CHAPTER XIII
JAN'S QUEER RIDE
"What's the matter? What is it?" cried Nora from the bank where she was tossing bits of wood into the lake for Trouble to pretend they were little boats. "Have you got a cramp, Teddy boy?"
"It's a—a big fish—or—something" he panted, as he kept on running and splashing the water all about, which, after all, did not matter as he was in his bathing suit.
"It's a shark after him!" cried Jan, who, by this time, was safe on shore, stopping on her way to grasp Trouble by the hand and lead him also to safety. "It's a shark!"
She had heard her mother read of bathers in the ocean being sometimes frightened by sharks, or by big fish that looked like sharks.
"Oh, a shark! Good land! We mustn't bathe here any more!" cried Nora.
By this time Ted was in such shallow water that it was not much above his ankles. He could see the bottom, and he hoped no very big fish could swim in so little water. So he thought it would be safe to stop and look back.
"Oh, it's coming some more!" cried Jan, from where she stood on the bank with Nora and Trouble. "Look, Ted! It coming."
The animal, fish, or whatever it was, indeed seemed to be coming straight for the shore near the place where the Curlytops were playing. Ted, Jan and Nora could see the sharp nose and the bright eyes more plainly now. As for Trouble, he did not know what it was all about, and he wanted to go back in the water to wade, which was as near swimming as he ever came.
Then the strange creature turned and suddenly made for a small rock, which stood out of the water a little way from the sandy beach. It climbed out on the rock, while the children and Nora watched eagerly, and then Ted gave a laugh.
"Why!" he exclaimed, "it's nothing but a big muskrat!"
"A muskrat?" echoed Jan.
"Yes."
"And see, he has a mussel, or fresh-water clam," said Nora. "Look at him crack the shell."
And this is what the muskrat was really doing. It had been swimming in the lake—for muskrats are good swimmers—when it had found a fresh-water mussel, which is like a clam except that it has a longer shell that is black instead of white. Muskrats like mussels, but they cannot eat them in water.
They have to bring them up on shore, or to a flat rock or stump that sticks up out of water, where they can crack the shell and eat the mussel inside.
"If I'd a known what it was I wouldn't 'a' been scared," said Ted, who felt a little ashamed of himself for hurrying toward shore. "You frightened me yelling so, Jan."
"Well, I didn't want to see you get bit by a shark, Teddy. First I thought it was a shark."
"Well, sharks live in the ocean, where the water is salty," declared Ted.
"Anyhow maybe a muskrat bites," went on Janet.
"Well, maybe," agreed Ted. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't stay there when he came swimming in," for the big rat passed right over the place where Ted had been about to swim. "I'm glad you yelled, Janet."
"So'm I. I'm not going in swimming here any more."
"Oh, he won't come back," Ted said. "Come on!"
But Janet would not go, and as it was no fun for Ted to splash in the water all alone he stayed near shore and went wading with Trouble and his sister.
This was fun, and the Curlytops had a good time, while Nora, now that she knew there was no danger from sharks, sat in the shade and mended holes in the children's stockings.
"I wish we had a boat," said Ted after a while.
"Why, we have," answered Jan.
"Yes, I know, the big rowboat. But that's too heavy for me and you—I mean you and me," and Ted quickly corrected himself, for he knew it was polite always to name oneself last. "But I want a little boat that we can paddle around in."
Jan thought for a moment and then cried:
"Oh, I know the very thing!"
"What?" asked Ted eagerly.
"One of the boxes grandpa brought the things in from the store. They're long, and we can make box-boats of them. There's two of 'em!"
"That's what we can!" cried Teddy, as he thought of the boxes his sister meant. Groceries from the store had been sent to the camp in them. The boxes were strong, and long; big enough for Jan or Ted to sit down in them and reach over the sides to paddle, not being too high.
Mother Martin said they might take the boxes and make of them the play-boats they wanted, and, in great delight, Ted and his sister ran to get their new playthings.
Grandpa Martin pulled out all the nails that might scratch the children, and he also fastened strips of wood over the largest cracks in the boxes.
"That will keep out some of the water, but not all," he said. "Your box-boats won't float very long. They'll sink as soon as enough water runs in through the other cracks."
"Oh. well, we'll paddle in them in shallow water," promised Ted. "And sinking won't hurt, 'cause we've got on our bathing suits. Come on, Jan!"
Trouble wanted to sail in the new boats, also, but they were not large enough for two. Besides Mrs. Martin did not want the baby to be in the water too much. So she carried him away, Trouble crying and screaming to be allowed to stay, while Jan and Ted got ready for their first trip. They pretended the boats were ocean steamers and that the cove in the lake, near grandpa's camp, was the big ocean.
They had pieces of wood which their grandfather had whittled out for them to use as paddles, and, as Ted said, they could sit down in the bottoms of the box-boats and never mind how much water came in, for they still had on their bathing suits.
"All aboard!" called Teddy, as he got into his boat.
"I'm coming," answered Janet, pushing off from shore.
"Oh, I can really paddle!" cried Ted in delight, as he found that his box floated with him in it and he could send it along by using the board for a paddle, as one does in a canoe. "Isn't this great, Janet?"
"Oh, it's lots of fun!"
"I'm glad you thought of it. I never would," went on Ted. He was a good brother, for, whenever his sister did anything unusual like this he always gave her credit for it.
Around and around in the little cove paddled the Curlytops, having fun in their box-boats.
"I'm going to let the wind blow me," said Jan, after a bit. "I'm tired of paddling."
"There isn't any wind," Ted remarked.
"Well, what makes me go along, then?" asked his sister. "Look, I'm moving and I'm not paddling at all!"
She surely was. In her boat she was sailing right across the little cove, and, as Ted had said, there was not enough wind to blow a feather, to say nothing of a heavy box with a little girl in it.
"Isn't it queer!" exclaimed Janet. "What makes me go this way, Ted? You aren't sailing."
Ted's boat was not moving now, for he had stopped paddling.
Still Jan's craft moved on slowly but surely through the water. Then Ted saw a funny thing and gave a cry of surprise.