CHAPTER XX
CHEWING CHERRY CANDY
“Well, well! What have we here?” asked Mr. Sam Sander, the hot waffle and lollypop man, as he saw the rather tumbled-about and frightened Curlytop children running toward him. “What’s it all about?”
“We’re lost!” explained Jan.
“We were,” added her brother. “Not any more.”
“And I singed, I did,” put in Trouble. “Only I’s twired an’ I wants dubby-dubby now.”
“He means he’s tired and hungry,” explained Jan.
“Well, well! This is too bad!” said the kind lollypop man. “How did it happen?”
“Nicknack, our goat, lost us,” declared Ted. “He’s over there under the trees. But we heard you singing and came to you.”
“And I’m glad you did,” said Mr. Sander. “I was singing because I’ve sold most of my lollypops. But I have a few waffles left and you hungry ones shall eat them. Oh, ho! I don’t love a goat if he loses little children!” he sang. “I don’t love bad goats!”
“Oh, it wasn’t Nicknack’s fault,” said Jan earnestly. “We had him out, giving rides to make money for the Home, and we got seventy-five cents!”
Then as they ate the waffles, hot off the griddle, they told Mr. Sander what had happened. He went back with them to get Nicknack and led the goat to the waffle wagon. He was tied fast to the rear end, and then the children, getting into the little house on wheels, were soon driven back to Cherry Farm.
“Oh, where _have_ you Curlytops been?” asked Mother Martin. “We have all been _so_ worried about you! And grandpa is just starting to get some men to help find you.”
“The lollypop man found us,” said Jan. “We’re sorry, but we didn’t mean to get lost. Oh, we had ever so many adventures!”
And she and Ted told them all, while Trouble fell asleep in his mother’s arms as grandpa came back, glad he did not have to hunt for the lost children. The lollypop man told how he happened to be taking a short cut through the woods, or he never would have passed the place where the Curlytops were lost in the woods. By a mere chance he found them.
So everything came out all right you see, and when a few days later, Jan and Ted gave the seventy-five cents to Hal to take to the Home, the lame boy brought back a letter of thanks from the manager.
“We’re going to have the fair next week,” Hal said. “And right after that Dr. Wade is going to make my foot all better.”
“Will you walk--different then?” asked Ted.
“Yes, I’ll walk just like you, I guess. But of course not at first. It’s got to get well after the doctor does something to it. Will you come to the fair?”
The Curlytops said they would, and Mother Martin promised to take them. There were busy times at Cherry Farm, for the cakes were to be baked as Grandma Martin had promised. Mother Martin made some also. And what a crowd of people came to see the lame boys and girls. They also came to buy the candy, cakes and other things the people gave for the helpless ones.
“Are you making a lot of money?” asked Mother Martin of Mrs. Burr, the woman who had charge of the fair.
“Not as much as we would like to,” she answered. “We hoped to make enough to pay for having made the Home larger, but I fear we shall not. We will need about a hundred dollars more, and I do not see where we are to get it. Everyone has given all he can.”
“Grandpa Martin would give the hundred dollars if he could,” said Jan who, with her mother, heard what was said. “But he lost lots of his money.”
“I know, my dear,” replied Mrs. Burr with a smile. “Your grandfather has always been kind and good to us. Perhaps next year he will be able to help us more.”
There was a good time at the Home fair, even if not as much money was made as was hoped for. The crippled children, many of whom were given rides in the Curlytops’ goat wagon, were glad to see so many visitors, and Hal took great pride in showing Jan and Ted around the place, and explaining everything.
“I know lots about it,” he said, “’cause I’ve been here longest. But if I get well I’ll have to go away and I’ll miss being here.”
“But you’ll be well,” said Jan. “Won’t that be fine!”
“Yes. But I wish everybody here would be well,” said Hal softly. “Maybe they will when they get some new machines for making crooked legs and feet straight.”
At one end of the long hall where the fair was being held, a booth, or curtained-off place, had been set up for a Punch and Judy show. This was to amuse the children who came with their parents, and the little tots, as well as some of the older boys and girls, had laughed at the funny way Mr. Punch whacked everyone with his stick, and then cried, in his squeaky voice:
“That’s the way to do it! That’s the way I do it!”
The man giving the Punch and Judy show had gone through several performances, as different crowds came and went, and now it was time for another.
“Let’s go down again and listen to him,” said Janet to Hal and Ted, as they stood talking together at the other end of the room. “I like to hear the funny, squeaky voice of Mr. Punch.”
“So do I,” said Teddy.
“It’s like some of the fairy stories I like to read,” said Hal in a low voice. “It comes out that way, lots of times.”
“How do you mean?” asked Janet.
“Oh, everybody gets whacked so much, and pounded and yelled at, and then, after a while, they have it easy and the one that hits them is sorry. That’s the way it is with Mr. Punch. He gets sorry after a while.”
“He gets sorry after he’s scared a whole lot,” said Janet, who had watched the little show twice. “Anybody can be good when they’re scared.”
“Grandpa’s hired man was scared when Nicknack, our goat, got loose the first day after we got him,” remarked Teddy.
“Was he afraid the goat would butt him?” asked Hal.
“No, I guess he was afraid Nicknack would get away and not come back,” Teddy answered. “But come on! That Punch and Judy show is going to start.”
Boys and girls, and some of the grown folks, were gathering at the lower end of the hall, and behind the curtains could be seen something moving. Down underneath was hidden the man who made the queer little doll-images go through their funny capers, moving about and seeming to speak. Though really, of course, it was the man himself, hidden behind the curtain, doing the talking.
“Hello, everybody!” squeaked Mr. Punch, as he paraded across on the tiny stage, and he shook his hands at the children (or at least he seemed to be doing that) and all the children laughed while the grown-ups smiled.
“I’m not afraid of anybody!” cried Mr. Punch, as he shook his stick. “I’m not afraid even of Nicknack the goat!”
“Ha! Ha!” laughed Teddy and Janet, while Hal and some others joined in. Everyone looked at the Curlytops.
“I’d like to have a ride on Nicknack,” went on Mr. Punch. “Oh, I’m not afraid of him! I’ll show him how to do it!” and he banged his stick down with a loud whack that made the children jump.
“How’d he know about our goat?” asked Janet in surprise.
“Oh, I guess somebody must have told him,” Hal said. “Once, when I lived at home, they took me to a Punch and Judy show, and the man who worked it made a lot of jokes about the boys and girls. I guess their fathers and mothers told him to. It was lots of fun.”
Mr. Punch kept on talking and acting in a most funny and jolly way and soon the roomful of children was laughing.
“Where’s Trouble?” suddenly asked Ted, looking at his sister, while they were waiting for the next scene in the Punch and Judy show.
“He was here a minute ago,” she answered. “I guess he went back to mother,” for Mrs. Martin was in the rear of the hall with some other ladies.
Ted and Janet were wondering whether they had better not go and look for their little brother when the curtain of the little Punch and Judy theater opened and a real man, and not one of the doll-images, looked out and said:
“Some one has taken the funny little bear I use in the next part of the show. Has any little boy or girl been playing around my booth and taken the bear?”
There was silence a moment, and then from the back of the hall up piped the voice of Trouble, saying:
“I’se got it! I was goin’ to show him to my goat!”
Everybody laughed when Baby William came walking up with the toy bear which had a part in the show. The little boy, wandering around behind the curtain when no show was going on, had opened the draperies and taken out the little bear. He gave it back to the man.
“Ah, now the show can go on,” said the man, as he pulled the curtain over the stage. And when the laughter had stopped, and everything was ready, the curtain was thrust aside once more and Mr. Punch cried:
“That’s the way to do it! That’s the way I do it!”
And so the entertainment went on until the fair came to an end, and the children went home, talking about what they had seen and heard.
“It’s too bad they didn’t make all the money they wanted,” said Grandpa Martin at Cherry Farm the following day. “I wish I had lots of dollars, so I could give as much as I’d like. But with poor crops, and the farm not paying well, I can’t--that’s all,” and he shook his head sadly.
“When are you going to pick the cherries?” asked Ted. “They must be ripe now.”
“They are, and ready to pick. I never saw so many! Why, I’ll have to give them away I guess, to get rid of them. I never had such a crop. There are bushels and bushels of them!”
“What--goats?” asked a voice behind the Curlytops, and, turning, they saw the jolly lollypop man.
“What have you so much of?” he asked. He had left his red wagon and white horse in the road, and had come up to the porch on which the Curlytops were seated talking to grandpa.
“It’s cherries I have so many of, not goats,” was Mr. Martin’s answer. “I have the biggest crop in years, and I don’t know where to sell them.”
“Then I can tell you where, and you will get a good price for them,” replied the lollypop man. “That’s what I came to see you about.”
“Do you come to buy my cherries?” asked Grandpa Martin.
“That’s what I do,” was the reply. “I don’t want them for myself though, but for a man from whom I buy my lollypops. This man has a big candy factory, and he is going to make a new kind of sweets called ‘Chewing Cherry Candy.’ He has made a little for samples, and it sells better, even, than my lollypops and waffles. I know, for I have tried it.”
Ted and Jan were growing excited.
“To make this candy lots of cherries are needed. The manufacturer is in the market for bushels and bushels of ’em, and so far hasn’t been able to get half of what he wants. I told one of his men about the big crop up here and especially about this grove on Cherry Farm, and I’ve come now to buy up all I can. He’ll pay big and he’ll give me a good commission and he’ll get plenty of the finest cherries in the world, so everything is all right for everybody and the world is a fine place.”
“Well, that certainly is good news!” cried Grandpa Martin. “Why, if I can sell all my cherries I’ll have some money, no matter if the flood did spoil most of my crops.”
“Oh, won’t that be great!” cried Ted in delight.
“And if you sell enough cherries you can give some money to the Crippled Home, can’t you?” asked Janet, softly.
“I can and will, my dear,” said Grandpa Martin.
“Let’s go and look at the cherries,” said the lollypop man. “Hurray!”
Oh, what a lot of cherries there were! No wonder Grandpa Martin’s place was called Cherry Farm! The trees in the grove bent down their branches which were laden with red cherries and black. Some were purple, and when the Curlytops ate them their faces and hands were all stained.
“’Ist like we tipped over de ink bottle!” laughed Trouble, who was given one or two cherries, not enough to make him ill, but enough to color him.
Then there were some big white cherries, with red cheeks, and Grandpa Martin called them “ox-hearts.” And when the Curlytops asked him why, not seeing anything about them like an ox, they were told the cherries had that name because of their large size.
“You have the finest crop of cherries of anyone around here!” said the lollypop man when he had gone through the grove. “My friend, the candy man, will buy all you want to sell, and pay you well. Then you will have plenty of money.”
“I’ll sell all my wife doesn’t want to can, and all these little Curlytops don’t want to eat,” laughed Grandpa Martin.
“Oh, how glad I am!” cried Jan. “Now grandpa can give some money to Hal’s Crippled Home!”
And so Grandpa Martin could. His cherries sold for much more money than ever before, being sent to the factory where the Chewing Cherry Candy was made. And, a little later, the lollypop man drove past the house with his red wagon and white horse and called:
“Oh, ho! Oh, ho! I love a goat. Come see my white coat, and get some cherry candy! Oh, ho! Oh, ho! Come get cherry candy!”
This the Curlytops did, and they said the new cherry chewing candy was the best they had ever eaten. Perhaps it was because it had in it some of Grandpa Martin’s cherries.
At any rate Grandpa Martin was given quite a sum of money for his cherry crop, and he could afford to give the hundred dollars to the Home for Crippled Children.
“Is Hal going to be cured?” asked Ted one day, after he, with Jan and Trouble, had been for a ride with Nicknack.
“The doctor is going to try to cure him to-morrow,” said Mother Martin. “We are to go over the day following and see how he is.”
And when they went, they found Hal sitting in an easy chair, his feet and legs covered with blankets. He was very pale, but he smiled.
“Oh!” exclaimed Jan a bit sadly, “can’t you--walk?”
“He will soon walk better than ever,” said the nurse softly.
“And then you’ll see me chase after the Mosquito Dwarf and drive him away from Princess Blue Eyes!” laughed Hal. “Just wait! I’ll run a race with Nicknack soon.”
“But don’t get our goat too tired,” said Jan. “For we may want to give the Princess Blue Eyes a ride.”
“That’s so!” laughed Hal. “We’ll ride her to her golden throne, down by the ocean waves where the green palms grow, and then----”
He stopped and seemed to be looking away, past the white clouds that were scudding across the blue sky.
“Then what?” asked Jan, for she thought it sounded like a story in which one has stopped after telling halfway through.
“Then,” said Hal softly, “maybe the Princess Blue Eyes won’t need me any more.”
“Oh, yes she will!” put in Ted. “There’s lots of mosquitoes left yet. I feel ’em biting me!”
And a few weeks later Hal could walk as straight as anyone, though he had to go slowly until his leg and foot fully healed. But he was very happy, and so were many other boys and girls in the Home who were cured and made more comfortable, because of the money Grandpa Martin gave when he sold so many cherries.
Then followed many fine vacation days at Cherry Farm. I could not begin to tell you all the Curlytops did if I had a book twice the size of this one. But I can tell you about some of the things in another book to be called “The Curlytops on Star Island; Or, Camping Out with Grandpa.” In that you may read how Ted and Jan, to say nothing of Trouble, went to the island in Clover Lake, and had many adventures.
“Well, what shall we do to-day?” asked Ted of Jan, as they went out on the porch one morning, about a week after Hal had been cured and the chewing cherry candy made.
“Let’s go for a ride with Nicknack,” said Jan.
As they were going back to the stable where they kept their goat, they heard some one calling:
“Stop it now! You stop it!”
“What’s that?” asked Janet.
“Sounds like Trouble,” answered Ted.
It was Trouble. Baby William had taken Nicknack’s rope, by which the goat was tied to a stake just outside the barn, and this rope the little fellow had made fast to a wheelbarrow. Trouble wanted to have Nicknack pull him, but every time the goat straightened out the rope the wheelbarrow would upset, and Trouble, who had climbed in to get a ride, would be spilled out. But he fell on the soft grass and was not hurt.
“Oh, Trouble! What _are_ you doing?” cried Jan, as her little brother tipped over for perhaps the fifth time, though of course Nicknack did not mean to do it.
“Me goin’ to gib rides an’ make money to buy cherries--’cause grandpa’s all goned,” was the answer. “Giddap, ole Nicknack!”
Nicknack, reaching for a choice bit of grass, overturned the wheelbarrow again, and out popped the little boy.
“Oh, you dear bunch of Trouble!” cried Mother Martin, as she laughingly ran to pick him up. “You are always doing something!”
And so he was. But, for that matter, so were the Curlytops. And, leaving them to have more fun on Cherry Farm, we will say good-bye.
THE CURLYTOPS SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional._
1. THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM _or Vacation Days in the Country_
A tale of happy vacation days on a farm.
2. THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND _or Camping Out with Grandpa_
The Curlytops camp on Star Island.
3. THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN _or Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds_
The Curlytops on lakes and hills.
4. THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK’S RANCH _or Little Folks on Ponyback_
Out West on their uncle’s ranch they have a wonderful time.
5. THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE _or On the Water with Uncle Ben_
The Curlytops camp out on the shores of a beautiful lake.
6. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS _or Uncle Toby’s Strange Collection_
An old uncle leaves them to care for his collection of pets.
7. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES _or Jolly Times Through the Holidays_
They have great times with their collection of animals.
8. THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS _or Fun at the Lumber Camp_
Exciting times in the forest for Curlytops.
9. THE CURLYTOPS AT SUNSET BEACH _or What Was Found in the Sand_
The Curlytops have a fine time at the seashore.
10. THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND _or The Missing Photograph Albums_
The Curlytops get in some moving pictures.
11. THE CURLYTOPS IN A SUMMER CAMP _or Animal Joe’s Menagerie_
There is great excitement as some mischievous monkeys break out of Animal Joe’s Menagerie.
12. THE CURLYTOPS GROWING UP _or Winter Sports and Summer Pleasures_
The Curlytops are involved in the loss of a book and how they recovered it.
13. THE CURLYTOPS AT HAPPY HOUSE _or The Mystery of the Chinese Vase_
The Curlytops explored and found plenty of enjoyment.
14. THE CURLYTOPS AT THE CIRCUS _or The Runaway Elephant_
The Curlytops have a grand time finding the elephant.
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold.
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
The Teddy Books
by Howard R. Garis
_In Teddy, Mr. Garis gives his readers a sturdy, pleasant youngster of about ten years who has an eye and ear for mystery. You will like Teddy for his carefree youth, his audacity and his ability to take every adventure as it comes. Read these stories and follow Teddy through a happy succession of laughter, adventure and unusual mystery._
[Illustration]
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in colors. Price, per volume_, 50 _cents. Postage_ 10 _cents additional._
1. TEDDY AND THE MYSTERY DOG
Teddy decides to build a club-house with the aid of three or four of his chums. Before it is finished a strange dog appears through the bushes and leads the boys into many strange adventures.
2. TEDDY AND THE MYSTERY MONKEY
Teddy goes off on a merry chase after Billo, a delightful chimpanzee who likes bananas and the freedom of the woods.
3. TEDDY AND THE MYSTERY CAT
Once again Ted and his love for animals leads him into startling adventures--this time with a mystery cat whose alarming actions keep the boys guessing a long time.
4. TEDDY AND THE MYSTERY PARROT
A strange man with gold rings in his ears and a bright red bandana about his neck leaves a beautiful parrot, named Peter, in Mrs. Traddle’s candy store, and then disappears. Teddy and his friends take the parrot but lose him. Then follows a merry hunt for the mystery parrot and its owner.
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold.
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
BUDDY SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of the FAMOUS “CURLYTOPS SERIES”
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated._
_With colored jacket._
_Price 50 cents per volume._
_Postage 10 cents additional_.
The author presents a distinctly modern juvenile series of stories for boys. Here we observe a really fascinating character-study of an up-to-date young lad, whose exceedingly energetic mind, and whose overflowing youth and vitality, are constantly leading him into new and more tangled situations, from which by wit, courage and luck, he manages to extricate himself in safety.
1. BUDDY ON THE FARM Or, A Boy and His Prize Pumpkin
2. BUDDY IN SCHOOL Or, A Boy and His Dog
3. BUDDY AND HIS WINTER FUN Or, A Boy in a Snow Camp
4. BUDDY AT RAINBOW LAKE Or, A Boy and His Boat
5. BUDDY AND HIS CHUM Or, A Boy’s Queer Search
6. BUDDY AT PINE BEACH Or, A Boy on the Ocean
7. BUDDY AND HIS FLYING BALLOON Or, A Boy’s Mysterious Airship
8. BUDDY ON MYSTERY MOUNTAIN Or, A Boy’s Strange Discovery
9. BUDDY ON FLOATING ISLAND Or, A Boy’s Wonderful Secret
10. BUDDY AND THE SECRET CAVE Or, A Boy and the Crystal Hermit
11. BUDDY AND HIS COWBOY PAL Or, A Boy on a Ranch
12. BUDDY AND THE INDIAN CHIEF Or, A Boy Among the Navajos
13. BUDDY AND THE ARROW CLUB Or, A Boy and the Long Bow
14. BUDDY AT LOST RIVER Or, A Boy and a Gold Mine
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold.
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
HECTOR MALOT BOOKS
[Illustration]
_Large 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated._
_Jacket in Colors._
_Price, per volume, $1.00 Net_.
_These stirring and intensely human chronicles from the pen of Hector Malot stand alone as the outstanding juvenile stories of an epoch. Their supreme heart interest, their lovable boy and girl characters, their wholesome and lively inspiration mark them as masterpieces in child experiences_.
RONNIE
Here is a moving tale of adventure and loyal endeavor filled with the salty tang of the sea and a brave boy’s struggle against hardship and peril. Published in France under the title “Romain-Kalbris” this beautiful story is destined to take a ranking place in the literature of all time.
NOBODY’S BOY
This is Hector Malot’s masterpiece--one of the supreme heart interest stories of the world--the compelling chronicle of little Remi, the homeless lad, who has made the world better for his being in it.
NOBODY’S GIRL
Published in France under the title “En Famille” this book follows “Nobody’s Boy” as a companion juvenile story. The building up of little Perrine’s life is made a fine example for every child.
THE LITTLE SISTER
More romantic and lively than other stories of this great writer, but of no less soul-searching interest, this literary creation of Hector Malot’s has won and will continue to win a strong place in the affections of all readers.
These books may be purchased wherever books are sold.
_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue._
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.