WHERE IS TROUBLE?
Teddy Martin came racing back up the sandy beach in answer to his
sister’s cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked the Curlytop boy. He had been watching a
distant fish hawk diving for a fish, and Ted was anxious to see if the
bird got something for his dinner and for the little, whistling fish
hawks in the nest back in the dead tree. “What happened, Janet?” he
inquired.
“Something in the pot took my rag doll! They took it right out of my
hands—pulled it away,” explained Janet. “I guess it was a lobster,
Teddy.”
“Maybe it was a nellifunt,” murmured Trouble. “I mean a little, baby
nellifunt,” he went on, as he looked at the small size of the lobster
pots and thought how large an elephant was.
“It couldn’t be a lobster,” declared Teddy.
“Why not?” Janet wanted to know.
“’Cause there aren’t any lobsters in those pots,” answered her brother.
“They take the lobsters out before they bring the pots to shore.”
“Maybe they forgot this lobster,” suggested the little Curlytop girl.
“Anyhow, something in the pot took my doll away.”
“How?” Teddy wanted to know, for he had been so busy watching the fish
hawk that he had not seen what Janet had done.
“I was showing William how the lobsters went into the traps,” Janet
explained, “and I made believe my rag doll was a crawling lobster and I
stuck her in the net hole. Then she went all the way in, ’cause
something took hold of her and pulled her.”
“It couldn’t be a lobster!” cried Teddy.
“Well, you just look!” challenged Janet.
She pointed to the black, wooden pot of laths—the one she had thrust
her rag doll into. This pot was partly under one or two others, so that
the inside could not be seen clearly. But, having heard his sister’s
story, Teddy began lifting off the covering pots so he could get at the
one to which Janet pointed, Janet falling to, to help him.
When this had been done the three children clearly saw, through the
cracks between the laths, something moving about inside the pot.
“Oh, it’s my doll!” exclaimed Janet.
“She’s movin’ like she was alive,” said Trouble.
“You’re right! A lobster has her!” cried Teddy. “A lobster must have
been left in one of the pots when they came ashore or when they were
left here. And when you stuck the doll in, the lobster thought it was
something good to eat, I guess, and grabbed it.”
“Yes, that’s how it was,” Janet agreed. “But, Teddy,” she demanded, “how
am I going to get my doll again? I want her back.”
“It’s only a rag doll!” scoffed Teddy.
“I don’t care if she is only a rag doll,” and now Janet began to cry, “I
want her back! I want my rag doll!”
“Oh, I’ll get her for you!” said Teddy. “I’ll get her.”
“How can you?” his sister wanted to know.
[Illustration: “THERE YOU ARE!” TEDDY CRIED, AS HE SAFELY GOT THE DOLL
OUT.]
“There’s a little door in the top of the lobster pot,” explained Teddy.
“Captain Oleson showed me about it. The fishermen open this door to lift
out the lobsters, ’cause they can’t pull ’em through the hole in the
fish net. Here, I’ll show you!”
He pointed to the top of the pot. Some of the laths were made into the
shape of a little trap door, on hinges, with a wooden button to hold it
shut. Ted turned this button, and then he and his sister and brother
could look down into the pot at the lobster’s back.
There was the big creature, with its big claws—a sort of dark greenish
creature in color, though it would turn a bright red when boiled. And in
its claws, or, at least, near them, was Janet’s rag doll.
“Oh! Oh! Look at him!” murmured Trouble, bending close to the pot.
“Look out he doesn’t pinch your nose!” warned Ted.
“How you going to get my doll out so he doesn’t pinch you?” Janet wanted
to know. For she saw that one could easily reach a hand into the lobster
pot through the trap door in the top.
“I’ll do it!” declared Teddy. “Here, Jan, you take this stick and poke
him. He’ll reach out his claws to grab the stick and he won’t see me
when I grab for the doll. You tease him with the stick.”
“All right, but you be careful!” said Janet. “I like my rag doll, but I
don’t want you to get pinched, Teddy.”
“I’ll be careful,” said her brother. “He isn’t a very lively lobster.”
This was true. A lobster, being rather big and clumsy, is not as quick
with his claws as is a crab. When first taken from the water lobsters
can lift their claws well up over their head and pinch very hard. But
they can not do it as quickly as a crab can. And when lobsters have been
out of water for some time they get slow and sluggish, and seem hardly
able to lift their claws which, often, are half as large as themselves.
Of course, when a lobster does pinch, he pinches much harder than a
crab. And old, big lobsters have teeth on their claws so they can crush
even a clam or an oyster shell, I should imagine.
But, as Teddy said, this lobster was slow. He could reach his claws out
straight in front of him, and pull or pinch with them, but he could not
raise them above his head. Now Janet did as Teddy told her, and teased
the creature with a stick Teddy handed her.
The lobster moved about his long feelers, one on either side of his head
near his eyes. He slowly reached out his biggest claw and took hold of
the stick.
“Oh, he’s pinching it!” cried Trouble.
“Go ahead, Teddy! Get the doll now!” yelled Janet.
Her brother quickly reached his hand inside the lobster pot and lifted
out the “bundle of rags,” as he called it, but which Janet called Nancy
Lou, her doll.
“There you are!” Teddy cried, as he safely got the doll out. “Now he can
pinch as much as he likes!”
The children remained near the lobster pots for some little time longer,
watching the creature slowly move about inside. It seemed to be the only
one caught, the others having been taken out. This one must have been
forgotten, Teddy thought.
“He’s funny,” remarked Trouble, as he poked another stick in through the
cracks of the pot, and saw the lobster grab it. “He’s funny, an’ I likes
him!”
“Well, I’m glad you’ve found something else to like besides an
elephant,” laughed Janet, as she wiped some sand off her rag doll’s
dress.
“Oh, I like nellifunts, too,” declared William. He was true to his first
love, you see.
“Well, come on to the lighthouse,” suggested Teddy, and so the children
went on down the beach.
The lighthouse was in rather a lonesome place, and visitors seldom went
there. The lighthouse keeper was always glad of company, for his was a
solitary life, and he was glad to see the children.
“Come in!” he invited them. “Come in and have some lemonade!”
“Does lemonade grow in lighthouses?” asked Trouble.
“Well, some is growing here, or springing up, whatever you like to call
it, because my wife just made it,” explained the keeper, with a laugh.
“It’s a hot day, and I’ve just finished cleaning the light, so she made
me some. But there’s more than I need, and I want you to have some of
it.”
The Curlytops and Trouble were very willing, you may be sure, to drink
some of the cool, sweet lemonade, as the day was a hot one and they were
warm from their walk down the sandy beach.
Mrs. Dent, the keeper’s jolly wife, gave the children some crackers to
nibble with their lemonade, and they had quite a little party there in
the lighthouse.
“Could we see the light?” asked Teddy, for he was interested in such
things.
“Of course you can,” answered Mr. Dent.
“What does you want a light for in the daytime?” asked Trouble.
“We don’t, little man,” answered Mr. Dent, with a laugh. “The light is
lighted only at night, so the sailors, far out at sea, can tell by its
flash where they are. But during the day I must clean the lamp and
polish the glass so it will be clear and bright. Come, I’ll show you.”
The Curlytops and Trouble mounted up a little winding stair in the tower
of the lighthouse until they reached the upper room. This was completely
of glass—glass all around it, but not ordinary window glass. The glass
of the lighthouse tower was specially made lenses, so arranged as to
send straight beams of light for many miles out to sea.
In the middle of the tower room, on a big iron stand, stood a great
lantern—a lantern that held many quarts of oil. It was the largest lamp
the children had ever seen.
“I wouldn’t want to clean that lamp chimney!” said Janet, as she looked
at it. “I don’t believe I could even lift it.”
“No, I don’t believe you could,” said Mr. Dent. “And if you should drop
it and break it, that would be very sad.”
“Look at the big wicks!” exclaimed Ted, pointing to them.
“Yes, and they must be trimmed several times during the night to make
sure the light is always bright,” said the keeper. “It would not do to
have the light grow dim or go out.”
“Are all lighthouses like this?” Janet wanted to know.
“No,” answered Mr. Dent. “In some the lamp is an electric one, and in
others it burns gas. This is an old-fashioned light, and has been here
many years. There is some talk of taking it away and putting a new
electric light in its place. When they do, I suppose I shall lose my
job,” he added, with a short laugh.
“That’s what Mr. Keller is afraid of,” remarked Janet.
“Who is Mr. Keller, and why is he afraid of losing his place?” asked Mr.
Dent.
“It’s ’cause he lost Mr. Narr’s keys,” explained Ted, telling the story.
“Hum,” remarked Mr. Dent. “Lost in the sand, eh? Well, it’s pretty hard
to find anything once it gets in the sand. You might pick it up right
away quick, and, again, it might be years before you saw it again, and
then it would only be by accident.”
“We’ll look again when we go back,” said Janet to her brother.
“Yes,” he agreed. “And I hope we’ll find the ring and the keys.”
Mr. Dent showed the children all about the lighthouse, and even turned
on the machinery that revolved the light. It was this turning of the
light that made it flash.
There were several kinds of lights in the beacons along the coast, the
keeper explained. Some were fixed white or red lights, and some were
revolving or flashing red or white lights. In these last there was an
arrangement so the sailor saw first a flash of light, and then a patch
of darkness would come.
“Every lighthouse has a different number of flashes,” explained Mr.
Dent, “and the sailors, by counting them, can tell which house it is.
Then they know on what part of the coast they are.”
“What makes the machinery go and turn the light?” asked Ted.
“A big weight, like the weights in a grandfather’s clock,” said the
keeper. “Each day I must wind up this weight to the top of the tower.
Then it goes down slowly, turning a shaft, or axle, and by means of cog
wheels the light is revolved.”
“Could we come some time at night and see it work?” asked Ted, eagerly.
“Oh, yes, come any time you wish,” replied the good-natured Mr. Dent.
Down the winding tower stairs went the Curlytops and Trouble. As they
entered the living room (for the keeper and his wife lived in the
lighthouse) Mrs. Dent called out:
“What about some more crackers and lemonade, children? It must be a hot
climb up in the tower on a day like this.”
“It was,” said her husband. “I’m ready for more lemonade.”
So more refreshments were served, and as Trouble sipped his drink and
nibbled his cracker he said:
“This is lots of fun! It’s ’most as much fun as a circus!”
“Is it, little man? I’m glad of that!” laughed Mrs. Dent.
There were many sea curiosities in the keeper’s home, and the children
looked at them until Ted and Janet decided it must be time to go back to
their cottage.
“Maybe we’ll have time to take another look for Mr. Keller’s keys,”
suggested Teddy.
“I hope we find them,” added his sister.
They started away from the lighthouse, the Curlytops did, but, suddenly,
Janet turned and exclaimed:
“Where is Trouble?”
“I thought he was with you,” said Ted.
“And I thought he was with you,” said Janet. “I guess he must have run
back to listen to that big sea shell. I’ll get him.”
She hurried back into the lighthouse while Ted waited.