was sunk and lost as surely as if Ted's pirate vessel had
captured that of his sister. That is, everything sank but the ship itself
and the cargo of little sticks, some of which Janet was pretending were
chocolate cakes. Even at that, I suppose, the chocolate cakes would be
wet and soggy. And soggy chocolate cake isn't good to eat. The best thing
you can do with it is to make it into a pudding.

"Oh, Ted! look what you made me do," cried Janet sadly, as she saw the
ship, which she had loaded with such care, capsized and cleared of its
cargo. "It's all your fault!"

And then she started in surprise as a babyish voice replied:

"I 'idn't do nuffin! I 'ust comed! What's matter, Jan?"

"Oh, it's you, is it, Trouble?" asked the girl, as she turned and saw,
instead of Teddy, her smaller brother William, more often called
"Trouble," because he was in it so often.

"Yep! Me is here!" announced Trouble. Sometimes he talked more correctly
than this, and his mother had told Janet and Teddy to try to cure him of
his baby talk and the wrong use of words. But Ted and Jan thought it was
"cute" to hear Trouble say queer things, so they did not mend his talk as
often as they might.

"I thought you were Ted," went on Janet. "Did you see him? He went up to
the house to get a flag."

"Flag," returned Trouble, in a questioning voice. "Goin' to be soldiers
an' have a 'rade?" He meant parade, of course.

"No, we aren't going to have a parade now, Trouble," said Janet. "Ted
went to get a black flag to be a pirate, so he could sink my ship that
was loaded with diamonds, gold and chocolate cakes."

"I want chocolate cake--two pieces!" demanded Trouble, who had ears only
for the last words of his sister.

"There wasn't any chocolate cake--really, dear," explained the little
girl, as she ruffled up her curly hair. "Ted and I were just pretending.
He is going to have a pirate ship. I didn't want him to get mine, so I
was shoving it hard down the brook, but I made it go too fast and it
upset. Now I've got to load my ship all over again."

"I want s'ip!" demanded William, as Jan began to guide her empty vessel
back to shore by means of the long stick. "Trouble have a s'ip?" he
asked.

"Yes, you may have a ship, and play with us," Janet said, and as she was
looking about for a board which might serve her little brother to play
with, she heard someone coming through the bushes.

"I guess this is Ted," thought Janet. "Anyhow he can't sin