The Curlytops on Star Island | Page 6

under couch if you wants me to," he added.
"Oh, that'll be real cute!" cried Janet. "Come on, Ted, let's do it! We
can make-believe Trouble is our little dog, or something like that, to
watch over our tent, and he can go to sleep--"
"Huh! how's he going to watch if he goes to _sleep?_" Ted demanded.
"Oh, well, he can make-believe go to sleep or make-believe watch,
either one," explained Janet.
"Yes, I s'pose he could do that," agreed Teddy.

Baby William opened his mouth wide and yawned.
"I guess he'll do some real sleeping," said Janet with a laugh. "Come on,
Trouble, before you get your eyes so tight shut you can't open 'em again.
Come on, we'll play camping!" and she led the way into the sitting
room and over toward the big couch at one end.
Many a good time the children had had in this room, and the old couch,
pretty well battered and broken now, had been in turn a fort, a
steamboat, railroad car, and an automobile. That was according to the
particular make-believe game the children were playing. Now the old
couch was to be a tent, and Jan and Ted moved some chairs, which
would be part of the pretend-camp, up in front of it.
"It'll be a lot of fun when we go camping for real," said Teddy, as he
helped his sister spread one of Grandma Martin's old shawls over the
backs of some chairs. This was to be a sort of second tent where they
could make-believe cook their meals.
"Yes, we'll have grand fun," agreed Jan. "No, you mustn't go to sleep
up there, Trouble!" she called to the little fellow, for he had crawled up
on top of the couch and had stretched himself out as though to take a
nap.
"Why?" he asked.
"'Cause the tent part is under it," explained his sister. "That's the top of
the tent where you are. You can't go to sleep on top of a tent. You
might fall off."
"I can fall off now!" announced Trouble, as he suddenly thought of
something. Then he gave a wiggle and rolled off the seat, bumping into
Ted, who had stooped down to put a rug under the couch-tent.
"Ouch!" cried Ted. "Look out what you're doing, Trouble! You bumped
my head."
"I--I bumped my head!" exclaimed the little fellow, rubbing his tangled

hair.
"He didn't mean to," said Janet. "You mustn't roll off that way, Trouble.
You might be hurt. Come now, go to sleep under the couch. That's
inside the tent you know."
She showed him where Ted had spread the rug, as far back under the
couch as he could reach, and this looked to Trouble like a nice place.
"I go to sleeps in there!" he said, and under the couch he crawled,
growling and grunting.
"What are you doing that for?" asked Ted, in some surprise.
"I's a bear!" exclaimed Baby William. "I's a bad bear! Burr-r-r-r!" and
he growled again.
"Oh, you mustn't do that!" objected Janet. "We don't want any bears in
our camp!"
"Course we can have 'em!" cried Ted. "That'll be fun! We'll play
Trouble is a bear 'stead of a dog, and I can hunt him. Only I ought to
have something for a gun. I know! I'll get grandpa's Sunday cane!" and
he started for the hall.
"Oh, no. I don't want to play bear and hunting!" objected Janet.
"Why not?"
"'Cause it's too--too--scary at night. Let's play something nice and quiet.
Let Trouble be our watch dog, and we can be in camp and he can bark
and scare something."
"What'll he scare?" asked Ted.
Meanwhile Baby William was crawling as far back under the couch as
he could, growling away, though whether he was pretending to be a
bear, a lion or only a dog no one knew but himself.

"What do you want him to scare?" asked Ted of his sister.
"Oh--oh--well, chickens, maybe!" she answered.
"Pooh! Chickens aren't any fun!" cried Ted. "If Trouble is going to be a
dog let him scare a wild bull, or something like that. Anyhow chickens
don't come to camp."
"Well, neither does wild bulls!" declared Janet.
"Yes, they do!" cried Ted, and it seemed as if there would be so much
talk that the children would never get to playing anything. "Don't you
'member how daddy told us about going camping, and in the night a
wild bull almost knocked down the tent."
"Well, that was real, but this is only make-believe," said Janet. "Let
Trouble scare the chickens."
"All right," agreed Ted, who was nearly always kind to his sister. "Go
on and growl, Trouble. You're a dog and you're going to scare the
chickens out of camp."
They waited