The Bobbsey Twins at School

by Laura Lee Hope

  CHAPTER XVI

  MR. TETLOW ASKS QUESTIONS

  Thanksgiving was celebrated in the Bobbsey home as it never hadbeen before. I am afraid if I told you all that went on, of thebig, brown-roasted turkey, of the piles of crisp celery, of thepumpkin and mince pies, of the nuts and candies, of the big dishesof cranberry sauce, and the plum pudding that Dinah carried inhigh above her head--I am afraid if I told you of all these thingsthere would be trouble.

  For I am sure you would all be writing to me to ask where theBobbseys lived, so that you might go and see them, and perhaps spendChristmas with them. Not that they would not be glad to have you,but they have so many friends that their house is sure to be filledover the holidays.

  So I will simply say that there was the grandest time ever, andlet it go at that. Uncle and Aunt Bobbsey--Uncle and Aunt Minturn,from the country and seashore, came, with Cousin Dorothy and CousinHarry. Then, also, Hal Bingham arrived, and the Bobbsey twins tookgreat delight in showing their former playmates about Lakeport.

  "Isn't it lonesome at the seashore now?" asked Nan of Dorothy, asshe walked with her cousin about the busy streets of the town.

  "Not at all," answered Dorothy. "The sea is never lonesome for me.It always seems to be telling me something, Winter or Summer."

  "I love it in the Summer," said Nan, "but in the Winter it seemsso cold and cruel."

  "That is because you do not know it as well as I do," said Dorothy.

  Hal, Harry, and Bert had fine times together. There was no skating,and the little flurry of snow there had been was not enough forcoasting, but they had other fun.

  "Do your ducks miss our duck Downy?" asked Freddie of his cousinHarry.

  "Well, I guess they do," was the laughing answer, for Freddie andFlossie had a pet duck which they took about with them almost asfaithfully as they did Snoop. "How is Downy, anyhow?" asked Harry.

  "He's fine," answered the little fellow. "Want to see him?" and hetook his cousin out to the barn where Downy had a pen all to himself.

  "Snoop's gone," said Freddie, "and so is our silver cup, but maybewe'll get that back. It's in a circus."

  "In a circus!" cried Harry. "I should think your cat might be ina circus, but not a silver cup."

  "We don't know where Snoop is," went on Freddie, "'cause he gotaway at the time of the circus wreck," and he explained about it."But we are almost sure the circus fat lady has our cup."

  The Thanksgiving holidays came to an end at last and, much to theregret of the Bobbseys, their visitors, old and young, had to goback to their homes.

  "But you'll come again at Christmas; won't you?" asked Flossie asshe said good-bye.

  "We'll try," said her Uncle Bobbsey. "But maybe there won't beroom, with Santa Claus and all his reindeers."

  "Oh, we'll make room for you," spoke Freddie. "Santa Claus won'tstay long."

  With a merry peal of laughter the visitors went off to the station,waving farewells. Then came rather a quiet time at the Bobbseyhouse, as there always is when visitors go. There seems to be asort of loneliness, when company leaves, no matter how many thereare in the family, nor what fun there is. But the feeling soonpasses.

  "Well, we'll soon be at school again," said Bert, a day or so beforethe opening of the Winter term. "I wish we'd get some snow. Thenit would be more fun."

  "Yes," said Freddie. "We could build snow forts and have snowballfights. I wish it would snow hard."

  "So do I, so we could ride down hill," said Nan, "Is your big bobnearly done, Bert?"

  "No, Charley and I have quite a lot of things to do on it yet, butwe're going to work every night after school now, and it will soonbe finished."

  "I'm going to have skates for Christmas," announced Freddie. "Ihope the lake will be frozen over by then."

  "I guess it will be," returned Bert. "It's getting colder everynight."

  The Bobbseys were back at school. For a time Nan and Bert, who werein a higher grade, did not like it so well, as they had a strangeteacher, and lessons, too, were more difficult. But they were notchildren who gave up easily, and soon they were at the head oftheir class as usual. Their teacher, too, was much nicer than theyhad thought at first. They had considered her stern, but it wasonly her way, and soon wore off.

  As for Freddie and Flossie, they had advanced but little except inreading, and this opened a new world to them.

  "We'll soon be reading books," boasted Freddie, on his way home oneday. "And I'm going to read all about firemen, soldiers and Indians."

  "Oh, I'm not," said Flossie. "I'm going to read how to be a nurse,so I can take care of you when you're hurt."

  "That will be nice," said Freddie.

  One day, at recess, Bert saw Jim Osborne motioning to him in asecret sort of fashion.

  "Come on with us," said Jim, who was a new boy in school. "DannyRugg and some of the rest of us are going to have some sport."

  "What doing?" asked Bert.

  "Smoking cigarettes back of the coal house. I've got a whole pack."

  "No; I don't smoke," said Bert quietly.

  "Bah! You're afraid!" sneered Jim. "Cigarettes can't hurt you.It's only cigars and pipes that do."

  "Yes, I admit I am afraid," said Bert "I'm afraid of gettingsick. Besides, I promised my mother I wouldn't smoke until I wastwenty-one, and I'm not going to tell a story. Anyhow, I've gotan uncle who smokes, and he says cigarettes are worse than a pipeor cigars, and he ought to know."

  "Aw, come on!" urged Jim.

  "No," said Bert firmly, and he would not go. Jim went off withDanny and some of the other boys, and they were laughing amongthemselves. Bert felt that they were laughing at him, but he didnot mind.

  There was to be an examination of the school by some of the membersof the Board of Education late that afternoon, and, directly afterrecess, Mr. Tetlow went to each room to tell the pupils and teachersto get ready for it, and to put certain work on the blackboards,so it could be seen.

  When the principal got to the room where Danny Rugg and his particularchums sat, Mr Tetlow, sniffing the air suspiciously, said:

  "I smell smoke!"

  "I have been noticing it, too," said the lady teacher. "Perhapsthe furnace does not work properly."

  "It isn't that kind of smoke," went on Mr. Tetlow. "It is tobaccosmoke. Have any of you boys been smoking during recess?" he askedsternly, looking across the room.

  No one answered. Danny, Jim, and some of the others seemed to bestudying their geography lessons very hard.

  "I just want to say a word about cigarette smoking," went onMr. Tetlow, "for that is usually how a boy begins. Of smoking ingeneral, when a boy gets to be a man, I have nothing to say. Somesay it is injurious, and others not, in moderation. But there canbe no doubt that for a growing boy to smoke is very harmful. AgainI ask if anyone here has been smoking?"

  No one replied. The guilty boys bent deep over their books and didnot look up.

  "Well, I am sure someone here has," said Mr. Tetlow. "I can smellit plainly." He walked down the aisles, looking sharply from oneboy to another. If he was sure who were the guilty ones he gaveno sign. "And I want to add," said Mr. Tetlow, "that not only iscigarette smoking harmful to the smoker, but it is dangerous. Manyfires have been caused in that way. If I find out who of my pupilshave been smoking around the school they will be severely punished."