TROUBLE MAKES A CAKE
With a crackle and a snap the grapevine swing sagged down on one side.
Janet tried to hold Trouble in her arms, but he slipped from her lap,
just as she slipped off the piece of carpet which Ted had folded for the
seat of the swing. Then Janet toppled down as the vine broke, and she
and her little brother came together in a heap on the ground.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ted. "Are you hurt?"
Neither Jan nor Trouble answered him for a moment. Then Baby William
began to cry. Jan lay still on the ground for a second or two, and then
she jumped up with a laugh.
"I'm not hurt a bit!" she said. "I fell right in a pile of leaves, and
it was like jouncing up and down in the hay."
"What's the matter with Trouble?" asked Ted.
Baby William kept on crying.
"Never mind!" put in Jan. "Sister'll kiss it and make it all better!
Where is you hurt, Trouble dear?"
The little fellow stopped crying and looked up at Jan, his eyes filled
with tears.
"My posy-tree is hurted," he said, holding a broken flower out to his
sister. "Swing broked my posy-tree!"
Trouble called any weed, flower or bunch of grass he happened to pick a
"posy-tree."
"Oh, I guess he isn't hurt," remarked Teddy. "If it's only a broken
posy-tree I'll get you another," he said kindly. "Are you all right,
Trouble? Can you stand up?" for he feared, after all, lest Baby
William's legs might have been hurt, since they were doubled up under
him.
Trouble showed he was all right by getting up and walking about. He had
stopped crying, and Ted and Jan could see that he, too, had fallen on a
pile of soft leaves near the swing, so he was only "jiggled up," as Jan
called it.
One side of the grapevine swing had torn loose from the tree, and thus
it had come down with Jan and Trouble.
"I guess it wasn't strong enough for two," said Ted. "Maybe I can find
another grapevine."
"I'd like a rope swing better," Janet said. "Then it wouldn't tumble
down."
"I guess that's so," agreed her brother. "We'll ask grandpa to get one."
Grandpa Martin laughed when he heard what had happened to the grapevine
swing, and promised to make a real one of rope for the Curlytops. This
he did a day or so afterward, so that Ted and Jan had a fine swing in
their camp on Star Island, as well as one at Cherry Farm. They were two
very fortunate children, I think, to have such a grandfather.
"Where are you going now, Grandpa?" called Jan one day, as she saw the
farmer getting the boat ready for use.
"I'm going over to the mainland to get some things for our camp,"
answered Mr. Martin. "They came from a big store in some boxes and
crates, and they're at the railroad station. I'm going over to get them.
Do you Curlytops want to come along?"
"Well, I just guess we do!" cried Ted.
"Me want to come!" begged Trouble.
"Not this time, Dear," said his mother. "You stay with me, and we will
have some fun. Let Jan and Ted go."
Trouble was going to cry, but when Nora gave him a cookie he changed his
mind and ate the little cake instead, though I think one or two tears
splotched down on it and made it a bit salty. But Trouble did not seem
to mind.
Ted and Jan had lots of fun riding back in the boat to the main shore
with their grandfather. When the boat was almost at the dock Mr. Martin
let the two children take hold of one of the oars and help him row. Of
course the Curlytops could not pull very much, but they did pretty well,
and it helped them to know how a boat is made to go through the water,
when it has no steam engine or gasolene motor to make it glide along, or
sails on which the wind can blow to push it.
"You can't know too much about boats and the water, especially when you
are camping on an island in the middle of a lake," said Grandpa Martin.
"When you get bigger, Ted and Jan, you'll be able to row a boat all by
yourselves."
"Maybe day after to-morrow," suggested Jan.
"I wish I could now," said Ted.
"Oh, but you're too small!" his grandfather said.
The boat was tied to the wharf, and then, getting an expressman to go to
the depot for the boxes and crates, Mr. Martin took the children with
him on the wagon.
"We're having lots of fun!" cried Jan, as the horse trotted along.
"We're camping and we had a ride in a boat and now we're having a ride
in a wagon."
"Lots of fun!" agreed Ted. "I'm glad we've got grandpa!"
"And grandpa is glad he has you two Curlytops to go camping with him!"
laughed the farmer, as the expressman made his horse go faster.
At the depot, while the children were waiting to have the boxes and
crates of things for the camp loaded into the wagon, Ted saw Arthur
Weldon, a boy with whom he sometimes played.
"Hello, Art!" called Ted.
"Hello!" answered Arthur. "I thought you were camping on Star Island."
"We are," answered Teddy.
"It doesn't look so!" laughed Arthur, or "Art," as most of his boy
friends called him.
"Well, we just came over to get some things. There's grandpa and the
expressman with them now," went on Ted, as the two men came from the
freight house with a number of bundles.
"I wish I was camping," went on the other boy. "It isn't any fun around
here."
"You can come over to see us sometimes," invited Jan. "I'll ask my
mother to let you, and you can play with us."
"He don't want to play girls' games!" cried Ted.
"Well, I guess I can play boys' games as well as girls' games!"
exclaimed Janet, with some indignation.
"Oh, yes, course you can," agreed her brother.
"And maybe Art can bring his sister to the island to see us, and then we
could play boys' games and girls', too," went on Jan.
"I'll ask my mother," promised Arthur.
Grandpa and the expressman soon had the wagon loaded, and Arthur rode
back in it with the Curlytops to the wharf where the boat was tied.
"All aboard for Star Island!" cried Mr. Martin, when the things were in
the boat, nearly filling it. "All aboard!"
"I wish I could come now!" sighed Arthur.
"Well, we'd like to take you," said Grandpa Martin, "but it wouldn't be
a good thing to take you unless your mother knew you were coming with
us, and we haven't time to go up to ask her now. The next time maybe
we'll take you back with us."
There was a wistful look on Arthur's face as he watched the boat being
rowed away from the main shore and toward the island. Ted and Janet
waved their hands to him, and said they would ask their mother to invite
him for a visit, which they did a few weeks later.
Once back on the island the things were taken out of the boat and then
began the work of taking them out of the boxes and crates. There was a
new oil stove, to warm the tent on cool or rainy days, and other things
for the camp, and when all had been unpacked there was quite a pile of
boards and sticks left.
"I know what we can do with them," said Teddy to Janet, when they had
been piled in a heap not far from the shore of the lake, and a little
distance away from the tents.
"What?" asked the little girl.
"We can make a raft like Robinson Crusoe did," answered Teddy, for his
mother had read him a little about the shipwrecked sailor who, as told
in the story book, lived so long alone on an island.
"What's a raft?" asked Janet.
"Oh, it's something like a boat, but it hasn't got any sides to it--only
a bottom," answered her brother. "You make it out of flat boards and you
have to push it along with a pole. We can make a raft out of all the
boards and pieces of wood grandpa took the things out of. It'll be a lot
of fun!"
"Will mother let us?" asked Jan.
"Oh, I guess so," answered Teddy.
But he did not go to ask to find out. He found a hammer where grandpa
had been using it to knock apart the crates and boxes, and, with the
help of Jan, Teddy was soon making his raft. There were plenty of nails
which had come out of the boxes and crates. Some of them were rather
crooked, but when Ted tried to hammer them straight he pounded his
fingers.
"That hurts," he said. "I guess crooked nails are as good as straight
ones. Anyhow this raft is going to be crooked."
And it was very crooked and "wobboly," as Janet called it, when Teddy
had shoved it into the water and, taking off his shoes and stockings,
got on it.
"Come on, Jan!" he cried, "I'm going to have a ride."
"No, it's too tippy," Janet answered.
"Oh, it can't tip over," said Teddy. "That's what a raft is for--not to
tip over. Maybe you can slide off, but it can't tip over. Come on!"
So Janet took off her shoes and stockings.
Now of course she ought not to have done that, nor ought Teddy to have
got on the raft without asking his mother or his grandfather. But then
the Curlytops were no different from other children.
So on the raft got Teddy and Janet, and for a time they had lots of fun
pushing it around a shallow little cove, not far from the shore of Star
Island. A clump of trees hid them from the sight of Mother Martin and
grandpa at camp.
"Let's go farther out," suggested Teddy, after a bit.
"I'm afraid," replied Janet.
"Aw, it'll be all right!" cried Ted. "I won't let it tip over!"
So Janet let him pole out a little farther, until she saw that the
shore was far away, and then she cried:
"I want to go back!"
"All right," answered Ted. "I don't want anybody on my raft who's a
skeered. I'll go alone!"
He poled back to shore and Janet got off the raft. Then Teddy shoved the
wabbly mass of boards and sticks, fastened together with crooked nails,
out into the lake again. He had not gone very far before something
happened. One end of the raft tipped up and the other end dipped down,
and--off slid Teddy into the water.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed Janet. "You'll be drowned! I'm going to tell
grandpa."
She ran to the camp with the news, and Mr. and Mrs. Martin came hurrying
back. By this time Teddy had managed to get up and was standing in the
water, which was not deep.
"I--I'm all right," he stammered. "Only I--I'm--wet!"
"I should say you _were_!" exclaimed his mother. "You mustn't go on any
more rafts."
Teddy promised that he would not, and then, when he had put on dry
clothes, he and Janet played other games that were not so dangerous.
They had lots of fun in the camp on Star Island.
"Come on, Jan!" called her brother one morning after breakfast. "Come on
down to the lake."
"What're you goin' to do?" she asked.
"I think he had better look for the 'g' you dropped," said Mrs. Martin
with a laugh.
"What 'g?'" asked Jan.
"The one off 'going,'" was the answer. "You must be more careful of your
words, Janet dear. Learn to talk nicely, and don't drop your 'g'
letters."
She had been trying to teach this to the Curlytops for a long while, and
they were almost cured of leaving off the final "g" of their words. But,
once in a while, just as Jan did that time, they forgot.
"What are you going to do?" asked Janet, slowly and carefully this time.
"Sail my boat," answered Ted. "I'll give your doll a ride if you want me
to."
"Not this one," replied his sister, looking at the one she carried. It
had on a fine red dress.
"Why not that doll?" Ted inquired.
"'Cause your boat might tip over and spill my doll in the lake. Then
she'd be spoiled and so would her dress. Wait. I'll get my rubber doll.
Water won't hurt her."
"My boat won't tip over," Ted declared. "It's a good one."
But even Jan's rubber doll must have been too heavy for Ted's small
boat, for, half way across a little shallow cove in the lake, where the
Curlytops waded and Ted sailed his ships, the boat tipped to one side,
and the doll was thrown into the water.
"There! I told you so!" cried Janet.
"Well, she's rubber, and you can pretend she has on a bathing suit an'
has gone in swimming!" declared Ted.
"But maybe a fish'll bite a hole in her and then she can't whistle
through the hole in her back!" wailed Jan, ready to cry.
"There's no fish here, only baby ones; and they can't bite," Ted
answered. "But I'll get her for you, Jan."
He waded out, set his ship upright again, and brought his sister's doll
to shore. Nancy--which was the doll's name--did not seem to have been
hurt by falling into the lake. Her painted smile was the same as ever.
"I guess I'll dress her now so she won't get cold after her bath," said
Jan, who sometimes acted as though her dolls were really alive. She
liked her playthings very much indeed.
While his sister went back to the tent with her doll Ted sailed his
boat. Then Trouble came down to the edge of the little cove, and began
to take off his shoes and stockings to go wading as Ted was doing. Ted
was not sure whether or not his mother wanted Baby William to do this,
so he decided to run up to the camp to ask.
"Don't go in the water until I come back, Trouble," Ted ordered his
little brother.
But the sight of the cool, sparkling water was too much for Baby
William.
Off came his shoes and stockings without waiting for Ted to come back to
say whether or not Mother Martin would let him go splashing in the
water. Into the lake Baby William went. And he was not careful about
getting wet, either, so that when Ted came back with his mother, who
wanted to make sure that her baby boy was all right, they saw him out in
the middle of the cove with Ted's boat. And the water was half way up to
Trouble's waist, the lower part of his bloomers being soaked.
"Oh, you dear bunch of Trouble!" cried his mother. "You mustn't do
that!"
"Havin' fun!" was all Trouble said.
"Come here!" cried Mrs. Martin.
"Wait till I sail boat," and he pushed Ted's toy about in the cove,
splashing more water on himself.
"I guess you'll have to get him," said Mrs. Martin to Teddy, who half
dragged, half led his little brother to shore. Trouble got wetter than
ever during this, and his mother had to take him back to the tent to put
dry things on him.
"Trouble," she said, "you are a bad little boy. I'll have to keep you in
camp the rest of the day now. After this you must not go in wading until
I say you may. If you had had your bathing suit on it would have been
all right. Now you must be punished."
Trouble cried and struggled, but it was of no use. When Mother Martin
said a thing must be done it was done, and Trouble could not play in the
water again that day.
Toward the middle of the afternoon, however, as he had been pretty good
playing around the tent, he was allowed to roam farther off, though told
he must not go near the water.
"You stay with me, Baby," called Nora. "I'm going to bake a cake and
I'll give you some."
"Trouble bake a cake, too?" he asked.
"No, Trouble isn't big enough to bake a cake, but you can watch me. I'll
get out the flour and sugar and other things, and I'll make a little
cake just for you."
On a table in the cooking tent Nora set out the things she was to use
for her baking. There was the bag of flour, some water in a dish and
other things. Just as she was about to mix the cake Mrs. Martin called
Nora away for a moment.
"Now, Trouble, don't touch anything until I come back!" warned the girl,
as she hurried out of the tent. "I won't be gone a minute."
But she was gone longer than that. Left alone in the tent, with many
things on the table in front of him, Trouble looked at them. He knew he
could have lots of fun with some of the pans, cups, the egg beater, the
flour, the water and the eggs. A little smile spread over his tanned,
chubby face.
"Trouble bake a cake," he said to himself. "Nora bake a cake--Trouble
bake a cake. Yes!"
First Baby William pulled toward him the bag of flour. He managed to do
it without upsetting it, for the bag was a small one. Near it was a bowl
of water with a spoon in it. Trouble had seen his mother and Nora bake
cakes, and he must have remembered that they mixed the flour and water
together. Anyhow that was the way to make mud pies--by mixing sand and
water.
Trouble looked for something to mix his cake in. The tins and dishes
were so far back on the table that he could not get them easily. He must
take something else.
Off his head Trouble pulled his white hat--a new one that grandpa had
brought only that day from the village store.
"Make cake in dis," murmured Baby William to himself.
He pushed a chair up to the table and climbed upon it. From the chair he
got on the table and sat down. Then he began to make his cake in his
hat.
[Illustration: THEN TROUBLE BEGAN TO MAKE A CAKE IN HIS HAT. _Page
138_]