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

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER VII

  JAN SEES SOMETHING

  For a moment after her brother had said this Janet did not speak. She,too, dropped the cookie she had just taken from the bag, and turnedslowly around to see at what Teddy was pointing.

  She was just in time to see something furry and reddish-brown in colordart into the hollow log, which was open at both ends. Then Jan gave ascream.

  "Oh!" exclaimed Ted, who was as much frightened by Janet's shrill voiceas he was at what he had seen. "Oh, Jan! Don't!"

  "I--I couldn't help it," she answered. "I told you I'd scream if I saw abear, and I _did_ see one. It is a bear, isn't it, Teddy?"

  "It is," he answered. "I saw it first. It's my bear!"

  "You can have it--every bit of it," said Jan, quickly getting up fromthe mossy rock on which she had been sitting. "I don't want any of it,not even the stubby tail. I like to own half of Nicknack with you, but Idon't want half a bear."

  "Then I'll take all of it--it's my bear," went on Ted. "Where're yougoing, Jan?" he asked, as he saw his sister hurrying away.

  "I'm going home. I don't like it here. I'm going to make Nicknack runhome with me."

  Teddy got up, too. He did not stop to pick up the cookie he had dropped.

  "I--I guess I'll go with you, Jan," he said. "I guess my bear will stayin the log until I come back."

  "Are you coming back?" asked Janet, as with trembling fingers sheunfastened Nicknack's strap from around the stump to which he had beentied.

  "I'm going to get grandpa to come back with me and shoot the bear,"replied Ted. "I want his skin to make a rug. You know--like grandpa didwith the bear his father shot."

  Jan did not say anything. She got into the cart and turned the goatabout, ready to leave the place. She gave a look over her shoulder atthe hollow log into which she and Ted had seen the furry, brown animalcrawl. It did not seem to be coming out, and Jan was glad of that.

  "Giddap, Nicknack!" she called to the goat, and as the animal startedoff Ted jumped into the wagon from behind.

  "I wish I had a gun," he said.

  "You're too little," declared Jan. "Oh, Ted! what if he should chase us?Was it an awful big bear? I didn't dare look much."

  "It wasn't so very big."

  "Was it as big as Nicknack?"

  "Oh, bigger'n him--a lot."

  "Oh!" and again Jan looked back over her shoulder. "I hope he doesn'tchase us," she added.

  "I'll fix him if he does!" threatened Ted. "I'll fix him!"

  "How? You haven't any gun, and maybe you couldn't shoot it if you had,lessen maybe it was your Christmas pop gun."

  "Pooh! Pop guns wouldn't be any good to shoot a bear! You've got to havereal bullets. But I can fix this bear if he chases us," and Ted tried tolook brave.

  "How?" asked Jan again. She felt safer now, for Nicknack was going fast,and the hollow log, into which the furry animal had crawled, was out ofsight.

  "I'll make our goat buck the bear with his horns if he chases us, that'swhat I'll do!" declared Ted.

  "Oh, that would be good!" exclaimed Jan in delight. "Nicknack is braveand his horns are sharp. 'Member how he stuck 'em in the fence one day?"

  "Yes," answered Ted, "I do. And I'll get him to stick 'em in the bear ifhe comes too close. Giddap, Nicknack!" and Ted flicked the goat with theends of the reins. I think he wanted the goat to go faster so therewould be no danger of the bear's chasing after him and his sister.Perhaps Ted thought Nicknack might be afraid of the bear, even if thegoat did have sharp horns.

  The Curlytops were greatly excited when they reached the camp. Troublewas playing out in front and Grandpa Martin had just landed in the boat.

  "What's that?" he cried, when he heard Ted's story. "A bear in a hollowlog? Nonsense! There are no bears on Star Island."

  "But I saw it, and so did Janet. Didn't you, Jan?" cried Ted.

  "I saw something fuzzy with a big tail going inside the log," answeredTeddy's sister.

  "Then it couldn't have been a bear," laughed Grandpa Martin. "For a bearhas only a little short, stubby tail. I'll go to see what it is. I thinkI know, however."

  "What?" asked Mother Martin. "Don't go into any danger, Father."

  "I won't," promised the farmer. "But I won't tell you what I think theanimal is until I see it. I may be mistaken."

  "Maybe it's a twamp," put in Trouble, who seemed to be thinking aboutthem as much as Ted thought about the fallen star.

  "Tramps aren't animals," laughed Jan.

  "Furry animals, anyway," added Ted.

  "Well, you stay here and I'll go see what it was," went on grandpa, andhe started off toward the hollow log with a big club. He was not gonevery long, and when he came back he was laughing, as he had the nightbefore when Nicknack gave them a scare.

  "Just as I thought!" cried the children's grandpa. "It was a big, redfox in the hollow log."

  "And not a bear?" asked Ted.

  "Not a bear, Curlytop! Only a fox that was more frightened by you thanyou were by him, I guess. I knew it couldn't be a bear."

  "How did you get it out of the log?" asked Jan.

  "Oh, I just tapped on the log with my club, and Mr. Fox must havethought it was somebody knocking at his front door. For out he ran,looked at me with his bright eyes, and then away he ran into the woods.So you Curlytops needn't be afraid. The fox won't hurt you."

  "I'm glad of that," said Jan. "Now let's go fishing, Ted."

  "All right," he agreed.

  "Can't you take Trouble with you?" asked his mother. "I want to helpNora and grandpa do a little work around the camp."

  "Yes, we'll take him," agreed Jan. "But you mustn't put any salt in thewater, Trouble, and scare the fish."

  "I not do it. I tatch a fiss myself."

  They gave him a pole and a line without any hook on it so he could notscratch himself, and then Jan and Ted sat down under a shady tree, notfar from camp, to try to catch some fish.

  They knew how, for their father had taught them, and soon Jan had landeda good-sized sunfish. A little later Ted caught a perch which hadstripes on its sides, "like a zebra," as Jan said. After that Jan andTed each caught two fish, and they soon had enough to cook.

  "What do you Curlytops want me to do with these?" asked Nora, as the twochildren came along, laughing and shouting, with the fish dangling fromstrings each of them carried.

  "Cook 'em, of course!" cried Teddy. "That's what we caught them for,Nora--to have you cook them."

  "But won't they bite me?" asked the cook, pretending to be afraid.

  "Oh, no! They can't!" explained Jan.

  "They bit on our hooks, and now they can't bite any more, but we canbite them," said Teddy.

  "Oh, would you bite the poor fish?" asked Nora.

  For a moment the Curlytops did not know what to answer. Then Teddyreplied:

  "Oh, well, it can't hurt 'em to bite 'em after they're cooked, can it?"

  "No, I guess not," laughed Nora, "no more than it can hurt a bakedpotato. Well, run along and I'll get the fish ready for dinner, orwhatever you call the next meal. I declare, I'm so mixed up with thiscamping business that I hardly know breakfast from supper. But runalong, and I'll fry the fish for you, anyhow."

  "Let's go and take a walk," proposed Jan, when they had washed theirhands in the tin basin that Mother Martin had set on a bench under atree, with a towel and soap near by, for fish did leave such a funnysmell on your hands, the little girl said.

  "Where'll we walk to?" asked Teddy.

  "Oh, let's go and look. Maybe we can find that cute little bunny we sawwhen we were looking for the den where the fox lived but didn't findhim," proposed Jan.

  "All right," answered Teddy, and they set off.

  They had not gone very far before Teddy stopped near a bush and began tolook about him.

  "What's the matter?" asked his sister.

  "Why, I saw a bird fly out of here," answered her brother, "and itseemed just as if it had a broken wing. It couldn't fly--hardly."

&n
bsp; "Where is it?" asked Jan eagerly. "Maybe if we take it to mother she canfix the wing. Once she mended a dog's broken leg, and he could walk'most as good as ever when he got well, only he limped a little."

  "But a dog can't fly," said Teddy.

  "I know it," agreed Jan. "But if mother can mend a broken leg, she canfix a broken wing, can't she?"

  "Maybe," admitted her brother. "Oh, there's the bird again, Jan! See howit flutters along!" and the little boy pointed to one that was draggingitself along over the ground as though its wings or legs were broken orhurt.

  "Come on!" cried Teddy. "Maybe we can catch the bird, Jan!"

  Brother and sister started after the little feathered songster, whichwas making a queer, chirping noise. Then Jan suddenly called:

  "Oh, here's another!"

  And, surely enough, there was a second bird acting almost as was thefirst--fluttering along, half hopping and half flying through the grass.

  "We'll get 'em both!" yelled Teddy, and he and Jan hurried along. But,somehow or other, as soon as they came almost to the place where theycould reach out and touch one of the birds, which acted as though itcould not go a bit farther, the little creature would manage to flutteron just beyond the eager hands of the children.

  "That's funny!" exclaimed Teddy. "I almost had one of 'em that time!"

  "So did I!" added Janet. "Now I'm sure I can get this one!" and she ranforward to grasp the fluttering bird, but it managed to hop along, justout of her reach.

  The one Ted was after did the same thing, and for some time the childrenhurried on after the birds. At last the two songsters, with littlechirps and calls, suddenly flew high in the air and circled back throughthe woods.

  "Well, would you look at that!" cried Teddy, in surprise.

  "They can fly, after all!" gasped Janet. "What d'you s'pose made 'empretend they couldn't?"

  "I--I guess they wanted to fool us," said her brother.

  And that really was it. The little birds had built a nest in a low bush,close to the ground where the children could easily have reached it ifthey had seen it. And they were very close to it, though their eyes hadnot spied it.

  But the birds had seen the Curlytops and, fearing that Jan and Ted mighttake out the eggs in the nest, the wise little birds had pretended to bewilling to let the boy and girl catch them instead of robbing the nest.

  Of course, Jan and Ted wouldn't have done such a thing as that! But thebirds knew no differently. Not all birds act this way--pretending to behurt, or that they can't fly--to get people to chase after them, and sokeep far away from the little nests. But this particular kind of birdalways does that.

  Some day, if you are in the woods or the fields, and see one bird--ortwo--acting in this queer way, as though it could not fly or walk, andas though it wanted you to hurry after it and try to catch it--if yousee a bird acting that way you may be sure you are near its nest andeggs and this is the way the bird does to get you away.

  "Let's look for their nest," suggested Teddy, when the two birds hadflown far away, back through the woods.

  "Oh, no," answered Jan. "We don't want to scare them. Maybe we can lookat the nest of a bird that won't mind if we watch her feeding herlittle ones."

  And, a little later, they came to a bush in which was a robin's nest. Init were some tiny birds, and, by standing on their tiptoes, and bendingthe nest down a little way, the Curlytops could look in. The baby birds,which had only just begun to grow feathers, opened their mouths as wideas they could, thinking, I suppose, that Jan and Ted had worms or bugsfor them.

  But the children did not have.

  "Your mother will soon be along to feed you," said Janet, and soon themother bird did come flying back from the field. She seemed afraid atfirst, when she saw how close Jan and Ted were to her nest, but thechildren soon walked away, and then the robin fed her young.

  Ted and Jan had a nice walk through the woods and then they went back tocamp.

  "We'll take Trouble for a walk, so mother won't have to look after himso much," said Janet. "Come, Trouble!"

  "Show me where the fox was," begged Baby William, and Ted and Jan turnedtheir steps that way. But there was no sign of the big-tailed animal inthe hollow log, though the children pounded on it as Grandpa Martinsaid he had done.

  Then they wandered on a little farther in the beautiful woods. Jan sawsome flowers she wanted to gather, and leaving the path where Ted stoodto take care of his little brother, she began picking a handful.

  Janet saw so many pretty blossoms that she went a little farther thanshe meant to, and, before she knew it, she had lost sight of her twobrothers, though she could hear them talking.

  Suddenly, after crawling through some bushes, Jan found herself onanother path. On the other side of it she saw some black-eyed Susans.

  "Oh, I must get some of them!" she cried.

  She darted across the path, and, as she was about to pick the flowers,she saw, standing behind a big tree, a man who had on very raggedclothes. He looked at Jan, who dropped her bouquet and gasped:

  "Oh! Oh, dear!"

  The ragged man looked at Janet and smiled. But Jan did not smile. Onethought only was in her mind.

  "Here is one of the tramps!"

  "HERE IS ONE OF THE TRAMPS!"]