“Three! So much the better! I love children! Bring ’em in! My wife will want to see them! She loves children, too!”
So it was settled that the Martin family was to remain at Dawson’s Farm until Mr. Portnay came from New York, or else shipped back the box of albums. Mr. Dawson kept quite an establishment, having a number of hired men and servants, and he took the Curlytops and their family right into his own house. The movie people “camped” out by themselves in a separate building. They would do their own cooking and look after themselves. But the Martins would eat with the Dawson family.
“Oh, what a lot of fun we can have here!” cried Jan, after she and her brothers had put on “old clothes” and were romping about. Mr. Martin had gone to write a letter to Mr. Portnay which that actor would receive in New York. Mrs. Martin was talking to Mrs. Dawson, who was a kind, motherly soul with no children of her own.
“I know just how you feel, losing that album with those little girls’ pictures in it,” she said. “It’s worse than if it was your own, belonging to some one else that way.”
“Yes, that’s what Mr. Martin thinks,” said his wife. “Well, we hope we’ll get it back.”
“I hope so, too. Now I want the children to have a good time. Let them do just as they please.”
“Well, I can’t quite do that,” replied Mrs. Martin, with a smile. “Though they’ll pretty nearly do that, anyhow,” she added.
If she could have seen Janet and Ted then she would have had reason to add to this, for the Curlytops were climbing an apple tree, where Ted had seen some fruit that looked nearly ripe.
“I’ll climb up and shake some down to you, Jan,” he had said.
“You needn’t, thank you,” laughed Janet. “I can climb a tree as well as you can!”