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[Illustration: ONE OF THE TRICKS WAS TO RUN AND JUMP THROUGH A PAPER HOOP.
"The Curlytops and Their Pets" Page 240]
THE CURLYTOPS
AND
THEIR PETS
OR
_Uncle Toby's Strange Collection_
BY
HOWARD R. GARIS
AUTHOR OF "THE CURLYTOPS SERIES," "UNCLE
WIGGILY SERIES," "BEDTIME STORIES," ETC.
_Illustrations by
JULIA GREENE_
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE CURLYTOPS SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
_THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM
Or, Vacation Days in the Country_
_THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND
Or, Camping Out With Grandpa_
_THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN
Or, Grand Fun With Skates and Sleds_
_THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK'S RANCH
Or, Little Folks on Ponyback_
_THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE
Or, On the Water With Uncle Ben_
_THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS
Or, Uncle Toby's Strange Collection_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS
Printed in U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I UNCLE TOBY'S LETTER 1
II AN AUTOMOBILE RIDE 14
III THE QUEER OLD LADY 28
IV UNCLE TOBY'S PETS 40
V TIP AND TOP 52
VI WHERE IS TIP? 65
VII A FUZZY BURGLAR 79
VIII SLIDER GOES SLIDING 92
IX MRS. JOHNSON'S BABY 104
X MR. CAPPER'S BUNS 116
XI TOP ACTS STRANGELY 128
XII MR. NIP'S ALARM 141
XIII THE HAND-ORGAN MAN 154
XIV TURNOVER AND SKYROCKET 166
XV PLANNING THE CIRCUS 182
XVI TOP IS GONE 193
XVII THE DOG SHOW 203
XVIII THE BLACK POODLES 212
XIX A HAPPY REUNION 221
XX THE CURLYTOPS' CIRCUS 231
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ONE OF THE TRICKS WAS TO RUN AND JUMP THROUGH A PAPER HOOP.
"The Curlytops and Their Pets." Page 240
THE SECOND DOG BEGAN TURNING SOMERSAULTS.
"The Curlytops and Their Pets." Page 50
SLIDER WENT SLIDING DOWN THE SMOOTH SLANTING BOARD.
"The Curlytops and Their Pets." Page 102
JACK MADE ONE LEAP AND LANDED SAFELY IN TEDDY'S ARMS.
"The Curlytops and Their Pets." Page 174
THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS
CHAPTER I
UNCLE TOBY'S LETTER
"What you going to put on your ship, Ted?"
"Oh, swords and guns and gunpowder and soldiers. What you going to load
on your ship, Jan?"
"Oranges and lemons and pineapples," answered the little girl, who was
playing with her brother at sailing boats in the brook that ran back of
the house. "And maybe I'll have gold and diamonds and chocolate cake on
my ship, Teddy," went on Janet Martin.
"If you do I'll be a pirate and sink your ship! Oh, Jan, let's play that!
I'll be a pirate!"
Teddy Martin jumped up so suddenly from the bank of the brook, where he
was loading his ship with what he called "swords, guns and gunpowder,"
that he tipped the vessel over and the whole cargo was spilled into the
water.
"Oh, look what you did!" cried Janet. "Your gunpowder will be all wet!"
"I'm not ready to play the pirate game yet," explained Teddy. "Anyhow, I
can get more powder."
This would be easy enough, it seemed, as the children were only
pretending that stones, pebbles and bits of sticks were the cargoes of
their toy ships, and, as Teddy had said, he could easily get more stones.
The brook was filled with them.
"Where are you going?" Janet called after her brother, as she saw him
hurrying toward the house, which was out of sight behind the trees and
bushes that grew on the edge of the brook.
"I'm going to get a black flag so I can be a pirate and sink your ship
with gold, diamonds and chocolate cakes on!" answered Teddy over his
shoulder as he ran on.
"I--I don't guess I want you to be a pirate," said Janet slowly, as she
looked at her ship, on which the pebbles, stones and bits of wood were
neatly arranged in piles. "I'm not going to play that game! I don't want
you to be a pirate, Ted! It's too scary!"
But her brother was beyond the reach of her voice now, hurrying toward
the house after his "black pirate flag." Janet shoved her ship out from
the shore--her ship laden with diamonds, gold and chocolate cakes. Of
course it was not a real ship. The Curlytops would not have had half as
much fun with real ships as they were having with the pieces of boards
which they were making believe were steamers and sailing vessels.
"I'll sail my ship away down to the end of the brook before Ted gets back
to be a pirate," said Janet to herself, as, with a long stick, she
directed the flat board which was piled high with brook-pebbles. "Then
when he comes back he can't sink it."
Janet pushed her ship slowly at first, and then a little faster, moving
it along by means of the stick while she stood on the bank. Then, hearing
a noise in the bushes behind her, she thrust harder on the stick.
"I don't want Teddy to pirate my ship!" she thought. "I'll fool him! I'll
sail it around the bend, and then I'll hide behind the big buttonball
tree and he won't know where I've gone!"
In order to do this Janet wanted to make her ship go as fast as possible,
so she shoved harder and harder on the stick. And then, all of a sudden,
her ship upset.
With a splash the stones, pebbles and bits of wood went into the brook.
The whole cargo was sunk and lost as surely as if Ted's pirate vessel had
captured that of his sister. That is, everything sank but the ship itself
and the cargo of little sticks, some of which Janet was pretending were
chocolate cakes. Even at that, I suppose, the chocolate cakes would be
wet and soggy. And soggy chocolate cake isn't good to eat. The best thing
you can do with it is to make it into a pudding.
"Oh, Ted! look what you made me do," cried Janet sadly, as she saw the
ship, which she had loaded with such care, capsized and cleared of its
cargo. "It's all your fault!"
And then she started in surprise as a babyish voice replied:
"I 'idn't do nuffin! I 'ust comed! What's matter, Jan?"
"Oh, it's you, is it, Trouble?" asked the girl, as she turned and saw,
instead of Teddy, her smaller brother William, more often called
"Trouble," because he was in it so often.
"Yep! Me is here!" announced Trouble. Sometimes he talked more correctly
than this, and his mother had told Janet and Teddy to try to cure him of
his baby talk and the wrong use of words. But Ted and Jan thought it was
"cute" to hear Trouble say queer things, so they did not mend his talk as
often as they might.
"I thought you were Ted," went on Janet. "Did you see him? He went up to
the house to get a flag."
"Flag," returned Trouble, in a questioning voice. "Goin' to be soldiers
an' have a 'rade?" He meant parade, of course.
"No, we aren't going to have a parade now, Trouble," said Janet. "Ted
went to get a black flag to be a pirate, so he could sink my ship that
was loaded with diamonds, gold and chocolate cakes."
"I want chocolate cake--two pieces!" demanded Trouble, who had ears only
for the last words of his sister.
"There wasn't any chocolate cake--really, dear," explained the little
girl, as she ruffled up her curly hair. "Ted and I were just pretending.
He is going to have a pirate ship. I didn't want him to get mine, so I
was shoving it hard down the brook, but I made it go too fast and it
upset. Now I've got to load my ship all over again."
"I want s'ip!" demanded William, as Jan began to guide her empty vessel
back to shore by means of the long stick. "Trouble have a s'ip?" he
asked.
"Yes, you may have a ship, and play with us," Janet said, and as she was
looking about for a board which might serve her little brother to play
with, she heard someone coming through the bushes.
"I guess this is Ted," thought Janet. "Anyhow he can't sink my ship now.
I did it myself."
It was her older brother, and he now came bursting through the shrubbery
that lined the bank of the brook, holding in his hands a piece of black
cloth.
"I got the pirate flag!" cried Teddy. "Whoop-la! Now I'm going to sink
your ship! Why, what happened?" he asked, as he saw that Janet's craft
was empty. "Did Trouble upset it?"
"No, I did it myself," Janet answered. "But I didn't mean to. I was
trying to hide it from you, 'cause I don't want you to be a pirate and
upset my ship full of chocolate cakes."
"Oh, I must be a pirate! Here's the black flag and I must be a pirate!"
shouted Teddy. "Whoop! I'm a pirate! I'm a pirate!"
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoop!" yelled Trouble, trying to make as much noise as his
brother.
"You sound more like an Indian than you do a pirate," said Janet, as she
began to pile more pebbles on the board that was her ship.
"Well, Indians and pirates are 'most the same," declared Teddy. "Wait
till you see my ship, with swords and guns and powder! It will blow your
ship out of the water, and I'll have a black flag on it and everything!
Whoop!"
"I'm not going to play if you upset my ship, now there!" and Janet pouted
her lips and ceased loading pebbles aboard her craft.
Teddy, who was cutting a flagstaff with his knife, stopped to look at
her. If Janet was going to act this way, and not send out her ship, there
was no use in being a pirate. What fun could even a make-believe pirate
have if there were no ships to sink?
Teddy thought of this, and then he said:
"All right, Jan, I won't be a pirate if you don't want me to. But I'll
have a black flag, anyhow, and maybe I'll be a pirate some other time.
Let's have a race with our ships--see which one gets to the water-wheel
first."
"Yes, I'll do that," agreed Janet.
At the lower end of the brook she and Teddy had built a little dam, and
where the water flowed over the top, like a tiny Niagara Falls, Teddy had
fastened a wooden paddle wheel which turned as the water flowed on it.
"Me want a s'ip!" wailed Trouble, as he saw his brother and sister
getting their vessels ready for the race.
"Can't you give him a piece of board for his ship, Ted?" asked Janet. "If
we don't he'll get in our way and spoil the race."
"Here, Trouble, take this," and Teddy paused long enough in his work of
loading pebbles on his ship to toss his little brother a small chip he
picked up off the shore.
"Hu! I want bigger s'ip 'n' _him_!" declared Trouble, with a grunt. Then
he arose and toddled off through the bushes. Teddy and Janet were so busy
getting their own vessels ready for the coming race that they paid no
more attention to their small brother. And Trouble was going to get into
trouble--you may be sure of that.
"Don't put too many stones on your ship, Jan," called Ted to his sister,
as he saw that she was piling on the pebbles.
"Why not?" she asked.
"'Cause you'll make it so heavy that it won't sail fast. Course I want to
beat you," Ted went on, "but I want to beat you _fair_."
"Oh, thank you," Janet answered. "But these aren't stones I'm loading on
my ship this time."
"What are they?" asked Ted.
"Feathers," his sister answered. "I'm making believe the stones are
feathers, and I'm going to sell them to make pillows for dolls. My ship
won't be too heavy!"
"Hu!" grunted Ted, as he placed the pebbles carefully on the middle of
his ship, so it would not turn over. "Stones are heavy, whether you make
believe they're feathers or not. Don't put too many on, I'm telling you!"
"All right, I won't," agreed Janet.
The boy and the girl went on with their game, and they were almost ready
to start their ships off on the race when there was a racket in the
bushes back of them. It was a bumping, banging sound that Ted and Janet
heard, then followed the bark of a dog.
"That's Skyrocket!" said Ted.
A moment later came a voice, calling:
"Whoa-up! Don't go so fas'! You is spillin' me!"
"That's Trouble!" declared Janet.
They were both right. A moment later there burst through the bushes the
little boy and the dog. The dog was Skyrocket, and he was made fast to a
box which he was dragging along by a rope tied around his neck. Trouble
was holding to the rear of the box, and in his eagerness to pull it along
Skyrocket was also dragging Trouble, "spillin'" him, in fact--that is,
pulling Trouble off his feet every now and then.
"Why, William! what are you doing?" asked Janet. Trouble was hardly ever
called by his right name of William unless he had done something wrong.
"Were you trying to have Skyrocket ride you in that box?" asked Teddy.
"If you were, he can't. Sky can't pull you in that box unless it has
wheels on it. Then it's a wagon."
"Don't want wagon--dis my s'ip!" announced the little fellow, as he began
to loosen the rope from the dog's neck. But as soon as Trouble started to
do this, Skyrocket, who loved the children, began to lick William's face
with a red tongue.
"'Top it! 'Top it!" commanded Trouble, but Skyrocket only licked the
more.
"Oh, Ted, unfasten Sky, or he'll eat Trouble up!" laughed Janet.
"Are you going to sail that big box for your ship, Trouble?" asked Ted,
as he loosed the dog.
"Yep! Dis box my s'ip," announced the small boy. "I sail it!"
"Well, don't sail it near ours or you'll upset our ships--yours is so
much larger, dear," begged Janet.
"I be ca'eful!" Trouble promised. "I find this big box for my s'ip in
kitchen, an' Sky drag it here for me!"
"Yes, Skyrocket is a good dog," said Ted. "Hi there! Don't wag your tail
so near my ship, or you'll upset her before I beat Jan in the race!"
shouted Teddy, as the dog, in his joy at being with the Curlytops, nearly
spoiled their plans for having fun.
"Here! Go chase that!" cried Ted, tossing a stick far down the brook.
And as Skyrocket splashed into the water after it, a loud whistle was
heard across the field on the other side of the brook.
"There's the postman!" called Janet.
"Yes, he's coming here, and he's got a letter in his hand," announced
Teddy. "He's taking the short cut."
Sometimes the mail carrier came across the lots near the Martin home, as
he was doing on this occasion. The Curlytops ceased the loading of their
ships long enough to run and meet the carrier.
"There's a letter for your mother," the postman said, as he handed the
missive to Ted. "Don't drop it in the brook."
"I won't," promised the boy. "I wonder who the letter is from?" he went
on, as the postman continued over the lots to his next stopping place,
blowing his whistle on the way.
"Any mail, children?" called a voice.
"There's mother, now!" said Janet.
"Yes, here's a letter," called Ted. His mother had walked down to the
brook from the house, along the back path, to see what her Curlytops and
Trouble were doing.
Mrs. Martin opened and read the letter as Ted and Janet went back to
their play, and as she turned the pages she gave an exclamation of
wonder.
"What is it?" asked Ted, looking up as he placed the last pebble on his
ship.
"This is a letter from your Uncle Toby," said Mrs. Martin, "and there is
strange news in it. I wonder what it means? This is very queer!"
She started to read the letter again, but at that moment Janet cried:
"Oh, look at Trouble! Just look at him! He's sailing away down the brook!
Oh, he'll be drowned!"