Читать книгу The Curlytops in a Summer Camp - Howard R Garis - Страница 3

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“Look at Trouble, Teddy Martin! Just look at him!”

“Well, I’m looking,” answered a curly-haired boy to whom a girl, also with golden curls, had spoken. “What’s the matter with him, Janet?” and Ted turned to his sister.

“Why, he’s all muddy!”

“Yes, I guess he is!” and Ted smiled a little. “Anybody who makes pies in clam shells with sand and water gets muddy,” and now Ted fairly laughed.

“But you know mother told him to keep clean, ’cause maybe company might come this afternoon. And now Trouble’s all dirty. William Anthony Martin!” Janet called, in imitation of her mother, “you come right away from that mud!”

“No, Jan! I have to make one more pie!” William, or “Trouble,” as he was often called, answered. “I’m going to sell my pies and get money and then I’m going to the movies,” he went on, as he leaned over a little puddle of water to dip some up in a tin basin he had found.

“Oh! Oh!” suddenly screamed Janet.

“Look out!” shouted Ted. He, too, had seen the danger.

The two older children ran toward their small brother, whose hair was not quite so clustery as that of Ted and his sister. Their golden locks had gained for them the name of “Curlytops.”

“Oh, Trouble is going to fall in!” wailed Janet.

“He’s already fallen in!” said Ted, nearer the truth. “Wow, what a sight!” he went on, reaching his small brother too late to stop William from falling into the puddle.

But Ted was in time to pull him out. Janet stumbled and fell, and by the time she had picked herself up, Trouble had been rescued.

Truly small William was a sad sight. He had leaned over too far in reaching to get more water to mix the last batch of his mud pies, and had toppled into the puddle. Luckily, he had put his hands out to save himself, and his face and head did not go into the pool. But his blouse and little knickerbockers were pretty well splashed.

“Now you have done it!” exclaimed Ted, as he lifted his brother up and set him down a safe distance from the puddle.

At once a cry of distress came from the small boy.

“What’s the matter—did I hurt you?” asked Ted kindly.

“No. But look what you did—you made me step in one of my nice pies!” and Trouble’s scowl was very black. When Ted lifted him back so suddenly the little boy’s foot had gone squarely on top of a clam shell filled with mud and water mingled in a brown paste.

“Oh, that’s too bad, Trouble,” said Ted, soothingly. “I’ll help you make another pie for that one—a great big one.”

“Will you?” asked Trouble, smiles now chasing away his scowl. “Come on! I know where we can get some red mud. I’d like a red mud pie.”

“Wait a minute!” exclaimed Janet, as she came hurrying up to the two boys. “Oh, what a sight you are, Trouble!” she gasped.

“Only the front of me is muddy,” said the little fellow.

“As if that wasn’t bad enough!” went on his sister. “Oh, what will mother say?” she sighed. “She told you to keep clean, Trouble; and she said for Ted and me to watch and see that you didn’t get dirty. And now look at you.”

“I am lookin’,” Trouble admitted, glancing down at his muddy shoes, at his muddy stockings, at his muddy knickers and at his muddy blouse. Then he looked at his muddy hands. He couldn’t look at his face, but that was also muddy, as Jan and Ted could see.

“I couldn’t help it—falling in,” went on the small boy, whose smile was fading again.

“Of course you couldn’t!” agreed Ted. “And I’ll help you—”

“You’re not going to make any more mud pies!” decided Janet firmly. “You’re dirty enough as it is! Oh, what will mother say?”

“If we keep him out in the air long enough,” suggested Ted, “the wind will dry the mud and then it will brush off easily.”

“It won’t if you help him make any more pies,” Janet said.

“Then I won’t,” promised Ted. “You are pretty dirty, Trouble,” he went on. “But you’d be a lot worse if you had fallen all the way in that puddle.”

“I put out my hands and I fell on them,” the small boy said, holding out his palms to prove this. “But I want to make some more mud pies!” he continued, and now his chin was quivering, as were his lips, and tears came to his eyes.

“Now, don’t cry, Trouble!” said Janet softly.

“But you—you said you’d make me a big, red mud pie, Ted!” and William looked at his brother.

“I know I did, William, and—”

“No more mud pies!” Janet set her foot down so firmly and so suddenly that Trouble looked quickly at her to see if she had stamped on any of his damp pastry. But Janet was careful. “You can’t play in the mud any more, Trouble,” she insisted. “If company comes—”

“I don’t want any company!” interrupted William, again ready to cry. “I just want to help Ted make a big mud pie and—”

Ted and Janet knew what it meant to get William started to crying, and it seemed as if that were going to happen now. Then, suddenly, as Ted looked toward the garage not far from the house, he saw something which made him cry out joyfully:

“Oh, Trouble, do you want to see me have a funny ride?”

This gave the small boy something to think about. He pressed back the tears that were ready to fall and asked:

“What you mean?”

“Do you want to see me ride in a funny way?” went on Ted.

“Yes,” William replied. “And I want to ride with you.”

“I don’t believe it will be big enough for both of us,” stated Ted. “But it will be fun for you and Jan to watch me. You get him up to the top of the hill,” Ted went on to his sister in a low voice. “The wind blows hard there and it will soon dry that mud so we can brush it off his clothes.”

“What are you going to do?” Janet wanted to know.

“I’m going down there, and get that old automobile tire Patrick is putting outside the garage,” went on Ted. “Then I’ll curl up in it and roll downhill. You and Trouble can watch me.”

“Oh, Ted, you can’t do that!” objected Janet.

“Why not?” he flung back over his shoulder as he hastened to the garage.

But Ted did not stop for an answer, and Janet, thinking this would be a good chance to get her small brother away from the mud pies, said to him:

“Come on now, Trouble, we’ll go to the top of the hill and see Ted take a funny ride in the auto tire.”

“All right,” William cheerfully agreed. “And I’m going to ride, too. Then I’ll make some more pies.”

“No more mud pies!” Janet was very firm on this point. William thought it best to say nothing more about it, but followed his sister to the top of a small hill back of the Martin home—a hill that led down to one of the village streets. The splashes of mud and water on William’s clothing were slowly drying, as Ted had thought they would.

Meanwhile Teddy Martin had hurried down to his father’s garage where Patrick, the man of all work about the place, was leaning an old automobile tire, or shoe, against the side of the building.

“Is that the one you said I could have, Patrick?” the boy asked.

“That’s the one, my lad,” Patrick answered. “ ’Tis no use any more for the car, bein’ too worn. What are you goin’ to do with it?”

“Just roll it downhill,” Teddy answered.

“Well, be careful,” warned Patrick, as the boy began trundling the big, heavy hoop of rubber toward the top of the hill where Janet and William were.

“I will!” Teddy promised. But he had his own plans about that auto tire.

It was a beautiful day in late spring. Summer would soon arrive. It was Saturday morning and there was no school. What better time for fun?

Some days before, Mr. Martin had noticed that one of his auto tires was pretty well worn, and had told Patrick to get a new one. Teddy, hearing this, had begged for the old shoe, and it had been promised him.

“And now I’m going to ride downhill in it,” he said to himself, as he rolled it to the summit of the slope where his sister and brother awaited him.

“Now, Trouble,” said Ted, carrying out his promise, “you’re going to see me have a funny ride.”

“I want a ride, too!” the small boy insisted.

“Wait till I try it first,” was Ted’s answer. “Maybe it won’t work; but I think it will. I saw a boy in the movies do this.”

He had rolled the tire to the top of the grassy hill. He held it there a moment, looking down. Below were the streets of Cresco, a small town in one of our Eastern states.

“You hold it up straight, Jan, while I get in,” Ted directed.

“Theodore Martin!” exclaimed Janet, “you’re never going to roll downhill inside that auto tire!”

“Yes, I am,” he said. “It’ll be easy if you help. Come on!”

Janet had her doubts about it, but Ted was a year older, so he ought to know what he wanted. And Trouble, in view of what was going on, had forgotten all about the mud pies and no longer teased to mess in them. Also the wind was drying his clothes beautifully.

“You’ll be careful, won’t you?” begged Janet as she held the tire steady while Ted curled himself up inside.

“Sure, I’ll be careful,” he promised. “Anyhow, I can’t get hurt. The rubber shoe will take all the bumps, even if it goes over stones.”

Janet had seen the same movie picture that her brother spoke of, and the boy in that had successfully rolled downhill in an old auto tire. Teddy ought to be able to do it.

“Now, you’ll see me have a funny ride, Trouble,” went on Ted, as he kept himself from rolling down by bracing one foot on the grass. He was at this moment sitting upright inside the tire. But when it began to roll, of course, Ted would go head over heels in a series of somersaults. “Isn’t this nice, Trouble?” Ted asked.

“I want to ride next time!” Trouble said.

“Wait until you see how Teddy does it,” observed Janet, with an air of wisdom. She still had her doubts.

“All right!” called Ted.

He drew in his foot and Janet gave the tire a little push. It began to go down the hill slowly, but with ever-increasing speed until at last it was rolling along almost as fast as if it were on the auto from which it had been taken.

“Hi!” yelled Ted, half way down the hill. “This is great!”

The next minute something happened. The tire struck a big stone, bounced up in the air, and came down again. But when it came down Teddy was no longer inside it. The small boy had been bounced out. He fell on a thick clump of grass, not hurt much, but very much surprised.

The tire, however, rolled on, faster than before, and when Janet saw for what it was headed she cried:

“Oh, Teddy! Teddy! Stop it! Look where it’s going! Stop the tire! Oh, Teddy!”