CHAPTER V
THE BAG OF SALT
"Oh! Oh!" cried Teddy. "Oh, there goes my nice goat! Catch him,
Grandpa! Stop him!"
Grandpa Martin stopped rowing and looked in surprise at the goat. So did the hired man.
"Well, just look!" exclaimed George.
"Oh, he'll be drowned! He'll be drowned!" wailed Teddy, tears coming into his eyes, for he loved Nicknack. "He'll be drowned!"
Grandpa Martin rested his hands on the oars and looked into the water.
Then he smiled.
"I guess you'd have hard work drowning that goat," he said. "He's swimming like a fish!"
"And right straight for Star Island!" added the hired man. "That's a smart goat all right! He knows where he wants to go, and the shortest way to get there!"
Surely enough Nicknack was swimming toward the island. When he jumped out of the boat he floundered a little in the water, and splashed some on Teddy. Then he struck out, paddling as a dog does with his front feet. Nicknack turned himself about until he was headed toward the island, and then he swam straight toward it.
"Oh, won't he drown, Grandpa?" asked Teddy.
"I don't believe so, my boy! I guess Nicknack knows more than we thought he did. Maybe he didn't like the way we rowed, or he may have wanted a bath. Anyhow he jumped overboard, but he'll be all right."
"See him go!" cried the hired man.
Nicknack was swimming quite fast. Of course a goat is not as good a swimmer as is a duck or a fish, but Ted's pet did very well. On shore were Nora, Mrs. Martin, Janet, Trouble, and the farm hand who had gone over in the first boatload. They were watching the goat swimming toward them.
"Did you throw him into the water, Teddy?" asked Janet, as soon as the boat was near enough so that talking could be heard.
"He jumped in," Ted answered. "Isn't he a good swimmer?"
"I should say so! Here, Nicknack! Come here!" Janet called.
The goat, which had been headed toward a spot a little way down the island from where Janet and her mother stood, turned at the sound of the little girl's voice and came in her direction.
"Oh, he knows me!" she cried in delight "Now don't shake yourself the way Skyrocket does, and get me all wet!" she begged, as Nicknack scrambled out on shore, water dripping from his hairy coat.
But the goat did not act like a dog, who gives himself a great shaking whenever he comes on shore after having been in the water. Nicknack just let it drip off him, and began to nibble some of the grass that grew on the island. He was making himself perfectly at home, it seemed.
The goat-wagon and the other things were soon landed, and then Grandpa Martin and one of the hired men went back for the last load. When that came back and the things were piled up near the tents, the work of setting up the camp went on. There was much yet to be done.
Ted and Jan helped all they could in putting up the tents. So did Mother Martin and Nora, who was large and strong. She could pull on a rope about as well as a man, and there were many ropes that needed tightening and fastening around pegs driven into the ground so the tents would not blow over in the wind.
Nicknack had been tied to a tree, near which, a little later, Ted and
Jan were going to make him a little bower of leaves and branches. That
was to be his stable until a better one could be built by Grandpa
Martin—one that would keep Nicknack dry when it rained.
At last the tents were up, one for sleeping, another for cooking, and a third where the Curlytops and the others would eat their meals. It was a fine camp that Grandpa Martin made, and he knew just how to do it right, even to digging little trenches, or ditches, around the tents so the water would run off when it stormed.
"And now let's take a walk and see what we can find," suggested Ted to Janet, when Mother Martin said they might play about until supper was ready, for they had called the lunch they had eaten their dinner.
"Don't go too far," cautioned Mother Martin.
"Oh, we can't get lost on this island," said Ted. "All we'd have to do, if we were, would be to walk along the shore until we came to this camp."
"I know that. But it wasn't so much about your getting lost that I was thinking," said Mrs. Martin.
"Oh, you mean—the tramps?" half whispered Janet.
"Well, I don't know whether there are any here or not," went on her mother. "But it's best to be careful until grandpa has had a chance to look about. Where is grandpa now?"
"He's getting some water at the spring," Ted answered.
There was a fine spring on Star Island, not far from the place where the tents had been set up, and Mr. Martin was now bringing pails of water from that and pouring them into a barrel which would hold so much that even Trouble would have plenty to drink no matter how thirsty he was.
"Well, don't go too far away until either grandpa or I have a chance to go with you," added Mrs. Martin.
"Me come, too," called Trouble, as he saw his brother and sister starting off.
"Oh, Mother!" exclaimed Teddy.
"No, you stay with mother," said Mrs. Martin. "I'll give you a nice drink of milk."
"Don't want milk. I's had milk. Trouble want Ted an' Jan."
"But you can't go with them, my dear. Come on, we'll go and throw stones into the lake and make-believe it's a great, big ocean!"
Baby William pouted a little at first. He liked to have his own way. But when he saw what fun his mother was having tossing stones into the lake and making the water splash up, Trouble did the same, laughing at the fun he was having.
"Dis a ocean, Momsey?" he asked as he set a little stick afloat, making believe it was a boat.
"Well, we'll call it an ocean," Mrs. Martin answered. "But this water is fresh, and that in the ocean is very salty. Some day I'll take you and my two little Curlytops to the real ocean, and you can taste how salty the waves are. Now we'll throw some more stones."
Meanwhile Ted and Jan started for a little walk down the path that went the whole length of Star Island.
"Shall we take Nicknack?" asked Jan.
"No, let's wait until he dries off after his bath," decided Teddy. "I don't like wet goats."
"Why, Teddy Martin! Nicknack got dried out hours ago!"
"Well, anyway, a goat isn't like a dog. We don't want a goat along when we are going out walking."
So Nicknack was left to nibble the grass, while the Curlytops wandered on and on. Grandpa and the hired men, having finished putting up the tents, were getting the stove ready so Nora could get supper.
"What are you looking for?" asked Jan when she noticed that her brother walked along as if searching for something. "Are you trying to see if any tramps or gypsies are here on the island?"
"No. I was thinking maybe I could find that fallen star."
"But didn't grandpa say it all melted up?"
"Maybe a piece of it's left," went on Ted. This was the second time that he had spoken of the star that day. "If I can't find a chunk of it, maybe I can find the hole it made when it hit," he added. "I'd like to find that. Maybe it would be bigger than the one I dug when I thought I could go all the way through to China."
"Yes. The time Skyrocket fell in!" laughed Jan. "'Member that, Teddy?"
"I guess I do! Daddy had to go out in the night and bring him in. Come on, let's look for the hole the shooting star made."
"All right."
The two Curlytops walked on over the island, looking here and there for star-holes. They found a number of deep places, but after looking at them, and poking sticks down into them, Ted decided that none of them had ever held a shooting star.
"Maybe bears made them," half whispered Jan.
"There aren't any bears on this island!" Teddy declared.
"I hope not," murmured his sister, as she looked over her shoulder and then kept close to her brother during the rest of the walk.
Pretty soon the children heard their mother's voice calling them. They could hear very plainly, for the air was clear.
"I guess supper is ready," said Janet.
"I hope it is!" sighed Ted. "I'm awful hungry!"
Supper was ready, smoking hot on the table in the dining-tent, when
Ted and Jan reached the camp grandpa had made.
"Oh, how good it smells!" cried Ted.
"And how nice the white tents look under the green trees," added his sister. "I just love it here!"
"It is the nicest place we have yet been for the summer vacation," said Mother Martin. "This and Cherry Farm are two lovely places."
They sat down under the tent and began to eat. Nora had gotten up a fine supper, for a regular cook stove had been brought along, and it was almost like eating at Grandma Martin's table, only this was out of doors, for the sides of the tent were raised to let in the air and the rays of the setting sun.
"What's the matter, Father?" asked Mrs. Martin, as she saw the children's grandfather pause after tasting the potatoes. "Is anything wrong?"
"I think I'd like a little more salt on these."
"Yes, they do need salting. Nora, bring the salt please."
"There isn't any, except what I used when I was cooking—a little I had in a salt-shaker."
"Oh, yes, there must be. I brought a whole bagful. I saw it when I unpacked some of the things. There was a sack of salt."
"Well, it isn't here now," said Nora, as she looked among her kitchen things.
"Has anyone seen the bag of salt?" asked Mrs. Martin.
She looked at Ted and Jan, who shook their heads. Then Trouble's mother looked at him. He was busy with a piece of bread and jam. One could have told Trouble had been eating bread and jam just by looking at his mouth and face.
"Did you see the salt. Trouble?" asked his mother.
"Iss, I did," he answered, taking another bite.
"Where is it?"
"In de water," he replied. "I puts it in de water."
"You put the salt in the water? What water? Tell mother, Trouble."
"I puts salt in de lake water to make him 'ike ocean. Trouble 'ike ocean. Come on, I show!" and, getting down out of his chair, he toddled toward a little cove near the camp. The others, following him, saw something white on the ground near the edge of the lake. Grandpa Martin touched it with his finger and tasted.
"The little tyke did empty the whole bag of salt in the lake!" cried the farmer. "Fancy his trying to make it like the ocean! Ho! Ho!"
"Oh, Trouble!" cried Mrs. Martin. "You wasted a whole bag of salt, and now grandpa hasn't any for his potatoes!"
CHAPTER VI
TED AND THE BEAR
Baby Williams looked a little bit frightened and ashamed as his mother spoke to him in that way. He loved his grandfather, and of course he would not have done anything to make him feel bad if he had thought. But Trouble was a very little fellow, though his father often said he could get into as many kinds of mischief as could the larger Curlytops.
"Oh dear! This is too bad!" went on Mrs. Martin. "Why did you do it,
Trouble! What made you empty the bag of salt into the lake?"
"Want to make ocean wif salt water," was the answer.
"I suppose it's my fault, for telling him so much about the big sea and its salt water," said Trouble's mother. "He liked to hear me talk about the ocean, and I guess he must have been thinking about it more than I had any idea of.
"He must have tasted the water of the lake, and found it wasn't salty, and then he thought that, to make an ocean and big waves out of a lake, all he had to do was to put in the salt. I'm sorry, Father."
"Oh, that's all right," laughed Grandpa Martin. "I guess I can get along without any more salt."
"Trouble sorry, too," said the little fellow, when he understood that he had done something wrong. "Me get salt water for you," and he started toward the place where he had emptied the bag into the water, carrying a spoon from the table.
"No, Trouble! Come back!" ordered his mother. "I guess he wants to dip up some salt water for you," she said laughingly to the children's grandfather, "but he'd be more likely to fall in himself."
She caught Trouble up in her arms and kissed him, and then Nora managed to find a little salt in the bottom of the shaker, so Grandpa Martin had some on his potatoes after all. But Trouble was told he must never again do anything like that.
He promised, of course, but Jan said: "He'll do something else, just as bad."
"I guess he will," laughed Teddy.
Supper over, Mr. Martin took his two men over to the mainland. On his return they all gathered about a little campfire grandpa made in front of the sleeping tent. The cot beds had been set up, and a mosquito netting was hung at the "front door" of the white canvas house, though really there was no door, just two flaps of the tent that could be tied together. But the netting kept out the bugs. Fortunately there were no mosquitoes, though all sorts of moths, snapping bugs and other flying things came around whenever a lantern was lighted.
"Tell us a story, Grandpa!" begged Janet, when they had finished talking about the many things that had happened during the first day in camp.
"Tell us about the shooting star that fell on this island," begged
Teddy.
"Tell us about de twamps!" exclaimed Trouble, who ought to have been asleep, but who had begged to stay up a little longer than usual.
"I don't know anything about the tramps," laughed grandpa, "and I don't believe there are any on the island, though it is a large one, and it will take two or three days for us to walk all about it.
"As for the shooting star, which Teddy thinks about so much, I really didn't see it fall, and all I know is what the old men in the village have told me. It was many years ago."
"And did you ever see the blue light?" asked Ted, thinking of what he and his sister had seen the night they were coming home from the little visit to Hal Chester.
"No, I never did; though I'd like to, so I might know what it was."
"Children, how is grandpa ever going to tell you a story if you keep asking him so many questions?" laughed Mrs. Martin.
"All right—now we'll listen," promised Teddy, and Grandpa Martin told a tale of when he was a little boy, and lived further to the north and on the edge of a big wood where there were bears and other wild animals. His father was a good hunter, Grandpa Martin said, and often used to kill bears and wolves, for the country was wild, with never so much as one automobile in it.
Grandpa finished his story of the olden days by telling of once when he was a small boy, coming home through the woods toward dark one evening and being chased by a bear. But he crawled into a hollow log where the bear could not get him, and later his father and some other hunters came, shot the bear and got the little boy safely out.
"Whew!" whistled Teddy, when this was finished. "I'd like to have been there!"
"In the log, hiding away from the bear?" asked his mother.
"No, I—I guess not that," Ted answered. "I'd just like to have seen it up in a tree, where the bear couldn't get me."
"Bears can climb trees," remarked Janet.
"Well, I'd go up in a little tree too small for a bear," her brother answered.
"I guess you'd all better go to your little beds!" laughed Mother
Martin. "It's long past your sleepy time."
And the Curlytops and Trouble were soon sound asleep.
It must have been about the middle of the night—-anyhow it was quite late—when Teddy, who was sleeping in his cot next to one of the side walls of the tent, was suddenly awakened by a noise outside, and something seemed to be trying to get through.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Teddy, quickly sitting up in bed, and wide awake all at once. "Oh, Mother! Something's after me! It's a bear! It's a bear!"
"Hush!" quickly exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "You'll waken William, and frighten him!"
"But Mother! I'm sure it's a bear! He growled!"
"What is it?" asked Jan, from her cot on the other side of the tent.
"It's a bear!" cried Ted again.
There did seem to be something going on outside the tent near Ted's side. There was a crackling in the bushes, and once something came pushing hard against the side of the white canvas house with force enough to make a bulge in it. Teddy jumped up from his cot and ran over to his mother, who was sitting up on her bed.
"Oh, Mother! It's coming in!" cried Teddy.
"Nonsense!" and Mrs. Martin laughed as she put her arms around her small son.
"What is it?" asked Grandpa Martin from the curtained-off part of the tent where he slept.
"It's a bear!" cried Janet.
Just then, from outside came a loud:
"Baa-a-a-a-a!"
Teddy looked very much surprised. Then he smiled. Then he laughed and cried:
"Why, it's our goat Nicknack!"
"I guess that's what it is," added Grandpa Martin. "But he seems to be in trouble. I'll go outside and look."
Taking a lantern with him, while Mrs. Martin and the children waited a bit anxiously, Grandpa Martin went to see what had happened. The Curlytops heard him laughing as they saw the flicker of his light through the white tent. Then they heard Nicknack bleating again. The goat seemed, to those inside, to be kicking about with his little black hoofs.
"Whoa there, Nicknack!" called Grandpa Martin. "I'll soon get you loose!"
There was more noise, more tramping in the bushes and then, after a while, Grandpa Martin came back.
"What was it?" asked Ted and Jan in whispers, for their mother had begged them not to awaken Trouble, who was still sleeping peacefully.
"It was your goat," was the answer. "He had got loose, and his horns were caught between two trees where he had tried to jump. He was held fast by his horns and he was kicking his heels up in the air, trying to get loose."
"Did you get him out?" asked Jan.
"Yes, I pried the trees apart and got his head loose. Then he was all right. I tied him good and tight in his stable, and I guess he won't bother us again to-night."
"Then it wasn't a bear after all," remarked Jan, laughing at her brother.
"No, indeed! There aren't any bears on this island," said her grandfather. "Go to sleep."
Nothing else happened the rest of the night, and they all slept rather late the next morning, for they were tired from the work of the day before. The sun was shining over Clover Lake when Nora rang the breakfast bell, and Ted and Jan hurried with their dressing, for they were eager to be at their play.
"What'll we do to-day?" asked Janet, as she tried to get a comb through her thick, curly hair.
"We'll go for a ride with Nicknack," decided Ted, who was also having a hard time with his locks. "Oh, I wish I was a barber!" he cried, as the comb stuck in a bunch of curls.
"Why?" asked his mother, who was giving Trouble his breakfast.
"'Cause then I'd cut my own hair short, and I'd never have to comb it."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to see you without your curls," Mother Martin said. "Here, I'll help you as soon as I feed Trouble."
Trouble could feed himself when his plate had been set in front of him, and while he was eating Mrs. Martin made her two Curlytops look better by the use of their combs.
After breakfast the children ran to hitch Nicknack to the wagon. Grandpa Martin was going back in the rowboat to the mainland to get a few things that had been forgotten, and also another bag of salt.
"And I'll hide it away from Trouble," said Nora with a laugh. "We don't want any more salty oceans around here."
"Let's drive away before Trouble sees us," proposed Jan to her brother. "He'll want to come for a ride and we can't go very far if he comes along."
"All right. Stoop down and walk behind the bushes. Then he can't see us."
Jan and Ted managed to get away unseen, and were soon hitching their goat to the wagon. Trouble finished his breakfast and called to them, wanting to go with them wherever they went. But his mother knew the two Curlytops did not want Trouble with them every time, so Baby William had to play by himself about camp, while the two older children drove off on a path that led the long way of the island.
"Maybe we'll have an adventure," suggested Jan, as she sat in the cart driving the goat, for she and her brother took turns at this fun.
"Maybe we'll see some of the tramps," he added.
"I don't want to," said Jan.
"Well, maybe we'll see a bear."
"I don't want that, either. I wish you wouldn't say such things,
Teddy."
"Well, what do you want to see?"
"Oh, something nice—flowers or birds or maybe a fairy."
"Huh! I guess there's no fairies on this island, either. Let's see if we can find an apple tree. I'd like an apple."
"So would I. But we mustn't eat green ones."
"Not if they're too green," agreed Teddy. "But a little green won't hurt." They drove on, Nicknack trotting along the path through the woods, now and then stopping to nibble at the leaves. At last the children came to a beautiful shady spot, where many ferns grew beneath the trees, and it was so cool that they stopped their goat, tied him to an old stump and sat down to eat some cookies their mother had given them. The Curlytops nearly always became hungry when they were out on their little trips.
"Wouldn't it be funny," remarked Ted, after a bit, "if we should see a bear?"
"The-o-dore Martin!" gasped Janet. "I wish you'd keep quiet! It makes me scared to hear you say that."
"Well, I was only foolin'," and Teddy dropped a "g," a habit of which his mother was trying to break him. And he did not often forget.
"If I saw a bear," began Janet, "I'd just scream and—"
Suddenly she stopped because of a queer look she saw on her brother's face. Teddy dropped the cookie he had been about to bite, and, pointing toward a hollow log that lay not far off, said, in a hoarse whisper:
"Look, Jan! It is a bear!"
CHAPTER VII
JAN SEES SOMETHING
For a moment after her brother had said this Janet did not speak. She, too, dropped the cookie she had just taken from the bag, and turned slowly around to see at what Teddy was pointing.
She was just in time to see something furry and reddish-brown in color dart into the hollow log, which was open at both ends. Then Jan gave a scream.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ted, who was as much frightened by Janet's shrill voice as he was at what he had seen. "Oh, Jan! Don't!"
"I—I couldn't help it," she answered. "I told you I'd scream if I saw a bear, and I did see one. It is a bear, isn't it, Teddy?"
"It is," he answered. "I saw it first. It's my bear!"
"You can have it—every bit of it," said Jan, quickly getting up from the mossy rock on which she had been sitting. "I don't want any of it, not even the stubby tail. I like to own half of Nicknack with you, but I don't want half a bear."
"Then I'll take all of it—it's my bear," went on Ted. "Where're you going, Jan?" he asked, as he saw his sister hurrying away.
"I'm going home. I don't like it here. I'm going to make Nicknack run home with me."
Teddy got up, too. He did not stop to pick up the cookie he had dropped.
"I—I guess I'll go with you, Jan," he said. "I guess my bear will stay in the log until I come back."
"Are you coming back?" asked Janet, as with trembling fingers she unfastened Nicknack's strap from around the stump to which he had been tied.
"I'm going to get grandpa to come back with me and shoot the bear," replied Ted. "I want his skin to make a rug. You know—like grandpa did with the bear his father shot."
Jan did not say anything. She got into the cart and turned the goat about, ready to leave the place. She gave a look over her shoulder at the hollow log into which she and Ted had seen the furry, brown animal crawl. It did not seem to be coming out, and Jan was glad of that.
"Giddap, Nicknack!" she called to the goat, and as the animal started off Ted jumped into the wagon from behind.
"I wish I had a gun," he said.
"You're too little," declared Jan. "Oh, Ted! what if he should chase us? Was it an awful big bear? I didn't dare look much."
"It wasn't so very big."
"Was it as big as Nicknack?"
"Oh, bigger'n him—a lot."
"Oh!" and again Jan looked back over her shoulder. "I hope he doesn't chase us," she added.
"I'll fix him if he does!" threatened Ted. "I'll fix him!"
"How? You haven't any gun, and maybe you couldn't shoot it if you had, lessen maybe it was your Christmas pop gun."
"Pooh! Pop guns wouldn't be any good to shoot a bear! You've got to have real bullets. But I can fix this bear if he chases us," and Ted tried to look brave.
"How?" asked Jan again. She felt safer now, for Nicknack was going fast, and the hollow log, into which the furry animal had crawled, was out of sight.
"I'll make our goat buck the bear with his horns if he chases us, that's what I'll do!" declared Ted.
"Oh, that would be good!" exclaimed Jan in delight. "Nicknack is brave and his horns are sharp. 'Member how he stuck 'em in the fence one day?"
"Yes," answered Ted, "I do. And I'll get him to stick 'em in the bear if he comes too close. Giddap, Nicknack!" and Ted flicked the goat with the ends of the reins. I think he wanted the goat to go faster so there would be no danger of the bear's chasing after him and his sister. Perhaps Ted thought Nicknack might be afraid of the bear, even if the goat did have sharp horns.
The Curlytops were greatly excited when they reached the camp. Trouble was playing out in front and Grandpa Martin had just landed in the boat.
"What's that?" he cried, when he heard Ted's story. "A bear in a hollow log? Nonsense! There are no bears on Star Island."
"But I saw it, and so did Janet. Didn't you, Jan?" cried Ted. "I saw something fuzzy with a big tail going inside the log," answered Teddy's sister.
"Then it couldn't have been a bear," laughed Grandpa Martin. "For a bear has only a little short, stubby tail. I'll go to see what it is. I think I know, however."
"What?" asked Mother Martin. "Don't go into any danger, Father."
"I won't," promised the farmer. "But I won't tell you what I think the animal is until I see it. I may be mistaken."
"Maybe it's a twamp," put in Trouble, who seemed to be thinking about them as much as Ted thought about the fallen star.
"Tramps aren't animals," laughed Jan.
"Furry animals, anyway," added Ted.
"Well, you stay here and I'll go see what it was," went on grandpa, and he started off toward the hollow log with a big club. He was not gone very long, and when he came back he was laughing, as he had the night before when Nicknack gave them a scare.
"Just as I thought!" cried the children's grandpa. "It was a big, red fox in the hollow log."
"And not a bear?" asked Ted.
"Not a bear, Curlytop! Only a fox that was more frightened by you than you were by him, I guess. I knew it couldn't be a bear."
"How did you get it out of the log?" asked Jan.
"Oh, I just tapped on the log with my club, and Mr. Fox must have thought it was somebody knocking at his front door. For out he ran, looked at me with his bright eyes, and then away he ran into the woods. So you Curlytops needn't be afraid. The fox won't hurt you."
"I'm glad of that," said Jan. "Now let's go fishing, Ted."
"All right," he agreed.
"Can't you take Trouble with you?" asked his mother. "I want to help
Nora and grandpa do a little work around the camp."
"Yes, we'll take him," agreed Jan. "But you mustn't put any salt in the water, Trouble, and scare the fish."
"I not do it. I tatch a fiss myself."
They gave him a pole and a line without any hook on it so he could not scratch himself, and then Jan and Ted sat down under a shady tree, not far from camp, to try to catch some fish.
They knew how, for their father had taught them, and soon Jan had landed a good-sized sunfish. A little later Ted caught a perch which had stripes on its sides, "like a zebra," as Jan said. After that Jan and Ted each caught two fish, and they soon had enough to cook.
"What do you Curlytops want me to do with these?" asked Nora, as the two children came along, laughing and shouting, with the fish dangling from strings each of them carried.
"Cook 'em, of course!" cried Teddy. "That's what we caught them for,
Nora—to have you cook them."
"But won't they bite me?" asked the cook, pretending to be afraid.
"Oh, no! They can't!" explained Jan.
"They bit on our hooks, and now they can't bite any more, but we can bite them," said Teddy.
"Oh, would you bite the poor fish?" asked Nora.
For a moment the Curlytops did not know what to answer. Then Teddy replied:
"Oh, well, it can't hurt 'em to bite 'em after they're cooked, can it?"
"No, I guess not," laughed Nora, "no more than it can hurt a baked potato. Well, run along and I'll get the fish ready for dinner, or whatever you call the next meal. I declare, I'm so mixed up with this camping business that I hardly know breakfast from supper. But run along, and I'll fry the fish for you, anyhow."
"Let's go and take a walk," proposed Jan, when they had washed their hands in the tin basin that Mother Martin had set on a bench under a tree, with a towel and soap near by, for fish did leave such a funny smell on your hands, the little girl said.
"Where'll we walk to?" asked Teddy.
"Oh, let's go and look. Maybe we can find that cute little bunny we saw when we were looking for the den where the fox lived but didn't find him," proposed Jan. "All right," answered Teddy, and they set off.
They had not gone very far before Teddy stopped near a bush and began to look about him.
"What's the matter?" asked his sister.
"Why, I saw a bird fly out of here," answered her brother, "and it seemed just as if it had a broken wing. It couldn't fly—hardly."
"Where is it?" asked Jan eagerly. "Maybe if we take it to mother she can fix the wing. Once she mended a dog's broken leg, and he could walk 'most as good as ever when he got well, only he limped a little."
"But a dog can't fly," said Teddy.
"I know it," agreed Jan. "But if mother can mend a broken leg, she can fix a broken wing, can't she?"
"Maybe," admitted her brother. "Oh, there's the bird again, Jan! See how it nutters along!" and the little boy pointed to one that was dragging itself along over the ground as though its wings or legs were broken or hurt.
"Come on!" cried Teddy. "Maybe we can catch the bird, Jan!"
Brother and sister started after the little feathered songster, which was making a queer, chirping noise. Then Jan suddenly called:
"Oh, here's another!"
And, surely enough, there was a second bird acting almost as was the first—fluttering along, half hopping and half flying through the grass.
"We'll get 'em both!" yelled Teddy, and he and Jan hurried along. But, somehow or other, as soon as they came almost to the place where they could reach out and touch one of the birds, which acted as though it could not go a bit farther, the little creature would manage to flutter on just beyond the eager hands of the children.
"That's funny!" exclaimed Teddy. "I almost had one of 'em that time!"
"So did I!" added Janet. "Now I'm sure I can get this one!" and she ran forward to grasp the fluttering bird, but it managed to hop along, just out of her reach.
The one Ted was after did the same thing, and for some time the children hurried on after the birds. At last the two songsters, with little chirps and calls, suddenly flew high in the air and circled back through the woods.
"Well, would you look at that!" cried Teddy, in surprise.
"They can fly, after all!" gasped Janet. "What d'you s'pose made 'em pretend they couldn't?"
"I—I guess they wanted to fool us," said her brother.
And that really was it. The little birds had built a nest in a low bush, close to the ground where the children could easily have reached it if they had seen it. And they were very close to it, though their eyes had not spied it.
But the birds had seen the Curlytops and, fearing that Jan and Ted might take out the eggs in the nest, the wise little birds had pretended to be willing to let the boy and girl catch them instead of robbing the nest.
Of course, Jan and Ted wouldn't have done such a thing as that! But the birds, knew no differently. Not all birds act this way—pretending to be hurt, or that they can't fly—to get people to chase after them, and so keep far away from the little nests. But this particular kind of bird always does that.
Some day, if you are in the woods or the fields, and see one bird—or two—acting in this queer way, as though it could not fly or walk, and as though it wanted you to hurry after it and try to catch it—if you see a bird acting that way you may be sure you are near its nest and eggs and this is the way the bird does to get you away.
"Let's look for their nest," suggested Teddy, when the two birds had flown far away, back through the woods.
"Oh, no," answered Jan. "We don't want to scare them. Maybe we can look at the nest of a bird that won't mind if we watch her feeding her little ones."
And, a little later, they came to a bush in which was a robin's nest. In it were some tiny birds, and, by standing on their tiptoes, and bending the nest down a little way, the Curlytops could look in. The baby birds, which had only just begun to grow feathers, opened their mouths as wide as they could, thinking, I suppose, that Jan and Ted had worms or bugs for them.
But the children did not have.
"Your mother will soon be along to feed you," said Janet, and soon the mother bird did come flying back from the field. She seemed afraid at first, when she saw how close Jan and Ted were to her nest, but the children soon walked away, and then the robin fed her young.
Ted and Jan had a nice walk through the woods and then they went back to camp.
"We'll take Trouble for a walk, so mother won't have to look after him so much," said Janet. "Come, Trouble!"
"Show me where the fox was," begged Baby William, and Ted and Jan turned their steps that way. But there was no sign of the big-tailed animal in the hollow log, though the children pounded on it as Grandpa Martin said he had done.
Then they wandered on a little farther in the beautiful woods. Jan saw some flowers she wanted to gather, and leaving the path where Ted stood to take care of his little brother, she began picking a handful.
Janet saw so many pretty blossoms that she went a little farther than she meant to, and, before she knew it, she had lost sight of her two brothers, though she could hear them talking.
Suddenly, after crawling through some bushes, Jan found herself on another path. On the other side of it she saw some black-eyed Susans.
"Oh, I must get some of them!" she cried.
She darted across the path, and, as she was about to pick the flowers, she saw, standing behind a big tree, a man who had on very ragged clothes. He looked at Jan, who dropped her bouquet and gasped:
"Oh! Oh, dear!"
The ragged man looked at Janet and smiled. But Jan did not smile. One thought only was in her mind.
"Here is one of the tramps!"
CHAPTER VIII
TROUBLE FALLS IN
Janet Martin thought 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. If I had known I should meet you I would have picked them for you."
"I wonder if he can be 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 woods with 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 what we 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. Ill 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 him one 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."
"It is queer," 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 one so 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!
CHAPTER IX
TED FINDS A CAVE
Janet and 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 fluttering in 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. "They are on 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 failed 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 failed 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, for the 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!"