“Guess what color it is!” Jan would say to Ted.
“Black,” he might answer, or perhaps he would say red, blue, or white—whatever he thought it might be. If he guessed the right color Janet had to give Ted five buttons of the color he had guessed. If he said the wrong color he had to give Janet seven buttons of any color she wanted.
If Ted guessed right, then it was his turn to take a button and make Janet guess the color of it. But if he guessed wrong it was his sister’s turn again. And so they played the game, taking turns this way, until they were tired, or until one of them had all the buttons on the table.
It was this game they had been playing when Trouble, or Baby William, made the trouble by wanting all the “wed” buttons.
They played the little game for some time, having lots of fun, and Ted had just taken a number of buttons from Jan when their mother came softly down the stairs.
“Is Trouble asleep?” asked Janet.
“Yes. And it will soon be time for you two Curlytops to go upstairs too,” said Mrs. Martin, as she took up her sewing again. “Even if it is vacation time, I can’t have my Curlytops staying up too late.”
One needed to take only one look at Ted and Janet Martin to know why they were called “Curlytops.” It was because their heads were covered with pretty tight little curls of a golden color.
“We’ll play three more times,” said Ted. “I’ll have all Jan’s buttons by then.”
“It’s my turn to win, now!” laughed his sister.