COMPANY IN CAMP
Mrs. Martin was sitting on the front porch of the bungalow. She had
just finished writing a letter, which she hoped would bring more
happiness and fun to the Curlytops. Uncle Ben and Daddy Martin were
washing themselves, after having been at work among the boats and at
the dock. In the house, or bungalow I suppose I had better call it,
Nora was finishing the supper preparations.
“Yes, this ought to make Ted and Jan happy,” said Mrs. Martin to
herself as she sealed the letter she had written. “I’ll have Uncle Ben
take it to the post-office after supper. They won’t miss Skyrocket so
much if everything turns out the way I want it to,” thought Mrs.
Martin.
For Ted and Jan had certainly missed their pet dog very much.
Skyrocket had been with them on nearly all their trips to Cherry Farm,
to their uncle’s or aunt’s, and to other places, and now, since the
dog had vanished in such a queer way from the woodshed, the Curlytops
had sorrowed for him very much. Even Turnover, the cat, did not make
up for Skyrocket. And seeing how much Ted and Janet thought about
their missing dog, even when they were having fun on the water with
Uncle Ben, Mrs. Martin decided to write the letter she had just
finished.
She was getting up from her chair, to go inside the bungalow to see if
Nora needed any help about the supper, when, suddenly, the mother of
the Curlytops saw a curious sight. This was a glimpse of Baby William
being raised up off the ground and swaying to and fro on the end of a
rope in front of the ice-house.
For a moment Mrs. Martin could not believe that she really saw this.
But when she had brushed her hand over her eyes, to make sure that she
was wide awake, she felt certain that what she had seen was real.
“Oh, Trouble! William! Ted! Janet! What are you doing?” cried their
mother, and, dropping her letter, she ran off the porch, calling as
loudly as she could:
“Daddy! Uncle Ben! Come quick! The baby is hanging from the end of a
rope!”
Mr. Martin and Uncle Ben had just finished washing, and when they
heard the call they ran down the path after Mrs. Martin. They, too,
saw just what she saw—Trouble dangling from the end of a rope that ran
over a pulley, or wooden wheel, near the top of the ice-house. And as
the two men watched they saw Baby William slowly go down, and then go
up again, just as an elevator goes down and comes up.
“Somebody’s hauling Trouble up and down, just like a cake of ice!”
cried Daddy Martin.
“That’s what they are!” said Uncle Ben. “I wonder who it is?”
The next moment he and Mr. Martin came in sight of the ice-house, and
they saw who was doing it. There stood Teddy and Jan, first hauling up
on the end of a long rope, and then letting it run through their hands
again. On the other end of the rope, as it ran over the pulley wheel
at the roof of the ice-house, was Baby William.
The rope was tied about his waist, and every time the Curlytops pulled
on the rope their little brother was hoisted up in the air, swaying
and dangling about as a spider does on the end of the web he spins.
And when Ted and Jan let the rope slip through their fingers, Trouble
was lowered toward the ground.
The Curlytops were quite strong for their age, having played out of
doors so much, and Trouble was not very heavy. The rope slipped easily
over the wooden wheel, or pulley, and so it was that Ted and Jan could
very easily raise and lower their little brother. They had tied the
rope around his waist. Ted was pretty good at tying knots, for Uncle
Ben had showed him how.
“Children! Children! What are you doing?” cried Mrs. Martin, as, with
her husband and Uncle Ben, she came in front of the ice-house.
“Theodore, Janet, stop it at once!” cried their father.
“Lower him easy now! Don’t let him come down too hard!” was what Uncle
Ben said. And he said it just in time, too. For Ted and Jan were so
surprised at being called to in this sudden way that they might have
let go of the rope while Trouble was hoisted in the air, and then the
little chap would have had a hard fall.
But Uncle Ben knew what he was doing, and no sooner had he called out
than he ran beneath the dangling little boy and caught him in his arms
as Ted and Jan lowered him.
“There you are!” cried Uncle Ben, as he loosed the loop of rope from
around Trouble’s little stomach and set Baby William on the ground.
“Oh, Ted! Jan! What were you doing?” asked their mother. “What were
you thinking of?”
“We were just playing Trouble was a cake of ice,” said Janet, as she
let go her hold of the rope.
“And we gave him a ride up and down in the air,” added Teddy.
“Me ’iked it!” declared Trouble himself, as he laughed and clapped his
hands. “Me went up and me went down!”
“I should say you did!” said his mother. “It’s a mercy you didn’t
fall. Don’t ever do such a thing again, Ted and Jan.”
“No’m. We won’t!” they promised.
“Anyhow, if he did fall, or the rope broke, he wouldn’t have hurt
himself much,” said Teddy, after thinking the matter over. “The ground
is all sawdust here, and he’d fall on that. Besides we didn’t pull him
up very high. Did we, Jan?”
“No, not high at all,” she agreed.
“And I tied the rope around his stomach good and tight so it wouldn’t
slip,” went on Teddy. “I tied the rope the way you showed me, Uncle
Ben.”
“Well, I am not going to show you how to tie any more knots if you use
a rope on your little brother,” said Mr. Wilson.
Teddy thought that over, and decided he wanted to know more about
ropes and knots, and as, moreover, their father and mother said the
Curlytops must not do it again, that was the first and last time Baby
William was ever hauled up on an ice rope by his brother and sister.
But the Curlytops did plenty of other queer things, as you shall hear.
Supper over that night, they all went for a sail with Daddy Martin.
Silver Lake was getting to be quite a lively place now. The
merry-go-round was being put up, after having been stored in a barn
all winter, the shoot-the-chutes were being painted and made ready for
the picnic crowds, and the other places to have fun would soon be
open. The picnic grounds, as I have told you, were a little distance
from Sunnyside Bungalow, but it was easy to reach them in a boat, or
by walking around the shore of Silver Lake.
Mr. Martin had his boats all in readiness to be hired out now, and a
few persons had come to get them, being waited on by Uncle Ben, who
was in charge. Uncle Ben had told Mr. Martin it would be a good idea
to put up a little candy and soda-water stand on the pier, so those
who went out in boats could buy something to eat and something to
drink. So this had been done, and the Curlytops were quite delighted.
For, of course, they could have all the soda-water and ice-cream they
wanted without paying a cent—as their father owned the stand. Mrs.
Martin did not let the children have more than was good for them,
though.
Every day the Curlytops had fun at Silver Lake, and the fun did not
always end at night, for Uncle Ben or Daddy Martin would take them out
on the water either in a sailboat a rowboat or in the motor launch.
“When are we going fishing?” asked Teddy one evening, as they were
coming back to the dock after a pleasant sail.
“Oh, pretty soon now,” said Uncle Ben, with a smile at the Curlytops.
For Janet was as eager to start out with hook and line as was Teddy.
“I’ll have to go soon, if I go at all. For soon the picnic and
excursion crowds will be coming to Silver Lake, and I’ll be so busy
attending to the boats, the soda-water and the ice-cream, that I won’t
have any time to fish.”
As I have told you, Uncle Ben was to be in charge of Mr. Martin’s dock
at the lake, and the old sailor was to have a man and a boy to help
him. The man had come, but the boy had not yet been hired. Mr. Martin
spent many days at Sunnyside Bungalow, at Silver Lake, as he had some
one he could leave in charge of his store at Cresco.
One day, after dinner, Ted had found some string that came off a
package of groceries. He took out the knots, fastened one end of the
cord on a stick which he found in the woods, and cried:
“Where’s Uncle Ben? I want to go fishing now, but I haven’t got a
hook. Come on, Uncle Ben, let’s go fishing!”
Mrs. Martin was reading a letter, and when she finished it she looked
at the clock and said:
“I wouldn’t go fishing just now, Teddy.”
“Why not, Mother?”
“Because I thought perhaps you and Jan would like to go in the motor
boat over to the Point to meet the train.”
“Go to the Point to meet the train!” cried Ted. “Is anybody we know
coming on the train?”
“Yes, I think so,” and Mrs. Martin smiled.
“Oh, who is it?” cried Ted and Janet together. For when their mother
smiled in that queer way they knew something good was in store for
them.
“Well, the other day I wrote a letter, inviting some company to come
here to visit us,” she said. “Just now I have their answer and they
are coming on the eleven-o’clock train. Uncle Ben is going over to the
Point to meet it, and I thought you would like to go with him. But if
you would rather go fishing——”
“Oh, no!” cried Ted. “We want to see the company; don’t we, Jan?”
“Yes! Who is it?”
“See if you can’t guess. I’m not going to tell you,” said Mrs. Martin
with a laugh.
Well, the Curlytops guessed. Grandpa Martin? Uncle Prank? Aunt Jo? But
their mother only shook her head after each guess.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” she told them.
So you can well imagine how excited Ted and Janet were when they got
ready to go over to the Point in the motor boat with Uncle Ben to meet
the company that was to come to camp. The Point was the nearest
railroad station for Silver Lake, and it was on the other side of the
sparkling water from where Sunnyside Bungalow was built.
“Do you know who is coming, Uncle Ben?” asked Ted, as he and his
sister took their seats in the launch.
“Oh, please tell us!” begged Jan. “That is, if it isn’t a secret and
you didn’t promise not to tell.”
“Well, it’s a secret. But I didn’t promise not to tell, for your
mother didn’t tell me who was coming,” said Uncle Ben. “She just said
I was to take the boat, go over to the Point, meet the train and bring
the company back to camp.”
“But how are you going to know who to bring if you don’t know who is
coming?” asked Ted.
“Oh, your mother said you’d know who it was as soon as you saw them,”
said Uncle Ben, with a smile.
And Ted and Janet did. For no sooner did the train puff into the
station and the passengers begin to get off than the Curlytops spied a
boy and a girl of about their own ages.
“There’s Tom Taylor!” cried Ted.
“And Lola, his sister, too!” fairly shouted Janet. “Oh, they’re our
company!”
“Hurrah! Hurrah!” yelled Ted and Janet.
Tom and Lola, seeing their playmates, whose mother had invited them to
spend part of their vacation at Silver Lake, rushed down the depot
platform.
“Oh, won’t we have fun!” cried Ted, capering about Tom.
“Oh, won’t we!” agreed Tom, dancing up and down. “And Ted, I’ve got a
secret!”
“You have? What is it?”
“I know where your dog Skyrocket is!”