The Curlytops on Star Island Part 10

"Well, anyway, a goat isn't like a dog. We don't want a goat along when we are going out walking."

So Nicknack was left to nibble the gra.s.s, while the Curlytops wandered on and on. Grandpa and the hired men, having finished putting up the tents, were getting the stove ready so Nora could get supper.

"What are you looking for?" asked Jan when she noticed that her brother walked along as if searching for something. "Are you trying to see if any tramps or gypsies are here on the island?"

"No. I was thinking maybe I could find that fallen star."

"But didn't grandpa say it all melted up?"

"Maybe a piece of it's left," went on Ted. This was the second time that he had spoken of the star that day. "If I can't find a chunk of it, maybe I can find the hole it made when it hit," he added. "I'd like to find that. Maybe it would be bigger than the one I dug when I thought I could go all the way through to China."

"Yes. The time Skyrocket fell in!" laughed Jan. "'Member that, Teddy?"

"I guess I do! Daddy had to go out in the night and bring him in. Come on, let's look for the hole the shooting star made."

"All right."

The two Curlytops walked on over the island, looking here and there for star-holes. They found a number of deep places, but after looking at them, and poking sticks down into them, Ted decided that none of them had ever held a shooting star.

"Maybe bears made them," half whispered Jan.

"There aren't any bears on this island!" Teddy declared.

"I hope not," murmured his sister, as she looked over her shoulder and then kept close to her brother during the rest of the walk.

Pretty soon the children heard their mother's voice calling them. They could hear very plainly, for the air was clear.

"I guess supper is ready," said Janet.

"I hope it is!" sighed Ted. "I'm awful hungry!"

Supper was ready, smoking hot on the table in the dining-tent, when Ted and Jan reached the camp grandpa had made.

"Oh, how good it smells!" cried Ted.

"And how nice the white tents look under the green trees," added his sister. "I just love it here!"

"It is the nicest place we have yet been for the summer vacation," said Mother Martin. "This and Cherry Farm are two lovely places."

They sat down under the tent and began to eat. Nora had gotten up a fine supper, for a regular cook stove had been brought along, and it was almost like eating at Grandma Martin's table, only this was out of doors, for the sides of the tent were raised to let in the air and the rays of the setting sun.

"What's the matter, Father?" asked Mrs. Martin, as she saw the children's grandfather pause after tasting the potatoes. "Is anything wrong?"

"I think I'd like a little more salt on these."

"Yes, they do need salting. Nora, bring the salt please."

"There isn't any, except what I used when I was cooking--a little I had in a salt-shaker."

"Oh, yes, there must be. I brought a whole bagful. I saw it when I unpacked some of the things. There was a sack of salt."

"Well, it isn't here now," said Nora, as she looked among her kitchen things.

"Has anyone seen the bag of salt?" asked Mrs. Martin.

She looked at Ted and Jan, who shook their heads. Then Trouble's mother looked at him. He was busy with a piece of bread and jam. One could have told Trouble had been eating bread and jam just by looking at his mouth and face.

"Did you see the salt, Trouble?" asked his mother.

"Iss, I did," he answered, taking another bite.

"Where is it?"

"In de water," he replied. "I puts it in de water."

"You put the salt in the water? What water? Tell mother, Trouble."

"I puts salt in de lake water to make him 'ike ocean. Trouble 'ike ocean. Come on, I show!" and, getting down out of his chair, he toddled toward a little cove near the camp. The others, following him, saw something white on the ground near the edge of the lake. Grandpa Martin touched it with his finger and tasted.

"The little tyke did empty the whole bag of salt in the lake!" cried the farmer. "Fancy his trying to make it like the ocean! Ho! Ho!"

"Oh, Trouble!" cried Mrs. Martin. "You wasted a whole bag of salt, and now grandpa hasn't any for his potatoes!"

CHAPTER VI

TED AND THE BEAR

Baby William looked a little bit frightened and ashamed as his mother spoke to him in that way. He loved his grandfather, and of course he would not have done anything to make him feel bad if he had thought. But Trouble was a very little fellow, though his father often said he could get into as many kinds of mischief as could the larger Curlytops.

"Oh dear! This is too bad!" went on Mrs. Martin. "Why did you do it, Trouble? What made you empty the bag of salt into the lake?"

"Want to make ocean wif salt water," was the answer.

"I suppose it's my fault, for telling him so much about the big sea and its salt water," said Trouble's mother. "He liked to hear me talk about the ocean, and I guess he must have been thinking about it more than I had any idea of.

"He must have tasted the water of the lake, and found it wasn't salty, and then he thought that, to make an ocean and big waves out of a lake, all he had to do was to put in the salt. I'm sorry, Father."

"Oh, that's all right," laughed Grandpa Martin. "I guess I can get along without any more salt."

"Trouble sorry, too," said the little fellow, when he understood that he had done something wrong. "Me get salt water for you," and he started toward the place where he had emptied the bag into the water, carrying a spoon from the table.

"No, Trouble! Come back!" ordered his mother. "I guess he wants to dip up some salt water for you," she said laughingly to the children's grandfather, "but he'd be more likely to fall in himself."

She caught Trouble up in her arms and kissed him, and then Nora managed to find a little salt in the bottom of the shaker, so Grandpa Martin had some on his potatoes after all. But Trouble was told he must never again do anything like that.