"We won't," promised Janet, and Teddy nodded his head to show that he, too, would at least try to be good.
It was not that the Curlytops were bad—that is, any worse than perhaps you children are sometimes, or, perhaps, some boys or girls you know of. They were just playful and full of life, and wanted to be doing something all the while.
"Do you want to take Trouble with you?" asked Mrs. Martin, as Ted and
Janet started away from camp, and down a woodland path.
"Yes, we'll take him," said Janet. "Come on, little brother," she went on. "Come with sister and have some fun."
"Only I can't play in de dirt 'cause I got on a clean apron," said Baby
William.
"No, we won't let you play in the dirt," Teddy remarked. "But don't fall down, either. That's where he gets so dirty," Teddy told his mother. "He's always falling down, Trouble is."
"It—it's so—s'ippery in de woods!" said the little fellow.
"So it is—on the pine needles," laughed Grandpa Martin, who was going to the mainland in the boat. But this time he did not want to take the children with him. "It is slippery in the woods, Trouble, my boy. But keep tight hold of Jan's hand, and maybe you won't fall down."
"Me will," said Trouble, but he did not mean that he would fall down. He meant he would keep tight hold of Jan's hand. Then he started off by her side, with Ted walking on ahead, ready for anything he might see that would make fun for him and his sister.
Through the woods they wandered, now and then stopping to gather some pretty flowers, on graceful, green ferns, and again waiting to listen to the song of some wild bird, which flitted about from branch to branch, but which seemed always to keep out of sight amid the leaves of the forest trees.