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diff --git a/old/tbtic11.txt b/old/tbtic11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50319f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tbtic11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6137 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Bobbsey Twins in the Country, by Laura Lee Hope +#1 in our series by Laura Lee Hope + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Bobbsey Twins in the Country + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Release Date: November, 1996 [EBook #714] +[This file was last updated on May 30, 2004] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY *** + + + + +Prepared by Diane and Don Nafis--dnafis@nazlo.com + + + + + +THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY + +BY LAURA LEE HOPE + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE INVITATION +II. THE START +III. SNOOP ON THE TRAIN +IV. A LONG RIDE +V. MEADOW BROOK +VI. FRISKY +VII. A COUNTRY PICNIC +VIII. FUN IN THE WOODS +IX. FOURTH OF JULY +X. A GREAT DAY +XI. THE LITTLE GARDENERS +XII. TOM'S RUNAWAY +XIII. PICKING PEAS +XIV. THE CIRCUS +XV. THE CHARIOT RACE +XVI. THE FLOOD +XVII. A TOWN AFLOAT +XVIII. THE FRESH-AIR CAMP +XIX. SEWING SCHOOL +XX. A MIDNIGHT SCARE +XXI. WHAT THE WELL CONTAINED +XXII. LITTLE JACK HORNER--GOOD-BYE + + + + +THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE INVITATION + + +"There goes the bell! It's the letter carrier! Let me answer!" Freddie +exclaimed. + +"Oh, let me! It's my turn this week!" cried Flossie. + +"But I see a blue envelope. That's from Aunt Sarah!" the brother cried. + +Meanwhile both children, Freddie and Flossie, were making all possible +efforts to reach the front door, which Freddie finally did by jumping +over the little divan that stood in the way, it being sweeping day. + +"I beat you," laughed the boy, while his sister stood back, +acknowledging defeat. + +"Well, Dinah had everything in the way and anyhow, maybe it was your +turn. Mother is in the sewing room, I guess!" Flossie concluded, and so +the two started in search of the mother, with the welcome letter from +Aunt Sarah tight in Freddie's chubby fist. + +Freddie and Flossie were the younger of the two pairs of twins that +belonged to the Bobbsey family. The little ones were four years old, +both with light curls framing pretty dimpled faces, and both being just +fat enough to be good-natured. The other twins, Nan and Bert, were +eight years old, dark and handsome, and as like as "two peas" the +neighbors used to say. Some people thought it strange there should be +two pairs of twins in one house, but Nan said it was just like four- +leaf clovers, that always grow in little patches by themselves. + +This morning the letter from Aunt Sarah, always a welcome happening, +was especially joyous. + +"Do read it out loud," pleaded Flossie, when the blue envelope had been +opened in the sewing room by Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"When can we go?" broke in Freddie, at a single hint that the missive +contained an invitation to visit Meadow Brook, the home of Aunt Sarah +in the country. + +"Now be patient, children," the mother told them. "I'll read the +invitation in just a minute," and she kept her eyes fastened on the +blue paper in a way that even to Freddie and Flossie meant something +very interesting. + +"Aunt Sarah wants to know first how we all are." + +"Oh, we're all well," Freddie interrupted, showing some impatience. + +"Do listen, Freddie, or we won't hear," Flossie begged him, tugging at +his elbow. + +"Then she says," continued the mother, "that this is a beautiful summer +at Meadow Brook." + +"Course it is. We know that!" broke in Freddie again. + +"Freddie!" pleaded Flossie. + +"And she asks how we would like to visit them this summer." "Fine, +like it--lovely!" the little boy almost shouted, losing track of words +in his delight. + +"Tell her we'll come, mamma," went on Freddie. "Do send a letter quick +won't you, mamma ?" + +"Freddie Bobbsey!" spoke up Flossie, in a little girl's way of showing +indignation. "If you would only keep quiet we could hear about going, +but--you always stop mamma. Please, mamma, read the rest," and the +golden head was pressed against the mother's shoulder from the arm of +the big rocking chair. + +"Well, I was only just saying--" pouted Freddie. + +"Now listen, dear." The mother went on once more reading from the +letter: "Aunt Sarah says Cousin Harry can hardly wait until vacation +time to see Bert, and she also says, 'For myself I cannot wait to see +the babies. I want to hear Freddie laugh, and I want to hear Flossie +"say her piece," as she did last Christmas, then I just want to hug +them both to death, and so does their Uncle Daniel.'" + +"Good!--goody!" broke in the irrepressible Freddie again. "I'll just +hug Aunt Sarah this way," and he fell on his mother's neck and squeezed +until she cried for him to stop. + +"I guess she'll like that," Freddie wound up, in real satisfaction at +his hugging ability. + +"Not if you spoil her hair," Flossie insisted, while the overcome +mother tried to adjust herself generally. + +"Is that all?" Flossie asked. + +"No, there is a message for Bert and Nan too, but I must keep that for +lunch time. Nobody likes stale news," the mother replied. + +"But can't we hear it when Bert and Nan come from school?" coaxed +Flossie. + +"Of course," the mother assured her. "But you must run out in the air +now. We have taken such a long time to read the letter." + +"Oh, aren't you glad!" exclaimed Flossie to her brother, as they ran +along the stone wall that edged the pretty terrace in front of their +home. + +"Glad! I'm just--so glad--so glad--I could almost fly up in the air!" +the boy managed to say in chunks, for he had never had much experience +with words, a very few answering for all his needs. + +The morning passed quickly to the little ones, for they had so much to +think about now, and when the school children appeared around the +corner Flossie and Freddie hurried to meet Nan and Bert, to tell them +the news. + +"We're going! we're going!" was about all Freddie could say. + +"Oh, the letter came--from Aunt Sarah!" was Flossie's way of telling +the news. But it was at the lunch table that Mrs. Bobbsey finished the +letter. + +"'Tell Nan,'" she read, "'that Aunt Sarah has a lot of new patches and +tidies to show her, and tell her I have found a new kind of jumble +chocolate that I am going to teach her to make.' There, daughter, you +see," commented Mrs. Bobbsey, "Aunt Sarah has not forgotten what a good +little baker you are." + +"Chocolate jumble," remarked Bert, and smacked his lips. "Say, Nan, be +sure to learn that. It sounds good," the brother declared. + +Just then Dinah, the maid, brought in the chocolate, and the children +tried to tell her about going to the country, but so many were talking +at once that the good-natured colored girl interrupted the confusion +with a hearty laugh. + +"Ha! ha! ha! And all you-uns be goin' to de country!" + +"Yes, Dinah," Mrs. Bobbsey told her, "and just listen to what Aunt +Sarah says about you," and once more the blue letter came out, while +Mrs. Bobbsey read: + +"'And be sure to bring dear old Dinah! We have plenty of room, and she +will so enjoy seeing the farming.'" + +"Farming! Ha! ha! Dat I do like. Used to farm all time home in +Virginie!" the maid declared. "And I likes it fuss-rate! Yes, Dinah'll +go and hoe de corn and" (aside to Bert) "steal de watermelons!" + +The prospects were indeed bright for a happy time in the country, and +the Bobbseys never disappointed themselves when fun was within their +reach. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE START + + +With so much to think about, the few weeks that were left between +vacation and the country passed quickly for the Bobbseys. As told in +any first book, "The Bobbsey Twins," this little family had a splendid +home in Lakeport, where Mr. Bobbsey was a lumber merchant. The mother +and father were both young themselves, and always took part in their +children's joys and sorrows, for there were sorrows sometimes. +Think of poor little Freddie getting shut up all alone in a big store +with only a little black kitten, "Snoop," to keep him from being scared +to death; that was told of in the first book, for Freddie went shopping +one day with his mamma, and wandered off a little bit. Presently he +found himself in the basement of the store; there he had so much +trouble in getting out he fell asleep in the meantime. Then, when he +awoke and it was all dark, and the great big janitor came to rescue +him--oh!--Freddie thought the man might even be a giant when he first +heard the janitor's voice in the dark store. + +Freddie often got in trouble, but like most good little boys he was +always saved just at the right time, for they say good children have +real angels watching over them. Nan, Bert, and Flossie all had plenty +of exciting experiences too, as told in "The Bobbsey Twins," for among +other neighbors there was Danny Rugg, a boy who always tried to make +trouble for Bert, and sometimes almost succeeded in getting Bert into +"hot water," as Dinah expressed it. + +Of course Nan had her friends, as all big girls have, but Bert, her +twin brother, was her dearest chum, just as Freddie was Flossie's. + +"When we get to the country we will plant trees, go fishing, and pick +blackberries," Nan said one day. + +"Yes, and I'm going with Harry out exploring," Bert announced. + +"I'm just going to plant things," prim little Flossie lisped. "I just +love melons and ice cream and--" + +"Ice cream! Can you really plant ice cream?" Freddie asked innocently, +which made the others all laugh at Flossie's funny plans. + +"I'm going to have chickens," Freddie told them. "I'm going to have one +of those queer chicken coops that you shut up tight and when you open +it it's just full of little 'kippies.'" + +"Oh, an incubator, you mean," Nan explained. "That's a machine for +raising chickens without any mother." + +"But mine are going to have a mother," Freddie corrected, thinking how +sad little chickens would be without a kind mamma like his own. + +"But how can they have a mother where there isn't any for them?" +Flossie asked, with a girl's queer way of reasoning. + +"I'll get them one," Freddie protested. "I'll let Snoop be their +mamma." + +"A cat! the idea! why, he would eat 'em all up," Flossie argued. + +"Not if I whipped him once for doing it," the brother insisted. Then +Nan and Bert began to tease him for whipping the kitten after the +chickens had been "all eaten up." + +So the merry days went on until at last vacation came! + +"Just one more night," Nan told Flossie and Freddie when she prepared +them for bed, to help her very busy mother. Bert assisted his father +with the packing up, for the taking of a whole family to the country +meant lots of clothes, besides some books and just a few toys. Then +there was Bert's tool box--he knew he would need that at Meadow Brook. + +The morning came at last, a beautiful bright day, a rare one for +traveling, for a fine shower the evening before had washed and cooled +things off splendidly. + +"Now come, children," Mr. Bobbsey told the excited youngsters. "Keep +track of your things. Sam will be ready in a few minutes, and then we +must be off." + +Promptly Sam pulled up to the door with the family carriage, and all +hurried to get in. + +"Oh, Snoop, Snoop!" cried Freddie. "He's in the library in the box! +Dinah, get him quick, get him!" and Dinah ran back after the little +kitten. + +"Here you is, Freddie!" she gasped, out of breath from hurrying. "You +don't go and forget poor Snoopy!" and she climbed in beside Sam. + +Then they started. + +"Oh, my lan' a-massy!" yelled Dinah presently in distress. "Sam +Johnson, you jest turn dat hoss around quick," and she jerked at the +reins herself. "You heah, Sam? Quick, I tells you. Get back to dat +house. I'se forgot to bring--to bring my lunch basket!" + +"Oh, never mind, Dinah," Mrs. Bobbsey interrupted. "We will have lunch +on the train." + +"But I couldn't leab dat nice lunch I got ready fo' de chillen in +between, missus," the colored woman urged. "I'll get it quick as a +wink. Now, Sam, you rush in dar quick, and fetch dat red and white +basket dat smells like chicken!" + +So the good-natured maid had her way, much to the delight of Bert and +Freddie, who liked nothing so well as one of Dinah's homemade lunches. + +The railroad station was reached without mishap, and while Mr. Bobbsey +attended to getting the baskets checked at the little window in the big +round office, the children sat about "exploring." Freddie hung back a +little when a locomotive steamed up. He clung to his mother's skirt, +yet wanted to see how the machine worked. + +"That's the fireman," Bert told him, pointing to the man in the cab of +the engine. + +"Fireman!" Freddie repeated. "Not like our firemen. I wouldn't be that +kind," He had always wanted to be a fireman who helps to put out fires. + +"Oh, this is another kind," his father explained, just then coming up +in readiness for the start. + +"I guess Snoop's afraid," Freddie whispered to his mother, while he +peeped into the little box where Snoop was peacefully purring. Glad of +the excuse to get a little further away, Freddie ran back to where +Dinah sat on a long shiny bench. + +"Say, chile," she began, "you hear dat music ober dar? Well, a big fat +lady jest jumped up and down on dat machine and it starts up and plays +Swanee Ribber." + +"That's a weighing machine," Nan said with a laugh. "You just put a +penny in it and it tells you how much you weigh besides playing a +tune." + +"Lan' o' massy! does it? Wonder has I time to try it?" + +"Yes, come on," called Bert. "Father said we have plenty of time," and +at the word Dinah set out to get weighed. She looked a little scared, +as if it might "go off" first, but when she heard the soft strain of +an old melody coming out she almost wanted to dance. + +"Now, ain't dat fine!" she exclaimed. "Wouldn't dat be splendid in de +kitchen to weigh de flour, Freddie ?" + +But even the interesting sights in the railroad station had to be given +up now, for the porter swung open a big gate and called: "All aboard +for Meadow Brook!" and the Bobbseys hurried off. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SNOOP ON THE TRAIN + + +"I'm glad Dinah looks nice," Flossie whispered to her mother, when she +saw how beautiful the parlor car was. "And isn't Freddie good?" the +little girl remarked anxiously, as if fearing her brother might forget +his best manners in such a grand place. + +Freddie and Bert sat near their father on the big soft revolving chairs +in the Pullman car, while Nan and Flossie occupied the sofa at the end +near their mother. Dinah sat up straight and dignified, and, as Flossie +said, really looked nice, in her very clean white waist and her soft +black skirt. On her carefully parted hair she wore a neat little black +turban. Bert always laughed at the number of "parts" Dinah made in her +kinky hair, and declared that she ought to be a civil engineer, she +could draw such splendid maps even on the back of her head. + +The grandeur of the parlor car almost overcame Freddie, but he clung to +Snoop in the pasteboard box and positively refused to let the kitten go +into the baggage car. Dinah's lunch basket was so neatly done up the +porter carried it very carefully to her seat when she entered the +train, although lunch baskets are not often taken in as "Pullman car +baggage." + +"I'm going to let Snoop out!" whispered Freddie suddenly, and before +anyone had a chance to stop him, the little black kitten jumped out of +the box, and perched himself on the window sill to look out at the +fine scenery. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, "the porter will put him off the train!" +and she tried to catch the now happy little Snoop. + +"No, he won't," Mr. Bobbsey assured her. "I will watch out for that." + +"Here, Snoop," coaxed Nan, also alarmed. "Come, Snoop!" + +But the kitten had been captive long enough to appreciate his liberty +now, and so refused to be coaxed. Flossie came down between the velvet +chairs very cautiously, but as soon as Snoop saw her arm stretch out +for him, he just walked over the back of the highest seat and down into +the lap of a sleeping lady! + +"Oh, mercy me!" screamed the lady, as she awoke with Snoop's tail +whisking over her face. "Goodness, gracious! what is that?" and before +she had fully recovered from the shock she actually jumped up on the +chair, like the funny pictures of a woman and a mouse. + +The people around could not help laughing, but Freddie and the other +Bobbseys were frightened. + +"Oh, will they kill Snoop now?" Freddie almost cried. "Dinah, please +help me get him!" + +By this time the much scared lady had found out it was only a little +kitten, and feeling very foolish she sat down and coaxed Snoop into her +lap again. Mr. Bobbsey hurried to apologize. + +"We'll have to put him back in the box," Mr. Bobbsey declared, but that +was easier said than done, for no sooner would one of the Bobbseys +approach the cat than Snoop would walk himself off. And not on the +floor either, but up and down the velvet chairs, and in and out under +the passengers' arms. Strange to say, not one of the people minded it, +but all petted Snoop until, as Bert said, "He owned the car." + +"Dat cat am de worst!" Dinah exclaimed. "'Pears like it was so stuck up +an' fine dar ain't no place in dis 'yere Pullin' car good 'nough fer +him." + +"Oh, the porter! the porter!" Bert cried. "He'll surely throw Snoop out +of the window." + +"Snoop! Snoop!" the whole family called in chorus, but Snoop saw the +porter himself and made up his mind the right thing to do under the +circumstances would be to make friends. + +"Cat?" exclaimed the good-looking colored man. "Scat! Well, I declare! +What you think of that?" + +Freddie felt as if he were going to die, he was so scared, and +Flossie's tears ran down her cheeks. + +"Will he eat him?" Freddie blubbered, thinking of some queer stories he +had heard like that. Mr. Bobbsey, too, was a little alarmed and hurried +to reach Snoop. + +The porter stooped to catch the offending kitten, while Snoop +walked right up to him, sniffed his uniform, and stepped upon the +outstretched black hand. + +"Well, you is a nice little kitten," the porter admitted, fondling +Snoop in spite of orders. + +"Oh, please, Mr. Porter, give me my cat!" cried Freddie, breaking away +from all restraint and reaching Snoop. + +"Yours, is it? Well, I don't blame you, boy, for bringing dat cat +along. An' say," and the porter leaned down to the frightened Freddie, +"it's against orders, but I'd jest like to take dis yer kitten back in +de kitchen and treat him, for he's--he's a star!" and he fondled Snoop +closer. + +"But I didn't know it was wrong, and I'll put him right back in the +box," Freddie whimpered, not quite understanding the porter's +intention. + +"Well, say, son!" the porter exclaimed as Mr. Bobbsey came up. "What do +you say if you papa let you come back in de kitchen wid me? Den you can +jest see how I treat de kitty-cat!" + +So Freddie started off after the porter, who proudly carried Snoop, +while Mr. Bobbsey brought up the rear. Everybody along the aisle wanted +to pet Snoop, who, from being a little stowaway was now the hero of the +occasion. More than once Freddie stumbled against the side of the big +seats as the cars swung along like a reckless automobile, but each time +his father caught him by the blouse and set him on his feet again, +until at last, after passing through the big dining car, the kitchen +was reached. + +"What you got dar? Somethin' fer soup?" laughed the good-natured cook, +who was really fond of cats and wouldn't harm one for the world. + +Soon the situation was explained, and as the porters and others +gathered around in admiration, Snoop drank soup like a gentleman, and +then took two courses, one of fish and one of meat, in splendid +traveler fashion. + +"Dat's de way to drink soup on a fast train," laughed the porter. "You +makes sure of it dat way, and saves your clothes. Ha! ha! ha!" he +laughed, remembering how many men have to have their good clothes +cleaned of soup after a dinner on a fast train. Reluctantly the men +gave Snoop back to Freddie, who, this time, to make sure of no further +adventures, put the popular black kitten in his box in spite of +protests from the admiring passengers. + +"You have missed so much of the beautiful scenery," Nan told Freddie +and her father when they joined the party again. "Just see those +mountains over there," and then they sat at the broad windows gazing +for a long time at the grand scenery as it seemed to rush by. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A LONG RIDE + + +The train was speeding along with that regular motion that puts many +travelers to sleep, when Freddie curled himself on the sofa and went to +sleep. + +"Poor little chap!" Mr. Bobbsey remarked. "He is tired out, and he was +so worried about Snoop!" + +"I'm glad we were able to get this sofa, so many other people like a +rest and there are only four sofas on each car," Mrs. Bobbsey explained +to Dinah, who was now tucking Freddie in as if he were at home in his +own cozy bed. The air cushion was blown up, and put under the yellow +head and a shawl was carefully placed over him. + +Flossie's pretty dimpled face was pressed close to the window pane, +admiring the big world that seemed to be running away from the train, +and Bert found the observation end of the train very interesting. + +"What a beautiful grove of white birch trees!" Nan exclaimed, as the +train swung into a ravine. "And see the soft ferns clinging about them. +Mother, the ferns around the birch tree make me think of the fine lace +about your throat!" + +"Why, daughter, you seem to be quite poetical!" and the mother smiled, +for indeed Nan had a very promising mind. + +"What time will we get there, papa?" Bert asked, returning from the +vestibule. + +"In time for dinner Aunt Sarah said, that is if they keep dinner for us +until one o'clock," answered the parent, as he consulted his watch. + +"It seems as if we had been on the train all night," Flossie remarked. + +"Well, we started early, dear," the mother assured the tired little +girl. "Perhaps you would like one of Dinah's dainty sandwiches now?" + +A light lunch was quickly decided on, and Dinah took Flossie and Nan to +a little private room at one end of the train, Bert went with his +father to the smoking room on the other end, while the mother remained +to watch Freddie. The lunch was put up so that each small sandwich +could be eaten without a crumb spilling, as the little squares were +each wrapped separately in waxed paper. + +There was a queer alcohol lamp in the ladies room, and other handy +contrivances for travelers, which amused Flossie and Nan. + +"Dat's to heat milk fo' babies," Dinah told the girls, as she put the +paper napkins carefully on their laps, and got each a nice drink of +icewater out of the cooler. + +Meanwhile Bert was enjoying his lunch at the other end of the car, for +children always get hungry when traveling, and meals on the train are +only served at certain hours. Two other little girls came into the +compartment while Flossie and Nan were at lunch. The strange girls wore +gingham aprons over their fine white dresses, to keep the car dust off +their clothes, and they had paper caps on their heads like the favors +worn at children's parties. Seeing there was no stool vacant the +strangers darted out again in rather a rude way, Nan thought. + +"Take you time, honeys," Dinah told her charges. "If dey is very hungry +dey can get ice cream outside." + +"But mother never lets us eat strange ice cream," Flossie reminded the +maid. "And maybe they can't either." + +Soon the lunch was finished, and the Bobbseys felt much refreshed by +it. Freddie still slept with Snoop's box close beside him, and Mrs. +Bobbsey was reading a magazine. + +"One hour more!" Bert announced, beginning to pick things up even that +early. + +"Now we better all close our eyes and rest, so that we will feel good +when we get to Meadow Brook," Mrs. Bobbsey told them. It was no task to +obey this suggestion, and the next thing the children knew, mother and +father and Dinah were waking them up to get them ready to leave the +train. + +"Now, don't forget anything," Mr. Bobbsey cautioned the party, as hats +and wraps were donned and parcels picked up. + +Freddie was still very sleepy and his papa had to carry him off, while +the others, with some excitement, hurried after. + +"Oh, Snoop, Snoop!" cried Freddie as, having reached the platform, they +now saw the train start off. "I forgot Snoop! Get him quick!" + +"Dat kitten again!" Dinah exclaimed, with some indignation. "He's more +trouble den--den de whole family!" + +In an instant the train had gotten up speed, and it seemed Snoop was +gone this time sure. + +"Snoop!" cried Freddie, in dismay. + +Just then the kind porter who had befriended the cat before, appeared +on the platform with the perforated box in his hand. + +"I wanted to keep him," stammered the porter, "but I knows de little +boy 'ud break his heart after him." And he threw the box to Mr. +Bobbsey. + +There was no time for words, but Mr. Bobbsey thrust a coin in the man's +hand and all the members of the Bobbsey family looked their thanks. + +"Well, I declare, you can't see anybody," called out a good-natured +little lady, trying to surround them all at once. + +"Aunt Sarah!" exclaimed the Bobbseys. + +"And Uncle Dan!" + +"And Harry!" + +"Hello! How do? How are you? How be you?" and such kissing and +handshaking had not for some time entertained the old agent at the +Meadow Brook station. + +"Here at last!" Uncle Daniel declared, grabbing up Freddie and giving +him the kind of hug Freddie had intended giving Aunt Sarah. + +The big wagon from the Bobbsey farm, with the seats running along each +side, stood at the other side of the platform, and into this the +Bobbseys were gathered, bag and baggage, not forgetting the little +black cat. + +"All aboard for Meadow Brook farm!" called Bert, as the wagon started +off along the shady country road. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MEADOW BROOK + + +"Oh, how cool the trees are out here!" Flossie exclaimed, as the wagon +rumbled along so close to the low trees that Bert could reach out and +pick horse-chestnut blossoms. + +"My, how sweet it is!" said Dinah, as she sniffed audibly, enjoying the +freshness of the country. + +Freddie was on the seat with Uncle Dan and had Snoop's box safe in his +arms. He wanted to let the cat see along the road, but everybody +protested. + +"No more Snoop in this trip," laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "He has had all the +fun he needs for to-day." So Freddie had to be content. + +"Oh, do let me get out?" pleaded Nan presently. "See that field of +orange lilies." + +"Not now, dear," Aunt Sarah told her. "Dinner is spoiling for us, and +we can often walk down here to get flowers." + +"Oh, the cute little calf! Look!" Bert exclaimed from his seat next to +Harry, who had been telling his cousin of all the plans he had made for +a jolly vacation. + +"Look at the billy-goat!" called Freddie. + +"See, see, that big black chicken flying!" Flossie cried out excitedly. + +"That's a hawk!" laughed Bert; "maybe it's a chicken hawk." + +"A children hawk!" Flossie exclaimed, missing the word. Then everybody +laughed, and Flossie said maybe there were children hawks for bad girls +and boys, anyway. + +Aunt Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey were chatting away like two schoolgirls, +while Dinah and the children saw something new and interesting at every +few paces old Billy, the horse, took. + +"Hello there, neighbor," called a voice from the field at the side of +the road. "My horse has fallen in the ditch, and I'll have to trouble +you to help me." + +"Certainly, certainly, Peter," answered Uncle Daniel, promptly jumping +down, with Mr. Bobbsey, Bert, and Harry following. Aunt Sarah leaned +over the seat and took the reins, but when she saw in what ditch the +other horse had fallen she pulled Billy into the gutter. + +"Poor Peter!" she exclaimed. "That's the second horse that fell in that +ditch this week. And it's an awful job to get them out. I'll just wait +to see if they need our Billy, and if not, we can drive on home, for +Martha will be most crazy waiting with dinner." + +Uncle Daniel, Mr. Bobbsey, and the boys hurried to where Peter Burns +stood at the brink of one of those ditches that look like mud and turn +out to be water. + +"And that horse is a boarder too!" Peter told them. "Last night we said +he looked awful sad, but we didn't think he would commit suicide." + +"Got plenty of blankets?" Uncle Daniel asked, pulling his coat off and +preparing to help his neighbor, as all good people do in the country. + +"Four of them, and these planks. But I couldn't get a man around. Lucky +you happened by," Peter Burns answered. + +All this time the horse in the ditch moaned as if in pain, but Peter +said it was only because he couldn't get on his feet. Harry, being +light in weight, slipped a halter over the poor beast's head. + +"I could get a strap around him!" Harry suggested, moving out +cautiously on the plank. + +"All right, my lad, go ahead," Peter told him, passing the big strap +over to Bert, who in turn passed it on to Harry. + +It was no easy matter to get the strap in place, but with much tugging +and splashing of mud Harry succeeded. Then the ropes were attached and +everybody pulled vigorously. + +"Get up, Ginger! Get up, Ginger!" Peter called lustily, but Ginger only +seemed to flop in deeper, through his efforts to raise himself. + +"Guess we'll have to get Billy to pull," Uncle Daniel suggested, and +Mr. Bobbsey hurried back to the road to unhitch the other horse. + +"Don't let Billy fall in!" exclaimed Nan, who was much excited over the +accident. + +"Can't I go, papa?" Freddie pleaded. "I'll stay away from the edge!" + +"You better stay in the wagon; the horse might cut up when he gets +out," the father warned Freddie, who reluctantly gave in. + +Soon Billy was hitched to the ropes, and with a few kind words from +Uncle Daniel the big white horse strained forward, pulling Ginger to +his feet as he did so. + +"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie from the wagon. "Billy is a circus horse, +isn't he, Uncle Dan?" + +"He's a good boy," the uncle called back patting Billy affectionately, +while Mr. Bobbsey and the boys loosened the straps. The other horse lay +on the blankets, and Peter rubbed him with all his might, to save a +chill as he told the boys. + +Then, after receiving many thanks for the help given, the Bobbseys once +more started off toward the farm. + +"Hot work," Uncle Daniel remarked to the ladies, as he mopped his +forehead. + +"I'm so glad you could help Peter," Aunt Sarah told him, "for he does +seem to have SO much trouble." + +"All kinds of things happen in the country," Harry remarked, as Billy +headed off for home. + +At each house along the way boys would call out to Harry, asking him +about going fishing, or berrying, or some other sport, so that Bert +felt a good time was in store for him, as the boys were about his own +age and seemed so agreeable. + +"Nice fellows," Harry remarked by way of introducing Bert. + +"They seem so," Bert replied, cordially. + +"We've made up a lot of sports," Harry went on, "and we were only +waiting for you to come to start out. We've planned a picnic for +to-morrow." + +"Here we are," called Uncle Daniel as Billy turned into the pretty +driveway in front of the Bobbseys' country home. On each side of the +drive grew straight lines of boxwood, and back of this hedge were +beautiful flowers, shining out grandly now in the July sun. + +"Hello, Martha!" called the visitors, as the faithful old servant +appeared on the broad white veranda. She was not black like Dinah, but +looked as if she was just as merry and full of fun as anyone could be. + +"Got here at last!" she exclaimed, taking Dinah's lunch basket. + +"Glad to see you, Martha," Dinah told her. "You see, I had to come +along. And Snoop too, our kitty. We fetched him." + +"The more the merrier," replied the other, "and there's lots of room +for all." + +"Starved to death!" Harry laughed, as the odor of a fine dinner reached +him. + +"We'll wash up a bit and join you in a few minutes, ladies," Uncle +Daniel said, in his polite way. The horse accident had given plenty of +need for a washing up. + +"Got Snoop dis time," Freddie lisped, knocking the cover off the box +and petting the frightened little black cat. "Hungry, Snoopy?" he +asked, pressing his baby cheek to the soft fur. + +"Bring the poor kitty out to the kitchen," Martha told him. "I'll get +him a nice saucer of fresh milk." And so it happened, as usual, Snoop +had his meal first, just as he had had on the Pullman car. Soon after +this Martha went outside and rang a big dinner bell that all the men +and boys could hear. And then the first vacation dinner was served in +the long old-fashioned dining room. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FRISKY + + +Although they were tired from their journey, the children had no idea +of resting on that beautiful afternoon, so promptly after dinner the +baggage was opened, and vacation clothes were put on. Bert, of course, +was ready first; and soon he and Harry were running down the road to +meet the other boys and perfect their plans for the picnic. + +Nan began her pleasures by exploring the flower gardens with Uncle +Daniel. + +"I pride myself on those zinnias," the uncle told Nan, "just see those +yellows, and those pinks. Some are as big as dahlias, aren't they?" + +"They are just beautiful, uncle," Nan replied, in real admiration. "I +have always loved zinnias. And they last so long?" + +"All summer. Then, what do you think of my sweet peas?" + +So they went from one flower bed to another, and Nan thought she had +never before seen so many pretty plants together. + +Flossie and Freddie were out in the barnyard with Aunt Sarah. + +"Oh, auntie, what queer little chickens!" Flossie exclaimed, pointing +to a lot of pigeons that were eagerly eating corn with the chickens. + +"Those are Harry's homer pigeons," the aunt explained. "Some day we +must go off to the woods and let the birds fly home with a letter to +Dinah and Martha." + +"Oh, please do it now," Freddie urged, always in a hurry for things. + +"We couldn't to-day, dear," Aunt Sarah told him. "Come, let me show you +our new little calf." + +"Let me ride her?" Freddie asked, as they reached the animal. + +"Calfs aren't for riding, they're for milk," Flossie spoke up. + +"Yes, this one drinks plenty of milk," Aunt Sarah said, while Frisky, +the calf, rubbed her head kindly against Aunt Sarah's skirts. + +"Then let me take her for a walk," Freddie pleaded, much in love with +the pretty creature. + +"And they don't walk either," Flossie persisted. "They mostly run." + +"I could just hold the rope, couldn't I, Aunt Sarah?" + +"If you keep away from the barnyard gate, and hold her very tight," was +the consent given finally, much to Freddie's delight. + +"Nice Frisky," he told the calf, petting her fondly. "Pretty calf, will +you let Snoop play with you?" Frisky was sniffing suspiciously all the +time, and Aunt Sarah had taken Flossie in the barn to see the chickens' +nests. + +"Come, Frisky, take a walk," suggested Freddie, and quite obediently +the little cow walked along. But suddenly Frisky spied the open gate +and the lovely green grass outside. + +Without a moment's warning the calf threw her hind legs up in the air, +then bolted straight for the gate, dragging Freddie along after her. + +"Whoa, Frisky! whoa!" yelled Freddie, but the calf ran right along. + +"Hold tight, Freddie!" called Flossie, as she and Aunt Sarah appeared +on the scene. + +"Whoa, whoa!" yelled the little boy constantly, but he might as well +have called "Get app," for Frisky was going so fast now that poor +little Freddie's hands were all but bleeding from the rough rope. + +"Look out, Freddie! Let go!" called Aunt Sarah as she saw Frisky +heading for the apple tree. + +The next minute Frisky made a dash around the tree, once, then again, +winding the rope as she went, and throwing Freddie out with force +against the side of the terrace. + +"Oh," Freddie moaned feebly. + +"Are you dead?" cried Flossie, running up with tears in her eyes. + +"Oh," moaned the boy again, turning over with much trouble as Aunt +Sarah lifted him. + +"Oh," he murmured once more, "oh--catch--Frisky!" + +"Never mind her," Aunt Sarah said, anxiously. "Are you hurt, dear!" + +"No--not--a bit. But look! There goes Frisky! Catch her!" + +"Your poor little hands!" Flossie almost cried, kissing the red +blisters. "See, they're cut!" + +"Firemen have to slide on ropes!" Freddie spoke up, recovering himself, +"and I'm going to be a fireman. I was one that time, because I tried to +save somebody and didn't care if I got hurted!" + +"You are a brave little boy," Aunt Sarah assured him. "You just sit +here with sister while I try to get that naughty Frisky before she +spoils the garden." + +By this time the calf was almost lost to them, as she plunged in and +out of the pretty hedges. Fortunately Bert and Harry just turned in the +gate. + +"Runaway calf! Runaway calf!" called the boys. "Stop the runaway!" and +instantly a half-dozen other boys appeared, and all started in pursuit. + +But Frisky knew how to run, besides she had the advantage of a good +start, and now she just dashed along as if the affair was the biggest +joke of her life. + +"The river! The river!" called the boys + +"She'll jump in!" and indeed the pretty Meadow Brook, or river, that +ran along some feet lower than the Bobbseys' house, on the other side +of the highway, was now dangerously near the runaway calf. + +There was a heavy thicket a few feet further up, and as the boys +squeezed in and out of the bushes Frisky plunged into this piece of +wood. + +"Oh, she's gone now, sure!" called Harry "Listen!" + +Sure enough there was a splash! + +Frisky must be in the river! + +It took some time to reach the spot where the fall might have sounded +from, and the boys made their way heavy-hearted, for all loved the +pretty little Frisky. + +"There's footprints!" Bert discovered emerging from the thick bush. + +"And they end here!" Harry finished, indicating the very brink of the +river. + +"She's gone!" + +"But how could she drown so quickly?" Bert asked. + +"Guess that's the channel," Tom Mason, one of the neighbors' boys, +answered. + +"Listen! Thought I heard something in the bushes!" Bert whispered. + +But no welcome sound came to tell that poor Frisky was hiding in the +brushwood. With heavy hearts the boys turned away. They didn't even +feel like talking, somehow. They had counted on bringing the calf back +in triumph. + +When Flossie and Freddie saw them coming back without Frisky they just +had to cry and no one could stop them. + +"I tried to be a fireman!" blubbered Freddie. "I didn't care if the +rope hurted my hands either!" + +"If only I didn't go in to see the chickens nests," Flossie whimpered, +"I could have helped Freddie!" + +"Never you mind, little 'uns," Dinah told them. "Dinah go and fetch dat +Frisky back to-morrer. See if she don't. You jest don't cry no more, +but eat you supper and take a good sleep, 'cause we're goin' to have a +picnic to-morrer you knows, doesn't youse?" + +The others tried to comfort the little ones too, and Uncle Daniel said +he knew where he could buy another calf just like Frisky, so after a +little while Freddie felt better and even laughed when Martha made the +white cat Fluffy and Snoop play ball in the big long kitchen. + +"I'm goin' to pray Frisky will come back," Nan told her little brother +when she kissed him good-night, "and maybe the dear Lord will find her +for you." + +"Oh, yes, Nannie, do ask Him," pleaded Freddie, "and tell Him--tell Him +if He'll do it this time, I'll be so good I won't never need to bother +Him any more." + +Freddie meant very well, but it sounded strange, and made Aunt Sarah +say, "The Lord bless the little darling!" Then night came and an +eventful day closed in on our dear little Bobbseys. + +"Seems as if something else ought to happen to-night," Bert remarked to +Harry as they prepared to retire. "This was such a full day, wasn't +it?" + +"It's early yet," Harry answered, "and it's never late here until it's +time to get early again." + +"Sounds so strange to hear--those--those--" + +"Crickets," Harry told him, "and tree toads and katydids. Oh, there's +lots to listen to if you shouldn't feel sleepy." + +The house was now all quiet, and even the boys had ceased whispering. +Suddenly there was a noise in the driveway! + +The next minute someone called out in the night! + +"Hello there! All asleep! Wake up, somebody!" + +Even Freddie did wake up and ran into his mother's room. + +"Come down here, Mr. Bobbsey," the voice continued. + +"Oh, is that you, Peter? I'll be down directly," called back Uncle +Daniel, who very soon after appeared on the front porch. + +"Well, I declare!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed, loud enough for all the +listeners at the windows to hear. "So you've got her? Well, I'm very +glad indeed. Especially on the boys' account." + +"Yes," spoke out Peter Burns, "I went in the barn a while ago with the +lantern, and there wasn't your calf asleep with mine as cozy as could +be. I brought her over to-night for fear you might miss her and get to +lookin', otherwise I wouldn't have disturbed you." + +By this time the man from the barn was up and out too, and he took +Frisky back to her own bed; but not until the little calf had been +taken far out on the front lawn so that Freddie could see her from the +window "to make sure." + +"The Lord did bring her back," Freddie told his mamma as she kissed him +good-night again and put him in his bed, happier this time than before. +"And I promised to be awful good to pay Him for His trouble," the +sleepy boy murmured. + +Flossie had been asleep about two hours when she suddenly called to her +mother. + +"What is it, my dear?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"Somebody is playing the piano," answered the little girl. "Who is it?" + +"Nobody is playing. You must be dreaming," answered the mother, and +smiled to herself. + +"No, I am sure I heard the piano," insisted Flossie. + +Mother and daughter listened, but could hear nothing. + +"You were surely dreaming," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Come, I will tuck you +in again," and she did so. + +But was Flossie dreaming? Let us wait and see. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A COUNTRY PICNIC + + +When morning came everyone was astir early, for not only was a happy +day promised, but there was Frisky, the runaway, to be looked over. Mr. +Richard Bobbsey, Freddie's father, left on an early train for Lakeport, +and would not come back to Meadow Brook until Saturday afternoon. + +"Let me go out and see Frisky," Freddie insisted, even before his +breakfast had been served. "I want to be sure it's her." + +"Yes, that's her," Freddie admitted, "'cause there's the rope that cut +my hands when I was a real fireman!" + +But Frisky didn't seem to care a bit about ropes or firemen, but just +chewed and chewed like all cows do, as if there was nothing in this +world to do but eat. + +"Come on, sonny," called Dinah. "You can help me pick de radishes fo' +breakfast," and presently our little boy, with the kind-hearted maid, +was up in the garden looking for the best radishes of the early crop. + +"See, Freddie," said Dinah. "De red ones show above de ground. And we +must only pull de ones wid de big leaves, 'cause dey're ripe." + +Freddie bent down so close to find the radishes that a disturbed toad +hopped right up at his nose. + +"Oh!" he cried, frightened. "Dinah, was that--a--a--a snake?" + +"Snake, chile; lan' sakes alive! Dat was a poor little toady--more +scare' den you was," and she pointed to the big dock leaf under which +the hop-toad was now hiding. + +"Let's pick beans," Freddie suggested, liking the garden work. + +"Not beans fer breakfast," laughed Dinah. + +"That stuff there, then," the boy persisted, pointing to the soft green +leaves of early lettuce. + +"Well, I dunno. Martha didn't say so, but it sure does look pretty. +Yes, I guess we kin pick some fo' salad," and so Dinah showed Freddie +how to cut the lettuce heads off and leave the stalks to grow again. + +"Out early," laughed Uncle Daniel, seeing the youngest member of the +family coming down the garden path with the small basket of vegetables. + +"Is it?" Freddie asked, meaning early of course, in his queer way of +saying things without words. + +"See! see!" called Nan and Flossie, running down the cross path back of +the cornfield. + +"Such big ones!" Nan exclaimed, referring to the luscious red +strawberries in the white dish she held. + +"Look at mine," insisted Flossie. "Aren't they bigger?" + +"Fine!" ejaculated Dinah. + +"But my redishes are-are--redder," argued Freddie, who was not to be +outdone by his sisters. + +"Ours are sweeter," laughed Nan, trying to tease her little brother. + +"Ours are--ours are--" + +"Hotter," put in Dinah, which ended the argument. + +Bert and Harry had also been out gathering for breakfast, and returned +now with a basket of lovely fresh water-cress. + +"We can't eat 'em all," Martha told the boys, "But they'll go good in +the picnic lunch." + +What a pretty breakfast table it was! Such berries, such lettuce, such +water-cress, and the radishes! + +"Too bad papa had to go so early," Bert remarked. "He just loves green +stuff." + +"So does Frisky," put in Freddie, and he wondered why everyone laughed. + +After breakfast the lunch baskets were put up and while Bert and Harry, +Nan and Aunt Sarah, went to invite the neighboring children, Flossie +and Freddie were just busy jumping around the kitchen, where Dinah and +Martha were making them laugh merrily with funny little stories. + +Snoop and Fluffy had become good friends, and now lay close together on +the kitchen hearth. Dinah said they were just like two babies, only not +so much trouble. + +"Put peaches in my basket, Dinah," Freddie ordered. + +"And strawberries in mine," added Flossie. + +"Now, you-uns jest wait!" Dinah told them; "and when you gets out in de +woods if you hasn't 'nough to eat you kin jest climb a tree an' cut +down--" + +"Wood!" put in Freddie innocently, while Martha said that was about all +that could be found in the woods in July. + +The boys had come in from inviting the "other fellers," when Uncle +Daniel proposed a feature for the picnic. + +"How would you like to take two homer pigeons along?" he asked them. +"You can send a note back to Martha to say what time you will be home." + +"Jolly!" chorused the boys, all instantly making a run for the pigeon +house. + +"Wait!" Harry told the visitors. "We must be careful not to scare +them." Then he went inside the wire cage with a handful of corn. + +"See--de--coon; see--de--coon!" called the boys softly, imitating the +queer sounds made by the doves cooing. + +Harry tossed the corn inside the cage, and as the light and dark homers +he wanted tasted the food Harry lowered the little door, and took the +birds safely in his arms. + +"Now, Bert, you can get the quills," he told his cousin. "Go into the +chicken yard and look for two long goose feathers. Tom Mason, you can +go in the kitchen and ask Dinah for a piece of tissue paper and a spool +of silk thread." + +Each boy started off to fulfill his commission, not knowing exactly +what for until all came together in the barnyard again. + +"Now, Bert," went on Harry, "write very carefully on the slip of paper +the message for Martha. Have you a soft pencil?" + +Bert found that he had one, and so following his cousin's dictation he +wrote on one slip: + +"Have dinner ready at five." And on the other he wrote: "John, come for +us at four." + +"Now," continued Harry, "roll the slips up fine enough to go in the +goose quills." + +This was done with much difficulty, as the quills were very narrow, but +the task was finally finished. + +"All ready now," concluded Harry, "to put the letters in the box," and +very gently he tied with the silken thread one quill under the wing of +each pigeon. Only one feather was used to tie the thread to, and the +light quill, the thin paper, and the soft silk made a parcel so very +small and light in weight that the pigeons were no way inconvenienced +by the messages. + +"Now we'll put them in this basket, and they're ready for the picnic," +Harry announced to his much interested companions. Then all started for +the house with Harry and the basket in the lead. + +John, the stableman, was at the door now with the big hay wagon, which +had been chosen as the best thing to take the jolly party in. + +There was nice fresh hay in the bottom, and seats at the sides for the +grown folks, while the little ones nestled in the sweet-smelling hay +like live birds. + +"It's like a kindergarten party," laughed Nan, as the "birds' nests" +reminded her of one of the mother plays. + +"No, 'tain't!" Freddie corrected, for he really was not fond of the +kindergarten. "It's just like a picnic," he finished. + +Besides the Bobbseys there were Tom Mason, Jack Hopkins, and August +Stout, friends of Harry. Then, there were Mildred Manners and Mabel +Herold, who went as Nan's guests; little Roy Mason was Freddie's +company, and Bessie Dimple went with Flossie. The little pigeons kept +cooing every now and then, but made no attempt to escape from Harry's +basket. + +It was a beautiful day, and the long ride through the country was +indeed a merry one. Along the way people called out pleasantly from +farmhouses, for everybody in Meadow Brook knew the Bobbseys. + +"That's their cousins from the city," little boys and girls along the +way would say. + +"Haven't they pretty clothes!" the girls were sure to add. + +"Let's stop for a drink at the spring," suggested August Stout, who was +stout by name and nature, and always loved a good drink of water. + +The children tumbled out of the wagon safely, and were soon waiting +turns at the spring. + +There was a round basin built of stones and quite deep. Into this the +clear sprinkling water dropped from a little cave in the hill above. On +top of the cave a large flat stone was placed. This kept the little +waterfall clean and free from the falling leaves. + +"Oh, what a cute little pond!" Freddie exclaimed, for he had never seen +a real spring before. + +"That's a spring," Flossie informed him, although that was all she knew +about it. + +The big boys were not long dipping their faces in and getting a drink +of the cool, clear water, but the girls had to take their hats off, +roll up their sleeves, and go through a "regular performance," as Harry +said, before they could make up their minds to dip into the water. +Mabel brought up her supply with her hands, but when Nan tried it her +hands leaked, and the result was her fresh white frock got wet. +Flossie's curls tumbled in both sides, and when she had finished she +looked as if she had taken a plunge at the seashore. + +"Let me! Let me!" cried Freddie impatiently, and without further +warning he thrust his yellow head in the spring clear up to his neck! + +"Oh, Freddie!" yelled Nan, grabbing him by the heels and thus saving a +more serious accident. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" spluttered Freddie, nearly choked, "I'm drowned!" and the +water really seemed to be running out of his eyes, noses and ears all +at once. + +"Oh, Freddie!" was all Mrs. Bobbsey could say, as a shower of clean +handkerchiefs was sent from the hay wagon to dry the "drowned" boy. + +"Just like the flour barrel!" laughed Bert, referring to the funny +accident that befell Freddie the winter before, as told in my other +book "The Bobbsey Twins." + +"Only that was a dry bath and this a wet one," Nan remarked, as +Freddie's curls were shook out in the sun. + +"Did you get a drink?" asked August, whose invitation to drink had +caused the mishap. + +"Yep!" answered Freddie bravely, "and I was a real fireman too, that +time, 'cause they always get soaked; don't they, Bert?" + +Being assured they did, the party once more started off for the woods. +It was getting to be all woods now, only a driveway breaking through +the pines, maples, and chestnut trees that abounded in that section. + +"Just turn in there, John!" Harry directed, as a particularly thick +group of trees appeared. Here were chosen the picnic grounds and all +the things taken from the wagon, and before John was out of sight on +the return home the children had established their camp and were flying +about the woods like little fairies. + +"Let's build a furnace," Jack Hopkins suggested. + +"Let's," said all the boys, who immediately set out carrying stones and +piling them up to build the stove. There was plenty of wood about, and +when the fire was built, the raw potatoes that Harry had secretly +brought along were roasted, finer than any oven could cook them. + +Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had spread the tablecloth on the grass, and +were now busy opening the baskets and arranging the places. There were +so many pretty little nooks to explore in the woods that Mrs. Bobbsey +had to warn the children not to get too far away. + +"Are there giants?" Freddie asked. + +"No, but there are very dark lonely places the woods and little boys +might find snakes." + +"And bears!" put in Freddie, to which remark his mother said, +"perhaps," because there really might be bears in a woods so close to +the mountains. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FUN IN THE WOODS + + +"Dinner served in the dining car!" called Bert through the woods, +imitating the call of the porter on the Pullman car. + +"All ready!" echoed the other boys, banging on an old boiler like the +Turks do, instead of ringing a bell. + +"Oh, how pretty!" the girls all exclaimed, as they beheld the "feast in +the forest," as Nan put it. And indeed it was pretty, for at each place +was set a long plume of fern leaves with wood violets at the end, and +what could be more beautiful than such a decoration? + +"Potatoes first!" Harry announced, "because they may get cold," and at +this order everybody broke the freshly roasted potatoes into the paper +napkins and touched it up with the extra butter that had come along. + +"Simply fine!" declared Nan, with the air of one who knew. Now, my old +readers will remember how Nan baked such good cake. So she ought to be +an authority on baked potatoes, don't you think? + +Next came the sandwiches, with the watercress Harry and Bert had +gathered before breakfast, then (and this was a surprise) hot +chocolate! This was brought out in Martha's cider jug, and heated in a +kettle over the boys' stone furnace. + +"It must be fun to camp out," Mabel Herold remarked. + +"Yes, just think of the dishes saved," added Mildred Manners, who +always had so many dishes to do at home. + +"And we really don't need them," Nan argued, passing her tin cup on to +Flossie. + +"Think how the soldiers get along!" Bert put in. + +"And the firemen'" lisped Freddie, who never forgot the heroes of flame +and water. + +Of course everybody was either sitting on the grass or on a "soft +stump." These latter conveniences had been brought by the boys for Aunt +Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"What's that!" exclaimed little Flossie, as something was plainly +moving under the tables cloth. + +"A snake, a snake!" called everybody at once, for indeed under the +white linen was plainly to be seen the creeping form of a reptile. + +While the girls made a run for safety the boys carefully lifted the +cloth and went for his snakeship. + +"There he is! There he is!" shouted Tom Mason, as the thing tried to +crawl under the stump lately used as a seat by Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"Whack him!" called August Stout, who, armed with a good club, made +straight for the stump. + +"Look out! He's a big fellow!" Harry declared, as the snake attempted +to get upright. + +The boys fell back a little now, and as the snake actually stood on the +tip of his tail, as they do before striking, Harry sprang forward and +dealt him a heavy blow right on the head that laid the intruder flat. + +"At him, boys! At him!" called Jack Hopkins, while the snake lay +wriggling in the grass; and the boys, making good use of the stunning +blow Harry had dealt, piled on as many more blows as their clubs could +wield. + +All this time the girls and ladies were over on a knoll "high and dry," +as Nan said, and now, when assured that the snake was done for they +could hardly be induced to come and look at him. + +"He's a beauty!" Harry declared, as the boys actually stretched the +creature out to measure him. Bert had a rule, and when the snake was +measured up he was found to be five feet long! + +"He's a black racer!" Jack Hopkins announced, and the others said they +guessed he was. + +"Lucky we saw him first!" remarked Harry, "Racers are very poisonous!" + +"Let's go home; there might be more!", pleaded Flossie, but the boys +said the snake hunt was the best fun at the picnic. + +"Goodness!" exclaimed Harry suddenly, "we forgot to let the pigeons +loose!" and so saying he ran for the basket of birds that hung on the +low limb of a pretty maple. First Harry made sure the messages were +safe under each bird's wing, then he called: + +"All ready!" + +Snap! went something that sounded like a shot (but it wasn't), and then +away flew the pretty birds to take the messages home to John and +Martha. The shot was only a dry stick that Tom Mason snapped to imitate +a gun, as they do at bicycle races, but the effect was quite startling +and made the girls jump. + +"It won't take long for them to get home!" said Bert, watching the +birds fly away. + +"They'll get lost!" cried Freddie. + +"No, they won't. They know which way we came," Nan explained. + +"But they was shut up in the basket," argued Freddie. + +"Yet they could see," Nan told him. + +"Can pigeons see when they're asleep?" inquired the little fellow. + +"Maybe," Nan answered. + +"Then I'd like to have pigeon eyes," he finished, thinking to himself +how fine it would be to see everything going on around and be fast +asleep too. + +"Oh, mamma, come quick!" called Flossie, running along a path at the +edge of the wood. "There's a tree over there pouring water, and it +isn't raining a drop!" + +Everybody set out now to look at the wonderful tree, which was soon +discovered where Flossie had found it. + +"There it is!" she exclaimed. "See the water dropping down!" + +"A maple tree," Harry informed them, "and that sap is what they make +maple sugar out of." + +"Oh, catch it!" called Freddie, promptly holding his cap under the +drops. + +"It would take a good deal to make a sugar cake," Harry said, "but +maybe we can get enough of it to make a little cake for Freddie." + +At this the country boys began looking around for young maples, and as +small limbs of the trees were broken the girls caught the drops in +their tin cups. It took quite a while to get a little, but by putting +it all together a cupful was finally gathered. + +"Now we will put it in a clean milk bottle," Mrs. Bobbsey said, "and +maybe we can make maple syrup cake to-morrow." + +"Let's have a game of hide-and-seek," Nan suggested. + +In a twinkling every boy and girl was hidden behind a tree, and Nan +found herself "It." Of course it took a big tree to hide the girls' +dresses, and Nan had no trouble in spying Mildred first. Soon the game +was going along merrily, and the boys and girls were out of breath +trying to get "home free." + +"Where's Roy?" exclaimed Tom Mason, the little boy's brother. + +"Hiding somewhere," Bessie ventured, for it only seemed a minute before +when the little fat boy who was Freddie's companion had been with the +others. + +"But where is he?" they all soon exclaimed in alarm, as call after call +brought no answer. + +"Over at the maple tree!" Harry thought. + +"Down at the spring," Nan said. + +"Looking for flowers," Flossie guessed. + +But all these spots were searched, and the little boy was not found. + +"Oh, maybe the giants have stoled him!" Freddie cried. + +"Or maybe the children's hawk has took him away," Flossie sobbed. + +Meanwhile everybody searched and searched, but no Roy could they find. + +"The boat!" suddenly exclaimed Tom, making a dash for the pond that ran +along at the foot of a steep hill. + +"There he is! There he is!" the brother yelled, as getting over the +edge of the hill Tom was now in full view of the pond. + +"And in the boat," called Harry, close at Tom's heels. + +"He's drifting away!" screamed Bert. "Oh, quick, save him!" + +Just as the boys said, the little fellow was in the boat and drifting. + +He did not seem to realize his danger, for as he floated along he ran +his little fat hand through the water as happily as if he had been in a +steam launch, talking to the captain. + +"Can you swim?" the boys asked Bert, who of course had learned that +useful art long ago. + +"She's quite a long way out," Tom said, + +"But we must be careful not to frighten him. See, he has left the oars +here. Bert and I can carry one out and swim with one hand. Harry and +Jack, can you manage the other?" + +The boys said they could, and quickly as the heaviest clothes could be +thrown off they were striking out in the little lake toward the baby in +the boat. He was only Freddie's age, you know, and perhaps more of a +baby than the good-natured Bobbsey boy. + +"Sit still, Roy," called the anxious girl from the shore, fearing Roy +would upset the boat as the boys neared him. It was hard work to swim +and carry oars, but our brave boys managed to do it in time to save +Roy. For not a great way down the stream were an old water wheel and a +dam. Should the boat drift there what would become of little Roy? + +Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah were worrying over this as the boys were +making their way to the boat. + +"Easy now!" called Bert. "Here we are," and at that moment the first +pair of swimmers climbed carefully into the boat, one from each side, +so as not to tip it over. Jack and Harry were not long in following, +and as the boys all sat in the pretty green rowboat with their white +under-clothing answering for athletic suits, they looked just like a +crew of real oarsmen. + +"Hurrah, hurrah!" came shout after shout from the bank. Then as the +girls heard the rumble of wheels through the grove they all hurried off +to gather up the stuff quickly, and be ready to start as soon as the +boys dressed again. The wet under-clothing, of course, was carried home +in one of the empty baskets that Freddie ran back over the hill with to +save the tired boys the extra walk. + +"Here they are! Here they are!" called the girls as the two little +fellows, Roy and Freddie, with the basket of wet clothes between them, +marched first; then came the two pairs of athletes who proved they were +good swimmers by pushing the heavy oars safely to the drifting boat. + +"And all the things that happened!" exclaimed Flossie, as John handed +her into the hay wagon. + +"That made the picnic lively!" declared, John, "and all's well that +ends well, you know." So the picnic was over, and all were happy and +tired enough to go to bed early that night, as Nan said, seeing the +little ones falling asleep in hay wagon on their way home. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FOURTH OF JULY + + +The day following the picnic was July third, and as the Meadow Brook +children were pretty well tired out from romping in the woods, they +were glad of a day's rest before entering upon the festivities of +Independence Day. + +"How much have you got?" Tom Mason asked the Bobbsey boys. + +"Fifty cents together, twenty-five cents each," Harry announced. + +"Well, I've got thirty-five, and we had better get our stuff early, for +Stimpson sold out before noon last year," concluded Tom. + +"I have to get torpedoes for Freddie and Flossie, and Chinese fire- +crackers for Nan," Bert remarked, as they started for the little +country grocery store. + +"I guess I'll buy a few snakes, they look so funny coiling out," Tom +said. + +"I'm going to have sky rockets and Roman candles. Everybody said they +were the prettiest last year," said Harry. + +"If they have red fire I must get some of it for the girls," thoughtful +Bert remarked. + +But at the store the boys had to take just what they could get, as +Stimpson's supply was very limited. + +"Let's make up a parade!" someone suggested, and this being agreed upon +the boys started a canvass from house to house, to get all the boys +along Meadow Brook road to take part in the procession. + +"Can the little ones come too?" August Stout asked, because he always +had to look out for his small brother when there was any danger like +fireworks around. + +"Yes, and we're goin' to let the girls march in a division by +themselves," Bert told him. "My sister Nan is going to be captain, and +we'll leave all the girls' parts to her." + +"Be sure and bring your flag," Harry cautioned Jack Hopkins. + +"How would the goat wagons do?" Jack asked. + +"Fine; we could let Roy and Freddie ride in them," said Bert. "Tell any +of the other fellows who have goat teams to bring them along too." + +"Eight o'clock sharp at our lane," Harry told them for the place and +time of meeting. Then they went along to finish the arrangements. + +"Don't tell the boys," Nan whispered to Mildred, as they too made their +way to Stimpson's. + +"Won't they be surprised?" exclaimed Mabel. + +"Yes, and I am going to carry a real Betsy Ross flag, one with thirteen +stars, you know." + +"Oh, yes, Betsy Ross made the first flag, didn't she?" remarked +Mildred, trying to catch up on history. + +"We'll have ten big girls," Nan counted. "Then with Flossie as Liberty +we will want Bessie and Nettie for her assistants." + +"Attendants," Mabel corrected, for she had seen a city parade like that +once. + +It was a busy day for everybody, and when Mr. Bobbsey came up on the +train from Lakeport that evening he carried boxes and boxes of +fireworks for the boys and girls, and even some for the grown folks +too. + +The girls could hardly sleep that night, they were so excited over +their part, but the boys of course were used to that sort of thing, and +only slept sounder with the fun in prospect. + +"Are you awake, Bert?" called Harry, so early the next morning that the +sun was hardly up yet. + +"Yep," replied the cousin, jumping out of bed and hastily dressing for +the firing of the first gun. + +The boys crept through the house very quietly, then ran to the barn for +their ammunition. Three big giant fire-crackers were placed in the road +directly in front of the house. + +"Be careful!" whispered Bert; "they're full of powder." + +But Harry was always careful with fireworks, and when he touched the +fuses to the "cannons" he made away quickly before they exploded. + +Bang! Bang! Bang! + +"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie, answering the call from his window, "I'll be +right down!" + +All the others too were aroused by the first "guns," so that in a very +short time there were many boys in the road, firing so many kinds of +fire-crackers that Meadow Brook resounded like a real war fort under +fire. + +"Ouch!" yelled Tom Mason, the first one to bum his fingers. "A sisser +caught me right on the thumb." + +But such small accidents were not given much attention, and soon Tom +was lighting the little red crackers as merrily as before. + +"Go on back, girls!" called Bert. "You'll get your dresses burnt if you +don't." + +The girls were coming too near the battlements then, and Bert did well +to warn them off. + +Freddie and Flossie were having a great time throwing their little +torpedoes at Mr. Bobbsey and Uncle Daniel, who were seated on the +piazza watching the sport. Snoop and Fluffy too came in for a scare, +for Freddie tossed a couple of torpedoes on the kitchen hearth where +the kittens were sleeping. + +The boys were having such fun they could hardly be induced to come in +for breakfast, but they finally did stop long enough to eat a spare +meal. + +"It's time to get ready!" whispered Nan to Bert, for the parade had +been kept secret from the grown folks. + +At the girls' place of meeting, the coach house, Nan found all her +company waiting and anxious to dress. + +"Just tie your scarfs loose under your left arm," ordered Captain Nan, +and the girls quickly obeyed like true cadets. The broad red-white-and- +blue bunting was very pretty over the girls' white dresses, and indeed +the "cadets" looked as if they would outdo the "regulars" unless the +boys too had surprises in store. + +"Where's Nettie?" suddenly asked Nan, missing a poor little girl who +had been invited. + +"She wouldn't come because she had no white dress," Mildred answered. + +"Oh, what a shame; she'll be so disappointed! Besides, we need her to +make a full line," Nan said. "Just wait a minute. Lock the door after +me," and before the others knew what she was going to do, Nan ran off +to the house, got one of her own white dresses, rolled it up neatly, +and was over the fields to Nettie's house in a few minutes. When Nan +came back she brought Nettie with her, and not one of her companions +knew it was Nan's dress that Nettie wore. + +Soon all the scarfs were tied and the flags arranged. Then Flossie had +to be dressed. + +She wore a light blue dress with gold stars on it, and on her pretty +yellow curls she had a real Liberty crown. Then she had the cleanest, +brightest flag, and what a pretty picture she made! + +"Oh, isn't she sweet!" all the girls exclaimed in admiration, and +indeed she was a little beauty in her Liberty costume. + +"There go the drums!" Nan declared. "We must be careful to get down the +lane without being seen." This was easily managed, and now the girls +and boys met at the end of the lane. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys, beating the drums and blowing their +horns to welcome the girls. + +"Oh, don't you look fine!" exclaimed Harry, who was captain of the +boys. + +"And don't you too!" Nan answered, for indeed the boys had such funny +big hats on and so many flags and other red-white-and-blue things, that +they too made a fine appearance. + +"And Freddie!" exclaimed the girls. "Isn't he a lovely Uncle Sam!" + +Freddie was dressed in the striped suit Uncle Sam always wears, and had +on his yellow curls a tall white hat. He was to ride in Jack Hopkins' +goat wagon. + +"Fall in!" called Harry, and at the word all the companies fell in +line. + +"Cadets first," ordered the captain. + +Then Flossie walked the very first one. After her came Nan and her +company. (No one noticed that Nettie's eyes were a little red from +crying. She had been so disappointed at first when she thought she +couldn't go in the parade.) After the girls came Freddie as Uncle Sam, +in the goat wagon led by Bert (for fear the goat might run away), then +fifteen boys, all with drums or fifes or some other things with which +to make a noise. Roy was in the second division with his wagon, and +last of all came the funniest thing. + +A boy dressed up like a bear with a big sign on him: + +TEDDY! + +He had a gun under his arm and looked too comical for anything. + +It was quite warm to wear a big fur robe and false face, but under this +was Jack Hopkins, the bear Teddy, and he didn't mind being warm when he +made everybody laugh so. + +"Right foot, left foot, right foot, forward march!" called Nan, and the +procession started up the path straight for the Bobbsey house. + +"Goodness gracious, sakes alive! Do come see de childrens! Ha, ha! Dat +sure am a parade!" called Dinah, running through the house to the front +door to view the procession. + +"Oh, isn't it just beautiful!" Martha echoed close at Dinah's heels. + +"My!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey; "how did they ever get made up so +pretty!" + +"And look at Flossie!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah. + +"And see Freddie!" put in Uncle Daniel. + +"Oh, we must get the camera!" Mr. Bobbsey declared, while the whole +household, all excited, stood out on the porch when the parade +advanced. + +Such drumming and such tooting of fifes and horns! + +Freddie's chariot was now in line with the front stoop, and he raised +his tall hat to the ladies like a real Uncle Sam. + +"Oh, the bear! the bear!" called everybody, as they saw "Teddy" coming +up. + +"That's great," continued Uncle Daniel. + +By this time Mr. Bobbsey had returned with the camera. + +"Halt!" called Harry, and the procession stood still. + +"Look this way. There now, all ready," said Mr. Bobbsey, and snap went +the camera on as pretty a picture as ever covered a plate. + +"Right wheel! forward march!" called Nan again, and amid drumming and +tooting the procession started off to parade through the center of +Meadow Brook. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A GREAT DAY + + +Never before had such a parade been seen in the little country place, +and all along the road cheer after cheer greeted our young friends, for +even the few old soldiers who lived in Meadow Brook enjoyed the +children's Fourth of July fun. + +By lunch time the procession had covered all the ground planned, so +from the postoffice the cadets and regulars started back over the shady +country road. + +And at home they found a surprise awaiting them! + +Ice cream on the lawn for everybody in the parade. + +Aunt Sarah and Uncle Daniel had set out all the garden benches, and +with the two kinds of ice cream made by Dinah and Martha, besides the +cookies and jumbles Aunt Sarah supplied, with ice-cold lemonade that +John passed around, surely the tired little soldiers and cadets had +splendid refreshment! + +"My goat almost runned away!" lisped Freddie. "But I held on tight like +a real fireman." + +"And mine wanted to stop and eat grass in the middle of the big +parade," Roy told them. + +"Now eat up your ice cream. Nettie, have some more? Jack, you surely +need two plates after carrying that bear skin," said Uncle Daniel. + +The youngsters did not have to be urged to eat some more of the good +things, and so it took quite a while to "finish up the rations," as +Uncle Daniel said. + +"They're goin' to shoot the old cannon off, father," Harry told Uncle +Daniel, "and we're all going over on the pond bank to see them, at +three o'clock." + +"They're foolish to put powder in that old cracked gun," remarked Uncle +Daniel. "Take care, if you go over, that you all keep at a safe +distance." + +It was not long until three o'clock, and then when all the red-white- +and-blue things had been stored away for another year, the boys hurried +off to see Peter Burns fire the old cannon. + +Quite a crowd of people had gathered about the pond bank, which was a +high green wall like that which surrounds a reservoir. + +Peter was busy stuffing the powder in the old gun, and all the others +looked on anxiously. + +"Let's go up in that big limb of the willow tree," suggested Bert. "We +can see it all then, and be out of range of the fire." + +So the boys climbed up in the low willow, that leaned over the pond +bank. + +"They're almost ready," Harry said, seeing the crowd scatter. + +"Look out!" yelled Peter, getting hold of the long string that would +fire the gun. + +Peter gave it a tug, then another. + +Everybody held their breath, expecting to hear an awful bang, but the +gun didn't go off. + +Very cautiously Peter stepped nearer the cannon to see what might be +the matter, when the next instant with a terrific report the whole +cannon flew up in the air! + +Peter fell back! His hat seemed to go up with the gun! + +"Oh, he's killed!" yelled the people. + +"Poor Peter!" gasped Harry. + +"He ought to know better!" said Mr. Mason. + +"Father said that cannon was dangerous," Harry added. + +By this time the crowd had surrounded Peter, who lay so still and +looked so white. The Bobbsey boys climbed down from the tree and joined +the others. "He's only unconscious from the shock," spoke up Mr. +Mason, who was leaning down very close to Peter. "Stand back, and give +him air." + +The crowd fell back now, and some of the boys looked around to find the +pieces of cannon. + +"Don't touch it," said Tom Mason, as a little fellow attempted to pick +up a piece of the old gun. "There might be powder in it half lighted." + +Mrs. Burns had run over from her home at the report of the accident, +and she was now bathing Peter's face with water from the pond. + +"He's subject to fainting spells," she told the frightened people, "and +I think he'll be all right when he comes to." + +Peter looked around, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes. + +"Did it go off?" he smiled, remembering the big report. + +"Guess it did, and you went off with it," Mr. Mason said. "How do you +feel?" + +"Oh, I'll be all right when my head clears a bit. I guess I fainted." + +"So you did," said Mrs. Burns, "and there's no use scolding you for +firing that old gun. Come home now and go to bed; you have had all the +fireworks you want for one day." + +Quite a crowd followed Peter over to his home, for they could not +believe he was not in any way hurt. + +"Let us go home," Harry said to his cousin. "We have to get all our +fireworks ready before evening." + +The boys found all at home enjoying themselves. Freddie's torpedoes +still held out, and Flossie had a few more "snakes" left. Nan had +company on the lawn, and it indeed was an ideal Fourth of July. + +"Look at the balloon!" called John from the carriage house. "It's going +to land in the orchard." This announcement caused all the children to +hurry up to the orchard, for everybody likes to "catch" a balloon. + +"There's a man in it," John exclaimed as the big ball tossed around in +the air. + +"Yes, that's the balloon that went up from the farmers' picnic," said +Harry. + +The next minute a parachute shot out from the balloon; and hanging to +it the form of a man could be seen. + +"Oh, he'll fall!" cried Freddie, all excited. "Let's catch him--in +something!" + +"He's all right," John assured the little boy. "That umbrella keeps him +from coming down too quickly." + +"How does it?" Freddie asked. + +"Why, you see, sonny, the air gets under the umbrella and holds it up. +The man's weight then brings it down gently." + +"Oh, maybe he will let us fly up in it," Freddie remarked, much +interested. + +"Here he comes! here he comes!" the boys called, and sure enough the +big parachute, with the man dangling on it, was now coming right down-- +down--in the harvest-apple tree! + +"Hello there!" called the man from above, losing the colored umbrella +and quickly dropping himself from the low tree. + +"Hello yourself!" answered John. "Did you have a nice ride?" + +"First class," replied the man with the stars on his shirt. "But I've +got a long walk back to the grove. Could I hire a bicycle around here?" + +Harry spoke to his father, and then quickly decided to let the balloon +man ride his bicycle down to the picnic grounds. + +"You can leave it at the ice-cream stand," Harry told the stranger. "I +know the man there, and he will take care of it for me until I call for +it." + +The children were delighted to talk to a real live man that had been up +in a balloon, and the balloonist was indeed very pleasant with the +little ones. He took Freddie up in his arms and told him all about how +it felt to be up in the sky. + +"You're a truly fireman!" Freddie said, after listening to all the +dangers there are so far above ground. "I'm a real fireman too!" + +Just then the balloon that had been tossing about in the air came down +in the other end of the orchard. + +"Well, there!" exclaimed the man. "That's good luck. Now, whichever one +of you boys gets that balloon first will get ten dollars. That's what +we pay for bringing it back!" + +With a dash every boy started for the spot where the balloon had +landed. There were quite a few others besides the Bobbseys, and they +tumbled over each other trying to get there first. Ned Prentice, +Nettie's brother, was one of the best runners, and he cut across the +orchard to get a clear way out of the crowd. + +"Go it, Bert!" called John. + +"Keep it up, Harry!" yelled someone else. + +"You'd get it, Tom!" came another voice. + +But Ned was not in the regular race, and nobody noticed him. + +"They've got it," called the excited girls. + +"It's Harry!" + +"No, it's Bert !" + +"'Tisn't either--it's Ned!" called John, as the only poor boy in the +crowd proudly touched the big empty gas-bag! + +"Three cheers for Ned!" called Uncle Daniel, for he and Mr. Bobbsey had +joined in the crowd. + +"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted all the boys good-naturedly, for Ned +was a favorite companion, besides being one who really needed the +money. + +"Suppose we drive down," Uncle Daniel suggested. "Then we can bring Ned +back with his ten dollars." + +This was agreed upon as a good plan, and as quickly as John had hitched +up the big wagon ail the boys piled in with the aeronaut and started +for the grove. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LITTLE GARDENERS + + +When little Ned Prentice put the ten-dollar bill in his mother's hand, +on that pleasant Fourth of July evening, he felt like a man. His mother +could hardly believe the story of Ned's getting the money just for +finding a balloon, but when it was explained how valuable the balloon +was, and how it sometimes takes days of searching in the woods to find +one after the balloonist lets go and drops down with his parachute, she +was finally convinced that the money rightfully belonged to Ned. + +"No one needs it more than I do," Mrs. Prentice told Mr. Bobbsey, who +had brought Ned home in the wagon, "for since the baby was sick we have +hardly been able to meet our bills, it cost so much for medicine." + +"We were all glad when Ned got there first," + +Harry said politely, "because we knew he deserved the reward most." + +As Ned was a poor boy, and had to work on farms during vacation, his +father being dead and only one brother being old enough to go to work, +the reward turned out a great blessing, for ten dollars is a good deal +of money for a little boy to earn at one time. + +"Be sure to come up to our fireworks tonight," Harry called, as they +drove away, and Ned promptly accepted the invitation. + +"It has certainly been a great Fourth of July!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed, +later in the evening when the children fired off their Roman candles +and sky rockets and burned the red fire. The little children had +beautiful pinwheels and "nigger chasers" that they put off on the +porch. Then Nan had a big fire balloon that she sent up, and they +watched it until it was out of sight, away over the pond and clear out +of Meadow Brook. + +It was a very tired lot of children that rolled off to sleep that +night, for indeed it had been a great day for them all. + +For a few days after the Fourth it rained, as it always does, on +account of all the noise that goes up in the air to shake the clouds. + +"You can play in the coach house," Aunt Sarah told the children, "but +be careful not to run in and out and get wet." The children promised +to remember, and soon they were all out in the big wagon house playing +merrily. Freddie climbed in the wagon and made believe it was a "big +fire engine." Bert attached a bell on the side for him, and when he +pulled a rope this bell would clang like a chemical apparatus. Nan and +Flossie had all their dolls in the pretty new carriage with the soft +gray cushions, and in this the little girls made believe driving to New +York and doing some wonderful shopping. + +"Freddie, you be coachman," coaxed Flossie, "because we are inside and +have to have someone drive us." + +"But who will put out all the fires?" Freddie asked, as he clanged the +bell vigorously. + +"Make b'lieve they are all out," Flossie told him. + +"But you can't make b'lieve about fires," argued the little fellow, +"'cause they're really." + +"I tell you," Nan suggested. "We will suppose this is a great big high +tally-ho party, and the ladies always drive them. I'll be away up high +on the box, but we ought to have someone blow a horn!" + +"I'll blow the horn," Freddie finally gave in, "cause I got that big +fire out now." + +So Freddie climbed up on the high coach with his sisters, and blew the +horn until Nan told them they had reached New York and were going to +stop for dinner. + +There were so many splendid things to play with in the coach house, +tables, chairs, and everything, that the Bobbseys hardly knew it before +it was lunch time, the morning passed so quickly. + +It cleared up in the afternoon and John asked the children if they +wanted to help him do some transplanting. + +"Oh! we would love to," Nan answered, for she did love gardening. + +The ground was just right for transplanting, after the rain, and the +tender little lettuce plants were as easy to take up as they were to +put down again. + +"I say, Nan," John told her, "you can have that little patch over there +for your garden. I'll give you a couple of dozen plants, and we will +see what kind of a farmer you will make." + +"Oh, thank you, John," Nan answered. "I'll do just as I have seen you +doing," and she began to take the little plants in the pasteboard box +from one bed to the other. + +"Be careful not to shake the dirt off the roots," said John, "and be +sure to put one plant in each place. Put them as far apart here as the +length of this little stick, and when you put them in the ground press +the earth firmly around the roots." + +Flossie was delighted to help her sister, and the two girls made a very +nice garden indeed. + +"Let's put little stones around the path," Flossie suggested, and John +said they could do this if they would be careful not to let the stones +get on the garden. + +"I want to be a planter too," called Freddie, running up the path to +John. "But I want to plant radishes," he continued, "'cause they're the +reddist." + +"Well, you just wait a few minutes, sonny," said John, "and I'll show +you how to plant radishes. I'll be through with this lettuce in a few +minutes." + +Freddie waited with some impatience, running first to Nan's garden then +back to John's. Finally John was ready to put in a late crop of +radishes. + +"Now, you see, we make a long drill like this," John explained as he +took the drill and made a furrow in the soft ground. + +"If it rains again that will be a river," said Freddie, for he had +often played river at home after a rain. + +"Now, you see this seed is very fine," continued John. "But I am going +to let you plant it if you're careful." + +"That ain't redishes!" exclaimed Freddie "I want to plant redishes." + +"But this is the seed, and that's what makes the radishes," John +explained. + +"Nope, that's black and it can't make it red?" argued Freddie. + +"Wait and see," the gardener told him. "You just take this little paper +of seeds and scatter them in the drill. See, I have mixed them with +sand so they will not grow too thick." + +Freddie took the small package, and kneeling down on the board that +John used, he dropped the little shower of seeds in the line. + +"They're all gone!" he told John presently; "get some more." + +"No, that's enough. Now we will see how your crop grows. See, I just +cover the seed very lightly like mamma covers Freddie when he sleeps in +the summer time." + +"Do you cover them more in the winter time too, like mamma does ?" +Freddie asked. + +"Yes, indeed I do," said the gardener, "for seeds are just like babies, +they must be kept warm to grow." + +Freddie stood watching the line he had planted the seed in. + +"They ain't growing yet," he said at last. "Why don't they come up, +John ?" + +"Oh!" laughed the gardener, "they won't come up right away. They have +to wake up first. You will see them above the ground in about a week, I +guess." + +This was rather a disappointment to the little fellow, who never +believed in waiting for anything, but he finally consented to let the +seeds grow and come back again later to pick the radishes. + +"Look at our garden!" called Nan proudly, from across the path. +"Doesn't it look straight and pretty?" + +"You did very well indeed," said John, inspecting the new lettuce +patch. "Now, you'll have to keep it clear of weeds, and if a dry spell +should come you must use the watering can." + +"I'll come up and tend to it every morning," Nan declared. "I am going +to see what kind of lettuce I can raise." + +Nan had brought with her a beautiful string of pearl beads set in gold, +the gift of one of her aunts. She was very proud of the pearls and +loved to wear them whenever her mother would let her. + +One afternoon she came to her mother in bitter tears. + +"Oh, mamma!" she sobbed. "The the pearls are gone," + +"Gone! Did you lose them?" questioned Mrs. Bobbsey quickly. + +"Yes." + +"Where?" + +"I--I don't know," and now Nan cried harder than ever. + +The news soon spread that the string of pearls were lost, and everybody +set to work hunting for them. + +"Where do you think you lost 'em?" asked Bert. + +"I--I don't know. I was down in the garden, and up the lane, and at the +well, and out in the barn, and over to the apple orchard, and feeding +the chickens, and over in the hayfield,--and lots of places." + +"Then it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack," declared +Aunt Sarah. + +All the next day the boys and girls hunted for the string of pearls, +and the older folks helped. But the string could not be found. Nan felt +very bad over her loss, and her mother could do little to console her. + +"I--I sup--suppose I'll never see them again," sobbed the girl. + +"Oh, I guess they'll turn up some time," said Bert hopefully. + +"They can't be lost so very, very bad," lisped Flossie. "'Cause they +are somewhere on this farm, ain't they?" + +"Yes, but the farm is so very big!" sighed poor Nan. + +For a few days Freddie went up to the garden every morning to look for +radishes. Then he gave up and declared he knew John had made a mistake +and that he didn't plant radishes at all. Nan and Flossie were very +faithful attending to their garden, and the beautiful light green +lettuce grew splendidly, being grateful for the good care given it. + +"When can we pick it?" Nan asked John, as the leaves were getting quite +thick. + +"In another week!" he told the girls, and so they continued to watch +for weeds and kept the ground soft around the plants as John had told +them. + +Freddie's radishes were above ground now, and growing nicely, but they +thought it best not to tell him, as he might pull them up too soon. Nan +and Flossie weeded his garden as well as their own and showed they +loved to see things grow, for they did not mind the work of attending +to them. + +"Papa will come up from Lakeport to-night," Nan told Flossie; "and +won't he be pleased to see our gardens!" + +That evening when Mr. Bobbsey arrived the first thing he had to do was +to visit the garden. + +"Why, I declare!" he exclaimed in real surprise. "You have done +splendidly. This is a fine lettuce patch." + +Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had also come up to see the girls' garden, +and they too were much surprised at the result of Nan's and Flossie's +work. + +"Oh!" screamed Freddie from the other side of the garden. "See my +redishes! They growed!" and before anyone could stop him he pulled up a +whole handful of the little green leaves with the tiny red balls on the +roots. + +"They growed! They growed!" he shouted, dancing around in delight. + +"But you must only pick the ripe ones," his father told him. "And did +you really plant them?" Mr. Bobbsey asked in surprise. + +"Yep! John showed me," he declared, and the girls said that was really +Freddie's garden. + +"Now I'll tell you," Aunt Sarah remarked. "We will let our little +farmers pick their vegetables for dinner, and then we will be able to +say just how good they are." + +At this the girls started in to pick the very biggest heads of lettuce, +and Freddie looked carefully to get the very reddest radishes in his +patch. Finally enough were gathered, and down to the kitchen the +vegetables were carried. + +"You will have to prepare them for the table," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "Let +us see, girls, what a pretty dish you can make." + +This was a pleasant task to Nan and Flossie, who both always loved to +play at housekeeping, and when at last Nan brought the dish in to the +dinner table everybody said how pretty it looked. + +"Them's my redishes!" exclaimed Freddie, as he saw the pretty bright +red buttons peeping out from between the lettuce leaves. + +"But we can all have some, can't we, Freddie?" his father asked. + +"Yes, 'course you can. But I don't want all my good redishes smothered +in that big dish of green stuff," he pouted. + +"Now, Nan, you can serve your vegetables," Aunt Sarah said, and then +Nan very neatly put a few crisp lettuce leaves on each small plate, and +at the side she placed a few of Freddie's radishes, "with handles on" +as Dinah said, meaning the little green stalks. + +"Just think, we've done it all from the garden to the table!" Nan +exclaimed, justly proud of her success at gardening. + +"I done the radishes," put in Freddie, gulping down a drink of water to +wash the bite off his tongue, for his radishes were quite hot. + +"Well, you have certainly all done very nicely," Mrs. Bobbsey said. +"And that kind of play is like going to school, for it teaches you +important lessons in nature." + +The girls declared they were going to keep a garden all summer, and so +they did. + +It was an unusually warm night, and so nearly all the doors were left +open when the folks went to bed. Freddie was so worked up over his +success as a gardener he could not go to sleep. + +At last he dozed off, but presently he awoke with a start. What was +that strange sound ringing in his ears? He sat up and listened. + +Yes, somebody must surely be playing the piano. But what funny music! +It seemed to come in funny runs and curious thumps. He called out +sharply, and his mother came at once to his side. + +"I heard piano-playing," said Freddie, and Mrs. Bobbsey started, for +she remembered how Flossie had once told her the same thing. + +"Oh, Freddie, are you sure?" she asked. + +"Sure," repeated the little fellow. "But it wasn't very good playing." + +Mrs. Bobbsey called Uncle Daniel, and the latter lit a lamp and went +below into the parlor. Nobody was at the piano or in the room. + +"I've made a careful examination," he said, on coming back. "I can see +nothing unusual. Some of the children left a piece of cake on the keys +of the piano, that's all." + +"Well, cake can't play," put in Freddie. "Maybe it was a ghost." + +"No, you must have been dreaming," said his mother. "Come, go to +sleep," and presently Freddie dropped off. Mrs. Bobbsey was much +worried, and the next day the older folks talked the matter over; but +nothing came of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TOM'S RUNAWAY + + +"Tom Mason is going to bring his colt out this afternoon," said Harry +to Bert, "and we can all take turns trying him." + +"Oh, is it that pretty little brown horse I saw in the field back of +Tom's home?" asked Bert. + +"That's him," Harry replied. "Isn't he a beauty!" + +"Yes, I would like first-rate to ride him, but young horses are awful +skittish, aren't they?" + +"Sometimes, but this one is partly broken. At any rate, we wouldn't +have far to fall, for he is a little fellow," said Harry. + +So the boys went down to Tom's home at the appointed time, and there +they met Jack Hopkins. + +"We've made a track around the fields," Tom told his companions, "and +we will train him to run around the ring, for father thinks he may be a +race-horse some day, he's so swift." + +"You may go first," the boys told him, "as he's your horse." + +"All right!" Tom replied, making for the stake where Sable, the pony, +was tied. Sable marched along quietly enough and made no objections to +Tom getting on his back. There was no saddle, but just the bit in the +horse's mouth and attached to it a short piece of rein. + +"Get app, Sable!" called Tom, snapping a small whip at the pony's side. + +But instead of going forward the little horse tried to sit down! + +"Whoa! whoa!" called the boys, but Tom clung to Sable's neck and held +on in spite of the pony's back being like a toboggan slide. + +"Get off there, get off there!" urged Tom, yet the funny little animal +only backed down more. + +"Light a match and set it under his nose," Harry suggested. "That's the +way to make a balky horse go!" + +Someone had a match, which was lighted and put where Sable could sniff +the sulphur. + +"Look out! Hold on, Tom!" yelled the boys all at once, for at that +instant Sable bolted off like a deer. + +"He's running away!" called Bert, which was plain to be seen, for Tom +could neither turn him this way or that, but had all he could do to +hold on the frightened animal's neck. + +"If he throws him Tom will surely be hurt!" Harry exclaimed, and the +boys ran as fast as they could across the field after the runaway. + +"Whoa! whoa! whoa!" called everybody after the horse, but that made not +the slightest difference to Sable, who just went as if the woods were +afire. Suddenly he turned and dashed straight up a big hill and over +into a neighbor's cornfield. + +"Oh, mercy!" cried Harry, "those people are so mean about their garden, +they'll have Tom arrested if there's any corn broken." + +Of course it was impossible for a runaway horse to go through a field +of corn and do no damage, and Tom realized this too. By this time the +dogs were out barking furiously, and altogether there was wild +excitement. At one end of the field there was a high board fence. + +"If I could only get him there he would have to stop," thought Tom, and +suddenly he gave Sable a jerk in that direction. + +"Drop off, Tom, drop off!" yelled the boys. "He'll throw you against +the fence!" + +But at that minute the little horse threw himself against the boards in +such a way that Tom slid off, yet held tightly to the reins. + +The horse fell, quite exhausted. + +As quickly as they could get there the boys came up to help Tom. + +"Hurry!" said Harry, "there is scarcely any corn broken, and we can get +away before the Trimbles see us. They're away back in the fields +planting late cabbage." + +Tom felt hardly able to walk, but he limped along while Harry led Sable +carefully between the cornhills. It was only a few feet to the edge of +the field, and then they were all safe on the road again. + +"Are you hurt?" the boys asked Tom, when finally they had a chance to +speak about the runaway. + +"I feel as if I had dropped from a balloon onto a lot of cobblestones," +Tom answered, "but I guess that's only the shaking up I got. That pony +certainly can go." + +"Yes indeed," Harry admitted; "I guess he doesn't like the smell of +sulphur matches. Lucky he was not injured with that fall against the +fence." + +"I found I had to throw him," Tom said, "and I thought the fence was +softer than a tree." + +"I suppose we ought to make him run until he is played out," said Bert, +"That's the way to cure a horse of running away." + +But none of the boys felt like risking their bones even to cure Sable, +so the panting animal was led to the stable and for the rest of the day +allowed to think over his bad conduct. + +But that was not the last of the runaway, for in the evening just after +supper old Mr. Trimble paid a visit to Tom's father. + +"I came over to tell you what a scallywag of a boy you've got," began +the cross old man. "He and a lot of young loafers took a horse and +drove him all through my cornfield to-day, and now you've got to pay +the damages." + +"My son is not a scallywag," Mr. Mason declared, "and if you call him +names like loafer and scallywag I'll make you pay damages." + +"Oh! you will, eh?" the other sneered. "Think I'm afraid of an old +constable up here, do you?" + +"Well now, see here," Mr. Mason said, "Be reasonable and do not quarrel +over an accident. If any corn is knocked down I'll get Tom to fix it +up, if it's broken down we will see what it would cost to replace it. +But the boys did not do it purposely, and it was worse for Tom than +anyone else, for he's all black and blue from the hard knocks he got." + +At this the cross man quieted down and said, Well, he would see about +it. Mr. Trimble was one of those queer people who believe all a boy is +good for is doing mischief and all a boy deserves is scolding or +beating. Perhaps this was because he had no sons of his own and +therefore had no regard for the sons of other people. + +Mr. Mason went directly to the cornfield with his neighbor. He looked +carefully over every hill, and with a spade and hoe he was able to put +back into place the few stalks that had been knocked down in Sable's +flight. + +"There now," said Mr. Mason, "I guess that corn is as good as ever. If +it wants any more hoeing Tom will come around in the morning and do it. +He is too stiff to move to-night." + +So that ended the runaway, except for a very lame boy, Tom Mason, who +had to limp around for a day or two from stiffness. + +"How would you like to be a jockey!" laughed his companions. "You held +on like a champion, but you were not in training for the banging you +got." + +"Well, I guess Sable will make a fine racehorse," said Tom, "when he's +broken. But it will take someone stronger than I am to break him in." + +The next afternoon all the boys went fishing. They had been out quite +late the night before to find the "night walkers" for bait, as those +little worms only come out of the ground after dark. Bert had a new +line his father brought from Lakeport, and the others boys had nets and +hooks, as most country boys who live near streams are always fond of +fishing. + +"Let's go over to the cove," Harry said when they all started off. +"There's lots of good fish in that dark corner." + +So the cove was chosen as a good spot to fish from, and soon the +Bobbsey boys and their friends were lying around the edge of the deep +clear stream, waiting for a bite. + +Bert was the first to jerk his line, and he brought it up with such +force that the chubfish on his hook slapped Harry right in the face! + +"Look out!" called Harry, trying to dodge the flapping fish. "Put your +catch down. He's a good one, but I don't care about having him kiss me +that way again." + +All the boys laughed at Bert, who was a green fisherman they said. The +fish was really a very nice plump chub and weighed more than a pound. +He floundered around in the basket and flapped his tail wildly trying +to get away from them. + +"I've got one," called Tom next, at the same moment pulling his line +and bringing up a pretty little sunfish. Now "sunnies" are not +considered good eating, so Tom's catch did not come up to Bert's, but +it was put in the basket just the same. + +"I'm going out on the springboard," August Stout announced, stepping +cautiously out on the board from which good swimmers dived. + +"You know you can't swim, August," said Harry, "and if you get a catch +and jerk it you'll tumble in." + +"Oh! I'll be all right," August answered, lying down flat on the narrow +springboard and dropping his line. + +For a time all the boys lay watching for a bite. No one spoke, for +sometimes they say fish are very sensitive to sound and go in another +direction if they hear a voice. + +It was a beautiful July day, and perhaps the boys were a little lazy. +At any rate, they all became so quiet the little woodpeckers on the +trees went on with their work pecking at the tree bark as if no human +being was in sight. + +Suddenly there was a big splash! + +"August!" yelled all the boys at once, for indeed August was gone from +the springboard. + +"Quick!" called Harry to his companions. "He can't swim!" + +The next minute the boy in the water came to the top and threw up his +arm. But no one was near enough to reach it. + +"Strike out, August!" yelled Bert. "We're coming," and one boy after +the other dropped in the water now, having thrown off their heavy +clothing. + +"Oh, where is he?" screamed Bert in terror, for no movement on the +water's surface showed them where August was. + +"Here!" cried Tom Mason, who was quite a distance out. "Here he is! +Help! come quick!" + +No need to urge the boys to hasten, for all realized the danger their +companion was in. + +"Don't pull down, August," went on Tom. "Try to help yourself, or +you'll pull me under." Harry had around his neck a strong piece of rope +he picked up as he made a dive into the water. + +"Take hold of this," he called to August, "and we can all pull." + +As the rope was put in August's hand the other boys all took hold and +soon towed the unfortunate boy in. + +"He's very weak," said Harry when they pulled August up on the shore. +"I guess he has swallowed a lot of water. We better roll him on the +grass and work his arms up and down. That will revive him." + +August was indeed very weak, and had had a narrow escape. For some time +his companions worked over him before he opened his eyes and spoke. + +"Oh!" he murmured at last, "I'm so sick!" + +"I guess you are, August," said Tom, "but you'll be all right soon." +They lifted him carefully under a shady tree and removed his wet +clothing. + +"I'll run over to Smith's and get him something to wear home," said +Harry, who hurried across lots and presently returned with an old suit +of clothes. August was able to dress himself now, and as soon as he +felt strong enough the boys helped him home. + +"You can have my fish, August," said Bert nobly. + +"And mine too," Tom added. August did not want to accept the boys' +offers at first, but at last they prevailed upon him to do so. + +"I think I fell asleep," said he, referring to the accident. + +"Guess we all did!" added Harry, "for we only woke up when we heard the +splash." + +It seems the number of accidents country boys have only make them truer +friends, for all the things that happened in Meadow Brook made each boy +think more of his companions both in being grateful for the help given +and being glad no dear friend's life was lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PICKING PEAS + + +"Mother," said Harry, using that loved name to show that what he was +about to say was something important, "Peter Burns is sick. He has not +been able to work since the cannon exploded and gave him the shock, and +all his peas are spoiling because there's no one to pick them. Mrs. +Burns hired some boys yesterday, but they broke down so many vines she +had to stop them; and, mother, would you mind if Bert and I picked some +to-day? The sun is not hot." + +"Why, my dear," replied Aunt Sarah, "it would be very nice of you to +help Peter; he has always been a kind neighbor. I don't think it would +do you any harm to pick peas on a cool day like this. Bert can ask his +mother, and if she is satisfied you can put on your play overalls and +go right along." + +Both boys were given the desired permission, and when Tom and Jack +heard where the Bobbseys were going they said at once they would go +along. + +"Are you sure your mother won't mind?" Mrs. Burns asked the boys, +knowing Harry's folks did not need the money paid to pick the peas. "Of +course I'm very glad to have you if your mothers are satisfied." + +Soon each boy had a big basket under his arm, and was off for the +beautiful field of soft green peas, that stretched along the pond bank +at the side of Mrs. Burns' home. Now, peas are quite an expensive +vegetable when they come in first, and farmers who have big fields of +them depend upon the return from the crop as an important part of the +summer's income. But the peas must be picked just as soon as they are +ripe, or else they will spoil. This was why Harry got his friends to +turn in to help poor Peter Burns. + +"I'll go down this row and you take that." suggested Bert to Harry. +"Then we can talk to each other without hollering." + +"All right," Harry replied, snapping the peas off the vines and +dropping them into his basket like a real farmer. + +"Let's have a race," called Tom. "see who gets his basket full first." + +"But no skipping for big ones," put in Jack. "You have to pick every +ripe one." + +The boys all started in at the top of the hill, each working two rows +at a time. They were so interested in the race that scarcely a word was +spoken. The peas were plentiful and ripe too, so that the baskets were +filling up quickly. Mrs. Burns herself was picking, in fact she had +been in the field since the very first peep of dawn, and she would be +sure to stay out until the darkness would drive her in. + +"You are fine pickers," she told the boys, seeing how quickly they +worked. "I pay ten cents a basket, you know." + +"I guess we can earn a dollar a day at this rate," laughed Tom, whose +basket was almost full. + +"I'm done," called Jack from his row. + +"No, you're not," said Harry, "you have to cover the rim." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Jack, who had just slipped between the rows. "Oh! there +goes my basket." + +And sure enough the big basket had been upset in Jack's fall, and most +of the peas were scattered on the ground. + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Bert. "I'm first. My basket is full." + +"I'm next!" called Tom, picking his basket up in his arms. + +"Well, I'll be last I guess," laughed Tom, trying hard to pick up the +scattered peas. + +"There's mine!" called Harry, and now all the boys carried their +baskets to the big bag at the end of the field and dumped them in. + +"It won't take long to fill the bag," said Harry, "and it will be so +good for Peter to have them ready, for to-morrow is market day." + +So the boys worked on right along until lunch time, each having picked +four big baskets full. August Stout came along and helped some too, but +he could not stay long, as he had to cut some clothes poles for his +mother. + +"Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Burns, looking at the three full bags the +boys had picked. "Isn't that splendid! But I can't pay until Peter +comes from market." + +"We just did it for fun," answered Harry. "We don't want any pay." + +"Indeed you must have forty cents apiece, ten cents a basket," she +insisted. "See what a good load you have picked!" + +"No, really, Mrs. Burns; mother wouldn't like us to take the money," +Harry declared. "We are glad to have helped you, and it was only fun." + +Poor Mrs. Burns was so grateful she had to wipe her eyes with her +gingham apron. + +"Well," she said finally, "There are some people in this world who talk +about charity, but a good boy is a gift from heaven," and she said this +just like a prayer of blessing on the boys who had helped her. + +"The crop would have been spoiled to-morrow," remarked Tom, as he and +his companions started up the road. "I'm awfully glad you thought of +helping her, Harry." + +It seemed all that day everything went right for the boys; they did not +have even a single mishap in their games or wanderings. Perhaps it was +because they felt so happy over having done a good turn for a poor +neighbor. + +"Say, fellows," Tom said later, while they sat on the pond bank trying +to see something interesting in the cool, clear water, "what do you say +if we make up a circus!" + +"Fine," the others answered, "but what will be the show?" + +"Animals of course," continued Tom; "we've got plenty around here, +haven't we?" + +"Well, some," Harry admitted. "There's Sable, for instance." + +At this the boys all laughed at Tom, remembering the runaway. + +"Well, I could be a cowboy, and ride him just the same," spoke up Tom. +"I rode him around the track yesterday, and he went all right. He was +only scared with that sulphur match when he ran away." + +"A circus would be fine," Bert put in. "We could have Frisky as the +Sacred Calf." + +"And Snoopy as the Wild Cat," said Harry. + +"And two trained goats," August added. + +"And a real human bear, 'Teddy'?" suggested Jack. + +"Then a cage of pigeons," went on Harry. + +"Let's get them all in training," said Tom, jumping up suddenly, +anxious to begin the sport. + +"I tell you!" Harry planned. "We can each train our own animals and +then we can bring them together in a well-organized circus." + +"When will we have it?" August asked impatiently. + +"About next week," Harry thought, and this was decided upon. + +During the interval the boys were so busy training that they had little +time for other sports, but the girls found out-door life quite as +interesting as their brothers did, and now made many discoveries in and +about the pretty woodlands. + +"Oh, we saw the prettiest little rabbits today," Nan told her mother, +after a trip in the woods. "Flossie and Freddie were sitting on an old +stump when two rabbits ran right across the road in front of them. +Freddie ran after them as far as he could go in the brushwood, but of +course no one can go as fast as a rabbit." + +"And the squirrels," Flossie told them. "I think the squirrels are the +prettiest things that live in the woods. They have tails just like +mamma's feather boa and they walk sitting up so cute." + +"Oh, I think the rabbits are the nicest," lisped Freddie, "'cause they +are Bunnies, and Bunnies bring Easter eggs." + +"And we have made the loveliest fern garden up back of the swing," said +Flossie. "We got a whole basket of ferns in the woods and transplanted +them." + +"In the center we have some lovely Jack-in the-pulpits," Nan added. +"Some are light green striped, and the largest are purple with gold +stripes. The Jacks stand up straight, just like real live boys +preaching in a pulpit." + +"Don't you think, mamma," asked Flossie, "that daisies and violets make +a lovely garden? I have a round place in the middle of our wild flower +bed just full of light blue violets and white daisies." + +"All flowers are beautiful," their mamma told them, "but I do think +with Flossie that daisies and violets are very sweet." + +"And, mamma, we got a big piece of the loveliest green moss! It is just +like real velvet," said Flossie. "We found a place all covered with it +down by the pond, under the dark cedar trees. Nan said it wouldn't grow +in our garden, but I brought some home to try. I put it in a cool dark +place, and I'm going to put lots of water on it every day." + +"Moss must be very cool and damp to grow," Mrs. Bobbsey replied. "I +remember how disappointed I used to be when I was a little girl and +tried to make it grow around my geraniums. It would always dry up and +turn brown in a few days." + +"Oh," called Freddie from his garden under the cherry tree, "come +quick! Look at the funny bugs!" + +Nan and Flossie hurried to where their little brother had dug a hole in +the earth." + +"They're mice!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, aren't they cute! Let's catch them. +Call Bert or Harry." + +While Flossie ran to tell Bert, Nan watched the tiny mice so that they +would not get away. + +"It's a nest of field mice," Harry told them. + +"We'll put them in a cage and have them in our circus." + +"But they're my mice," cried Freddie, "and I won't let anybody have +them!" + +"We're only going to help you take care of them in a little box. Oh, +there's the mother--catch her, Harry," called Bert. + +The mother mouse was not so easy to catch, however, and the boys had +quite a chase after her. At last she ran into a tin box the boys had +sunk in the ground when playing golf. Here Harry caught the frightened +little creature. + +"I've got a queer kind of a trap," Harry said. "It's just like a cage. +We can put them in this until we build a larger one. We can make one +out of a box with a wire door." + +The mice were the smallest, cutest things, not larger than Freddie's +thumb. They hardly looked like mice at all, but like some queer little +bugs. They were put in the cage trap, mother and all, and then Bert got +them a bit of cheese from the kitchen. + +"What! Feed mice!" exclaimed Dinah "Sakes alive, chile! you go bringing +dem mice in de house to eat all our cake and pie. You just better drown +dem in de brook before dey bring a whole lot more mices around here." + +"We'll keep them away from the house," Bert told Dinah. "We're going to +have a circus, you know, and these will be our trained mice." + +Freddie, of course, was delighted with the little things, and wanted to +dig for more. + +"I tell you!" said Bert. "We might catch butterflies and have them +under a big glass on the table with all the small animals." + +"That would be good," Harry agreed. "We could catch some big brown ones +and some little fancy ones. Then after dark we could get some big moths +down by the postoffice electric light." + +The girls, too, went catching butterflies. Nan was able to secure four +or five yellow ones in the flower garden near the porch, and Flossie +got two of the small brown variety in the nasturtium bed. Harry and +Bert searched in the close syringa bushes where the nests are usually +found. + +"Oh! look at this one!" called Freddie, coming up with a great green +butterfly. "Is it bird?" he asked. "See how big it is!" + +It really was very large, and had such beautiful wings it might easily +be mistaken for some strange bird. + +"We will try to keep them alive," said Harry, "and perhaps we can get +ma's big glass globe to put them in. She has one she used to put wax +flowers under." + +"And, oh say!" exclaimed Bert, "couldn't we have an aquarium with +snakes and turtles and toads in?" + +"Fine!" declared Harry. "We've got a big glass tank I used to have gold +fish in. We'll get the other fellows to help catch some snakes, fish, +and turtles and toads, and--and anything else that will stand water!" + +Then what a time they had hunting for reptiles! It seemed each boy had +a different variety on his premises. August Stout brought three turtles +and Jack Hopkins caught two snakes under a big stone in his back yard. +Tom Mason supplied four lovely gold fish, while Ned Prentice brought +three bright green frogs. + +"I can catch hop-toads," declared Freddie, and sure enough the little +fellow brought two big ones and a baby toad in his hat down to the +boys, who had their collection in a glass tank in the barn. + +"We can't put the snakes in with the others or they'll eat them up," +said Jack. "I'll get a big glass jar for the snakes." + +"And say!" said Harry. "Will we charge admission to the show?" + +"Sure--five cents each," said Tom, "and give the money to the fresh-air +camp over on the mountain." + +This was considered a good plan, and now it was only a few days more +until Wednesday--the day of the circus! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CIRCUS + + +News of the circus had spread from one end of Meadow Brook to the +other. Every boy and girl in the place expected to get in to see the +sights, and even some grown folks had made up their minds, from what +they heard, there would be something interesting for them to see, and +so they decided to go too. + +Mrs. Bobbsey, Aunt Sarah, Dinah, and Martha had bought tickets for +reserved seats (these cost ten cents each). Then Mildred Manners was +going to bring her mother and her big sister, and Mabel Herold expected +to have her mother with her also. Mr. Bobbsey was coming up from +Lakeport purposely to see the circus, and Uncle Daniel had helped the +boys put up the seats and fix things generally. A big tent had been +borrowed from the Herolds; they were only out at Meadow Brook for the +summer, and this tent was erected in the open field between the Bobbsey +and the Mason farms, alongside the track where Tom had tried Sable. + +The tent had large flaps that opened up the entire front, so that all +the exhibits could be shown nicely to the people on the seats out side. + +The seats were made of boards set on most anything that would hold +them, with a few garden benches for reserved seats at the front. + +Everything was ready, and the circus day came at last. + +"Lucky it isn't raining," the boys declared as they rushed around +putting the final touches to everything. + +August Stout was appointed to collect the tickets, and Ned Prentice was +to show the people to their seats. + +Two o'clock! + +Only one hour more! + +Lots of children came early to get good seats. Roy Mason sat right in +the front row alongside of Freddie. Nettie Prentice was on the very +first bench back of the reserved seats. The Herolds came next, and had +Aunt Sarah's front garden bench, the red one. Mildred Manners' folks +paid ten cents each too, and they had the big green bench from the side +porch. + +"Give Mrs. Burns a front seat," Harry whispered to Ned, as the busy +farmer's wife actually stopped her work to see what all the excitement +was about. + +The Bobbseys had come--Mr. Bobbsey and all,--and Dinah wore her best +black bonnet. + +"When will it begin?" Flossie asked, just trembling with excitement. + +"I saw Harry and Bert go in the tent some time ago," whispered Nan; +"and see, they are loosing the tent flap." + +There was a shout of applause when Harry appeared. He actually wore a +swallowtail coat and had on a choker--a very high collar--and a bright +green tie. He wore long trousers too, and looked so queer even Aunt +Sarah had to laugh when she saw him. + +"Oh!" exclaimed all the children when they looked inside the tent. + +"Isn't it grand!" whispered Flossie. + +Then Bert stepped up on the soap box in the middle of the ring. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, making a profound bow, "ladies and +gentlemen." + +Then everybody roared laughing. + +Bert had to wait until they got through laughing at his funny costume, +which was a good deal like Harry's, only the latter wore a red tie. + +In a few moments Bert went on again. + +"Ladies and gentlemen! Our first number is Frisky, the Sacred Calf of +India!" he exclaimed, imitating that queer-voiced man called a "Barker" +and used at circuses. + +Snap! snap! went Bert's whip, and out from a side place, back of a big +screen, came Jack Hopkins dressed like a real clown, leading our old +friend Frisky, the runaway calf. + +How awfully funny it was! + +The calf had over him a plush portiere that reached clear down to the +ground, and over each ear was tied a long-handled feather duster! + +Such laughing and clapping as greeted this "first number"! + +Frisky just turned around square in front and looked the people +straight in the face. This funny move made Mr. Bobbsey "die laughing," +as Flossie said, and Uncle Daniel too was hilarious. + +"The sacred calf is too sacred to smile," laughed Uncle Daniel, while +Dinah and Martha just roared. + +The children didn't think they ought to laugh out loud and spoil the +show; even Freddie raised his finger to Dinah. + +Suddenly the clown jumped on the calf's back. He tried to stand on his +head. Then he turned a somersault on to the sawdust. + +Everybody clapped hard now, and the children began to shout. + +But Bert snapped his whip and the clown went down on his hands and +knees to apologize. Of course clowns are not supposed to speak, so Jack +did everything by pantomime. + +Next he came around and kissed Frisky. This made everybody roar again, +and no matter what the clown did it certainly looked very funny. + +Finally Bert snapped his whip three times, and the clown jumped on +Frisky's back, over the plush curtain and all, and rode off. + +"Wasn't that splendid!" everybody exclaimed. + +"I really never enjoyed a big circus more than this!" remarked Mrs. +Bobbsey to Mrs. Burns. The others all said nice things too; and then +Bert announced the next turn. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he began again, "our next number will introduce +to you the famous wildcats, Snoop and Fluffy. Real wildcats from the +jungle, and this is the first--time--they--have ever been exhibited in +--this country!" + +Snap went the whip, and out came Harry with our little kitten friends +one on each arm. + +He whistled, and Snoop climbed on his shoulder! + +He whistled again, and Fluffy climbed on the other shoulder. + +This "brought the house down," as Uncle Daniel said, and there was so +much noise the kittens looked frightened. + +Next Harry stretched out both arms straight and the kittens carefully +walked over into his hands. + +"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Dinah. "Jest see dat Snoopy kitty-cat! If +he can't do real reg'lar circus tricks! And jest to think how he cut up +on de cars! 'Pears like as if he was doin' it fer jokes den too!" + +"And look at Fluffy!" exclaimed Martha; "as white as Snoop is black!" +Harry stooped down and let the kittens jump through his hands, which is +an old but none the less a very pretty trick. + +With the air of a real master, Bert snapped his whip and placed on the +table a little piece of board. He rubbed something on each end (it was +a bit of dried herring, but the people didn't know that), then Harry +put Snoop on one end and Fluffy on the other. + +"Oh, a teeter-tauter!" called Freddie, unable to restrain his joy any +longer. "I bet on Snoop. He's the heaviest." + +At the sound of Freddie's voice Snoop turned around and the move sent +Fluffy up the air. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" came a chorus from the children, but before anybody in +the circus had time to interfere off went Fluffy, as hard as she could +run, over the lots, home. + +The next minute Snoop was after her, and Harry stood alone in the ring +bowing to the "tremendous applause." + +When the laughing had ceased Bert made the next announcement. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we will now introduce our famous +menagerie. First we have the singing mice." + +"They're mine!" called Freddie, but Nan insisted on him keeping quiet. + +"Now you will hear the mice sing," said Bert, and as he held up the +cage of little mice somebody whistled a funny tune back of the scenes. + +"Good! good!" called Mr. Bobbsey. "We've got real talent here," he +added, for indeed the boys had put together a fine show. + +"Now you see our aquarium," went on Bert as Harry helped him bring +forward the table that held the glass tank. + +"Here we have a real sea serpent," he said, pointing to a good fat chub +that flopped around in the water. + +"Let the little ones walk right up and see them," Bert said. "Form in +line and pass in this way." + +Not only the children went up, but grown folks too, for they wanted a +look into the tank. + +"Now here are our alligators and crocodiles," announced Bert, pointing +his whip at the turtles. + +"And these are sea-lions," he said, pointing out Freddie's hop-toads. + +At each announcement everybody laughed, but Bert went on as seriously +as if he were deaf. + +"In this separate tank," he declared, "we have our boa-constrictors, +the largest and fiercest in the world. This is the first time one of +this specimen has ever been captured alive. Note the dangerous stripe +on his back!" + +It was Jack's snakes that came in for this description, and the girls +were quite afraid of them, although they were in a glass jar. + +"Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Burns. "If this isn't a sure-enough +circus. I often paid a half-dollar when I went to see things no better +than these!" + +Everybody thought everything was splendid, and the boys were well paid +for their efforts. + +"Now," said Bert, "here are our crystal fish from the deep sea!" (These +were Tom's goldfish.) "You will notice how bespangled they are. They +say this comes from the fish eating the diamonds lost in shipwrecks." + +"What a whopper!" called someone back of the scenes whose voice sounded +like Tom Mason's. + +Snap! went Bert's whip, and the boys did not interrupt him again. + +"The last part of our menagerie is the cage of prize butterflies," said +Bert. "These butterflies are rare and scarce and--" + +"Hard to catch!" remarked someone not on the programme. + +"Now there will be ten minutes' intermission," the announcer said, "so +all may have time to see everything in the menagerie. + +"After that we will give you the best number of the programme, our +chariot race." + +"Oh, that's going to be Tom!" exclaimed Roy. + +"No, it's Bert," said Flossie. + +"Well, Jack has our goat-wagon," said Mildred. + +"I guess there'll be a whole lot in the race," said Freddie, "and maybe +they'll have firemen." + +During the intermission August sold a whole big basket of peanuts, and +the people wanted more. They knew all the money was to go to the fresh- +air camp, which was probably the reason they bought so generously. + +"I don't know when I have enjoyed myself so much," declared Mrs. +Manners, fanning herself. "I had no idea boys could be so clever." + +"That's because you only have girls," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"Don't you think we ought to give them a treat for working so hard?" +whispered Mrs. Herold to Aunt Sarah. "I would be delighted to have them +all to dinner," she added, in her society way, for the Herolds were +quite rich. + +"That would be very nice, I'm sure," Aunt Sarah replied; "boys always +have good appetites after having a lot of fun." + +All this time there was plenty of noise back of the scenes, and it was +evident something big was being prepared. + +Presently Bert and Harry came out and lowered the tent flap, first +making sure all the little sightseers were outside. + +"They're comin'!" exclaimed Freddie, clapping his fat hands. + +"Oh, I'm just so nervous!" whispered Flossie! "I hope none of the +animals will get loose." + +"Now, ladies and gentlemen," called Tom Mason, appearing at the tent, +"if you will just turn round the other way in your seats and face that +ring we will give you an exhibition of cowboy life on the plains!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CHARIOT RACE + + +Tom's costume was a splendid imitation of a cowboy. He wore tan- +colored overalls and a jumper, the jumper being slashed up at the sides +like an Indian's coat. On his head was a very broad sombrero, this hat +having really come from the plains, as it belonged to a Western farmer +who had lately moved to Meadow Brook. + +Presently Tom appeared again, this time riding the fiery Sable. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys, as Tom drove into the ring like a +major. + +Bert now stepped into the middle of the ring alongside of some soap +boxes that were piled up there. + +"Now you see ladies and gentlemen," began Bert, laughing a little at +the show in broad daylight, "you see this (the soap boxes) is a mail +coach. Our cowboy will rob the mail coach from his horse just as they +used to do in the mountains of Arizona." + +Snap went the whip, and away went Sable around the ring at a nice even +canter. After a few turns around Tom urged his horse on a little until +he was going on a steady run. Every one kept quiet, for most of Meadow +Brook people had heard how Sable had run away some days before. + +"There ought to be music," whispered Jack to Harry, for indeed the +circus was so real it only lacked a brass band. + +Now Bert put on top of the soap boxes Harry's canvas schoolbag stuffed +full of papers. + +"This is the United States mail," he said. "We will understand that the +coach has stopped for a few minutes." + +Sable was going along splendidly by this time, and everybody said what +a pretty little horse he was. + +"He's goin' to steal the mail box now!" whispered Flossie to Freddie. +"I hope Sable won't fall or anything." + +Snap! snap! went the whip as the horse ran faster and faster. + +All of a sudden Tom got a good tight hold on the reins, then he pulled +up alongside of the mail coach, leaned over, grabbed the mail bag, and +spurred his horse at full speed around the ring. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted everybody. + +"Well done!" called Uncle Daniel. + +"Couldn't be better!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. + +Tom waved his hat now and patted Sable affectionately, as all good +riders do when their horses have done well in the ring. + +The men admired the little horse so much they came up and asked the +"cowboy" a lot of questions about him, how old he was and who broke him +in. + +"One more number," called Bert. "The chariot race." + +At this all took their seats again, and out trotted two clowns, Jack +and August, each riding in a little goat wagon. + +The goats were decorated with the Fourth of July buntings and the +wagons had the tailboards out and were tipped up like circus chariots. + +The clowns pulled up in line. + +"One, two, three!" called Bert, with a really big revolver up in the +air. + +"Ready! Set! Go!" Bang! went the revolver (a blank cartridge, of +course) and away started the chariots. + +Jack wore a broad green belt and August had yellow. Jack darted ahead! + +"Go it, green!" shouted one group of boys. + +"Pass him, orange!" called another crowd. + +Now August passed Jack just as they crossed the line. + +"One!" called Bert. "We will have ten rounds." + +In the next the wagons kept almost even until just within a few feet of +the line, then Jack crossed first. + +"Two!" called Bert, while all the boys shouted for their favorite. + +In the next three or four turns the riders divided even. Finally the +last round was reached and the boys had tied; that is, both were even +when the round started. This of course made the race very interesting, +as both had equal chances of winning. + +"I'll put a dollar on green," called Mr. Bobbsey. "For the fresh-air +fund." + +"I'll put one on orange," called Uncle Daniel, "for the same charity." + +Then the ladies all wanted to bet, but Bert said it was against the +rules to allow betting. + +"We will take all the money you want to give us," said Bert, "but we +cannot allow betting on the races." + +"All ready!" called the ringmaster, holding his revolver high in the +air again. + +Bang went the gun! + +Off went the chariots! + +My, how those little goats did run! + +"Go it, green!" + +"Go it, orange!" + +Shout after shout greeted the riders as they urged their steeds around +the ring. + +Suddenly Jack's chariot crossed in front of August. + +"Foul!" called Bert, while Jack tried his best to get on his own side +again. + +"Back! back!" yelled Jack to his horse (goat), but the little animal +was too excited to obey. + +Finally fat August Stout, the funniest clown: dashed home first and won +the race! + +"Hurrah for Nero!" called everybody. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted +the boys long and loud. + +The circus was over! + +The money was counted, and there was exactly twenty-three dollars to be +given the poor children in the Meadow Brook Fresh-Air Camp. + +Wasn't that splendid? And to think everybody had such a good time too! + +Freddie and Roy were allowed to ride home in the goat wagons, and they +tried to race along the way. + +A committee of five boys, Bert, Harry, Jack, Tom, and August, took the +money over to the fresh-air camp the next day, and the managers said it +was a very welcome gift, for new coats were needed for some sick +children that were expected to come out from the city as soon as +provision could be made for them. + +"Somebody dropped a two-dollar bill in the ticket box," August told his +companions. "Then there were the other two dollars from the race, +besides some fifty-cent pieces I don't know who gave. Of course we +couldn't make all that just on five-and ten-cent seats. And I took in +two dollars on the peanuts besides." + +"Well, we're all satisfied," said Harry. "And I guess everybody had a +good time." + +"Sure they did," spoke up Tom, "and I hope Bert will come out here next +year to help us with another big circus. They're the best fun we ever +had." + +For some days every boy and girl in Meadow Brook talked about the +circus, which had really been a greater success than even the boys +themselves had expected. + +It was a warm afternoon quite late in July--one of those days that make +a boy feel lazy and inclined to stretch himself. + +Bert and Harry were down back of the barn sitting on the fresh stack of +hay that had just been piled up by John the stableman. + +"Did you ever try smoking?" Harry asked Bert suddenly, as if he had +discovered something new and interesting. + +"No!" answered Bert in surprise. "Father wouldn't let me smoke." + +"Neither would pa," said Harry, "but I suppose every fellow has to try +it some time. I've seen them make cigarettes out of corn silk." + +"I suppose that is not as bad as tobacco," replied Bert. + +"No," answered Harry, "there's no harm in corn silk. Guess I'll try to +roll a cigarette." + +At this Harry slid down off the hay and pulled from the fast withering +corn some dry silk. + +With a good handful he went back to Bert. + +"I've got some soft paper," he said, sitting down again and beginning +the task. + +Bert watched with interest, but really had no idea of doing wrong. + +"There!" exclaimed Harry, giving the ends of the cigarette a twist. +"How is that?" + +"Pretty good," answered Bert; "looks like a real one." + +"Let's try it!" went on Harry. + +"Not in the hay," exclaimed Bert; "you might drop the match." + +At this Harry slid down along the side of the stack, and Bert followed. + +It did seem wrong as soon as Harry struck the match, but the cigarette +being only corn silk made the boys forget all the warnings never to +smoke. + +Harry gave a puff or two. Then he choked a little. + +"Kinder strong," he spluttered. "You try it!" + +Bert put the cigarette in his mouth. He drew it once or twice, then +quickly tossed it aside. + +"Ouch!" he exclaimed. "Tastes like old shoes!" + +At that time John came up and piled on some more hay. The boys of +course had to act as if nothing had happened, and dared not look around +to find the lighted cigarette even though they wanted to very much. + +"I hope it went out," Bert said, as John walked away again. + +"If it didn't it's under the hay," said Harry, somewhat alarmed. "But I +guess it's out." + +"My, look at the storm coming!" Bert exclaimed suddenly. "We ought to +help John with that load of hay." + +"All right," said Harry, "come along!" and with this the two boys +started on a run down through the fields into the open meadow, where +the dry hay was being packed up ready to put on the hay rick. + +John, of course, was very glad of the help, for it spoils hay to get it +wet, so all three worked hard to load up before the heavy shower should +come up. + +"All ready!" called John, "and no time to lose." + +At this the boys jumped up and all started for the barn. + +"There's smoke!" exclaimed Harry in terror as they neared the barn. + +"The barn is afire!" screamed John the next minute, almost falling from +his seat on the wagon in his haste to get down. + +"Quick! quick!" yelled the boys, so frightened they could hardly move. + +"The hose!" called John, seeing flames now shoot out of the barn +windows, "Get the hose, Harry; it's in the coach house. I'll get a +bucket while you attach the hose." + +By this time everybody was out from the house. + +"Oh, mercy!" cried Aunt Sarah. "Our whole barn will be burned." + +Uncle Daniel was with John now, pouring water on the flames, that were +gaining in spite of all efforts to put them out. + +"Where's the firemen!" cried little Freddie, in real tears this time, +for he, like all the others, was awfully frightened. + +The boys had a stream from the hose now, but this too was of no +account, for the flames had shot up from the big pile of dry hay! + +"The firemen!" called Freddie again. + +"There are no firemen in the country, Freddie," Nan told him. "We have +to put the fire out ourselves." + +"We can't then," he went on, "and all the other barns will burn too." + +There was indeed great danger, for the flames were getting ahead +rapidly. + +All this time the terrific thunderstorm was coming up. + +Clap after clap of thunder rolled over the hills and made the fire look +more terrible against the black sky. + +"The rain!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel at last, "The rain may put it out; +we can't." + +At this one terrific clap of thunder came. Then the downpour of rain. +It came like a very deluge, and as it fell on the flames it sent out +steam and smoke but quickly subdued the cracking and flashing of the +fire. + +Everybody ran to the back porch now but John and Uncle Daniel. They +went in the coach house at the side of the barn. + +"How could it have caught fire?" Aunt Sarah said. But Harry and Bert +were both very pale, and never said a word. + +How heavily the rain did pour down, just like a cloudburst! And as it +struck the fire even the smoke began to die out. + +"It's going out!" exclaimed Harry. "Oh, I hope it keeps on raining!" + +Soon there was even no more smoke! + +"It's out!" called John, a little later. "That was a lucky storm for +us." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FLOOD + + +The heavy downpour of rain had ceased now, and everybody ran to the +barn to see what damage the fire had done. + +"It almost caught my pigeon coop!" said Harry, as he examined the +blackened beams in the barn near the wire cage his birds lived in. + +"The entire back of this barn will have to be rebuilt," said Uncle +Daniel. "John, are you sure you didn't drop a match in the hay?" + +"Positive, sir!" answered John. "I never use a match while I'm working. +Didn't even have one in my clothes." + +Bert whispered something to Harry. It was too much to have John blamed +for their wrongdoing. + +"Father!" said Harry bravely, but with tears in his eyes. "It was our +fault; we set the barn afire!" + +"What!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel in surprise. "You boys set the barn +afire!" + +"Yes," spoke up Bert. "It was mostly my fault. I threw the cigarette +away and we couldn't find it." + +"Cigarette!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel. "What!--you boys smoking!" + +Both Bert and Harry started to cry. They were not used to being spoken +to like that, and of course they realized how much it cost to put that +nasty old cigarette in their mouths. Besides there might have been a +great deal more damage if it hadn't been for the rain. + +"Come with me!" Uncle Daniel said; "we must find out how all this +happened," and he led the unhappy boys into the coach house, where they +all sat down on a bench. + +"Now, Harry, stop your crying, and tell me about it," the father +commanded. + +Harry tried to obey, but his tears choked him. Bert was the first able +to speak. + +"Oh, Uncle Daniel," he cried, "we really didn't mean to smoke. We only +rolled up some corn silk in a piece of paper and--" + +His tears choked back his words now, and Harry said: + +"It was I who rolled the cigarette, father, and it was awful, it almost +made us sick. Then when Bert put it in his mouth--" + +"I threw it away and it must have fallen in the hay!" said Bert. + +"Why didn't you come and tell me?" questioned Uncle Daniel severely. +"It was bad enough to do all that, but worse to take the risk of fire!" + +"Well, the storm was coming," Harry answered, "and we went to help John +with the hay!" + +"Now, boys," said Uncle Daniel, "this has been a very serious lesson to +you and one which you will remember all your lives. I need not punish +you any more; you have suffered enough from the fright of that awful +fire. And if it hadn't been that you were always pretty good boys the +Lord would not have sent that shower to save us as He did." + +"I bet I'll never smoke again as long as I live," said Harry +determinedly through his tears. + +"Neither will I," Bert said firmly, "and I'll try to make other fellows +stop if I can." + +"All right," answered Uncle Daniel, "I'm sure you mean that, and don't +forget to thank the Lord to-night for helping us as He did. And you +must ask His pardon too for doing wrong, remember." + +This ended the boys' confession, but they could not stop crying for a +long time, and Bert felt so sick and nervous he went to bed without +eating any supper. Uncle Daniel gave orders that no one should refer to +the fire or cause the boys any more worry, as they were both really +very nervous from the shock, so that beyond helping John clear things +up in the burned end of the barn, there was no further reference to the +boys' accident. + +Next day it rained very hard--in fact, it was one of those storms that +come every summer and do not seem to know when to go away. + +"The gate at the sawmill dam is closed," Harry told Bert, "and if the +pond gets any higher they won't be able to cross the plank to open up +the gate and let the water out." + +"That would be dangerous, wouldn't it?" Bert asked. + +"Very," replied Harry. "Peter Burns' house is right in line with the +dam at the other side of the plank, and if the dam should ever burst +that house would be swept away." + +"And the barn and henhouse are nearer the pond than the house even!" +Bert remarked. "It would be an awful loss for a poor man." + +"Let's go up in the attic and see how high the pond is," Harry +suggested. + +From the top of the house the boys could see across the high pond bank +into the water. + +"My!" Bert exclaimed; "isn't it awful!" + +"Yes, it is," Harry replied. "You see, all the streams from the +mountains wash into this pond, and in a big storm like this it gets +very dangerous." + +"Why do they build houses in such dangerous places?" asked Bert. + +"Oh, you see, that house of Burns' has stood there maybe one hundred +years--long before any dam was put in the pond to work the sawmill," +said Harry. + +"Oh, that's it--is it?" Bert replied. "I thought it was queer to put +houses right in line with a dam." + +"See how strong the water is getting," went on Harry. "Look at that big +log floating down." + +"It will be fun when it stops raining," remarked Bert. "We can sail +things almost anywhere." + +"Yes, I've seen the pond come right up across the road down at Hopkins' +once," Harry told his cousins. "That was when it had rained a whole +week without stopping." + +"Say," called Dinah from the foot of the stairs. "You boys up there +better get your boots on and look after that Frisky cow. John's gone +off somewhere, and dat calf am crying herself sick out in de barn. +Maybe she a-gettin' drownded." + +It did not take long to get their boots and overcoats on and hurry out +to the barn. + +"Sure enough, she is getting drownded!" exclaimed Harry, as they saw +the poor little calf standing in water up to her knees. + +"Where is all the water coming from?" asked Bert. + +"I don't know," Harry answered, "unless the tank upstairs has +overflowed." + +The boys ran up the stairs and found, just as Harry thought, the tank +that supplied all the barns with water, and which also gave a supply +for the house to be used on the lawn, was flowing over. + +"Is there any way of letting it out?" asked Bert, quite frightened. + +"We can open all the faucets, besides dipping out pailfuls," said +Harry. "But I wish John would get back." + +Harry ran to get the big water pail, while Bert turned on the faucet at +the outside of the barn, the one in the horse stable, another that +supplied water for the chickens and ducks, and the one John used for +carriage washing. Frisky, of course, had been moved to a dry corner and +now stopped crying. + +Harry gathered all the large water pails he could carry, and hurried up +to the tank followed by Bert. + +"It has gone down already," said Harry, as they looked into the tank +again. "But we had better dip out all we can, to make sure. Lucky we +found it as soon as we did, for there are all father's tools on the +bench right under the tank, besides all those new paints that have just +been opened." + +"Here comes John now," said Bert, as he heard the barn door open and +shut again. + +"Come up here, John!" called Harry; "we're almost flooded out. The tank +overflowed." + +"It did!" exclaimed John. "Gracious! I hope nothing is spoiled." + +"Oh, we just caught it in tine," Harry told him, "and we opened up the +faucets as soon as we could. Then we began dipping out, to make sure." + +"You were smart boys this time," John told him, "and saved a lot of +trouble by being so prompt to act. There is going to be a flood sure. +The dam is roaring like Niagara, and they haven't opened the gates +yet." + +"I'm glad we are up high," Bert remarked, for he had never seen a +country flood before, and was a good deal frightened at the prospect. + +"Hey, John!" called Freddie from the back porch. "Hey, bring me some +more nails, will you? I need them for my ark." + +"He's building an ark!" laughed Bert. "Guess we'll need it all right if +this keeps on." + +Harry got some nails from his toolbox in the carriage house, and the +boys went up to the house. + +There they found Freddie on the hard cement cellar floor, nailing +boards together as fast as his little hammer could drive the nails in. + +"How's that?" asked the little fellow, standing up the raft. + +"I guess that will float," said Bert, "and when it stops raining we can +try it." + +"I'm going to make a regular ark like the play one I've got home," said +Freddie, "only mine will be a big one with room for us all, besides +Frisky, Snoop, Fluffy, and--" + +"Old Bill. We'll need a horse to tow us back when the water goes down," +laughed Harry. + +Freddie went on working as seriously as if he really expected to be a +little Noah and save all the people from the flood. + +"My, but it does rain!" exclaimed somebody on the front porch. + +It was Uncle Daniel, who had just returned from the village, soaking +wet. + +"They can't open the gates," Uncle Daniel told Aunt Sarah. "They let +the water get so high the planks sailed away and now they can't get +near the dam." + +"That is bad for the poor Burns family!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah. "I had +better have John drive me down and see if they need anything." "I +stopped in on my way up," Uncle Daniel told her, "and they were about +ready to move out. We'll bring them up here if it gets any worse." + +"Why don't they go to the gates in a boat?" asked Bert. + +"Why, my dear boy," said Uncle Daniel, "anybody who would go near that +torrent in a boat might as well jump off the bridge. The falls are +twenty-five feet high, and the water seems to have built them up twice +that. If one went within two hundred feet of the dam the surging water +would carry him over." + +"You see," said Harry, explaining it further, "there is like a window +in the falls, a long low door. When this is opened the water is drawn +down under and does not all have to go over the falls." + +"And if there is too much pressure against the stone wall that makes +the dam, the wall may be carried away. That's what we call the dam +bursting," finished Uncle Daniel. + +All this was very interesting to Bert, who could not help being +frightened at the situation. + +The boys told Uncle Daniel how the tank in the barn had overflowed, and +he said they had done good work to prevent any damage. + +"Oh, Uncle Daniel!" exclaimed Freddie, just then running up from the +cellar. "Come and see my ark! It's most done, and I'm going to put all +the animals and things in it to save them from the flood." + +"An ark!" exclaimed his uncle, laughing. "Well, you're a sensible +little fellow to build an ark to-day, Freddie, for we will surely need +one if this keeps up," and away they went to examine the raft Freddie +had actually nailed together in the cellar. + +That was an awful night in Meadow Brook, and few people went to bed, +staying up instead to watch the danger of the flood. The men took turns +walking along the pond bank all night long, and their low call each +hour seemed to strike terror in the hearts of those who were in danger. + +The men carried lanterns, and the little specks of light were all that +could be seen through the darkness. + +Mrs. Burns had refused to leave her home. + +"I will stay as long as I can," she told Uncle Daniel. "I have lived +here many a year, and that dam has not broken yet, so I'm not going to +give up hope now!" + +"But you could hardly get out in time should it break," insisted Uncle +Daniel, "and you know we have plenty of room and you are welcome with +us." + +Still she insisted on staying, and each hour when the watchman would +call from the pond bank, just like they used to do in old war-times: +"Two o'clock-and--all is--well!" Mrs. Burns would look up and say, +"Dear Lord, I thank Thee!" + +Peter, of course, was out with the men. He could not move his barns and +chicken house, but he had taken his cow and horse to places of safety. + +There were other families along the road in danger as well as the +Burnses, but they were not so near the dam, and would get some warning +to escape before the flood could reach them should the dam burst. + +How the water roared! And how awfully dark it was! Would morning ever +come? + +"Four o'clock--the water rises!" shouted the men from the bank. + +"Here, Mary!" called Peter Burns at the door of their little home, "you +put your shawl on and run up the road as fast as you can! Don't wait to +take anything, but go!" + +"Oh, my babies' pictures!" she cried. "My dear babies! I must have +them." + +The poor frightened little woman rushed about the house looking for the +much-prized pictures of her babies that were in heaven. + +"It's a good thing they all have a safe home to-night," she thought, +"for their mother could not give them safety if they were here." + +"Come, Mary!" called Peter, outside. "That dam is swaying like a tree- +top, and it will go over any minute." With one last look at the little +home Mrs. Burns went out and closed the door. + +Outside there were people from all along the road. Some driven out of +their homes in alarm, others having turned out to help their neighbors. + +The watchmen had left the bank. A torrent from the dam would surely +wash that away, and brave as the men were they could not watch the +flood any longer. + +"Get past the willows quick!" called the men. "Let everybody who is not +needed hurry up the road!" + +Mr. Mason, Mr. Hopkins, Uncle Daniel, and John, besides Peter Burns, +were the men most active in the life-saving work. There were not many +boats to be had, but what there were had been brought inland early in +the day, for otherwise they would have been washed away long before +down the stream into the river. + +"What's that?" called Uncle Daniel, as there was a heavy crash over +near the gates. + +Then everybody listened breathless. + +It was just coming daylight, and the first streak of dawn saw the end +of the awful rain. + +Not one man in the crowd dared to run up that pond bank and look over +the gates! + +"It's pretty strong!" said the watchman. "I expected to hear it crash +an hour ago!" + +There was another crash! + +"There she goes!" said Mr. Burns, and then nobody spoke. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A TOWN AFLOAT + + +"Is she going?" asked Uncle Daniel at last, after a wait of several +minutes. + +Daylight was there now; and was ever dawn more welcome in Meadow Brook! + +"I'll go up to the pipes," volunteered John. "And I can see from +there." + +Now, the pipes were great water conduits, the immense black iron kind +that are used for carrying water into cities from reservoirs. They were +situated quite a way from the dam, but as it was daylight John could +see the gates as he stood on the pipes that crossed above the pond. + +Usually boys could walk across these pipes in safety, as they were far +above the water, but the flood had raised the stream so that the water +just reached the pipes, and John had to be careful. + +"What's that?" he said, as he looked down the raging stream. + +"Something lies across the dam!" he shouted to the anxious listeners. + +This was enough. In another minute every man was on the pond bank. + +"The big elm!" they shouted. "It has saved the dam!" + +What a wonderful thing had happened! The giant elm tree that for so +many, many years had stood on the edge of the stream, was in this great +flood washed away, and as it crossed the dam it broke the force of the +torrent, really making another waterfall. + +"It is safe now!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel in surprise. "It was the tree +we heard crash against the bank. The storm is broken at last, and that +tree will hold where it is stuck until the force goes down. Then we can +open the gates." + +To think that the houses were safe again! That poor Mrs. Burns could +come back to the old mill home once more! + +"We must never have this risk again," said Mr. Mason to Uncle Daniel. +"When the water goes down we will open the gates, then the next dry +spell that comes when there is little water in the pond we will break +that dam and let the water run through in a stream. If the mill people +want water power they will have to get it some place where it will not +endanger lives." + +Uncle Daniel agreed with Mr. Mason, and as they were both town +officials, it was quite likely what they said would be done in Meadow +Brook. + +"Hey, Bert and Harry!" called Tom Mason, as he and Jack Hopkins ran +past the Bobbsey place on their way to see the dam. "Come on down and +see the flood." + +The boys did not wait for breakfast, but with a buttered roll in hand +Harry and Bert joined the others and hurried off to the flood. + +"Did the dam burst?" was the first question everybody asked along the +way, and when told how the elm tree had saved it the people were +greatly astonished. + +"Look at this," called Tom, as they came to a turn in the road where +the pond ran level with the fields. That was where it was only stream, +and no embankment had been built around it. + +"Look!" exclaimed Jack; "the water has come up clear across the road, +and we can only pass by walking on the high board fence." + +"Or get a boat," said Tom. "Let's go back to the turn and see if +there's a boat tied anywhere." + +"Here's Herolds'," called Harry, as they found the pretty little +rowboat, used for pleasure by the summer cottagers, tied up to a tree. + +"We'll just borrow that," said Jack, and then the four boys lifted the +boat to that part of the road where the water ran. + +"All get in, and I'll push off," said Harry, who had hip-boots on. The +other three climbed in, then Harry gave a good push and scrambled over +the edge himself. + +"Think of rowing a boat in the middle of a street," said Bert. "That's +the way they do in Naples," he added, "but I never expected to see such +a thing in Meadow Brook." + +The boys pushed along quite easily, as the water was deep enough to use +oars in, and soon they had rounded the curve of the road and were in +sight of the people looking at the dam. + +"What an immense tree!" exclaimed Bert, as they left their boat and +mounted the bank. + +"That's what saved the dam!" said Harry. "Now Mrs. Burns can come back +home again." + +"But look there!" called Tom. "There goes Peter Burns' chicken house." + +Sure enough, the henhouse had left its foundation and now toppled over +into the stream. + +It had been built below the falls, near the Burns house, and Peter had +some valuable ducks and chickens in it. + +"The chickens!" called Jack, as they ran along. "Get the boat, Harry, +and we can save some." + +The boys were dashing out now right in the stream, Jack and Tom being +good oarsmen. + +But the poor chickens! What an awful noise they made, as they tried to +keep on the dry side of the floating house! + +The ducks, of course, didn't mind it, but they added their queer +quacking to the noise. + +"We can never catch any of the chickens," said Harry. "We ought to have +a rope and pull the house in." + +"A rope," called Tom to the crowd on the shore. "Throw us a rope!" + +Someone ran off and got one, and it was quickly thrown out to the boys +in the boat. + +"Push up closer," Tom told Harry and Bert, who had the oars now. Tom +made a big loop on the rope and threw it toward the house. But it only +landed over a chicken, and caused the frightened fowl to fly high up in +the air and rest in a tree on the bank. + +"Good!" cried the people on the edge. "One is safe, anyhow!" + +Tom threw the rope again. This time it caught on a corner of the +henhouse, and as he pulled the knot tight they had the floating house +secure. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the people. + +By this time Mr. Mason and Uncle Daniel had reached the spot in their +boat. + +"Don't pull too hard!" called the men to the boys. "You'll upset your +boat." + +"Throw the line to us," added Uncle Daniel, + +This the boys did, and as it was a long stretch of rope the men were +able to get all the way in to shore with it before pulling at the +house. + +"Now we'll have a tug of war," said Mr. Mason. + +"Wait for us!" cried the boys in the boat "We want to have a pull at +that." + +All this time the chickens were cackling and screeching, as the house +in the water lunged from one side to the other. It was a large new coop +and built of strong material that made it very heavy. + +"Now," said Uncle Daniel, as the boys reached the shore and secured +their boat, "all take a good hold." + +Every inch of the rope that crossed the water's edge was soon covered +with somebody's hand. + +"All pull now!" called Mr. Mason, and with a jerk in came the floating +house, chickens, ducks and all, and down went everybody that had +pulled. The force of the jerk, of course, threw them all to the ground, +but that was only fun and gave the boys a good chance to laugh. + +Just as soon as the chickens reached the shore they scampered for home +--some flying, some running, but all making a noise. + +"We may as well finish the job," said Mr. Mason. "Tom, go hitch Sable +up to the cart and we'll bring the henhouse back where it belongs." + +By running across the fields that were on the highest part of the road +Tom was able to get to his barn without a boat, and soon he returned +with the cart and Sable. + +It took all hands to get the henhouse on the cart, but this was finally +done, and away went Sable up the road with the queer load after him in +the dump cart. + +"You had better put it up on the hill this time," Peter told them. "The +water isn't gone down yet." So at last the chicken coop was settled, +and not a hen was missing. + +There were many sights to be seen about Meadow Brook that afternoon, +and the boys enjoyed the flood, now that there was no longer any danger +to life. + +Bert caught a big salmon and a black-spotted lizard that had been +flooded out from some dark place in the mountains, Harry found a pretty +toy canoe that some small boy had probably been playing with in the +stream before the water rose, and Jack was kept busy towing in all +kinds of stuff that had broken loose from barns along the pond. + +Freddie had boots on, and was happy sailing his "ark" up and down the +road. He insisted on Snoop taking a ride, but cats do not fancy water +and the black kitten quickly hid himself up in the hay loft, out of +Freddie's reach. + +Little by little the water fell, until by the next afternoon there was +no longer a river running through the roads. But there were plenty of +wet places and enough of streams washing down the rain the gutters to +give Freddie a fine canal to sail boats in. + +Nan and Flossie had boats too which Bert and Harry made for them. In +fact, all the girls along Meadow Brook road found something that would +sail while the flood days lasted. + +As it was still July the hot sun came down and dried things up pretty +quickly, but many haymows were completely spoiled, as were summer +vegetables that were too near the pond and came in for their share of +the washout. + +This loss, however, was nothing compared with what had been expected by +the farmers, and all were satisfied that a kind Providence had saved +the valley houses from complete destruction. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FRESH-AIR CAMP + + +Quiet had settled down once more upon the little village of Meadow +Brook. The excitement of the flood had died away, and now when the +month of July was almost gone, and a good part of vacation had gone +with it, the children turned their attention to a matter of new +interest--the fresh-air camp. + +"Mildred Manners was over to the camp yesterday," Nan told her mother, +"and she says a whole lot of little girls have come out from the city, +and they have such poor clothes. There is no sickness there that anyone +could catch, she says (for her uncle is the doctor, you know), but +Mildred says her mother is going to show her how to make some aprons +for the little girls." + +"Why, that would be nice for all you little girls to do," said Mrs. +Bobbsey. "Suppose you start a sewing school, and all see what you can +make!" + +"Oh, that would be lovely!" exclaimed Nan. "When can we start?" + +"As soon as we get the materials," the mother replied. "We will ask +Aunt Sarah to drive over to the camp this afternoon; then we can see +what the children need." + +"Can I go?" asked Flossie, much interested in the fresh-air work. + +"I guess so," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "If we take the depot wagon there will +be room for you and Freddie." + +So that was how it came about that our little friends became interested +in the fresh-air camp. Nan and Mildred, Flossie and Freddie, with Aunt +Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey, visited the camp in the afternoon. + +"What a queer place it is!" whispered Flossie, as they drove up to the +tents on the mountain-side. + +"Hush," said Nan; "they might hear you." + +"Oh, these are war-camps!" exclaimed Freddie when he saw the white +tents. "They're just like the war-pictures in my story book!" + +The matron who had charge of the camp came up, and when Mrs. Bobbsey +explained her business, the matron was pleased and glad to show them +through the place. + +"Oh, it was your boys who brought us all that money from the circus?" +said the woman. "That's why we have all the extra children here--the +circus money has paid for them, and they are to have two weeks on this +beautiful mountain." + +"I'm glad the boys were able to help," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It really +was quite a circus." + +"It must have been, when they made so much money," the other answered. + +"And we are going to help now," spoke up Nan. "We are starting a sewing +school." + +"Oh, I'm so glad somebody has thought of clothes," said the matron. "We +often get gifts of food, but we need clothes so badly." + +"There is no sickness?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as they started on a tour +of the camp. + +"No; we cannot take sick children here now," said the matron. "We had +some early in the season, but this is such a fine place for romping we +decided to keep this camp for the healthy children and have another for +those who are sick." + +By this time numbers of little girls and boys crowded around the +visitors. They were quite different from the children of Meadow Brook +or Lakeport. Somehow they were smaller, but looked older. Poor children +begin to worry so young that they soon look much older than they really +are. + +Nan and Mildred spoke kindly to the girls, while Freddie and Flossie +soon made friends with the little boys. One small boy, smaller than +Freddie, with sandy hair and beautiful blue eyes, was particularly +happy with Freddie. He looked better than the others, was almost as fat +as Freddie, and he had such lovely clear skin, as if somebody loved to +wash it. + +"Where do you lib?" he lisped to Freddie. + +"At Uncle Daniel's," Freddie answered. "Where do you live?" + +"With mamma," replied the little boy. Then he stopped a minute. "Oh, +no; I don't live with mamma now," he corrected himself, "'cause she's +gone to heaven, so I live with Mrs. Manily." + +Mrs. Manily was the matron, and numbers of the children called her +mamma. + +"Can I come over and play with you?" asked the boy. "What's your name?" + +"His name is Freddie and mine is Flossie," said the latter. "What is +your name?" + +"Mine is Edward Brooks," said the little stranger, "but everybody calls +me Sandy. Do you like Sandy better than Edward?" + +"No," replied Flossie. "But I suppose that's a pet name because your +hair is that color." + +"Is it?" said the boy, tossing his sunny curls around. "Maybe that's +why!" + +"Guess it is," said Freddie. "But will Mrs. Man let you come over to +our house?" + +"Mrs. Manily, you mean," said Sandy. "I'll just go and ask her." + +"Isn't he cute!" exclaimed Flossie, and the pretty little boy ran in +search of Mrs. Manily. + +"I'm going to ask mamma if we can bring him home," declared Freddie. +"He could sleep in my bed." + +The others of the party were now walking through the big tents. + +"This is where we eat," the matron explained, as the dining room was +entered. The tent was filled with long narrow tables and had benches at +the sides. The tables were covered with oilcloth, and in the center of +each was a beautiful bunch of fresh wild flowers--the small pretty kind +that grow in the woods. + +"You ought to see our poor children eat," remarked the matron. "We have +just as much as we can do to serve them, they have such good appetites +from the country air." + +"We must send you some fresh vegetables," said Aunt Sarah, "and some +fruit for Sunday." + +"We would be very grateful," replied Mrs Manily, "for of course we +cannot afford much of a variety." + +Next to the dining room was the dormitory or sleeping tent. + +"We have a little boys' brigade," said the matron, "and every pleasant +evening they march around with drums and tin fifes. Then, when it is +bedtime, we have a boy blow the 'taps' on a tin bugle, just like real +soldiers do." + +Freddie and Sandy had joined the sightseers now, and Freddie was much +interested in the brigade. + +"Who is the captain?" he asked of Mrs. Manily. + +"Oh, we appoint a new captain each week from the very best boys we +have. We only let a very good boy be captain," the matron told him. + +In the dormitory were rows and rows of small white cots. They looked +very clean and comfortable, and the door of this tent was closed with a +big green mosquito netting. + +"How old are your babies?" asked Aunt Sarah. + +"Sandy is our baby!" replied the matrons patting the little boy fondly, +"and he is four years old. We cannot take them any younger without +their mothers." + +"Freddie is four also," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "What a dear sweet child +Sandy is!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Manily, "he has just lost a good mother and his father +cannot care for him--that is, he cannot afford to pay his board or hire +a housekeeper, so he brought him to the Aid Society. He is the pet of +the camp, and you can see he has been well trained." + +"No mother and no home!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Dear little fellow! +Think of our Freddie being alone in the world like that!" + +Mrs. Bobbsey could hardly keep her tears back. She stooped over and +kissed Sandy. + +"Do you know my mamma?" he asked, looking straight into the lady's kind +face. + +"Mrs. Manily is your mamma, isn't she?" said Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"Yes, she's my number two mamma, but I mean number one that used to +sleep with me." + +"Come now, Sandy," laughed Mrs. Manily. "Didn't you tell me last night +I was the best mamma in the whole world?" and she hugged the little +fellow to make him happy again. + +"So you are," he laughed, forgetting all his loneliness now. "When I +get to be a big man I'm goin' to take you out carriage riding." + +"Can't Sandy cone home with us?" asked Freddie. "He can sleep in my +bed." + +"You are very good," said the matron. "But we cannot let any of our +children go visiting without special permission from the Society." + +"Well," said Aunt Sarah, "if you get the permission we will be very +glad to have Sandy pay us a visit. We have a large place, and would +really like to have some good poor child enjoy it. We have company now, +but they will leave us soon, and then perhaps we could have a little +fresh-air camp of our own." + +"The managers have asked us to look for a few private homes that could +accommodate some special cases," replied Mrs. Manily, "and I am sure I +can arrange it to have Sandy go." + +"Oh, let him come now," pleaded Freddie, as Sandy held tight to his +hand. "See, we have room in the wagon." + +"Well, he might have a ride," consented the matron, and before anyone +had a chance to speak again Freddie and Sandy had climbed into the +wagon. + +Nan and Mildred had been talking to some of the older girls, who were +very nice and polite for girls who had no one to teach them at home, +and Nan declared that she was coming over to the camp to play with them +some whole day. + +"We can bring our lunch," said Mildred, "and you can show us all the +pleasant play-places you have fixed up in stones over the mountain- +side." + +One girl, Nellie by name, seemed very smart and bright, and she brought +to Mrs. Bobbsey a bunch of ferns and wild flowers she had just gathered +while showing Nan and Mildred around. + +"You certainly have a lovely place here," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as they +got ready to leave, "and you little girls will be quite strong and +ready for school again when you go back to the city." + +"I don't go to school," said Nellie rather bashfully. + +"Why?" asked Aunt Sarah. + +"Oh, I go to night school," said the little girl. "But in the daytime I +have to work." + +"Why, how old are you?" asked Aunt Sarah. + +"Twelve," said Nellie shyly. + +"Working at twelve years of age!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey in surprise. +"What do you do?" + +"I'm a cash-girl in a big store," said Nellie with some pride, for many +little girls are not smart enough to hold such a position. + +"I thought all children had to go to school," Aunt Sarah said to Mrs. +Manily. + +"So they do," replied the matron, "but in special cases they get +permission from the factory inspector. Then they can work during the +day and go to school at night." + +"I think it's a shame!" said the mother. "That child is not much larger +than Nan, and to think of her working in a big store all day, then +having to work at night school too!" + +"It does not seem right!" admitted the matron; "but, you see, sometimes +there is no choice. Either a child must work or go to an institution, +and we strain every point to keep them in their homes." + +"We will drive back with Sandy," said Aunt Sarah as they got into the +wagon. + +"Can't Nellie come too?" asked Nan. "There is plenty of room." + +The matron said yes, and so the little party started off for a ride +along the pretty road. + +"I was never in a carriage before in all my life," said Nellie +suddenly. "Isn't it grand!" + +"Never!" exclaimed the other girls in surprise. + +"No," said Nellie. "I've had lots of rides in trolley cars, and we had +a ride in a farm wagon the other day, but this is the first time I have +ever been in a carriage." + +Aunt Sarah was letting Sandy drive, and he, of course, was delighted. +Freddie enjoyed it almost as well as Sandy did, and kept telling him +which rein to pull on and all that. Old Bill, the horse, knew the road +so well he really didn't need any driver, but he went along very nicely +with the two little boys talking to him. + +"We will stop and have some soda at the postoffice," said Mrs. Bobbsey. +For the postoffice was also a general store. + +This was good news to everybody, and when the man came out for the +order Aunt Sarah told him to bring cakes too. + +Everybody liked the ice cream soda, but it was plain Nellie and Sandy +had not had such a treat in a long time. + +"This is the best fun I've had!" declared the little cash-girl, +allowing how grateful she was. "And I hope you'll come and see us +again," she added politely to Mildred and Nan. + +"Oh, we intend to," said Mildred. "You know, we are going to have a +sewing school to make aprons for the little ones at the camp." + +Old Bill had turned back to the fresh-air quarters again, and soon, too +soon, Sandy was handed back to Mrs. Manily, while Nellie jumped down +and said what a lovely time she had had. + +"Now be sure to come, Sandy," called Freddie, "'cause I'll expect you!" + +"I will," said Sandy rather sadly, for he would rather have gone along +right then. + +"And I'll let you play with Snoop and my playthings," Freddie called +again. "Good-bye." + +"Good-bye," answered the little fresh children. + +Then old Bill took the others home. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +SEWING SCHOOL + + +"Let's get Mabel and all the others," said Nan to Mildred. "We ought +to take at least six gingham aprons and three nightgowns over to the +camp." + +Aunt Sarah had turned a big long attic room into a sewing school where +Nan and Mildred had full charge. Flossie was to look after the spools +of thread, keeping them from tangling up, and the girls agreed to let +Freddie cut paper patterns. + +This was not a play sewing school but a real one, for Aunt Sarah and +Mrs. Bobbsey were to do the operating or machine sewing, while the +girls were to sew on tapes, buttons, overhand seams, and do all that. + +Mildred and Nan invited Mabel, Nettie, Marie Brenn (she was visiting +the Herolds), Bessie, and Anna Thomas, a big girl who lived over +Lakeside way. + +"Be sure to bring your thimbles and needles," Nan told them. "And come +at two o'clock this afternoon." + +Every girl came--even Nettie, who was always so busy at home. + +Mrs. Bobbsey sat at the machine ready to do stitching while Aunt Sarah +was busy "cutting out" on a long table in front of the low window. + +"Now, young ladies," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "we have ready some blue +gingham aprons. You see how they are cut out; two seams, one at each +side, then they are to be closed down the back. There will be a pair of +strings on each apron, and you may begin by pressing down a narrow hem +on these strings. We will not need to baste them, just press them down +with the finger this way." + +Mrs. Bobbsey then took up a pair of the sashes and turned in the edges. +Immediately the girls followed her instructions, and very soon all of +the strings were ready for the machine. + +Nan handed them to her mother, and then Aunt Sarah gave out the work. + +"Now these are the sleeves," said Aunt Sarah, "and they must each have +little gathers brought in at the elbow here between these notches. Next +you place the sleeve together notch to notch, and they can be stitched +without basting." + +"Isn't it lively to work this way?" said Mildred. "It isn't a bit of +trouble, and see how quickly we get done." + +"Many hands make light work," replied Mrs. Bobbsey. "I guess we will +get all the aprons finished this afternoon." + +Piece by piece the various parts of the garments were given out, until +there remained nothing more to do than to put on buttons and work +buttonholes, and overhand the arm holes. + +"I'll cut the buttonholes," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "then Nan and Mildred +may work the buttonholes by sticking a pin through each hole. The other +girls may then sew the buttons on." + +It was wonderful how quickly those little pearl buttons went down the +backs of the aprons. + +"I believe I could make an apron all alone now," said Nan, "if it was +cut out." + +"So could I," declared Mildred. "It isn't hard at all." + +"Well, here's my patterns," spoke up Freddie, who with Flossie had been +busy over in the corner cutting "ladies" out of a fashion paper. + +"No, they're paper dolls," said Flossie, who was standing them all up +in a row, "and we are going to give them to the fresh-air children to +play with on rainy days." + +It was only half-past four when Nan rang the bell to dismiss the sewing +school. + +"We have had such a lovely time," said Mabel, "we would like to have +sewing to do every week." + +"Well, you are welcome to come," said Aunt Sarah. "We will make night +dresses for the poor little ones next week, then after that you might +all bring your own work, mending, fancywork or tidies, whatever you +have to do." + +"And we might each pay five cents to sew for the fresh-air children," +suggested Mildred. + +"Yes, all charity sewing classes have a fund," Mrs. Bobbsey remarked. +"That would be a good idea." + +"Now let us fold up the aprons," said Nan. "Don't they look pretty?" + +And indeed the half-dozen blue-and-white ginghams did look very nice, +for they were carefully made and all smooth and even. + +"When can we iron them out?" asked Flossie, anxious to deliver the +gifts to the needy little ones. + +"To-morrow afternoon," replied her mother. "The boys are going to pick +vegetables in the morning, and we will drive over in the afternoon." + +Uncle Daniel had given the boys permission to pick all the butter-beans +and string-beans that were ripe, besides three dozen ears of the +choicest corn, called "Country Gentleman." + +"Children can only eat very tender corn," said Uncle Daniel, "and as +that is sweet and milky they will have no trouble digesting it." + +Harry looked over every ear of the green corn by pulling the husks down +and any that seemed a bit overripe he discarded. + +"We will have to take the long wagon," said Bert, as they began to +count up the baskets. There were two of beans, three of corn, one of +lettuce, two of sweet apples, besides five bunches of Freddie's +radishes. + +"Be sure to bring Sandy back with you," called Freddie, who did not go +to the camp this time. "Tell him I'll let him be my twin brother." + +Nan and Aunt Sarah went with the boys, but how disappointed they were +to find a strange matron in charge of the camp, and Sandy's eyes red +from crying after Mrs. Manily. + +"Oh, I knowed you would come to take me to Freddie," cried he, "'cause +my other mamma is gone too, and I'm all alone." + +"Mrs. Manily was called away by sickness in her family," explained the +new matron, "and I cannot do anything with this little boy." + +"He was so fond of Mrs. Manily," said Aunt Sarah, "and besides he +remembers how lonely he was when his own mother went away. Maybe we +could bring him over to our house for a few days." + +"Yes, Mrs. Manily spoke of that," said the matron, "and she had +received permission from the Society to let Edward pay a visit to Mrs. +Daniel Bobbsey. See, here is the card." + +"Oh, that will be lovely!" cried Nan, hugging Sandy as tight as her +arms could squeeze. + +"Freddie told us to be sure to bring you back with us." + +"I am so glad to get these things," the matron said to Aunt Sarah, as +she took the aprons, "for everybody has been upset with Mrs. Manily +having to leave so suddenly. The aprons are lovely. Did the little +girls make them?" + +Aunt Sarah told her about the sewing school, and then she said she was +going to have a little account printed about it in the year's report of +good work done for the Aid Society. + +"And Mrs. Manily has written an account of your circus," the matron +told Harry and Bert, for she had heard about the boys and their +successful charity work. + +Some of the girls who knew Nan came up now and told her how Nellie, the +little cash-girl, had been taken sick and had had to be removed to the +hospital tent over in the other mountain. + +This was sad news to Nan, for she loved the little cash-girl, and hoped +to see her and perhaps have her pay a visit to Aunt Sarah's. + +"Is she very sick?" Aunt Sarah asked the matron. + +"Yes indeed," the other replied. "But the doctor will soon cure her, I +think." + +"The child is too young to work so hard," Aunt Sarah declared. "It is +no wonder her health breaks down at the slightest cause, when she has +no strength laid away to fight sickness." + +By this time a big girl had washed and dressed Sandy, and now what a +pretty boy he was! He wore a blue-and-white-striped linen suit and had +a jaunty little white cap just like Freddie's. + +He was so anxious to go that he jumped in the wagon before the others +were ready to start. + +"Get app, Bill!" he called, grabbing at the reins, and off the old +horse started with no one in the wagon but Sandy! + +Sandy had given the reins such a jerk that Bill started to run, and the +more the little boy tried to stop him the harder he went! + +"Don't slap him with the reins!" called Harry, who was now running down +the hill as hard as he could after the wagon. "Pull on the reins!" he +called again. + +But Sandy was so excited he kept slapping the straps up and down on +poor Bill, which to the horse, of course, meant to go faster. + +"He'll drive in the brook," called Bert in alarm also rushing after the +runaway. "Whoa, Bill! whoa, Bill!" called everybody, the children from +the camp having now joined in following the wagon. + +The brook was directly in front of Sandy. + +"Quick, Harry!" yelled Bert. "You'll get him in a minute." + +It was no easy matter, however, to overtake Sandy, for the horse had +been on a run from the start. But Sandy kept his seat well, and even +seemed to think it good fun now to have everybody running after him and +no one able to catch him. + +"Oh, I'm so afraid he'll go in the pond!" Nan told Aunt Sarah almost in +tears. + +"Bill would sit down first," declared Aunt Sarah, who knew her horse to +be an intelligent animal. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" screamed everybody, for the horse had crossed from the +road into the little field that lay next the water. + +"Whoa, Bill!" shouted Aunt Sarah at the top of her voice, and instantly +the horse stood still. + +The next minute both Bert and Harry were in the wagon beside Sandy. + +"Can't I drive?" asked the little fellow innocently, while Harry was +backing out of the swamp. + +"You certainly made Bill go," Harry admitted, all out of breath from +running. + +"And you gave us a good run too," added Bert, who was red in the face +from his violent exercise. + +"Bill knew ma meant it when she said whoa!" Harry remarked to Bert. "I +tell you, he stopped just in time, for a few feet further would have +sunk horse, wagon, and all in the swamp." + +Of course it was all an accident, for Sandy had no idea of starting the +horse off, so no one blamed him when they got back to the road. + +"We'll all get in this time," laughed Aunt Sarah to the matron. "And +I'll send the boys over Sunday to let you know how Sandy is." + +"Oh, he will be all right with Freddie!" Bert said, patting the little +stranger on the shoulders. "We will take good care of him." + +It was a pleasant ride back to the Bobbsey farm, and all enjoyed it-- +especially Sandy, who had gotten the idea he was a first-class driver +and knew all about horses, old Bill, in particular. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Freddie, when the wagon turned in the drive. +"I knowed you would come, Sandy!" and the next minute the two little +boys were hand in hand running up to the barn to see Frisky, Snoop, the +chickens, ducks, pigeons, and everything at once. + +Sandy was a little city boy and knew nothing about real live country +life, so that everything seemed quite wonderful to him, especially the +chickens and ducks. He was rather afraid of anything as big as Frisky. + +Snoop and Fluffy were put through their circus tricks for the +stranger's benefit, and then Freddie let Sandy turn on his trapeze up +under the apple tree and showed him all the different kinds of turns +Bert and Harry had taught the younger twin how to perform on the swing. + +"How long can you stay?" Freddie asked his little friend, while they +were swinging. + +"I don't know," Sandy replied vaguely. + +"Maybe you could go to the seashore with us," Freddie ventured. "We are +only going to stay in the country this month." + +"Maybe I could go," lisped Sandy, "'cause nobody ain't got charge of me +now. Mrs. Manily has gone away, you know, and I don't b'lieve in the +other lady, do you?" + +Freddie did not quite understand this but he said "no" just to agree +with Sandy. + +"And you know the big girl, Nellie, who always curled my hair without +pulling it,--she's gone away too, so maybe I'm your brother now," went +on the little orphan. + +"Course you are!" spoke up Freddie manfully, throwing his arms around +the other, "You're my twin brother too, 'cause that's the realest kind. +We are all twins, you know--Nan and Bert, and Flossie and me and you!" + +By this time the other Bobbseys had come out to welcome Sandy. They +thought it best to let Freddie entertain him at first, so that he would +not be strange, but now Uncle Daniel just took the little fellow up in +his arms and into his heart, for all good men love boys, especially +when they are such real little men as Sandy and Freddie happened to be. + +"He's my twin brother, Uncle Daniel," Freddie insisted. "Don't you +think he's just like me curls and all?" + +"He is certainly a fine little chap!" the uncle replied, meaning every +word of it, "and he is quite some like you too. Now let us feed the +chickens. See how they are around us expecting something to eat?" + +The fowls were almost ready to eat the pearl buttons off Sandy's coat, +so eager were they for their meal, and it was great fun for the two +little boys to toss the corn to them. + +"Granny will eat from your hand," exclaimed Uncle Daniel, "You see, she +is just like granite-gray stone, but we call her Granny for short." + +The Plymouth Rock hen came up to Sandy, and much to his delight ate the +corn out of his little white hand. + +"Oh, she's a pretty chicken!" he said, stroking Granny as he would a +kitten. "I dust love chitens," he added, sitting right down on the +sandy ground to let Granny come up on his lap. There was so much to see +in the poultry yard that Sandy, Freddie, and Uncle Daniel lingered +there until Martha appeared at the back door and rang the big dinner +bell in a way that meant, "Hurry up! something will get cold if you +don't." + +And the something proved to be chicken pot-pie with dumplings that +everybody loves. And after that there came apple pudding with hard +sauce, just full of sugar. + +"Is it a party?" Sandy whispered to Freddie, for he was not accustomed +to more than bread and milk at his evening meal. + +"Yes, I guess so," ventured Freddie; "it's because you came," and then +Dinah brought in little play cups of chocolate with jumbles on the +side, and Mrs. Bobbsey said that would be better than the pudding for +Freddie and Sandy. + +"I guess I'll just live here," solemnly said the little stranger, as if +his decision in such a matter should not be questioned. + +"I guess you better!" Freddie agreed, "'cause it's nicer than over +there, isn't it?" + +"Lots," replied Sandy, "only maybe Mrs. Manily will cry for me," and he +looked sad as his big blue eyes turned around and blinked to keep back +some tears. "I dust love Mrs. Manily, Freddie; don't you?" he asked +wistfully. + +Then Harry and Bert jumped up to start the phonograph, and that was +like a band wagon to the little fellows, who liked to hear the popular +tunes called off by the funny man in the big bright horn. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A MIDNIGHT SCARE + + +"Sometimes I'm afraid in the bed tent over there," said Sandy to +Freddie. "'Cause there ain't nothing to keep the dark out but a piece +of veil in the door." + +"Mosquito netting," corrected Freddie. "I would be afraid to sleep +outdoors that way too. 'Cause maybe there's snakes." + +"There sure is," declared the other little fellow, cuddling up closer +to Freddie. "'Cause one of the boys, Tommy his name is, killed two the +other day." + +"Well, there ain't no snakes around here," declared Freddie, "an' this +bed was put in this room, right next to mama's, for me, so you needn't +be scared when Aunt Sarah comes and turns out the lights." + +Both little boys were very sleepy, and in spite of having so many +things to tell each other the sand-man came around and interrupted +them, actually making their eyes fall down like porch screens when +someone touches the string. + +Mrs. Bobbsey came up and looked in at the door. + +Two little sunny heads so close together! + +"Why should that little darling be left alone over in the dark tent!" +she thought. "See how happy he is with our own dear son Freddie." + +Then she tucked them a little bit, half closed the door, and turned out +the hall light. + +Everybody must have been dreaming for hours, it seemed so at any rate, +when suddenly all were awake again. + +What was it? + +What woke up the household with such a start? + +"There it is again!" screamed Flossie. "Oh, mamma, mamma, come in my +room quick!" + +Sandy grabbed hold of Freddie. + +"We're all right," whispered the brave little Freddie. "It's only the +girls that's hollering." + +Then they both put their curls under the bedquilts. + +"Someone's playing the piano," Bert said to Harry; and, sure enough, a +nocturnal solo was coming up in queer chunks from the parlor. + +"It's a crazy burglar, and he never saw a piano before," Flossie said. + +The hall clock just struck midnight. That seemed to make everybody more +frightened. + +Uncle Daniel was hurrying down the stairs now. + +"There it is again," whispered Bert, as another group of wild chords +came from the piano. + +"It must be cats!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel. "Harry, come down here and +help light up, and we'll solve this mystery." + +Without a moment's hesitation Bert and Harry were down the stairs and +had the hall light burning as quickly as a good match could be struck. + +But there was no more music and no cats about. + +"Where is Snoop?" asked Uncle Daniel. + +The boys opened the hall door into the cellarway, and found there Snoop +on his cushion and Fluffy on hers. + +"It wasn't the cats," they declared. + +"What could it be?" + +Uncle Daniel even lighted the piano lamp, which gave a strong light, +but there didn't seem to be any disturbance about. + +"It certainly was the piano," he said, much puzzled. + +"And sounded like a cat serenade," ventured Harry. + +"Well, she isn't around here," laughed Uncle Daniel, "and we never +heard of a ghost in Meadow Brook before." + +All this time the people upstairs waited anxiously. Flossie held Nan so +tightly about the neck that the elder sister could hardly breathe. +Freddie and Sandy were still under the bedclothes, while Mrs. Bobbsey +and Aunt Sarah listened in the hall. + +"Dat sure is a ghost," whispered Dinah to Martha in the hall above. +"Ghosts always lub music," and her funny big eyes rolled around in that +queer way colored people have of expressing themselves. + +"Ghosts nothin'," replied Martha indignantly. "I dusted every key of +the piano to-day, and I guess I could smell a ghost about as quick as +anybody." + +"Well, I don't see that we can do any good by sitting around here," +remarked Uncle Dan to the boys, after the lapse of some minutes. "We +may as well put out the lights and get into bed again." + +"But I cannot see what it could be!" Mrs. Bobbsey insisted, as they all +prepared to retire again. + +"Neither can we!" agreed Uncle Daniel. "Maybe our piano has one of +those self-playing tricks, and somebody wound it up by accident." + +But no sooner were the lights out and the house quiet than the piano +started again. + +"Hush! keep quiet!" whispered Uncle Daniel. "I'll get it this time, +whatever it is!" + +With matches in one hand and a candle in the other he started +downstairs in the dark without making a sound, while the piano kept on +playing in "chunks" as Harry said, same as it did before. + +Once in the parlor Uncle Daniel struck a match and put it to the +candle, and then the music ceased. + +"There he is!" he called, and Flossie thought she surely would die. +Slam! went the music-book at something, and Sandy almost choked with +fear. + +Bang! went something else, that brought Bert and Harry downstairs to +help catch the burglar. + +"There he is in the corner!" called Uncle Daniel to the boys, and then +began such a slam banging time that the people upstairs were in terror +that the burglar would kill Harry and Bert and Uncle Daniel. + +"We've got him' We've got him!" declared Harry, while Bert lighted the +lamp. + +"Is he dead?" screamed Aunt Sarah from the stairs. + +"As a door-nail!" answered Harry. + +"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, hardly able to speak. + +"A big gray rat," replied Uncle Daniel, and everybody had a good laugh. + +"I thought it might be that," said Mrs. Bobbsey. + +"So did I" declared Nan. "But I wasn't sure." + +"I thought it was a big black burglar," Flossie said, her voice still +shaking from the fright. + +"I thought it was a policeman," faltered Sandy. "'Cause they always +bang things like that." + +"And I thought, sure's yo' life, it was a real ghost," laughed Dinah. +"'Cause de clock jest struck fer de ghost hour. Ha! ha! dat was suah a +musicanious rat." + +"He must have come in from the fields where John has been plowing. Like +a cat in a strange garret, he didn't know what to do in a parlor," said +Uncle Daniel. + +Harry took the candle and looked carefully over the keys. + +"Why, there's something like seeds on the keys!" he said. + +"Oh, I have it!" exclaimed Bert. "Nan left her hat on the piano last +night, and it has those funny straw flowers on it. See, the rat got +some of them off and they dropped on the keys." + +"And the other time he came for the cake," said Aunt Sarah. + +"That's it," declared Uncle Daniel, "and each time we scared him off he +came back again to finish his meal. But I guess he is through now," and +so saying he took the dead rodent and raising the side window tossed +him out. + +It was some time before everybody got quieted down again, but finally +the rat scare was over and the Bobbseys turned to dreams of the happy +summer-time they were enjoying. + +When Uncle Dan came up from the postoffice the next morning he brought +a note from the fresh-air camp. + +"Sandy has to go back!" Nan whispered to Bert. "His own father in the +city has sent for him, but mamma says not to say anything to Sandy or +Freddie--they might worry. Aunt Sarah will drive over and bring Sandy, +then they can fix it. I'm so sorry he has to go away." + +"So am I," answered Nan's twin. "I don't see why they can't let the +little fellow alone when he is happy with us." + +"But it's his own father, you know, and something about a rich aunt. +Maybe she is going to adopt Sandy." + +"We ought to adopt him; he's all right with us," Bert grumbled. "What +did his rich aunt let him cry his eyes out for if she cared anything +for him?" + +"Maybe she didn't know about him then," Nan considered. "I'm sure +everybody would have to love Sandy." + +At that Sandy ran along the path with Freddie. He looked like a live +buttercup, so fresh and bright, his sunny sandy curls blowing in the +soft breeze. Mrs. Bobbsey had just called the children to her. + +"We are going over to see Mrs. Manily today, Sandy," she said. "Won't +you be awfully glad to see your own dear Mamma Manily again?" + +"Yep," he faltered, getting a better hold on Freddie's hand, "but I +want to come back here," he finished. + +Poor darling! So many changes of home in his life had made him fear +another. + +"Oh, I am sure you will come to see us again," Mrs. Bobbsey declared. +"Maybe you can come to Lakeport when we go home in the fall." + +"No, I'm comin' back here," he insisted, "to see Freddie, and auntie, +and uncle, and all of them." + +"Well, we must get ready now," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "John has gone to +bring the wagon." + +Freddie insisted upon going to the camp with Sandy, "to make sure he +would come down again," he said. + +It was only the happiness of seeing Mamma Manily once more that kept +Sandy from crying when they told him he was to go on a great big fast +train to see his own papa. + +"You see," Mrs. Manily explained to Mrs. Bobbsey, "a wealthy aunt of +Edward's expects to adopt him, so we will have to give him up, I am +afraid." + +"I hope you can keep track of him," answered Mrs. Bobbsey, "for we are +all so attached to him. I think we would have applied to the Aid +Society to let him share our home if the other claim had not come first +and taken him from us." + +Then Freddie kissed Sandy good-bye. It was not the kind of a caress +that girls give, but the two little fellows said good-bye, kissed each +other very quickly, then looked down at the ground in a brave effort +not to cry. + +Mrs. Bobbsey gave Sandy a real mother's love kiss, and he said: + +"Oh, I'm comin' beck--to-morrow. I won't stay in the city. I'll just +run away and come back." + +So Sandy was gone to another home, and we hope he will grow to be as +fine a boy as he has been a loving child. + +"How lonely it seems," said Nan that afternoon. "Sandy was so jolly." + +Freddie followed John all over the place, and could not find anything +worth doing. Even Dinah sniffed a little when she fed the kittens and +didn't have "dat little buttercup around to tease dem." + +"Well," said Uncle Daniel next day, "we are going to have a very poor +crop of apples this year, so I think we had better have some cider made +from the early fruit. Harry and Bert, you can help John if you like, +and take a load of apples to the cider mill to-day to be ground." + +The boys willingly agreed to help John, for they liked that sort of +work, especially Bert, to whom it was new. + +"We'll take the red astrachans and sheepnoses to-day," John said. +"Those trees over there are loaded, you see. Then there are the orange +apples in the next row; they make good cider." + +The early apples were very plentiful, and it took scarcely any time to +make up a load and start off for the cider mill. + +"Old Bennett who runs the mill is a queer chap," Harry told Bert going +over; "he's a soldier, and he'll be sure to quiz you on history." + +"I like old soldiers," Bert declared; "if they do talk a lot, they've +got a lot to talk about." + +John said that was true, and he agreed that old Ben Bennett was an +interesting talker. + +"Here we are," said Harry, as they pulled up before a kind of barn. Old +Ben sat outside on his wooden bench. + +"Hello, Ben," they called out together, "we're bringing you work early +this year." + +"So much the better," said the old soldier; "There's nothing like work +to keep a fellow young." + +"Well, you see," went on John, "we can't count on any late apples this +year, so, as we must have cider, we thought that we had better make hay +while the sun shines." + +"How much have you got there?" asked Ben, looking over the load. + +"About a barrel, I guess," answered John "Could you run them through +for us this morning?" + +"Certainly, certainly!" replied the others. "Just haul them on, and +we'll set to work as quick as we did that morning at Harper's Ferry. +Who is this lad?" he asked, indicating Bert. + +"My cousin from the city," said Harry, "Bert's his name." + +"Glad to see you, Bert, glad to see you!" and the old soldier shook +hands warmly. "When they call you out, son, just tell them you knew Ben +Bennett of the Sixth Massachusetts. And they'll give you a good gun," +and he clapped Bert on the back as if he actually saw a war coming down +the hill back of the cider mill. + +It did not take long to unload the apples and get them inside. + +"We'll feed them in the hopper," said John, "if you just get the sacks +out, Ben." + +"All right, all right, my lad; you can fire the first volley if you've +a mind to," and Ben opened up the big cask that held the apples to be +chopped. When a few bushels had been filled in by the boys John began +to grind. He turned the big stick round and round, and this in turn set +the wheel in motion that held the knives that chopped the apples. + +"Where does the cider come from?" asked Bert, much interested. + +"We haven't come to that yet," Harry replied; "they have to go through +this hopper first." + +"Fine juicy apples," remarked Ben. "Don't know but it's just as well +to make cider now when you have a crop like this." + +"Father thought so," Harry added, putting in the last scoop of +sheepnoses. "If it turns to vinegar we can use it for pickles this +fall." + +The next part of the process seemed very queer to Bert; the pulp or +chopped apples were put in sacks like meal-bags, folded over so as to +hold in the pulp. A number of the folded sacks were then placed in +another machine "like a big layer cake," Bert said, and by turning a +screw a great press was brought down upon the soft apples. + +"Now the boys can turn," John suggested, and at this both Bert and +Harry grabbed hold of the long handle that turned the press and started +on a run around the machine. + +"Oh, there she comes!" cried Bert, as the juice began to ooze out in +the tub. "That's cider, all right! I smell it." + +"Fine and sweet too," declared Ben, seeing to it that the tub was well +under the spout. + +"But I don't want you young fellows to do all my work." + +"Oh, this is fun," spoke up Bert, as the color mounted to his cheeks +from the exercise. A strong stream was pouring into the tub now, and +the wholesome odor of good sweet cider filled the room. + +"I think I'll try to get a horse this fall when my next pension comes +due," said old Ben, "I'm a little stiff to run around with that +handle like you young lads, and sometimes I'm full of rheumatism too." + +"Father said he would sell our Bill very cheap if he wasn't put at hard +work," Harry said. + +"We have had him so long we don't want to see him put to a plow or +anything heavy, but I should think this would be quite easy for him." + +"Just the thing for a worn-out war-horse like myself," answered Ben, +much interested. "Tell your father not to think of selling Bill till I +get a chance to see him. I won't have my pension money for two months +yet, but I might make a deposit if any more work comes in." + +"Oh, that would be all right," spoke up John. "Mr. Bobbsey would not be +afraid to trust you." + +"There now!" exclaimed Ben; "I guess you've got all the juice out. +John, you can fill it in your keg, I suppose, since you have been so +good as to do all the rest. Will you try it, boys?" + +"Yes, we would like to, Ben," Harry replied. + +"It's a little warm to make cider in July," and he wiped his face to +cool off some. + +Ben went to his homemade cupboard and brought out a tin cup. + +"There's a cup," he said, "that I drank out of at Harper's Ferry. I +keep it in everyday use, so as not to lose sight of it." + +Bert took the old tin cup and regarded it reverently. + +"Think of us drinking out of that cup," reflected Bert. "Why, it's a +war relic!" + +"How's the cider?" asked the old soldier. + +"Couldn't be better," said Harry. "I guess the cup helps the flavor." + +This pleased old Ben, for the light of glory that comes to all +veterans, whether private or general, shone in his eyes. + +"Well, a soldier has two lives," he declared. "The one under fire and +the other here," tapping his head and meaning that the memories of +battles made the other life. + +The cider was ready now, and the Bobbseys prepared to leave. + +"I'll tell father about Bill," said Harry. I'm sure he will save him +for you." + +"All right, sonny--thank you, thank you! Good-bye, lads; come again, +and maybe some day I'll give you the war cup!" called the soldier. + +"That would be a relic!" exclaimed Harry. "And I guess father will give +him Bill for nothing, for we always do what we can for old soldiers." + +"I never saw cider made before," remarked Bert, "and I think it's fun. +I had a good time to-day." + +"Glad you did," said John, "for vacation is slipping now and you want +to enjoy it while it lasts." + +That evening at dinner the new cider was sampled, and everybody +pronounced it very fine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +WHAT THE WELL CONTAINED + + +The next day everybody was out early. + +"The men are going to clean the well," Harry told the others, "and it's +lots of fun to see all the stuff they bring up." + +"Can we go?" Freddie asked. + +"Nan will have to take charge of you and Flossie," said Mrs. Bobbsey, +"for wells are very dangerous, you know." + +This was arranged, and the little ones promised to do exactly as Nan +told them. + +The well to be cleaned was the big one at the corner of the road and +the lane. From the well a number of families got their supply of water, +and it being on the road many passersby also enjoyed from it a good +cold drink. + +"There they come," called Bert, as two men dressed like divers came up +the road. + +They wore complete rubber suits, hip-boots, rubber coats, and rubber +caps. Then they had some queer-looking machines, a windlass, a force +pump, grappling irons, and other tools. + +The boys gathered around the men--all interested, of course, in the +work. + +"Now keep back," ordered Nan to the little ones. "You can see just as +well from this big stone, and you will not be in any danger here." + +So Freddie and Flossie mounted the rock while the large boys got in +closer to the well. + +First the men removed the well shelter--the wooden house that covered +the well. Then they put over the big hole a platform open in the +center. Over this they set up the windlass, and then one of the men got +in a big bucket. + +"Oh, he'll get drownded!" cried Freddie. + +"No, he won't," said Flossie. "He's a diver like's in my picture book." + +"Is he, Nan?" asked the other little one. + +"Yes, he is one kind of a diver," the sister explained, "only he +doesn't have to wear that funny hat with air pipes in it like ocean +divers wear." + +"But he's away down in the water now," persisted Freddie. "Maybe he's +dead." + +"See, there he is up again," said Nan, as the man in the bucket stepped +out on the platform over the well. + +"He just went down to see how deep the water was," Bert called over. +"Now they are going to pump it out." + +The queer-looking pump, with great long pipes was now sunk into the +well, and soon a strong stream of water was flowing from the spout. + +"Oh, let's sail boats!" exclaimed Freddie, and then all the bits of +clean sticks and boards around were turned into boats by Flossie and +Freddie. As the water had a good clear sweep down the hill the boats +went along splendidly, and the little folks had a very fine time of it +indeed. + +"Don't fall in," called Nan. "Freddie, look out for that deep hole in +the gutter, where the tree fell down in the big flood." + +But for once Freddie managed to save himself, while Flossie took no +risk at all, but walked past that part of the "river" without guiding +her "steamboat." + +Presently the water in the "river" became weaker and weaker, until only +the smallest stream made its way along. + +"We can't sail boats in mud," declared Freddie with some impatience. +"Let's go back and see what they're doing at the well." + +Now the big pump had been removed and the man was going down in the +bucket again. + +"We lost lots of things in there," remarked Tom Mason. "I bet they'll +bring up some queer stuff." + +It took a few minutes for the other man to send the lanterns down after +his companion and then remove the top platform so as to give all the +air and light possible to the bottom of the well. + +"Now the man in the well can see stars in the sky," said Harry to the +other boys. + +"But there are no stars in the sky," Bert contradicted, looking up at +the clear blue sky of the fine summer day. + +"Oh! yes there are," laughed the man at the well, "lots of them too, +but you can only see them in the dark, and it's good and dark down in +that deep well." + +This seemed very strange, but of course it was true; and the well +cleaner told them if they didn't believe it, just to look up a chimney +some day, and they would see the same strange thing. + +At a signal from the man in the well the other raised the first bucket +of stuff and dumped it on the ground. + +"Hurrah! Our football!" exclaimed Harry, yanking out from the muddy +things the big black rubber ball lost the year before. + +"And our baseball," called Tom Mason, as another ball was extracted +from the pile. + +"Peter Burns' dinner pail," laughed Harry, rescuing that article from +the heap. + +"And somebody's old shoe!" put in Bert, but he didn't bother pulling +that out of the mud. + +"Oh, there's Nellie Prentice's rubber doll!" exclaimed Harry. "August +and Ned were playing ball with it and let it fly in the well." + +Harry wiped the mud off the doll and brought it over to Nan. + +"I'm sure Nellie will be glad to get this back," said Nan, "for it's a +good doll, and she probably never had one since she lost it." + +The doll was not injured by its long imprisonment in the well and when +washed up was as good as ever. Nan took charge of it, and promised to +give it to Nellie just as soon as she could go over to see her. + +Another bucket of stuff had been brought up by that time, and the first +thing pulled out was a big long pipe, the kind Germans generally use. + +"That's old Hans Bruen's," declared Tom "I remember the night he +dropped it." + +"Foolish Hans--to try to drink with a pipe like that in his mouth!" +laughed the well cleaner. + +As the pipe had a wooden bowl and a hard porcelain stem it was not +broken, so Tom took care of it, knowing how glad Hans would be to get +his old friend "Johnnie Smoker" back again. + +Besides all kinds of tin cups, pails, and saucepans, the well was found +to contain a good number of boys' caps and some girls' too, that had +slipped off in attempts made to get a good cool drink out of the +bucket. + +Finally the man gave a signal that he was ready to come up, and soon +the windlass was adjusted again and the man in very muddy boots came to +the top. + +"Look at this!" he said to the boys' holding a beautiful gold watch. +"Ever hear of anyone losing a watch in the well?" + +No one had heard of such a loss, and as there was no name anywhere on +the watch that might lead to its identification, the well cleaner put +it away in his vest pocket under the rubber coat. + +"And what do you think of this?" the man continued, and drew from his +pocket a beautiful string of pearl beads set in gold. + +"My beads! My lost beads!" screamed Nan. "Oh, how glad I am that you +found them!" + +She took the beads and looked at them carefully. They were a bit dirty, +but otherwise as good as ever. + +"I thought I should never see these again," said Nan. "I must tell +mamma of this!" And she started for the house with flying feet. Mrs. +Bobbsey was glad indeed to learn that the strings of pearls had been +found, and everybody declared that Nan was certainly lucky. + +"I am going to fasten them on good and tight after this," said Nan, and +she did. + +Down by the well the man was not yet through handing over the things he +had found. + +"And there's a wedding ring!" he said next, while he turned out in his +hand a thin gold band. + +"Oh, Mrs. Burns lost that!" chorused a number of the boys. "She felt +dreadful over it too. She'll be tickled to get that back all right." + +"Well, here," said the man, turning to Harry. "I guess you're the +biggest boy; I'll let you take that back to Mrs. Burns with my best +wishes," and he handed Harry the long-lost wedding ring. + +It was only a short distance to Mrs. Burns' house, and Harry lost no +time in getting there. + +"She was just delighted," Harry told the man, upon returning to the +well. "She says Peter will send you over something for finding it." + +"No need," replied the other; "they're welcome to their own." + +The last part of the well-cleaning was the actual scrubbing of the big +stone in the bottom. + +This stone had a hole in the middle through which the water sprang up, +and when the flag had been scrubbed the well was clean indeed. + +"Now you people will have good water," declared the men, as they +gathered all their tools, having first put the top on the well and +tried a bucketful of water before starting off. + +"And are there really stars in the bottom of the well?" questioned +Freddie. + +"Not exactly," said the man, "but there are lots of other things in the +bottoms of wells. You must get your daddy to show you the sky through a +fireplace, and you will then know how the stars look in daylight," he +finished, saying good-bye to all and starting off for the big deep +well-pump over in the picnic grove, that had not been cleaned since it +had been dug there three years before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +LITTLE JACK HORNER,--GOOD-BYE + + +"I've got a special delivery letter for you," called the boy from the +postoffice to Harry. + +Now when Jim Dexter rode his wheel with the special delivery mail +everybody about Meadow Brook knew the rush letter bore important news. + +Jim jumped off his wheel and, opening the little bag, pulled out a +letter for Mrs. Richard Bobbsey from Mrs. William Minturn of Ocean +Cliff. + +"I'll take it upstairs and have your book signed," Harry offered, while +Jim sat on the porch to rest. + +"That's from Aunt Emily," Bert told Harry when the messenger boy rode +off again. "I guess we're going down to Ocean Cliff to visit there." + +"I hope you won't go very soon," replied Harry. "We've arranged a lot +of ball matches next month. We're going to play the school nine first, +then we're to play the boys at Cedarhurst and a picked nine from South +Meadow Brook." + +"I'd like first-rate to be here for the games," said Bert. "I'm a good +batter." + +"You're the player we need then, for Jim Smith is a first-rate pitcher +and we've got really a fine catcher in Tom Mason, but it's hard to get +a fellow to hit the ball far enough to give us runs." + +"Oh, Bert!" called Nan, running out of the house. "That was an +invitation for us to go to Aunt Emily's at the seashore. And Cousin +Dorothy says we will have such a lovely time! But I'm sure we could +never have a better time than we had here, Harry," she added to her +cousin. + +"I'll be awfully sorry to have you go, Nan," replied Harry. "We have +had so much fun all month. I'll just be dead lonesome, I'm sure," and +Harry sat down in dejection, just as if his loved cousins had gone +already. + +"There's no boy at Uncle William's;" said Bert. "Of course Nan will +have Dorothy, but I'll have to look around for a chum, I suppose." + +"Oh, you'll find lots of boys at the beach," said Harry. "And to think +of the fun at the ocean! Mother says we will go to the shore next +summer." + +"I wish you were going with us," said Bert politely. + +"Maybe you will come down for a day while we are there," suggested Nan. +"Aunt Emily isn't just exactly your aunt, because she's mamma's sister, +and it's papa who is Uncle Daniel's brother. But the Minturns, Aunt +Emily's folks, you know, have been up here and are all like real +cousins." + +"We're going away!" exclaimed Freddie, joining the others just then. +"Mamma says I can stick my toes in the water till the crabs bite me, +but I'm going to have a fishhook and catch them first." + +"Are you going to take Snoop?" Harry asked his little cousin. + +"Yep," replied the youngster. "He knows how to go on trains now." + +"Dorothy has a pair of donkeys," Nan told them, "and a cart we can go +riding in every day." + +"I'll be the driver," announced Freddie. "And I suppose you'll have a +sailboat, Bert!" said Harry. + +"Not in the ocean," said nervous little Flossie, who had been listening +all the time and never said a word until she thought there was some +danger coming. + +"Certainly not," said Bert; "there is always a little lake of quiet +water around ocean places." + +Aunt Sarah came out now, all dressed for a drive. + +"Well, my dears," she said, "you are going to Ocean Cliff to-morrow, so +you can invite all your Meadow Brook friends to a little lawn party to- +day. I'm going down now to the village to order some good things for +you. I want you all to have a nice time this afternoon." + +"I'm going to give some of my books to Nettie," said Flossie, "and some +of my paper dolls too." + +"Yes. Nettie has not many things to play with," agreed Nan, "and we can +get plenty more." + +"I'm going to get all my birds' nests together," said Bert, "and that +pretty white birch bark to make picture frames for Christmas." + +"I've got lovely pressed flowers to put on Christmas post-cards," said +Nan. "I'm going to mount them on plain white cards with little verses +written for each friend. Won't that be pretty?" + +Then what a time there was packing up again! Of course Mrs. Bobbsey had +expected to go, and had most of the big things ready but the children +had so many souvenirs. + +"John gave me this," cried Freddie, pulling a great big pumpkin in his +express wagon down to the house. "And I'm going to bring it to Aunt +Emily." + +"Oh, how could we bring that!" protested Nan. + +"In the trunk, of course," Freddie insisted. + +"Well, I have to carry a box of ferns," said Flossie; "I'm going to +take them for the porch. There are no ferns around the salt water, +mamma says." + +So each child had his or her own pet remembrances to carry away from +Meadow Brook. + +"We had better go and invite the girls for this afternoon," Nan said to +Flossie. + +"And we must look after the boys," Harry told Bert. + +A short invitation was not considered unusual in the country, so it was +an easy matter to get all the children together in time for the +farewell lawn party. + +"We all hope you will come again next year," said Mildred Manners. "We +have had such a lovely time this summer. And I brought you this little +handkerchief to remember me by." The gift was a choice bit of lace, +and Nan was much pleased to accept it. + +"There is something to remember me by," said Mabel Herold, presenting +Nan with a postcard album. + +The little girls brought Flossie a gold-striped cup and saucer, a set +of doll's patterns, and the dearest little parasol. This last was from +Bessie Dimple. + +And Nettie brought--what do you think? + +A little live duck for Freddie! + +It was just like a lump of cotton batting, so soft and fluffy. + +"We'll fatten him up for Christmas," laughed Bert, joking. + +"No, you won't!" snapped Freddie. "I are going to have a little house +for him and a lake, and a boat--" + +"Are you going to teach him to row?" teased Harry. + +"Well, he can swim better than--than--" + +"August Stout," answered Bert, remembering how August had fallen in the +pond the day they went fishing. + +When the ice cream and cake had been served on the lawn, Mrs. Bobbsey +brought out a big round white paper pie. This she placed in the middle +of a nice clean spot on the lawn, and all around the pie she drew out +long white ribbons. On each ribbon was pinned the name of one of the +guests. + +"Now this is your Jack Horner pie," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "and when you +put in your thumb you will pull out a plum." + +Nan read off the names, and each girl or boy took the place assigned. +Finally everybody had in hand a ribbon. + +"Nettle has number one," said Nan; "you pull first, Nettie." + +Nettie jerked her ribbon and pulled out on the end of it the dearest +little play piano. It was made of paper, of course, and so very small +it could stand on Nettie's hand. + +"Give us a tune!" laughed the boys, while Nettie saw it really was a +little box of candy. + +"Mildred next," announced Nan. + +On the end of Mildred's ribbon came an automobile! + +This caused a laugh, for Mildred was very fond of automobile rides. + +Mabel got a hobby-horse--because she was learning to ride horseback. + +Nan received a sewing machine, to remind her of the fresh-air work. + +Of course Tom Mason got a horse--a donkey it really was; and Jack +Hopkins' gift was a wheelbarrow. Harry pulled out a boat, and Bert got +a cider barrel. + +They were all souvenirs, full of candy, favors for the party, and they +caused no end of fun. + +Freddie was the last to pull and he got-- + +A bunch of real radishes from his own garden! + +"But they're not candy," he protested, as he burned his tongue with +one. + +"Well, we are going to let you and Flossie put your thumbs in the pie," +said his mamma, "and whoever gets the prize will be the real Jack +Horner." + +All but the center of the pie was gone now, and in this Flossie first +put her thumb. She could only put in one finger and only fish just one, +and she brought out--a little gold ring from Aunt Sarah. + +"Oh, isn't it sweet!" the girls all exclaimed. + +Then Freddie had his turn. + +"Can't I put in two fingers?" he pleaded. + +"No; only one!" his mother insisted. + +After careful preparation Freddie put in his thumb and pulled out a big +candy plum! + +"Open it!" called Nan. + +The plum was put together in halves, and when Freddie opened it he +found a real "going" watch from Uncle Daniel. + +"I can tell time!" declared the happy boy, for he had been learning the +hours on Martha's clock in the kitchen. + +"What time is it, then?" asked Bert. + +Freddie looked at his watch and counted around it two or three times. + +"Four o'clock!" he said at last, and he was only twenty minutes out of +the way. The watch was the kind little boys use first, with very plain +figures on it, and it was quite certain before Freddie paid his next +visit to Uncle Daniel's he would have learned how to tell time exactly +on his first "real" watch. + +The party was over, the children said good bye, and besides the play +favors each carried away a real gift, that of friendship for the little +Bobbseys. + +"Maybe you can come down to the seashore on an excursion," said Nan to +her friends. "They often have Sunday-school excursions to Sunset +Beach." + +"We will if we can," answered Mabel, "but if I don't see you there, I +may call on you at Lakeport, when we go to the city." + +"Oh yes, do!" insisted Nan. "I'll be home all winter I guess, but I +might go to boarding school. Anyhow, I'll write to you. Good-bye, +girls!" + +"Good-bye!" was the answering cry, and then the visitors left in a +crowd, waving their hands as they disappeared around a turn of the +road. + +"What a perfectly lovely time we have had!" declared Nan to Bert. + +"Oh, the country can't be beat!" answered her twin brother. "Still, +I'll be glad to get to the seashore, won't you?" + +"Oh yes; I want to see Cousin Dorothy." + +"And I want to see the big ocean," put in Freddie. + +"I want to ride on one of the funny donkeys," lisped Flossie. "And I +want to make a sand castle." + +"Me too!" chimed in Freddie. + +"Hurrah for the seashore!" cried Bert, throwing his cap into the air, +and then all went into the house, to get ready for a trip they looked +forward to with extreme pleasure. And here let us say good-bye, hoping +to meet the Bobbsey Twins again. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Bobbsey Twins in the Country, by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY *** + +This file should be named tbtic11.txt or tbtic11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, tbtic11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tbtic10a.txt + +Prepared by Diane and Don Nafis--dnafis@nazlo.com + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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