CHAPTER XVII
A JOYOUS FIND
Janet and Ted looked at each other and then at Tom and Lola Taylorwhen the farmer spoke the word “Gypsy.”
“What’s that you say?” asked Mr. Blake, who was a little deaf. “Didyou say you knew where the bad dog was that’s been chasing my sheepand taking my chickens, Mr. Addison?”
“I think I can tell you where you might find him,” was the answer. “Iwas driving past the Gypsy camp the other day, and I saw a lot of dogsnear their tents and wagons. You know those Gypsies always do have alot of dogs.”
“Yes, they seem to be particularly fond of dogs and horses,” agreedthe storekeeper, hearing quite well now, for Mr. Addison, the farmer,spoke loudly.
“Well, among the other dogs was one big, ugly, yellow one,” went onMr. Addison. “I shouldn’t be surprised but what he was the one that’sbeen around your place, Mr. Blake. And he’s been at my place, too.”
“There may be something in that!” exclaimed the storekeeper. “Itsurely was a yellow dog that chased my chickens, killing some, andtaking others away with him. And it was a yellow dog that my hired mansaw chasing my sheep.”
“Do you keep sheep and chickens, as well as run this store?” askedUncle Ben.
“Yes, I have a farm and a store,” answered Mr. Blake. “And a dog thatchases sheep is a bad animal to have around a farm.”
“Our dog wouldn’t chase sheep!” exclaimed Janet.
“I’m glad to know that,” Mr. Blake replied. “Now I think I’ll take atrip over to that Gypsy camp, and if they have a sheep and chickenchasing dog there, I’ll get the constable after them and make themeither get rid of the yellow dog or keep him chained up.”
“Oh, could we go with you?” cried Ted, almost before he knew what hewas saying.
“Go with me? Why do you want to go to the Gypsy camp?” asked thefarmer storekeeper, in surprise.
“Because maybe the Gypsies have our dog Skyrocket,” answered Ted.
“Oh, maybe they have!” cried Janet, clapping her hands excitedly.
“Why, I thought you said your dog ran away,” went on Mr. Blake. And helooked first at Uncle Ben and then at the children.
“But I saw Skyrocket in a Gypsy wagon!” cried Tom. “And maybe theseGypsies have him. Oh, I hope they have!”
“Hum!” said Mr. Blake, as he got up from his seat on a nail keg toweigh out a pound of sugar for a barefooted boy who came into thestore. “Hum! Let me hear the whole story, children. There may be moreout at this Gypsy camp than we think there is.”
So Janet and Ted told how Skyrocket had been lost, and Tom told how,later on, he had seen one of the Gypsy wagons going along with a blackdog in it, that looked just like the Curlytops’ pet.
“And if these Gypsies are the same ones, maybe they have Skyrocket outat their camp now,” finished Tom.
“They surely have a lot of dogs out there—I saw ’em,” said Mr.Addison, the farmer who had first mentioned the Gypsies. “And thatbig, yellow one looked as savage as a wolf. I’m sure he’s a bad sheepdog. I think he took some of my sheep and chickens, too.”
“Well, we’ll go and take a look!” said Mr. Blake, the storekeeper,after thinking a few minutes. “I’ll get my wife to stay behind thecounter to-morrow, and I’ll go up and look over this Gypsy camp.”
“And may we come and bring back Skyrocket—that is, if he’s there?”begged Teddy.
Mr. Blake looked at Uncle Ben.
“I wish you could take the children there,” said the sailor. “Howwould it be if we all went in the motor boat to-morrow? I could runyou up to the end of the lake, and you could go to the camp fromthere, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, that would be the best way,” answered Mr. Addison. “It’s nearerby water, too, than by going around the road.”
“Could you come with us to show us where the camp is, and where yousaw the yellow dog?” asked Mr. Blake.
“Yes, I could go with you,” was the answer.
“Then we’ll make up a party, and go up to the end of the lake thefirst thing in the morning,” decided Uncle Ben. “I’m sure Mr. and Mrs.Martin will let the children go if there is a chance to get backSkyrocket.”
“Oh, I hope you can find him!” whispered Lola to Janet.
“I hope so, too,” replied the little Curlytop girl.
After a little further talk with the two men, Uncle Ben took thethings he had bought down to the dock where he had left the boat, andsoon he and the children were on their way back across Silver Lake.
All the way home Ted and Janet, with Lola and Tom, talked of nothingbut what they had heard of the Gypsy camp, and they wondered ifSkyrocket would be found there.
“I wish I could be with you when you go up there to-morrow,” saidDaddy Martin, when he heard the story of the yellow dog, the missingchickens, and the sheep that had been chased so hard that some of themdied. “But I have to go back to Cresco the first thing in themorning.”
“But we can go look for Skyrocket, can’t we?” asked Ted anxiously.
“Oh, yes, Uncle Ben can take you there,” his father answered. “Iguess, with him and the storekeeper, and the farmer you’ll be enoughto make the Gypsies be good. And if you see Skyrocket——”
“I’ll just hug him and bring him home!” exclaimed Janet.
“Me want to hug Skywocket, too!” exclaimed Baby William.
“You’ll have to wait until they bring him home, Trouble, dear,” saidhis mother. “That is, if they are lucky enough to find him.”
When supper was over and after they had played about in the woods abit, the Curlytops and their visitors went to bed. Trouble, somelittle time before, had nodded off to sleep in his mother’s arms. Mr.and Mrs. Martin, with Uncle Ben, sat up in the bungalow, talking overwhat had happened during the day.
“Do you really think Skyrocket may be at the Gypsy camp?” asked Mrs.Martin.
“I don’t see how he could be,” her husband said. “Of course, it mayhave happened that the children’s dog was stolen by Gypsies, just asit may have been Gypsies that went into Mrs. Ransom’s store and tookher queer box and other things. But it would be too much to have ithappen that the Gypsies camping at the upper end of this lake are thesame ones who took the Curlytops’ pet dog.”
“Well, it could happen,” said Ted’s mother.
“Yes, it _could_,” agreed her husband, “but I don’t believe it will.I’m afraid Skyrocket will never be found, though I wish he would, forour Curlytops miss him so much.”
“We’ll know by this time to-morrow whether or not he is in the Gypsycamp,” said Uncle Ben. “We’ll start early in the morning, and make atrip of it. I have to go over to Cardiff to pick up Mr. Blake and Mr.Addison first.”
“Well, I hope you’ll find Skyrocket,” said Mr. Martin, as he wentabout the bungalow, locking up for the night. “But I’m afraid you willnot, and the children will be very much disappointed.”
“I’ll try to give them a good time on the water, in case we don’t findtheir dog,” answered Uncle Ben.
All was still and quiet in the bungalow a little later. Every one wasfast asleep, and I am quite sure the Curlytops, and perhaps Tom andLola, were dreaming of going to the Gypsy camp and maybe having theirfortunes told.
All of a sudden came a loud cry that awakened every one in Sunnyside.
“Oh, I’ve got him! I’ve got him!” shouted the voice of Ted Martin.“I’ve got him! He came back to me! He got away from the Gypsies andnow he’s here!”
“Hush, Teddy! Hush, my dear!” called his mother from the next room.“Wake up! Wake up! You’re talking in your sleep!”
But Teddy kept on calling:
“I have him! Oh, I have Skyrocket! My dog has come back!”
“Teddy, be quiet! Wake up. You have the nightmare!” said his father,and, getting up, Mr. Martin hurried into the room of his little son.
Turning on the light, for there were electric lamps at Sunnyside, Mr.Martin saw Teddy sitting up on his cot. T
here was a strange look onthe little boy’s face.
“Where did he go?” he asked his father, in sleepy tones.
“Where did who go?” Mr. Martin asked, while Uncle Ben, from his room,called to know if anything was wrong.
“Only Teddy talking in his sleep,” answered Mr. Martin. “I guess hewas dreaming he was at the Gypsy camp and had found Skyrocket; weren’tyou?” he asked the little boy.
“I did find Skyrocket,” was the answer. “Skyrocket was right here. Ifelt his soft fur. He was right in bed with me. Oh, where did he go?”
Teddy spoke so loudly, and seemed so much in earnest that his mothercame in and tried to quiet him.
“You’ll wake Trouble up,” she said; “and you know how hard it is toget him to sleep again. And you have already awakened all of us. It’sall right, Tom and Lola!” she called to the visitors. “It was justTeddy talking in his sleep. He thought he had Skyrocket.”
“I really did have him, Mother!” Teddy insisted. “I could feel hissoft fur, and he was right in my bed.”
“Nonsense, Teddy!” exclaimed his father. “You just dreamed it!”
“No! Look! Oh, I feel him now!” cried the little boy. “Here he is inbed with me! He’s under the covers, down by my feet!”
His father and mother looked. Surely enough, something was movingunder the bed clothes, and it was not Teddy’s toes that were wiggling,for they could be seen, sticking up under the sheet, off to one side.
Daddy Martin, with a quick motion, turned back the sheet. Out on thefloor jumped a big gray animal with a very large tail.
“That’s what it was!” cried Teddy. “I knew I felt something soft andfuzzy.”
“It’s a big gray squirrel!” said Mr. Martin. “He must have crawled inbed with Teddy. No wonder you felt something like Skyrocket’s fuzzycoat,” he added.
“Oh, get the squirrel for me!” begged Teddy. But the squirrel did notwait to be caught. It was one thing to be in a soft warm bed in thedark with a little boy, but quite another to have big folks looking athim in the light. So the squirrel scurried out of an open window anddisappeared in the darkness off the porch.
“There! it wasn’t a dream, was it?” asked Teddy, when it was certainthat the squirrel had gone.
“No, it was part real,” his father said with a laugh. “Now go tosleep.”
Nothing else disturbed the Curlytops or the others in the bungalowthat night, and in the morning after breakfast they started forCardiff, there to get Mr. Blake and Mr. Addison, and then go on to theGypsy camp.
“THAT’S WHAT IT WAS!” CRIED TEDDY. “I KNEW I FELTSOMETHING SOFT AND FUZZY.”]
“Did you lose any more chickens, or were your sheep chased in thenight?” asked Uncle Ben of the storekeeper, when the two men came downto the dock.
“Yes,” was the answer. “That bad, yellow dog was around again, and Ifired my gun at him, but I didn’t hit him. He ran off toward the placewhere Mr. Addison says the Gypsy camp is.”
“Well, we’ll soon be there and we can see for ourselves,” repliedUncle Ben.
“Will it be all right for the children?” asked Mr. Addison, as henoticed Ted and Janet and Tom and Lola in the boat.
“Oh, yes,” answered Uncle Ben. “I guess we three men are enough tomake the Gypsies be good. Besides, we can have them arrested if theytry any tricks.”
Off puffed the motor boat once more, and after about an hour’s ridethey reached a little cove, or bay. From there a path led to the Gypsycamp, Mr. Addison said.
The boat was chained and locked to a pier, and then the party startedthrough the woods. The children were very much excited, looking oneach side as they went along, each one hoping to get the first sightof the camp.
“There’s the place!” said Mr. Addison, after a while, in a low voice.He pointed through the trees. The Curlytops and the others could seesome white tents and a number of red and yellow wagons, with bits oflooking-glass fastened on the sides.
It was the Gypsy camp.
Eagerly Ted and Tom pressed forward, running ahead of Uncle Ben andthe others. As the boys came out on a little open space, around whichwere the tents and wagons, Ted caught sight of a small, black dog.
“There he is! There he is!” cried the Curlytop lad. “I’ve foundSkyrocket! Hurrah!”
But, as he spoke, he and Tom saw a big, dark-skinned Gypsy man withgold rings in his ears grab the black dog up in his arms and hurryinto a tent with him.