k my ship now.
I did it myself."

It was her older brother, and he now came bursting through the shrubbery
that lined the bank of the brook, holding in his hands a piece of black
cloth.

"I got the pirate flag!" cried Teddy. "Whoop-la! Now I'm going to sink
your ship! Why, what happened?" he asked, as he saw that Janet's craft
was empty. "Did Trouble upset it?"

"No, I did it myself," Janet answered. "But I didn't mean to. I was
trying to hide it from you, 'cause I don't want you to be a pirate and
upset my ship full of chocolate cakes."

"Oh, I must be a pirate! Here's the black flag and I must be a pirate!"
shouted Teddy. "Whoop! I'm a pirate! I'm a pirate!"

"Hoo! Hoo! Hoop!" yelled Trouble, trying to make as much noise as his
brother.

"You sound more like an Indian than you do a pirate," said Janet, as she
began to pile more pebbles on the board that was her ship.

"Well, Indians and pirates are 'most the same," declared Teddy. "Wait
till you see my ship, with swords and guns and powder! It will blow your
ship out of the water, and I'll have a black flag on it and everything!
Whoop!"

"I'm not going to play if you upset my ship, now there!" and Janet pouted
her lips and ceased loading pebbles aboard her craft.

Teddy, who was cutting a flagstaff with his knife, stopped to look at
her. If Janet was going to act this way, and not send out her ship, there
was no use in being a pirate. What fun could even a make-believe pirate
have if there were no ships to sink?

Teddy thought of this, and then he said:

"All right, Jan, I won't be a pirate if you don't want me to. But I'll
have a black flag, anyhow, and maybe I'll be a pirate some other time.
Let's have a race with our ships--see which one gets to the water-wheel
first."

"Yes, I'll do that," agreed Janet.

At the lower end of the brook she and Teddy had built a little dam, and
where the water flowed over the top, like a tiny Niagara Falls, Teddy had
fastened a wooden paddle wheel which turned as the water flowed on it.

"Me want a s'ip!" wailed Trouble, as he saw his brother and sister
getting their vessels ready for the race.

"Can't you give him a piece of board for his ship, Ted?" asked Janet. "If
we don't he'll get in our way and spoil the race."

"Here, Trouble, take this," and Teddy paused long enough in his work of
loading pebbles on his ship to toss his little brother a small chip he
picked up off the shore.

"Hu! I want bigger s'ip 'n