DOWN THE HILL
Teddy, at first, did not know whether his sister Janet was playing a
joke on him or not. The Curlytops often did play jokes, for they were
just like you children. And more than once Janet had fooled Ted in this
way. So, thinking for a moment that it was a joke, Ted answered and
said:
“Oh, come on, Jan! Quit your fooling! I know a new game to play with
the spinning wheels.”
“I play wif you!” offered Trouble, coming from a dark corner of the
attic, where he had become covered with cobwebs.
And then Jan broke out again in a wailing cry:
“Teddy! Teddy! I can’t get out! I’m locked in!”
This time Ted knew it was no joke. Jan’s voice showed that she was
frightened and was crying.
The Curlytop boy looked all around the attic. It had in it no closet
where Janet might have gone in and closed the door after her, thus
locking herself in. And if there was no closet where could she be? That
is what Ted wanted to know.
Again came that wailing cry from Janet.
“Teddy! Teddy! Get me out!”
The Curlytop boy was very much puzzled and not a little frightened.
Only a little while before Janet had been close beside him playing with
the spinning wheels. Then, it seemed but a minute, Ted turned his back
to make up some new game, and Janet had disappeared. Now she was locked
in. But where?
“Janet! Janet! Where is you?” called Trouble.
That is what Ted should have asked. For right away came the answer.
“I’m in this big trunk, Teddy. The lid fell down and I can’t push it up
and I can’t get out.”
“Oh! In a trunk!” yelled Ted. Now he understood. And this was why
Janet’s voice sounded so muffled and far away. It came from inside a
big trunk, of which there were three or four in the attic. It was as if
she had been speaking from down in the cellar.
Teddy did not stop to ask how Janet had gotten inside the trunk. There
was time enough for that after he had gotten her out--if he could.
He sprang away from the spinning wheels and hurried over to the big
old-fashioned trunks.
“Are you in this one, Jan?” he asked, as he started to raise the lid of
one.
“No, I’m in here,” came the answer.
Teddy sprang to the next trunk. Just as he was tugging on the lid,
which seemed tightly fastened, Mrs. Martin came up the stairs.
Mrs. Martin saw what Teddy was about to do and she called to him:
“Teddy! Teddy! Don’t open that trunk. Mrs. Pitney won’t like it if you
open her trunks. She was kind enough to let you play in the attic, but
you mustn’t open trunks!”
“But I _got_ to, Mother!” exclaimed Teddy.
“Why do you have to?”
“’Cause Janet’s inside!”
“Janet inside that trunk?” cried Mrs. Martin. “What sort of game is
that you are playing? You shouldn’t have shut Janet up in a trunk.”
“I didn’t, Mother!” Teddy answered. “She got in herself and----”
But this delay was too much for Janet. She could hear the talk between
her mother and Teddy. She could also hear Trouble shuffling around the
attic floor. And Janet called:
“Oh, let me out! Let me out! I’m smothering!”
Mrs. Martin did not stop to ask any more questions. She fairly leaped
across the floor and, catching hold of the trunk cover, tried to lift
it up. But it would not come.
“It’s caught!” explained Teddy. “That’s why Jan couldn’t get it up.”
For a fearful moment or two Mrs. Martin feared that the trunk had
locked with a spring catch. And she was alarmed lest there be no key
to fit it, or that the key could not be found. In that case they would
have to chop the trunk open to get Janet out.
But when Mrs. Martin looked at the lock of the trunk she saw that it
was merely caught, and not fastened with a spring catch. In an instant
she pulled the piece of brass forward and then, with Ted’s help, she
raised the lid of the trunk.
There was Janet, all crumpled up, lying on a pile of old-fashioned
dresses. The little Curlytop girl’s face was very red, and it was dirty
where she had cried and then rubbed her hands over her cheeks, her
hands being soiled with dust from the old spinning wheels.
“Oh, Janet! Why did you hide in the trunk?” asked Mrs. Martin, helping
her out. “You might have smothered in there!”
“I--I ’most did,” sobbed Janet.
“Did you put her in there, Teddy?” asked his mother.
“Oh, no,” he answered.
“I got in myself,” Janet hastened to say. “I opened the trunk to look
at some of the dresses, for Mrs. Pitney said we might. And I leaned
over to see those on the bottom, and I fell in. I slipped all the way
in and then the lid fell down and I couldn’t get it up.”
“That was too bad,” said Mrs. Martin kindly. “It’s lucky some one was
up here with you or you might have been in the trunk a long time before
you were let out. Old trunks like this sometimes fasten with a spring
catch that is hard to open.”
“I’ll close this so Trouble won’t get in,” said Ted as he lowered the
lid.
“I no hide in any trunks,” the little fellow announced. “I got better
place as that. Come see,” he added, tugging at his mother’s hand to
lead her into the corner where he had been rummaging.
“No, I don’t believe I want to go there. I’d get covered with cobwebs
like you!” laughed Mrs. Martin. “But come, children. It’s time you were
in bed. Put things back where you found them and we’ll go downstairs.”
The spinning wheels were set back against the beams under the sloping
roof of the old-fashioned attic. Trouble wanted to take the string of
sleigh bells down to bed with him, but this could not be allowed. Janet
gave one last look at the trunk which had been her prison for a short
time and went with her mother and Ted.
“Did you have fun?” asked Mrs. Pitney, as they entered the sitting room.
“Yes, they had fun and a sort of adventure,” answered Mrs. Martin, as
she told about the trunk.
“Dear me! That might have been a sad accident,” said the farmer’s wife.
“I never thought of your tumbling into any of those old trunks or I
would have told you children not to open them. Not that you could do
any harm,” she added, “for the dresses are so old-fashioned that no one
would think of wearing them, unless at some Hallowe’en party. But I’m
glad you got safely out, Janet.”
“So’m I,” agreed the little girl.
Soon after this the Curlytops were in bed. There was no need of any
specially early start in the morning, Mr. Martin said, as they were not
many miles from Mount Major, where they were to stay in the woods for
several weeks.
“We can easily get to the camp bungalow by noon, if we start from here
at nine o’clock,” said Mr. Martin to his wife that night. “We will let
the children sleep as long as they wish.”
The night passed quietly, except that Trouble walked in his sleep, an
occasional happening, and when his mother asked him what he wanted he
answered:
“I get sleigh bells for Santa Claus.”
He was thinking of his play up in the attic.
After a good breakfast the automobile was brought around to the door
and once more the Curlytops prepared to travel on. Many thanks were
expressed to Mr. and Mrs. Pitney for their kindness in keeping the
family over night.
“And when you get settled in your wood camp drive over and see us some
time,” invited the farmer’s wife.
“I will,” promised Mrs. Martin. “And you must come and see us.”
“We will if I ever get any time away from the farm,” laughed Mr. Pitney.
Off started the automobile with the Curlytops and the others. In a
few hours they would be in the woods and then, thought Ted, Janet and
Trouble, the real fun would begin. For they had been counting on having
many good times in camp.
The roads, now, were not as good as they had been at first, becoming
rather rough after leaving the Pitney farm. But Mr. Martin was a good
driver and sent the car along at a good pace. He had been over the road
some time before, and thought he knew the way. But once, coming to a
place where two roads forked, he stopped as if puzzled.
“What’s the matter?” asked his wife. “Don’t you know which way to go?”
“Not exactly,” he answered.
“Why don’t you look at the road book?” suggested Ted.
“Here it is,” offered Jan, for this auto guide was always carried in
the car, and now she took it from one of the side pockets.
Mr. Martin turned the pages and looked at the maps, but he shook his
head.
“This doesn’t help any,” he remarked. “This road doesn’t seem to be
down on the map.”
“Do you think we came the wrong way?” Mrs. Martin wanted to know.
“Are we lost?” asked Janet.
“Oh, no,” her father said, with a laugh. “But I want to take the
shortest road to our place. We have been delayed enough. I was to meet
some of the lumbermen there at noon, and if I’m not on hand they may go
away and not come back until to-morrow. If there was only a sign-board
or some one to ask.”
But there was no sign and not a house was in sight. The nearest
dwelling was about a mile back. Of course Mr. Martin could have turned
and gone back there to ask which road to take, but he did not want to
do this if he could avoid it.
“I wish some one would come along,” he remarked.
And then, as if in answer to his wish, the sound of wheels and of a
horse trotting, was heard down one of the roads.
“Some one is coming,” announced Janet.
A moment later a farmer riding in a one-horse wagon came driving along.
“Which way to Mount Major, if you please?” asked Mr. Martin.
“Who-a-ah!” drawled the farmer slowly, as he pulled his horse to a
stop. “Mount Major?” he went on. “Wa’al, you kin take either road,” he
said.
“Which one is the best?” Mr. Martin wanted to know.
The farmer seemed to be considering this for a moment.
“Both of ’em’s prutty wuss!” he replied. “They’s both bad enough,
though not so much now’s wet weather.”
“Well, if both roads are bad,” said Mr. Martin, with a smile at the
farmer’s odd talk and ways, “which road is the shorter?”
This appeared to be another puzzle. He scratched his head and finally
answered:
“Wa’al, ef anythin’ the one I jest come over’s a leetle mite shorter,
an’ ’tain’t so much at that.”
“Even a little difference will save us some time,” said Mr. Martin.
“I’m much obliged to you.”
“Don’t mention it! G’lang!” the farmer called to his horse, and he
pulled to one side to get around the automobile which had stopped in
the fork of the road.
“We’ll take the right hand road,” said Mr. Martin.
“I hope, later on, it won’t turn out that we should have taken the
left,” said Mrs. Martin.
“Why, do you think something might happen?” asked Janet.
“Maybe we’ll get lost and have to stay in the woods all night!”
remarked Teddy. And he said it as though he would rather like such a
thing to happen.
“Oh, no, I don’t believe we’ll have any trouble,” said Mr. Martin. “I
could have gone around by Parkersburg, and we would have had good roads
all the way. But it was thirty miles farther and I thought we would
save time this way. Well, we’ll see what happens.”
At first the road the farmer had told them to take was fairly good,
though there were stretches of sand where they could not go fast. Then
they struck a patch of woods through which the road wound in and out
like some great snake. The trees met in arches overhead.
“This is a very narrow road,” remarked Mr. Martin, when they had
traveled it for a mile or so. “I hope we don’t meet any other autos or
wagons. We’d have hard work to pass them.”
But, so far, they had met and passed no other vehicles. Soon, however,
the road, instead of being on the level, began to slope downhill, and
it was rather a steep hill.
“Guess I’d better put on brakes here,” said Mr. Martin.
He began to do this, but he had no sooner started down the hill than he
found the brakes were not holding well. The automobile rolled along too
fast.
“Still there may be no danger if we don’t meet another car or wagon,”
thought Mr. Martin.
However, danger was ahead. A moment later Janet cried and pointed to a
wagon going down the hill in front of them. It was a wagon piled to the
top with bean poles, and as the road was narrow and the wagon was wide
there was hardly room for Mr. Martin to pass. And yet, tug as he did at
the brakes, he could not stop the car.
“Pull over! Pull to one side and I’ll go past you!” he called to the
driver of the wagon.
“I can’t!” was the answer. “There isn’t room. Hold your auto back until
I can get to a wider place!”
Again Mr. Martin pulled at the brake, but still the car rolled on.
“Oh, we’re going to bunk!” murmured Janet.
“Good land ob massy!” cried Lucy, as she clutched Trouble to her. “Oh,
mah gracious goodness!”