The Curlytops on Star Island; Or, Camping out with Grandpa

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  _The_ CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND

 

  HOWARD R. GARIS

  TED WADED OUT, AND BROUGHT HIS SISTER'S DOLL TO SHORE. _Page_ 134]

  THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND

  OR

  _Camping out with Grandpa_

  BY

  HOWARD R. GARIS

  AUTHOR OF "THE CURLYTOPS SERIES," "BEDTIME STORIES," "UNCLE WIGGILY SERIES," ETC.

  _Illustrations by JULIA GREENE_

  NEW YORK CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I THE BLUE LIGHT 1

  II WHAT THE FARMER TOLD 14

  III OFF TO STAR ISLAND 32

  IV OVERBOARD 42

  V THE BAG OF SALT 56

  VI TED AND THE BEAR 67

  VII JAN SEES SOMETHING 78

  VIII TROUBLE FALLS IN 91

  IX TED FINDS A CAVE 101

  X THE GRAPEVINE SWING 111

  XI TROUBLE MAKES A CAKE 123

  XII THE CURLYTOPS GO SWIMMING 139

  XIII JAN'S QUEER RIDE 157

  XIV DIGGING FOR GOLD 164

  XV THE BIG HOLE 175

  XVI A GLAD SURPRISE 188

  XVII TROUBLE'S PLAYHOUSE 197

  XVIII IN THE CAVE 211

  XIX THE BLUE LIGHT AGAIN 224

  XX THE HAPPY TRAMP 236

  THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND

  CHAPTER I

  THE BLUE LIGHT

  "Mother, make Ted stop!"

  "I'm not doing anything at all, Mother!"

  "Yes he is, too! Please call him in. He's hurting my doll."

  "Oh, Janet Martin, I am not!"

  "You are so, Theodore Baradale Martin; and you've just got to stop!"

  Janet, or Jan, as she was more often called, stood in front of herbrother with flashing eyes and red cheeks.

  "Children! Children! What are you doing now?" asked their mother,appearing in the doorway of the big, white farmhouse, holding in herarms a small boy. "Please don't make so much noise. I've just gottenBaby William to sleep, and if he wakes up----"

  "Yes, don't wake up Trouble, Jan," added Theodore, or Ted, the shortername being the one by which he was most often called. "If you do he'llwant to come with us, and we can't make Nicknack race."

  "I wasn't waking him up, it was you!" exclaimed Jan. "He keeps pullingmy doll's legs, Mother and----"

  "I only pulled 'em a little bit, just to see if they had any springs in'em. Jan said her doll was a circus lady and could jump on the back of ahorse. I wanted to see if she had any springs in her legs."

  "Well, I'm _pretending_ she has, so there, Ted Martin! And if you don'tstop----"

  "There now, please stop, both of you, and be nice," begged Mrs. Martin."I thought, since you had your goat and wagon, you could play withouthaving so much fuss. But, if you can't----"

  "Oh, we'll be good!" exclaimed Ted, running his hands through histightly curling hair, but not taking any of the kinks out that way."We'll be good. I won't tease Jan anymore."

  "You'd better not!" warned his sister, and, though she was a yearyounger than Ted, she did not seem at all afraid of him. "If you doI'll take my half of the goat away and you can't ride."

  "Pooh! Which is your half?" asked Ted.

  "The wagon. And if you don't have the wagon to hitch Nicknack to, how'reyou going to ride?"

  "Huh! I could ride on his back. Take your old wagon if you want to, butif you do----"

  "The-o-dore!" exclaimed his mother in a slow, warning voice, and when heheard his name spoken in that way, with each syllable pronouncedseparately, Ted knew it was time to haul down his quarreling colors andbehave. He did it this time.

  "I--I'm sorry," he faltered. "I didn't mean that, Jan. I won't pull yourdoll's legs any more."

  "And I won't take the goat-wagon away. We'll both go for a ride in it."

  "That's the way to have a good time," said Mrs. Martin, with a smile."Now don't make any more noise, for William is fussy. Run off and playnow, but don't go too far."

  "We'll go for a ride," said Teddy. "Come on, Jan. You can let your dollmake-believe drive the goat if you want to."

  "Thank you, Teddy. But I guess I'd better not. I'll pretend she's a RedCross nurse and I'm taking her to the hospital to work."

  "Then we'll make-believe the goat-wagon is an ambulance!" exclaimed Ted."And I'm the driver and I don't mind the big guns. Come on, that'll befun!"

  Filled with the new idea, the two children hurried around the side ofthe farmhouse out toward the barn where Nicknack, their pet goat, waskept. Mrs. Martin smiled as she saw them go.

  "Well, there'll be quiet for a little while," she said, "and William canhave his sleep."

  "What's the matter, Ruth?" asked an old gentleman coming up the walkjust then. "Have the Curlytops been getting into mischief again?"

  "No. Teddy and Janet were just having one of their little quarrels. It'sall over now. You look tired, Father."

  Grandpa Martin was Mrs. Martin's husband's father, but she loved him asthough he were her own.

  "Yes, I am tired. I've been working pretty hard on the farm," saidGrandpa Martin, "but I'm going to rest a bit now. Want me to takeTrouble?" he asked as he saw the little boy in his mother's arms. BabyWilliam was called Trouble because he got into so much of it.

  "No, thank you. He's asleep," said Mother Martin. "But I do wish youcould find some way to keep Ted and Jan from disputing and quarreling somuch."

  "Oh, they don't act half as bad as lots of children."

  "No, indeed! They're very good, I think," said Grandma Martin, coming tothe door with a patch of flour on the end of her nose, for it was bakingday, as you could easily have told had you come anywhere near the bigkitchen of the white house on Cherry Farm.

  "They need to be kept busy all the while," said Grandpa Martin. "It'sbeen a little slow for them here this vacation since we got in the hayand gathered the cherries. I think I'll have to find some new way forthem to have fun."

  "I didn't know there was any new way," said Mother Martin with a laugh,as she carried Baby William into the bedroom and came back to sit on theporch with Grandpa and Grandma Martin.

  "Oh, yes, there are lots of new ways. I haven't begun to think of themyet," said Grandpa Martin. "I'm going to have a few weeks now with notvery much to do until it's time to gather the fall crops, and I thinkI'll try to find some way of giving your Curlytops a good time. Yes,that's what I'll do. I'll keep the Curlytops so busy they won't have achance to think of pulling dolls' legs or taking Nicknack, the goat,away from his wagon."

  "What are you planning to do, Father?" asked Grandma Martin of herhusband.

  "Well, I promised to take them camping on Star Island you know."

  "What! Not those two little tots--not Ted and Jan?" cried GrandmaMartin, looking up in surprise.

  "Yes, indeed, those same Curlytops!"
>
  It was easy to understand why Grandpa Martin, as well as nearly everyoneelse, called the two Martin children Curlytops. It was because theirhair was so tightly curling to their heads. Once Grandma Martin lost herthimble in the hair of one of the children, and their locks were curledso nearly alike that she never could remember on whose head she foundthe needle-pusher.

  "Do you think it will be safe to take Ted and Jan camping?" asked MotherMartin.

  "Why, yes. There's no finer place in the country than Star Island. Andif you go along----"

  "Am I to go?" asked Ted's mother.

  "Of course. And Trouble, too. It'll do you all good. I wish Dick couldcome, too," went on Grandpa Martin, speaking of Ted's father, who hadgone from Cherry Farm for a few days to attend to some matters at astore he owned in the town of Cresco. "But Dick says he'll be too busy.So I guess the Curlytops will have to go camping with grandpa," addedthe farmer, smiling.

  "Well, I'm sure they couldn't have better fun than to go with you,"replied Mother Martin. "But I'm not sure that Baby William and I cango."

  "Oh, yes you can," said her father-in-law. "We'll talk about it again.But here come Ted and Jan now in the goat-cart. They seem to havesomething to ask you. We'll talk about the camp later."

  Teddy and Janet Martin, the two Curlytops, came riding up to thefarmhouse in a small wagon drawn by a fine, big goat, that they hadnamed Nicknack.

  "Please, Mother," begged Ted, "may we ride over to the Home and getHal?"

  "We promised to take him for a ride," added Jan.

  "Yes, I suppose you may go," said Mother Martin. "But you must becareful, and be home in time for supper."

  "We will," promised Ted. "We'll go by the wood-road, and then we won'tget run over by any automobiles. They don't come on that road."

  "All right. Now remember--don't stay too late."

  "No, we won't!" chorused the two children, and down the garden path andalong the lane they went to a road that led through Grandpa Martin'swood-lot and so on to the Home for Crippled Children, which was about amile from Cherry Farm.

  Among others at the Home was a lame boy named Hal Chester. That is, hehad been lame when the Curlytops first met him early in the summer, buthe was almost cured now, and walked with only a little limp. The Homehad been built to cure lame children, and had helped many of them.

  Half-way to the big red building, which was like a hospital, theCurlytops met Hal, the very boy whom they had started out to see.

  "Hello, Hal!" cried Ted. "Get in and have a ride."

  "Thanks, I will. I was just coming over to see you, anyway. What are youtwo going to do?"

  "Nothing much," Ted answered, while Jan moved along the seat with herdoll, to make room for Hal. "What're you going to do?"

  "Same as you."

  The three children laughed at that.

  "Let's ride along the river road," suggested Janet. "It'll be nice andshady there, and if my Red Cross doll is going to the war she'll like tobe cool once in a while."

  "Is your doll a Red Cross nurse?" asked Hal. "If she is, where's her capand the red cross on her arm?"

  "Oh, she just started to be a nurse a little while ago," Jan explained."I haven't had time to make the red cross yet. But I will. Anyhow, let'sgo down by the river."

  "All right, we will," agreed Ted. "We'll see if we can get some sticksoff the willow trees and make whistles," he added to Hal.

  "You can make better whistles in the spring, when the bark is softer,than you can now," said the lame boy, as the Curlytops often calledhim, though Hal was nearly cured.

  "Well, _maybe_ we can make some now," suggested Ted, and a little laterthe two boys were seated in the shade under the willow trees that grewon the bank of a small river which flowed into Clover Lake, not far fromCherry Farm. Nicknack, tied to a tree, nibbled the sweet, green grass,and Jan made a wreath of buttercups for her doll.

  After they had made some whistles, which did give out a little tootingsound, Ted and Hal found something else to do, and Jan saw, coming alongthe road, a girl named Mary Seaton with whom she often played. Jancalled Mary to join her, and the two little girls had a good timetogether while Ted and Hal threw stones at some wooden boats they madeand floated down the stream.

  "Oh, Ted, we must go home!" suddenly cried Jan. "It's getting dark!"

  The sun was beginning to set, but it would not really have been dark forsome time, except that the western sky was filled with clouds thatseemed to tell of a coming storm. So, really, it did appear as thoughnight were at hand.

  "I guess we'd better go," Ted said, with a look at the dark clouds."Come on, Hal. There's room for you, too, Mary, in the wagon."

  "Can Nicknack pull us all?" Mary asked.

  "I guess so. It's mostly down hill. Come on!"

  The four children got into the goat-wagon, and if Nicknack minded thebigger load he did not show it, but trotted off rather fast. Perhaps heknew he was going home to his stable where he would have some sweet hayand oats to eat, and that was what made him so glad to hurry along.

  The wagon was stopped near the Home long enough to let Hal get out, anda little later Mary was driven up to her gate. Then Ted and Jan, withthe doll between them, drove on.

  "Oh, Ted!" exclaimed his sister, "mother'll scold. We oughtn't to havestayed so late. It's past supper time!"

  "We didn't mean to. Anyhow, I guess they'll give us something to eat.Grandma baked cookies to-day and there'll be some left."

  "I hope so," replied Jan with a sigh. "I'm hungry!"

  They drove on in silence a little farther, and then, as they came to thetop of a hill and could look down toward Star Island in the middle ofClover Lake, Ted suddenly called:

  "Look, Jan!"

  "Where?" she asked.

  "Over there," and her brother pointed to the island. "Do you see thatblue light?"

  "On the island, do you mean? Yes, I see it. Maybe somebody's there witha lantern."

  "Nobody lives on Star Island. Besides, who'd have a blue lantern?"

  Jan did not answer.

  It was now quite dark, and down in the lake, where there was a patch ofblack which was Star Island, could be seen a flickering blue glow, thatseemed to stand still and then move about.

  "Maybe it's lightning bugs," suggested Jan.

  "Huh! Fireflies are sort of white," exclaimed Ted. "I never saw a lightlike that before."

  "Me, either, Ted! Hurry up home. Giddap, Nicknack!" and Jan threw at thegoat a pine cone, one of several she had picked up and put in the wagonwhen they were taking a rest in the woods that afternoon.

  Nicknack gave a funny little wiggle to his tail, which the childrencould hardly see in the darkness, and then he trotted on faster. TheCurlytops, looking back, had a last glimpse of the flickering blue lightas they hurried toward Cherry Farm, and they were a little frightened.

  "What do you s'pose it is?" asked Jan.

  "I don't know," answered Ted. "We'll ask Grandpa. Go on, Nicknack!"