The Curlytops on Star Island | Page 2

heard his name spoken in that way, with each syllable
pronounced separately, Ted knew it was time to haul down his
quarreling colors and behave. He did it this time.
"I--I'm sorry," he faltered. "I didn't mean that, Jan. I won't pull your
doll's legs any more."
"And I won't take the goat-wagon away. We'll both go for a ride in it."

"That's the way to have a good time," said Mrs. Martin, with a smile.
"Now don't make any more noise, for William is fussy. Run off and
play now, but don't go too far."
"We'll go for a ride," said Teddy. "Come on, Jan. You can let your doll
make-believe drive the goat if you want to."
"Thank you, Teddy. But I guess I'd better not. I'll pretend she's a Red
Cross nurse and I'm taking her to the hospital to work."
"Then we'll make-believe the goat-wagon is an ambulance!" exclaimed
Ted. "And I'm the driver and I don't mind the big guns. Come on, that'll
be fun!"
Filled with the new idea, the two children hurried around the side of the
farmhouse out toward the barn where Nicknack, their pet goat, was
kept. Mrs. Martin smiled as she saw them go.
"Well, there'll be quiet for a little while," she said, "and William can
have his sleep."
"What's the matter, Ruth!" asked an old gentleman coming up the walk
just then. "Have the Curlytops been getting into mischief again?"
"No. Teddy and Janet were just having one of their little quarrels. It's
all over now. You look tired, Father."
Grandpa Martin was Mrs. Martin's husband's father, but she loved him
as though he were her own.
"Yes, I am tired. I've been working pretty hard on the farm," said
Grandpa Martin, "but I'm going to rest a bit now. Want me to take
Trouble?" he asked as he saw the little boy in his mother's arms. Baby
William was called Trouble because he got into so much of it.
"No, thank you. He's asleep," said Mother Martin. "But I do wish you
could find some way to keep Ted and Jan from disputing and
quarreling so much."

"Oh, they don't act half as bad as lots of children."
"No, indeed! They're very good, I think," said Grandma Martin, coming
to the door with a patch of flour on the end of her nose, for it was
baking day, as you could easily have told had you come anywhere near
the big kitchen of the white house on Cherry Farm.
"They need to be kept busy all the while," said Grandpa Martin. "It's
been a little slow for them here this vacation since we got in the hay
and gathered the cherries. I think I'll have to find some new way for
them to have fun."
"I didn't know there was any new way," said Mother Martin with a
laugh, as she carried Baby William into the bedroom and came back to
sit on the porch with Grandpa and Grandma Martin.
"Oh, yes, there are lots of new ways. I haven't begun to think of them
yet," said Grandpa Martin. "I'm going to have a few weeks now with
not very much to do until it's time to gather the fall crops, and I think
I'll try to find some way of giving your Curlytops a good time. Yes,
that's what I'll do. I'll keep the Curlytops so busy they won't have a
chance to think of pulling dolls' legs or taking Nicknack, the goat, away
from his wagon."
"What are you planning to do, Father?" asked Grandma Martin of her
husband.
"Well, I promised to take them camping on Star Island you know."
"What! Not those two little tots--not Ted and Jan?" cried Grandma
Martin, looking up in surprise.
"Yes, indeed, those same Curlytops!"
It was easy to understand why Grandpa Martin, as well as nearly
everyone else, called the two Martin children Curlytops. It was because
their hair was so tightly curling to their heads. Once Grandma Martin
lost her thimble in the hair of one of the children, and their locks were

curled so nearly alike that she never could remember on whose head
she found the needle-pusher.
"Do you think it will be safe to take Ted and Jan camping?" asked
Mother Martin.
"Why, yes. There's no finer place in the country than Star Island. And if
you go along--"
"Am I to go?" asked Ted's mother.
"Of course. And Trouble, too. It'll do you all good. I wish Dick could
come, too," went on Grandpa Martin, speaking of Ted's father, who had
gone from Cherry Farm for a few days to attend to some matters at a
store he owned in the town of Cresco. "But Dick says he'll be too busy.
So I guess the