“Look after Trouble!” Mrs. Martin cried to the two girls the moment Janet told this startling news to her mother. “I’ll get the boys out of the lake!”
Down the path she ran, and so quickly had she gotten up that she knocked Trouble down. He sat down on the porch, rather hard, and he was just going to cry, not knowing what it was all about, when Janet took him up in her arms.
“Don’t cry, Trouble! Don’t cry!” she said.
“Trouble fell down!” said the little fellow, in a voice that sounded tearful. “Momsie make Trouble fall!”
“But she didn’t mean to,” said Lola, thinking to help Janet take care of Baby William. “Momsie has gone to help get Ted and Tom out of the lake.”
“Trouble want to go in ’ake!” exclaimed Janet’s brother.
“Oh, no, Trouble! Two in a lake at once is enough!” said Janet. “I wonder if they’re out yet,” she added.
“Uncle Ben and Mr. Martin will have them out by this time,” replied Lola. “We forgot to tell your mother that they were after them.”
And when the mother of the Curlytops reached the end of the path from the bungalow, where she could look down to the lake and the dock her husband owned, she saw that Uncle Ben and Mr. Martin were lifting from the water two small, dripping boys.
“Oh, they’ve got them out!” gasped Mrs. Martin, and she did not run so fast now, for she was quite out of breath. “Oh, I thought Ted and Tom had fallen in when no one was near to help them!”