TOO MANY SHEEP
Grandma Martin at first did not know what to say. She just stood
looking at Trouble and at the feathers. She really could not help
seeing the feathers because there were so many of them and they were so
scattered about the room. Baby William was almost hidden beneath them.
“Oh, my!” gasped Mother Martin. “I never knew there were so many
feathers in one bed!”
“Me make cushion for lame boy!” said Trouble again, and he put his
chubby hands in through the hole he had cut in the ticking, and pulled
out a lot more feathers.
“Make a cushion! I should say you could make two dozen cushions with
the feathers you’ve pulled out!” said Grandma Martin. “What does he
mean by a cushion for the lame boy?”
“Oh, that must be Hal Chester,” explained Jan. “I gave him a cushion to
sit on this morning, and Trouble saw me. He said he liked poor, lame
Hal.”
“Me do like him--make Hal two cushions!” declared Trouble, laughing, as
he tossed some feathers up in the air so that they fell in a shower on
his head.
“Oh, Trouble!” sighed Mother Martin. “Such a mess as you have made! Oh,
dear!”
“Never mind,” put in Grandma Martin, soothingly. “We can pick up the
feathers, and I’ll sew them back in the bed. It doesn’t matter, as no
one wants to sleep on it. Come on, Trouble, we’ll go to get the eggs.”
“He looks like a chicken himself,” laughed Jan. “Oh, what a funny,
funny baby!”
Mrs. Martin caught her baby up in her arms, and, as she did so, a cloud
of feathers flew all around, and some, getting in Jan’s nose, made her
sneeze.
“Ker-choo!” she went, and Trouble laughed.
Then he sneezed:
“Ker-choo-choo!”
“Dat’s just like a choo-choo train!” he laughed, and he tried to
sneeze again. But this time it was the turn of Grandma Martin, and, as
the feathers tickled her nose, and then Mother Martin’s, they both gave
loud “aker-choos!”
Trouble seemed to think this funnier than cutting open the feather
bed, for he laughed and clapped his hands in glee. But at last they
got him out of the room and closed the door so the stuffing of the
“softy-softy” bed would not be scattered all through the house.
Then Jan, Ted and Baby William went to gather the eggs. They each
carried a basket--the two Curlytops did, but Trouble was too little
they thought. He might drop his and break the eggs.
“But me _want_ a basket!” he cried. “Me go after eggs too!”
He made such a fuss about it, and seemed to be so unhappy because he
could not carry something in which to gather eggs, that Grandma Martin
said, with a smile:
“I’ll make it all right for him.”
She got a little basket, and in it put some white china eggs, the kind
some farmers leave in hens’ nests to make the chickens believe they
have laid more eggs than really they have. At least, maybe that is the
reason they leave them there, and maybe it is for some other reason.
“There are some eggs for you, Trouble,” his grandmother said. “If he
falls and spills them, or drops them, they won’t break,” she whispered
to Jan and Ted.
This satisfied Baby William, and with the china eggs in his little
basket he set off with his brother and sister to watch them get the
real eggs out of the nests. And Trouble was as careful of his china
eggs as he could have been of the sort that would break so easily.
That is, he was as careful as Trouble Martin could be. Once he dropped
the basket, and the eggs rolled over the ground. Trouble stood still,
while Teddy and Janet scrambled around and picked them up. Then, Baby
William tipped his basket and the eggs rolled out. But they were again
picked up, and very soon the little party was in the chicken yard.
“It will be a little lesson to him,” said Grandma Martin, “and before
very long he will be big enough to gather real eggs for himself.”
Jan and Ted soon had their baskets nearly full. They found most of
the eggs in nests in the hen-house, but now and then some queer old
“Biddy” of a chicken would slip out of the chicken yard and go off to
lay her eggs in a secret place.
It was the work of Ted and Jan to find these places, and they often
found them under the barn. There was one place where part of the barn
wall had fallen away, making a hole through which a small boy or girl
could crawl. On the ground was hay and straw that had sifted down from
the floor of the barn above, and this was a favorite place for hens to
make their secret nests.
“I’ll crawl under and see how many eggs I can find,” said Teddy. “You
stay here and hold my basket, Jan.”
“All right, Ted.”
Under Ted crawled, and pretty soon his sister heard him call:
“Oh, what a lot of eggs!”
“Did you find many?” Jan asked.
“Yes, there’s a big nest full. I didn’t see it the last time I came
here. I’ll have to make two or three trips with them.”
Ted crawled back and forth under the barn, bringing out each time a few
eggs to Jan, who put them in the baskets.
“There’s three more I want to get,” explained Ted, as he turned to
crawl back for the fourth time. “They’re away at the far end.”
Pretty soon Jan heard him call:
“Oh, I’ve found another nest!”
“That’s good!” answered his sister. “Bring ’em out!”
Ted said nothing for a few minutes, but Jan heard him grunting.
“Why don’t you come out?” she called. “We’ve got to get dressed for
supper. Come on out with the eggs!”
“I--I can’t,” answered her brother, and his voice was muffled as though
he were down in a cellar.
“You tan, too,” declared Trouble.
“Why can’t you come?” asked Jan.
“’Cause I’m stuck! I crawled in too far and now I’m caught under the
barn. I can’t get out!”
For a moment Jan was frightened. She wondered if Ted would have to stay
under the barn forever. Or would they have to pull it down to get him
out? She remembered that once a cat had gone in a narrow space between
two houses, not far from where the Curlytops lived in Cresco, and the
firemen had to come with their axes and chop away some boards before
the poor pussy, that howled most sadly, could be gotten out.
“Oh, Teddy!” cried Jan, “what shall I do? Do you want me to crawl in
and pull you out?”
“No! Don’t you come in!” answered her brother, his voice sounding
farther away than before. “You might get stuck, too. Go for grandpa or
daddy! Maybe they can get me!”
“All right,” gasped the little girl.
Away ran Jan, setting down the baskets of eggs, and telling Trouble
not to touch them, which he promised. But Trouble did something else.
Knowing Ted was under the barn, and not wanting to be left alone
outside, Baby William started to crawl in after his brother.
“Me come to git eggs,” he announced, wiggling along on his stomach.
“Go back! Go back!” cried Ted, who was not able to turn around. “You’ll
be caught, too!”
“Bear in there catch me?” asked Trouble, stopping his crawling.
“No, not any bears, of course,” and Ted could not help laughing. “But
you’ll be caught fast on a nail, or something in your clothes, the
same way I am. I guess that’s what’s holding me. Go back, Trouble! Oh,
do go back!”
“No, I come in!” was the answer. “Trouble goin’ be a ’ittle worm, an’
crawl under barn. I’s comin’!” And go on he did, wiggling on his little
stomach like a “’ittle worm,” as he called it.
Ted could do nothing to stop him and Trouble was soon under the barn
near his brother. Just ahead of them, and out of reach of Ted’s hands,
was a nest with half a dozen eggs in it.
“Dis nice place,” said Trouble, as he nestled close beside Ted. “We be
chickies an’ nobody find us here.”
“I wish they would find us,” said Ted. “This is no fun,” for it was hot
and stuffy under the barn.
Then he heard voices outside near the hole by which he had crawled in.
Grandpa Martin and Jan were there.
“Oh, where has Trouble gone?” Ted heard his sister ask.
“He’s in here with me,” replied Ted.
Trouble spoke for himself.
“I am a ’ittle worm, an’ I crawled in here on my tummy-tummy,” he said.
“Well, I must get them out,” observed Grandpa Martin.
“Will you have to tear down the barn? Or maybe send for the firemen?”
asked Jan, thinking of the poor cat.
“Oh, no. If I were smaller I’d crawl under the barn myself, and pull
Ted out by his heels,” said Grandpa Martin. “I expect he wiggled under
a beam where he is a pretty tight fit. That happened to me when I was a
boy.
“I’ll go inside the barn, take up a board in the floor, right over
where Ted and Trouble are lying, and then they can crawl up that way.
Don’t worry, Jan. They’ll be all right.”
And so they were. When the floor board was lifted up, right above where
Ted lay stretched on the ground under the barn, he could get out, and
so could the little “worm,” Trouble.
As Grandpa Martin had said, Ted had tried to crawl under a place where
a beam, or a big piece of wood, made such a narrow place that even
a cat would have had hard work to get under. But Ted was not hurt,
nor was Trouble, and when they had reached down and lifted out the
eggs, and the hay and straw had been brushed from Ted and his little
brother, they only laughed.
The rest of the eggs were soon gathered, and then came a fine supper
with plenty of rich milk for the Curlytops, to give them rosy cheeks as
well as curling hair.
The next day Jan and Ted went off in the goat wagon again. They rode to
the field where they had seen the lame boy, and there he was once more,
waiting for them with smiling face.
“I couldn’t come back that afternoon,” Hal said. “The doctor had to do
something to this foot of mine.”
“Is it getting better?” asked Jan softly.
“Oh, heaps better! Why, I believe I could kick a football over the
moon!” and he laughed. “You see,” he went on, “they’ve put an extra
heavy shoe on this lame foot to make it straight. That’s why I can kick
so well with it. And it’s a fine shoe for not wearing out. It’s got
iron in the sole. Why, that shoe will last longer than three of the
kind I have on my other foot. It isn’t everybody who can have a shoe
like that--one that hardly ever wears out!” and he held up the big
boot-like shoe and brace he had to wear.
“I’m thinking of joining some football team that wants a good kicker,”
he laughingly continued. “If you know of anyone send them my address,”
and he smiled at Ted.
“I will,” promised the Curlytop lad. “But tell us about the Home and
the party you’re going to have.”
“Our grandma is going to bake a cake,” observed Jan.
“That’s nice!” exclaimed Hal. “I like cakes,” and he told about the
affair that would take place in about a month--an affair in which it
was hoped all the people in the country round about would take part--to
raise money for the Home, where cripples were cured and made well and
strong.
“Well, I must be getting back,” said Hal, after a while. “There goes
the supper flag,” and he pointed to one fluttering on the pole in front
of the Home.
“We’ll drive you over in the goat wagon,” offered Ted. “Nicknack hasn’t
done much pulling to-day.”
“Why do you call your goat Nicknack?” asked Hal.
“Oh, he nicks and nacks at so many funny things when he eats,”
explained Jan.
They made room for Hal in the wagon, which had plenty of soft cushions
in it. These were needed, for the cart had no springs and the road was
rough. On the way to the Home, Ted and Jan told how Trouble had cut up
the feather bed.
“Well, I’m glad he thought of me,” laughed Hal, “but I’m sorry he made
so much work.”
“He was awful funny to see!” giggled Ted. “All feathers!”
When they were a little way from the Home, Hal said:
“You’d better stop now, and let me walk the rest of the way.”
“Oh, no,” objected Ted.
“Yes, it will be better. I’m used to it, and if some of the others saw
me having a ride they’d want one, too.”
“We’ll give them all a ride some day,” agreed Jan, who saw that Hal’s
idea was a good one.
“Will you? That will be fine!” cried the lame boy. “Let me know when
you’re ready to do it, and I’ll tell the Superintendent. It will be
great! Some of the boys and girls can’t walk. A goat ride would be fine
for them!”
Ted and Jan promised to come the next day in the morning, and give as
many rides as they could. But the next day it rained and also the next,
so they had to wait about giving a treat to the cripples.
“Before you do it you had better see Hal,” said Mother Martin, when, on
the third day, in the morning, the sun shining brightly, the Curlytops
said they thought they would go to the Home with Nicknack. “Meet him in
the field where you saw him before, and plan to give the rides to the
lame children to-morrow.”
So Ted and Jan, taking Baby William, once more set off for the little
hill, from the top of which they had such a fine view of the Home.
But Hal was not there in his usual place. Nor could he be seen as the
Curlytops looked for him.
“Maybe he’s on his way,” suggested Jan. “We can leave Nicknack here,
eating grass, and walk down to meet him. Our goat will be all right.”
“Yes,” agreed Ted.
Off they started, leading Trouble between them. They went into the next
field, across which Hal always came and went on his trips from and to
the Home, and as they came to the top of a little hill, and looked down
they saw what they had not seen before, a big flock of sheep feeding.
They came upon the animals very suddenly, and before Jan, Ted and
Trouble could go back some of the sheep walked toward them, and formed
in a ring around them.
“Oh! I wonder if they’ll hurt us?” asked Jan, her voice trembling a
little.
“No,” answered Ted quickly, but he was not sure. Some of the sheep
were coming very near, and one or two of them pushed their heads close
against the children.
“I don’t like ’em!” cried Trouble, trying to hide behind Jan. “Dey’s
too many ob de sheeps!”
There were a large number in the flock, and those that had been feeding
at the far end of the pasture now came to join the others, standing
about the Curlytops, penning them in.