Read Ebook: The Curlytops in the Woods; Or Fun at the Lumber Camp by Garis Howard Roger Greene Julia Illustrator

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Ebook has 356 lines and 13277 words, and 8 pages

"Are you hurt, Trouble?" asked Janet.

"Me 'ike it," he answered, with a laugh. "I hab 'ots ob fun!"

Back he climbed to jump off again, but Ted would not let him leap from so great a height.

"If we hadn't been here you might have been buried in the sawdust all night," warned Teddy.

"It be nice an' warm in there--nice as my bed!" declared Trouble. And that is all concerning the danger they could impress on him.

The sawdust pile continued to be a place of much fun for the Curlytops. Sometimes they would start at the top and slide to the bottom of the big heap, getting their curly hair full of the dust, to the despair of their mother and Lucy.

"But chilluns suah hab got to play!" chuckled the black maid, as she used the brush.

And play the Curlytops did!

Mr. Martin did not want to spend too much time in the woods, as his own store, back at Cresco, needed attention. But there was so much to do at Mount Major in order to get the lumber store well started and the men who were to be left in charge needed so much advice that the father of the Curlytops had to remain longer than at first he had intended.

However, Ted, Janet and Trouble did not mind, as they thought there was no finer place in all the world than the woods where they were camping. And as the children liked it and as it was doing them good to be out in the woods and the fresh air, Mrs. Martin was willing to stay.

Mr. Martin had nothing to do with the cutting of the trees and the floating of them to the mill to be cut up into lumber. But he owned some shares in the company, which is the reason he took such an interest in the store. He wanted to see it do well.

So the Curlytops remained in the woods, and it began to look as though the whole summer would be spent there.

"I think it's the best vacation we ever had," said Ted.

"So do I," agreed his sister.

"Certainly the children never looked better," declared Mrs. Martin. "I'm glad we came."

There were so many things to watch in the lumber business that the children never found time hanging heavy on their hands if they did not care to play. They could visit the mill, watch great trees being chopped down, they could see the men making up rafts in the river or the lake and they could see the sawed boards being carted off to be shipped on railroad trains.

"I like best to see the logs go down the chute into the river," said Ted to his sister, when they were talking about the different sights around camp. "Let's go over there now," he suggested.

"Are you sure you won't get lost?" asked Janet. For it was in going to this chute before that Ted wandered off and got lost in the woods.

"Oh, I know the way now," he said. "Come on!"

The Curlytops started, but Trouble called after them:

"I 'ants to go!"

"Shall we take him or hide?" asked Ted. Often when they did not want William to tag after them, the brother and sister would hide. After Trouble had tearfully searched for them, not finding them, he would go to his mother to be comforted. In this way Ted and Janet would find a chance to slip off where they wanted to go.

"Oh, let's take him along--don't hide from him," said Janet, who had a soft spot in her heart for Trouble.

"Come on then," invited Ted.

Soon the three children were wandering through the woods on the way to the lumber chute. The path was plain now, being much worn by constant use, and they could not get lost. So their mother was not worried about their trip, only warning them to be careful of Trouble.

"We will," promised Janet.

Well, of course she meant to be, and so did Ted. But you never could tell what Trouble would do.

When the children reached the place they found that the men were away. The choppers had gone farther back in the woods to cut down more trees, having sent down the chute all that were near it.

That is, all the logs had been sent down but one, and this had stuck in the chute near the top, being balanced like a teeter-totter, or seesaw, on the very edge of the chute.

The log was perfectly balanced at the middle, half of it hanging down the chute and the other half extending over the end where the men stood to start the logs on their trip to the river, a hundred feet or more below.

Before Ted or Janet could stop him, Trouble had climbed up on the chute and had gotten astride the log. Then he found that it moved up and down, like a seesaw.

"Trouble hab fine ride!" he said.

He wiggled himself until he actually had the log moving up and down, with him on it. A moment later the log might have become unbalanced and have gone down the chute, taking Trouble with it to the river below. Ted saw the danger at once, and in an instant sprang and pulled his little brother from the log.

"Trouble, you shouldn't do that!" he cried.

"I want wide!" protested the little fellow.

"Yes, you'd have one ride too many if you rolled down the chute into the river with the log," said Ted.

"Hi there! Keep away from that chute!" shouted some of the men, coming back just then with teams that had hauled more logs to be slid down. "Keep away!"

"I am," Ted answered. "I was just taking Trouble away!"

And, for his own good, so he would not again do anything so dangerous, the men scolded Trouble and made him cry. Then he promised not to climb up on the chute again.

It was better to have Trouble crying unhurt than to have him crying after an accident. Ted and Janet knew this.

For a time they watched the men rolling the logs into the chute and saw them go pitching to the river far below. Then, having had enough of this fun, the Curlytops and Trouble wandered back through the forest to the bungalow.

As they neared it they saw some clouds of smoke floating over the trees.

"Must be running the sawmill engine extra fast," said Ted.

"Don't you smell something burning?" asked Janet.

Ted sniffed the air and shook his head to say that he smelled nothing.

"Well, I do!" cried Janet. She ran on a little farther, and then she saw what it was.

"Ted! Ted!" she shouted. "The big sawdust pile is on fire!"

TROUBLE HAS A RIDE

For a moment or two Teddy thought his sister was "pretending," as she often did, or that she was "fooling" him. But she seemed so much in earnest as he looked at her that he could not but believe what she said was true. Still he asked:

"Honest, is it burning?"

"Cross my heart it is!" answered Janet, this being the strongest way she had of letting her brother know it was the truth she was speaking. "The sawdust pile is truly on fire!"

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