“Some what?” asked Janet.
“Trouble want ’ovey time!” he answered.
“Well, you come with Janet and I’ll get you a sugar cookie,” said his sister. “Then you can have a lovely time eating it.”
He was soon satisfied with a cookie his mother gave him, and a little lunch was also set out for Tom and Lola. And of course Ted and Jan had to have some, too. So there was a lovely, jolly time almost as soon as the visitors reached Sunnyside.
“How get on your old clothes,” said Ted to Tom, after they had finished the simple meal, “and we’ll go off into the woods and have a lot of fun.”
“But be careful!” cautioned Mrs. Martin. “Don’t go in the boats unless Uncle Ben is with you, don’t fall in the mud, don’t play that Trouble is a cake of ice and—— Dear me!” she exclaimed to Nora, “there are so many things to tell the children not to do that I can’t remember half of them.”
“We’ll be good!” promised Ted.
Soon he and his boy chum were roaming about in the woods and over to the picnic grounds, which would soon be open to parties from Cresco and other villages and cities. Lola and Janet got out their dolls, and had a play party. Trouble played about in a pile of white sand that Uncle Ben had put in front of the bungalow in a shady spot for the little fellow. So all the boys and girls were having a good time.
During the next two days everything opened at Silver Lake. The merry-go-round started with its organ that played the same tunes over and over again, the shoot-the-chutes and the roller coaster were in operation, and then the excursion parties and picnics arrived. Sometimes the Curlytops, with Tom and Lola, went over to the picnic grounds, but more often they played around Sunnyside, or went out in the boat with Uncle Ben or Mr. Martin.
With the coming of the picnic parties Uncle Ben was kept busy, as were his two helpers—a man and a boy—in hiring out boats, attending the ice-cream and soda-water stand, and in doing other things. But still Uncle Ben had time to take the Curlytops and their two little friends for many a sail, row, or trip in the motor boat. He also went with them on little journeys back into the woods. Sometimes Trouble was taken along.