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

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER XI

  TROUBLE IN THE AIR

  Teddy Martin ran to the edge of the little bank over the top of whichhe had seen Janet’s head a moment before. The boy had his hands fullof ferns, but he dropped these as he ran forward, calling:

  “I’m coming, Jan! I’m coming! Wait for me!”

  “I can’t get out!” Janet answered. “I’m stuck fast!

  “And I’m going down farther all the while!” she called. “Oh, Oh! Youmust get me out, Teddy!”

  “Yes, Janet! Yes, I’ll get you out!” cried Teddy. He flung himselfface downward on the grassy bank below which Janet was caught in atrap of mud. It was soft mud, and did not, of course, hurt her, but itwas so sticky that she was held fast.

  “Can’t you pull your legs out, Janet, and walk over to me?” askedTeddy. “If you could get over here I could take hold of your hands andpull you the rest of the way out. Try to pull your legs loose!”

  “I did try,” Janet answered. “I can pull one leg out, but then theother leg sticks down deeper in the mud. Then when I try to pull myfirst leg out, that’s stuck, too.”

  “Can’t you pull both your legs out together?” asked Teddy, as he layon the top of the grassy bank and looked down at his sister.

  “Nope! I can’t pull both my legs out at once,” she answered. “’Causeif I did I’d fall down.”

  “Well, then I guess I’ve got to come down and get you,” said Teddy, ashe thought about the matter. “You stay there, Janet, and I’ll comedown and pull you out. I’ll hold you so you can pull both your legsout at the same time.”

  He started to get up, but his sister called to him.

  “No, don’t come down here, Teddy!”

  “Why not?” he asked, in surprise.

  “’Cause if you do, you’ll be stuck, too, and then we’ll both be stuckin this sticky mud, and we can’t get out, and nobody will know we’rehere, and nobody can take Trouble home, and——”

  “That’s so—I forgot about Trouble,” said Teddy. “And that is prettysticky mud, isn’t it, Jan?”

  “It’s terribly sticky!” answered the little girl. “It’s just like thattime when I sat down in the fly paper. I guess you better go and getmother or daddy or Uncle Ben. They can get me out.”

  “Wait! Maybe I can do it myself!” said Teddy, after a bit. “If I had arope I could throw it to you, and you could take hold of it and Icould stand up here, where there isn’t any mud, and pull you out.”

  “Yes, but you haven’t any rope,” said Janet.

  Teddy thought some more.

  “No, there isn’t any rope,” he said. “But if I could find a piece ofwild grapevine, that would be as good as a rope. Don’t you ’member,when we went to Grandpa’s Cherry Farm, how we swung on a wildgrapevine in the woods, just like a swing?”

  “I ’member,” Janet answered. “Please go and get me a wild grapevinerope, Teddy, and pull me out. My shoes are all full of mud.”

  “Yes, and there’s a lot on your legs, too,” her brother said. “Well,I’ll see if I can find a grapevine. If I can’t, I’ll get daddy orUncle Ben—they’ll pull you out, anyhow.”

  “Where’s Trouble?” asked Janet, as her brother stood up and started towalk away.

  “That’s so—mustn’t forget him,” answered Teddy. “He was picking fernswhen I heard you yell, but I don’t see him now.”

  “Oh, you must find him!” cried Janet. “If he goes away by himselfmaybe he’ll fall into a mud hole too.”

  “I’ll find Trouble first, and then I’ll go and get the grapevine andpull you out,” decided the little boy. Of course it might have beenbetter if he had run at once and told his father or his mother whathad happened to Janet. But Teddy liked to do things for himself, andif he could help his sister out of the bog he wanted to do it.

  “Hi, Trouble! where are you?” cried Teddy as he looked toward the spotwhere he had left his little brother, picking ferns.

  At first there was no answer, and, for a moment, Teddy feared thatBaby William had wandered away and become lost, or perhaps had falleninto some swamp hole. But, in a few seconds, after he had calledagain, Teddy heard some baby laughter.

  “Trouble, are you hiding away from me in the grass?” asked Teddy, forsometimes the little chap did this. “Are you hiding?” asked Teddy inlouder tones.

  “No, I’se playin’!” was the answer. “I got nudder turkle!”

  “You have?” cried Teddy, running toward the spot from which Trouble’svoice sounded. “Say, you’re great on finding turtles! Yes, you havefound one!” he went on, when he reached Baby William’s side. He sawthe little boy sitting down in a grassy hollow, and near him, slowlycrawling, was a mud turtle—much larger than the one Trouble had foundthat morning and put in Teddy’s cot.

  “Oh, that’s dandy!” cried Ted. “We’ll keep ’em both, and maybe we canget up a show with ’em. Come on, Trouble. Jan’s stuck in the mud, andI’ve got to get her out. I’ve got to find a wild grapevine.”

  “Jan in mud?” asked Trouble, looking up into Ted’s face.

  “Yes, she’s away down in a deep mud hole. We’ve got to pull her out.”

  Carrying the turtle in one hand, with the other Teddy led Trouble tothe edge of the grassy bank, where the little fellow could look downand see his sister stuck in the mud.

  “Oh! Too bad!” said Trouble, in a gentle voice, as he saw the plightof poor Janet.

  “Yes, it is too bad,” agreed the little girl. “I didn’t see the mudhole when I went to get the blue flowers.”

  She still held a bouquet of them in her hand.

  “Now you stay here with Janet, Trouble, and I’ll go and get agrapevine for a rope,” said Teddy. “Sit right here and don’t go away.”

  “I won’t,” promised Baby William. “I give turtle grass for hims to eatbreakshust!”

  “Yes, you can feed the turtle his breakfast,” agreed Janet. “And don’tbe too long, Teddy,” she begged. “’Cause I think I’m sinking fartherin all the while.”

  “I’ll come right back,” he promised, as he ran toward the tangledwoodland where he thought some grapevines might grow. And Teddy waslucky enough to find some, so that, in a little while, he came backwith one trailing after him.

  “Now I’ll pull you out, Janet!” he cried. “This is as good as a rope.”

  He stripped the leaves and little branches from the long, thin vine,which is really a rope of the woods, and then, holding one end, Tedtossed the other to his sister, who was standing below him in the bog.She caught it with one hand, holding the blue flowers in the other.

  “Hold fast now, I’m going to pull!” cried Teddy. “I’ll pull and youwiggle your feet, and then they’ll come loose out of the mud and youcan walk over where it’s hard ground.”

  Well, Teddy, pulled and Janet tried to keep hold of her end of thegrapevine rope, but as Teddy was stronger than she was, and as he waspulling with two hands, while she was holding with only one, and asthe mud was very sticky, you can imagine what happened.

  Teddy pulled the grapevine away from his sister, and she nearly fellover backward into the muddy puddle just behind her.

  “You must take hold with both hands!” cried Teddy, as he, too, almosttoppled over. “Take hold with both hands, and I’ll pull with bothhands, and I’ll get you out.”

  “I’ve got only one hand,” declared Janet. “I must hold on to myflowers.”

  “Oh, let the flowers go!” ordered Teddy.

  “No, I want ’em!” insisted Janet.

  “Then I can’t pull you out,” was Teddy’s reply.

  Janet thought this over for a moment, and then she said:

  “Well, I can throw my flowers to you up there on the bank. You cangive ’em to Trouble to keep, and then I can take hold with bothhands.”

  “Yes, you can do that!” agreed Teddy. “Go ahead! Throw me yourflowers. I’ll give ’em to Trouble.”

  “But don’t let the mud turtle eat ’em!” pleaded Janet, as she tossedthe pret
ty bouquet to her brother. The gathering of the blue flowershad gotten Janet into a lot of trouble.

  “My turkle eats grass—hims don’t like flowers!” said Baby William, asTed laid the blossoms down on the ground beside his little brother.

  Janet now had both hands free, and she took a good hold of thegrapevine rope. Teddy braced his feet in the grass, and began to pull.Janet pulled also, lifting her feet out of the sticky mud, and, with aqueer, sucking sound as she lifted her legs, first the right and thenthe left, she soon found herself free of the bog. She stepped out onfirm ground, and was soon upon the bank with Ted and Trouble.

  “Oh, what an awful lot of mud!” cried Teddy, as he looked at hissister’s feet. And well might he say that, for she was covered withmuck up to her waist.

  “I guess I better wade out in the lake, with my shoes and stockingson, and wash off,” said Janet. “I can’t get any wetter, but I can geta little cleaner.”

  “I guess you can,” decided Teddy.

  He and Trouble (who carried the flowers, while his brother held theturtle) walked to the shore of the lake where the water was shallow.There Janet waded in and splashed around. Of course she got verywet—and with her clothes, shoes and stockings on, too!—but the mud waswashed off.

  “Where have you children been, and what have you been doing?” criedMrs. Martin, when the Curlytops and Trouble walked up to the bungalowSunnyside a little later.

  “I’ve been picking a bouquet for you, Mother,” answered Janet, and sheheld out the blue flowers. “Aren’t they pretty?”

  “Yes, my dear, they are very nice, and thank you for them. But did youhave to wade in the lake up to your waist after them?”

  “Oh, no. I fell in the mud and then I had to wash off,” explainedJanet.

  “And I found annuver mud turkle!” cried Trouble.

  Then the children told their mother what had happened.

  After dinner, when Janet had been washed again and dried and had hadclean clothes put on her, Uncle Ben took the three children out on thelake in a little motor boat. It was great fun for them to go ridingabout the silvery water, the engine of the boat making a chuggingsound which Trouble liked very much.

  Silver Lake was so large that Uncle Ben did not have time to take thechildren all around it.

  “Some day,” he said, “we’ll put up a lunch and go on a regular voyageall around the shores in the big motor boat.”

  “Shall we get shipwrecked?” asked Ted eagerly.

  “I hope not!” laughed Uncle Ben. “I was shipwrecked once, and that wasenough. But now we are going to stop here. I have to get some rowboatsyour father has bought.”

  He steered the motor craft up to a little pier about a mile fromSunnyside. To this pier a number of small boats were tied. After sometalk with a man Uncle Ben tied to the back of the boat in which theCurlytops sat five of the rowboats, strung out one after the other,like beads on a string.

  “Are we going to take ’em home?” asked Janet.

  “Yes,” answered Uncle Ben. “Your father needs more boats to hire outat his dock near the picnic grounds, and he bought these. I am goingto paint them red, like all his boats.”

  “May I help paint?” Teddy asked.

  “Me too?” cried Janet.

  “Well, I’ll see about it,” promised Uncle Ben. “I’m afraid you wouldget more paint on your hands and faces than you would on the boats.But maybe I’ll let you paint a little with a small brush.”

  “That’ll be fun!” cried both children. “Do let us!”

  Off they started once more, hauling the rowboats after them in a longline back of the motor craft. Trouble wanted to climb back into thenearest rowboat, but they would not let him, of course.

  Uncle Ben was steering the big boat, and pulling the smaller ones, intoward the Sunnyside dock when suddenly something jumped from thewater with a splatter of drops and seemed to leap over the rowboatnearest the motor boat. Then the shining object fell back into thelake again with a splash.

  “What was that?” cried Ted.

  “Did somebody throw something?” Janet asked.

  “Maybe it was a turtle,” said Trouble.

  “That was a fish that jumped out of the water and clean over therowboat,” said Uncle Ben. “Fish sometimes leap out of the water thatway when they want to catch a bug or a fly that is just above them.But I did not know there were such large fish in Silver Lake. I mustbring a hook, line, and pole the next time I come out.”

  “I’m going to fish, too!” declared Teddy.

  “So’m I!” added Janet.

  “Yes, we’ll get up a fishing party!” agreed Uncle Ben. “Maybe we cancatch enough for a meal.”

  The rowboats were tied up at Daddy Martin’s dock, and for the next fewdays Uncle Ben was busy painting them. Teddy and Janet were bothallowed to use a small brush, and really they did quite well, for theywere careful.

  The only thing that happened was that once, when Trouble came close towatch him, Teddy splattered some red paint on the face of Trouble’sbeloved rag doll.

  “Oh, Teddy Martin! ’ook what you did!” cried Trouble. “I’m goin’ totell mozzer! My doll’s all wed!”

  “I didn’t mean to,” Teddy said, sorry enough about what had happened.“Anyhow it makes his cheeks look nice and red.” Trouble hadn’t thoughtof this.

  “It does make him ’ook pittier,” he agreed. “I’m glad ’oo did it,Teddy.”

  The Curlytops had lots of fun at Silver Lake. Gradually the bungalowwas put in order, and Nora came to cook and help with the work. ThenMrs. Martin could take long walks in the woods with the children, andthey often went out on the lake with Uncle Ben, having many good timeson the silvery water.

  It was just before supper one evening, and Ted and Janet had come infrom sailing with Uncle Ben. Trouble had not gone, as he was asleep,but now he had awakened, and he was freshly washed and dressed.

  “Take Trouble for a little walk down the path, Ted and Jan,” theirmother said. “But don’t go far away, for supper will soon be ready.”

  “All right,” they answered, and soon the two Curlytops were leadingtheir little brother by the hand.

  “Let’s go down to the ice-house,” proposed Teddy. “They’re takingcakes of ice out now and we can watch.”

  The ice-house was one partly owned by Mr. Martin. In the winter, whenSilver Lake was frozen, men cut big chunks of ice from it, and packedit away in sawdust in a small house, not far from shore. In the summerthe ice was taken out and used to make ice-cream and to coolsoda=water.

  “OH, TEDDY MARTIN! ’OOK WHAT YOU DID!” CRIED TROUBLE.]

  The cakes of ice were so large and heavy that they were lifted fromthe house and lowered to the ground outside by a rope and pulley. Thepulley was up near the roof of the house, and the rope dangled to theground. The ice was hoisted up just as you may have seen a pianohoisted up to the second or third story of a house. The Curlytops usedto like to watch the men lift the ice out by the rope and pulley.

  “Oh, they’re all done!” exclaimed Janet, much disappointed, when sheand her two brothers reached the ice-house. “They’re all done, andthey’re gone!”

  “But they’ve left the rope where we can reach it,” said Teddy. “Oh,Jan, I know what we can do!” he cried.

  “What?” she asked.

  “We can make believe Trouble is a cake of ice, and hoist him up by therope,” went on Ted. “Come on—let’s do it. Trouble, do you want a ridein the air?”

  “Oh, ’ess! Me want wide in air!” said the little fellow eagerly.

  “All right! Then you’re going to have one!” laughed Ted.