CHAPTER II
WHAT THE FARMER TOLD
"Well, where in the world have you children been?"
"Didn't you know we'd be worried about you?"
"Did you get lost again?"
Mother Martin, Grandpa Martin and Grandma Martin took turns asking these three questions as Ted and Jan drove up to the farmhouse in the darkness a little later.
"You said you wouldn't stay late," went on Mother Martin, as the Curlytops got out of the goat-wagon.
"We didn't mean to, Mother," said Ted.
"Oh, but we're so scared!" exclaimed Jan, and as Grandma Martin put her arms about the little girl she felt Jan's heart beating faster than usual.
"Why, what is the matter?" asked the old lady.
"Me wants a wide wif Nicknack!" demanded Baby William, as he stood beside his mother in the doorway.
"No, Trouble. Not now," answered Ted. "Nicknack is tired and has to have his supper. Is there any supper left for us?" he asked eagerly.
"Well, I guess we can find a cold potato, or something like it, for such tramps as you," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But where on earth have you been, and what kept you?"
Then Ted put Nicknack in the barn. But when he came back he and Jan between them told of having stayed playing later than they meant to.
"Well, you got home only just in time," said Mother Martin as she took the children to the dining-room for a late supper. "It's starting to rain now."
And so it was, the big drops pelting down and splashing on the windows.
"But what frightened you, Jan?" asked Grandma Martin.
"It was a queer blue light on Star Island."
"A light on Star Island!" exclaimed her grandfather. "Nonsense! Nobody stays on the island after dark unless it's a fisherman or two, and the fish aren't biting well enough now to make anyone stay late to try to catch them. You must have dreamed it—or made-believe."
"No, we really saw it!" declared Ted. "It was a fliskering blue light."
"Well, if there's any such thing there as a 'fliskering' blue light we'll soon find out what it is," said Grandpa Martin.
"How?" asked Ted, his eyes wide open in wonder.
"By going there to see what it is. I'm going to take you two Curlytops to camp on Star Island, and if there's anything queer there we'll see what it is."
"Oh, are we really going to live on Star Island?" gasped Janet.
"Camping out with grandpa! Oh, what fun!" cried Ted. "Do you mean it?" and he looked anxiously at the farmer, fearing there might be some joke about it.
"Oh, I really mean it," said Grandpa Martin. "Though I hardly believe you saw a real light on the island. It must have been a firefly."
"Lightning bugs aren't that color," declared Ted. "It was a blue light, almost like Fourth of July. But tell us about camping, Grandpa!"
"Yes, please do," begged Jan.
And while the children are eating their late supper, and Grandpa Martin is telling them his plans, I will stop just a little while to make my new readers better acquainted with the Curlytops and their friends.
You have already met Theodore, or Teddy or Ted, Martin, and his sister Janet, or Jan. With their mother, they were spending the long summer vacation on Cherry Farm, the country home of Grandpa Martin outside the town of Elmburg, near Clover Lake. Mr. Richard Martin, or Dick, as Grandpa Martin called him, owned a store in Cresco, where he lived with his family. Besides Ted and Jan there was Baby William, aged about three years. He was called Trouble, for the reason I have told you, though Mother Martin called him "Dear Trouble" to make up for the fun Ted and Jan sometimes poked at him.
Then there was Nora Jones, the maid who helped Mrs. Martin with the cooking and housework. And I must not forget Skyrocket, a dog, nor Turnover, a cat. These did not help with the housework—though I suppose you might say they did, too, in a way, for they ate the scraps from the table and this helped to save work.
In the first book of this series, called "The Curlytops at Cherry Farm," I had the pleasure of telling you how Jan and Ted, with their father, mother and Nora went to grandpa's place in the country to spend the happy vacation days. On the farm, which was named after the number of cherry trees on it, the Curlytops found a stray goat which they were allowed to keep, and they got a wagon which Nicknack (the name they gave their new pet) drew with them in it.
Having the goat made up for having to leave the dog and the cat at home, and Nicknack made lots of good times for Ted and Jan. In the book you may read of the worry the children carried because Grandpa Martin had lost money on account of a flood at his farm, and so could not help when there was a fair and collection for the Crippled Children's Home.
But, most unexpectedly, the cherries helped when Mr. Sam Sander, the lollypop man, bought them from Grandpa Martin, and found a way of making them into candy. And when Ted and Jan and Trouble were lost in the woods once, the lollypop man
But I think you would rather read the story for yourself in the other book. I will just say that the Curlytops were still at Cherry Farm, though Father Martin had gone away for a little while. And now, having told you about the family, I'll go back where I left off, and well see what is happening.
"Yes," said Grandpa Martin, "I think I will take you Curlytops to camp on Star Island. Camping will do you good. You'll learn lots in the woods there. And won't it be fun to live in a tent?"
"Oh, won't it though!" cried Ted, and the shine in Jan's eyes and the glow on her red cheeks showed how happy she was.
"But I'd like to know what that blue light was," said the little girl.
"Oh, don't worry about that!" laughed Grandpa Martin. "I'll get that blue light and hang it in our tent for a lantern."
I think I mentioned that Jan and Ted had such wonderful curling hair that even strangers, seeing them the first time, called them the "Curlytops." And Ted, who was aged seven years, with his sister just a year younger (their anniversaries coming on exactly the same day) did not in the least mind being called this. He and Jan rather liked it.
"Let's don't go to bed yet," said Jan to her brother, as they finished supper and went from the dining-room into the sitting-room, where they were allowed to play and have good times if they did not get too rough. And they did not often do this.
"All right. It is early," Ted agreed. "But what can we do?"
"Let's pretend we have a camp here," went on Jan.
"Where?" asked Ted.
"Right in the sitting-room," answered Jan. "We can make-believe the couch is a tent, and we can crawl under it and go to sleep."
"I wants to go to sleeps there!" cried Trouble. "I wants to go to sleeps right now!"
"Shall we take him back to mother?" asked Ted, looking at his sister. "If he's sleepy now he won't want to play."
"I isn't too sleepy to play," objected Baby William. "I can go to sleeps under couch if you wants me to," he added.
"Oh, that'll be real cute!" cried Janet. "Come on, Ted, let's do it! We can make-believe Trouble is our little dog, or something like that, to watch over our tent, and he can go to sleep"
"Huh! how's he going to watch if he goes to sleep?" Ted demanded.
"Oh, well, he can make-believe go to sleep or make-believe watch, either one," explained Janet.
"Yes, I s'pose he could do that," agreed Teddy.
Baby William opened his mouth wide and yawned.
"I guess he'll do some real sleeping," said Janet with a laugh. "Come on, Trouble, before you get your eyes so tight shut you can't open 'em again. Come on, we'll play camping!" and she led the way into the sitting room and over toward the big couch at one end.
Many a good time the children had had in this room, and the old couch, pretty well battered and broken now, had been in turn a fort, a steamboat, railroad car, and an automobile. That was according to the particular make-believe game the children were playing. Now the old couch was to be a tent, and Jan and Ted moved some chairs, which would be part of the pretend-camp, up in front of it.
"It'll be a lot of fun when we go camping for real," said Teddy, as he helped his sister spread one of Grandma Martin's old shawls over the backs of some chairs. This was to be a sort of second tent where they could make-believe cook their meals.
"Yes, well have grand fun," agreed Jan. "No, you mustn't go to sleep up there, Trouble!" she called to the little fellow, for he had crawled up on top of the couch and had stretched himself out as though to take a nap.
"Why? "he asked.
"'Cause the tent part is under it," explained his sister. "That's the top of the tent where you are. You can't go to sleep on top of a tent. You might fall off."
"I can fall off now!" announced Trouble, as he suddenly thought of something. Then he gave a wiggle and rolled off the seat, bumping into Ted, who had stooped down to put a rug under the couch-tent.
"Ouch!" cried Ted. "Look out what you're doing, Trouble! You bumped my head."
"I—I bumped my head!" exclaimed the little fellow, rubbing his tangled hair.
"He didn't mean to," said Janet. "You mustn't roll off that way, Trouble. You might be hurt. Come now, go to sleep under the couch. That's inside the tent you know."
She showed him where Ted had spread the rug, as far back under the couch as he could reach, and this looked to Trouble like a nice place.
"I go to sleeps in there!" he said, and under the couch he crawled, growling and grunting.
"What are you doing that for?" asked Ted, in some surprise.
"I's a bear!" exclaimed Baby William. "I's a bad bear! Burr-r-r-r!" and he growled again.
"Oh, you mustn't do that!" objected Janet. "We don't want any bears in our camp!"
"Course we can have 'em!" cried Ted. "That'll be fun! We'll play Trouble is a bear 'stead of a dog, and I can hunt him. Only I ought to have something for a gun. I know! I'll get grandpa's Sunday cane!" and he started for the hall.
"Oh, no. I don't want to play bear and hunting!" objected Janet.
"Why not?"
"'Cause it's too—too—scary at night. Let's play something nice and quiet. Let Trouble be our watch dog, and we can be in camp and he can bark and scare something."
"What'll he scare?" asked Ted.
Meanwhile Baby William was crawling as far back under the couch as he could, growling away, though whether he was pretending to be a bear, a lion or only a dog no one knew but himself.
"What do you want him to scare?" asked Ted of his sister.
"Oh—oh—well, chickens, maybe!" she answered.
"Pooh! Chickens aren't any fun!" cried Ted. "If Trouble is going to be a dog let him scare a wild bull, or something like that. Anyhow chickens don't come to camp."
"Well, neither does wild bulls!" declared Janet.
"Yes, they do!" cried Ted, and it seemed as if there would be so much talk that the children would never get to playing anything. "Don't you 'member how daddy told us about going camping, and in the night a wild bull almost knocked down the tent."
"Well, that was real, but this is only make-believe," said Janet. "Let Trouble scare the chickens."
"All right," agreed Ted, who was nearly always kind to his sister. "Go on and growl, Trouble. You're a dog and you're going to scare the chickens out of camp."
They waited a minute but Trouble did not growl.
"Why don't you make a noise?" asked Janet.
Trouble gave a grunt.
"What's the matter?" asked Ted.
"I—I can't growl 'cause I'm all stuck under here," answered the voice of the little fellow, from far under the couch. "I can't wiggle!"
"Oh, dear!" cried Janet.
Teddy stooped and looked beneath the couch.
"He's caught on some of the springs that stick down," he said. "I'll poke him out."
He caught hold of Trouble's clothes and pulled the little fellow loose. But Trouble cried—perhaps because he was sleepy—and then his mother came and got him, leaving Teddy and Janet to play by themselves, which they did until they, too, began to feel sleepy.
"You'll want to go to bed earlier than this when you go camping, my Curlytops," said Grandpa Martin, as the children came out of the sitting-room.
"Are you really going to take them camping?" asked Mother Martin after Jan and Ted had gone upstairs to bed.
"I really am. There are some tents in the barn. I own part of Star Island and there's no nicer place to camp. You'll come, too, and so will Dick when he comes back from Cresco. We'll take Nora along to do the cooking. Will you come, Mother?" and the Curlytops' grandfather looked at his gray-haired wife.
"No, I'll stay on Cherry Farm and feed the hired men," she answered with a smile.
"Why do they call it Star Island?" asked Ted's mother.
"Well, once upon a time, a good many years ago," said Grandpa Martin, "a shooting star, or meteor, fell blazing on the island, and that's how it got its name."
"Maybe it was a part of the star shining that the children saw to-night," said Grandma Martin. "Though I don't see how it could be, for it fell many years ago."
"Maybe," agreed her husband.
None of them knew what a queer part that fallen star was to have in the lives of those who were shortly to go camping on the island.
Early the next morning after breakfast, Ted and Jan went out to the barn to get Nicknack to have a ride.
"Where is you? I wants to come, too!" cried the voice of their little brother, as they were putting the harness on their goat.
"Oh, there's Trouble," whispered Ted. "Shall we take him with us, Jan?"
"Yes, this time. We're not going far. Grandma wants us to go to the store for some baking soda."
"All right, we'll drive down," returned Ted. "Come on, Trouble!" he called.
"I's tummin'," answered Baby William. "I's dot a tookie."
"He means cookie," said Jan, laughing.
"I know it," agreed Ted. "I wish he'd bring me one."
"Me too!" exclaimed Janet.
"I's dot a 'ot of tookies," went on Trouble, who did not always talk in such "baby fashion." When he tried to he could speak very well, but he did not often try.
"Oh, he's got his whole apron full of cookies!" cried Jan. "Where did you get them?" she asked, as her little brother came into the barn.
"Drandma given 'em to me, an' she said you was to have some," announced the little boy, as he let the cookies slide out of his apron to a box that stood near the goat-wagon.
Then Baby William began eating a cookie, and Jan and Ted did also, for they, too, were hungry, though it was not long after breakfast.
"Goin' to wide?" asked Trouble, his mouth full of cookie.
"Yes, we're going for a ride," answered Jan. "Oh, Ted, get a blanket or something to put over our laps. It's awful dusty on the road to-day, even if it did rain last night. It all dried up, I guess."
"All right, I'll get a blanket from grandpa's carriage. And you'd better get a cushion for Trouble."
"I will," said Janet, and her brother and sister left Baby William alone with the goat for a minute or two.
When Jan came back with the cushion she went to get another cookie, but there were none.
"Why Trouble Martin!" she cried, "did you eat them all?"
"All what?"
"All the cookies!"
"I did eat one and Nicknack—he did eat the west. He was hungry, he was, and he did eat the west ob 'em. I feeded 'em to him. Nicknack was a hungry goat," said Trouble, smiling.
"I should think he was hungry, to eat up all those cookies! I only had one!" cried Jan.
"What! Did Nicknack get at the cookies?" cried Ted, coming back with a light lap robe.
"Trouble gave them to him," explained Janet. "Oh dear! I was so hungry for another!"
"I'll ask grandma for some," promised Ted, and he soon came back with his hands full of the round, brown molasses cookies.
"Hello, Curlytops, what can I do for you to-day?" asked the storekeeper a little later, when the three children had driven up to his front door. "Do you want a barrel of sugar put in your wagon or a keg of salt mack'rel? I have both."
"We want baking soda," answered Jan.
"And you shall have the best I've got. Where are you going—off to look for the end of the rainbow and get the pot of gold at the end?" he asked jokingly.
"No, we're not going far to-day," answered Ted.
"Well, stop in when you're passing this way again," called out the storekeeper as Ted turned Nicknack around for the homeward trip. "I'm always glad to see you."
"Maybe you won't see us now for quite a while," answered Jan proudly.
"No? Why not? You're not going to leave Cherry Farm I hope."
Ted stopped Nicknack that they might better explain.
"We're going camping with grandpa on Star Island."
"Where's that you're going?" asked a farmer who had just come out of the store after buying some groceries.
"Camping on Star Island in Clover Lake," repeated Ted.
"Huh! I wouldn't go there if I were you," said the farmer, shaking his head.
"Why not?" asked Ted. "Is it because of the blue light?" and he looked at his sister to see if she remembered.
"I don't know anything about a blue light," the farmer answered. "But if I were your grandfather I wouldn't take you there camping," and the man again shook his head.
"Why not?" asked Janet, her eyes opening wide in surprise.
"Well, I'll tell you why," went on the farmer. "I was over on Star Island fishing the other day, and I saw a couple of tramps, or maybe gypsies, there. I didn't like the looks of the men, and that's why I wouldn't go there camping if I were you or your grandpa," and the farmer shook his head again as he unhitched his team of horses.