' _him_!" declared Trouble, with a grunt. Then
he arose and toddled off through the bushes. Teddy and Janet were so busy
getting their own vessels ready for the coming race that they paid no
more attention to their small brother. And Trouble was going to get into
trouble--you may be sure of that.

"Don't put too many stones on your ship, Jan," called Ted to his sister,
as he saw that she was piling on the pebbles.

"Why not?" she asked.

"'Cause you'll make it so heavy that it won't sail fast. Course I want to
beat you," Ted went on, "but I want to beat you _fair_."

"Oh, thank you," Janet answered. "But these aren't stones I'm loading on
my ship this time."

"What are they?" asked Ted.

"Feathers," his sister answered. "I'm making believe the stones are
feathers, and I'm going to sell them to make pillows for dolls. My ship
won't be too heavy!"

"Hu!" grunted Ted, as he placed the pebbles carefully on the middle of
his ship, so it would not turn over. "Stones are heavy, whether you make
believe they're feathers or not. Don't put too many on, I'm telling you!"

"All right, I won't," agreed Janet.

The boy and the girl went on with their game, and they were almost ready
to start their ships off on the race when there was a racket in the
bushes back of them. It was a bumping, banging sound that Ted and Janet
heard, then followed the bark of a dog.

"That's Skyrocket!" said Ted.

A moment later came a voice, calling:

"Whoa-up! Don't go so fas'! You is spillin' me!"

"That's Trouble!" declared Janet.

They were both right. A moment later there burst through the bushes the
little boy and the dog. The dog was Skyrocket, and he was made fast to a
box which he was dragging along by a rope tied around his neck. Trouble
was holding to the rear of the box, and in his eagerness to pull it along
Skyrocket was also dragging Trouble, "spillin'" him, in fact--that is,
pulling Trouble off his feet every now and then.

"Why, William! what are you doing?" asked Janet. Trouble was hardly ever
called by his right name of William unless he had done something wrong.

"Were you trying to have Skyrocket ride you in that box?" asked Teddy.
"If you were, he can't. Sky can't pull you in that box unless it has
wheels on it. Then it's a wagon."

"Don't want wagon--dis my s'ip!" announced the little fellow, as he began
to loosen the rope from the dog's neck. But as soon as Trouble started to
do this, Skyrocket, who loved the chi