The Curlytops on Star Island Part 32

"It--it's so--s'ippery in de woods!" said the little fellow.

"So it is--on the pine needles," laughed Grandpa Martin, who was going to the mainland in the boat. But this time he did not want to take the children with him. "It is slippery in the woods, Trouble, my boy. But keep tight hold of Jan's hand, and maybe you won't fall down."

"Me will," said Trouble, but he did not mean that he would fall down. He meant he would keep tight hold of Jan's hand. Then he started off by her side, with Ted walking on ahead, ready for anything he might see that would make fun for him and his sister.

Through the woods they wandered, now and then stopping to gather some pretty flowers, on graceful, green ferns, and again waiting to listen to the song of some wild bird, which flitted about from branch to branch, but which seemed always to keep out of sight amid the leaves of the forest trees.

"Oh, isn't it just lovely here!" said Janet, as they came to a little gra.s.sy dell, around which the trees grew in a sort of circle, or magic, fairy ring. "It's just like in a picture book, Teddy!"

"Yes, it is," agreed her brother.

"I don't see any p.i.s.shures," complained Trouble.

"No, there aren't _real_ pictures here," explained Janet; "only make-believe ones. But you can sit down on the gra.s.s and roll, Trouble.

The gra.s.s is so clean I guess it won't make your ap.r.o.n dirty. Roll on the gra.s.s."

Trouble liked nothing better than this, and he was soon sitting on the soft, green gra.s.s, pulling bits and tossing them in the air like a shower. The gra.s.s was soft and thick, and did not soil his clean clothes at all.

"Exceptin' maybe a little stain," explained Janet to Teddy; "and Nora can get that out in the wash."

After they had sat in the shade for a while, in the green, gra.s.sy place, Ted and Janet wandered off among the trees, leaving Trouble by himself.

But they were not going far.

"He'll be all right for a little while," said Teddy, "and maybe we can find some sa.s.safras or wintergreen."

"But we mustn't eat anything we find in the woods, lessen we show it to grandpa or mother," returned Janet.

"No, that's so," agreed her brother. They had been told, as all children should be who live near the woods or fields, never to eat any strange berries or plants unless some older person tells them it is all right to do so.

But Teddy and Janet could easily tell sa.s.safras and wintergreen by the pleasant smell of the leaves. They did not find any, however. They found a bird's empty nest, though, with broken egg sh.e.l.ls in it, showing that the little birds had been hatched out and had flown away.

All at once, as the Curlytops were wondering what else they could do, they heard Trouble calling, and his voice sounded very strange.

"Oh, what has happened to him now?" cried Janet.

"We'd better go to see!" exclaimed Teddy.

They ran back to where they had left their little brother. All they could see of him was his back and legs. He did not seem to have any head.

"Oh! Oh!" gasped Janet. "Where is Trouble's head?"

Ted did not know, and said so, and then the little fellow cried:

"Tum an' det me out! Tum an' det me out!"

Then Janet saw what had happened. Trouble had thrust his head between the crotch, or the Y-shaped part, of a tree, and had become so tightly wedged that he could not get out.

"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Janet.

"I'll show you," answered Teddy. "You can help me." Then he pushed on the little boy's head, and Janet pulled, and he was soon free again, a little scratched about the neck, and frightened, but not hurt.

"You must never do such a thing again," said Mrs. Martin, when the children reached camp and told her what had happened.

"No, we won't do it any more," promised Trouble, feeling of his neck, where he had thrust it between the parts of the tree.

"And you mustn't go off again, and leave him by himself," said their mother to the Curlytops. "There is no telling what he'll do."

"That's right," said Grandpa Martin with a laugh. "You may go away, leaving Trouble standing on his feet, but when you come back he's standing on his head. Oh, you're a great bunch of trouble!" and he caught the little fellow up in his arms and kissed him.

For several days Teddy and Janet and Hal had many good times on Star Island. Then they wanted something new for amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Let's make a trap and catch something," said Ted, after he and Jan had spoken of several ways of having fun.

"How can you make a trap?" Hal asked.

"I'll show you," offered Ted. "You just take a box, turn it upside down, and raise one end by putting a stick under it. Then you tie a string to the stick, and when you pull the string the stick is yanked out and the box falls down and you catch something."

"What do you catch?" Hal asked.

"Oh, birds, or an animal--maybe a fox or a muskrat--whatever goes under the box when it's raised up."

"But what makes them go under?" Hal inquired.

"To get something to eat. You see you put some bait under the box--some crumbs for birds or pieces of meat for a fox or a muskrat. Then you hide in the bushes, with the end of the string in your hand and when you see anything right under the box you pull it and catch 'em!"

"Oh, but doesn't it hurt them?" asked Hal, who had a very kind heart.

"Maybe it might, Ted," put in Jan.

"No. It doesn't hurt 'em a bit," declared Ted. "They just stay under the box, you know, like in a cage."

"I wouldn't like to catch a bird," said Hal softly. "You see the birds are friends of Princess Blue Eyes. She wouldn't like to have them caught."

"Oh, well, we could let them go again," Ted decided, after a little thought.

"Does Princess Blue Eyes like foxes and muskrats too?" Jan asked softly.

"I guess she likes everything--birds, animals and flowers. Anyway I make-believe she does," and Hal smiled. "Of course she's only a pretend-person, but I like to think she's real. I like to dream of her."

"I would, too," said Janet softly. "We mustn't catch any birds, Ted, nor animals, either."

"Not if we let them go right off quick?" Ted asked.

"No," and Janet shook her head. "It might scare 'em you know. And the box might fall on their legs, or their wings, if it's a bird, and hurt them."

"Well, then, we won't do it!" decided Ted. "I wouldn't want to hurt anything, and I wouldn't want to make your friend, Princess Blue Eyes, feel bad," he added to Hal. He remembered the story Hal had told about the make-believe Princess, when they sat in the green meadow studded with yellow b.u.t.tercups and white daisies.

"Let's play store!" suggested Jan. "There's lots of pretty stones and sh.e.l.ls on the sh.o.r.e, and we can use them for money."