The Curlytops and Their Pets | Page 8

was! And a piece of the rubber hit me in the eye!"
laughed Ted.
"My 'loon all gone!" wailed William.
"So that's what it was--a burst toy balloon," said Daddy Martin. "Well,
I'm glad it wasn't one of my tires."
"So am I," said Mother Martin. "It is too hot to have to change a tire
to-day. Besides, I'm in a hurry to get to Uncle Toby's and see what it is
he wants us to take charge of while he is away. I hope he doesn't go
until we get there."
"You never can tell what Uncle Toby is going to do," said Mr. Martin,
smiling, now that he knew he had no tire to change. "And so you burst
your toy balloon, did you, Trouble? Well, I'll have to get you another,
but not while we're on this auto ride. I don't want to be frightened again,
and I might be if you blew up another balloon and it burst."
"I didn't know he had one with him," remarked Mrs. Martin, as Trouble
looked sadly at what was left of his toy.
"I didn't either," Janet said. "All of a sudden he took it out of his pocket
and began to blow it up."
"I was makin' be'eve it were a wed soap bubbles," explained Trouble.
"Well, soap bubbles or not, it burst," said Teddy. "It sure did make a
noise! But now we can go on. I want to see if Uncle Toby is going to
leave any guns."
"And I want a spinning wheel," Janet murmured. "But you can't take it

to play steamboat with," she told her brother.
"I shan't want it if I have a gun!" retorted Ted.
"Now, children, be nice," begged their mother.
Daddy Martin started the automobile again, first getting out to look at
the four tires, to make sure none was flat, punctured or burst. They
were all round, plump and as fat as big bologna sausages.
"Now we go to Uncle Toby. Maybe I get a kittie cat!" said Trouble,
when he decided to smile after feeling so bad about his burst balloon.
"A kittie cat!" exclaimed Janet. "Why, we have a lovely cat, Trouble.
Don't you like Turnover?"
"Yep! But I 'ikes a kittie cat, too. Maybe Uncle Toby hab one for me!"
"Probably Uncle Toby is too old a man to bother with pet cats," said
Mrs. Martin.
But it only goes to show that you never know what is going to happen
in this world--sometimes you don't even know what you are going to
have for dinner.
Along rolled the automobile, taking the Curlytops nearer and nearer to
the city of Pocono, where Uncle Toby lived with his housekeeper, Mrs.
Watson. But it was rather a long ride, and, about half way, the party
stopped in a little village for lunch.
"Did we bring any lunch with us, or are we going in a place to eat?"
asked Ted.
"Oh, I hope we go in a place to eat!" exclaimed Janet. "I like a
restaurant, don't you, Ted?"
"Sure!" answered the Curlytop boy.
"Yes, we are going to a restaurant," his mother told them. "Daddy

wants to get some oil and gasoline for the auto, too."
"It's sort of feeding the auto, isn't it, Mother?" asked Janet, as they
alighted.
"In a way, yes," admitted Mrs. Martin.
A little later the Curlytops were having a fine meal, and when I say the
Curlytops I mean also Daddy and Mother Martin, and Trouble. The
hair of Mr. and Mrs. Martin did not curl, though it must have done so
when they were younger; or else how would Ted and Janet have had
such beautiful ringlets? Nor did Trouble's hair curl, though when he
was smaller his mother used to wind little ringlets around her finger,
hoping he would have locks as pretty as those of Janet and Ted. But,
really, the older boy and girl were the only ones who could, truly, be
called Curlytops, though I sometimes speak of the "Curlytop family."
So you know, when I say that the "Curlytops" were eating lunch, that
all five of them were enjoying their meal. There were several things
that Janet, Teddy and Trouble liked to eat, and toward the end of the
meal there was a piece of pie for each of them. And it was toward the
end of the meal that something happened, and Trouble, as usual, was
the cause of it.
Just before the waiter had brought the pie there had sounded, out in the
street, the music of a hand organ. No sooner had he heard this than
Trouble slipped from his chair (where he had been sitting on a hassock
to make him higher) and ran to the window.
"No monkey!" called out the