The Curlytops on Star Island | Page 5

a firefly."
"Lightning bugs aren't that color," declared Ted, "It was a blue light,
almost like Fourth of July. But tell us about camping, Grandpa!"
"Yes, please do," begged Jan.
And while the children are eating their late supper, and Grandpa Martin
is telling them his plans, I will stop just a little while to make my new
readers better acquainted with the Curlytops and their friends.
You have already met Theodore, or Teddy or Ted, Martin, and his
sister Janet, or Jan. With their mother, they were spending the long
summer vacation on Cherry Farm, the country home of Grandpa Martin
outside the town of Elmburg, near Clover Lake. Mr. Richard Martin, or
Dick, as Grandpa Martin called him, owned a store in Cresco, where he
lived with his family. Besides Ted and Jan there was Baby William,
aged about three years. He was called Trouble, for the reason I have
told you, though Mother Martin called him "Dear Trouble" to make up
for the fun Ted and Jan sometimes poked at him.
Then there was Nora Jones, the maid who helped Mrs. Martin with the
cooking and housework. And I must not forget Skyrocket, a dog, nor
Turnover, a cat. These did not help with the housework--though I
suppose you might say they did, too, in a way, for they ate the scraps
from the table and this helped to save work.
In the first book of this series, called "The Curlytops at Cherry Farm," I

had the pleasure of telling you how Jan and Ted, with their father,
mother and Nora went to grandpa's place in the country to spend the
happy vacation days. On the farm, which was named after the number
of cherry trees on it, the Curlytops found a stray goat which they were
allowed to keep, and they got a wagon which Nicknack (the name they
gave their new pet) drew with them in it.
Having the goat made up for having to leave the dog and the cat at
home, and Nicknack made lots of good times for Ted and Jan. In the
book you may read of the worry the children carried because Grandpa
Martin had lost money on account of a flood at his farm, and so could
not help when there was a fair and collection for the Crippled
Children's Home.
But, most unexpectedly, the cherries helped when Mr. Sam Sander, the
lollypop man, bought them from Grandpa Martin, and found a way of
making them into candy. And when Ted and Jan and Trouble were lost
in the woods once, the lollypop man--
But I think yon would rather read the story for yourself in the other
book. I will just say that the Curlytops were still at Cherry Farm,
though Father Martin had gone away for a little while. And now,
having told you about the family, I'll go back where I left off, and we'll
see what is happening.
"Yes," said Grandpa Martin, "I think I will take you Curlytops to camp
on Star Island. Camping will do you good. You'll learn lots in the
woods there. And won't it be fun to live in a tent?"
"Oh, won't it though!" cried Ted, and the shine in Jan's eyes and the
glow on her red cheeks showed how happy she was.
"But I'd like to know what that blue light was," said the little girl.
"Oh, don't worry about that!" laughed Grandpa Martin. "I'll get that
blue light and hang it in our tent for a lantern."
I think I mentioned that Jan and Ted had such wonderful curling hair

that even strangers, seeing them the first time, called them the
"Curlytops." And Ted, who was aged seven years, with his sister just a
year younger (their anniversaries coming on exactly the same day) did
not in the least mind being called this. He and Jan rather liked it.
"Let's don't go to bed yet," said Jan to her brother, as they finished
supper and went from the dining-room into the sitting-room, where
they were allowed to play and have good times if they did not get too
rough. And they did not often do this.
"All right. It is early," Ted agreed. "But what can we do?"
"Let's pretend we have a camp here," went on Jan.
"Where?" asked Ted.
"Right in the sitting-room," answered Jan. "We can make-believe the
couch is a tent, and we can crawl under it and go to sleep."
"I wants to go to sleeps there!" cried Trouble. "I wants to go to sleeps
right now!"
"Shall we take him back to mother?" asked Ted, looking at his sister.
"If he's sleepy now he won't want to play."
"I isn't too sleepy to play," objected Baby William. "I can go to sleeps