“Something in the pot took my rag doll! They took it right out of my hands—pulled it away,” explained Janet. “I guess it was a lobster, Teddy.”
“Maybe it was a nellifunt,” murmured Trouble. “I mean a little, baby nellifunt,” he went on, as he looked at the small size of the lobster pots and thought how large an elephant was.
“It couldn’t be a lobster,” declared Teddy.
“Why not?” Janet wanted to know.
“’Cause there aren’t any lobsters in those pots,” answered her brother. “They take the lobsters out before they bring the pots to shore.”
“Maybe they forgot this lobster,” suggested the little Curlytop girl. “Anyhow, something in the pot took my doll away.”
“How?” Teddy wanted to know, for he had been so busy watching the fish hawk that he had not seen what Janet had done.
“I was showing William how the lobsters went into the traps,” Janet explained, “and I made believe my rag doll was a crawling lobster and I stuck her in the net hole. Then she went all the way in, ’cause something took hold of her and pulled her.”
“It couldn’t be a lobster!” cried Teddy.
“Well, you just look!” challenged Janet.