Don't jump, Trouble! Don't jump!" shouted the postman. "I'll get you
down all right. Is there a ladder anywhere around?" he asked the
children.

"There's a stepladder in the shed," answered Ted. "I'll get it."

"I'll help," offered Tom.

Away sped the boys, while Jan and Lola remained with Mr. Brennan looking
up at Trouble, who seemed like some little animal in a circus cage.

"How'd you get in there, William?" asked Jan. Whenever the name
"William" was used there was always more seriousness than when the
youngest Martin child had been called by his pet title.

"I--I falled in!" sobbed Trouble.

"We saw you tumble over backward," remarked Lola. "But how did you get
inside the box? Why didn't you fall all the way to the ground?"

"Suffin ketched me and I fell in here," was all Trouble could explain
about it.

"I guess part of his clothes caught on a nail, or a piece of wood that
was sticking out," said the postman, "and he was swung inside the box. A
good thing, too, for it saved him a bad fall. He didn't go far."

This was true enough, for Trouble had swung into an open packing box not
far from the top of the platform, so he had really only fallen a few
feet--not enough to harm such a fat, chubby little fellow as he was.

"Well, we'll soon have you down," said Mr. Brennan cheerfully. "Don't
cry any more, Trouble. Here come Ted and Tom with the ladder. I'll soon
get you down!"

As the boys were hastening up with the ladder toward the high part of
the toboggan slide, Mrs. Martin came running out of the back door of the
house.

"What's the matter? What has happened?" she asked.

"Nothing much, Mrs. Martin," answered the postman, with a laugh.
"Trouble is in trouble, and also in a packing box; that's all. I'll soon
have him out."

"In a packing box?" William's mother repeated.

"Yes, you can see him," and Mr. Brennan pointed to the head of William
thrust out from his "cage."

"Oh, the little tyke!" cried Mrs. Martin. "After he awakened from his
nap and went out to play, I told him to keep away from the toboggan
slide."

"Well, he went up on it when we weren't looking," explained Janet.

"And he fell off, only he didn't fall far and he swung into the box,"
added Ted.

"What a narrow escape!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin. "You children will either
have to take that slide down or watch William more carefully," she
added, as the postman put the ladder in place and began to climb up
after Trouble.

"Oh, we do