"Children! Children! What are you doing now?" asked their mother,
appearing in the doorway of the big, white farmhouse, holding in her
arms a small boy. "Please don't make so much noise. I've just gotten
Baby William to sleep, and if he wakes up--"

"Yes, don't wake up Trouble, Jan," added Theodore, or Ted, the shorter
name being the one by which he was most often called. "If you do he'll
want to come with us, and we can't make Nicknack race."

"I wasn't waking him up, it was you!" exclaimed Jan. "He keeps pulling
my doll's legs, Mother and--"

"I only pulled 'em a little bit, just to see if they had any springs
in 'em. Jan said her doll was a circus lady and could jump on the back
of a horse. I wanted to see if she had any springs in her legs."

"Well, I'm _pretending_ she has, so there, Ted Martin! And if you
don't stop--"

"There now, please stop, both of you, and be nice," begged Mrs.
Martin. "I thought, since you had your goat and wagon, you could play
without having so much fuss. But, if you can't--"

"Oh, we'll be good!" exclaimed Ted, running his hands through his
tightly curling hair, but not taking any of the kinks out that way.
"We'll be good, I won't tease Jan anymore."

"You'd better not!" warned his sister, and, though she was a year
younger than Ted, she did not seem at all afraid of him.