NICKNACK HAS A RIDE
Mrs. Martin hurried into the hall and in a loud voice called:
"Trouble! Trouble! Where are you? Baby William! Come to Mother!"
There was no answer. Ted and Jan looked anxiously at each other. Their
father had gone with Uncle Frank and Aunt Jo to inquire in the houses
next door and those across the street. Sometimes Trouble wandered to the
neighbors', but this was in the summer, when doors were open and he
could easily get out. He had never before been known to run away in
winter.
"Oh, where can he be?" exclaimed Janet.
"We'll find him," declared Teddy.
He saw that Janet was almost ready to cry.
"Help me look, children," said Mrs. Martin. "He may be in one of the
rooms here. We must look in every one."
So the search began.
The Curlytops and their mother had gone through about half the rooms of
the house without finding Trouble when Uncle Frank and Aunt Jo came
back.
"Did you find him?" they asked Baby William's mother.
"No," she answered. Then she asked eagerly: "Did you?"
"He hadn't been to any of the neighbors' houses where we inquired," said
Uncle Frank.
"Dick is going to ask farther down," added Aunt Jo. "I think he said at
a house where a little boy named Henry lives."
"Oh, yes! Henry Simpson!" exclaimed Ted. "Trouble likes him. But Henry's
house is away down at the end of the street."
"Well, sometimes William goes a good way off," said his mother. "I hope
he's there. But we must search all over the house."
"And even down cellar," added Uncle Frank. "I know when I was a little
fellow I ran away and hid, and they found me an hour or so later in the
coal bin. At least so I've been told. I don't remember about it myself.
I must have been pretty dirty."
"Oh, I don't think Trouble would go in the coal," said his mother. "But,
Nora, you might look down there. We'll go upstairs now."
With Uncle Frank and Aunt Jo to help in the search the Curlytops and
their mother went up toward the top of the house. Mother Martin looked
in her room, where Trouble slept. He might have crawled into her bed or
into his own little crib, she thought. But he was not there.
"He isn't in my room!" called Ted, after he had looked about it.
"Are you sure?" asked the anxious mother.
"Yes'm."
"And he isn't here," added Janet, as she came out of her room. "I looked
under the bed and everywhere."
"In the closet?" asked Uncle Frank.
"Yes, in the closet, too," replied Janet.
"Maybe he's in my room," said Aunt Jo. "It's a large one and there are
two closets there. Poor little fellow, maybe he's crying his eyes out."
"If he was crying we'd hear him," remarked Ted.
He and Janet followed Aunt Jo into her room. The light was turned on and
they looked around. Trouble was not in sight and Aunt Jo was just
starting to look in her large clothes closet when she suddenly saw
something that caused her to stop and to cry out:
"Oh, what made it move?"
"What move?" asked Uncle Frank, who had followed her and the Curlytops
in. "What did you see move?"
"My big suitcase," replied Aunt Jo. "See, it's there against the wall,
but I'm sure I saw it move."
"Did any of you touch it?" asked Uncle Frank.
"No," answered Aunt Jo; and Ted and Jan said the same thing.
"What is it?" Mother Martin asked, coming into the room. "Did you find
him?" she asked anxiously. "He isn't in my room, nor in Ted's or
Janet's. Oh, where can he be?"
"Look! It's moving again!" cried Aunt Jo.
She pointed to the suitcase. It was an extra large one, holding almost
as much as a trunk, and it stood against the wall of her room.
As they looked they all saw the cover raised a little, and then the
whole suitcase seemed to move slightly.
"Maybe it's Skyrocket, our dog," said Ted. "He likes to crawl into
places like that to sleep."
"Or maybe it's Turnover, our cat," added Janet.
Uncle Frank hurried across the room to the suitcase. Before he could
reach it the cover was suddenly tossed back and there, curled up inside,
where he had been sleeping, was the lost Trouble!
"Oh, Trouble, what a fright you gave us!" cried his mother.
"Were you there all the while?" Aunt Jo demanded.
Trouble sat up in the suitcase, which was plenty big enough for him when
it was empty. He rubbed his eyes and smiled at those gathered around
him.
"Iss. I been s'eepin' here long time," he said.
"Well, of all things!" cried Aunt Jo. "I couldn't imagine what made the
suitcase move, and there it was Trouble wiggling in his sleep."
"How did you come to get into it?" asked Uncle Frank.
"Nice place. I like it," was all the reason Trouble could give.
He still had on his jacket and rubber boots which his mother had put on
him when he said he wanted to go out and play in the snow with Jan and
Ted.
"And, instead of doing that he must have come upstairs when I wasn't
looking and crawled in here," said Mrs. Martin. "You mustn't do such a
thing again, Baby William."
"Iss, I not do it. I'se hungry!"
"No wonder! It's past his supper time!" cried Aunt Jo.
"Did you find him?" called the anxious voice of Daddy Martin from the
front door. He had just come in. "He wasn't down at the Simpsons'," he
went on.
"He's here all right!" answered Uncle Frank, for Mrs. Martin was hugging
Trouble so hard that she could not answer. She had really been very much
frightened about the little lost boy.
"Well, he certainly is a little tyke!" said Mr. Martin, when he had
been told what had happened. "Hiding in a suitcase! That's a new kind of
trouble!"
They were all laughing now, though they had been frightened. Trouble
told, in his own way, how, wandering upstairs, he had seen Aunt Jo's big
suitcase, and he wanted to see what it would be like to lie down in it.
He could do it, by curling up, and he was so comfortable once he had
pulled the cover down, that he fell asleep.
The cover had not closed tightly, so there was left an opening through
which Trouble could get air to breathe. So he did not suffer from being
lost, though he frightened the whole household.
Supper over, they sat and talked about what had happened that day, from
building the snow bungalow to hunting for Trouble. Before that part had
been reached Trouble was sound asleep in his mother's lap, and was
carried off to his real bed this time. A little later the Curlytops
followed, ready to get up early the next day to have more fun.
"Well, we haven't got that big storm yet, but it's coming," said Uncle
Frank, as he looked at the sky, which was filled with clouds.
"And will we be snowed in?" asked Ted.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say that," his uncle answered. "Would you like
to be?"
"If you and Aunt Jo will stay."
"Well, I guess we'll have to stay if we get snowed in, Curlytop. But
we'll have to wait and see what happens. Where are you going now?"
"Over on the little hill to coast. Want to come with me, Uncle Frank?"
"No, thank you. I'm too old for that. I'll come some time, though, and
watch you and Janet. What are you going to do with your goat?" he asked,
as he saw Ted taking Nicknack out of the stable.
"Oh, our goat pulls us over to the hill in the big sled, and then we
slide down hill on our little sleds. I'm going to take Jan and Tom
Taylor and Lola."
"And Trouble, too?" Uncle Frank asked.
"Not now. Trouble is getting washed and he can't come out."
"No, I guess he'd get cold if he did," laughed Uncle Frank.
He helped Ted hitch Nicknack to the big sled, not that Ted needed any
help, for he often harnessed the goat himself, but Uncle Frank liked to
do this. Then the Curlytops and Tom and Lola Taylor started for the
hill.
There they found many of their playmates, and after Nicknack had been
unhitched so he could rest he was tied to a tree and a little hay put in
front of him to eat. The hay had been brought from home in the big sled
which stood near the tree to which Nicknack was tied, and Ted and Jan
began to have fun.
Down the hill they coasted, having races with their chums, now and then
falling off their sleds and rolling half way down the hill.
"I know what let's do, Teddy," said Jan after a bit.
"I know something, too!" he laughed. "I can wash your face!"
"No, please don't!" she begged, holding her mittened hands in front of
her. "I'm cold now."
"Well, it'll make your cheeks nice and red," went on Teddy.
"They're as red now as I want 'em," answered Jan. "What I say let's do
is to see can go the farthest on our sleds."
"Oh, you mean have a race?"
"No, not zactly a _race_," answered the little girl. "When you race you
see who can go the _fastest_. But now let's see who can go the
_longest_."
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Teddy. "That will be fun. Come on!" and he
started to drag his sled to the top of the hill, Janet following after,
"like Jack and Jill," as she laughingly told her brother.
When the two children were about half way up the hill, their heads bowed
down, for the wind cut into their faces, they heard a shout of:
"Look out the way! Look out the way! Here we come!"
Ted and Jan looked up quickly and saw, coasting toward them, another
little boy and girl on their sleds.
"Come over here!" cried Teddy to his sister. "Come over on my side of
the hill and you'll be out of the way."
"No, you come over with me!" said Janet. "This is the right side, and
mother said we must always keep to the right no matter if we walked up
or slid down hill."
"Well, maybe that's so," agreed Teddy. "I guess I'll come over by you,"
and he started to move across the hill, while the little boy and girl
coasting toward him and Jan kept crying:
"Look out the way! Look out the way! Here we come!"
And then a funny thing happened. Teddy thought he was getting safely out
of the way, and he certainly tried hard enough, but before he could
reach the side of his sister Janet, along came the sled of the little
boy, and right into Teddy's fat legs it ran.
The little boy tried to steer out of the way, but he was too late, and
the next Teddy knew, he was sitting partly on the little boy and partly
on the sled, sliding down the hill up which he had been walking a little
while before.
"Oh!" grunted the little boy when Teddy part way sat down on him.
"Oh!" grunted Teddy.
The reason they both grunted was because their breaths were jolted out
of them. But they were not hurt, and when the sled with the two boys on
it kept on sliding downhill all the other boys and girls laughed to see
the funny sight.
"Well!" cried Teddy when he reached the bottom of the hill and got up,
"I didn't know I was going to have that ride."
"Neither did I," said the little boy, whose name was Wilson Decker. "Me
and my sister were having a race," he went on, "and now she beat me."
"I'm sorry," said Teddy. "I didn't mean to get in your way. My sister
and I are going to have a race, too, and that's what we were walking up
to do when I sat on you. Don't you want to race with us? We're going to
have a new kind."
"What kind, Curlytop?" the little boy asked.
"To see who can go the longest but not the fastest," answered Teddy.
"Come on, it'll be a lot of fun!"
So the little boy and his sister, whose sled, with her on it, had first
gotten to the bottom of the hill, went up together with Teddy, to where
Jan was waiting for him.
"Oh, Teddy!" cried the little Curlytop girl, laughing, "you did look
_so_ funny!"
"I--I sort of _felt_ funny!" replied Teddy. "They're going to race with
us," he went on, as he pointed to Wilson Decker and his sister.
"That'll be nice," returned Janet. "Now we'll all get on our sleds in a
line at the top of the hill. It doesn't matter who goes first or last,
but we must start even, and the one who makes his sled go the longest
way to the bottom of the hill beats the race."
They all said this would be fair, and some of the other children
gathered at the top of the hill to watch the race, which was different
from the others.
"All ready! I'm going to start!" cried Janet, and away she went,
coasting down the hill. The other three waited a little, for there was
no hurry, and then, one after the other, Wilson, Teddy and Elsie (who
was Wilson's sister) started down the hill.
Janet's sled was the first to stop at the bottom, as she had been the
first to start, and she cried:
"Nobody can come up to me!"
But Elsie on her sled was exactly even with Janet.
"Well, if Teddy or your brother don't go farther than we did then we win
the race--a half of it to each of us," said Janet.
And that's just what happened. Teddy's sled went a little farther than
did Wilson's, but neither of the boys could come up to the girls, so Jan
and Elsie won, and they were proud of it. Then they started another
race.
They were having grand fun, shouting and laughing, when suddenly a
strange dog, which none of the children remembered having seen before,
ran along and began barking at Nicknack.
The goat, who was used to the gentle barking of Skyrocket, did not like
this strange, savage dog, which seemed ready to bite him.
"Baa-a-a-a!" bleated the goat.
"Bow-w-w!" barked the dog, and he snapped at Nicknack's legs.
This was more than the goat could stand. With another frightened leap he
gave a jump that broke the strap by which he was tied to the tree. Then
Nicknack jumped again, and this time, strangely enough, he landed right
inside the sled which, a little while before, he had pulled along the
snow to the hill.
Right into the sled leaped Nicknack, and then another funny thing
happened.
The sled was on the edge of the hill, and when the goat jumped into it
he gave it such a sudden push that it began sliding downhill. Right down
the hill slid the sled and Nicknack was in it.
"Oh, your goat's having a ride! Your goat's having a ride!" cried the
other children to the Curlytops.