you a little bit about the family, as well as about what
happened.

You have already met Ted, Jan and Trouble. Ted's real name was Theodore,
but his mother seldom called him that unless she was quite serious about
something he had done that was wrong. So he was more often spoken to as
Ted or Teddy, and his sister Janet was called Jan. Though oftener still
they were called the "Curlytops," or, if one was speaking to one or the
other he would say "Curlytop." That was because both Teddy and Janet had
such very, very curly hair.

Ted's and Jan's birthdays came on the same day, but they had been born a
year apart, Teddy being about seven years old and his sister a year
younger. Trouble was aged about three years.

I have spoken of the curly hair of Teddy and Janet. Unless you had seen
it you would never have believed hair could be so curly! It was no
wonder that even strangers called the children "Curlytops."

Sometimes, when Mother Martin was combing the hair of the children, the
comb would get tangled and she would have to pull a little to get it
loose. That is one reason Ted never liked to have his hair combed.
Janet's was a little longer than his, but just as curly.

Trouble's real name, as I have mentioned, was William. His father
sometimes called him "A bunch of trouble," and his mother spoke of him
as "Dear Trouble," while Jan and Ted called him just "Trouble."

Mr. Martin, whose name was Richard, shortened to Dick by his wife (whose
name was Ruth) owned a store in Cresco, which is in one of our Eastern
states.

Nora Jones, a cheerful, helpful maid-of-all-work had been in the Martin
family a long while, and dearly loved the children, who were very fond
of her. The Martins had many relatives besides the children's
grandfather and grandmother, but I will only mention two now. They were
Aunt Josephine Miller, called Aunt Jo, who lived at Clayton and who had
a summer bungalow at Mt. Hope, near Ruby Lake. She was a sister of Mrs.
Martin's. Uncle Frank Barton owned a large ranch near Rockville,
Montana. He was Mr. Martin's uncle, but Ted and Janet also called him
their uncle.

Now that you have met the chief members of the family, and know a little
of what has happened to them in the past you may be interested to go
back to see what the matter is with Trouble.

His mother turned him over and over in her arms, feeling of him here and
there. Trouble had closed his mouth by this time, having changed his
mind about c