The Curlytops on Star Island

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THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND

OR

Camping out with Grandpa

BY
HOWARD R. GARIS

Author of "The Curlytops Series," "Bedtime
Stories," "Uncle Wiggily Series," Etc.

Illustrations by
JULIA GREENE

NEW YORK

THE CURLYTOPS SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM
Or, Vacation Days in the Country

THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND
Or, Camping Out With Grandpa

THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN
Or, Grand Fun With Skates and Sleds

THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK'S RANCH
Or, Little Folks on Ponyback

1918

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE BLUE LIGHT
II WHAT THE FARMER TOLD
III OFF TO STAR ISLAND
IV OVERBOARD
V THE BAG OF SALT
VI TED AND THE BEAR
VII JAN SEES SOMETHING
VIII TROUBLE FALLS IN
IX TED FINDS A CAVE
X THE GRAPEVINE SWING
XI TROUBLE MAKES A CAKE
XII THE CURLYTOPS GO SWIMMING
XIII JAN'S QUEER RIDE XIV DIGGING FOR GOLD
XV THE BIG HOLE
XVI A GLAD SURPRISE
XVII TROUBLE'S PLAYHOUSE
XVIII IN THE CAVE
XIX THE BLUE LIGHT AGAIN
XX THE HAPPY TRAMP

CHAPTER I

THE BLUE LIGHT

"Mother, make Ted stop!"

"I'm not doing anything at all, Mother!"

"Yes he is, too! Please call him in. He's hurting my doll."

"Oh, Janet Martin, I am not!"

"You are so, Theodore Baradale Martin; and you've just got to stop!"

Janet, or Jan, as she was more often called, stood in front of her
brother with flashing eyes and red cheeks.

"Children! Children! What are you doing now?" asked their mother,
appearing in the doorway of the big, white farmhouse, holding in her
arms a small boy. "Please don't make so much noise. I've just gotten
Baby William to sleep, and if he wakes up--"

"Yes, don't wake up Trouble, Jan," added Theodore, or Ted, the shorter
name being the one by which he was most often called. "If you do he'll
want to come with us, and we can't make Nicknack race."

"I wasn't waking him up, it was you!" exclaimed Jan. "He keeps pulling
my doll's legs, Mother and--"

"I only pulled 'em a little bit, just to see if they had any springs
in 'em. Jan said her doll was a circus lady and could jump on the back
of a horse. I wanted to see if she had any springs in her legs."

"Well, I'm _pretending_ she has, so there, Ted Martin! And if you
don't stop--"

"There now, please stop, both of you, and be nice," begged Mrs.
Martin. "I thought, since you had your goat and wagon, you could play
without having so much fuss. But, if you can't--"

"Oh, we'll be good!" exclaimed Ted, running his hands through his
tightly curling hair, but not taking any of the kinks out that way.
"We'll be good, I won't tease Jan anymore."

"You'd better not!" warned his sister, and, though she was a year
younger than Ted, she did not seem at all afraid of him.

"If you do I'll take my half of the goat away and you can't ride."

"Pooh! Which is your half?" asked Ted.

"The wagon. And if you don't have the wagon to hitch Nicknack to,
how're you going to ride?"

"Huh! I could ride on his back. Take your old wagon if you want to,
but if you do---"

"The-o-dore!" exclaimed his mother in a slow, warning voice, and when
he 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 Curlytops will have to go camping with grandpa,"
added the farmer, smiling.

"Well, I'm sure they couldn't have better fun than to go with you,"
replied Mother Martin. "But I'm not sure that Baby William and I can
go."

"Oh, yes you can," said her father-in-law. "We'll talk about it again.
But here come Ted and Jan now in the goat-cart. They seem to have
something to ask you. We'll talk about the camp later."

Teddy and Janet Martin, the two Curlytops, came riding up to the
farmhouse in a small wagon drawn by a fine, big goat, that they had
named Nicknack.

"Please, Mother," begged Ted, "may we ride over to the Home and get
Hal?"

"We promised to take him for a ride," added Jan.

"Yes, I suppose you may go," said Mother Martin. "But you must be
careful, and be home in time for supper."

"We will," promised Ted. "We'll go by the wood-road, and then we won't
get run over by any automobiles. They don't come on that road."

"All right. Now remember--don't stay too late."

"No, we won't!" chorused the two children, and down the garden path
and along the lane they went to a road that led through Grandpa
Martin's wood-lot and so on to the Home for Crippled Children, which
was about a mile from Cherry Farm.

Among others at the Home was a lame boy named Hal Chester. That is, he
had been lame when the Curlytops first met him early in the summer,
but he was almost cured now, and walked with only a little limp. The
Home had been built to cure lame children, and had helped many of
them.

Half-way to the big red building, which was like a hospital, the
Curlytops met Hal, the very boy whom they had started out to see.

"Hello, Hal!" cried Ted. "Get in and have a ride."

"Thanks, I will. I was just coming over to see you, anyway. What are
you two going to do?"

"Nothing much," Ted answered, while Jan moved along the seat with her
doll, to make room for Hal. "What're you going to do?"

"Same as you."

The three children laughed at that. "Let's ride along the river road,"
suggested Janet. "It'll be nice and shady there, and if my Red Cross
doll is going to the war she'll like to be cool once in a while."

"Is your doll a Red Cross nurse?" asked Hal. "If she is, where's her
cap and the red cross on her arm?"

"Oh, she just started to be a nurse a little while ago," Jan
explained. "I haven't had time to make the red cross yet. But I will.
Anyhow, let's go down by the river."

"All right, we will," agreed Ted. "We'll see if we can get some sticks
off the willow trees and make whistles," he added to Hal.

"You can make better whistles in the spring, when the bark is softer,
than you can now," said the lame boy, as the Curlytops often called
him, though Hal was nearly cured.

"Well, _maybe_ we can make some now," suggested Ted, and a little
later the two boys were seated in the shade under the willow trees
that grew on the bank of a small river which flowed into Clover Lake,
not far from Cherry Farm. Nicknack, tied to a tree, nibbled the sweet,
green grass, and Jan made a wreath of buttercups for her doll.

After they had made some whistles, which did give out a little tooting
sound, Ted and Hal found something else to do, and Jan saw, coming
along the road, a girl named Mary Seaton with whom she often played.
Jan called Mary to join her, and the two little girls had a good time
together while Ted and Hal threw stones at some wooden boats they made
and floated down the stream.

"Oh, Ted, we must go home!" suddenly cried Jan. "It's getting dark!"

The sun was beginning to set, but it would not really have been dark
for some time, except that the western sky was filled with clouds that
seemed to tell of a coming storm. So, really, it did appear as though
night were at hand.

"I guess we'd better go," Ted said, with a look at the dark clouds.
"Come on, Hal. There's room for you, too, Mary, in the wagon."

"Can Nicknack pull us all?" Mary asked.

"I guess so. It's mostly down hill. Come on!"

The four children got into the goat-wagon, and if Nicknack minded the
bigger load he did not show it, but trotted off rather fast. Perhaps
he knew he was going home to his stable where he would have some sweet
hay and oats to eat, and that was what made him so glad to hurry
along.

The wagon was stopped near the Home long enough to let Hal get out,
and a little later Mary was driven up to her gate. Then Ted and Jan,
with the doll between them, drove on.

"Oh, Ted!" exclaimed his sister, "mother'll scold. We oughtn't to have
stayed so late. It's past supper time!"

"We didn't mean to. Anyhow, I guess they'll give us something to eat.
Grandma baked cookies to-day and there'll be some left."

"I hope so," replied Jan with a sigh. "I'm hungry!"

They drove on in silence a little farther, and then, as they came to
the top of a hill and could look down toward Star Island in the middle
of Clover Lake, Ted suddenly called:

"Look, Jan!"

"Where?" she asked.

"Over there," and her brother pointed to the island. "Do you see that
blue light?"

"On the island, do you mean? Yes, I see it. Maybe somebody's there
with a lantern."

"Nobody lives on Star Island. Besides, who'd have a blue lantern?"

Jan did not answer.

It was now quite dark, and down in the lake, where there was a patch
of black which was Star Island, could be seen a flickering blue glow,
that seemed to stand still and then move about.

"Maybe it's lightning bugs," suggested Jan.

"Huh! Fireflies are sort of white," exclaimed Ted. "I never saw a
light like that before."

"Me, either, Ted! Hurry up home. Giddap, Nicknack!" and Jan threw at
the goat a pine cone, one of several she had picked up and put in the
wagon when they were taking a rest in the woods that afternoon.

Nicknack gave a funny little wiggle to his tail, which the children
could hardly see in the darkness, and then he trotted on faster. The
Curlytops, looking back, had a last glimpse of the flickering blue
light as they hurried toward Cherry Farm, and they were a little
frightened.

"What do you s'pose it is?" asked Jan.

"I don't know," answered Ted. "We'll ask Grandpa. Go on, Nicknack!"

CHAPTER II

WHAT THE FABMER TOLD

"Well, where in the world have you children been!"

"Didn't you know we'd be worried about you?"

"Did you get lost again?"

Mother Martin, Grandpa Martin and Grandma Martin took turns asking
these three questions as Ted and Jan drove up to the farmhouse in the
darkness a little later.

"You said you wouldn't stay late," went on Mother Martin, as the
Curlytops got out of the goat-wagon.

"We didn't mean to, Mother," said Ted.

"Oh, but we're so scared!" exclaimed Jan, and as Grandma Martin put
her arms about the little girl she felt Jan's heart beating faster
than usual.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked the old lady.

"Me wants a wide wif Nicknack!" demanded Baby William, as he stood
beside his mother in the doorway.

"No, Trouble. Not now," answered Ted. "Nicknack is tired and has to
have his supper. Is there any supper left for us?" he asked eagerly.

"Well, I guess we can find a cold potato, or something like it, for
such tramps as you," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But where on earth have
you been, and what kept you?"

Then Ted put Nicknack in the barn. But when he came back he and Jan
between them told of having stayed playing later than they meant to.

"Well, you got home only just in time," said Mother Martin as she took
the children to the dining-room for a late supper. "It's starting to
rain now."

And so it was, the big drops pelting down and splashing on the
windows.

"But what frightened you, Jan?" asked Grandma Martin.

"It was a queer blue light on Star Island."

"A light on Star Island!" exclaimed her grandfather. "Nonsense! Nobody
stays on the island after dark unless it's a fisherman or two, and the
fish aren't biting well enough now to make anyone stay late to try to
catch them. You must have dreamed it--or made-believe."

"No, we really saw it!" declared Ted. "It was a fliskering blue
light."

"Well, if there's any such thing there as a 'fliskering' blue light
we'll soon find out what it is," said Grandpa Martin.

"How?" asked Ted, his eyes wide open in wonder.

"By going there to see what it is. I'm going to take you two Curlytops
to camp on Star Island, and if there's anything queer there we'll see
what it is."

"Oh, are we really going to live on Star Island?" gasped Janet.

"Camping out with grandpa! Oh, what fun!" cried Ted. "Do you mean it?"
and he looked anxiously at the farmer, fearing there might be some
joke about it.

"Oh, I really mean it," said Grandpa Martin. "Though I hardly believe
you saw a real light on the island. It must have been 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 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 a minute but Trouble did not growl.

"Why don't you make a noise?" asked Janet.

Trouble gave a grunt.

"What's the matter?" asked Ted.

"I--I can't growl 'cause I'm all stuck under here," answered the voice
of the little fellow, from far under the couch. "I can't wiggle!"

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