"Oh, well, we'll paddle in them in shallow water," promised Ted. "And sinking won't hurt, 'cause we've got on our bathing suits. Come on, Jan!"

Trouble wanted to sail in the new boats, also, but they were not large enough for two. Besides Mrs. Martin did not want the baby to be in the water too much. So she carried him away, Trouble crying and screaming to be allowed to stay, while Jan and Ted got ready for their first trip.

They pretended the boats were ocean steamers and that the cove in the lake, near grandpa's camp, was the big ocean.

They had pieces of wood which their grandfather had whittled out for them to use as paddles, and, as Ted said, they could sit down in the bottoms of the box-boats and never mind how much water came in, for they still had on their bathing suits.

"All aboard!" called Teddy, as he got into his boat.

"I'm coming," answered Janet, pushing off from sh.o.r.e.

"Oh, I can really paddle!" cried Ted in delight, as he found that his box floated with him in it and he could send it along by using the board for a paddle, as one does in a canoe. "Isn't this great, Janet?"

"Oh, it's lots of fun!"

"I'm glad you thought of it. I never would," went on Ted. He was a good brother, for, whenever his sister did anything unusual like this he always gave her credit for it.

Around and around in the little cove paddled the Curlytops, having fun in their box-boats.

"I'm going to let the wind blow me," said Jan, after a bit. "I'm tired of paddling."

"There isn't any wind," Ted remarked.

"Well, what makes me go along, then!" asked his sister. "Look, I'm moving and I'm not paddling at all!"

She surely was. In her boat she was sailing right across the little cove, and, as Ted had said, there was not enough wind to blow a feather, to say nothing of a heavy box with a little girl in it.

"Isn't it queer!" exclaimed Janet. "What makes me go this way, Ted? You aren't sailing."

Ted's boat was not moving now, for he had stopped paddling.

Still Jan's craft moved on slowly but surely through the water. Then Ted saw a funny thing and gave a cry of surprise.

CHAPTER XIV

DIGGING FOR GOLD

"What's the matter?" called Jan. Her boat was now quite a little distance away from her brother's. "Do you see anything, Teddy?"

"I see you are being towed, Janet."

"Being what?"

"Towed--pulled along, you know, just like the mules pull the ca.n.a.l boats."

Once the Curlytops had visited a cousin who lived in the country near a ca.n.a.l, and they had seen the mules and horses walking along the ca.n.a.l towpath pulling the big boats by a long rope.

"Who's towing me, Ted?" asked Jan, trying to look over the side of her box. But, as she did so it tipped to one side and she was afraid it would upset, so she quickly sat down again.

"I don't know what it is," her brother answered. "But something has hold of the rope that's fast to the front part of your box, and it's as tight as anything--the rope is. Something in the water is pulling you along."

On each of the box-boats the Curlytops had fastened a piece of clothes-line their mother had given them. This line was to tie fast their boats to an overhanging tree branch, near the sh.o.r.e of the cove, when they were done playing.

And, as Ted had said, the rope fast to the end of Jan's box was stretched out tightly in front, the end being down under water.

"Oh, maybe it's the big muskrat that has hold of my rope and is giving me a ride," cried Janet. "It's fun!"

"No, I don't guess it's a rat," answered Teddy. "A muskrat wouldn't do that. Oh, I see what it is!" he cried suddenly. "I see it!"

"What?" asked Janet.

Again she got up and tried to look over the side of the box, but once more it tipped as though going to turn over and she sat down.

By this time both her box and Ted's was half full of water, and so went only very slowly along the little cove. The weight of the water that had leaked in through the cracks and the weight of the Curlytops themselves made the boxes float low in the lake.

"Can you see what's pulling me?" asked Janet.

"Yes," answered Teddy, "I can. It's a great big mud turtle!"

"A mud turtle!" cried Janet.

"I guess he's scared, too," said her brother, "for he's swimmin' all around as fast as anything!"

"Where is he?" asked Janet.

"Right in front of your boat. I guess your rope got caught around one of his legs, or on his sh.e.l.l, and he can't get it loose. He must have been swimming along and run into the rope. Or maybe he's got it in his mouth."

"If he had he could let go," answered Janet. "Oh, I see him!" she cried.

She had stood up in her box and was looking over the front. The box had now sunk so low in the water that it was on the bottom of the little cove and no longer was the turtle towing it along.

The turtle, finding that it could no longer swim, had come to the top of the water and was splashing about, trying to get loose. Jan could see it plainly now, as Ted had seen it before from his boat, which was still floating along, as not so much water had leaked in as had seeped into his sister's.

"Oh, isn't it a big one!" cried Jan. "It's a big turtle."

"It surely is!" a.s.sented Ted. "He could bite hard if he got hold of you."

"Is he biting my rope?" Janet asked.

"No, it's round one of his front legs," replied Ted. "There! he's got it loose!"

"There he goes!" shrieked Jan.

By this time the mud turtle, which was a very large one, had struggled and squirmed about so hard in the water that he had shaken loose the knot in the end of Jan's rope. The knot had been caught under its left front leg and when the turtle swam or crawled along on the bottom, the rope had been held tightly in place, and so the box was pulled along.

But when Jan's boat sank and went aground, the turtle could not pull it any farther, and had to back up, just as Nicknack the goat sometimes backed up his cart. This made the rope slack, or loose, and then the creature could shake the knot of the rope out from under its leg.