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diff --git a/old/68825-0.txt b/old/68825-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 562ca83..0000000 --- a/old/68825-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6326 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Curlytops touring around, by -Howard R. Garis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Curlytops touring around - The missing photograph albums - -Author: Howard R. Garis - -Illustrator: Julia Greene - -Release Date: August 23, 2022 [eBook #68825] - -Language: English - -Produced by: David Edwards, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CURLYTOPS TOURING -AROUND *** - - -[Illustration: TED MARTIN HIT THE GROUND WITH A HARD THUMP. - - “Curlytops Touring Around” Page 137] - - - - - THE CURLYTOPS - TOURING AROUND - - OR - - _The Missing Photograph Albums_ - - BY - HOWARD R. GARIS - - AUTHOR OF “THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM,” - “THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS,” “THE CURLYTOPS - AT SUNSET BEACH,” ETC. - - _Illustrations by - JULIA GREENE_ - - NEW YORK - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY - - - - -THE CURLYTOPS SERIES - -By HOWARD R. GARIS - -12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. - - _THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM Or, Vacation Days in the Country_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND Or, Camping Out With Grandpa_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN Or, Grand Fun With Sleds and Skates_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK’S RANCH Or, Little Folks on Ponyback_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE Or, On the Water With Uncle Ben_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS Or, Uncle Toby’s Strange Collection_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES Or, Jolly Times Through the - Holidays_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS Or, Fun in the Lumber Camp_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS AT SUNSET BEACH Or, What Was Found in the Sand_ - - _THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND Or, The Missing Photograph Albums_ - -CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York - - - COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY - CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY - - THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND - - Printed in U. S. A. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I DOWN THE WELL 1 - - II GOOD NEWS 14 - - III THE CARDWELL ALBUMS 24 - - IV A BIG CROWD 35 - - V MOVING PICTURES 45 - - VI THE ALBUMS ARE GONE 53 - - VII ON THE TRAIL 65 - - VIII OFF AGAIN 75 - - IX AT THE FARM 84 - - X TROUBLE’S DANGER 96 - - XI FUNNY FISH 108 - - XII FLIP-FLOPS 117 - - XIII TED FALLS OFF 127 - - XIV JAN IN A TRAP 137 - - XV THE BOX COMES BACK 146 - - XVI ON AGAIN 158 - - XVII ALONG THE RIVER 166 - - XVIII TWO BEARS 175 - - XIX THE LUMBER CAMP 183 - - XX A SMASH 193 - - XXI ABOARD THE MOTOR BOAT 204 - - XXII ON THE LAKE 214 - - XXIII THE WRONG BOX 221 - - XXIV TROUBLE’S PUSSY 229 - - XXV THE RIGHT BOX 236 - - - - - -THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND - - - - -CHAPTER I - -DOWN THE WELL - - -“Come on, Jan! Now will be a good time to try it!” - -“All right, Ted. But are you sure it will be safe?” - -“Course I am! Why, it’s a big rope and I’m not very heavy, Jan.” - -“I know that. But s’posing I shouldn’t be able to pull you up again?” - -“Well, I could get up by a ladder, I guess. Come on now before Trouble -comes out to bother us. He’s in the house with mother and we have a -good chance now.” - -Two children, a boy and a girl, each with clustering curls on their -heads, darted down a path, around the house, and ran toward the apple -orchard at the rear. - -Ted Martin’s hair was darker than that of his sister Janet, but the -locks of each were so clustered on their heads that the children were -more often called “Curlytops,” than their right name. - -Now the curly tops of the brother and sister were bobbing about as they -ran along, intent on having what they called “fun,” though, as you will -soon see, it developed into mischief. But that, as Ted said afterward, -wasn’t their fault. - -“I’m glad Trouble is in the house,” remarked Jan, as she hastened along -beside her brother. - -“So’m I,” answered Ted. “William is a good little boy, but when you -want to do something he always wants to do something else.” - -“Always,” agreed Janet, with a wise shake of her head. - -From this you may know that “Trouble” was only the jolly nickname of -the small brother of Ted and Janet. Mother Martin used to call him -“Dear Trouble” when he upset a glass of milk on the table or shoved his -plate to the floor. Daddy Martin used to speak of William as a “Bunch -of Trouble” when he had to drop his paper and rush out, perhaps to -pull the little fellow’s head loose from between the fence pickets, -where, possibly, he had thrust it. - -Ted and Janet called their little brother simply “Trouble” and let it -go at that. - -The two older children had been playing in the front yard of their home -when Ted had suddenly thought of a trick he had been wanting to try for -a long while. He had a strange idea in his head, and he needed the help -of Janet to carry it out. Now seemed a good time. - -It was the beginning of the long vacation from school, and though the -Martin family expected to go away for the summer, plans had not yet -been made. - -So Jan and Ted were amusing themselves as best they could until, tiring -of “playing store,” into Ted’s head had popped his big idea. - -“Wait a minute now, Jan!” cautioned Ted, as they neared the back of the -house and could look over toward the apple orchard. It wasn’t a very -large orchard, but there were enough trees to call it by that name. -Though, as yet, the season being early, only green apples were on the -branches. - -“What’s the matter--aren’t you going to do it?” Jan wanted to know, as -her brother put out a hand and detained her behind a screening bush. - -“Course I’m going to do it!” he declared. “But I want to look and see -if Patrick isn’t there. Patrick maybe wouldn’t let me do it.” - -“That’s so,” agreed Janet. “And if Nora saw us, she maybe wouldn’t let -us, either.” - -“No,” said Ted, in a low voice. He looked carefully out from the fringe -of the bush, but saw neither Patrick, who did odd jobs about the Martin -place, nor Nora, the cook; so the coast was clear. - -“Come on, Jan!” Ted whispered. - -“Oh, I--I’m almost getting scairt!” whispered the little girl, as she -and her brother neared the scene of their latest trick. - -“Pooh! Silly! What’s to be scared of?” asked Ted. “Come on!” - -Thus teased, Janet took her brother’s hand for a quick dash across the -open space to the shelter of the orchard. Suddenly, when the children -were halfway over the little space, they heard their names called: - -“Ted! Jan! Where are you? Come here! Mother says you have to ’muse me! -Come on!” - -“It’s Trouble!” gasped Janet. - -“And we’ve got to amuse him!” sighed Ted. “Oh, jinkity jinks!” - -He kicked the sand at his feet peevishly. - -“Come on! Let’s make believe we didn’t hear him. He hasn’t seen us and -we can hide from him.” - -Janet was about to agree to this, but Trouble was smarter than either -of the older ones gave him credit for. He had run on after his first -call, and now he stood where he could look full at Ted and Jan. - -“I see you!” he laughed. “You playin’ hide-an’-find? Anyhow, mother -says you have to ’muse me! Go on! ’Muse me!” - -Mrs. Martin often, when she was tired of looking after William or when -she had to do something else, would call to the other children: - -“Come and amuse Trouble!” - -Nearly always Jan or Ted would be glad to do this. But now they had -something else they wanted to do. - -“Too late!” sighed Ted. “We can’t skip away from him now.” - -“No, if we did he’d tell mother,” agreed Janet. “Oh, I know what -we can let him do! He can do it all alone, too, so we can go to the -diamond mine!” she added. - -“What?” asked Ted, to whom the reference to a “diamond mine,” did not -seem strange. That was part of the game they were going to play. - -“I’ll get the sifter we were using when we played store, and I’ll let -Trouble sift a lot of sand and tell him to pick out all the stones,” -suggested the little girl. “That will keep him amused a long while.” - -“Yes, I guess it will,” stated Ted. - -“You playin’ hide-an’-find?” asked Trouble again. This was his name for -the game of hide-and-seek. - -“No, we aren’t playing that, Trouble dear,” said Jan, with more -sweetness than usual in her voice. She wanted to be nice to her little -brother so he would be satisfied to play by himself. - -“You goin’ to ’muse me?” demanded the little fellow. - -“Sure we are!” exclaimed Ted. “I’ll get the sifter,” he told Janet. -“You keep him here a minute.” - -“Come here and I’ll tell you a little story,” offered Janet. - -“I’m comin’,” Trouble announced, as he toddled to his sister. She kept -him amused until Ted came running back with the sieve which, a little -while before, he and Janet had borrowed from Nora in the kitchen so -they could use it in sifting sand, which they pretended was sugar in -their play store. - -Near the spot where Trouble had so unexpectedly found his brother and -sister was some clean sand, and it was this that Janet had thought -William could be induced to play with, while she and her brother went -on with their own plans. - -And, for once at least, Trouble did just what was wanted of him. - -“See the nice sand, Trouble,” murmured Janet. “Look, you put it in this -sifter and you jiggle it and all the nice little sand falls through. -The big stones and little stones stay inside. Then you pick out all the -stones and put them in a pile and you sift more sand. See!” - -“Yep, I see,” murmured Trouble. “Let me shift sand.” - -Janet gave him the sieve and filled it for him. He moved it to and fro -and a little pile of fine sand grew in the shape of a pyramid. Trouble -looked at the stones left in the sieve. - -“What I do wif these?” he asked. - -“Put ’em in a pile and then we’ll make believe they’re raisins and -we’ll stick ’em in mud pies,” said Ted. - -“Oh, I like to make mud pies!” cried Trouble, with shining eyes. - -“Yes, but not now! Not now! After a while!” cried Janet quickly, for -the little fellow seemed ready to drop the sieve. “What did you want to -say that for?” she asked Ted, in a whisper. “You’ll spoil everything! -Leave it to me!” - -“Oh, all right,” mumbled Ted. “Go ahead! As soon as you can leave him -alone come on over to the old well.” - -“All right,” answered Janet. “Now, Trouble,” she went on, as she filled -the sifter again, “shake this out and pick out all the stones. Put -the big ones in a pile by themselves and the little ones in a pile by -themselves.” - -“Den we make mud pies,” laughed Trouble. - -“I guess so--yes--maybe,” murmured Janet, who did not want to be too -sure on this point. “Now you play here, Trouble, and don’t go away, -will you?” she asked, as she prepared to follow Ted. - -“Trouble stay here and shift sand,” gravely promised the little fellow. -“But where you goin’, Jan?” he asked suspiciously. - -“Oh, just over here a little way,” she answered. “I’ll soon be back. -Now sift a lot of sand, Trouble, and pick out all the stones.” - -“Aw right--I shift sand.” - -He was having fun now, being “’mused” as his mother had told him he -would be, and he did not much care what Ted or Janet did--at least for -a while. - -“Is he all right?” asked Ted, as his sister joined him under an apple -tree where an old well had been dug. - -“Yes, I guess he’ll stay there until we play diamond mine a while,” -said Janet. “But are you sure it will be all right, Ted?” - -“Sure I am. I’ll just step on the bucket and hold to the rope, and -all you’ll have to do is to keep hold of the handle and let it unwind -slowly. Then I’ll go down in the well and we’ll play it’s a diamond -mine.” - -“But how you going to get up again, Ted?” his sister asked. - -“Why, you can wind up the handle just as you unwound it, can’t you? -It’ll be like pulling up a bucket of water when there used to be water -in the well. That’s how I’ll get up.” - -“Oh, I see! All right.” - -The Curlytops ran over toward the old well, which had not been used -for a number of years, the water having seeped out of it, so that -the well was dry. But the curbing, the windlass, the bucket, and the -rope were still in place, and they had given Ted the idea for playing -diamond mine. He had seen some pictures of miners going down a hole in -the ground by means of a bucket and rope, and had got the idea that -diamonds were thus secured. - -The reason Ted and Janet had not, before this, played at the old well, -was because they did not know it existed. It was on some land next to -their house which Mr. Martin had recently bought. And, learning there -was an old well on it, the children’s father had decided to do away -with it, for it might be dangerous, even if there was no water in it, -for it was about thirty feet deep. - -The first step in doing away with the old well had been to have Patrick -clear away the weeds around it. Then the curbing was to have been -taken away and the well filled up. But when Patrick had cut down the -weeds he was called to other tasks, and so the old well stood plainly -revealed. - -Ted and Janet had discovered it, and then into Ted’s mind had come the -idea of going down into the dry well. He had tested the rope, with its -bucket and windlass, and found that it worked. - -“Now, Jan,” said her brother, when they were at the well, with no one -near to stop their mischievous play, “I’ll climb up and stand on the -bucket. You keep hold of the handle and let it unwind slowly. I don’t -want to go down too fast, you know.” - -“No, I guess you don’t,” agreed Jan. - -“After I get down to the bottom I’ll make believe dig diamonds,” went -on Ted. “Then you can twist the handle the other way and pull me up. -After that I’ll let you go down.” - -“I don’t want to go down!” said Jan quickly, after one look into the -black depths of the well. “You can go. I don’t want to.” - -“All right,” agreed Ted cheerfully. “I’ll go down twice. Now get -ready.” - -He climbed the well curbing and put one foot on the edge of the bucket, -which was a little way below the top of the curbing, or elevated wooden -rim about the well. The rope was wound around a wooden roller, or -windlass, to the end of which a crank was made fast. And there was a -ratchet catch to prevent the rope from unwinding and letting the bucket -down into the well until such time as the person drawing was ready. -This catch now prevented Ted from dropping down into the well. - -The curly-haired little boy steadied himself on the edge of the bucket -by holding to the rope above his head. He looked down into the well. -It was deep and black, but there was no water in it, so Ted did not -hesitate. - -“All right, Jan! Let me down!” he called to his sister. - -Already he was a little way down the shaft of the well, for the rope -was partly unwound and the bucket perhaps two feet below the top of the -curbing when Ted took his place. - -Janet loosened the catch of the windlass and then, holding to the -handle with all her strength, let it slowly revolve. It would have -gotten out of control, and would have whirled around very fast, for -Ted was much heavier than a bucket of water, only the affair was old, -rusted and stiff. So, after all, Ted was quite safely lowered. - -Down and down he went into the black depths of the old, dry well. - -“It’s lots of fun, Jan!” he called up. “You’d better come down next -time!” - -“I don’t want to. You can,” answered his sister. - -“Now I’m all the way down. I’m standing on the bottom!” called up Ted. -“I’m going to dig for diamonds!” - -Jan could see that there was no longer a strain on the rope. The handle -turned freely. Suddenly it gave a little quiver, Jan saw the rope slip -loose from around the windlass and then, as the end of it fell down the -well, the little girl screamed: - -“Oh, Ted! Ted! Oh, something dreadful happened!” - - - - -CHAPTER II - -GOOD NEWS - - -Down in the dark depths of the old well, Ted Martin heard what his -sister called in such frightened tones. - -“What’s the matter?” he asked. - -A moment later he learned on his own account. For the bucket rope -having slipped off the windlass, from which it had rotted away, tumbled -down the well. It caught for a moment on a projecting stone, and then -went down into the depths. It fell partly on top of Ted’s head as he -stepped off the edge of the bucket on to the pile of dried sticks and -leaves which had blown and tumbled into the well during the years it -had not been in use. - -“Oh, Teddy!” cried Janet. “The rope came loose and it fell down!” - -“I know it did,” Ted answered. For the rope was coiled about him. - -“Then how are you going to get up?” Janet wanted to know. “How are you -going to get up out of the well when I can’t wind up the rope?” - -To this Ted made answer: - -“I don’t know, Jan. I guess I’m in a sort of pickle. But wait a minute. -Don’t run away and leave me!” - -Janet had no such idea. She wouldn’t desert Ted in trouble. - -While the little fellow is down in the old, dry well, trying to think -of a way to get out, and while Janet is also puzzling her head over -the same matter, I will take just a moment to let my new readers know -something about the Curlytops. - -I have told you the reason for their nickname. They had been christened -in this order: Theodore Baradale Martin, who was called Ted or Teddy, -except when he had done something wrong, and then he heard his full -name spoken. Next came Janet Louise Martin, which was shortened into -Janet or Jan. She was just a year younger than Ted. Last of all was -William Anthony Martin. He was “Trouble,” you know. - -Mr. Richard Martin, the father of Trouble and the Curlytops, was the -owner of a large, general store in Cresco, in one of our eastern -states. In the first book of this series, called “The Curlytops at -Cherry Farm,” I related how the children went to visit Grandpa Martin -on his wonderful farm, and I told you what happened after they reached -there. During other vacation seasons the children traveled to Star -Island, they were snowed in, visited Uncle Frank’s ranch, and camped on -Silver Lake with Uncle Ben. The children had some queer pets, as you -may learn by reading another book, and they had many playmates with -whom they had jolly times. After a trip to the woods, the children -found something in the sand, as told in the book just before this, -called “The Curlytops at Sunset Beach.” - -After the summer at the shore the Martin family returned to Cresco. -Through the long winter Janet and Ted played in the snow. Then came -spring. Now it was summer again and the long vacation had arrived. - -“And it means a lot of work, too,” sighed Mrs. Martin, on the last day -of school. “I’m sure I don’t know what the children will do with so -much time on their hands!” - -But this did not worry Ted, Janet or Trouble. They knew they could -have fun, and one of the ways hit on by Ted and his sister was to play -“diamond mine,” as we find them doing at the old well when this story -opens. - -“Do you think you can get out, Ted?” his sister called anxiously down -into the depths of the dark well. - -“I don’t know,” was Ted’s answer. “But don’t go away. I’m going to try -to climb up, Jan.” - -“How you going to climb up?” the little girl wanted to know. - -“Well, there’s a lot of stones sticking out on the sides. They’re like -steps, and maybe I can get up on them.” - -Ted tried; but though a man or an older boy might have managed to hoist -himself out of the well in this way, it was beyond the strength of the -Curlytop lad. He got up a little way but slipped back to the soft bed -of dried leaves at the bottom of the well. - -“Did you hurt yourself?” asked Jan anxiously, as she heard her brother -grunt as he slipped back. - -“No, I didn’t hurt myself,” he answered. “But I jiggled myself a -little.” - -Ted’s use of the word “jiggled” reminded Jan that she had left Trouble -“jiggling” the sieve at the pile of sand. She wondered if her little -brother was all right, but she did not want to leave Ted in order to -make sure. - -However, she did not need to do this for just as Ted called up to her -that he was going to try to toss up the rope, so she could fasten it to -the windlass, Janet saw her little brother coming along a path that she -and Ted had trampled through the weeds. - -“Oh, now I is found you!” remarked Trouble, with a smile on his cute, -dirty little face. “I is found you! Here is Jan, Mother!” he called -more loudly. “I is found her!” - -“Is mother looking for us?” asked Janet. - -“Yes, Jan,” answered the voice of Mrs. Martin herself. “I told you and -Teddy to amuse William, and I find him all alone sifting sand. Not -but what he was having fun, but I thought you would stay with him. I -asked him where you went and he pointed off this way. Why, what are you -doing at the old well?” went on the mother who, having followed Trouble -along the weed-grown path, now saw Janet standing near the curbing and -windlass. “What are you doing there?” she repeated. - -“Teddy--now--Teddy--he’s down there!” gasped Jan, pointing. - -“Teddy in the well!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “Is he----” - -“There isn’t any water in it,” Janet hastened to add, and then Mrs. -Martin herself remembered that her husband had told her that same fact. -So she asked more calmly: - -“How did Teddy get down in the well?” She hurried forward, keeping a -tight hold of Trouble’s hand, so he wouldn’t slip into the black depths. - -“We were playing diamond mine,” Janet began to explain, when Ted, at -the bottom of the well, heard his mother’s voice and cried: - -“I’m all right! I can get up if you can fasten the rope to the -windlass, or lower a ladder to me!” - -“Oh, Teddy! Why did you ever go down there?” cried Mrs. Martin, as she -leaned over the curbing and looked down. “You shouldn’t have done such -a thing!” - -“I didn’t mean to get stuck down here, Mother!” the boy answered. He -could look up and see his mother quite plainly, for she was in the -sunlight. But she could hardly see him at the bottom of the well. - -“The rope slipped off,” explained Janet. - -“If we had a cowboy here he could lasso Teddy up,” said Trouble, with a -laugh. - -“Yes, but we haven’t any cowboy,” said Mrs. Martin. “Jan, you run and -tell Patrick to come here. Tell him to bring a ladder. I hope we have -one long enough. Hurry, Jan!” - -Now that her mother was on the scene, Janet felt sure that Teddy would -soon be out of the well. As she hastened back toward the house, she saw -Patrick working in the garden. - -“Please take a long ladder to the old well so Teddy can get out, -Patrick,” she begged. “Hurry!” - -“What’s that, Jan?” asked the man of all work. - -When the little girl had explained, Patrick ran off toward the barn, -chuckling to himself and saying: - -“They call the little one ‘Trouble,’ but I’m not sure but what it would -be a good name for the other two. Sure, they’re into twice as much -mischief as William! It’s a good thing the well is dry!” - -Patrick was on his way to the well, carrying a long ladder, which, he -told Janet, would surely reach the bottom, and the little girl was -following him when she saw her father coming around the house by a side -path. - -It was not usual for Mr. Martin to come home from his store in the -middle of the afternoon. When he did, something extraordinary nearly -always happened, and this time Janet thought he had heard about Teddy. -So she said: - -“He’s all right now, Daddy! We’ll soon have him out!” - -“Who’s all right? Who’s going to be out soon?” asked Mr. Martin, much -puzzled. “And what are you going to do with that ladder, Patrick?” - -“Sure an’ I’m going to get Teddy out of the old well.” - -“Out of the old well?” cried Mr. Martin. “Do you mean to tell me Ted -has fallen down there?” - -“He didn’t perzackly _fall_ in,” said Janet. “I let him down by the -rope, but the rope slipped off and he’s down there. He couldn’t climb -out, so mother told Patrick to bring the ladder.” - -“Oh, well, if your mother’s there I guess matters will soon be all -right,” said Mr. Martin, breathing more easily. “Why did you children -go to that well? We must fill it up at once, Patrick.” - -“Yes, sir. I was going to do it this afternoon. But they got ahead of -me, the Curlytops did.” - -Mr. Martin hurried on with Patrick, helping him carry the ladder, while -Janet followed. Mrs. Martin and Trouble were still standing at the well -curbing, and when Mrs. Martin saw her husband she, too, thought he had -come home because of what had happened to Ted. - -Then, as she knew he could not have heard of it at the store, she said -to Mr. Martin: - -“Is anything wrong? Why did you come home at this time of day?” - -“Everything is all right,” replied Mr. Martin, with a smile. “I came -home to tell you some good news. But first we must get Teddy out of the -well.” - -Mr. Martin leaned over and looked down into the depths. Ted saw his -father and called to him: - -“I’m all right!” - -“I’m glad of it,” was the answer. “We’re going to lower the ladder down -to you so you can climb up. Stand to one side so it won’t hit you.” - -And as her father and Patrick lowered the ladder into the well, Janet -wondered what good news it was that had brought Mr. Martin home in the -middle of the afternoon. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE CARDWELL ALBUMS - - -Ted Martin was in no danger in the dry well. His father and mother knew -this as soon as they had looked down at him. There was not a drop of -water in the well, and the sides were well walled up so they wouldn’t -cave in. - -“Don’t ever do anything like this again, Theodore!” his father said -quite sternly to the little chap, as the ladder was being put into -place. - -“No, sir,” answered Teddy. - -“We didn’t mean to do it,” said Janet. - -“I know you didn’t,” her mother admitted. “But just think what would -have happened if there had been water in the well?” - -“I wouldn’t have gone down if there had been water in,” Teddy called -up, for he could hear what was being said. - -“Well, I’m glad you have that much sense,” his father told him. “Now, -Patrick, you hold the upper end of the ladder steady and I’ll put this -end down in.” - -Slowly the ladder was lowered into the well, Teddy crowding back -against the stones as he stood on the leafy bottom, so as to be out of -the way. At last the ladder was in place. - -“Now can you climb up, Ted?” called his father. - -“Sure I can climb up,” was the answer, and a little later the head of -the Curlytop lad appeared above the curbing. There were leaves and dirt -and cobwebs in Teddy’s hair, but he didn’t mind that. “I brought the -end of the rope up with me,” he said, showing it to his father. “You -can fasten it to the windlass if you want to.” - -“I don’t want to,” declared Mr. Martin. “And, just so you and Janet -won’t be tempted to play diamond mine again, we’ll drop this old rope -back to the bottom of the well. And you must start at once, Patrick, to -fill it up.” - -“Yes, sir, I will,” was the answer. - -Mr. Martin took the end of the rope from Ted and let it drop back into -the black depths where it fell on the bucket, already on the bottom. - -Then the ladder was pulled up, and as Mr. Martin walked back toward the -house with his wife and children Patrick got a shovel and began tossing -dirt and rocks into the well, to fill it up level. - -“There’ll be no more Curlytops down in you!” said the man, as he -labored away. The wooden curbing was torn loose and the windlass -broken. It was the end of the old well. - -“But, anyhow, I got down it all right,” declared Ted, as he looked back -and saw Patrick filling up the hole. - -“Yes, but you might not have gotten out so easily if we hadn’t come to -help you,” suggested Mrs. Martin. - -“I guess that’s right,” agreed Ted. “I tried to climb out, but it was -hard work.” - -“He was like ‘ding-dong bell, pussy in the well,’ wasn’t he, Mother?” -laughed Trouble, as he stumbled along beside his father. - -“Yes, and daddy was Big Johnnie Stout who got Teddy out!” added Janet. -“But what’s the good news?” she asked. “You said you had good news, -Daddy.” - -“It’s about our summer vacation,” replied Mr. Martin. “You know, my -dear,” he went on, turning to his wife, “we haven’t been able to make -any plans for the vacation, because I didn’t know how matters were -going at the store. Well, I have just found out that I can get away -next week, and be gone for a month, so I hurried home to let you know. -We shall have a fine vacation this season!” - -“Where are we going?” asked Ted, brushing some of the well dirt from -his clothes. - -“To the seashore?” asked Janet. - -“No, we aren’t going any special place,” her father replied. - -“Oh, I thought you said we were going to have a fine vacation!” -objected Ted. - -“So I did, and so we are. But we aren’t going to any special place. -What do you say to touring around--going from place to place in our -auto, and perhaps taking a trip in a motor boat? How would my Curlytops -like that?” and Mr. Martin ruffled first the hair of Janet and then -that of Teddy. - -“I think that will be lots of fun!” cried Janet. - -“Do you mean touring around in our car and sleeping in it and camping -out and all that?” asked Ted. - -“Well, something like that,” agreed Mr. Martin. “Of course we can’t -exactly sleep in our auto, as it isn’t a Gypsy wagon. But we can take -along a tent that can be fastened to the auto, and we can sleep in that -if we wish. Or we can put up at hotels along the way. It will be partly -a camping trip.” - -“Oh, that’ll be dandy fun!” cried Ted. “When can we start?” - -“Next week. But in the meanwhile don’t go climbing into any more -wells,” urged his father. - -“No, sir, I won’t!” the Curlytop boy promised. “Oh, hurray for touring -around! Hurray for touring around!” he cried, turning a somersault on -the grass. - -“’Ray! ’Ray!” echoed Trouble, trying to do as he saw his brother do. -But Trouble toppled over to one side, laughing as he fell. - -“We’ll have lovely fun!” confided Janet to her mother. “I think daddy -is just wonderful, don’t you, Mother?” - -“He is, indeed, quite wonderful,” agreed Mrs. Martin, with a smile. - -From then on, as you can imagine, there were busy times in the home -of the Curlytops. Once it was decided that they would spend part of -the summer vacation touring around, going to no particular place, but -stopping wherever they felt like it, many preparations had to be made. - -Mr. Martin owned a big touring car, and he bought a camping outfit and -tent to go with it. The tent could be fastened to one side of the car, -and cots put beneath the canvas covering. - -“The children can sleep in the car, when it rains too hard,” decided -Mrs. Martin. - -“And can we cook, and eat and everything like that out of doors?” Janet -wanted to know. - -“Of course we have to cook!” declared Ted. “I’m going to make the -campfires,” he declared. - -“We’ll see about that,” Mr. Martin said. “Very likely we’ll take along -an alcohol stove. That’s more certain for cooking than wet wood. But we -can have a campfire once in a while.” - -Ted and Janet told their many boy and girl chums about the coming -touring trip, and all the lads and lassies wished they were as lucky as -were the Curlytops. - -It was one evening, about four days after Ted had gone down into the -well which was now filled up, that, as the Curlytops and the others of -the family were talking about the coming trip, a ring sounded at the -front door. - -“I wonder who that can be?” said Mrs. Martin. - -“Well, it’s pretty hard to guess,” her husband answered, with a laugh. -“But we’ll soon see, for Nora is opening the door.” - -In came Mr. James Cardwell, an elderly neighbor who lived two or three -houses down the street. Under his arm Mr. Cardwell carried two large -books, which, a second look told Janet and Ted, were old-fashioned -photograph albums. - -“Good evening, Mr. Cardwell,” said Mr. Martin. “Have a chair.” - -“Thanks, but I didn’t come to stay long,” said Mr. Cardwell, as he put -his albums down on the table. “I came to ask you to do me a favor.” - -“Did you want our pictures to put in your album, Mr. Cardwell?” asked -Ted, for he and Janet had had their photographs taken the week before. - -“Thank you, little man, but these albums are filled,” was the answer. -“I’d like to get your pictures, though, for another album I have at -home. What I came over for,” he went on, “is to see if you would take -these albums to my brother Reuben in Bentville, Mr. Martin. I hear -you are going on a long auto tour, and that you will pass through -Bentville. Is that right?” - -“Yes, we planned to make Bentville one of our stops,” said Mr. Martin, -naming a town about three hundred miles away. - -“That’s my old home,” said Mr. Cardwell. “There is going to be a -reunion of the Cardwell families there in the fall. We have it every -year. All the Cardwells for miles around come to this reunion. - -“Now in this album are a lot of pictures of Cardwells that are dead and -gone--dead and gone,” and the old man’s voice trembled. “Some of their -relatives would like to look at these pictures. I thought it would be a -good plan to have them at the reunion.” - -“Very nice, I should say,” remarked Mrs. Martin. - -“That’s what I thought. Well, I want to send my albums on ahead, before -I start, which won’t be until fall. I want to send them to my brother, -Reuben Cardwell of Bentville. The albums have been in the family many -years. I’d hate to see them lost, or have anything happen to them. -I’m afraid to send them by mail or express. But I thought, as long -as you’re going to tour out that way, you wouldn’t mind, Mr. Martin, -leaving these albums with my brother.” - -“I shall be glad to do that,” replied the Curlytops’ father. “If you -think you can trust me with them,” he added. - -“Of course I’ll trust you,” said Mr. Cardwell. “Though we think so much -of these albums in our family that I wouldn’t trust every one. I don’t -know what would happen if they got lost or were destroyed. See, here -are pictures of my dear little twin girls, who died when they were ten -years old. They’re the only pictures we have of them--Mary and Alice.” - -He turned the heavy pages and showed pictures of two pretty girls, with -long, curling hair. The pictures were of a bygone time, old-fashioned -and rather strange to the Curlytops. But they could see that Mr. -Cardwell thought a great deal of them and of the albums. - -“And here is another picture we prize highly,” said the elderly -neighbor. “It’s a picture of my brother’s boy Tom. He was only -eighteen,” and he turned to the photograph of a fine-looking lad. - -“Did he die, too?” asked Mrs. Martin softly. - -“Yes--at least, we suppose so,” said Mr. Cardwell gently. “He went away -to be a sailor. His ship was sunk and we never heard anything more from -him. I suppose the poor young fellow died at sea. This is the only -picture of him, and I know how badly my brother would feel if it were -lost. So will you take charge of these old family albums, Mr. Martin, -and deliver them in Bentville?” - -“Yes, I’ll be very careful of them,” promised Mr. Martin. “I know what -it means to lose such things.” - -“Didn’t they ever find the boy who was lost at sea?” asked Ted, to whom -this little story appealed greatly. - -“No, Ted, we never heard a word from him,” sighed Mr. Cardwell. “I -suppose the sea has him. He is as much lost as my dear little twin -girls are,” and he turned back to the pictures of the children. - -“I have a small chest, or box, down at the store, Mr. Cardwell,” said -Mr. Martin, as the caller was about to leave. “I’ll put your albums in -that chest so they will be safe.” - -“Thank you. Tell my brother, when you see him, why I sent them to him -this way--I didn’t like to trust the mails or the express, and I won’t -be out to Bentville myself until fall.” - -“I’ll tell him,” was the promise. - -Ted and Janet were looking at the queer, heavy covers of the old books -and wondering what games the pictured children used to play when they -were on earth, when suddenly from outside came a number of sounds. - -There was the sound of the clanging of bells, the blowing of whistles -and the shouting of men and boys. - -“It’s a fire! A fire down the street!” cried Ted, as he raced to the -door. “Oh, Mr. Cardwell, I guess your house is on fire!” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -A BIG CROWD - - -Nothing causes quite so much excitement as does a fire. And when the -fire is on your own street, and near your house, and perhaps in the -home of some one you know--why, then there is excitement enough to -cause even the grown-ups to move about quickly. - -And this is just what happened when Ted Martin called out: - -“I guess your house is on fire, Mr. Cardwell!” - -Mr. and Mrs. Martin, as well as their visitor who had brought the two -old photograph albums with him, ran to the door. And you may be sure -that Janet was there ahead of them, for she had heard what her brother -shouted. William, also, was right there, making his way in and out -among chairs until he finally pushed through between Ted’s legs as that -lad stood on the porch. - -“I’m goin’ to fire!” cried the little fellow. - -“No, Trouble! You stay here!” commanded Ted, catching hold of him just -in time. - -“It is a fire, surely enough,” declared Mrs. Martin, when she had -looked down the street. - -“And it’s near my house, if it isn’t in it!” exclaimed Mr. Cardwell. -“Excuse me!” he said hastily, as he pushed his way between Ted and -Janet on the steps. “But I’d better get down there!” - -“I’ll come and help,” offered Mr. Martin. - -“May I come?” asked Ted. - -“No, Son, you stay with your mother,” directed his father. - -As the two men hurried out of the front gate, joining the throng that -was running toward the scene of the fire, Mrs. Martin took Trouble by -one hand and Janet by the other and said: - -“We’ll just walk down a little way to see what’s going on. Come along, -Ted.” - -Much pleased that he did not have to stay away altogether from the -fire, the Curlytop lad followed his mother and the others. The engines -were already on hand, and it was their puffing and tooting of whistles -that had made some of the noise. - -“It isn’t Mr. Cardwell’s house, though,” said Mrs. Martin, when she and -the Curlytops, with Trouble, had gone far enough down the street to see -just where the fire was. “It’s next door to him.” - -“I wouldn’t want a fire next door to me,” sighed Janet. - -“I would!” cried Ted. “You could see it fine!” - -“A fire is a terrible thing,” said Mrs. Martin. “We shouldn’t want one -anywhere near us.” - -“Oh, no, of course not! I don’t exactly _want_ one,” admitted Ted. “But -if one has _got_ to come I wish it would be near our house, but not in -it, so I could see it good.” - -“This isn’t a very big fire,” observed Janet, when they had watched for -a few minutes. “I guess it’s out now.” - -“I hope so,” said her mother. - -And such proved to be the case, for in a little while the firemen who -had rushed into the home of Mr. Blakeson, next door to the residence of -Mr. Cardwell, came out with a long, thin hose. It was the hose from the -chemical engine, and not the big water hose. - -“It was only a fire in the chimney,” said Mr. Martin, as he came -walking back with Mr. Cardwell. “No damage done, but the folks were -pretty well frightened. They put it out with chemicals.” - -“How could a chimney be on fire?” Jan wanted to know. “A chimney is -brick, and bricks can’t burn.” - -“It isn’t the bricks that burn,” her father explained. “But when a -chimney has been used a number of years it gets coated, or lined on -the bricks inside, with soot. Soot contains oils and other things that -burn. Finally, some day, a hot fire sets the soot inside the chimney on -fire, and it burns fiercely. And if it burned long enough it would make -the bricks so hot that they would set fire to the roof or the wooden -parts of the house near them. That’s why a chimney fire is dangerous, -even though the bricks themselves can’t burn.” - -“Did they put salt on the fire?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“Ho! Ho!” laughed Ted. “I’ve heard of putting salt on the tail of a -wild bird to tame it, but I didn’t know you put salt on a fire.” - -“Yes, you do, sometimes,” stated Mr. Martin. “Salt is said to put out -chimney fires. Some sort of chemical is released when salt is heated, -and this smothers the fire in the chimney. But the firemen put this -fire out, and without any damage being done.” - -“I’m glad of that,” said Mrs. Martin, as they went back to the house. - -“And I’m glad the fire wasn’t in my house,” remarked Mr. Cardwell. “If -it had been, and if those albums had burned, with those pictures of my -children and my brother’s boy--pictures we never could get again--my -wife and I would have felt very sad. My wife thinks a great deal of -those albums. I’ve been planning for a long time to send them out to my -brother, but we never dared trust them to any one before. I hope you -will take good care of them, Mr. Martin.” - -“Oh, I surely will, Mr. Cardwell,” replied the father of the Curlytops. - -That night, when the children were in bed and Mr. and Mrs. Martin -were quietly talking over their plans for the coming tour around the -country, Mrs. Martin said: - -“I almost wish you didn’t have to bother with those two big albums of -pictures, Dick!” - -“Why?” asked her husband. - -“Oh, just suppose something happens to them?” - -“Nothing will happen to them. I’ll pack them in that small chest I have -down at the store, and we’ll put it in the back of the auto. When we -reach Bentville I’ll give the albums to Mr. Cardwell’s brother. That -will end the matter.” - -“I shall be glad when it is ended,” said Mrs. Martin, as she carefully -carried the precious old books of pictures upstairs with her. - -“What are you going to do with them, my dear?” asked her husband, as he -noticed what she was doing. - -“I thought I’d have them handy so I could pick them up and run out with -them in case our house caught fire during the night.” - -“Oh, nonsense!” laughed Mr. Martin. “Nothing is going to happen!” - -But it did. Not that night, nor the next night, but before very long, -as you shall read. - -Ted and Janet, with Trouble also, were very busy the next day, going -over their toys and playthings to pick out the things they wanted -to take on the tour with them. Jan had a number of dolls, a ball, -some books, a few things she thought her dolls might need and even a -carriage. Ted had picked out some books, his top, a pair of roller -skates and a bow and arrows. - -“Why, children, you can’t take all those things!” laughed their mother. -“There wouldn’t be room in the auto, for one thing, and, besides, you -will have no time to play with your toys. We shall be traveling most -of the day, and at night you’ll want to sleep. Don’t take any of those -things.” - -After some talk Ted and Janet agreed to limit the toys they would take -with them. Janet picked out the doll she liked best and one book, and -Ted took a ball and a book. As for Trouble---- - -Well, by the time Mrs. Martin had settled on what the two older -children could take, she had forgotten about Trouble. Then, all of a -sudden, she remembered him. - -“Where is William?” she asked. - -Ted and Janet looked at each other. They, too, had forgotten their -small brother. But a moment later a cry was heard: - -“Come and get me out! Come and get me out!” - -“There’s Trouble now!” exclaimed Janet. - -“Oh, what has happened to William now?” sighed Mrs. Martin. - -By this time Janet had run into the front yard, and from there she -shouted: - -“Here’s Trouble! He’s all right! But he’s got his head stuck in the -fence and he can’t get loose!” - -Mrs. Martin and Ted rushed out to find that the little boy had stuck -his head in between two pickets of the fence, at a place where one -picket was loose. His head had gone in easily enough, but when he tried -to draw back his ears stuck out so he couldn’t. - -“Oh, my poor little William!” said his mother. - -“I’ll get him loose!” exclaimed Ted, which he did, by pulling off the -loose picket so there was room enough for his little brother to draw -back his head. - -Trouble was frightened, and the skin, back of his ears, was scratched a -little, but otherwise he was not hurt. - -“What made you stick your head through the fence like that, William?” -his mother asked him. - -“I--now--I was pickin’ a flower to take in the auto with us,” Trouble -explained. “I reached through the fence to get the posie.” - -“Oh, the little darling!” murmured Jan, kissing him. “I’ll pick flowers -for you,” she offered. “Don’t stick your head through the fence again.” - -She went out and found where her little brother had reached out to -gather some flowers that grew just beyond the fence. He could have -gone out of the gate to get them, but, instead, he reached through the -pickets. Jan picked some blossoms and took them to Trouble. - -Such happenings as this did not worry Mrs. Martin much, for so many of -them took place each day that she was getting used to them. Trouble -soon stopped his crying and went out to play with Ted and Janet, while -their mother went on with the preparations for the auto tour. - -Mr. Martin, that day, brought home the small, stout box to hold the -Cardwell albums, and they were put in and locked up, ready to be taken -to Mr. Reuben Cardwell of Bentville. - -In a few days all was in readiness for the start. Mr. Martin left his -store in charge of his head clerk, the house was closed up, the auto -had been piled with valises, and the tent, for sleeping at night, had -been strapped on the running-board. In piled the Curlytops and Trouble -and Mr. Martin blew the horn. - -“Good-by! Good-by!” called friends, neighbors and the playmates of the -children. - -“Good-by! Good-by!” echoed the Curlytops. - -Just then along came running Jack Turton, a funny little fat chap. He -was all out of breath. - -“What’s the matter, Jack? Is there a fire?” asked Mr. Martin, as he was -about to start the auto. - -“No, sir. But there’s a terrible big crowd down in the meadow near the -white bridge!” gasped Jack. “Oh, it’s a terrible big crowd, and I’m -going down to see. Maybe there’s somebody drowned!” - -Away he rushed, as fast as his fat legs would take him. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -MOVING PICTURES - - -Well did the Curlytops know the place spoken of in such a hurry by fat -Jack Turton. Ted and Janet had often gathered flowers in the meadow, -and Ted had, more than once, caught fish under that same white bridge -spoken of by the fat lad. - -“The water is deep down by the white bridge,” said Ted, as he watched -Jack hurrying down the street. Other children, gathered to say good-by -to the Curlytops, had heard what Jack said about a big crowd in the -meadow, and they were following him down to the place. - -“I hope no one is drowned,” murmured Mrs. Martin, looking at her three -children in the auto and feeling thankful that they were safe with her. - -“Oh, Daddy!” exclaimed Janet, “couldn’t we drive down past the meadow -on our way and see what the crowd is there for?” - -“Maybe it’s a circus!” exclaimed Trouble, who had caught some of the -talk, but didn’t know exactly what it was all about. - -“No, it can’t be a circus,” declared Ted. “There haven’t been any -circus posters around town. I’d have seen ’em if there was.” - -“It isn’t a circus,” decided Mr. Martin. “I think, as long as we have -time, that I’ll drive around that way. We can take the road over the -white bridge as well as any other.” - -In fact, the Curlytops were going to tour around the country, not going -to any certain place at any certain time, so they could do as they -pleased, which is half the fun of touring. - -“Dick,” said Mrs. Martin, touching her husband gently on the arm as he -was about to start the car down the street after Jack and the other -children, “perhaps we had better not go down there.” - -“Why not?” he asked. - -“If it’s a drowning it would be a sad sight, and----” - -Mr. Martin appeared undecided as his wife brought this thought to his -mind, and it might have been that he would have taken some other -route, except that he saw Doctor Whitney driving along in his small -car. The physician was coming from the direction of the white bridge. - -“Dr. Whitney will know if an accident has happened,” said Mr. Martin. -“If there’s been a drowning he wouldn’t be coming away from it. He -would stay there and try to save the drowned person.” - -“Please ask him,” suggested Mrs. Martin. - -Accordingly her husband called: - -“Anything the matter down at the white bridge, Doctor?” - -The doctor brought his car to a halt near that of the Curlytops, and -waved his hand to the children after he had raised his hat to Mrs. -Martin. - -“Drowning at the white bridge?” he asked. “No, nothing like that. -Though there may be if they keep on. There’s a big crowd there and some -of the youngsters may fall in.” - -“What’s going on?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“Is it a circus?” Trouble asked. “I’d like to see a nellifunt!” - -“Yes, you saw one once!” laughed his mother. - -“No, it isn’t a circus, though the kids are having almost as much fun -as if there was one,” chuckled the doctor. “And the men are having as -much trouble trying to keep the boys and girls back as though there -were two circuses.” - -“Sounds rather interesting!” laughed Mr. Martin. “But I’m glad no one -is drowned--that’s what fat little Jack suggested.” - -“What in the world is it?” asked Mrs. Martin, and Ted and Janet -listened eagerly to the answer of the physician, for they could not -imagine what was happening at the white bridge. - -“It’s moving pictures,” the doctor replied. - -“Moving pictures!” cried the Curlytops together, just as twins might -have done. But Ted and Janet were not twins, though they were born on -the same day of the year. Ted was exactly a year ahead of his sister. - -“I didn’t know they were showing movies in the meadow,” said Mr. Martin. - -“They aren’t _showing_ moving pictures,” replied Doctor Whitney. -“They’re _taking_ them.” - -“Taking movies!” gasped Ted. “Oh, I want to see that!” - -“Real moving pictures?” Janet wanted to know. - -“I guess they’re real enough,” answered the doctor. “I don’t know much -about such things, but there is a company of men and women down in the -meadow, posing around on the bridge and on boats in the river. They’re -all painted up--I mean their faces--and they are wearing fancy clothes. -A lot of men with megaphones are shouting directions, and other men are -grinding away at the cranks of moving picture machines. So I guess it’s -real enough.” - -“Oh, Daddy, please take us there!” begged the Curlytops. - -“Shall we go, Mother?” asked Mr. Martin of his wife. - -“Yes, I would like to see it,” she answered. “And I’m sure the children -would be amused.” - -“Oh, say, I guess we would!” murmured Janet. - -“Come on, Dad! Step on it!” cried Ted, meaning for his father to press -on the gasoline accelerator of the car and move the machine faster. - -“Ted and Janet, they didn’t ’muse me,” remarked Trouble. “An’ Ted, he -fell down in the well--he did!” - -He remembered this event quite clearly. - -“Well, we hope no one falls into the river,” laughed Mrs. Martin, as -they said good-day to Doctor Whitney and moved along. A large creek, or -a small river, whichever way you looked at it, flowed under the white -bridge on the outskirts of Cresco. - -“Let’s go! Let’s go!” chanted Ted. - -“I’d love to watch them take movies,” remarked Janet. “I’ve never seen -them do it.” - -“I did once, at a baseball game,” stated Ted. “But it didn’t amount to -much. This’ll be a lot better.” - -As the Curlytops approached the white bridge and the meadow through -which flowed the river, they saw others also hurrying to the scene. For -Cresco was a small city, or a large town, you might say, and anything -like excitement--such as taking moving pictures near it--was sure to -draw a throng. - -As Mr. Martin drove his car over the bridge and down a lane into the -meadow, where many other cars were parked, there was no doubt about -what was going on. Moving pictures were certainly being taken there, or -“filmed,” to use the right word. - -“Oh, look at the cowboys!” cried Ted, for some of the actors were -attired in western suits--big hats, “chaps,” or leather breeches, -and spurs on their shoes, while some of them carried coils of ropes. -“They’re lassoes,” explained Ted. - -“Pooh, I knew that!” scoffed Jan. - -“Why, there’s quite a company of them!” remarked Mrs. Martin, as she -noticed the number of men and women who, it was plain to be seen, were -not residents of Cresco. They belonged to the company. “Why do you -suppose they came here to take pictures?” she asked her husband. - -“It’s hard to say,” he answered. “Probably the play they are taking -needed just such a scene in it as this bridge, river and meadow -provide. The company is out on ‘location,’ as it is called. That is, -they have come out from their studio, or the ‘lot,’ as they call it, -and they have found just the right location for making certain scenes.” - -“Oh, look, that lady is going to jump from the boat!” cried Janet, -pointing to a small skiff on the river, which held one young lady and -several men. - -The actress was, indeed, standing up in the bow of the boat and, as Jan -had said, seemed about to jump into the river. One man was rowing the -boat, and the other, in the stern, was moving forward as if to stop the -young lady from leaping overboard. - -“This is great!” cried Ted, with shining eyes. - -“Awfully exciting,” admitted Janet. - -“It’s like a circus,” said Trouble. “But I don’t see any nellifunts! -Where are the nellifunts?” - -Several persons standing near Mr. Martin’s car laughed at this. But -they quickly looked away from the Curlytops and toward the boat on the -river as the young lady in it gave a scream and leaped into the water, -making a great splash. - -“Oh, my goodness!” cried Mrs. Martin. “There’ll be a drowning after -all!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE ALBUMS ARE GONE - - -More than one, at least in the crowd that had gathered to watch the -movie folk, was almost as much excited as was Mrs. Martin, when they -saw the actress jump out of the boat into the river. But Mr. Martin -quickly understood that it was all part of the work of making moving -pictures, and said: - -“It’s all right, Mother! Don’t worry!” - -“They’ll get her out!” added Ted. “Look, there goes a man in after her -now!” - -As he spoke the man in the stern of the boat threw off his coat and -leaped with a great splash into the water after the young lady. - -“And they’re taking pictures of it all the while!” called out Jan. “Oh, -I wish I could see them on the screen!” - -What Janet said was true--from the time the boat started up the stream -near the white bridge until the moment when the young lady leaped -out and the actor leaped after her, men on the bank, and also men in -another boat, were quickly turning the handles of their moving picture -cameras, filming every action of the actors and actresses. - -“Why do they have three cameras, Daddy?” asked Janet, for she noticed -at least this number of men, with their caps on backward, grinding away. - -“There are two reasons for that,” answered Mr. Martin. “One reason is -that one film might be spoiled, and if it was the only one taken all -the work would have to be done over again. Another reason is that the -pictures give different views of the same scene, and it can not be -told, until after the films are developed and printed, which is the -best. So they take two or three, the same as a photographer takes more -than one picture of you when you go to his studio.” - -“Did they take more than one picture of the little twin girls that -died?” Janet asked, pointing to where, in a box in the rear of the -auto, the two Cardwell albums had been placed. “And did they take two -pictures of the boy who was lost at sea?” - -“I don’t know about that,” her father answered. “I suppose they did, -though the pictures were taken a number of years ago when it wasn’t as -easy to make photographs as it is now. When those twin girls and the -Cardwell boy sat for their portraits, moving pictures weren’t thought -of--at least, not as we see them now.” - -“There--they’ve got her!” cried Ted, as he saw the man from the boat -reach the girl who had leaped overboard. “She’s saved!” - -“Well, I’m glad of that,” remarked Mrs. Martin, with a sigh of relief. - -“But she wasn’t going to drown, anyhow!” went on the Curlytop lad. “She -knew, all the while, that she’d be saved, didn’t she, Daddy?” - -“I guess she did,” Mr. Martin admitted, with a smile. “These movie -people don’t take many chances. Of course, some of them who do ‘stunts’ -run into danger, but, in the main, they are pretty careful. I guess -this young lady was a good swimmer.” - -“They’re taking more pictures of her,” cried Jan. “Look! She’s on the -bank over there and they’re taking a lot more pictures of her.” - -“So they are,” agreed Mrs. Martin. “The poor thing--they won’t even -give her a chance to get into dry clothes.” - -“Probably the story of this movie doesn’t call for that,” suggested Mr. -Martin. “The young lady may have to be shown coming up from the water -dripping wet.” - -That seemed so, for as soon as the man who had jumped from the boat -into the water after the actress began to carry her in his arms up -the bank of the creek, some of the camera men ran around with their -machines and again began grinding very fast at the handles. - -“Oh, it must be wonderful to be a movie actress!” sighed Jan. - -“I’d like to be one of the cowboy actors!” exclaimed Ted, looking at -the men in western costume, who, just then, did not seem to have much -to do. They were standing idly about near their horses. - -“Well, if being a movie actress means jumping into a river with all -your clothes on, I beg to be excused,” laughed Mrs. Martin. - -“I’m glad we came here,” said Ted. “Aren’t you, Jan?” - -“I just guess I am!” she murmured. “Oh, look! Now she’s running away -from the man who saved her!” - -Indeed, this very scene was then taking place, and it caused some more -excitement. - -For the young lady, dripping wet as she had been taken from the water, -had rested on the bank only a moment, while some pictures of her and -her rescuer were taken, and then, with a scream, she broke away from -the man and rushed off across the meadow. - -But it was all part of the play that was being taken, for the Curlytops -noticed that the young lady was running straight toward a camera that -had been set up near a clump of willow trees. And as she approached the -machine the man behind it kept it focused, or “aimed,” as Ted said, -straight at the actress, picturing her every movement. - -“I wish they’d take a picture of a nellifunt!” sighed Trouble, and -again his queer remark caused a laugh. - -“I guess they haven’t any elephants in this outfit,” remarked a man -standing near the Martin auto. - -“What do you suppose it’s all about?” asked Mrs. Martin of her -husband, as they got out of the car and walked toward a group of the -picture people. “I mean what is the story they are filming?” - -“I don’t know, and I doubt very much if even those taking part in it -know what it’s all about,” said Mr. Martin. “You see,” he explained, -“in taking moving pictures they make views of all the scenes that take -place in a certain spot all at once. That’s so they won’t have to come -back to it again. Now they may take views of the cowboys here at the -bridge and also pictures of the girl in the boat. But the cowboy scenes -may be shown at the beginning of the finished film, and the scene we -have just witnessed may be at the very end. That’s how movie work is -done.” - -“Look, they’re going to take cowboy pictures now!” cried Ted, as he saw -some camera men approaching a group of the horsemen. And the cowboys, -who had been idly talking, now leaped to their saddles as if to be in -readiness for something. - -“Yes,” remarked Mr. Martin, as he glanced across the meadow, nodding to -several Cresco men whom he knew, “I think they have finished filming -the drowning lady for the present. She may put on dry clothes and -take part in some other part of the play. Now we’ll watch the cowboys. -They’ll make it lively, I think.” - -“Have we time to stay here and watch this?” asked Mrs. Martin, as she -followed her husband and the children from the auto out over the green -meadow. - -“Oh, yes,” he answered. “We are off on a pleasure tour, you know, and -this is giving the children as much pleasure as anything we could let -them see. It is educational, too, and this seems like a company of nice -people.” - -“Will it be safe to leave the car?” went on his wife. - -“Oh, surely!” laughed Mr. Martin. “No one will run away with it. There -are police here,” and he pointed to some of the Cresco force that -had gathered to keep order while moving pictures were being taken. -“Besides, I’ll lock it; then it will be safe.” - -This he did, and then he took the Curlytops, his wife, and Trouble over -where they would have a good view of what the cowboys were about to -enact. - -“What company is this?” asked Mr. Martin of Mr. Taylor, the feed -merchant. - -“Oh, it’s one that makes funny films,” was the answer. “Comedies, you -know. They have a studio in Mansfield, but they’re out here just for -the day. Quite a sight, isn’t it?” - -“Yes, it’s interesting,” admitted Mr. Martin. - -“Your children are taking it all in,” added Mr. Taylor, laughing. - -“They don’t miss much,” admitted Mr. Martin. - -By this time, with the Curlytops and Trouble in a place where they -would have a good view, that part of the play in which the cowboys had -a part began to be filmed. - -One actor waved his hat and flapped it against the sides of his pony, -starting it off at a fast gallop down the meadow. As he rode along the -children could see cameras grinding away, taking pictures of this fast -ride. Then, after the first man, rode a number of others. Now began a -scene of great excitement, for the cowboys chasing after the one who -had first ridden away began firing their big revolvers and shouting at -the tops of their voices. - -“My goodness!” cried Mrs. Martin, holding her hands over her ears at -the sounds of shooting. “I hope they aren’t firing real bullets!” - -“They’re only blank cartridges,” declared Teddy. “Aren’t they, Daddy!” - -“Yes,” was the answer. - -“Oh, look!” suddenly cried Jan. “One man fell off his horse!” - -That actually happened to one of the riders chasing after the lone -cowboy. Off his horse he rolled, tumbling over and over. The pony -got up after the fall and walked about, beginning to eat grass as if -nothing had happened. The cowboy, also, picked himself up and walked -with a limp over to get back on his steed. - -“I’m glad he wasn’t hurt,” said Mrs. Martin. - -“Oh, he did that on purpose!” said Ted. - -“I guess he did,” Mr. Martin agreed. “They want to make the picture -look as natural as possible, so often the riders fall off on purpose.” - -“I should think they’d be hurt,” observed the mother of the Curlytops. - -“Cowboys know how to fall,” said Ted. “Maybe I’m going to be a cowboy -when I grow up, and ride a bucking bronco.” - -“An’ maybe I’ll ride a nellifunt!” declared Trouble. - -After an exciting chase, which was all taken in by the cameras, the -cowboys quieted down. This seemed to be the end of making pictures -for that time and in that place. The actors and actresses hurried to -waiting automobiles, and the camera men began taking the long-legged -tripods from their machines. - -“You picked a good spot to leave your car, Mr. Martin,” said Mr. -Taylor, as the family was walking back to resume their tour. - -“What do you mean?” - -“Your machine is right next to that of Harry Portnay, the actor. That’s -his car there,” and Mr. Taylor pointed. “He’s getting into it now. His -car is the same make as yours and the same kind.” - -“Oh, is that Mr. Portnay?” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “I’ve often seen him -in the films. How interesting! He was one of the cowboys, wasn’t he?” - -“Yes,” agreed Mr. Taylor. “And he’s very funny. He’s the one who fell -off his horse.” - -“No wonder he knew how to fall!” laughed Ted. “I like him!” - -Indeed, Mr. Portnay was well known in the films, and quite a favorite -with boys and girls. Ted and Janet had often seen the Portnay pictures -in the Cresco theater. - -With wondering eyes at being this near to a real movie actor, the -Curlytops watched Mr. Portnay get into his car and drive away with -others of his company who had come to Cresco on location. - -“Well, I guess the excitement is all over,” remarked Mr. Martin, as the -crowd began leaving the field when the actors and camera men had moved -away. - -“But we saw a lot, didn’t we, Jan?” asked Ted. - -“It was wonderful!” she returned. “I’d like to see it all over again!” - -“But we must start on our tour, if we’re going,” said Mrs. Martin, as -she lifted Trouble into the car. “Come along, Curlytops.” - -Mr. Martin looked over his machine, to make sure everything was all -right. He counted the bags, valises, and other things they had brought -with him, and noted that the tent to be used for camping was on the -running-board. - -Suddenly he gave a start of surprise and asked his wife: - -“Did you move that box of albums?” - -“You mean the Cardwell albums?” - -“Yes. It was in the back of the car. Did you move it?” - -“No, I didn’t touch it. I saw it there when we got out, though.” - -“Well, it isn’t there now!” exclaimed her husband. “The Cardwell albums -with the old pictures in them are gone! I wonder who could have taken -them!” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -ON THE TRAIL - - -The Curlytops, and Trouble also, were so much taken up with watching -the moving picture people leave the meadow that for a time they did not -listen to what their father and mother were talking about. But at last -Jan heard something said about the Cardwell albums and asked: - -“Did we lose them out of our car?” - -“No; we had them when we parked here,” answered her father. “I remember -putting the box under a robe, so it wouldn’t be in plain sight. It -could be mistaken for a fancy box of lunch, I thought, and some hungry -boys, thinking it contained sandwiches, might be tempted to take it.” - -“Did they?” asked Ted. - -“Some one has taken the box with the albums in it,” answered Mr. -Martin. “It’s gone!” - -“Let’s look again, to make certain,” suggested his wife. “We don’t want -to make a fuss and then find the box, after all.” - -“I don’t believe we’ll find it,” replied Mr. Martin, and there was a -worried look on his face. “It isn’t in the car--it’s been taken out. -And what to say to Mr. Cardwell I don’t know! He will be very sorry to -learn that the albums are gone, for he never again can get pictures of -his twin girls who are dead. And that sailor boy’s picture, too! That’s -gone.” - -“Oh, perhaps we’ll find the box and the albums,” said Mrs. Martin more -cheerfully. “No one would really steal them--they would be of no value -to any one.” - -“No; and that’s what I can’t understand!” complained the father of the -Curlytops. “But the albums are gone, sure enough!” - -It really seemed so, for when the children--even Trouble helping--had -looked through the car, the box was not to be found. - -“Well, I don’t know what to do,” said Mr. Martin, walking up and down -with a worried air, beside his auto. “I don’t want to go back and tell -Mr. Cardwell we have lost his valuable relics. And yet it isn’t fair -to him not to let him know.” - -“Maybe he came here himself and got them,” suggested Ted. - -“What do you mean, Son?” asked his father. - -“I mean that maybe after he gave them to you he found out he was going -to Bentville himself, and he came here to tell you. He didn’t see us, -because we were looking at the cowboys, and he just took the box out of -our car.” - -“He wouldn’t do that without telling me,” said Mr. Martin. “No, -something else happened. I wish I knew what. I’d like to get those -albums back.” - -While Mr. Martin was still nervously pacing up and down beside his auto -and Mrs. Martin was making another search among the robes and valises -for the box, one of the cowboys who had taken part in the moving -picture rode past. Ted and Janet looked at him with eager eyes, for he -was a hero to them. - -Seeing the children, the actor smiled, and then, noticing that -something was wrong, he stopped his horse, removed his big, -broad-brimmed hat in a bow to Mrs. Martin and asked: - -“Is anything wrong? Can I help you? Did some of our people bump into -your car? I know that sometimes happens when a crowd gathers as we are -taking films.” - -“No, nothing like that happened,” answered Mr. Martin. “But I left a -box with some valuable books in it here in my car, and now the box is -gone. I suppose some one in the crowd thought it contained food and -made off with it. I wish they’d bring it back, for the books are of no -value except as keepsakes to a family in Bentville where we are going.” - -“What sort of box was it?” asked the cowboy, one of the last of the -moving picture actors to leave the green meadow near the white bridge. - -“It was a dark red wooden box, with inlaid pieces of light wood,” Mr. -Martin explained. “It had a brass handle to carry it by. It was a box I -used to keep my papers in at my store. But I had put these books in it -for safety. I might better have left them out.” - -“Was it a box about so long?” asked the cowboy, holding his hands out -about two feet apart. - -“Yes,” answered Mr. Martin. - -“Then I know where it is!” exclaimed the cowboy. - -“You do?” cried Mr. and Mrs. Martin together, while the Curlytops gazed -at the rider with eager eyes. As for Trouble, he was gazing at the -horse and murmuring: - -“You aren’t as big as a nellifunt! I fed a nellifunt peanuts once, I -did!” - -“Yes, I know where your box is; or at least, I know who took it,” went -on the actor. “It was all due to a mistake.” - -“Who has it?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“I think you will find it in the car of Mr. Harry Portnay, our head -actor, or leading man, as we call it,” replied the cowboy, with a smile. - -“What would he be doing with old photograph albums?” asked Mr. Martin. -“For those are the books in the box--just old photograph albums, though -they contain pictures highly valued by those who own them.” - -“Mr. Portnay didn’t want the albums,” said the actor, who gave his -name as Ned Weldon. “But his helper, Jim Lewis, took them to him by -mistake. Lewis thought your box was Mr. Portnay’s make-up box.” - -“Make-up box? Do you mean the box with false mustaches and grease paint -and things like that in it?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“Yes,” answered the cowboy. Later Mrs. Martin explained to the -Curlytops that actors when they “dress up” as different characters must -also change their faces as well as their clothes. They must sometimes -put on powder and paint, as well as false hair and beards. And each -actor has what is called a “make-up box,” consisting of many things -which enable him to make himself up to look like some one else. - -“This is how it happened,” went on Mr. Weldon. “Your car was parked -next to that of Mr. Portnay. I remember seeing that as I rode about -taking part in the picture. He has the same make and model car that you -have. - -“During the cowboy race Mr. Portnay happened to want something from his -make-up box. I heard him tell Lewis to go and get it. I was sitting -on my horse near Mr. Portnay when Lewis came back with a box such as -you describe. At first it looked a good bit like Mr. Portnay’s make-up -chest, but our leading man knew right away that it wasn’t. - -“Lewis, by mistake, had gone to your car and taken your box of albums -in place of Portnay’s make-up box. Portnay laughed at the mistake, and -sent Lewis back to get the right box. - -“Now, in all probability, what happened was this. Instead of putting -the box of albums back in your car, Lewis put it in Mr. Portnay’s car -and also took from that car the make-up box. He left your box in Mr. -Portnay’s car and now our leading man has gone away with it. That’s -what happened to your albums, I feel sure. No one took them purposely.” - -“Yes, it must have happened as you say,” agreed Mr. Martin. “I’m glad -to learn the books weren’t stolen.” - -“But how can we get them back?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“The albums aren’t ours--we are carrying them for a neighbor, Mr. James -Cardwell,” explained Janet primly. - -“Yes, that’s it,” said the little Curlytop girl’s father. - -The cowboy actor looked at his watch and seemed to be trying to -calculate something in his mind. - -“We’re to take more scenes on location, as we call it, to-morrow,” he -said. - -“Do you mean here?” asked Mr. Martin. “We planned to go on, but if it -means getting back the albums we can stay.” - -“No, not here,” answered Mr. Weldon. “Our next scenes will be taken at -Cub Mountain, about fifty miles from here.” - -“I know where Cub Mountain is,” said Mr. Martin. “I’ve been there, -but I didn’t intend visiting it on this tour. You see, we are touring -around for our summer vacation,” he added. - -“I see,” remarked Ned Weldon. “Well, Mr. Portnay and the rest of the -company, or at least most of us, will be at Cub Mountain this time -to-morrow, or a little earlier. We are taking scenes about a log cabin -on the mountain. If you are there you can very likely see Mr. Portnay -and get back from him your box which his man took in mistake for the -make-up chest.” - -“Couldn’t we catch Mr. Portnay before then?” asked Mr. Martin. “I mean, -couldn’t we trail after him now and come up with him somewhere before -he reaches Cub Mountain?” - -“You might try,” said the man who played the part of a cowboy. “He is -going through Midvale, which is about halfway there. Probably he’ll -stop in Midvale all night. He’ll be very sorry this has happened, and -he’ll be glad to give you back your box.” - -“Thank you,” replied Mr. Martin. “Then I think the best thing for us -to do is to take the trail after this Mr. Portnay. I can get back -the albums without having to worry Mr. Cardwell about them. Come on, -children!” - -“Yes, I’s comin’,” murmured Trouble. - -Into the auto scrambled the Curlytops and Trouble. Mrs. Martin took her -place beside her husband, and, waving a farewell to the cowboy actor, -they started on the trail of Mr. Portnay. - -The green meadow by the white bridge was now almost deserted. The -curious ones from the city of Cresco had left, and so had the moving -picture people, with the exception of the actor who had solved the -mystery of the disappearance of the albums. - -“Well, we are having rather an exciting start of our tour,” laughed -Mrs. Martin, as the auto rolled along the smooth road. “First we meet -these interesting moving picture people, and then we have to chase -after them. It’s very exciting.” - -“It’s lots of fun!” laughed Janet. - -“I hope we see some more cowboy races,” remarked Ted. - -They rode on for several miles, and as they went slowly around a bend -in the road, Trouble called out: - -“Look! Look! Look at the monkey!” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -OFF AGAIN - - -Trouble Martin was not given to calling out alarms like this; so, at -first thought, his mother imagined he was playing some sort of joke. - -“William, you mustn’t say such things!” she exclaimed, with a little -laugh, giving him a playful shake. “There aren’t any monkeys in these -woods.” Just then they were slowly passing along a road over which the -branches of big trees arched. - -“You didn’t see any monkey!” cried Ted. “If you saw anything it was one -of your ‘nellifunts,’ Trouble.” - -“I did see a monkey!” insisted the little fellow. “There he is now. -He’s swinging in a tree!” and he pointed ahead. - -Mr. Martin was now running the auto very slowly, for there was a bad -place in the road where it had been dug up. So there was plenty of -time for them all to look where Trouble pointed with his chubby finger. -Jan, the first to see something, cried: - -“It is a monkey! Oh, look! He’s hanging by his tail from a tree!” - -Then they all saw it, and as Mr. Martin stopped the machine just -beneath the swaying monkey, Mrs. Martin exclaimed: - -“What in the world does it mean? Trouble, I beg your pardon! You were -right, after all! I thought you were fooling.” - -“He’s my monkey!” declared the little fellow. “I saw him first! He’s -mine!” - -“If you can get him!” chuckled Ted. “But I guess he’s going to stay up -there out of reach.” - -“How do you suppose a monkey comes to be in these woods?” asked Mrs. -Martin of her husband. “Could it have escaped from a circus?” - -“There’s nellifunts in a circus,” announced Trouble, getting back to -his favorite subject. - -“Yes, this little chap might have come from a circus,” said Mr. Martin, -with a smile, as he looked up at the monkey, now swinging above his -head. “Or from some house. Some people have monkeys for pets.” - -“Maybe it belongs to the moving pictures!” exclaimed Ted. “They have a -lot of animals in the pictures.” - -“I don’t believe it was with Mr. Portnay’s company,” Mrs. Martin -remarked. “We didn’t see any such animals there. But what are we going -to do about this one?” - -“Guess we’ll have to leave him where he is--up in the tree,” answered -her husband. “He can’t do much harm, and since it is summer, he won’t -suffer from the cold. If winter was coming on he’d be a pretty sick -monkey--out in the open like this.” - -“I wish I could have this monkey!” pleaded Trouble. “I like a monkey -better’n I do a nellifunt, I guess!” - -“Well, that’s quite a thing for you to say!” laughed the little -fellow’s father. “But I’m afraid we can’t get you this for a playmate. -Hold fast, children, I’m going to start.” - -As he was about to let in the clutch and send the car ahead, there -appeared, running around the bend in the road, an excited Italian organ -grinder with his music box. He was running fast, and when he caught -sight of the auto he cried: - -“You seena da monk? You seena da monk?” - -At this moment the monkey in the tree, still swinging by his tail, -began to chatter shrilly. Doubtless he had caught sight of his master -and the organ to which tunes the monkey danced. And as the monkey -chattered the Italian looked up, catching sight of his pet. - -“Ah, da monk! My leetle monk!” he exclaimed, and then he talked in his -own language. After which he again spoke English, saying: “Come down, -Mickey! Come down to papa!” - -The children laughed at this, and the Italian joined them in the mirth. - -“He gooda da monk, but he run away,” explained the man. “Da string, she -break, Mickey go ’way. Come down! Come down!” he begged, holding out -his cap. “Come to papa!” - -But the monkey did not appear to want to come down. It turned right -side up, no longer swinging by its tail, but sitting on a branch. - -“If you had some peanuts he’d come down for those,” suggested Ted, -searching through his pockets, hoping to find a stray “goober.” - -“Mickey lika da peanut, but Mickey lika da banan mooch better,” said -the Italian. “If I hada da banan, down queek he come.” - -“I have a banana,” said Mrs. Martin. “I bought some after we left the -moving picture place, and the children didn’t eat all of them. Here’s a -banana for Mickey,” she added, handing to the Italian organ grinder one -of the yellow fruits. - -“T’ank you,” murmured the man. Then, peeling the banana, he bit off a -little end of it and held the remainder out so the monkey could see it. -“I no fool you,” the man murmured to his pet. “Dese banana, he good! -See, I eat some of heem!” - -Again he took a nibble as if to prove to the watching monkey that the -fruit was real and good. And, seeing this, the monkey gave another -chatter and then began to climb down the tree. Once he had made up his -mind to descend, he lost little time, and he was soon perched on the -organ eating the banana while his master fastened to the collar the -little animal wore, the end of the string from which Mickey had broken -loose. - -“Now you be da good monk and come weeth papa!” said the organ grinder, -at which the Curlytops laughed again, the Italian joining in. - -“Mother, isn’t it funny for him to call himself the monkey’s papa?” -whispered Jan. - -“Rather funny, yes,” admitted her mother. “But the Italians are like -that.” - -“I t’ank you for catcha da monk,” said the Italian, taking off his hat -and bowing to Mrs. Martin, as Mickey finished the banana. “Mebby I -never no get heem if so dat he not smell da banana.” - -“I’m glad I had one to tempt him down with,” replied the mother of the -Curlytops, with a smile. - -“Does your monkey act in moving pictures?” asked Ted, as the traveler -got ready to move along. - -“Da movie pitcher--no--no!” cried the Italian. “Mickey he only -hand-organ monk--no movie da pitcher monk! Goo’-by! T’ank you!” - -“Good-by!” echoed the Curlytops and the others. - -Then Mr. Martin started his car along the road while the Italian, glad -that he had recovered his pet which had run away from him, went in the -other direction. - -“Well, another adventure on our tour,” laughed Mrs. Martin. “I couldn’t -imagine what Trouble meant when he called out about a monkey in the -tree.” - -“Neither could I,” said the little fellow’s father. “I thought he was -fooling.” - -“We’ll have to pay more attention to Trouble after this,” said Ted. - -“Next time he may see a bear!” laughed Jan. - -“Don’t like bears!” murmured the little fellow, who was getting sleepy. -“Like nellifunts an’ monkeys, but not bears.” - -“Well, I don’t believe we are likely to meet any bears,” said Mr. -Martin. “What I would like to meet, though, is that moving picture -actor with the Cardwell albums.” - -“We’ll find him at the hotel in Midvale and get the albums back,” said -his wife. - -“I hope so,” her husband answered. - -They were now on their way again. Since Mr. Martin had made no special -plans for their touring vacation, he and his wife decided that it would -be as well to stop in Midvale for the night, and go on in the morning, -as it would be to try to reach some more distant place. - -“Will we sleep in the tent at Midvale?” asked Ted, when signs along the -road showed the Curlytops that they were entering that small city. - -“No, I think we’ll go to the hotel,” replied Mr. Martin. “We have to -stop at the hotel, anyhow, to catch this movie actor, so we may as well -stay all night.” - -“It would be more fun in the tent,” urged Ted. - -“Heaps more fun,” agreed his sister. - -“Oh, we’ll have enough of tent life before we finish this tour, -children,” laughed Mrs. Martin. - -They reached the Midvale hotel about five o’clock that afternoon. Mr. -Martin told his family to remain in the car until he went in to make -sure they could get rooms. He came out a little later and there was a -look of disappointment on his face. - -“Can’t they take us in for the night?” asked his wife. - -“Yes, we can stay here. But Mr. Portnay isn’t here. I can’t get the -albums from him.” - -“Not here? Then, where is he?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“He stopped here, but has gone on,” her husband answered. “He has gone -on to Cub Mountain, and, I suppose, has the box of albums in his car -with him. Perhaps he doesn’t know about them, and they may get lost. I -wish he had stayed here until I came!” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -AT THE FARM - - -While the young Curlytops did not think much about the missing albums, -they could see that their father was worried because he had not got -them back from Mr. Portnay. And anything that worried their father and -mother also worried Ted and Janet. - -For they could see that Mr. Martin was bothered by the failure to meet -the moving picture actor and get back from him the box his man had -taken by mistake, thinking it contained false hair, false beards and -make-up paint. - -“What are you going to do?” Mrs. Martin asked her husband. - -“I hardly know,” was his answer. - -“Can’t you telephone or telegraph on ahead to Cub Mountain and ask him -to wait for us, or to leave the box of albums where we can get it when -we arrive there to-morrow?” Mrs. Martin asked. - -“I might do that if I knew where to send a telegram or where to -telephone to Mr. Portnay,” answered her husband. “That’s what I should -have done here--sent a telegram to that actor at this hotel. He would -have received it and have left the box here for me. But I didn’t think -of that; so he has gone on, taking my box with him. Very likely, he -doesn’t even know he has it; he is so busy making this picture.” - -“You say you can’t reach him at Cub Mountain?” Mrs. Martin inquired. - -“No, the people at this hotel say Cub Mountain is only a small -settlement, and that there isn’t even a hotel there. If the moving -picture company doesn’t set up a camp, Mr. Portnay will probably -stop with some friends or in a private boarding house. There may be -telephones in some houses or cabins at Cub Mountain, but there is no -telegraph station there. The only thing to do will be to go on there.” - -“Now?” asked Ted, who was getting hungry and who looked at the Midvale -hotel with longing eyes. - -“Oh, no, we won’t go on now,” replied his father. “We’ll stay here for -the night and travel on to Cub Mountain in the morning. The roads -aren’t any too good. I want to travel them by daylight. Well, you may -as well get out and come in,” he told his wife and children. - -While Mrs. Martin was signing her name to the hotel register, she -listened to her husband talking to the clerk about the moving picture -actor. - -“Yes, he was here,” the clerk said; “he and a number of his company. -But the crowd stayed only to eat and then went on. I heard one of them -say they had a lot of scenes to take at Cub Mountain, and they wanted -to start the work early in the morning.” - -“Did you see Mr. Portnay have a reddish brown box, about so large?” -inquired Mr. Martin, showing the size of the little chest containing -the albums. - -“No, he didn’t bring in any baggage,” was the answer. - -“Then it’s probably still in his car,” said the Curlytops’ father. “I -hope I can get it back to-morrow.” - -They went up to their rooms, Ted and his father having one, with two -beds in it, while Mrs. Martin took Janet and Trouble in with her. - -“Better get ready to eat, children,” suggested their father, as he -noticed Ted and Janet looking from the windows out across the country, -for Midvale was on the side of a hill from which a good view could be -had. - -Mrs. Martin washed Trouble, and put clean clothes on him from the -supply carried in the valises, and thus he was first ready to go down -to the dining room. When neither his father nor his mother noticed him -he wandered out into the hall. - -Mr. and Mrs. Martin were ready to go down, and so were Ted and Janet, -when Trouble’s mother looked around for him. - -“Where’s William?” she asked. - -“I saw him go out into the hall,” answered Ted. “I’ll get him.” - -As he opened the door to go into the hall, the others following, they -heard the tinkle of broken glass, and then, directly afterward, a bell -began to ring. - -Instantly, throughout the hotel, which was not a very large one, there -was a great commotion. The elevator shot up to the floor where the -Martin family stood and the colored boy in the cage cried: - -“Come on! Git in! Ah’ll take yo’ all down ’fore de place burns!” - -“Before the place burns? What do you mean?” asked Mr. Martin. “The -hotel isn’t burning!” - -“Yes, ’tis!” cried the colored elevator lad, his eyes big with fright. -“Doan yo’ all hear de ’larm!” - -“I do hear a bell ringing!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. - -There was more commotion in the hotel, and several guests began running -from their rooms, carrying bags and clothing. It began to look as if -there was a fire, but there was no appearance of flames, nor could Mrs. -Martin smell smoke. - -Then Ted exclaimed: - -“It was Trouble! He sent in a false alarm! Trouble pulled the fire -alarm! Look!” - -He pointed to the little fellow who was climbing down from a chair in -the hall. The chair was some distance down the corridor, and near a -small red box fast to the wall. - -In a moment Mr. Martin understood. He had seen these fire signal -stations in various places about the hotel. In front of a small iron -box was a sheet of glass, and hanging down from the box by a chain was -a little iron hammer. Directions on the box said to break the glass -with the hammer and pull down the hook inside, which could only be -reached when the glass was smashed. - -“Trouble smashed the glass and pulled the hook!” cried Ted. - -“I heard some glass break,” added Janet. - -Mr. Martin ran down the hall to the small boy, who stood near the -chair. On the carpet were pieces of shattered glass. - -“Trouble, did you do this?” cried his father. - -“I--now--I jist hit the glass a little wif de hammer and it did break,” -confessed William. “Den I pulled on de button hook!” - -“Well, you did more than that!” exclaimed his father, with a grim -laugh. “You sent in the alarm when you pulled the hook. There’s no -danger, my friends!” he called to the guests who were crowding out into -the corridor. “There’s no fire. It was a false alarm! I shall have to -punish my little boy for breaking the glass and sending in a false -alarm.” - -“Oh, don’t punish him!” murmured a lady, who in running from her room -had caught up a canary bird in a cage and a pair of old slippers. She -hardly knew what she was doing in the excitement. - -“No, he didn’t mean to do it,” said a man. Trouble, by this time, knew -he had done something dreadful, and was crying behind his mother’s -skirts. - -Luckily, the alarm Trouble caused to be sent in was only a private one, -just in the hotel itself. It did not bring the Midvale fire department -out, for word went to the clerk downstairs that there was no danger and -he did not call out the engines or hook and ladder apparatus. - -So, after all, little harm was done, except to cause some excitement -and fright among the hotel guests. But this soon passed, and when the -Martins went to the dining room a little later, every one looked at -Trouble as a guest of some importance. - -“But don’t ever do it again!” his mother warned him. - -“No’m, I won’t,” he promised. - -The broken glass was swept up by one of the chambermaids, and a new -sheet put in front of the hook in the fire alarm box. - -That evening after dinner Mr. Martin took his family to the moving -picture theater near the hotel. You can imagine how surprised they -were when one of the pictures proved to have been made by Mr. Portnay’s -company, and he himself took a large part in it. - -There, on the screen, the children saw the very man they had watched -act in the green meadow that morning. Ned Weldon, the cowboy actor with -whom the children had talked, was in it, too. Of course these were not -the scenes they had watched being filmed, for that picture was far from -being finished. But it was very exciting to see the people they had so -recently watched. - -“I wish Portnay were here in person instead of only in the movies,” -remarked Mr. Martin, as they left the theater. “I’d ask him for those -rare albums. But I suppose we shall have to wait until we meet him at -Cub Mountain.” - -The next morning, after a quiet night, the Curlytops resumed their -tour, and made a safe trip to Cub Mountain, on which was a small -country settlement. The scenery was just wild enough to be the right -background for moving pictures. - -“Where are you going to inquire about Mr. Portnay?” asked Mrs. Martin, -as her husband stopped his car on what appeared to be the only, as -well as the main, street of the village. - -“Right here in the post-office,” he answered, for it was in front of -the post-office that they had stopped. “They’ll know here about the -moving picture people, I guess.” - -But again Mr. Martin was doomed to disappointment. For when he inquired -of the postmaster that official said: - -“Yes, there was a company of movie people here. But that was early this -morning--about three hours ago, I reckon.” - -“Have they left?” asked Mr. Martin, wishing he had made an earlier -start. - -“Yes, they went on to the Dawson Farm. They’re going to film some -scenes there, so I heard ’em say.” - -“Where is the Dawson Farm?” asked Mr. Martin. - -“About ten miles from here. Keep straight on and you can’t miss it. -It’s a big place--old-fashioned white farmhouse, red barns, and all -that. Just the thing for movies, I reckon.” - -“Thank you, I’ll go there,” said Mr. Martin, and when he rejoined his -family he said to his wife: - -“This Portnay actor keeps me on the jump. I wish he’d stay in one -place long enough for me to get back those albums.” - -“You’ll very likely catch him at the farm,” said Mrs. Martin. “But -perhaps it would be as well to telephone from here and say you are -coming.” - -“Yes, I’ll do that,” the Curlytops’ father said. - -He went back into the post-office, where he had noticed a telephone on -the wall. But when he asked if he could use it to send a message to the -Dawson Farm the postmaster smiled and said: - -“Well, you’re welcome to use it as far as I’m concerned, but you can’t -get Dawson’s Farm on that machine.” - -“Haven’t they a telephone?” Mr. Martin wanted to know. - -“Oh, yes, they have a ’phone. But this one here is out of order and it -won’t work. I’ve sent for a feller to fix it, but he hasn’t come.” - -“Is there another telephone here?” asked Mr. Martin. - -“No, this is the only one, and this is out of order. I’m sorry!” - -“I’m sorry, too,” Mr. Martin answered. “I’d like to get a message -through to Dawson’s Farm, so Mr. Portnay won’t again leave and take my -box with him.” - -However, there was nothing to do but to hurry on to the farm as fast as -they could go. The postmaster explained that the place was a real farm, -not one for moving picture purposes, though scenes were frequently -filmed there, as many farm animals were ready to be photographed as a -background for the actors and actresses. - -“It’s just like a game, isn’t it, Daddy?” said Teddy. - -“Like hide-and-seek,” added Janet, giggling. - -“Maybe,” agreed Mr. Martin. “But I don’t like playing the game very -much.” - -Down off Cub Mountain drove Mr. Martin with his auto load of family, -and after rather a bumpy trip over rough roads he turned onto a firm, -smooth highway and soon they read a sign which said it was but one mile -to Dawson’s Farm. - -“There it is!” cried Ted, a few minutes later, as they made a turn in -the road. Before them lay the big farm and buildings spoken of by the -Cub Mountain postmaster. And, as the Martins drew nearer, Janet cried: - -“I see the movie people! There they are!” - -She pointed to a number of persons, some on horses and others on foot, -who were, undoubtedly, some of the same ones they had watched in the -green meadow. - -“Now I’ll get those albums back,” said Mr. Martin. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -TROUBLE’S DANGER - - -“This is a dandy place!” exclaimed Ted, as his father guided the -auto into a lane that led from the main road up to the group of farm -buildings. - -“Indeed it is,” agreed Mrs. Martin. “I should like to spend part of our -vacation here, if they would let us.” - -“Look at the cows! Look at the cows!” cried Trouble, pointing to a herd -of fine animals in a distant pasture. - -“And what a lot of horses, too,” added Janet. - -Mr. Martin, however, was most interested in the company of moving -picture players clustered around one of the buildings. He was looking -for a sight of Harry Portnay who, by mistake, had taken the box of the -Cardwell albums. - -As the auto came to a slow stop not far from the group of movie folk -who were being filmed in some scene, a man on a horse rode up to the -car. - -“How do you do, Mr. Martin!” he said. - -“Oh, it’s Mr. Weldon!” exclaimed the father of the Curlytops, as he -recognized the movie cowboy actor who had first given the information -about Mr. Portnay’s man taking the album box by mistake. - -“Yes, I’m here again,” was the answer. “I just got my costume on. -They’re going to shoot me and some of the other boys pretty soon.” - -“Shoot you!” cried Ted, in surprise. - -“Oh, I forgot--you youngsters don’t know all the movie terms,” laughed -Mr. Weldon. “I mean they’re going to aim the moving picture cameras at -us and ‘shoot’ us that way--not with guns!” - -“Oh!” murmured Ted, laughing with the actor. “Well, I’m glad they -aren’t going to shoot you with guns.” - -“They shoot nellifunts with guns!” broke in Trouble. “But if I had a -nellifunt I wouldn’t let ’em shoot him. And we saw a monkey, we did!” - -“My, that’s a fine thing to see!” chuckled Mr. Weldon. “But I suppose -you saw Mr. Portnay and got back your box of valuable hot cross buns, -didn’t you?” - -“It wasn’t hot cross buns!” laughed Janet, for this actor had a jolly -way about him. “It was _albums_--albums for pictures, you know.” - -“Ah, yes, so it was! Albums!” said Mr. Weldon, with a smile. “I was -just joking, you know. But I suppose you got them back?” he said to Mr. -Martin. - -“No, I didn’t,” was the answer. “That’s why I came on here after them. -I missed Mr. Portnay in Midvale.” - -“That’s too bad,” returned the actor. “You’re out of luck again.” - -“What do you mean?” inquired Mrs. Martin. - -“Why, I mean Mr. Portnay isn’t here.” - -“Not here!” echoed Jan’s father. “Why, I thought this was his moving -picture company and that he’d surely be here. The postmaster at Cub -Mountain told me he had come on here.” - -“Some of us did after the scenes there were taken,” explained the actor -cowboy. “But Mr. Portnay didn’t. He isn’t in these pictures that are -going to be taken at the farm. Or, at least, he doesn’t come in until -later. So, while this is his company, or the company of which he is the -star, he isn’t needed just now; so he went back to New York. He left -just a little while ago to take the train.” - -“Dear me!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “It seems we are never going to catch -up with that man.” - -“It is rather unfortunate,” said her husband. “But perhaps he left my -box here,” he went on to Mr. Weldon. “He wouldn’t take that back to New -York with him.” - -“No, he wouldn’t if he knew what it was,” admitted the movie actor. -“But he leaves all such matters to his helper, Jim Lewis. And Jim -probably packed your box with the other baggage belonging to Mr. -Portnay and shipped it to New York.” - -“Is there any one here I could ask if the box has been left?” inquired -Mr. Martin. - -“Oh, yes; our director, Tony Birch. He’d know if any one would,” said -Mr. Weldon. “There he is over by the chicken houses. They’re going to -take a picture of Miss Marcell feeding the hens, I believe.” - -“Is Miss Marcell the young lady who jumped into the river?” asked Mrs. -Martin. - -“Yes, the same one. She’s our leading lady as Mr. Portnay is our -leading man.” - -“You stay here with the children, my dear,” said Mr. Martin to his -wife, “and I’ll go and ask Mr. Birch if he knows anything of my box of -albums that Mr. Portnay took. I’ll be right back.” - -The Curlytops watched their father cross a field and approach a group -of movie folk who were being filmed in some scene that had to do with -the fowls, of which there were a large number on the Dawson Farm. From -where they sat in the auto the Curlytops and their mother could see and -hear something of what went on. Trouble had gotten down out of the car -and was playing with a little puppy at one side, so he was accounted -for for the time being. - -As Mr. Martin approached the scene at the chicken houses he could see -Miss Marcell tossing grain to the hens and roosters. In front of her, -and to one side of a movie camera, was a man with a megaphone in his -hands. Through this he called directions to the actress as the man at -the camera ground the crank. - -“Not so fast! Not so fast!” cried Tony Birch, for it was the director -who was managing matters. “Don’t throw the chickens corn so fast, Miss -Marcell! You’ll make them have indigestion. Do it slowly, as if you -were a girl on a farm.” - -“All right,” was the smiling answer, and she began to scatter fewer -grains. - -“Oh, you’ll have to give them more than that or they’ll think you’re -stingy!” exclaimed the director. “There--that’s better. Shoot!” he -called to the camera man, and the latter, who had ceased grinding out -the film while the actress was being corrected, began again. - -When the scene was over Mr. Martin asked the director: - -“Did Mr. Portnay leave behind him a red box belonging to me? He took it -by mistake yesterday when you were at Cresco.” - -The director thought for a moment and answered: - -“No, I am sorry to say he didn’t. Mr. Portnay had to leave in a hurry -to get back to New York to arrange some matters, and I suppose he -didn’t think of your box.” - -“It may be that he doesn’t even know he has it,” explained Mr. Martin. -“His man Jim Lewis took it by mistake for a make-up box.” - -“Oh, I see. Um--yes. Well, I tell you the best thing to do. Mr. Portnay -will join us here in about a week. He’ll be in New York during that -time. I can give you his address and you can write or telegraph and ask -him to be sure and bring your box back with you.” - -“Thank you. But won’t he return for a week?” asked Mr. Martin. - -“No. We have a number of scenes to film here at the farm, and we are -going to stay for a week. They are scenes in which Mr. Portnay has no -part, so he isn’t needed here. But when he comes back he can bring your -box.” - -“I suppose that is the best I can do,” said Mr. Martin, a bit -disappointed. “But I am touring around with my family. I didn’t count -on staying here a week.” - -“It’s a good place to stay,” urged Mr. Birch, with a smile. “We movie -people have engaged board here, and there is room for more. Why don’t -you stay with your family? You’ll see some interesting sights. We’re -going to film a big part of the picture here. And Dawson’s Farm is a -good place for a vacation.” - -“So my wife said,” remarked Mr. Martin. “Well, I’ll talk to her about -it. The only way to get back those albums seems to be to get in touch -with Mr. Portnay personally, and I can best do that by staying here. -The children ought to like it,” he murmured, as he looked over the big, -pleasant farm. - -“Why, certainly! By all means, stay!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin, when told -of the situation. “We don’t have to travel on until we get ready.” - -“No,” agreed her husband. “And I certainly must get those albums back -or there will be trouble in the Cardwell family. Well, I guess the best -thing to do is to stay.” - -“Oh, goodie!” cried Janet, when she heard this. - -“Hurray!” shouted Ted. - -“Will they be any nellifunts?” asked Trouble. - -“No. But there are lots of other animals,” his mother said. “But will -they keep us here?” she asked her husband. “It’s a delightful place, -but with all these movie folk here, will there be room for us?” - -“Mr. Birch said so. But we can soon make sure of it,” said the father -of the Curlytops. - -Mr. Dawson, who owned and ran the big farm, was a jolly kind of man. -He was proud of his place, and one reason he consented to let the -movie people take scenes of it was so that other persons, all over the -country, would see what a fine farm his was. - -“They’re going to show a picture of me, too,” said Mr. Dawson to Mr. -Martin. “And the name ‘Dawson’s Farm’ is to go in some of the titles. -We farmers ought to make the world proud of us, and by showing movies -of a big farm like this city folks will think more of the man who tills -the soil.” - -“I agree with you,” said Mr. Martin. “But what about keeping us here?” - -“Plenty of room! Plenty!” laughed Mr. Dawson heartily. “And you say you -have two children?” - -“Three,” answered their father. - -“Three! So much the better! I love children! Bring ’em in! My wife will -want to see them! She loves children, too!” - -So it was settled that the Martin family was to remain at Dawson’s -Farm until Mr. Portnay came from New York, or else shipped back the -box of albums. Mr. Dawson kept quite an establishment, having a number -of hired men and servants, and he took the Curlytops and their family -right into his own house. The movie people “camped” out by themselves -in a separate building. They would do their own cooking and look after -themselves. But the Martins would eat with the Dawson family. - -“Oh, what a lot of fun we can have here!” cried Jan, after she and her -brothers had put on “old clothes” and were romping about. Mr. Martin -had gone to write a letter to Mr. Portnay which that actor would -receive in New York. Mrs. Martin was talking to Mrs. Dawson, who was a -kind, motherly soul with no children of her own. - -“I know just how you feel, losing that album with those little girls’ -pictures in it,” she said. “It’s worse than if it was your own, -belonging to some one else that way.” - -“Yes, that’s what Mr. Martin thinks,” said his wife. “Well, we hope -we’ll get it back.” - -“I hope so, too. Now I want the children to have a good time. Let them -do just as they please.” - -“Well, I can’t quite do that,” replied Mrs. Martin, with a smile. -“Though they’ll pretty nearly do that, anyhow,” she added. - -If she could have seen Janet and Ted then she would have had reason to -add to this, for the Curlytops were climbing an apple tree, where Ted -had seen some fruit that looked nearly ripe. - -“I’ll climb up and shake some down to you, Jan,” he had said. - -“You needn’t, thank you,” laughed Janet. “I can climb a tree as well as -you can!” - -“You can not!” declared her brother. - -“I can so! I’ll show you!” - -Toward the tree ran the Curlytops, and while they were climbing it -Trouble was doing something else. He had wandered off by himself, -though Mrs. Martin had told Jan and Ted to look after him. Going down -a path that led away from the orchard, he came to a field in which was -pastured an old boar, a savage pig with long, curving tusks--teeth that -stuck out like the tusks of an elephant. - -The sight of these tusks, small as they were, made Trouble think the -boar might be a small animal of the kind he was so interested in. - -“Oh, it’s a little nellifunt! It’s a little nellifunt!” cried Trouble. -“I’m going in an’ give him a peanut!” for he had asked his mother to -buy him some nuts just before reaching Dawson’s Farm and he had a few -of the goobers left. “I give you peanut, little nellifunt!” cried -Trouble, as he crawled in between two strands of the prickly wire -fence. His waist caught and was torn a little, but he didn’t mind that. - -The boar gave a grunt as he saw Trouble enter the field. The boar -wasn’t used to this. He didn’t very often have company, especially -small boys. And the boar was savage--he didn’t like company of any -kind! The only things he was afraid of were dogs and a man with a sharp -pitchfork or a big stick. - -So, as soon as Trouble crawled through the fence, the savage boar, with -loud grunts, made a rush for the little fellow. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -FUNNY FISH - - -When the boar, with deep grunts, started toward Trouble, the little boy -saw that he had made a mistake. It wasn’t a little “nellifunt” at all. - -“’Cause he didn’t have any trunk--that’s how I knew he wasn’t a -nellifunt,” Trouble explained to his mother afterward. “He had big -teeth, like a little nellifunt, but he didn’t have any trunk.” - -As soon as he had discovered it wasn’t a small elephant in the field, -Trouble began to be afraid. He didn’t exactly know what sort of -animal this might be. Dimly he remembered something about pigs on his -grandfather’s farm. But those pigs were cute little pink ones in a pen -with their big, fat mother pig. The mother pig lay on her side and -grunted. The little pigs ran around squealing. None of them acted as -did this savage boar. - -For that reason Trouble didn’t know exactly what to make of this. He -held out in his hand some of the peanuts he had taken from his pocket. -In the distance Trouble could hear the shouts of Jan and Ted as they -scrambled up the apple tree. But more clearly than anything Trouble -heard the grunts of the boar as it came nearer and nearer. - -“I--I don’t like you! Go on ’way!” called Trouble, after a second of -watching this big, ugly animal. “Go ’way!” - -But the boar still came forward. He was used to having his own way -except when a man with a dog or a pitchfork came in the field. More -than once this boar had chased boys and girls who, unthinkingly, had -wandered to this part of Mr. Dawson’s farm. Mr. Dawson always warned -people about going into the field where the boar was, but he had been -so busy with the movie folk that he forgot about it this time. - -Suddenly the boar gave such a loud grunt of rage, ending with such a -squeal, that Trouble was badly frightened. The little fellow began to -cry. He wished he hadn’t come into the field. - -The cry of their little brother reached the ears of Ted and Jan in -the tree. They had just begun to pick some of the fruit, but when they -heard Trouble they looked toward him. And what Ted saw made him drop an -apple after he had taken one bite. He scrambled down out of the tree -shouting: - -“I’m coming, Trouble! I’m coming! I wont let the pig bite you!” - -For Ted knew that boars are very savage when once roused. - -“I’m coming, too!” cried Jan. - -She tried to scramble down out of the tree, but slipped when on the -lowest limb and fell to the ground. Luckily she fell in a place where -the grass was long and thick, so she wasn’t hurt. She was merely jarred -a bit, and after getting back her breath she ran toward the fence, -through which Ted was crawling to reach Trouble. - -By this time the boar was close to the little fellow. Long before this -the savage pig would have rushed at the small boy, but, truth to tell, -the way Trouble stood there, crying, puzzled the boar. And when animals -are puzzled they don’t act as quickly as when they know just what is -going on. - -However, neither Ted nor Janet would have reached Trouble in time to -save him. For as Ted got through the barbed wire fence, which alone -prevented the boar from getting out of the pasture, there was a thud -and rush of feet and a voice shouted: - -“I’ll get him! Stand still, little boy!” - -The rush of feet were the galloping hoofs of a horse. And the voice -was that of Mr. Weldon, the movie actor. He rushed his steed toward -the fence, called to his mount, and, in another moment, the horse -sprang cleanly over the fence and rushed on toward the boar. But more -particularly Mr. Weldon guided his steed toward Trouble. - -As the little fellow turned to see whence came the pounding of hoofs -and the cheery call of the man, the rider leaned from the saddle and -in one hand picked up small William, swinging him up in front and to -safety. All the while the horse was going at top speed. - -In another moment Mr. Weldon had leaped his animal back over the fence, -and the boar was left alone in the field, doubtless wondering, in his -small brain, what had become of that boy he was going to gash with his -tusks. - -“There you are, little man!” said Mr. Weldon, as he brought his horse -to a slow pace and set William on the ground near Ted, who had crawled -back through the fence. “I wouldn’t go in that field again, if I were -you.” - -“I should say not!” cried Ted, who had been surprised with the -quickness of it all. “What made you go in there, Trouble?” - -“I--now--I thought he was a little nellifunt, an’ I was going to give -him peanuts!” sobbed the little chap, for he wasn’t yet over his fright. - -“Oh, elephant! He’s crazy about elephants!” explained Jan, who came -up just then. “I guess he thought the big teeth on that pig were -elephant’s teeth.” - -“I suppose so,” said Mr. Weldon. “But keep watch of him, so he doesn’t -go in there again.” - -“Yes, we will,” promised Ted. - -“And thank you for saving Trouble,” added Jan. - -“Oh, yes, thank you!” murmured Ted, who had been so taken up with -admiring Mr. Weldon’s horse and the manner in which the cowboy made his -steed jump the fence that he had little room to think of his manners. - -“That’s all right,” said the movie man, with a smile. “We have to do -harder things than that when we’re on the ‘lot.’ Well, I’ll see you -later,” and he rode back to join the others, for the camera men were -getting ready to film certain scenes down near one of the barns. - -Mr. and Mrs. Martin also thanked Mr. Weldon that night, after they had -heard how he had gotten Trouble out of danger. The Curlytops and their -friends were now well settled at the farm, where they would remain -about a week. - -“Though if Mr. Portnay sends back that box of albums any sooner, we -might travel on,” said Mr. Martin. - -“Oh, let’s stay here!” pleaded Jan. “It’s lovely here!” - -“We can have lots of fun,” added Ted. - -“Well, since we started this tour mainly to give you children a good -vacation time, and since you like it here, we might as well stay for a -while,” said their father. - -“But you must take better care of Trouble,” their mother warned them. -“I shan’t feel easy in my mind unless you promise to watch him all the -while he is with you. With these movie folk here at the farm there is -so much going on that Trouble may easily get into danger.” - -“We’ll take good care of him,” promised Jan. - -“I’ll take him with me wherever I go,” said Ted. - -“Well, then I’ll feel better about it,” said Mrs. Martin. - -It was because of his promise that the next day, when Ted and Janet -decided to go fishing, Ted called: - -“Come on, Trouble! You may come with us!” - -“Oh, I like fishin’!” declared the little boy. “I’m going to catch a -big one.” - -“I’ll leave him to sit on the bank near you,” whispered Ted to his -sister, “and I’ll go off a little way by myself. I never can catch any -big fish if I’m near him, for he’ll be pulling his hook in all the -while to see if he has a bite.” - -“I know he will,” said Janet. “I’ll take care of him while you fish.” - -Not far from the farmhouse was a stream winding in and out among a -grove of trees. In some places there were deep pools and eddies where, -some of the farmhands said, large fish could be caught. - -Ted picked out what he thought was a good spot and, posting Jan and -Trouble a little way from it, cast in his hook. - -He was sitting on a grassy bank near one of the deep pools spoken of -by some of the farm hired men. Here the water had worn out a place in -the shore, making what is called an eddy--a quiet, swirling bit of the -stream where big fish love to swim. - -Ted had not been fishing long when he felt that he had a bite. - -“Oh, I’ve got a big one!” he called to Jan, who was busy keeping -Trouble from falling into the stream. “I’ve got a whopper! Look, Jan!” - -He pulled up. Something black went sailing through the air over his -head. But no sooner had it landed than Ted found he had hooked an old -rubber boot! - -“Oh, jinks!” he cried in disgust. “Look at that!” - -“That’s a funny fish!” laughed Jan. - -“Well, I’ll get a real one this time!” declared her brother. - -In he cast again. There came a gentle tug on his line. - -“Now I’ve got a bite!” he shouted. Again he pulled up. Something -flopped on the grass behind him. - -But it was only an old shoe! - -“Say, what’s the matter here, anyhow?” demanded Ted. - -“Ha! Ha!” laughed his sister. “What funny fish!” - -“Look at Ted’s funny fish!” chuckled Trouble. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -FLIP-FLOPS - - -Pulling up a rubber boot in place of a fish wasn’t strange for the -first time, since Ted had before this done much the same thing when out -for a day’s sport. But when, the second time, he hooked an old shoe, it -was too much! - -If he had been fishing with some of the Cresco lads he would have -suspected a trick, for often one of them would slip away, reach for a -chum’s hook in a spot where he couldn’t be observed, and fasten on the -hook some queer object, putting it softly back into the water again and -waiting for the fun that was sure to follow. - -But Ted knew none of his chums were with him now, and Janet, though she -sometimes played tricks, was too far away, looking after Trouble, to -have put the boot and shoe on his hook. - -“Of course I might have picked them up off the bottom, but I don’t -believe it,” thought the Curlytop lad. “I’m going to watch.” - -“I got a better fish than yours!” boasted Trouble, holding up a small -“sunny,” which had rashly nibbled at his hook. - -“So you did,” admitted Ted. “But I’ll get a big fish soon.” - -“That was _big_ enough!” laughed Janet, pointing to the rubber boot, -from a hole in the toe of which water was running. - -“But it isn’t real,” said Ted ruefully. “Just you wait!” - -When Janet went back to the comfortable place she had picked out for -herself and William, Ted again took his position on the jutting-out -bank near the deep eddy. Once again he threw in his line, letting out -plenty of it. But this time, instead of gazing off at the distant -hills, Ted kept watch of his tackle. Presently he saw it begin to move -in toward the shore at a place where tall grass and rushes made a -secret hiding place. - -“That’s funny,” said Ted to himself. “If a fish was on my hook a fish -would move out toward the middle of the brook--not toward the bank.” -For this is true of fishes. Once hooked, they try to get into deep -water, hoping to get the sharp point out of their mouth. - -But Ted’s line was being slowly pulled in toward the grass-screened -bank, and it wasn’t at all as if a fish was hooked. - -“It might be a mud turtle,” thought the lad. “A turtle would go slow -like that--but not a fish. I’ll wait and see what happens.” - -His line was pulled in a little farther toward the bank. There was a -movement in the tall grass and the lad felt a tug on his pole as if a -fish were nibbling. It was just like the other two “bites” he had. - -“Now to see what it is!” thought Ted. - -But instead of calling to his sister to look what a big “fish” he had, -the lad kept quiet and began to haul in. - -Something heavy was on his hook, that was certain. But when he hauled -it up out of the water all that met his eyes was--an old rusty tin can! - -Janet looked up in time to see it sailing through the air and she -cried, as well as she could for her giggles: - -“Oh, Teddy! what’s the matter with you? More funny fish!” - -“It’s a trick--that’s what it is!” declared the Curlytop lad. “A -trick. Somebody down there in the grass is putting boots and shoes and -tin cans on my hook!” - -Dropping his pole, Ted made a dash for the clump of tall grass and -rushes where he had seen the cautious movements. Before he reached -the place there was a commotion there, and out and up leaped a queer -little man--a man who shouted and laughed and at once began turning -somersaults on the open place a little way back from the edge of the -stream. - -Backward and forward the queer little man turned somersaults. Then he -sprang up in the air, landed on his hands, and bounced back to his -feet. With a whoop he turned a “cartwheel,” and then rolled over and -over in the grass. - -“Oh, look! He’s doing flip-flops! He’s doing flip-flops!” cried Trouble -who, with Jan, had risen from his fishing place to look at the funny -man. “He’s doing flip-flops like the nellifunt man in the circus!” - -Indeed, this odd character seemed to have come from a circus, except -that he did not have on a gayly colored suit with shining spangles. - -As Ted watched the thought came into the lad’s mind that this strange -man was the one who had fastened the boot, the shoe and the tin can on -the fish hook. - -“Whoop-la! That’s the way to do it!” cried the man in a jolly voice, as -he walked around on his hands. He then very suddenly straightened up. -“How’s fishing?” he asked, as he walked toward Ted. - -“Why, it isn’t so very good--not with you around.” When Ted said this, -which might not be considered very polite, a smile came to his face. -One could not help smiling when one looked at the jolly countenance of -the “flip-flop man” as Trouble called him. - -“Oh, ho! So I spoiled your fishing, did I?” asked the acrobat. - -“Somebody did,” declared Ted. “That’s all I caught.” He pointed to the -rubber boot, the shoe, and the rusty tin can on the grass. - -“Oh, dear! That’s too bad! Too bad!” sighed the funny man. “And there’s -good fish in here, too. I know it, for I’ve pulled them out. Suppose -you try again.” - -“I will if you’ll stay up here and not go down there to put things on -my hook,” agreed Ted, pointing to the clump of tall grass near the -water’s edge, whence the man had come. - -“Oh, ho! So you suspect me, do you?” asked the tumbler. - -“Yes, I do!” laughed Ted. “Didn’t you do it?” - -“I’m like George Washington. I must tell the truth,” said the man. “I -did it. I hope I didn’t bother you. It isn’t too late to catch some -real fish. Come on--throw in again. I’ll sit here on the bank and keep -as quiet as a little mouse. Did you ever see a little mouse?” he asked -Trouble, winking first one eye and then the other at the small boy. - -“I--now--I saw a nellifunt,” was Trouble’s answer. - -“Hum! Then you must belong in the circus where I came from,” laughed -the man. - -“Oh, are you from the circus?” asked Jan eagerly. - -“I used to act in one--doing flip-flops and other clown work,” answered -the man. “Now I’ve joined the movies. I’m Jimmie Tizzy!” - -“Oh, are you Jimmie Tizzy?” cried Ted, for well he knew that name, -having laughed more than once at the funny antics of this clown of the -movies. - -“That’s who I am,” the man replied, with a laugh. - -“You don’t look like him,” ventured Jan doubtfully. - -“That’s because I haven’t my make-up on, nor dressed as you generally -see me,” said Mr. Tizzy. “But if you stay around here long enough -you’ll see me as I really am. I’m going to have a part with Mr. Portnay -next week.” - -“Oh, are you stopping here at the farm, and are you with Mr. Portnay’s -movie company?” cried Ted. - -“That’s right!” - -“We haven’t seen you before, and we’re staying at the farm, too,” said -Jan. - -“There are so many of us, it’s no wonder you missed me,” said Mr. -Tizzy. “I really haven’t done any acting for the camera since we came -here. My part doesn’t get filmed until next week. But I wanted to keep -in practice, so I came out here to do a few flip-flops. Then I saw you -fishing and I thought it would be fun to play a little joke on you. -I hid in the deep grass, pulled your hook in with a long stick and -fastened the boot on first. Then I put on the shoe and lastly the tin -can. Did you mind it?” - -“Oh, no,” admitted Ted, with a laugh. “At first it puzzled me. But it’s -all right. I hope I can catch some real fish now.” - -“I think you can,” said Mr. Tizzy. “I won’t play any more jokes.” - -Ted baited his hook anew and prepared to cast in again, while the funny -acrobat sat down on the bank near the Curlytop lad to watch him. - -“Come on, Trouble,” said Jan, in a low voice. “We’ll let Ted catch a -big fish for us.” - -But Trouble didn’t want to go. He dragged and held back. - -“Wait! Wait!” he begged. “I want to ast him suffin!” - -“What is it, little man?” inquired Mr. Tizzy, with a smile. “Do you -want me to stand on my head again? I’d better not until your brother -catches a fish. But what else do you want to ask me?” - -“Can you do flip-flops on a nellifunt’s back?” inquired Trouble. - -“Yes, I’ve done that,” admitted Mr. Tizzy. “If you’ll bring your -elephant here I’ll flip-flop on his back.” - -“I hasn’t got a nellifunt,” admitted the little lad. “But maybe I could -find one in the woods. Once I gave a nellifunt peanuts.” - -“And he’s never forgotten it!” laughed Jan. “But come on,” she urged -her small brother. “Ted wants to fish. Maybe Mr. Tizzy will do some -other tricks for you,” she added. - -“I surely will,” promised the acrobat. “I must keep myself in practice -ready for the work next week. Now go ahead and fish, Ted.” - -When it grew quiet, the lad eagerly waited for a nibble, and he was -soon rewarded by pulling up a good-sized fish. - -“It’s a real one this time!” Ted shouted, as the beauty flopped on the -grass. - -“I must watch him,” said Mr. Tizzy. “I may get some ideas from the way -he leaps about.” - -From then on Ted had good luck and caught five fish before it was -time to go home. Trouble, also, caught a fair-sized perch, which much -delighted him. - -“Now for a few more flips and I’ll walk back with you,” said Mr. Tizzy. -“I’m glad to know we’re stopping at the same place. I heard some talk -last night about children being at the farm, but I thought they meant -movie children.” - -“Well, we’re sort of on the move,” explained Ted. “We’re touring around -for our vacation. But Mr. Portnay took two old photograph albums by -mistake, and we’re waiting for him to send them back.” - -“Go on--do a flip-flop!” urged Trouble eagerly. “I like ’em!” - -“All right. Here goes, little man!” cried Mr. Tizzy. - -He began turning somersaults again, leaping back and forth, doing -handsprings and cartwheels on a smooth place in the grass. - -“Now watch this!” he cried, and he bent himself in the shape of a hoop -by grasping his ankles with his hands. Around and around he rolled, the -children laughing in glee until, all at once, Mr. Tizzy disappeared. - -Out of sight he vanished, as though the earth had opened and swallowed -him! - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -TED FALLS OFF - - -For a while the Curlytop children and Trouble thought this sudden -vanishing of Mr. Tizzy was one of his tricks--he was so full and -bubbling over with them. Ted said afterward he thought the movie man -had doubled himself up into as small a ball as possible and was hiding -behind a clump of grass. - -But when nearly a minute passed and Mr. Tizzy did not come back, the -children began to get worried. A trick and a joke might be all right, -but this was a little too much! - -“Maybe he hurt himself,” suggested Jan. - -This very thought was in Ted’s mind, but his sister spoke of it first. - -“Let’s look and see where he is,” went on Jan. - -“He went down in a hole!” declared Trouble. - -Certainly it looked so, and when Ted walked forward, toward the place -where he had last seen the acrobat and when Janet and Trouble followed, -the Curlytop lad found that what his little brother said was true. - -There was a hole in the ground, a rather deep and steep hole with grass -growing close to the edge of it. And down in this hole lay the acrobat -in a huddled heap. - -So still and quiet he was, all doubled up, that Janet felt frightened. -She was going to ask Ted if he thought the jolly man might be dead. But -Ted suddenly exclaimed: - -“I guess he’s fainted. I’ll get some water and pour it on him.” - -Ted had once seen his aunt faint, and his mother had dashed water on -her face. - -Back to the stream ran the boy, and in the can he had fished out he -brought back some water. When some of this had been spilled on the -face of the man lying in the hole, he opened his eyes and asked rather -faintly: - -“What happened?” - -“You flip-flopped into a hole,” answered Ted. “Can you get out or shall -I run back to the farm for help?” - -“Oh, I guess I’m all right now,” was the answer. “I remember now. I -was cartwheeling around and, all of a sudden, I saw this hole in front -of me. Before I could stop myself I rolled into it. I hit my head on a -stone, and that’s all I remember. But I’m all right now, though I guess -I was unconscious for a minute or two.” - -“We didn’t know what had happened to you,” remarked Janet. - -“Well, it isn’t anything to worry about,” said the man, as he untangled -himself, for his legs and arms were rather mixed up. “I’ll be all right -in another minute.” - -He scrambled out of the hole, gave himself a shake to make sure no -bones were broken, and then went down to the edge of the little river, -where he bathed his head, especially the place that had hit a stone, -and drank some water. - -“Now I feel better,” he announced. “But I guess I won’t do any more -flip-flops right away.” - -“What do you think made that hole?” asked Ted, as they stood around -the edge, looking down in it, after Mr. Tizzy said he thought they had -better start back to the farm. - -“Some boys may have dug it for a cave to play in, or some one may have -dug a big stone out of there,” said the acrobat. “But if they took a -stone out, where it is I can’t see,” and he looked around in vain for a -sight of the bowlder. “More likely it was boys at play,” he said. “But -it was dug some time ago, for the grass has grown all around the edge -and the dirt they took out has disappeared.” - -Glad that nothing more serious had happened, the Curlytops started back -toward the group of farm buildings. Ted carried the fish he had caught, -and Trouble insisted on bringing home his small sunny and the perch, -neither of which were of much account for the kitchen. - -“Oh, what a fine fisherman you are, William!” his mother exclaimed, -when she saw what he held up for her to admire. “Why, you’ll soon be -able to catch enough for a whole meal.” - -“I caught a fish before Ted did,” announced the little lad. “He got a -rubber boot!” - -Mr. and Mrs. Martin laughed at the story of the funny trick played on -Ted by the flip-flop man, and a little later that day they met the -actor and talked to him, liking him very much. - -While Mr. Martin was waiting for an answer to the letter he had sent to -New York, asking Mr. Portnay to return the photograph albums taken by -mistake, there was nothing to do save to amuse himself as well as he -could at the farm and make the best of matters. - -The moving picture actor might ship the box of albums back by express, -or he might bring them himself, so Mr. Weldon said. - -“Harry Portnay is a queer chap,” said the cowboy actor who had leaped -his horse over the fence to save Trouble from the ugly boar. “He -never does what you think he will. It would be just like him to send -a special messenger back with those books, or he may even forget all -about them and leave them in his New York office.” - -“But I have written him a letter about them!” exclaimed Mr. Martin. - -“Yes, I know. But he gets a lot of letters every day--all movie stars -do--and he may not pay much attention to yours.” - -“I must get those albums back if I have to go to New York for them -myself,” declared the father of the Curlytops. - -“Oh, I’d like to go to New York!” cried Ted. - -“So would I!” added his sister. - -“We have made other plans,” their mother answered, with a smile. “We -are going to tour around and make a stop in Bentville--as soon as we -get the albums.” - -Meanwhile, the only thing to do was to wait, and it was a pleasant -waiting, at least for the children. They liked it at the Dawson Farm, -for there was much to see and do, especially with the moving picture -people there. Every day some scenes were taken--nothing very elaborate -or big, because of the absence of the star, but enough to keep the -camera men and the actors and actresses busy. - -To their delight, the day after the queer fishing trip the children -saw Mr. Tizzy do some of his funny tricks in front of the camera. The -acrobat said he was all right again after his tumble into the hole, and -he certainly was lively enough, leaping here and there. - -One afternoon Mr. Birch, the director, walked over to the Martin -family, who were all sitting under a shade tree. The director seemed to -have something on his mind. - -“Did your children ever act in the movies?” he asked Mr. Martin. - -“I don’t believe they ever did,” was the answer. - -“Oh, yes, Daddy, I did, once!” cried Ted. - -“You did! Where?” asked his mother, for she did not remember any such -happening. - -“Why, they took pictures of a baseball game in Cresco once,” went on -the Curlytop lad. “I was there in the grandstand. They took pictures of -the people in the stand and they took mine. I saw myself in the movies -afterward.” - -“Oh, yes, I do remember that,” said Mrs. Martin. “But that wasn’t -really acting.” - -“Well, I can give them a chance now, if you’ll let them take it,” said -the director. “One of our writers has made a change in this story we -are filming, and we need three child characters in it for a short -scene. If you’ll let your Curlytops and their little brother take part, -it will be a big favor to us.” - -“I don’t see any objection,” replied Mr. Martin, as his wife looked at -him. “What do you want them to do?” - -“I want them to ride on the back of a pony,” explained the movie -director. “Mr. Dawson has a very safe pony, and I’d like to have the -children shown crossing a meadow where the pony is pastured. They have -been after berries, we’ll say. On the way back they want some fun, so -they ride on the pony’s back--all three of them. We’ll take pictures of -them doing that.” - -“Three of them on one pony? Maybe the pony wouldn’t like it,” said Mr. -Martin, with a laugh. - -“Oh, the pony won’t mind,” the director assured him. - -So it was arranged, and the next morning the three children went to the -pasture, followed by some of the movie people and two camera men. Mr. -Dawson had given permission to use the pony. - -“Now don’t think of anything except having fun,” the director advised -them. “Ted, you help your sister and your brother on the pony’s back, -and then scramble up yourself. Janet, you guide the pony as I call to -you through my megaphone. But, above all, don’t look directly into the -camera. We want this to seem natural.” - -“You can’t keep Trouble from looking at the camera,” laughed Ted. “He’s -doing it now. I guess he thinks music will come out.” - -“Well, it doesn’t matter so much about him,” replied the director. “But -you two older ones keep your eyes away from the camera. Look anywhere -but there.” - -There was a rehearsal first and finally the director said the children -did very well. - -“All right now, we’ll try it in earnest,” he said. “Come on--camera!” - -Ted led his brother and sister through the pasture toward the pony, -which was a tame one and fond of children. The Curlytops had made -friends with him the first day they arrived. - -“All right now,” called the director through his megaphone, while the -cameras clicked away. “Put your sister up on the pony’s back, Ted.” - -This was done, and then the delighted and shouting Trouble was helped -up by Ted to a seat behind Janet. - -“Now you get on, and try to make the pony run!” the director suggested. - -Ted managed to scramble up on the back of the little horse, and he did -it very well. But the pony this time seemed to dislike so many on his -back. Instead of running as he was wanted to, the pony kicked up his -heels, and the next thing Ted knew he was falling off. - -“Oh, you’re spoiling the picture! You have spoiled it!” cried Janet, -as she glanced back, a funny look on her face, and saw her brother -slipping off. - -But the cameras clicked away. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -JAN IN A TRAP - - -Ted Martin hit the ground with a hard thump. He grunted, for the breath -was knocked out of him. But he wasn’t hurt. He knew that as soon as any -one. At school Ted played football sometimes, and more than once he had -had a harder fall than this. - -“Whoa! Whoa!” cried Janet to the pony. She pulled on the reins and the -little animal came to a stop. - -“What’s matter?” Trouble wanted to know. “Why don’t horse go on?” - -“Because Ted’s fallen off,” explained his sister. - -By this time the Curlytop lad had leaped up and was running to get on -the pony. What bothered him more than anything else was the fact that -the camera men, laughing among themselves, were still grinding away at -the cranks of their machines, taking moving pictures. - -“Wait! Wait!” cried Ted. “Don’t take me now! Wait until I get on the -pony!” - -“That’s all right, Ted!” laughed Mr. Birch. “This is funnier and better -than I thought it would be. Can you fall off again?” he asked, as the -camera men stopped grinding, for Ted was now beside the pony which had -come to a halt, with Janet and Trouble still on its back. “Can you fall -off again, Ted?” - -“Can I fall off again?” cried the boy, in surprise. “Do you mean you -want me to fall off on purpose?” - -“That’s just what I want,” replied Mr. Birch. “The cameras happened -to snap you when you fell the first time. It made a good scene, and -I’m going to change the story about to fit it in. But if you can do -the same thing again, maybe in a little different way, it will be very -funny. Want to try?” - -“Sure I do!” declared Ted. “I’ll be just like one of the funny men in -the pictures, won’t I?” - -“Shouldn’t wonder,” agreed Mr. Birch, with a laugh. “Now get ready,” -he went on. “Janet, you guide the pony along and Ted will run up and -try to get on. When he does you make the pony go a little faster as if -you were trying to get away. Then Ted will slip to the ground as he did -before. You aren’t afraid, are you, little man?” he asked Trouble. - -“No, I not ’fraid,” was the answer. “I like horsies an’ I like -nellifunts. Once I roded on a nellifunt, I did.” - -“Good! Then a pony oughtn’t to frighten you,” chuckled Mr. Birch. “Get -ready now!” - -Again the pony ambled forward, with Janet and Trouble on its back, and -Ted ran forward to get on. Janet did just as the director told her to, -and her brother slipped off in a funny fashion. - -“That’s fine!” cried Mr. Birch, with a laugh. “You children will be -in the movies some day. It’s a good thing you fell off, Ted, even if -it was accidental at first, for it gave me an idea. That’s the way it -often happens in this sort of work--accidents, many times, make the -best scenes.” - -“I thought sure he’d spoiled the picture when he slipped off,” -confessed Janet, when the cameras had stopped grinding. - -“I did, too,” admitted Ted. “I’d like to see how I looked when I fell.” - -“We’ll let you do that some day,” promised the director. And I might -say that, later in the season when they were back home, the Curlytops -saw this picture, in which they had had a part in making, shown in the -Cresco Theater. Ted beheld himself running after the pony and slipping -from its back in a queer way that made him laugh. All who saw it also -laughed, including Ted’s friends and playmates. As for Trouble, when he -saw himself and Janet on the pony, the little fellow let out a scream -of delight. - -So, all in all, though at first it seemed as though their efforts were -going to fail, the initial appearance of the Curlytops in the movies -was quite a success. - -Mr. and Mrs. Martin liked it very much at Dawson’s Farm, and only for -the fact that he had planned to make a tour induced the father of the -Curlytops to carry out the idea. - -“It would be nice to stay here all summer,” he said to his wife. - -“Yes,” she agreed. “But I would like a little change, and so would the -children. I want to get near a lake or a large river for a week or two.” - -“Yes, I’d like that myself,” said Mr. Martin. “And if I can manage it -we may take a motor boat trip. We’ll stay here until Mr. Portnay sends -back that box of albums, and then we’ll travel on.” - -“You ought to hear from him in a day or so,” said Mrs. Martin. - -“I expect to,” replied her husband. - -Meanwhile, the Curlytops and Trouble were having a great deal of fun -on the farm. They were allowed to gather eggs and do some of the small -chores about the place, such as feeding the chickens and taking salt to -some sheep in a distant pasture. - -Every day some moving pictures were taken, and when this happened not -too far away the children were allowed to watch. Some of the scenes -were filmed several miles distant from the farm, in rocky glens or -in bits of woodland which were needed for the background. On such -occasions the actors and actresses were piled into automobiles, or -those who had horses rode them, and the whole company, cameras and all, -would go to the spot picked out by Mr. Birch. - -Once he filmed a fishing scene, and when Mr. Tizzy happened to mention -the trick he had played on Ted, the director had a great idea. - -“We’ll do that for the movies!” he cried. “It will be great. Will you -children go through with it for us?” - -“I guess so,” said Ted, “if my father thinks it’s all right.” - -Mr. Martin gave his consent, and so, for the second time, the Curlytops -faced the camera. Or, rather, they didn’t exactly face it, for if you -will notice in moving pictures, the players hardly ever gaze directly -at you, which means that they don’t peer straight at the lens of the -camera. - -But Ted threw in his baited hook and waited for a bite, while the -flip-flop man, hidden in the grass around the bend in the bank, -fastened on a rubber boot. Another camera took close-up views of this -scene, while the first camera was picturing Ted’s surprise when he -pulled up the rubber boot full of water which spurted from the hole in -the toe. - -The rest of the funny scene, with the shoe and the tin can, was also -taken, and Trouble was even filmed catching a real fish, much to his -delight. Then Mr. Tizzy did flip-flops while the children were shown -laughing at him after they had discovered the trick. But the funny man -did not again fall down the hole, as that was considered too dangerous. - -The next day Mr. Martin received a letter from the movie actor in New -York, saying how sorry Mr. Portnay was to learn that his helper had, by -mistake, picked up the box of albums. - -“I am having your box shipped back to you by express,” wrote the -leading man. “I hope you will receive it safely. I may see you before -the summer is over, as my company is going to travel in the same -direction you are taking on your tour.” - -“Oh, I hope we do see him again!” exclaimed Janet, when the letter was -talked about one afternoon. “I like him.” - -“So do I,” declared Ted. “I wish I could ride a horse as he does, or -like Mr. Weldon.” - -“Well, I shall be glad to get back Mr. Cardwell’s albums,” said Mr. -Martin. “As soon as that box comes we’ll travel on again and bid -good-by to the movie folk, at least for a while.” - -It was some time later, that same afternoon, that Janet wandered off -by herself to a little wood lot about a mile from the farmhouse. She -wanted to pick some wild flowers, and Ted, whom she asked to come with -her, said he didn’t want to. - -But Janet did not mind going alone, for she had often been in these -same woods before. She had been taking care of Trouble nearly all of -that day, and Trouble certainly lived up to his name--he was full of -mischief. Jan was glad to get away from him for a time, dearly as she -loved him. - -So she wandered about, picking flowers that grew in the woods and -enjoying the beautiful scenes all about her. She neared a little -gully, down the sides of which grew some blossoms she had not before -noticed--beautiful red flowers. - -“Oh, I’m going to get some of them!” she murmured. - -Down the pine-needle-covered sides of the gully she scrambled, toward a -big clump of ferns, near which grew the red flowers she so much admired. - -The sides of the gully were steeper than Janet realized, and she was -going faster than she thought--so fast, in fact, that when she reached -the clump of ferns she couldn’t stop. Right through them she had to -run, and, before she knew it, she saw that just behind them, hidden in -a growth of tangled bushes, was what seemed to be a large box. - -It was a box one end of which was open. Before Janet had time to wonder -what such a big box was doing out there in the woods, and before she -could stop herself, she had run right into it, through the opening. - -“I wonder what this is?” thought the little girl. “It has such a funny -smell--like wild animals in the circus!” - -There was a clicking sound and the big box, which Janet was now inside -of, began to tremble. Then came a jar and a thud, and it suddenly grew -dark. - -“Oh!” gasped Janet. - -She whirled about, but too late! - -Behind her, the opening was closed. The sliding end of the box -trap--for such it was--had dropped into place, falling shut, and making -poor Janet a prisoner. - -“Oh, I’m in a trap!” she cried. “In a wild animal trap! How am I ever -going to get out?” - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE BOX COMES BACK - - -Janet Martin was frightened--very much so, though not so much but what -she kept her wits about her and looked around the strange prison in -which she found herself. - -At first, when the sliding door in the end of the box trap had fallen, -closing the only way out, it had been very dark. But in a few moments -Jan was able to look about her, and she noticed that near the top of -the box there were openings which let in light and air. The openings -were merely holes, not large enough for a cat or dog to get through, to -say nothing of a girl like Janet. - -The box was about six feet wide, almost as long, and quite as high, so -there was plenty of room for Janet to stand up in it and walk about. - -“It would make a nice play-house,” she thought to herself. - -But she did not feel at all like playing now. All she wanted to do was -to get out of this box trap prison. So well had it been concealed in -the bushes back of the clump of ferns that Jan had not noticed it at -all until she had entered. - -“I guess a wild animal would do the same thing,” thought Janet. “He’d -run right in here and be caught. I must have jiggled something that -made the door slide down. And I guess there’s been a wild animal in -here not long ago. It smells so.” - -On the floor of the trap were dried leaves and grass; and the whole -place smelled like the inside of the animal tent at a circus, a queer, -wild smell which most of you know, I am sure. - -“But if there was a wild animal in here, how did he get out?” thought -the little girl, who, now that her eyes were accustomed to the -semi-darkness, could see about her quite plainly. “If he got out, maybe -I can.” - -She pushed against the sides of the box as hard as she could and she -pounded with her little fists, but the box seemed very solid. Then she -tried to raise the sliding door that had dropped shut behind her as -soon as she entered the trap. But though this door rattled and moved a -little in the grooves in which it slid up and down, Jan could not raise -it. It seemed to be fastened in place. - -“Maybe the wild animal that was caught here didn’t get out,” thought -the little Curlytop girl. “Maybe Mr. Dawson had to come and let it out; -or maybe some of the movie people. I guess that was it--they caught a -moving picture animal in this trap, and now they’ve caught me and I -can’t get out!” - -Janet cried a little as she thought of this. It would soon be dark, she -feared, and she did not want to stay in the trap all night. - -“I know what I’ll do,” thought Janet, as she dried her tears, for she -knew crying did no good. “I’ll yell as loud as I can. I’ll call and -shout and somebody will hear me and come and let me out. Maybe Ted will -come, or that funny flip-flop man.” - -Having thus made up her mind, Janet began to shout and call. Her voice -sounded strange and hollow in the box trap. She wondered how far it -would carry. She hoped they might hear her down at the farmhouse, but -she hardly thought this possible. - -Then a new terror came to poor Janet. She began to think of the wild -animal that had been in the trap. - -“Maybe it was a bear,” she whispered to herself. “And maybe he might -hear me yelling and come to see me. I wouldn’t like that. But, anyhow, -he couldn’t get in, since I can’t get out.” - -For the first time Janet was glad the trap was firmly closed. True, she -couldn’t get out, but then, no wild animal could get in. - -After Janet had called as loudly as she could for some time and no one -had answered, she began to feel tired. So she sat down in a corner of -the box trap, on the soft dried grass and leaves. - -“Oh, dear! I wish some one would come and get me out!” she sighed. - -It was about this time that Mrs. Martin began to inquire for Janet. The -little girl had told her mother about going to the “wood lot,” as Mr. -Dawson called it, to pick flowers. - -“But it’s time she was back,” Mrs. Martin said to her husband. “It will -soon be evening.” - -“I’ll go after her!” offered Ted, who had just come back from a distant -pasture, having been there with one of the hired men to salt the -sheep. Every so often lumps of coarse, rock salt were put in boxes in -the fields where the sheep roamed. Sheep, and most other animals, like -a bit of salt now and then. It keeps them healthy. - -“All right, Teddy,” said his mother. “I wish you would go after Janet. -She’s probably all right, but she has forgotten it is getting late. -Very likely she has found more flowers than she expected and she wants -to get a big bouquet.” - -“I come, too!” offered Trouble, as he saw his brother starting away. - -“No, you stay here,” objected Mrs. Martin, with a laugh. “We don’t want -you getting lost.” - -“I’ll soon be back,” Ted called to William. - -The Curlytop lad well knew the path to the wood lot, for he and his -sister had trod it many times since coming to Dawson’s Farm. And now -running and now walking fast, Ted was soon on the edge of the clump of -trees. He looked about, but did not see any signs of his sister. - -“Maybe she started back another way,” he told himself. - -But he decided to give a good look around in the woods, and when he had -done so and had not yet caught a glimpse of Janet picking flowers, Ted -began to feel worried. - -“Guess I’ll give a yell and see if she answers,” he said to himself. So -he called: “Janet! Janet! Oh, Jan! where are you?” - -Ted paused for a reply, but none came. - -Then he called again, and listened. About him he heard only the rustle -of the wind in the trees, the whisperings of the bushes, the tinkle of -a distant waterfall and the songs of birds. - -“I wonder where she is?” thought the boy. - -Taking a long breath, he gave the loudest shout of which he was -capable. It made him red in the face. Then he listened. - -At last he heard an answer. - -“Ted! Oh, Ted! Come and get me out! I’m in a trap!” - -It was Janet’s voice, beyond a doubt, but such a strange voice--and -faint and far away. Ted remembered once when his sister had been shut -in the preserve closet down the cellar at home in Cresco. Her voice -then had sounded just as it did now. - -“But there isn’t any cellar here,” thought Ted. Once more he called: -“Where are you? I can’t see you!” - -“I’m shut up in a box trap!” answered Janet. “It’s by a big clump of -ferns down in a little hollow.” - -Ted at that moment was standing on the edge of the gully into which -Janet had run to get the red flowers. And, looking down, Ted saw where -the ferns had been broken and bent to one side as his sister pushed -through them. He also saw the top of the box hidden among the bushes. - -“All right! I’m coming, Jan!” cried Ted, as he scrambled down the steep -sides. - -Janet had been roused from a half slumber by the call of her brother’s -voice and had answered him. Thus he had found her. - -But when he stood in front of the box trap, Ted was a bit puzzled as to -how Janet had gotten in and how he was going to get her out. - -“How does this thing work?” he called to his sister, through the wooden -sides. “How’d you get in?” - -“I ran in when the door was open. I ran in before I knew what it was,” -answered Janet. “Then the door dropped shut. I guess I must have -jiggled something.” - -“I guess you did,” answered Ted. “Now I wonder if I can get this door -open! I’ve got to pry it up with a long stick if I can find one.” - -Luckily, the Curlytop lad discovered just what was needed--a long tree -branch, sharp on one end, like a wedge. This wedge he put under the -edge of the sliding door and pried it up. As the door raised a little, -Ted, holding it in that position with one hand on the long stick, while -Janet helped from the inside, thrust a stone beneath the door. There -was a crack wide enough for Janet to thrust out her hand. - -“But I can’t crawl out through that crack,” she said. - -“I know it,” answered her brother. “I’ll lift it up higher.” - -This he did, a foot or so at a time, putting more stones and finally -upright sticks beneath the wooden slide, until it was raised high -enough for Janet to crawl out. - -“Oh, I’m so glad you came!” she cried to her brother. - -“So’m I,” he said. “But what made you go in there?” - -“I didn’t know it was a trap,” explained the little girl. “I saw some -red flowers and I ran to pick them and before I knew it I was in the -box, and I must have jiggled something for the door fell shut behind -me and I couldn’t get out.” - -“I guess it’s a wild animal trap, all right,” Ted remarked. “It smells -so,” and he sniffed the air. - -“Do you think they catch bears here?” asked Janet. - -“Maybe,” assented Ted. - -“Then let’s run home,” suggested his sister, for it was now getting -dusk in the woods, though it was lighter out in the open. - -Ted took out the sticks and stones from beneath the door, letting it -drop into place again. - -“So nobody else will be caught,” he explained. - -Then he and his sister hurried back to the farmhouse. - -“Say, now, that’s too bad!” exclaimed Mr. Birch, the movie director, -when he heard what had happened. “We did have some wild animals in that -box, but they were foxes, not bears. And we didn’t trap the foxes--we -just held them in that box so we could let them run out when we wanted -to take moving pictures of them. - -“We hid the box in the bushes so it wouldn’t show in the picture, and -the door was pulled up by a long rope. After we filmed the foxes some -of the men must have left the door open, taking off the ropes. So it -was turned into a regular trap, though we didn’t intend it as such. - -“The door thus left propped up, when Janet went in she must have -‘jiggled’ it, as she says, so it dropped into place. I’m mighty sorry -about it, little girl!” - -“Oh, I don’t mind, as long as I got out before dark,” laughed Jan. “But -I was scared for a little while.” - -“I’ll see that it doesn’t happen again,” declared the director. “We -have no further use for the box, since we have made the fox films, so -I’ll have it taken away.” - -A few days later most of the pictures intended to be filmed at Dawson’s -Farm had been taken, and the company prepared to move on to the next -location. Already some of the cowboys and other men and women connected -with the company had left. - -One last scene taken was where Mr. Tizzy, the funny flip-flop man, -pretended to be a cowboy, riding a horse to lasso a pig. It was a -lively affair. The animal used was not the savage boar that had nearly -hurt Trouble, but a more gentle pig. - -The Curlytops and their father and mother, as well as the Dawson -household, laughed until the tears ran out of their eyes at the funny -antics of Mr. Tizzy and the no less funny actions of the pig. - -At last the flip-flop man lassoed the squealing pig, which, however, -dragged the man off his horse and pulled him around the lot. And of -all this the clicking cameras took many pictures which, later, made -thousands of persons laugh. - -It was this same afternoon that an express package came for Mr. Martin. -It was a wooden box well wrapped in paper. - -“What is it, Daddy? Oh, what is it?” cried Janet, dancing up and down -in excitement. - -“Oh, let him look first, Jan,” admonished Teddy. - -“Ah, the album box has come back!” said the father of the Curlytops. -“Now I won’t have to tell Mr. Cardwell it is missing. We can take it on -the tour with us.” - -He tore open one end of the paper wrapping, disclosing the red, shining -wooden box. - -“No need to take off all the paper,” he said. “It is well packed -and I’ll leave it so and put it in the car. We’ll travel on again -to-morrow, Curlytops!” - -Ted and Janet were glad of this, though they liked it at the farm. But -children are always glad of a change, I suppose. - -So Mr. Martin put the wrapped box in his car. If he had only taken off -all the paper and had looked more closely inside, there would have been -a different ending to this story. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -ON AGAIN - - -When Mrs. Martin called Janet the next morning, to tell the Curlytop -girl to get up, dress and have breakfast, ready to start touring again, -Janet, with her eyes still closed, began to call: - -“Let me out! Let me out! Oh, don’t let the bears come in!” - -This awakened Trouble, and he wanted to know what the matter was. - -“I guess Janet thinks she is back in the box trap again,” said Mrs. -Martin, with a smile. “Wake up, my dear! Wake up,” she went on, giving -her daughter a gentle shake. “You’re all right, Janet.” - -“Oh! Oh!” gasped the little girl, as she opened her eyes. She was -plainly surprised to find herself safe in bed in the room with her -mother and Trouble. “I--I thought I was in the box trap and a bear was -trying to come in with me,” she said. - -“I thought that was it,” replied her mother. “It was quite an adventure -for you, but don’t think any more about it.” - -And Janet tried not to. - -“I’m sorry to see you folks go,” Mr. Dawson said to Mr. Martin, when -the Curlytop family was at breakfast. “The old farm will be a lonesome -place with you and the movie people leaving. The last of them will go -to-day, too.” - -“We have enjoyed it here,” said Mrs. Martin. - -“We’ll come back again,” promised Trouble, as he finished the last of -his boiled egg and drank the glass of milk. “I like it here a lot.” - -“I’m glad you do, my dear,” said motherly Mrs. Dawson. - -The big touring car was brought around to the side porch, and into it -the Martin family baggage was piled. Mr. Martin made sure that the box -Mr. Portnay had sent from New York was in a safe place. - -“I hope nothing more happens to that box before I deliver it to Mr. -Cardwell in Bentville,” said Ted’s father, with a sigh of relief as he -put the small chest under some robes. “If I had known all the anxiety -it was going to give us, I’d never have promised to deliver it for my -neighbor,” he told Mr. Dawson. - -“Well, when you have a lot of worry it’s best to get it over with,” -said the farmer. “Be sure and stop off to see us when you come this way -again.” - -“We will,” promised Mrs. Martin. - -Then the Curlytops were off again on their summer touring trip. More -adventures lay ahead of them. - -“Where are we going now, Daddy?” asked Janet, as they rode along a -pleasant country highway. - -“The next big place at which we expect to stop is called Evenham,” was -the answer. “But we won’t be there before to-morrow or next day.” - -“Where do you expect to stop to-night?” asked Mrs. Martin. - -“What would you say to camping out?” her husband wanted to know. - -“In the tent?” cried Ted. - -“Oh, what fun!” echoed Jan. - -“I goin’ to make a campfire!” declared Trouble. - -“We’ll see about that,” his father answered. “Yes, if your mother -thinks well of it, we can stop in some good place, rig the tent up to -the side of the car, and stay there all night,” Mr. Martin went on to -Ted and Janet. “It’s going to be a warm, pleasant night.” - -“And can we cook a meal?” Ted wanted to know. “It isn’t like camping -out if you don’t cook your own meal.” - -“Yes, we can do that, too,” said Mrs. Martin, who liked camp life and -roughing it almost as much as did the Curlytops. - -So it was decided, and in the next town they stopped to purchase some -bacon, coffee and other things they could cook over their alcohol -stoves. They carried two small stoves. - -About noon the auto was rolling along a quiet country road, and, -finding a lane which did not seem to be much traveled, Mr. Martin -turned off on that to be out of the way of traffic while lunch was -being got ready. - -Then such a good time as the Curlytops had, and Trouble also! - -For they prepared a meal out in the open, and the table that was set -was the running-board of the car, papers being spread on it for a cloth. - -“Oh, I just love it here! Don’t you, Ted?” murmured Janet, her mouth -half filled with part of a peanut butter sandwich. - -“It’s dandy!” Ted exclaimed, as he reached for another slice of bacon, -for Mrs. Martin had fried some in a little pan over the stove which -burned solid chunks of alcohol. And such a wonderful odor as that bacon -gave off in the woods! It was worth going miles just to get a whiff of -it. - -After the meal Mr. and Mrs. Martin strolled about in the woods while -the children played near by. The radiator of the car was filled with -fresh water from a clear, bubbling spring, and then the touring party -started on again. - -“We must be looking for a good place to make our night camp,” Mrs. -Martin said, later in the afternoon. “We don’t have to go on to any -certain place, so if we find a good spot we might as well stop there -and begin to put up the tent. We want to get everything in readiness -before dark.” - -“That’s right,” agreed her husband. “So keep your eyes open, children.” - -Ted and Janet did, with the result that they pointed out several more -or less good spots for a night camp. There were objections to most of -these, however. But at last Mrs. Martin spied what seemed to all of -them to be a delightful place. It was in a meadow, on the edge of a -clump of woods, and there was a spring of water near by. It is always -wise to camp near water. - -“This seems all right,” agreed Mr. Martin, as he drove the auto into -the glade. “And there aren’t any neighbors.” - -He spoke truly, for there was not a house in sight. It was a beautiful -spot, very quiet and restful. - -“Not even a cow,” said Janet. - -Ted helped his father get the portable tent out and attach it to the -sides of the car while Mrs. Martin prepared the evening meal. There -were folding cots which, when spread out, made comfortable little beds. - -It was arranged that Trouble and Janet would sleep on the seats of -the auto, with the side curtains put up so they would be snug and -comfortable. And on cots, under the extended tent, Ted, his mother and -his father would pass the night. - -Supper was eaten with keen appetites, and then the Martin family sat -about in the beautiful evening glow, singing songs and telling stories. -They saw no signs of life, no near-by farmers happened along, and not -so much as one car passed up or down the road. - -The frogs in a distant pond began to croak as night fell, and pretty -soon Mrs. Martin noticed that Trouble’s eyes were closing. - -“Bedtime!” she announced, and though Ted and Janet declared they -weren’t a bit sleepy, their parents said they had better “turn in.” - -“We’ll get an early start in the morning,” said Mr. Martin. - -Trouble was asleep almost as soon as he had been tucked in on the -comfortable auto seat, and Janet was not far behind him in journeying -to slumberland. - -But to Ted, out in the tent with his father and his mother, sleep did -not come so quickly. The little boy pretended he was a cowboy, sleeping -out on the plains, with a big herd of cattle near by. - -Perhaps his lively thoughts kept Ted awake. At any rate, something did; -but at last he, too, closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep. - -Just how long it was afterward he did not know. But he was suddenly -awakened by feeling something touch him on the side. It was as though -some one had “punched him in the ribs,” Ted said afterward. - -The little fellow opened his eyes and murmured: - -“Is it morning, Mother?” - -He imagined it was his mother rousing him by shaking him, as she -sometimes did. - -His mother did not answer. Then Teddy saw that the tent was dark. The -sun was not streaming in. But through a crack the lad caught sight of a -distant star. He knew it was still night. - -But something had awakened him by touching him on the side. He raised -himself on his elbow and listened. He could tell, by the deep, regular -breathing of his father and mother that they were sleeping soundly on -their cots. - -Then from the outside of the tent something reached in and gave Teddy -such a blow that he was knocked back on his cot. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -ALONG THE RIVER - - -For a moment or two the Curlytop lad was so surprised, as well as a -little frightened, that he lay quietly, not moving nor saying a word. -Then he knew he must do something about it. Never would it do to let -some strange man, as Ted supposed this to be, come into the tent and -take Mr. Martin’s money, or perhaps the box of valuable photograph -albums. - -“Maybe it’s kidnapers after William!” was one of the wild thoughts that -flashed into the mind of the lad. He was glad then that William was -sleeping in the auto with Janet. - -But in a moment or two Ted recovered the breath that had been knocked -out of him by the blow that had sent him back on his cot, and he raised -himself again. He could see more plainly now, for the side of the tent -near his cot had become unfastened. - -Whatever or whoever it was that had thrust Teddy back had loosened some -of the tent fastenings, and through this opening the little boy could -see the stars more plainly now. - -Teddy could also see something else. This was a large object, with a -mouth, a big nose, and great eyes, and, what was worse than this, Teddy -caught sight of two spreading horns. - -Then it was that the Curlytop lad let out a yell that awakened every -one in the temporary camp--awakened even Trouble and Janet who were -sleeping very soundly. - -“Oh, Daddy! Mother!” yelled Teddy. “There’s a big animal with horns -coming into the tent. Look!” - -The head of the beast was now well within the tent, and it leaned right -over Ted’s cot. But you can be sure the little lad was not there. No, -indeed! He had rolled off on the other side, falling to the grassy -ground. - -But his frightened shout had awakened his father and mother, and the -first thing Mr. Martin did was to thrust his hand beneath his pillow -and get his flashlight. This little electric torch Mr. Martin always -kept near him at night, and it was useful in more ways than one. - -Snapping on the switch now, he threw a small but brilliant beam of -light over toward Ted’s cot. At first he could not see the boy, and -wondering what the noise was all about Mr. Martin asked: - -“Where are you, Ted?” - -“Here I am,” came the answer, and Janet’s brother arose from the ground -where he had thrown himself. - -“What in the world are you doing there?” asked his mother, who was -sitting up on her cot. “Did you have nightmare? Were you walking in -your sleep?” - -“No, I wasn’t walking in my sleep,” replied Teddy. “But I gave a jump -and I fell out of bed.” - -“What for?” asked his father, for he saw nothing to be alarmed about. -And the reason was that the horned head had withdrawn itself out of the -hole through which it had been thrust. - -“What for? That’s what for! Look!” cried Teddy, and he pointed just as -the big head was thrust in again--the head with the large mouth and the -big eyes, to say nothing of the horns. - -Mrs. Martin stared as if she could hardly believe what she saw. She -gave a gasp of surprise. Teddy, too, gasped, but no longer in fright. -For now he saw what it was that had thrust its head into the tent. - -Mr. Martin laughed, and well he might. For in the gleam of the electric -flashlight they were looking at the calm features of a big cow that, -with her head thrust into the tent, was quietly chewing her cud, -leaning over the cot from which Ted had leaped in such a hurry. - -“Oh, my!” cried Janet, who looked over the side of the auto into the -tent to which it was attached. Then Trouble looked and he cried: - -“Oh, a cow! A cow! Is it morning an’ did the cow come to bring us milk?” - -“Well, not exactly; though it looks that way,” said Mr. Martin, with -another laugh. “Was it this cow that frightened you, Teddy?” - -“Yes, sir, I--I guess so,” replied the lad. “I felt something poke me -in the ribs, and I woke up, and then the tent side sort of flew open -and this big head came poking in and I didn’t know what it was, so I -rolled off my cot on the other side.” - -“Which was a wise thing to do, seeing that you couldn’t very well tell -in the dark what was after you,” said his mother. - -“It might have been a bear,” said Janet. “I’m glad it wasn’t.” - -“So am I,” added Mrs. Martin. - -“Would a bear eat peanuts like a nellifunt?” Trouble wanted to know. - -“I guess a bear will eat almost anything,” said Mr. Martin, as he -slipped on his shoes. “I think I’d better go out and tie this wandering -cow to a tree,” he said. “Or else she’ll be back just as soon as we get -to sleep, bothering us again. For that’s what she is--a wandering cow. -She was probably tethered out for the night and broke loose. She must -have come to pay us a visit.” - -“Well, some fresh milk for the morning coffee would be very welcome,” -remarked Mrs. Martin. “But I’m not going to milk a cow in the middle of -the night. Fasten her well, Dick, so she won’t get loose again.” - -“I will,” answered Mr. Martin. - -The cow was very gentle and tame. She probably did not intend to -frighten Teddy by thrusting her horns against the tent, poking him -in the ribs and afterward thrusting her head inside. It was all an -accident. - -Mr. Martin found a rope that was fastened around the animal’s neck, and -soon led her well away from the camp, tying her to a tree. Then he came -back to the little tent and soon the place was quiet again, and all the -Martins slept soundly until morning. - -Getting breakfast was lots of fun, and they had fresh milk, after all. -For while Mrs. Martin was making coffee a farm boy came strolling -along, looking for the lost cow. When he heard what had happened and -saw the creature tied to a tree, he milked her, Mrs. Martin giving him -a pail for this purpose. - -“It’s only fair to give you some milk after the fright the cow gave -you,” said the farm lad, with a grin. “Where you folks going?” he -asked, as he looked with eager eyes at the auto and the tent fastened -to it. - -“Oh, we’re just touring around,” Teddy answered. “I guess we’ll go up -the river to-day.” - -He had heard his father say they might do that, for they were near -a large stream alongside of which wound a good road leading into a -pleasant country with great stretches of woodland. - -After breakfast, at which Trouble drank with glee some milk from the -“night cow,” as he called her, preparations were made for a trip up the -river. - -The tent was taken down and folded into a small space, as were the -folding cots. Then, once more, the Curlytops were on their way. They -soon reached the river road, and Mr. Martin was glad to find it in good -condition. - -“This will take us many miles on our way,” he said. - -All that morning they traveled, stopping at noon in a little glade of -trees to cook and eat lunch. They were ready to go on again when Mr. -Martin discovered that one of the tires was flat. - -“There’s a leak in that inner tube,” he told his wife. “I might as well -stop and mend it now and save our spare tire and tube. We might need to -make a change in more of a hurry. I have plenty of time now, so I’ll -stop and mend that leaky inner tube.” - -This suited Ted, Janet and Trouble, who were having fun in the woods -and along the bank of the river which ran near by. Mr. Martin jacked -up the car, took off the rim and tire, and, taking the thin, rubber -inner tube from the shoe, proceeded to fasten on a patch. - -He finished this work, and then, to make sure the leak was mended, he -took the foot pump and filled the red, inner tube with air as it lay on -the ground. - -The tube was well pumped up and Mr. Martin was waiting to see if any -of the air leaked out when a cry from the children on the bank of the -river attracted the attention of father and mother. They looked up and -saw Trouble and the Curlytops standing there and pointing to a small -raft of logs that was slowly floating down the stream. - -At one end of the raft was a little cabin, made of slabs of wood with -the bark side out, and from this cabin, or shanty, was coming a curl of -smoke, showing that this was where the lumbermen slept and cooked. - -There was a dog on the raft, and when he saw the children he barked -joyfully and wagged his tail. Then, unexpectedly, as the rear of the -raft swung in close to shore, the dog leaped off and a moment later was -frolicking with the Curlytops. - -The “lumber dog,” as Trouble called him, seemed to be wild with joy at -being once again on land and near children. He ran up and down, barking -in delight and wagging his tail until it seemed it would come off. - -Then, all of a sudden, the dog ran toward the blown-up inner tube which -lay on the ground while Mr. Martin waited to see if it leaked any more. - -The dog gave one look at what, to him, must have been a strange object, -and then he growled and barked at it. - -“Look out! Don’t touch that!” cried Mr. Martin, with a laugh. - -He was too late, however, for the dog sprang forward and caught the -tire tube in his mouth. He gripped it savagely, as a dog will do with -something he fears, and a moment later there came a loud noise, as if a -gun had been fired. - -Heels over head that dog went toppling back, howling in dismay. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -TWO BEARS - - -Several of the lumbermen in charge of the raft of logs came rushing out -of the slab cabin at the sound of the shot--or what they thought was a -shot from a gun. - -One of the men, seeing the dog, rushed to the edge of the raft and -cried: - -“Who shot Spot?” - -“Nobody shot him!” laughed the steersman, who was chuckling so with -mirth that he let go of the long sweep that was used to guide the raft. -“Leastways, if he’s shot he shot himself! Ho! Ho!” - -“Shot himself! What do you mean?” asked one of the lumbermen. - -The Curlytops, also, did not understand what had happened. But Mr. -Martin, looking at the inner tube of his tire which was now quite flat, -knew what had taken place. - -“Yep, Spot shot himself!” laughed the steersman. “He bit into that -blown-up auto tire on the shore and made a hole in it. He punctured -it, and the air popped out like a gun, right in his face. I guess Spot -thought he was shot, anyhow.” - -“It did sound like a gun,” remarked one of the men. “Hi, Spot!” he -called. - -With a bark, the dog, his tail between his legs in fright, raced along -the shore and gave a leap which carried him across the water between -the raft and the bank and landed him on the logs. Then he ran inside -the cabin and hid himself. - -The steersman guided the log raft against the bank, thus bringing it to -a stop, and he jumped ashore. - -“I’m right sorry, sir, that our dog punctured your tire,” he said. - -“Oh, that’s all right,” replied Mr. Martin, with a smile. “It’s easily -mended again. We aren’t fussy about dogs--we have one at home.” - -“That’s good,” murmured the lumberman. “Some folks don’t like dogs, but -they’re a heap of company, I say. I reckon Spot must have thought your -auto tire was a big, red bologna sausage, all ready for him to eat, -and he wanted to take a bite out of it.” - -“He might have thought that,” said Mr. Martin. “His sharp teeth didn’t -take long to put a hole in the tube. And it certainly shot off like a -gun.” - -“He doesn’t know much about auto tires--this dog of ours,” said the -steersman. “I reckon he never saw a red blowed-up tire on the ground -before.” - -“And he’ll never want to see another, I reckon!” added a big lumberman -in high boots. “He sure was a scared dog.” - -“Won’t he come out again and play with us?” Trouble wanted to know. - -“Maybe I can coax him out,” said one of the men. - -After some urging, Spot was induced to leave the cabin, where he had -been cowering under a bunk. He whined and seemed still afraid, but -when the Curlytops had coaxed him ashore and romped about with him, he -regained his spirits and began to bark and leap about. - -“Don’t put that tube on the ground again after you get it mended,” -said Mrs. Martin to her husband, with a laugh, as she saw him at work, -cementing another patch on the place where Spot’s sharp teeth had gone -through the rubber. - -“No, indeed!” he agreed. - -And when the tube had been mended again Mr. Martin hung it over the -rear of the car to dry. It held the air when he tested it, and, -slipping it inside the shoe, he pumped it up fully and soon had the rim -and tire back on the car. - -By this time the raft had been worked out from shore and was ready to -go on again. - -“Here, Spot!” called the steersman. - -The dog seemed to want to remain on shore and have fun with the -Curlytops, but he knew his master’s voice and, with a little whine and -bark of farewell, he jumped on the moving raft and went on down the -river. - -“Good-by!” called Trouble, waving his hand to the dog. And Spot waved -his tail in answer. - -“Where did the raft come from?” asked Ted, for he had seen his father -talking to the men while waiting for the second tire patch to dry. - -“The trees were cut in the woods, quite a distance up the river,” -explained Mr. Martin. “They were floated down from the lumber camp, a -few miles up.” - -“Could we go to the lumber camp?” asked Ted. “I’d like to see it.” - -“I’d like to see it, too,” added Janet. “We had fun in a lumber camp -once.” - -“There isn’t much going on in a lumber camp in the summer time,” -explained their father. “Winter is the busy season there, for the logs -are cut and hauled through the woods to the edge of the water that is -to float them to the mill.” - -“How can the water float them to the mill in winter when the rivers and -lakes are frozen?” asked Ted. - -“That’s just it--they don’t float the logs down in the winter,” his -father explained. “They pile them up near the river and wait for -spring to come when the snow and ice melts and makes the water very -high--higher than at any other time of the year. It is on this high -water that the logs are floated down. - -“However, there is some little work being done in this lumber camp now, -the men said. They are cleaning up the logs left over from the spring -freshet run, and this raft was one of that sort. I suppose we might -stop off at this lumber camp, if your mother thinks it would be all -right,” said Mr. Martin, looking at his wife. - -“Do whatever you like,” she said, with a smile. “We are touring around -to give the Curlytops a good time, and we might as well stop at the -lumber camp as anywhere else.” - -So it was decided, and after making sure nothing had been left behind, -the auto party went on again. - -Mr. Martin expected to reach the lumber camp that evening, and he knew -he would be welcome there with his family, to spend the night, for the -men on the raft had told him so. They could sleep in one of the log -cabins, the steersman said, since only a few of the wood-choppers were -in the camp now. - -But the river road, which had been very good at first, soon became so -rough that the auto had to be driven slowly, and not as good time could -be made. Also the distance was farther than Mr. Martin thought, or at -least farther than the men on the raft had told him. - -When the evening shadows began to fall they were still traveling along, -with no signs of the lumber camp in sight. - -“I guess we shall have to camp out again to-night alongside the road,” -remarked Mr. Martin, as he scanned the highway ahead of him and saw no -sign of a house. - -“That’ll be fun!” declared Ted. - -“Maybe a horse will visit you to-night instead of a cow,” his sister -said. - -“I don’t want either one,” declared the lad. - -Mr. Martin drove the auto on for another mile or two and then, coming -to a place he thought would make a good camp--an open space near a -spring--he stopped and the work of making camp for the night was begun. - -The tent was stretched out from the side of the auto and the folding -cots put beneath the shelter. As before, Janet and Trouble would sleep -in the auto itself. - -Mrs. Martin got the supper over the alcohol stoves, which, though -small, gave good heat. Ted and Janet gathered wood, for their father -had said they might make a campfire and sit about it before going to -bed. - -When the meal was finished Ted was allowed to light the fire. The -children sat about it on smooth stumps, pretending they were early -settlers living in the wilderness. - -“It’s just like the Pilgrims,” said Janet, who was fond of history. -“Only there aren’t any wild Indians or wild animals to come after us,” -she added. - -“Yes, that’s the only difference,” agreed Ted. - -“They is some wild animals,” said Trouble, who was sitting near his -mother. He suddenly arose and looked off toward the forest. “They is -some wild animals here.” - -“Oh, no, there aren’t, Trouble!” declared Ted. - -“Yes, they is!” insisted his little brother. “They is two bears! I see -them! Here they come!” - -He pointed across the open glade, and the Curlytops, looking, saw, to -their great astonishment, two bears shuffling their way toward them! - -“Oh! Oh!” screamed Janet. “Oh, look at the bears!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -THE LUMBER CAMP - - -Mr. Martin, who had been busy making sure that everything about the -camp was snug and secure for the night, did not at first glimpse the -bears. But he heard what Janet exclaimed and called to her: - -“I wouldn’t pretend so hard if I were you, Jan, especially about bears -at night. You might scare Trouble.” - -“But, Daddy!” cried Janet, as she ran toward him, “there _are_ bears! -_Real_ ones! And Trouble saw them first.” - -“Nonsense!” exclaimed Mr. Martin, emerging from behind the auto, where -he was making sure the tent flaps were fast. - -“Yes, here are two bears, Dick!” said his wife. “And they’re coming -right for us! We’d certainly better do something!” - -“I’ll do something!” cried Ted, picking up a blazing brand. “I’ll scare -’em with this!” - -“No! No! You mustn’t!” objected his mother. - -“Bears are afraid of fire!” stated Ted. - -“These don’t seem to be,” observed Janet. “They’re coming right for us!” - -She had turned, on her way to join her father, and she saw the shaggy -creatures still shuffling along. By this time Mr. Martin had reached -the open place and he had a sight of the bears. - -“Bless my stars!” cried the father of the Curlytops. “Who would have -thought to find bears here? But they must be tame bears!” - -“I certainly hope so!” exclaimed his wife. - -“They must be!” said her husband again. “Wild bears would run at the -sight of us--not come nearer. Some lumberman must have caught these two -when they were small, and he’s tamed them. They aren’t much more yet -than two-year-old cubs. I believe they’re coming to see if they can -find something to eat.” - -“Oh, if they’re tame bears maybe they’ll do tricks!” cried Ted. - -“Maybe they’ll eat peanuts like nellifunts!” added Trouble. - -“Well, you aren’t going to feed these bears peanuts!” decided his -mother, catching the little fellow up in her arms and stepping back -toward the auto with him. - -“Oh, look! They’re eating!” suddenly cried Ted, pointing. - -Surely enough, the two bears that had been shuffling along in the -peculiar way bears have, had now come to a stop some little distance -away from the campfire and began sniffing along the ground. - -Suddenly one of them seemed to find some dainty, for he picked it up. -And an instant later the other, with a sort of squealing growl, tried -to knock whatever it was from the mouth of the first bear. - -“They’re quarreling, just like two boys! Oh, they must be tame bears!” -decided Mrs. Martin, for the shaggy chaps seemed to have no interest -except in each other or in what they could find on the ground. - -“What is it, Daddy, they’re fighting about?” asked Janet, for now the -two bears were wrestling, standing up on their hind legs, and each -trying to throw the other. Whatever the first bear had found had been -knocked from him by the second bear and had fallen to the ground. Now -they were struggling to see which should have it. - -“It’s my snandwich that I dropped,” explained Trouble. “I was over by -there and I dropped a snandwich (he always called them that) and the -bears are eating my snandwich.” - -“I guess that’s right!” agreed Mr. Martin. - -As the two bears wrestled, more in fun than in anger it seemed, the one -who had knocked the sandwich from the one that first found it, dealt -his companion such a blow as to send him staggering off against a tree. -Then the second bear pounced on Trouble’s lost sandwich and soon ate it. - -The first bear seemed to take it all good-naturedly and went sniffing -for more tidbits that might have been tossed away or dropped by the -campers. - -“Oh, aren’t they cute!” exclaimed Jan, for by this time it was evident -that the bears would do no harm. They came to eat--not to run the -Curlytops off. - -“I’d like to know whose they are,” said Teddy. - -“And I hope they don’t stay here all night,” added Mrs. Martin. “I -don’t want to go to sleep, knowing a bear--no matter how friendly he -is--may poke his head in on me at any moment.” - -“I’ll see if I can drive them away,” offered Mr. Martin. - -“No, don’t do that!” begged his wife, clutching him by the arm. “They -might turn on you and scratch you.” - -“I don’t believe they will,” said her husband. “As you say, we don’t -want to go to sleep with bears roaming around loose, even if they are -tame bears.” - -“Maybe they’ll go away themselves if we give them enough to eat,” -suggested Janet. - -“Huh, that’s just the way to make ’em stay around here!” declared Ted. -“They’ll stay as long as you feed ’em--like a stray dog.” - -It was evident that something must be done, for the two bears, having -picked up all the scraps they could find outside the camp, were now -approaching closer. They stood up and sniffed hungrily, moving their -snouts about in a peculiar way. Nor did they appear to be afraid of the -fire, on which Ted piled more wood. - -“I wish their keeper would come and take them away,” said Mrs. Martin. - -Then, as if in answer to her wish, a man came running out of the -forest--a lumberman, he seemed, with big boots on--and in his hands he -carried chains that rattled and clanked. At the sound of the rattling -chains the bears turned, like boys caught in a jam closet, and, -dropping to all fours, would have run into the woods, except that the -man shouted: - -“No, you don’t, Jim! Come back here, Jack, you little rascal! Come -here, I say!” - -The bears paused, and then, as the man ran toward them and again -shouted, they turned about and walked slowly back to him. In an instant -he had snapped one end of the chains he carried into collars they wore -about their necks. - -“Hope my pets didn’t scare you folks,” said the man, as he playfully -pulled the little short ears of his shaggy charges. “Jim and Jack are -as gentle as lambs, but you’ve got to know how to treat ’em. Hope they -didn’t frighten you.” - -“They didn’t--exactly,” said Mr. Martin. “We were a bit surprised, at -first, but the bears seemed to be content to pick up scraps about the -place.” - -“That’s what they love--picking up scraps of food,” said the lumberman. - -“Are they your pets?” asked Janet. - -“Yes, little girl. I’ve had ’em ever since they were little bits of -cubs. Some one shot the old bear and I found these two, like puppies, -whimpering on their dead mother. I brought them to my camp, raised them -on a bottle until they were old enough to eat, and I’ve kept ’em ever -since. This evening they got away, as they often do, and wandered off, -so I had to take after ’em.” - -“Are you camping around here?” asked Mr. Martin. - -“Yes, in a way,” was the answer. “I’m not camping for fun, as you folks -are. It’s business with me. I’m manager of a lumber camp over in the -woods.” - -“Oh, yours is the camp we have been looking for!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. - -“You’ve been looking for me?” echoed the man, who gave his name as Pat -Teeter. - -“We met some lumbermen on a raft going down the river,” explained Mr. -Martin, telling about the dog who bit the auto tire. “They said you -might let us inspect your camp.” - -“Sure, I will. We’ll be glad to have you visit us!” declared Mr. -Teeter. “There aren’t many men in camp now, and they’ll be glad of -company. We’re over in the woods about three miles from here.” - -“I’m afraid that’s rather too far to go to-night,” objected Mrs. -Martin. “And we have things all ready here.” - -“Then come over the first thing in the morning,” urged Mr. Teeter. -“I’ll go back now, with my runaway bears. We’ll expect you in the -morning.” - -“Will your bears do tricks?” asked Ted, as the shaggy creatures on the -ends of the chains prepared to follow their keeper. - -“Oh, yes. I’ll show you to-morrow,” was the answer. “Come over to -breakfast, if you like.” - -“Thank you, but I think it will be best to come over directly after -breakfast,” answered Mrs. Martin. - -Mr. Teeter disappeared in the woods with his two tame bears, and the -Curlytops were quite delighted, talking of the fun they would have in -the lumber camp the next day. - -“I only hope those bears don’t get loose again in the night and poke -their noses in our tent as Ted’s cow did,” said Mrs. Martin, as they -made ready for bed. - -“I don’t believe they will,” said her husband. “Mr. Teeter will be -sure to chain them up well.” - -“If a bear comes I would like to ride on his back!” stated Trouble. -“Once I did ride on a nellifunt’s back. But I would like a bear ride, -too.” - -“Well, maybe you’ll get it!” laughed Janet, as she cuddled him in her -arms. - -In spite of what her husband had said about the bears being well -secured, Mrs. Martin, several times in the night, awakened, thinking -she heard the shaggy cubs shuffling along through the forest. - -But nothing like this occurred, and morning came without anything -having happened in the night. Breakfast was served and eaten, the -things straightened up and put back in place, and off to the lumber -camp started the Curlytops. - -“There it is!” cried Ted, a little later, as they drove along the river -road. He pointed to a cluster of log cabins in the woods, cabins set -down in the midst of a clearing. - -“Yes, I guess this is the lumber camp all right,” assented his father. - -“I see the two bears!” added Janet, pointing to the cubs, chained at -the rear of one of the log cabins. - -“Well, this will give us a new set of adventures--stopping in a lumber -camp,” said Mr. Martin, as he guided the car over the not very smooth -road that led up to the cluster of cabins. - -At that moment, from down the road in the other direction, came some -strange yells, shouts and cries: - -“Yip! Yip! Yippie!” was yelled, and then followed more strange noises. - -“What do you imagine that can be?” asked Mrs. Martin, wonderingly, -of her husband, while several dogs in the lumber camp began to bark -excitedly. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -A SMASH - - -Mr. Martin for a time thought there must be some sort of fight or -other kind of trouble among the lumbermen to cause all this noise. The -lumbermen, he knew, were, some of them, rough characters, and he did -not wish the Curlytops and Trouble to see any fighting or quarreling -among them. - -The children, however, were excited and curious. They looked toward the -bend in the road whence the noise came, and a moment later Janet cried -out in delight: - -“Oh, it’s the movie actors! See, there’s Mr. Weldon!” - -“That’s right--the cowboys!” added her brother. “I wonder what they are -doing here!” - -“They probably came to take some pictures in the lumber camp,” said Mr. -Martin. - -But taking pictures seemed very far from the thoughts of the movie -actors--at least, for the time being. They were intent on having a good -time, for they were laughing among themselves and many of the men were -giving voice to that “yi-yippy” yell which sounded so wild. - -“I guess they’ve just finished some hard work,” said Mrs. Martin, as -she laughed at some of the antics of the riders. “They’re like boys out -of school.” - -So it proved, for when Ned Weldon and some others of the men who had -been friendly with the Martin family while at Dawson’s Farm, saw the -family, they rode up and renewed their friendship, and also told why -they had come here. - -“We had to have a lumber camp location for this part of the film,” -explained Mr. Birch, the director. “So we came here.” - -“But we didn’t expect to find you here,” added Mr. Weldon, as he made -his horse prance on its hind legs, much to the amusement of Trouble. - -“We didn’t expect to come here,” stated Mr. Martin. “But when Mr. -Teeter invited us we thought it would give the children something new -to see for their vacation tour.” - -“And they’s bears, too!” exclaimed Trouble. - -“I guess you mean elephants, don’t you?” asked Mr. Weldon, who had more -than once laughed at the little fellow’s pronunciation of the name. - -“No, not nellifunts--bears,” insisted Trouble. “They’s over there,” and -he pointed to the two tame bruins, chained to a tree. The movie actors -had not yet seen the bears, it appeared. - -But Mr. Birch had no sooner looked toward the cubs than he gave a cry -of delight and said: - -“Just what we want! You remember that scene, Weldon, where you go into -the old cabin?” - -“Yes, I remember that,” answered the cowboy actor. - -“Well, I’ve been trying to think of something funny that could happen -there. The bears will be the very thing! We’ll put them in the cabin, -and you go in. Then the bears chase you out. It will be very funny.” - -“Funny for the bears, maybe, but not for me!” exclaimed Mr. Weldon. “Do -you think I’m going into a cabin with a couple of bears?” - -“Why, sure you are,” replied the director. - -“Well, sure I am not!” cried the cowboy. “I won’t do such a thing! Do -you think I want to be clawed by a bear and have my clothes torn?” and -he made such a funny face that the Curlytops laughed. - -But Trouble solved the problem by saying: - -“They is tame bears. They won’t hurt you, Mr. Weldon, and they eats -peanuts like nellifunts.” - -“Oh, if they’re tame bears, that’s another thing,” said the movie -actor. “But I want to be sure they are tame.” - -“Yes, they are,” said Mr. Martin. “The bears came to our camp last -night. We thought they were wild, but they soon proved to be tame. Mr. -Teeter has raised them from little cubs.” - -“Just the thing for us, then,” said Mr. Birch. “We’ll have those bears -filmed to-morrow. It will make a funny scene, Weldon, with you climbing -out of a cabin window chased by bears.” - -“All right--I’ll go through with it,” said the cowboy with a sigh and -another funny face which made the Curlytops laugh. “But if they tear -my clothes you’ll have to buy me a new suit.” - -“I will,” promised the movie director. - -By this time the moving picture actors and actresses had quieted down -and were getting ready to take their parts in the film. They were to -remain in the lumber camp several days, and the Curlytops were glad of -this, for they liked to see the work being done. - -Mr. Birch hurried off to arrange with the tamer of the bears about -using the animals in a scene with Mr. Weldon. The latter remained to -talk to the Martins. - -“Is Mr. Portnay here?” asked Mr. Martin. “I don’t see anything of him.” - -“No, he doesn’t take any part in this section of the film,” answered -the cowboy. “But we expect him to join us in a few days. Did you get -back your box of albums that his man took by mistake?” - -“Yes. I have the box here in the car,” answered the father of the -Curlytops. “We expect to reach Bentville soon, and then I will turn the -old books and pictures over to Mr. Cardwell. I shall be glad to get rid -of them, for I am always afraid something is going to happen to them.” - -One of the lumbermen came along then to say that Mr. Martin and his -family could occupy one of the cabins in the woods while they were in -the camp. - -“It’s only a rough shack,” he said; “but it’s the best we have.” - -“This will do very nicely,” said Mrs. Martin, when they had driven over -to it. “Cows can’t poke their horns in, at any rate.” - -“No, ma’am, we haven’t any cows here,” said the lumberman, with such a -puzzled look on his face that Mrs. Martin laughed and explained about -the cow that tried to enter the tent while Ted was asleep. - -The movie folk were distributed around the camp in the different -cabins, and soon the place quieted down. This, as I have said, was not -the busy season at the lumber camp in the woods, and only a few of the -men were there. Because of this, many of the cabins were vacant, which -gave the movie people and the Curlytops plenty of room. - -The remainder of the day Ted and his sister, taking Trouble with them, -watched the movie actors at work. Many short scenes were filmed, but -the children were more interested in watching Mr. Weldon practice, or -go through, his part with the tame bears. - -At first the actor was a bit timid when with the shaggy creatures. But -after he had seen Ted and Janet feed them lumps of sugar, Mr. Weldon -got courage enough to let them eat from his hand. After that it was -easy, and he and the two cubs were soon on friendly terms. - -“Now we’ll try how it goes when they chase you out of the cabin,” -suggested the director. - -“But they’re so friendly they won’t chase me,” said Mr. Weldon. - -“If you have some bread and molasses with you they will,” said Mr. -Teeter. “They’ll go anywhere to get bread and molasses. Just have some -of that with you when you play your part. Hold it out to the bears and -then pull it away. They’ll chase you from here to the end of Crystal -Lake to get the sweet stuff.” - -So that was tried. One of the cabins in the open part of the woods was -picked out as the scene in the picture. - -The bears were put inside, and then Mr. Weldon got ready to go through -his part. In his pocket he had some slices of bread covered with -molasses, which the lumber camp cook had given him. The bread was -wrapped in waxed paper so it would not make the actor’s pocket sticky. - -The idea in this part of the film story was that Mr. Weldon was to -enter the cabin, thinking it held a man whom he wanted to catch. So he -approached the place on tiptoe. But no sooner had he entered, than the -bears, who had been anxious to come out, rushed at him. They smelled -the bread and molasses in Mr. Weldon’s pocket. There was no need to -hold it out to them. - -“Now run!” cried Mr. Birch, while the cameras clicked. - -There was no need to tell Mr. Weldon to do this. He took one look at -the bears, hungry for bread and molasses, and away he rushed. After him -lumbered the cubs--not angry, just keen to get the sweets. - -“That’s good! Fine! Couldn’t be better!” cried Mr. Birch. - -Finally the bears chased Mr. Weldon so closely that, tame as they were, -he feared they might claw him in their eagerness. So he climbed a tree -and dropped the bread and molasses down to the shaggy fellows. - -This was all they wanted, and they stopped to lick up the molasses, -thus ending the scene. - -“That was great!” cried the director. - -“Glad of it,” said Mr. Weldon, as he came down from the tree after the -bears had been led away. “If it had been spoiled I wouldn’t have done -it over again. It was too exciting.” - -But there was no need to take the bear scene over again, as sometimes -happens when movies are being filmed. It was all right from the first -click of the cameras. - -Other scenes were taken the next day in the lumber camp, and in some -the Curlytops had small parts, much to their delight. They liked it in -the woods, and Mrs. Martin was glad to remain a few days in one spot -and have the shelter of a cabin in which to sleep. - -Mr. Birch decided that as long as he was in a lumber camp he had better -take some scenes of chopping down trees, and this was arranged for. -Then, as his company was one producing comedies, he wanted something -funny and decided to have a man up in a tree that was being chopped -down. - -One of the lumbermen volunteered to take this part, as he said it had -really happened to him once. He jumped out of the falling tree into -another standing near by, and so was not hurt. - -“I can do the same thing again,” he said. - -This scene took place on the edge of the clearing in the lumber camp, -where the light was good. As the company carried no powerful electric -lights with them, they had to depend on the sun, and in the depths of -the woods there was not light enough for taking good pictures. - -After some funny antics, the lumberman climbed the tree. Then another -man began to chop it down. It did not take long, for the lumbermen know -how to fell a tree in a few minutes. And as the big pine began to sway -toward the earth, the trunk being almost cut through, Mr. Birch cried: - -“Jump now!” - -The man jumped, a camera filming him as he leaped from the falling tree -to one standing near it. Then down to the earth crashed the tall pine. - -There was a shout of dismay from some of the movie people standing off -to one side. - -“I hope no one was hurt,” said Mrs. Martin. - -Mr. Teeter came running up through the cloud of dust caused by the fall -of the tree. - -“There’s been a smash,” he said. - -“A smash?” repeated Mr. Martin. - -“Yes. That tree didn’t fall just the way it should, and it smashed down -on your auto.” - -“Oh, is our car smashed?” cried Ted. - -“Not all of it, but one wheel is,” said a lumberman. “I’m afraid you -Curlytops can’t continue your tour. I’m very sorry.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -ABOARD THE MOTOR BOAT - - -Nothing could, have been more of a disappointment to the Curlytops just -then than to hear they could not keep on touring around. They were -having such fun they did not want it to stop. But if they had no auto -to go in, they would have to return home--and the trip wasn’t half -finished! - -“And how are we going to take those albums to Mr. Cardwell?” said Teddy. - -“Let’s go and see how badly the car is damaged,” suggested Mr. Martin. -“Perhaps it can be repaired so we can go on.” - -“It will need a new wheel,” answered the lumberman. “I think one can be -sent on from the factory, or the nearest supply house, but it will take -several days. It’s too bad!” - -“It couldn’t have been helped, I suppose,” said Mr. Martin, as, with -his wife and children, he walked toward his car. “I shouldn’t have -left it there.” - -“The tree was taller than any of us thought,” said the lumberman. “The -end of it stuck out farther than we calculated, and it was just the tip -of it that hit your front wheel.” - -It did not take more than a glance from Mr. Martin to tell him that he -could not continue touring in his auto--at least, until a new wheel was -secured. - -“If only the tire or the rim had been broken, we could have managed,” -he said. “For we carry a spare tire and rim. But I haven’t an extra -wheel.” - -“We’ll get you one,” offered Mr. Birch. “It was the fault of our -company that your wheel was broken, and we’ll pay for a new one. I’ll -telegraph and have one sent on from Blissville at once. There is a -branch agency there that keeps parts for your car.” - -“Don’t worry about it,” said Mr. Martin. “It can’t be helped now. I am -glad no one was hurt. There is no great hurry about our tour--a few -days’ wait will not matter.” - -But it would take more than a few days to supply a new wheel for the -one broken on the auto, it was found out. The agency was out of wheels -for the kind of car Mr. Martin owned, and it would be necessary to -send to Michigan for one. This would take about two weeks, stated the -telegram that came in reply to the one Mr. Birch had sent. - -“Do you think we want to stay in this lumber camp two weeks more?” -asked Mrs. Martin of her husband. - -“Hardly,” he answered. “And yet I don’t see how we can continue our -tour without a car.” - -“Couldn’t we go on horseback?” asked Ted. “When we were at Uncle -Frank’s ranch we rode on ponies.” - -“I’d like a pony,” Janet said. - -“The ponies might be all right for you two Curlytops and for me,” said -their father. “But I hardly think your mother and Trouble could manage -it. No, we had best either go back home or wait here for a new wheel.” - -Mr. Birch was saying how sorry he was that the plans of the family had -thus been spoiled when Mr. Teeter suddenly asked: - -“How about a motor boat?” - -“A motor boat?” asked Mr. Martin. “What do you mean?” - -“I mean,” explained the lumberman, “how would you like to keep on -touring in a motor craft? I suppose cruising would be a better word -than touring, when you speak of a boat. But how about it?” - -“A boat would be dandy fun!” exclaimed Ted. - -“I think so, too,” added his sister. - -“But it would take us as long to arrange to hire a boat as it would to -wait for a new wheel,” objected Mr. Martin. “Besides, how could we get -to Bentville by boat?” - -“Very easily,” answered Mr. Teeter. “Rockaway River, which is the -stream we float our logs down, flows from Crystal Lake, about fifty -miles up country. You could cruise along the river, and so get to the -lake. Then you cross the lake and you’re right at Bentville.” - -“Yes, I suppose we could do that,” admitted Mr. Martin, after thinking -it over. “But what about a boat? Where could we get one?” - -“Take mine,” offered the lumberman. “I have a very good little cabin -motor boat down in the river. You can put your things from the auto -into the boat and keep on going.” - -“Oh, Daddy, let’s do it!” cried Ted. - -“Please!” added Janet. - -“I like a boat on the water,” crooned Trouble. “Nellifunts, they squirt -water out of they trunks.” - -“What do you say, Ruth?” asked Mr. Martin of his wife. - -“It sounds very nice,” she answered, with a smile. “But I should like -to see the boat. Is there room on it for all of us?” - -“Plenty,” said Mr. Teeter. “Come on, I’ll show you.” - -It wasn’t far from the lumber camp to the Rockaway River, and at a -small dock was tied the gasoline motor boat, _Pine Tree_. This was a -very good name, the Curlytops thought, for a boat owned by a lumberman. - -“Say, she’s a dandy!” exclaimed Ted, as he went on board. - -“I like this better than an auto,” said Janet. “There’s more room to -move about.” - -This was true. Though the _Pine Tree_ was not an especially large motor -boat, there was much more room on her than in even the largest touring -car. There was a cabin in which they could eat, and at night the table -folded up out of the way and bunks, like those in sleeping cars, could -be let down. A sliding partition made the large cabin into two small -ones. One could be used by Ted and his father, while the other would do -for Mrs. Martin, Janet and William. - -“Well, do you think you want to go cruising for a while instead of -autoing?” asked the lumberman. - -“Yes, indeed, thank you,” said Mrs. Martin. “I’m almost glad, now, that -the wheel was broken. This is a lovely little boat.” - -So it was arranged. The baggage from the Martin car was put aboard the -_Pine Tree_, and the lockers and pantry were stocked with food. Things -could be cooked on a gasoline stove in the little galley, or kitchen. - -“Don’t forget the albums,” said Mrs. Martin to her husband, when the -boat was being made ready. “We don’t want to leave them behind.” - -“No, indeed,” he answered. “I have them here.” - -He stowed away, on board the _Pine Tree_, the box of old albums which -had been intrusted to him. They were still wrapped up as they had come -by express from Mr. Portnay in New York. The movie actor, it was said -by Mr. Birch, had been ill and would not resume work for a time. -Then he expected to go West to complete the film, part of which the -Curlytops had seen made. - -“All aboard!” called Mr. Martin, on the morning when a fresh start was -to be made in the touring plans of the Curlytops. “All aboard!” - -The lumbermen and the movie people had said good-by, wishing the -Curlytops and their family all sorts of good luck. Mr. Teeter arranged -for the Martins to come back in the boat and leave it at the camp when -they had cruised as much as they wished. - -“By that time I’ll have a new wheel on your auto,” he told Mr. Martin, -“and you can drive home in the car.” - -“That’s a good idea,” said the father of the Curlytops. - -You can imagine how delighted Ted, Janet and Trouble were as they sat -on the little deck of the _Pine Tree_ and looked at the scenery along -the Rockaway River, up which they were puffing their way to reach -Crystal Lake. Mr. Martin knew how to run and steer a motor boat. In -quiet stretches of the river he allowed Ted and Janet to hold the wheel -for a time. - -“It’s just lovely here,” said Mrs. Martin with a happy sigh as she -leaned back against a cushion. “It’s much nicer than the auto.” - -Mr. Martin thought so, too, and while of course he did not like to have -wheels smashed, still some good came out of it. Up the winding river -went the _Pine Tree_, new scenes presenting themselves every minute. - -They did not have to go ashore to spend the night, nor even stop for -meals, which were cooked on board. Mrs. Martin took charge in the -galley, and Ted and Janet gave whoops of delight when she blew a -whistle which meant that the first lunch was ready. - -They did not speed along, for, as before, Mr. Martin was in no hurry, -but they took their time, and that afternoon, as they were passing a -large town, they tied up at a wharf and went ashore, as Mrs. Martin -wanted to buy some food which they had not been able to put on board at -the lumber camp. - -“We aren’t going to travel in the night, are we?” asked Ted of his -father, as they puffed along late that afternoon, the cupboard having -been well stocked at the last stopping place. - -“No, I hardly think so,” he answered. “I don’t know this river well -enough to navigate it after dark. When it gets a little later we’ll -anchor for the night, and go on in the morning.” - -“Are we going to sleep on this boat?” Trouble wanted to know. - -“Of course,” answered Ted. “Do you think you’re going to sleep in the -water?” - -“I don’t see any beds,” remarked the little fellow, looking about. - -“Well, I don’t wonder at that,” laughed his mother. “The beds are -folded up, my dear. They come down like this.” - -As I have told you, the berths in the _Pine Tree_ were made to fold up -during the day like those in a sleeping car. A turn of a handle and a -pull brought down the beds out of recesses in the cabin walls. There -were blankets, sheets and pillows stored in each berth, just as on a -sleeper. - -“Oh, I like these little beds!” cried Trouble, as he saw them come down. - -“It’s a dandy boat,” declared Ted. - -When it was dark Mr. Martin ran the boat near shore and dropped the -anchor. Then, after a while, they all “turned in,” as a sailor would -say--that is, they went to bed. - -Janet suddenly awakened in the night--how late it was she didn’t -know--but something disturbed her. A low light, operated by a storage -battery, gleamed in the tiny cabin, and Janet looked across to the bunk -where her mother was sleeping, with Trouble on the berth below her. - -“Mother! Mother!” called Jan, in a low voice, so as not to awaken her -small brother. - -“Yes, dear, what is it?” asked Mrs. Martin. She was a light sleeper, -accustomed to being awakened many times in the night by her children. - -“I think,” said Janet in a whisper, “somebody is running away with the -_Pine Tree_.” - -“Running away with the _Pine Tree_! Do you mean with this boat?” asked -Mrs. Martin. - -“Yes, Mother! We’re moving! Don’t you feel it?” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -ON THE LAKE - - -Mrs. Martin sat up in her berth and listened. She could hear no sound -except the gentle lapping of the water against the sides of the _Pine -Tree_. There had been no motion when she went to sleep, for the river -did not flow swiftly at this point. But something had awakened Janet. - -“Don’t you feel it, Mother?” asked the little Curlytop girl. “Don’t you -feel us moving?” - -“Yes, I certainly do,” Mrs. Martin said, after sitting still for a few -seconds. “We are certainly moving. I’ll call your father.” - -“Do you think anything is going to happen?” asked Janet, greatly -excited by this time. - -“No, I think we are dragging our anchor--that’s all,” answered her -mother. “It must be seen to.” - -Putting on her dressing gown and slippers, Mrs. Martin went to the -other cabin where her husband was sleeping with Ted. A touch on his -shoulder awakened Mr. Martin. - -“What is it?” he asked sleepily. “Have we reached Pittsburgh yet, -porter?” - -“You aren’t in a sleeping car, traveling to Pittsburgh,” laughed his -wife. In his earlier days Mr. Martin had been a traveling salesman and -covered many thousands of miles in sleeping cars. - -“What is it, then?” he asked, sitting up. By the gleam of the little -light he saw his wife standing near his berth. - -“The boat is moving,” she told him. - -“Moving?” - -“Yes. Don’t you feel it? Janet felt it first and called me. I think we -are dragging our anchor.” - -“So we are!” exclaimed Mr. Martin, as he felt the sensation of the boat -moving. “But it isn’t anything serious. I’ll drop it in a new place -where it will hold better.” - -As he was putting on a coat and trousers to go out on the little -forward deck, where the anchor rope was caught around a cleat, Ted -awakened. - -“What’s the matter?” he wanted to know. “I’ll go up and help you, -Daddy,” he offered, when told of the trouble. - -“All right--come along,” agreed his father. “You had better go back to -bed,” Mr. Martin suggested to his wife. - -“Yes, I’ll stay with Trouble and Janet,” she agreed. - -It was dark up on deck, for the _Pine Tree_ was anchored in the river -away from any town or city. The stars alone dispelled the blackness of -the night. - -But Mr. Martin had a powerful flashlight with him, and, switching this -on, he held it over the side, focusing the electric rays on the water. -Then he noticed something that made him exclaim in wonder. - -“What’s the matter?” asked Ted. - -“Why, we’re going upstream instead of down,” was the answer. “If -we were dragging our anchor we would float down the river with the -current. We wouldn’t go up as we do when the motor is running.” - -“The motor isn’t running now,” said Ted, and it was not--the engine -having been shut off when they anchored for the night. “But what makes -us move, Daddy?” - -“Something has hold of our anchor rope and is pulling us upstream by -it,” said Mr. Martin. - -“You mean an alligator?” asked Ted. “Oh, I wish it was daylight! I’d -like to see an alligator!” - -“No, not an alligator,” said Mr. Martin, with a smile. “There are none -of those creatures in these waters. But something is towing us all -right.” - -“Maybe it’s river pirates,” suggested the Curlytop boy. “You know Mr. -Teeter said river pirates once took this boat.” - -“It isn’t pirates,” declared Mr. Martin. “They would have to use a boat -to tow us away and there isn’t a boat in sight. No, something has hold -of our anchor rope beneath the water. See?” - -He held the flashlight on the hemp cable. Ted could see where it went -down into the water, and just ahead of it were little ripples such as -are caused when a stick or a rope is dragged through the water. - -“What do you suppose it is, Daddy?” asked the lad. - -“Some sort of fish, or other water creature, has got caught in our -anchor,” decided Mr. Martin. “It’s towing us.” - -“Maybe it’s a big turtle,” said Teddy. “A big mud or snapping turtle.” - -“Maybe,” agreed his father. “I’m going to see. Here, Ted, you hold the -flashlight and I’ll haul up on the anchor rope.” - -The Curlytop boy focused the rays of the powerful little electric torch -on the rope extending into the water and Mr. Martin, taking hold of the -cable, near the deck cleat around which it was wound, began to pull up. -It was hard work, but finally he managed to get some slack, and then -Ted cried: - -“Oh, I see! It’s a big turtle!” - -“Yes, so it is,” agreed his father. For he had pulled up enough of -the anchor and rope to show a great snapping turtle with one of his -flippers caught on the rope, just where it was fastened to the “mud -hook,” as sailors sometimes call an anchor. - -“Can you pull him on board, Daddy?” asked Teddy. - -“I don’t know that I want to,” was his father’s answer. “He looks like -a pretty ugly customer.” - -A moment later the turtle gave a wriggle and dropped off into the water -with a splash. Pulling him up had loosened his hold on the anchor rope. -Then Mr. Martin let go the rope, the anchor dropped back to the bottom -of the river and held in the mud, bringing the boat to a stop. - -“Now I guess we’re all right,” said Mr. Martin, as he went down with -Ted, who looked to see the turtle rise again, but it did not. - -“What was it?” Mrs. Martin wanted to know. - -“A big snapping turtle, crawling along on the bottom of the river, got -caught in our anchor and rope,” explained her husband. “He kept right -on crawling, pulled up our anchor from the mud, and swam away. - -“He was so powerful that he was able to tow our boat,” went on Mr. -Martin. “It wasn’t hard to do, once he got it started, and being on the -bottom he could get a good hold for his feet, which have claws on them. -When I pulled up the rope I loosened his hold.” - -“If we could keep that turtle, and train him, he would pull the boat -for us, and we wouldn’t have to use gasoline,” said Teddy. - -“I’m afraid we’d be several years getting where we want to go,” laughed -his father. “A turtle is pretty slow.” - -They went back to bed and were not disturbed again that night. In the -morning the Curlytops looked for a sign of the turtle, and even tossed -bits of meat into the river, hoping to tempt him to rise, but he did -not, probably being asleep in the mud. - -They traveled on all that day, having a good time aboard the _Pine -Tree_ and late that afternoon they reached the place where the river -flowed out of Crystal Lake. - -“To-morrow we’ll cruise across the lake and reach Bentville,” said Mr. -Martin. “Then I’ll deliver the albums and after we spend some time -here, motoring about, we’ll cruise back to the lumber camp and get our -auto, which ought to have a new wheel on by then.” - -“This is a big lake,” said Mrs. Martin, looking across it as evening -settled down. “I hope no storms come when we are in the middle.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -THE WRONG BOX - - -Mr. Martin decided to anchor the _Pine Tree_ for the night, rather than -to try to cruise across the large body of water in the darkness. He had -never been on the lake before, though he had directions for reaching -Bentville. - -“But this is a good place to stay,” he told his wife, when they had -reached the point where the river flowed out of the lake. “We’ll camp -here.” - -“Do you mean go ashore and camp?” asked Teddy. - -“Oh, no; we’ll stay on the boat,” his father answered. “It will be -better, I think.” - -“Maybe a big turtle will give us a ride again,” suggested Trouble. He -had been told how the queer creature of the mud had towed the motor -boat, and his great regret was that he had not been awakened to see it. - -“No, I hardly think a thing like that will happen the second time,” -said Mr. Martin, with a laugh. “It was only by accident that the turtle -got tangled in our anchor rope.” - -Then they made ready to spend the night on board the _Pine Tree_. The -anchor was let down but a short distance from shore, the boat being -close to the bank so they could all reach dry land by crossing a small -gangplank which Mr. Martin ran out. - -When the boat had been made fast, the Curlytops and Trouble went -ashore, leaving their mother and father to get supper, for Mr. Martin -was helping his wife. - -“Don’t go too far, children,” called Mrs. Martin to the three who were -wandering along the shore of Crystal Lake. - -“We’ll soon be back,” promised Janet. - -“I’m going to see if I can find any apples,” said Teddy. - -“You’ll hardly find any apple orchards around here,” said his father. - -But the Curlytop boy did. He was walking along ahead of his sister and -small brother when he suddenly saw a group of trees in a green field, -and a second look told Ted they were apple trees. - -“Come on,” he cried. “Let’s see if any of the apples are ripe.” - -“Maybe we’d better not,” said Janet. “Whoever owns these apples -wouldn’t like us to take any.” - -“Nobody owns ’em,” said her brother. “There’s no house around here. I -guess they’re just wild apples and anybody that wants can pick ’em.” - -Ted had rather queer ideas, but he meant no wrong, and soon the three -children were under the trees, gathering the fruit. It was just getting -ripe. - -Presently Trouble, who seemed to care more about running around than he -did about picking up apples, gave a cry and pointed at something in a -distant field. - -“What is it?” asked Janet. - -“It’s a man. He’s coming here,” announced the little fellow. “I see a -tramp man.” - -“Oh, Ted!” gasped Janet, “what’ll we do?” - -“Well, if it’s a tramp we’ll just go back to our boat,” decided the -Curlytop lad. “He won’t dare say a word when he sees father and -mother.” - -“Yes, but s’posin’ it’s the man that owns these apples?” went on Jan. - -“Well,” and Teddy thought about that a moment, “we can say daddy will -pay him for ’em, and he will. We only took some because we didn’t think -anybody wanted ’em. I’m not afraid.” - -“Where’s the man, Trouble? Show me,” Jan told her small brother. “I -don’t see any one.” - -“There he is,” and Trouble led Janet to a corner of the fence. It was -from here that he had looked before, coming back to tell the news. - -“He’s taking his time getting here,” thought Teddy, munching an apple -and following his sister and brother. Ted decided that if there was to -be a fuss about the apples he might as well have one to eat, anyhow. - -“There’s the man,” Trouble said, pointing the individual in question -out to his sister and brother. - -Jan noted the ragged flapping coat and the ragged hat set on one side -of the head. Then Ted saw it and gave a howl of laughter. - -“Don’t make fun of him!” his sister begged. “The farmer won’t like it, -and he’ll scold us for taking his apples.” - -“Farmer!” chuckled Ted. “That isn’t a farmer.” - -“Well, tramp then,” went on Janet. “He does look like a tramp.” - -“It isn’t a tramp, either,” laughed Ted. - -“What is it then?” Janet wanted to know. - -“It’s a scarecrow. That must be a field of corn, or something, over -there, and the farmer that owns it has put up a stuffed man to keep the -crows away. Ho! Ho! It’s a scarecrow!” - -“How can you tell?” asked Janet. - -“’Cause it hasn’t moved since we’ve been looking at it. Here, I’ll show -you!” - -Ted caught up a stone and threw it at the ragged figure, the rock -striking it full in the back. There was a sound as when a stone hits a -board fence, and the ragged figure never moved. - -“See! I told you!” cried Ted. - -“Yes, I guess it is a scarecrow,” admitted Janet. “I’m glad of it. Now -we can take all the apples we like.” - -“Yes, it isn’t an apple-scarer,” laughed Teddy. - -“But it looks terribly natural,” said Jan, as they turned back to the -orchard. “No wonder Trouble thought it was a man.” - -The scarecrow was very well made, and in the dusk of the evening would -have misled almost any one who did not know about it. - -“My, you have enough apples for a pie and some sauce,” said Mrs. Martin -when the children reached the boat and had told about the ragged -figure. “I don’t suppose whoever owns the trees will mind our taking a -few apples,” she said to her husband. - -“I think not. But to be on the safe side and to be honest I’ll put -twenty-five cents in an envelope and hang it on one of the branches,” -said Mr. Martin, and he did this. - -Very likely the farmer who owned the apples was surprised on visiting -his orchard some time later to find the money and the note with it. He -had made a sale where he had not expected to. - -The night passed quietly, but toward morning Mrs. Martin was awakened -by the pitching and tossing of the boat. She looked out to find that -the wind was blowing, making the lake very rough. - -“Do you think it will be best to start with the wind blowing like -this?” asked Mrs. Martin after breakfast, when the boat was still -tossing some. - -“Oh, yes,” her husband answered. “I think the breeze will go down. I -am anxious to get to Bentville and deliver the albums to Mr. Cardwell. -Then we can go about as we please.” - -“I think there’s going to be a bad storm,” went on his wife. - -“Oh, I guess we’ll get to the other side of the lake before it comes,” -Mr. Martin said. - -But they did not. Though the wind went down for a time just as the -anchor was pulled up and a start made, the breeze began to rise again -when they were out in the wide water. The waves began to toss, and the -_Pine Tree_, though a staunch, stout craft, began to pitch about. - -“I wish we hadn’t started,” sighed Mrs. Martin. - -“Well, now that we have, we might as well keep on,” her husband said. -“In fact, it is safer to go on, heading into the wind as we are, than -it would be to put back.” - -“I like it rough,” cried Teddy, holding fast to prevent himself being -bumped about. - -“It’s like being on a nellifunt’s back,” declared Trouble. “It goes up -and down and jiggles.” - -“It jiggles all right,” said his mother. “It jiggles too much for me. -What’s that, do you suppose?” she said, as a crash sounded in the -cabin. They were all out on deck at the time. - -“Something fell,” replied Mr. Martin. “Perhaps you had better go see -what it is. I can’t leave the wheel.” - -Mrs. Martin went down, followed by the children. In the cabin they -saw that a pile of valises, which had been stowed in one corner, had -toppled over. With the valises had been placed the box sent back from -New York by Mr. Portnay. - -In falling this box had come out of the paper wrapping, and had opened. -And when Mrs. Martin looked at the contents she exclaimed: - -“The wrong box! It’s the wrong box!” - -“What do you mean--wrong box?” called her husband. - -“I mean Mr. Portnay sent you back his make-up box by mistake, and he -has kept the box of albums! Look, here are his false wigs and paints. -This is the wrong box!” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -TROUBLE’S PUSSY - - -Mr. Martin, hearing what his wife said, gave a quick look ahead across -the stormy lake. Then, seeing no other boats in his course, he fastened -the steering wheel, so the _Pine Tree_ would keep on in a straight -line, and down into the cabin he hurried. He saw just what the others -had seen--the pile of valises and also the wooden box with the cover -opened. - -“It surely is the wrong box!” said the father of the Curlytops. He -noticed a collection of wigs, false beards and mustaches, together with -a number of tubes of colored paint such as actors use whether in the -movies or on the stage. - -“Where are Mr. Cardwell’s albums?” Ted asked. - -“I suppose they are back in New York in Mr. Portnay’s studio,” said his -father. - -“Unless he has discovered his mistake by this time,” suggested Mrs. -Martin, “and has sent the right box on to us at the lumber camp.” - -“He wouldn’t know we were at the lumber camp,” said her husband. “We -only stopped there by accident.” - -“But Mr. Portnay knows that his company was there, making films,” went -on Mrs. Martin. “And he might think that they could tell where we were. -I say, let’s go back to the lumber camp and see if the right box isn’t -there.” - -Mr. Martin thought this over a moment or two, while the Curlytops and -Trouble looked out of small windows, or portholes, in the cabin, noting -how rough the lake was growing. The storm was getting worse, and the -wind was howling loudly. - -“There has been a mix-up and mistake about this box of albums from the -start,” said Mr. Martin. “I don’t see how Mr. Portnay could make a -mistake a second time and send us his paints and false wigs in place of -the old books.” - -“The boxes look exactly alike,” said Mrs. Martin. “I guess these -movie people are so busy thinking about the parts they are going to -play that they don’t pay any attention to much else. Or perhaps Mr. -Portnay’s man may have caused the mix-up.” - -“Well, it’s a mix-up all right,” her husband said. “And I think your -advice, to go back to the lumber camp, is the best thing we can do. As -you say, that movie man may come there or send the box there. We’ll go -back.” - -“I’d like to be out of this storm,” went on Mrs. Martin. “It is getting -much worse.” - -“Yes,” agreed her husband, “it is. I think I can turn back, though, -with safety if I use care.” - -“But if we have the movie man’s things that he puts on his face to make -him look different in pictures, how can he act?” asked Ted. - -“I guess he can easily get another make-up box,” replied his father. -“But it is impossible for us to get other Cardwell albums, and the -pictures of the twins, now dead, and the young boy lost at sea. We -simply must get back the right box. So I’ll go up and turn the boat -around. Better hold fast, everybody, for it will be rougher going the -other way.” - -“I’ll come up on deck and help you steer,” offered Ted. - -“No, Son, you’d better stay below with your mother, and help straighten -up the cabin,” suggested his father. “Pick up the valises and wrap up -that wrong box. Mr. Portnay will want it back, I think.” - -The Curlytops helped their mother set things to rights, and then, -indeed, they had to hold on, for the _Pine Tree_ pitched and tossed -in the storm, much as might her namesake in a forest with a big wind -blowing. - -Once it almost seemed that the boat was going to turn over, so far did -she tilt to one side. It began to rain, too, and Mr. Martin, up on -deck, had to put on his rubber coat. But he was a good sailor, and knew -how to manage the boat. - -In the afternoon, following a hasty meal on cold victuals, for Mrs. -Martin did not want to light the stove in the storm, the boat seemed to -ride easier. - -“I guess it’s going to clear off,” said Janet. - -But it was not that. Mr. Martin was near shore now, and under the lee -of a big hill, which kept off some of the wind. - -When evening came the touring Curlytops and their family were back -where they had started from--the place where the river ran out of the -lake. - -“We’ll tie up here for the night, and when morning comes we’ll navigate -down the river,” said Mr. Martin. “We’ll get to the lumber camp more -quickly than we came away from it, for we shall be going downstream -instead of against the current.” - -“Suppose the movie people are gone--what then?” asked Ted. - -“Well, the men in the lumber camp will know where they went,” answered -his father. “We’ll find them sooner or later, and get back the right -box of albums.” - -It was still raining hard, but the wind did not blow so fiercely in the -sheltered place where the _Pine Tree_ was anchored. Jan was glad of -this, for she did not like rough weather. - -It was in the middle of the night, when the storm seemed to have -quieted down a bit, that Trouble awakened his mother by calling to her. -Mrs. Martin was ever on the alert for the calls of her children in the -night, and she had formed a habit of answering them when but half -awake herself. Usually it was only a drink that William wanted. - -But this time, when Mrs. Martin became aware that he was calling to her -from his little bunk in the sleeping cabin, she did not hear him ask -for water. - -“Mommie! Mommie!” murmured the little fellow. - -“Yes, dear, what is it?” asked his mother sleepily. - -“Why don’t you let the pussy in?” asked Trouble. - -“What pussy, Trouble?” she asked, not yet quite awake. “There isn’t any -pussy here. You must be dreaming. Go to sleep again.” - -“Yes they is a pussy!” insisted the little fellow, sitting up in his -berth. His mother could see him in the dim little electric light. “They -is a pussy and she’s mewing and she wants to come in out of the rain. -Bring her in, Mommie.” - -Mrs. Martin thought Trouble was imagining all this, or that it was part -of a dream. Often he had dreams and went right on with them when he -awoke. - -“I’ll get you a drink, and then you can go back to sleep again,” his -mother said, as she got up. - -“Pussy wants a drink, too,” declared Trouble. “She wants a drink of -milk. There! Didn’t you hear her mew?” - -There came a lull in the storm and, to her surprise, Mrs. Martin heard, -through a porthole opened for ventilation on the leeward side of the -boat, the mewing of a cat. - -“Why, Trouble!” she exclaimed, “there _is_ a pussy out in the rain. The -poor thing!” - -“It’s my pussy!” declared the little fellow. “Bring her in!” - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -THE RIGHT BOX - - -Hardly stopping to think why Trouble should claim as his the pussy that -was crying in the night, Mrs. Martin started out of the cabin. Her -husband, sleeping in the other cabin with Ted, heard her and asked: - -“What’s the matter?” - -“Trouble heard a cat crying. It’s out in the rain. He wants me to bring -it in,” his wife answered. - -“A cat?” questioned Mr. Martin. Then with a little chuckle he added: “I -hope it isn’t a wildcat.” - -“What’s that?” exclaimed Ted, suddenly awakening. “A wildcat? Have we -got a gun to shoot it?” - -“Now don’t get excited,” laughed his father. “This is a tame cat, I -guess. I’ll go out and get it.” - -Slipping on his rubber coat, for it was still raining, Mr. Martin went -out on deck. Near the porthole, which was open a little way, but not -far enough to allow the cat to enter, was a crying, wet pussy, mewing -pitifully. - -“You poor little thing!” exclaimed Mr. Martin, who was as fond of -animals as were his children. “We’ll take care of you. But I wonder how -you got here?” - -The _Pine Tree_ was anchored some distance out from shore, and there -was no plank laid out on which the little cat might have crossed. - -“I guess she fell into the lake and drifted down until she caught hold -of our anchor rope,” said Mr. Martin, as he brought the drenched pussy -down into the cabin. “She climbed up on the rope and so reached the -deck.” - -“The poor little creature,” murmured Mrs. Martin. - -“Let me have her--she’s my pussy!” demanded Trouble. - -He wanted her in the bunk with him, but his mother said the wet fur of -the pussy would make the sheets damp. - -“I’ll dry her off and give her some milk, and then you may have her, -William,” she said. - -The little cat, warm and almost dry, was soon purring contentedly in -William’s arms and going to sleep with him, after lapping up some warm -milk, for Mrs. Martin, now that the boat was not pitching and tossing, -had lighted the gasoline stove. - -Ted and Jan looked in at the sight of the stray pussy that had come to -their little brother out of the storm. - -“Isn’t he cute!” murmured Jan. - -“Who?” asked Ted, for she was looking at her little brother and the -cat--both asleep now. - -“They’re both cute,” whispered Jan. - -The remainder of the night passed quietly, and when morning came the -storm had passed and the river and lake gleamed in the sunshine. - -“Now for another tour,” laughed Mr. Martin, as he and Ted hauled up the -anchor. “Back to the lumber camp!” - -“And I hope we get the right box,” said Mrs. Martin. - -They were going down the river the second day, and expected to reach -the lumber camp that afternoon when, as they turned a bend in the -stream, Ted and his father, who were out on deck, saw a small boat just -ahead of them. There were two little boys in the boat, and as the _Pine -Tree_ came into view the boys stood up and cried: - -“Help! Help!” - -“What’s the matter?” called Ted. - -“Sit down, boys. Sit down!” ordered Mr. Martin. “You’ll upset!” - -The little lads sat down, but they continued to cry for aid, and Mrs. -Martin and Jan came out to see what the trouble was. - -“I guess they don’t know how to row, or else they’ve lost their oars -and don’t know how to get back where they came from,” said Mr. Martin, -as he slowed the _Pine Tree_ and guided her close to the small, -drifting craft. - -His last guess proved correct. The boys were from a summer camp on the -river. They had set out in a boat, thinking they could manage to row, -but they knew little of how to do it. First one oar slipped overboard -and drifted away, and then the other. The little fellows were helpless -on the river, the current of which was carrying them away. So they -shouted for help when they saw the _Pine Tree_. - -“I’ll tow them back to camp,” said Mr. Martin. - -This he did, and received the thanks of the parents who had begun to -spread an alarm through the camp concerning the missing boys. - -This turning back made the Curlytop family a trifle late, and it was -after dark when they reached the dock in the river alongside the lumber -camp. - -“Hello, what brings you back so soon?” asked Mr. Teeter, as he came -down with a lantern to see who was tying up at his dock. “I thought -you’d be gone for a week longer.” - -“We got the wrong box,” explained Mr. Martin. “Are the movie people -still here?” - -“No, they’ve gone,” was the answer. “Left this morning.” - -“Dear me!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “How unfortunate. Shall we ever get -those albums back?” - -“When I say the movie people have gone, I mean all those have gone who -were here when you were,” went on Mr. Teeter. “But the head man is -here, Harry Portnay--the leading man I believe they call him. He’s here -with a couple of camera men. They’re going to make some pictures of -him alone.” - -“Oh, if Mr. Portnay is here, he’s the very one I want to see,” stated -Mr. Martin. “I hope he has the right box.” - -“He’s right over in that cabin,” said the lumberman who owned the tame -bears. “I guess he hasn’t gone to bed yet--there’s a light going.” - -Mr. Martin, carrying the wrong box, hastened over to the cabin of the -movie actor. Mr. Portnay greeted the visitor, looked at the box the -Curlytops’ father held out, and exclaimed: - -“That’s mine!” - -“And I guess that’s mine!” exclaimed Mr. Martin, pointing to a box just -like it on the table. “Has that two old photograph albums in it?” - -“Yes, it has,” answered the movie actor. “And has the box you have -there some wigs in?” - -“It has,” answered Mr. Martin. - -“Thank goodness! Now I can go on with my picture. I really need certain -wigs and false whiskers, because I used them earlier in the film, and -it would look strange to see me go into a room with one sort of beard -on and come out with quite another, which might happen. I am glad to -get my own box back again.” - -“And I am glad to get back my right box, the one with the albums in -it,” said Mr. Martin, opening the second package and making sure the -Cardwell albums were within. - -Then the actor explained how, in the hurry and bustle of getting to New -York and looking after matters there, one of his men had packed and -shipped the wrong box. - -“I did not find it out until yesterday when I wanted to get ready to -finish making this picture,” said Mr. Portnay. - -“And I did not open the box you shipped me by express, for of course -I thought it was the right one,” said Mr. Martin. “It was a series of -mistakes all around.” - -“Well, I’m glad it has ended now,” said the actor. - -The Martin family spent the next few days in the lumber camp, watching -pictures being made of Mr. Portnay in his false hair and beard, which -completely changed his appearance. But the making of these pictures was -not as interesting as the taking of those with the cowboys and bears in -them. - -“Well,” announced Mr. Martin, a few days later, when Mr. Portnay had -packed his belongings and gone to join his moving picture company, “I -think we had better resume our tour. The new wheel has arrived for the -auto, and we’ll go on in that.” - -“Whatever you do, be sure that you have the old albums in the right -box,” cautioned Mrs. Martin. - -“I’ll not let them out of my sight again until I deliver them to Mr. -Cardwell,” declared Mr. Martin. - -About a week later, after a jolly trip and some adventures, the touring -party reached Bentville and called on Mr. Cardwell. - -“I’m glad to see you,” said Reuben, the brother of James Cardwell, who -had sent the albums. “I had a letter from Jim, and he told me you were -bringing these. But I was beginning to think you were lost.” - -“The albums nearly were--more than once,” said Mr. Martin. “But I’m -glad you now have them.” - -“So am I,” said the old man. “We think a great deal of these pictures,” -and he looked lovingly at the photographs of the twins and of the -sailor boy, lost at sea. - -So the summer tour of the Curlytops came to a successful end. They -remained for a time in Bentville, and then started back home, reaching -there safely after some jolly adventures. - -“It was the best summer we ever had,” declared Janet. - -“Corking good times!” exclaimed Ted. - -“But we didn’t see any nellifunts!” lamented Trouble. - -“Never mind, maybe we shall next year,” said Janet, with a laugh. - - -THE END - - - - -BOOKS ARE A SYMBOL OF LIBERTY - - -Books have always been the priceless heritage of a free people. When -a new volume has been added to our shelves, it simply means that -democracy and all it stands for is still at work. - -Take away our books, and we become slaves, unknown and unknowing. - -They BURNED the books in that dark land of oppression and cast into the -flames not only words of beauty and knowledge, but a symbol of liberty: -Man’s right to read the books of his choice. - -We must never let that happen here! - -BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS NOW so that we and our children may continue -to enjoy the blessings of freedom, now and forever. - -[Illustration] - - - CUPPLES and LEON COMPANY - _Publishers_ NEW YORK - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - Archaic or variant spelling has been retained. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CURLYTOPS TOURING -AROUND *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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