elegrams often bring bad news, and as
Uncle Toby was opening the yellow envelope which the boy handed him,
these two playmates of the Curlytops thought perhaps something had
happened at their home.

And, in turn, Harry and Mary began to fear that the message might be bad
news about their mother in the hospital. A few tears began to form in
Mary's eyes, but they soon dried away when Uncle Toby, after reading the
message, gave a hearty laugh.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" chuckled Uncle Toby. "This is funny! The idea of sending
me a message like this!"

"What is it?" asked Ted, while the messenger boy waited to see if Uncle
Toby wanted to send an answer to the telegram.

"Oh, it's from an old friend of mine, Hezekiah Armstrong. He says he has
a chance to buy an elephant cheap, and he telegraphs to ask me if I
don't want it."

"Want an elephant!" repeated Jan.

"Yes, for a pet, I suppose. It may be one of his jokes, or he may mean
it, but I certainly don't want an elephant, in winter time especially."

"Would you want one in summer?" asked Tom, with a laugh.

"Well, an elephant is easier to take care of in summer than in winter,"
answered Mr. Bardeen. "In warm weather I could turn the elephant out in
the meadow and let him eat grass. But in winter I'd have to keep him in
a barn and let him eat hay, and they eat a big lot of hay--enough to
keep me poor, I guess. So I'll just telegraph back to Hezekiah that I
don't want an elephant. We couldn't take it to Crystal Lake, anyhow.
Here you are, son!" he called pleasantly to the boy. "You take back this
message for me."

Uncle Toby wrote it on a blank of which the boy had a number in his
pocket. As Mr. Bardeen paid the lad and was about to start the
automobile again, the boy asked:

"Where you going?" He was acquainted with Mr. Bardeen.

"Out to Crystal Lake," answered Uncle Toby, and the children in the
automobile wondered if the messenger lad did not wish he were going.

"Crystal Lake!" exclaimed the boy. "Are you going out there to catch the
burglar?"

"Catch the burglar? What burglar?" asked Uncle Toby. "This is the first
I've heard a burglar was out there. What do you mean?"

"It was in the paper this morning," the boy went on. "It said some of
the cabins and camps out at the Lake had been broken into and robbed.
They haven't any police out there, so it said the police from Pocono
had been asked to see if they could catch the burglar. I thought maybe
that's why you were g