm not paddling at all!"
She surely was. In her boat she was sailing right across the little cove, and, as Ted had said, there was not enough wind to blow a feather, to say nothing of a heavy box with a little girl in it.
"Isn't it queer!" exclaimed Janet. "What makes me go this way, Ted?
You aren't sailing."
Ted's boat was not moving now, for he had stopped paddling.
Still Jan's craft moved on slowly but surely through the water. Then
Ted saw a funny thing and gave a cry of surprise.