The Curlytops and Their Pets | Page 9

each side of the table, and glanced at the floor. "There's a big puddle of water under our table!" she cried.
Then Ted looked over toward the big water-cooler in one corner of the restaurant.
"Somebody left the faucet open!" cried Teddy. "The ice water is all running out! No wonder your feet are wet, Mother!"
Mr. Martin hastily left his chair and turned off the faucet, and, as he did so, he looked at Trouble. Something in the face of that youngster caused Daddy Martin to ask:
"William, did you do that?"
"I--I dess maybe I turned it on a 'ittle bit!" confessed the mischievous one.
"A little bit!" cried Janet, as she looked under the table. "Why, there's almost as much water as there is in our brook at home!"
"Oh, not quite so much," said her mother gently. "Though there is enough to have wet through the soles of my shoes. I was wondering why my feet felt so damp and cold. And did Trouble turn on the water? Oh, Trouble!"
All eyes gazed at the little fellow, and he seemed to think he should explain what he had done.
"I 'ist turned de handle a teeny bit," he said, "to make a 'ittle water come out. An' den I fordot 'bout it!"
That was just what he had done. Seeing the waiter draw a glass of water from the cooler had given Trouble the idea that he soon afterward carried out. When he saw no monkey with the hand organ, the little fellow had gone back to his seat and, on the way, opened the faucet so that the water ran out in a little stream. Soon the drip-pan was full and then the water began trickling over the floor. No one noticed it until it had made a little puddle under the table, just at the point where Mrs. Martin's feet were.
"Oh, Trouble! what will you do next?" sighed the little fellow's mother.
"No harm done at all! None whatever!" said the waiter, coming up to the table smiling. "That little water on the floor I will wipe up so quick you will never see it."
"No, it won't hurt the floor much," Mr. Martin said. "And I suppose your shoes will dry out," he told his wife. "But, all the same, William should not have done it."
"I won't do it any more," said the little fellow. "I be good now! I sorry!"
He generally was when he had done something like that. However, as the waiter had said, little real harm was done, and Mrs. Martin's shoes would dry, for it was a hot, summer day.
The meal was finished and they all took their places in the automobile again to finish the ride to Uncle Toby's place, about twenty miles farther on.
Once again Trouble, Ted and Janet sat in the rear seat, while their father and mother rode in front. And this time Trouble had no red balloon which he could blow up, making it burst with a noise like a punctured tire. The children talked among themselves, wondering over and over again what it could be that Uncle Toby wanted their father to come and take charge of.
"Maybe he's got a little boy or a girl from an orphan asylum, and he wants us to take it to live with us," suggested Janet.
"A boy would be all right," decided Ted, as he thought of this. "I could have fun with another fellow."
"And I'd like a girl," said Janet. "I always wished I had a sister."
"Maybe they're twins--a boy and a girl," Ted went on. "That would be fun!"
"What would be fun?" asked his mother from the front seat, where she had heard the talk of the children. She often asked a question like this, as it sometimes stopped a bit of mischief that, otherwise, might happen. "What fun are you talking about?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Uncle Toby," answered Janet. "I thought maybe what he wanted daddy to take charge of was a little orphan girl."
"And I thought maybe it was a boy," added Ted.
"And then we both thought maybe it was twins--a boy and a girl, and we'd each have someone to play with," went on Janet.
"My! I don't believe Uncle Toby has adopted any orphan children that he wants us to take," Mrs. Martin said. "I can't imagine what he really has, but we'll soon find out."
On and on they rode in the automobile, until, after a while, they reached the small city of Pocono and, a little later, they pulled up in front of Uncle Toby's house. It was a rambling, old mansion that once had looked very nice, but now it was rather shabby and needed painting.
"Here is where Uncle Toby lives," said Daddy Martin. "Do you children remember it?"
"A little," admitted Ted. Neither he nor Janet had been there in years, and Trouble