TROUBLE IN THE AIR
Teddy Martin ran to the edge of the little bank over the top of which
he had seen Janet’s head a moment before. The boy had his hands full
of ferns, but he dropped these as he ran forward, calling:
“I’m coming, Jan! I’m coming! Wait for me!”
“I can’t get out!” Janet answered. “I’m stuck fast!
“And I’m going down farther all the while!” she called. “Oh, Oh! You
must get me out, Teddy!”
“Yes, Janet! Yes, I’ll get you out!” cried Teddy. He flung himself
face downward on the grassy bank below which Janet was caught in a
trap of mud. It was soft mud, and did not, of course, hurt her, but it
was so sticky that she was held fast.
“Can’t you pull your legs out, Janet, and walk over to me?” asked
Teddy. “If you could get over here I could take hold of your hands and
pull you the rest of the way out. Try to pull your legs loose!”
“I did try,” Janet answered. “I can pull one leg out, but then the
other leg sticks down deeper in the mud. Then when I try to pull my
first leg out, that’s stuck, too.”
“Can’t you pull both your legs out together?” asked Teddy, as he lay
on the top of the grassy bank and looked down at his sister.
“Nope! I can’t pull both my legs out at once,” she answered. “’Cause
if I did I’d fall down.”
“Well, then I guess I’ve got to come down and get you,” said Teddy, as
he thought about the matter. “You stay there, Janet, and I’ll come
down and pull you out. I’ll hold you so you can pull both your legs
out at the same time.”
He started to get up, but his sister called to him.
“No, don’t come down here, Teddy!”
“Why not?” he asked, in surprise.
“’Cause if you do, you’ll be stuck, too, and then we’ll both be stuck
in this sticky mud, and we can’t get out, and nobody will know we’re
here, and nobody can take Trouble home, and——”
“That’s so—I forgot about Trouble,” said Teddy. “And that is pretty
sticky mud, isn’t it, Jan?”
“It’s terribly sticky!” answered the little girl. “It’s just like that
time when I sat down in the fly paper. I guess you better go and get
mother or daddy or Uncle Ben. They can get me out.”
“Wait! Maybe I can do it myself!” said Teddy, after a bit. “If I had a
rope I could throw it to you, and you could take hold of it and I
could stand up here, where there isn’t any mud, and pull you out.”
“Yes, but you haven’t any rope,” said Janet.
Teddy thought some more.
“No, there isn’t any rope,” he said. “But if I could find a piece of
wild grapevine, that would be as good as a rope. Don’t you ’member,
when we went to Grandpa’s Cherry Farm, how we swung on a wild
grapevine in the woods, just like a swing?”
“I ’member,” Janet answered. “Please go and get me a wild grapevine
rope, Teddy, and pull me out. My shoes are all full of mud.”
“Yes, and there’s a lot on your legs, too,” her brother said. “Well,
I’ll see if I can find a grapevine. If I can’t, I’ll get daddy or
Uncle Ben—they’ll pull you out, anyhow.”
“Where’s Trouble?” asked Janet, as her brother stood up and started to
walk away.
“That’s so—mustn’t forget him,” answered Teddy. “He was picking ferns
when I heard you yell, but I don’t see him now.”
“Oh, you must find him!” cried Janet. “If he goes away by himself
maybe he’ll fall into a mud hole too.”
“I’ll find Trouble first, and then I’ll go and get the grapevine and
pull you out,” decided the little boy. Of course it might have been
better if he had run at once and told his father or his mother what
had happened to Janet. But Teddy liked to do things for himself, and
if he could help his sister out of the bog he wanted to do it.
“Hi, Trouble! where are you?” cried Teddy as he looked toward the spot
where he had left his little brother, picking ferns.
At first there was no answer, and, for a moment, Teddy feared that
Baby William had wandered away and become lost, or perhaps had fallen
into some swamp hole. But, in a few seconds, after he had called
again, Teddy heard some baby laughter.
“Trouble, are you hiding away from me in the grass?” asked Teddy, for
sometimes the little chap did this. “Are you hiding?” asked Teddy in
louder tones.
“No, I’se playin’!” was the answer. “I got nudder turkle!”
“You have?” cried Teddy, running toward the spot from which Trouble’s
voice sounded. “Say, you’re great on finding turtles! Yes, you have
found one!” he went on, when he reached Baby William’s side. He saw
the little boy sitting down in a grassy hollow, and near him, slowly
crawling, was a mud turtle—much larger than the one Trouble had found
that morning and put in Teddy’s cot.
“Oh, that’s dandy!” cried Ted. “We’ll keep ’em both, and maybe we can
get up a show with ’em. Come on, Trouble. Jan’s stuck in the mud, and
I’ve got to get her out. I’ve got to find a wild grapevine.”
“Jan in mud?” asked Trouble, looking up into Ted’s face.
“Yes, she’s away down in a deep mud hole. We’ve got to pull her out.”
Carrying the turtle in one hand, with the other Teddy led Trouble to
the edge of the grassy bank, where the little fellow could look down
and see his sister stuck in the mud.
“Oh! Too bad!” said Trouble, in a gentle voice, as he saw the plight
of poor Janet.
“Yes, it is too bad,” agreed the little girl. “I didn’t see the mud
hole when I went to get the blue flowers.”
She still held a bouquet of them in her hand.
“Now you stay here with Janet, Trouble, and I’ll go and get a
grapevine for a rope,” said Teddy. “Sit right here and don’t go away.”
“I won’t,” promised Baby William. “I give turtle grass for hims to eat
breakshust!”
“Yes, you can feed the turtle his breakfast,” agreed Janet. “And don’t
be too long, Teddy,” she begged. “’Cause I think I’m sinking farther
in all the while.”
“I’ll come right back,” he promised, as he ran toward the tangled
woodland where he thought some grapevines might grow. And Teddy was
lucky enough to find some, so that, in a little while, he came back
with one trailing after him.
“Now I’ll pull you out, Janet!” he cried. “This is as good as a rope.”
He stripped the leaves and little branches from the long, thin vine,
which is really a rope of the woods, and then, holding one end, Ted
tossed the other to his sister, who was standing below him in the bog.
She caught it with one hand, holding the blue flowers in the other.
“Hold fast now, I’m going to pull!” cried Teddy. “I’ll pull and you
wiggle your feet, and then they’ll come loose out of the mud and you
can walk over where it’s hard ground.”
Well, Teddy, pulled and Janet tried to keep hold of her end of the
grapevine rope, but as Teddy was stronger than she was, and as he was
pulling with two hands, while she was holding with only one, and as
the mud was very sticky, you can imagine what happened.
Teddy pulled the grapevine away from his sister, and she nearly fell
over backward into the muddy puddle just behind her.
“You must take hold with both hands!” cried Teddy, as he, too, almost
toppled over. “Take hold with both hands, and I’ll pull with both
hands, and I’ll get you out.”
“I’ve got only one hand,” declared Janet. “I must hold on to my
flowers.”
“Oh, let the flowers go!” ordered Teddy.
“No, I want ’em!” insisted Janet.
“Then I can’t pull you out,” was Teddy’s reply.
Janet thought this over for a moment, and then she said:
“Well, I can throw my flowers to you up there on the bank. You can
give ’em to Trouble to keep, and then I can take hold with both
hands.”
“Yes, you can do that!” agreed Teddy. “Go ahead! Throw me your
flowers. I’ll give ’em to Trouble.”
“But don’t let the mud turtle eat ’em!” pleaded Janet, as she tossed
the pretty bouquet to her brother. The gathering of the blue flowers
had gotten Janet into a lot of trouble.
“My turkle eats grass—hims don’t like flowers!” said Baby William, as
Ted laid the blossoms down on the ground beside his little brother.
Janet now had both hands free, and she took a good hold of the
grapevine rope. Teddy braced his feet in the grass, and began to pull.
Janet pulled also, lifting her feet out of the sticky mud, and, with a
queer, sucking sound as she lifted her legs, first the right and then
the left, she soon found herself free of the bog. She stepped out on
firm ground, and was soon upon the bank with Ted and Trouble.
“Oh, what an awful lot of mud!” cried Teddy, as he looked at his
sister’s feet. And well might he say that, for she was covered with
muck up to her waist.
“I guess I better wade out in the lake, with my shoes and stockings
on, and wash off,” said Janet. “I can’t get any wetter, but I can get
a little cleaner.”
“I guess you can,” decided Teddy.
He and Trouble (who carried the flowers, while his brother held the
turtle) walked to the shore of the lake where the water was shallow.
There Janet waded in and splashed around. Of course she got very
wet—and with her clothes, shoes and stockings on, too!—but the mud was
washed off.
“Where have you children been, and what have you been doing?” cried
Mrs. Martin, when the Curlytops and Trouble walked up to the bungalow
Sunnyside a little later.
“I’ve been picking a bouquet for you, Mother,” answered Janet, and she
held out the blue flowers. “Aren’t they pretty?”
“Yes, my dear, they are very nice, and thank you for them. But did you
have to wade in the lake up to your waist after them?”
“Oh, no. I fell in the mud and then I had to wash off,” explained
Janet.
“And I found annuver mud turkle!” cried Trouble.
Then the children told their mother what had happened.
After dinner, when Janet had been washed again and dried and had had
clean clothes put on her, Uncle Ben took the three children out on the
lake in a little motor boat. It was great fun for them to go riding
about the silvery water, the engine of the boat making a chugging
sound which Trouble liked very much.
Silver Lake was so large that Uncle Ben did not have time to take the
children all around it.
“Some day,” he said, “we’ll put up a lunch and go on a regular voyage
all around the shores in the big motor boat.”
“Shall we get shipwrecked?” asked Ted eagerly.
“I hope not!” laughed Uncle Ben. “I was shipwrecked once, and that was
enough. But now we are going to stop here. I have to get some rowboats
your father has bought.”
He steered the motor craft up to a little pier about a mile from
Sunnyside. To this pier a number of small boats were tied. After some
talk with a man Uncle Ben tied to the back of the boat in which the
Curlytops sat five of the rowboats, strung out one after the other,
like beads on a string.
“Are we going to take ’em home?” asked Janet.
“Yes,” answered Uncle Ben. “Your father needs more boats to hire out
at his dock near the picnic grounds, and he bought these. I am going
to paint them red, like all his boats.”
“May I help paint?” Teddy asked.
“Me too?” cried Janet.
“Well, I’ll see about it,” promised Uncle Ben. “I’m afraid you would
get more paint on your hands and faces than you would on the boats.
But maybe I’ll let you paint a little with a small brush.”
“That’ll be fun!” cried both children. “Do let us!”
Off they started once more, hauling the rowboats after them in a long
line back of the motor craft. Trouble wanted to climb back into the
nearest rowboat, but they would not let him, of course.
Uncle Ben was steering the big boat, and pulling the smaller ones, in
toward the Sunnyside dock when suddenly something jumped from the
water with a splatter of drops and seemed to leap over the rowboat
nearest the motor boat. Then the shining object fell back into the
lake again with a splash.
“What was that?” cried Ted.
“Did somebody throw something?” Janet asked.
“Maybe it was a turtle,” said Trouble.
“That was a fish that jumped out of the water and clean over the
rowboat,” said Uncle Ben. “Fish sometimes leap out of the water that
way when they want to catch a bug or a fly that is just above them.
But I did not know there were such large fish in Silver Lake. I must
bring a hook, line, and pole the next time I come out.”
“I’m going to fish, too!” declared Teddy.
“So’m I!” added Janet.
“Yes, we’ll get up a fishing party!” agreed Uncle Ben. “Maybe we can
catch enough for a meal.”
The rowboats were tied up at Daddy Martin’s dock, and for the next few
days Uncle Ben was busy painting them. Teddy and Janet were both
allowed to use a small brush, and really they did quite well, for they
were careful.
The only thing that happened was that once, when Trouble came close to
watch him, Teddy splattered some red paint on the face of Trouble’s
beloved rag doll.
“Oh, Teddy Martin! ’ook what you did!” cried Trouble. “I’m goin’ to
tell mozzer! My doll’s all wed!”
“I didn’t mean to,” Teddy said, sorry enough about what had happened.
“Anyhow it makes his cheeks look nice and red.” Trouble hadn’t thought
of this.
“It does make him ’ook pittier,” he agreed. “I’m glad ’oo did it,
Teddy.”
The Curlytops had lots of fun at Silver Lake. Gradually the bungalow
was put in order, and Nora came to cook and help with the work. Then
Mrs. Martin could take long walks in the woods with the children, and
they often went out on the lake with Uncle Ben, having many good times
on the silvery water.
It was just before supper one evening, and Ted and Janet had come in
from sailing with Uncle Ben. Trouble had not gone, as he was asleep,
but now he had awakened, and he was freshly washed and dressed.
“Take Trouble for a little walk down the path, Ted and Jan,” their
mother said. “But don’t go far away, for supper will soon be ready.”
“All right,” they answered, and soon the two Curlytops were leading
their little brother by the hand.
“Let’s go down to the ice-house,” proposed Teddy. “They’re taking
cakes of ice out now and we can watch.”
The ice-house was one partly owned by Mr. Martin. In the winter, when
Silver Lake was frozen, men cut big chunks of ice from it, and packed
it away in sawdust in a small house, not far from shore. In the summer
the ice was taken out and used to make ice-cream and to cool
soda=water.
[Illustration: “OH, TEDDY MARTIN! ’OOK WHAT YOU DID!” CRIED TROUBLE.]
The cakes of ice were so large and heavy that they were lifted from
the house and lowered to the ground outside by a rope and pulley. The
pulley was up near the roof of the house, and the rope dangled to the
ground. The ice was hoisted up just as you may have seen a piano
hoisted up to the second or third story of a house. The Curlytops used
to like to watch the men lift the ice out by the rope and pulley.
“Oh, they’re all done!” exclaimed Janet, much disappointed, when she
and her two brothers reached the ice-house. “They’re all done, and
they’re gone!”
“But they’ve left the rope where we can reach it,” said Teddy. “Oh,
Jan, I know what we can do!” he cried.
“What?” she asked.
“We can make believe Trouble is a cake of ice, and hoist him up by the
rope,” went on Ted. “Come on—let’s do it. Trouble, do you want a ride
in the air?”
“Oh, ’ess! Me want wide in air!” said the little fellow eagerly.
“All right! Then you’re going to have one!” laughed Ted.