As it grew darker and darker and got later and later, even Mr. Martin began to give up hope of finding Ted that night. And some of the men in the party led by the foreman, Tod Everett, spoke3 out and said:
“There’s no use going on any farther. The boy’s probably asleep in some hollow tree or covered with leaves to keep himself warm in some ravine. We might as well give up until daylight.”
But the foreman would not give up unless Mr. Martin asked him to, and so he decided4 to circle around and meet the boy’s father.
[184]The two searching parties had separated, one going one way and one another, and at times they were quite far apart. But as the night grew darker the two bands of men drew near together until at last Tod was able to call to Mr. Martin, asking:
“What do you say? Shall we keep on?”
Ted’s father considered. He knew that the men were tired, and yet he did not want to go back to the bungalow5 and have his wife meet him to ask:
“Didn’t you find him?”
It would be better to keep on searching even all night.
But one of the lumbermen had an idea which in the end turned out to be a very good one.
“Why not go back to the bungalow and see if there is any news?” he suggested.
“What do you mean—news?” asked the foreman.
“I mean maybe the boy has wandered back there himself, or maybe some one has telephoned in that they have him at their farm. There’s lots of telephones around this part of the country. Nearly every farmer has one, and I know two trappers who have telephones and wireless7 sets, too. So[185] maybe some of them have picked up Ted, or he may have wandered to their shacks8. And there’s a telephone in the store. I guess Ted could tell who he was and where he was from.”
“Yes, he could do that!” exclaimed Mr. Martin. “That’s a good plan, Jake. We’ll go back and see if there is any news. As you say, Ted may be back there now, or some one may have telephoned in.”
Now we shall see what Ted himself did. For a few moments he stood staring at the lonely cabin from which gleamed a cheerful light. The boy listened.
No longer did the owl9 hoot10. No longer did he hear the weird11 cry of the bobcat or the noise made as the creature crept along in the tree tops. And from the cabin came not a sound at first. There was only the cheerful light.
Then suddenly from a window of the cabin—a window that was open, as Ted could tell by the flapping curtain—there sounded a voice speaking. And to Ted’s amazement12 the voice said in rather strange, loud tones:
“This is station Q Q Z. The next number on our radio program will be selections by[186] the Harmony Band. Just a moment please!”
Ted could scarcely believe his ears. One moment to be hooted13 at by an owl and chased by a bobcat in the midst of dark and lonesome woods. The next minute to come upon a lighted cabin and hear from it the loud speaker of a wireless outfit14!
For it was radio music that a moment later sounded on Ted’s ear—sweet melodious15 strains floating out into the darkness, brought to that lonely cabin by the mysterious electric waves and sent out by means of light bulbs and a loud speaker.
It was wonderful!
For a moment Ted stood there listening. He knew the Harmony Band. Many a time he had listened to it over his father’s wireless set at home when the musical organization played at the Q Q Z station.
“Hurray!” cried Ted aloud, as the music welled out on the night. “I’m safe now!”
Quickly he hurried across the clearing toward the lighted cabin. The music was louder and plainer as he drew near. It was even so loud that when he knocked on the door his tapping was not heard. Realizing this, and not wanting to wait until the music[187] stopped, Ted opened the door and walked in.
He found himself within a well-furnished bungalow, somewhat like the one at Mount Major, only not so large. In the main room was a man and his wife and a boy about Ted’s age. And this boy was leaning over the radio instrument set in one corner on a table, making some adjustments to it.
“Tune it down a little, so it isn’t so loud,” said the boy’s mother, as Ted entered.
As the boy turned the knob of the variable condenser16, softening17 the musical sounds from the black mouth of the loud-speaker horn, they all turned and looked at Ted.
He met their gaze smiling.
“Hello!” exclaimed the man, in some surprise, though his voice was friendly.
“How’d you get in?” asked the boy at the radio instrument. Then he turned the switch and cut off the battery power from one of the lights so that the music no longer sounded.
“I came—I came in the door,” said Ted. “I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me ’cause the music was going.” And then, like the “radio bug” he was fast becoming, Ted eagerly asked:
[188]“Do you get any other stations besides Q Q Z?”
“Sure I do!” answered the other boy, and in a moment, though hardly a dozen words had been spoken, the two lads were firm friends—just because of their interest in radio.
“We have a set at home,” went on Ted, “but we haven’t any loud speaker yet. I want dad to get one.”
“Do you live around here?” asked the woman.
“I don’t remember you,” said the man.
“I’m over at Mount Major. My father has charge of the store at the sawmill,” explained Ted.
“Oh, Tod Everett’s outfit!” exclaimed the man.
“Yes, he’s the foreman,” went on Ted. “I’m lost.”
“Lost!” cried the other boy.
“Yes. I started out this afternoon to bring back two of the men who were building a lumber6 chute. There was an accident at the mill and Mr. Everett needed all the hands to fix it. But I couldn’t find Jake and Sam and I got lost, and a bobcat chased[189] me, but I hit him on the nose with a club and——”
“You don’t mean to say you hit a bobcat with a club!” exclaimed the woman.
“Well, I did. But I guess it was sort of an accident,” admitted Ted.
“And you’ve been lost since early afternoon!” cried the boy. “You must be terribly hungry!”
“I am,” confessed Ted.
“Oh, you poor boy!” murmured the woman. “We’ve had supper, but I can get you something. Why, your folks must be worried to death about you.”
“I guess they are,” admitted Ted. “’Course, I’ve been lost before. But not like this. If I could send word to the bungalow they’d know I am all right now. But you can’t send word over your wireless,” he added to the boy. “You only have a receiving set, haven’t you?”
“That’s all. I’m not allowed to send.”
“But we can telephone in the regular way,” said the man. “Is there a telephone in your place?” he asked.
“There is in the store,” Ted answered.
“I’ll call up your family and let ’em know you’re all right,” the man offered.[190] “Now if you go with my wife she’ll get you something to eat,” he said.
You may be sure Ted was only too glad to go. Into the kitchen, while food was being set out, the boy came from the sitting room to help his mother. Ted learned that the family was named Brixton, and that the boy was called Harry18.
Now that he was taken in and cared for, Ted began to know just how hungry he was, and he was so busy putting the food in the place where it ought to go—in his mouth and stomach—that he hardly heard Mr. Brixton telephoning to the store.
It did not take long to be connected with Mount Major, and Mrs. Martin answered the telephone, for her husband and the men had not yet gotten back.
The way of it was this. Mrs. Martin was sitting out in front of the bungalow with Lucy, for the night was warm. Janet and Trouble were in bed asleep, and the faithful colored maid was trying to comfort Mrs. Martin, telling her that Teddy would surely be found soon.
Then the telephone in the store rang very hard. There was no one to answer it, for[191] the place was closed at night. However, Mrs. Martin heard the jingling19 bell.
“Maybe that means something,” she said. “I’ll answer it.”
And you can imagine how happy she was when Mr. Brixton’s voice sounded over the wire, telling her the lost boy had been found and was, even then, in his cabin eating a late supper.
“Oh, are you sure it’s my Teddy?” asked the now happy mother.
“Of course I am,” answered Mr. Brixton. “I’ll let him talk to you himself.”
And soon Teddy and his mother were exchanging joyful20 words. Briefly21 Teddy told what had happened to him. Then Mr. Brixton, who had come to live in the cabin in the wood for his summer vacation, informed Mrs. Martin just how his place could be reached by the road.
“My husband and all the men are out in the woods now looking for Teddy,” said Mrs. Martin. “I can’t drive the auto22 over, as I don’t want to leave my other two children here. But as soon as my husband comes back I’ll send him after Teddy.”
“No hurry at all,” said Mr. Brixton, with[192] a laugh. “We’ll be glad to keep him all night.”
Ted was happy now. He was safe with his new friends, he had had a good supper, and his mother, at least, knew where he was. Now he could listen to the wireless music with a glad heart.
And that is what he and Harry did. When the second supper had been cleared away—though, truth to tell Ted did not leave much in the way of food on the table—the two boys “fussed” over the radio instrument, “picking up” distant stations.
It was not long after Mrs. Martin had received the joyful news of Ted’s safety over the telephone that her husband and the other searchers came back to Mount Major. The first thing Mr. Martin asked was:
“Any news?”
“The very best!” cried his wife, happily. “Teddy’s in the woods cabin of Mr. Brixton.”
“I know where his place is!” said Tod Everett. “My, but I’m glad that boy’s found!”
“So am I,” murmured Mr. Martin, and all the lumbermen said the same thing.
“I didn’t want to speak about it before,” went on the foreman to Mr. Martin. “But[193] there are wildcats in the woods—lynx, you know. I was afraid some of them might have scared the boy.”
“I hope they didn’t,” replied the father.
But if Ted had not exactly been frightened by the bobcat, he was so near to it that, as Tod Everett said later, “they wa’n’t no fun in it!”
In a short time Mr. Martin and the foreman were on their way in the automobile23 to Mr. Brixton’s cabin, and there Ted was found, joyfully24 listening to music caught by the wireless instrument which worked just as well, and perhaps better, in the lonely woods than it does in your city home, if you live in the city.
“Well, Ted, you had quite an adventure!” his father greeted him.
“I had a lot of ’em!” replied Ted. Then he told some of the things that had happened to him, while the others wondered at his pluck and spirit.
Thanking the kind Brixton family for their care of Ted, Mr. Martin was soon on his homeward way with the lost boy, and a little later there was a joyful reunion in the bungalow at Mount Major.
Janet awakened25, having had a bad dream,[194] and her first question was a sleepy inquiry27 if her brother had come home.
“Yes, dear, he’s here, and safe,” whispered her mother.
Then Janet turned over with a contented28 sigh and went sound asleep again. Trouble did not awaken26, and it was not until morning that he knew the whole story of Ted being lost and found.
You may be sure Ted was warned not to get lost again, and of course he said he would not. The foreman could not forgive himself for having let the Curlytop boy go on the errand to summon the two men from the log chute.
“Oh, that was all right,” said Mr. Martin. “Ted was just as likely to have gotten lost playing out in the woods.”
But Ted promised to be more careful after this.
Trouble was soon himself again after his little illness, and as a sort of celebration he and the Curlytops went one day for another picnic in the woods, taking their lunch with them. They were warned not to, and promised they wouldn’t, go far away.
Ted and Janet were making a playhouse near an old stump29, and Trouble had wandered[195] off a short distance to look for pretty stones. Suddenly the little fellow came toddling30 back in a hurry, to cry:
“Somebody’s knockin’!”
“Knocking? What do you mean, Trouble?” asked Ted.
“Listen!” ordered William, holding up one hand as he had seen his mother do.
To the ears of Ted and Janet came a rat-at-at-tat-tat! sound.
“Hear ’em knockin!” whispered Trouble.
“I know what that is,” declared Ted. “It’s a woodpecker picking holes in a tree so he can get the worms and bugs31. It’s a woodpecker knocking, that’s what it is.”
“Does he want to come into our playhouse?” asked Trouble.
“No, I don’t think so,” answered Janet. She looked up in the trees overhead, to see if she could find the tapping woodpecker, then suddenly, as she caught sight of another bird, she exclaimed:
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收听单词发音
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1
ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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7
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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shacks
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| n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 ) | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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hoot
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| n.鸟叫声，汽车的喇叭声； v.使汽车鸣喇叭 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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12
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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13
hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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condenser
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| n.冷凝器；电容器 | |
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17
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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auto
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| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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28
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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30
toddling
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| v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的现在分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步 | |
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31
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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