The Curlytops at Silver Lake; Or, On the Water with Uncle Ben

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER X

  JANET’S FLOWERS

  At first Ted was not quite sure whether he was fully awake or whetherhe was still dreaming. But when he took a second look at his littlebrother Trouble, standing beside the cot bed, Ted began to feel prettysure he was no longer sleeping.

  “’Ook what Trouble found!” went on the little fellow, laughingjoyously. “Hims is ’ike a big stone, but hims isn’t a stone. Hims isa’ive, hims is!”

  Ted looked at the funny, half-round, black object Trouble held. IfTed’s eyes had been more widely opened, and if he had not been sosuddenly awakened from his sleep, he might have known what it was BabyWilliam had found so early in the morning.

  The night had been rather warm, and, to be cooler, Teddy had left hisfeet and legs uncovered. One bare leg was outside the covers on thecot now, and the first thing Teddy knew he felt something cold andclammy crawling over his leg, and then something scratched him.

  “Oh! Ouch!” cried Teddy, sitting up in bed. “What have you there,Trouble? Did you put a snake on me?”

  “Hims no snake!” laughed Baby William. “’Ook at him.”

  Then Teddy rubbed his eyes so he could see better, and he saw what itwas Trouble had brought in. It was crawling about on the bednow—sliding on and off Ted’s bare leg, and the little Curlytop boy sawwhat made the scratchy feeling.

  “It’s a mud turtle!” cried Teddy. “Oh, where’d you get him, Trouble?”

  “Trouble find mud turkle in woods, down by lake,” was the answer.“Trouble bring turkle in to Ted. Nice turkle!”

  “Yes, he’s nice all right,” agreed Ted, with a laugh. “But I don’twant him in my bed. Take him out, Trouble, and I’ll get dressed. It’smorning!” cried Ted, as he saw the sun shining into the bungalow.

  “Trouble give turkle to Jan,” murmured the little chap as he reachedfor the crawling creature. “Jan ’ike a turkle, too!”

  “No, don’t put it in Janet’s bed!” advised Teddy.

  “All wite,” assented Trouble. “Me give him Unk Ben!”

  “No, don’t do that, either!” cried Teddy, catching his little brother,just as Baby William was about to toddle into the room where Mr.Wilson slept. “Take the turtle outside, Trouble. I’ll come out prettysoon and we’ll have some fun. Don’t let him run away.”

  “All wite,” agreed Trouble, and out he went with the queer creature.

  “What’s going on out there?” called Mrs. Martin from her room.“Trouble, where are you?” she asked, looking over to the crib whereBaby William had been put to sleep the night before. Mrs. Martin sawthat the crib was empty, and she guessed what had happened. Troublehad awakened early, and had slipped out without waiting to be dressed.“What are you doing?” his mother called.

  “Oh, he’s all right,” answered Teddy, who was dressing himself now.“He went down to the lake, found a mud turtle and put it in my bed. Hewoke me up. The turtle crawled on my bare leg, and I thought at firstit was a snake. Trouble wanted to put the turtle in Jan’s bed and thenin Uncle Ben’s, but I wouldn’t let him.”

  “That’s right!” said his father. “Trouble, put the turtle down andcome in here!”

  “Yes,” answered Trouble, and he did what he was told at once, as henearly always did when his father spoke.

  In a little while the two Curlytops were dressed, as was the rest ofthe family, and soon they were sitting down to the breakfast table.

  “Where’s the turtle, Trouble?” asked Jan, as she got up from thetable. “I want to see it, but I don’t want it in bed with me.”

  Trouble looked around on the floor.

  “Turkle gone!” he said, not seeing his new pet.

  “Gone!” cried Ted. “Why, I told you to watch him, Trouble. We could’a’ had a lot of fun with that turtle, and now you let him get away!”

  “Did you put him anywhere, Trouble?” asked Janet.

  “Ess, me put him somewhere,” answered Baby William, still stoopingdown and looking around the floor.

  “Well, where’d you put him?” asked Ted.

  Trouble shook his head.

  “Me fordet!” he said simply.

  That was often the way with Trouble. He would sometimes put his toys,or one of Janet’s dolls, maybe, away and forget where he had left it.

  “I guess he put the turtle down on the floor when I called him tobreakfast,” said Mrs. Martin, “and the turtle crawled off. Never mind,there’ll be plenty else to play with.”

  “And maybe we can find another turtle,” said Ted. “Come on, Jan, we’lllook.”

  “I have something else I want to do now,” answered the little girl.

  “All right. Then I’ll go on a turtle hunt,” decided Ted. “Come on,Trouble. Show me where you found the one that got away.”

  “Don’t go too far, and keep out of the boats!” called Mrs. Martin toher two little boys, as they walked away, hand in hand.

  There was quite a lot of work to do about the bungalow to get it inorder for the summer visit, and soon Mrs. Martin, her husband, andUncle Ben were busy. Trouble and Ted were in plain sight down on theshore of the lake, looking for turtles, so their mother was notworried about them. Janet was on the porch, taking some of her toysfrom the box in which they had been packed, and Uncle Ben was gettingready to fix the rudder of the motor boat. The rudder was under water,and Uncle Ben said he would put on a pair of rubber boots to wade outand see what was wrong with the steering gear.

  “Hello! Something is wrong here!” exclaimed Uncle Ben, as he put hisleft foot in one of the pair of boots that Daddy Martin brought out ofa closet for him.

  “Something wrong? Aren’t they big enough for you?” asked Mr. Martin.

  “One is, but the other doesn’t seem to be,” answered the man who hadonce been a sailor. “There’s something in this boot. I can’t get iton!”

  He had his foot half way in, but now he pulled it out and thrust inhis hand. As he did this Uncle Ben gave a laugh.

  “I’ve found Trouble’s lost turtle,” he called.

  “Where was it?” asked Mrs. Martin.

  “In this rubber boot,” answered Uncle Ben. “Trouble must have droppedthe turtle in the boot, and then he forgot about it. Here it is!”

  He drew forth his hand and there, surely enough, out came the turtlein it.

  “No wonder I couldn’t get my foot in!” laughed Uncle Ben. “The turtletook up all the room.”

  “Put it in a box so it can’t get away,” said Daddy Martin. “Thechildren can play with it. They won’t hurt it, and the turtle isn’tthe snapping kind, so it won’t bite them.”

  The queer pet Trouble had found was put in a wooden box, high enoughon the sides to keep the creature from crawling out. Then Uncle Benput on the other rubber boot and fixed the motor boat.

  Meanwhile Trouble and Teddy, walking up and down the shore of thelake, were looking for more turtles. They did not see any, but theyfound plenty of other things to make them happy. There were frogs, andthere were little fishes swimming close to shore in the shallow water.But every time the boys tried to catch a fish or a frog they missed.The fishes gave little flips of their tails and swam away, and thefrogs hopped into deeper water.

  There were other little swimming creatures, however—tiny blacktadpoles, that, some day, would turn into frogs. And by scooping upwater in their cupped hands Ted and Trouble caught some of the“taddies.”

  “Let’s put ’em in a can and watch ’em turn into frogs,” suggested Ted.“That’ll be fun, won’t it, Trouble?”

  “Um—yes,” agreed the smaller boy.

  Ted found an old tomato can, filled it with water, and then he and hisbrother caught more tadpoles. Soon they had a dozen swimming around inthe water of the can.

  “Now we’ll sit down and watch ’em turn into frogs,” said Ted, as hecarried the can over to a shady place.

  Uncle Ben had told him that the tadpoles, though they had a tail atfirst, lost it after a while, and then grew two feet, and then, later,had four feet a
nd legs, and finally were frogs.

  For some little time Ted and Trouble sat and looked into the can ofwiggling tadpoles. Then, as no change took place and as not a singlefrog hopped out, Ted exclaimed:

  “Oh, I guess they won’t change while we watch ’em. Let’s go away now,an’ when we come back they’ll be frogs.”

  “All wite,” agreed Trouble. They did not know that it takes many daysfor a tadpole to change into a frog.

  “Come on, let’s go get a cookie, and then we’ll see what Jan’s doing,”suggested Ted, as he led his brother toward the bungalow. “Maybeshe’ll come with us an’ have some fun now. Maybe Uncle Ben will takeus out in a boat. Shall we do that, Trouble?”

  “All wite—’ess!” was the answer.

  Janet was tired of her unpacking, and after each of the children hadbeen given a sugar cookie by Mrs. Martin, they started out again tolook for something to do. There were many ways of having fun at SilverLake, even though the picnic season had not started yet.

  When it did, and when the merry-go-round and the shoot-the-chutes weregoing, there would be more ways of having fun.

  “Don’t go too far off, children!” called Mrs. Martin to the Curlytopsand Trouble. “Uncle Ben is going to take you for a boat ride beforedinner.”

  “Oh, that’ll be fun!” cried Ted.

  “We’re just going a little way,” added Janet.

  The three strolled toward the lake, down the winding path. Janet saw,in a clump of trees, some pretty blue flowers.

  “Oh, I know what I’m going to do!” she cried. “I’m going to pick abouquet for mother to put on the table. It looks so pretty! I’ll getsome flowers!”

  “I’ll pick some green ferns to go with the bouquet,” added Ted, as hesaw a clump near the blue flowers. “Come on, Trouble, you help me pickthe ferns.”

  Janet started toward the clump of blue flowers. She did not know thatthe posies grew on the edge of a hole that was filled with water andvery sticky mud. As the grass grew tall near the edge of the holeJanet could not see it.

  Up to the pretty blossoms she ran, and she reached her hands out topick some. Ted, who was watching her, suddenly saw his sister go outof sight. He knew she had fallen down, but he did not know just how ithad happened.

  “Janet! Janet!” he cried. “What’s the matter?”

  “Ted!” she answered. “Oh, Teddy, I fell in! Come and get me out!”