CHAPTER XX
THE HAPPY TRAMP
Grandpa Martin stood looking down at the queer, burning rock. The bluefire was flaming up brighter now, and it made a strange light on thefaces of the Curlytops and Hal as they gathered about. The sky wascloudy and it was getting dark.
"Oh, what is it? What is it?" asked Ted and Jan.
"It smells just like old-fashioned sulphur matches that my grandmotherused to light," said Nora, who had come out, having seen the queer lightfrom the cook-tent.
"And it _is_ sulphur that is burning," said Grandpa Martin. "That rockhas sulphur in it, not gold, Hal. And it is the sulphur that is burningwith the blue fire."
"But what makes it?" asked the children.
Grandpa Martin did not answer for a few seconds. He stood again lookingdown at the flaming blue rock. Mrs. Martin, who had started to putTrouble to bed early, came out and looked.
"It's like something I once saw in the theater," said the maid. "I don'tlike it--that blue light. It reminds me of the time our house was struckby lightning--that sulphur smell."
"It is the same smell," said Mr. Martin. "Curlytops, I think you havefound something very queer in this blue rock. I don't know just what itis, but we'll find out. See, the stone is burning like a lump of coalnow, but with a blue flame instead of red."
"Just like the night we saw the blue fire on the island before we camecamping here," said Ted. "Is it the same thing, Grandpa?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it is. Where did you get the blue rocks?"
"Over in the woods," answered Hal. "There's a great big one there. Asbig as this tent."
"Is there?" some one suddenly asked. "Then please show me where it is!Oh, can it be that at last I have found what I have been looking for solong?"
The Curlytops and the others turned at the sound of this new and strangevoice. A man seemed to spring out of the bushes back of the tent. Bythe light of the blue fire Ted and Jan saw that his clothes were raggedand torn in many places.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Jan. "That's the tramp!"
"Well, I guess maybe I do look like a tramp, all ragged and dirty as Iam," laughed the man, and his voice sounded pleasant. "But I am not aregular tramp. I am Mr. Weston--Alfred Weston," he went on, speaking toGrandpa Martin. "I haven't a card with me, but when I get washed anddressed and shaved I'll look more like what I am. Excuse me forintruding this way, but I could not keep from speaking when I heard whatyou were talking about."
"Then aren't you a tramp?" asked Ted.
"No, though I have been _tramping_ all over this island looking for thevery blue rock you children seem to have found. I wear my oldestclothes, just as my friend Professor Anderson does, for we have beengoing through briar bushes, into caves and mud holes and our clothes area sad sight. But we are not tramps."
"Is there someone with you?" asked Grandpa Martin, looking over theman's head toward the bushes, out of which he had come.
"There was another. Anderson is his name. But he has gone to thevillage, and I was on my way to row across the lake to join him when Ihappened to pass by your tent, saw the blue light, and heard what yourchildren said. Do you really know where there is a big blue rock likethis little one that is on fire?" he asked as he pointed to the flamingblue light.
"Yes, we found a big one," said Hal.
"If you will show me where it is you will get a lot of money," said Mr.Weston. "That is, if you will sell me the meteor," he went on to GrandpaMartin. "I understand you own part of this island," he added.
"About half of it, yes. But are you looking for a meteor?"
"Yes, for a meteor, or fallen star, and the blue rock your childrenfound is part of it. We have been looking for it a long time, my friendand myself, and we had about given up. Now we may get it. Will you sellme the fallen star?" he asked.
"I'll see about it," promised Mr. Martin with a smile. "Perhaps you willcome into our tent and tell us about it. Are you--well, I was going tosay the tramp--but are you the man we saw before, wandering about ourcamp?"
"I presume I am. I don't mind being called a tramp, for I certainly looklike one. However, now that the fallen star is found I don't need to beso ragged."
"Are you the ragged man that pulled Trouble out of the spring?" askedTed, as they watched the blue light die away.
"I did pull a little boy out of the spring," answered Mr. Weston,"though I didn't know his name was Trouble."
"That's only his pet name," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But come and sitdown and tell us your story. The children have been wondering a longwhile what the blue light meant, and who the ragged man was. And,to-day, they've been trying to find what became of the blue rocks thatTrouble made into a playhouse."
"I took those rocks, I'm sorry to say," answered the ragged man. "I'msorry to have spoiled Trouble's playhouse. I wanted those pieces ofrock, for I thought perhaps they were all I would ever be able to get ofthe fallen star."
"Was the blue rock really once a star?" asked Hal.
"Well, yes, a part of one, or at least part of a meteor, or shootingstar, as they are called. Now I'll tell you all that happened, and I'msorry if I have frightened you. My friend and I didn't mean to.
"Some time ago," went on Mr. Weston, "we heard about Star Island--thisplace that was so named because it was said a big meteor had landed heremany years back. Professor Anderson and I decided to come here and seeif we could find it for the museum which is connected with the collegein which Anderson teaches.
"For we knew that, though most meteors are burned up as they shootthrough the air before they strike the earth, yet some come down in bigchunks, and we wanted such a one if we could get it. So we hunted for itall over this island. We saw you, but you were never very near.Sometimes we stayed in the cave at night, but usually went back to themainland. All the while we were hunting for the blue rocks, for that isthe color of this particular meteor.
"A few nights before you folks came here to camp, when we were diggingin the ground hoping to find what we wanted, our shovel must havestruck a piece of the meteor, for there was a flash of blue fire thatburned for quite a while."
"We saw it," cried Ted, "and we didn't know what it was!"
"Teddy and me--we saw it!" added Jan.
"Well, that was all of the meteor we could find for some time," went onMr. Weston. "And as that burned up--was consumed--we didn't have any.Then, the other night through the bushes we happened to come upon someblue stones, and I took them away.
"Then my friend and I hunted again to find the big piece of the fallenstar, but we could not come across it. I was about to give up, but nowwe are all right. I am so glad! Can you take me to the big blue rock?"
"We will to-morrow," answered Hal. "It's too dark to find it now."
"You had better stay in our camp until morning," was Grandpa Martin'skindly invitation, and Mr. Weston did so.
"This meteor is a good bit like a sulphur match," said Mr. Weston. "Whenanything hard, like iron or steel, strikes it, blue fire starts andburns up the rock. The big piece will be very valuable.
"But we'll have to be careful not to set it ablaze. We picked up a lotof different rocks on the island, hoping some of them might be pieces ofthe meteor. But none was. Once I saw your little girl picking flowers,as I was gathering rocks. I guess she thought I was a tramp. Did I scareyou?" he asked Janet.
"A little," she answered with a smile.
"Sometimes we stayed in a cave we found on the island," went on Mr.Weston. "I thought once the meteor might be there, but it was not."
The next day Ted, Janet and Hal, followed by all the others in camp,even down to Trouble, whose mother carried him, went to the place wherethe big blue rock was buried in the side of the hill. As soon as he hadlooked at it Mr. Weston said it was the very meteor for which he andProfessor Anderson had been looking so long. They seemed to have missedcoming to the hill.
The museum directors bought the fallen star from Grandpa Martin, onwhose part of the island it had fallen many years before, and so theown
er of Cherry Farm had as much money as before the flood spoiled somany of his crops.
Thus the story of the fallen star, after which the island was named, wastrue, you see, though it had happened so many years ago that most folkhad forgotten about it.
A few days after Mr. Weston had been led to the queer blue rock, he andProfessor Anderson, no longer dressed like tramps, brought some men tothe island and the big rock was carefully dug out with wooden shovels,as the wood was soft and could not strike sparks and make blue fire.
"For a time," said Mr. Weston to Grandpa Martin, after the meteor hadbeen taken to the mainland in a big boat, "I thought you were ascientist."
"Me--a scientist!" laughed the children's grandfather.
"Yes. I thought maybe you had heard about the fallen star and had comehere and were trying to find it, too."
"No, I haven't any use for fallen stars," said Mr. Martin. "I had heardthe story about one being on this island, but I never quite believed it.I just came here to give the children a good time camping."
"Well, I think they had it--every one of them," laughed Mr. Weston, ashe looked at the brown Curlytops, who were tanned like Indians.
"Oh, we've had the loveliest time in the world!" cried Jan, as she heldher grandfather's hand. "We're going to stay here a long while yet.Aren't we, Grandpa?"
"Well, I'm afraid not much longer," said Grandpa Martin. "The days aregetting shorter and the nights longer. It will soon be too cold to livein a tent on Star Island."
"Oh, Grandpa!" And Jan looked sad.
"But we want to have fun!" cried Ted.
"Oh, I guess you'll have fun," said his mother. "You always do everywinter."
And the children did. In the next volume of this series, to be called"The Curlytops Snowed In; or, Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds," you mayread about the good times they had when they went back home.
"Come on, Jan, we'll have a last ride with Nicknack!" called Ted to hissister about a week after the meteor had been dug up. In a few days theCurlytops were to leave their camp on Star Island. Hal Chester had goneback to his home, promising to visit his friends again some day.
"I'm coming!" cried Jan.
"Me, too!" added Trouble. "I wants a wide!"
Into the goat cart they piled and off started Nicknack, waggling hisfunny, stubby tail, for he enjoyed the children as much as they did him.
"Hurray!" yelled Ted. "Isn't this fun?" and he cracked the whip in theair.
"Hurray!" yelled Jan and Trouble.
"Baa-a-a-a!" bleated Nicknack. That was his way of cheering.
And so we will leave the Curlytops and say good-bye.
THE END