The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West

by Laura Lee Hope

  CHAPTER XV

  BILL DAYTON

  "Look out there! Look out!"

  Bert and Nan Bobbsey, standing near a big stump, heard some one shoutthis to Flossie and Freddie as the two small Bobbsey twins looked upat the great tree which was slowly falling toward them. And then Bertand Nan added their voices to the shout which came from they knew notwhom.

  "Oh, Flossie! Run! Run!" cried Nan.

  "Come here, Freddie! Come here!" yelled Bert.

  The two small children did not really know they were in danger. Therewas so much to see in the woods, and they were so interested inwatching the big tree fall, that they did not know it might fall righton them and crush them.

  "Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?" sobbed Nan, for she wascrying now, for fear her little brother and sister would be hurt.

  "I'll get 'em!" exclaimed Bert.

  He started to run toward Flossie and Freddie, but he never could havereached them in time to snatch them out of the way of the fallingtree.

  However, there was some one else in the forest who knew just what todo and when to do it. There was another cry from some unseen man.

  "Stand still! Don't move!" he shouted.

  Then there was a crackling in the underbrush, and some one rushed outat Flossie and Freddie, who were standing under the tree looking up atthe tottering trunk which was slowly falling toward them.

  If the two little children had been alone in the woods they might havethought that the crackling and crashing in the underbrush was made bya bear breaking his way toward them. But they were not thinking ofbears, just then.

  In another instant Bert and Nan saw a man, dressed as were nearly allthe "lumberjacks," spring down a little hill and rush at Flossie andFreddie. As for the two small Bobbsey twins themselves, they had notime to see anything very clearly. The first they knew they werecaught up in the man's arms, Freddie on one side and Flossie on theother. That big, strong lumberman just tucked Freddie under his leftarm and Flossie under his right and then he gave a jump and a leapthat carried them all out of danger.

  And only just in time, too! For no sooner had the lumberman picked upthe two children and leaped off the path with them into a littlecleared space than down crashed the big tree!

  It made a sound like the boom of a big gun, or like the pounding ofthe giant waves in a storm at the seashore, where once the Bobbseytwins had spent a vacation.

  Down crashed the big tree, breaking off smaller trees and bushes thatwere in its way. Down it fell, raising a big cloud of dust, andFlossie and Freddie, still held in the arms of the big man, saw itfall. But they were far enough away to escape getting hurt, thoughsome pieces of bark and a shower of leaves scattered over them. Thelumbermen had snatched them out of danger just in time.

  "Oh! Oh! They're all right! They're saved!" gasped Nan, no longercrying now that she saw Flossie and Freddie were not hurt.

  "Whew! That was pretty near a bad accident," said Bert, who hadstopped running toward his brother and sister when he saw that thelumberman was going to get them.

  As for the two little children themselves, they were so surprised atfirst that they did not know what to think. One moment they had beenlooking up at a big tree, wondering why it was toppling over towardthem as they had sometimes seen their tall towers of building blocksfall. The next instant they had heard somebody rushing toward them outof the woods, they had felt themselves caught up in strong arms, andnow they were being set down at a safe distance away from the fallentree by a big man.

  Flossie and Freddie looked at the big trunk which had crashed down.Then they saw Bert and Nan coming toward them. Next they looked up atthe big lumberman.

  "Who are you?" asked Freddie.

  "That's just what I was going to ask you," replied the big man, with alaugh. "I think I can guess, though. You are the Bobbsey twins, aren'tyou? That is you're half of them, and the other half is over there,"and he pointed to Bert and Nan who were walking toward Flossie andFreddie.

  "Yes, we're the Bobbsey twins," answered Freddie. "We've come to thelumber camp. My mother--she owns it."

  "So I've heard," the man said. "Well, if I were you I wouldn't go offby myself among the trees again. You never can tell when one is goingto fall down. The man who cut this one should have stayed and finishedit, and not have left it to fall with the first puff of wind. I mustspeak to him about it. And now I had better take you to your fatherand mother. Where are they?"

  "We'll take them back, thank you," said Nan, who, with Bert, came upjust then.

  "Yes, we want to thank you a lot for getting them out of the way ofthe falling tree," went on Bert.

  "It was the only way to save them," replied the lumberman. "I couldn'tmake them understand they must step back out of danger, so I had torush to them and grab them. I'm afraid I did it pretty roughly, but Ididn't mean to."

  "You pinched me a little," said Flossie, speaking for the first time."But I don't care. I wouldn't want that tree to hit me."

  "I should say not!" exclaimed the lumberman. "We don't want theBobbsey twins to get hurt."

  "How'd you know our names are Bobbsey?" asked Freddie. "Are you apoliceman? If you are, where's your brass buttons?"

  "No, I'm not a policeman," answered the lumberman. "I suppose, in thecity where you came from, all the policemen know you. But I guessedwho you were because I sent a man to the depot to-day to meet theBobbsey family, and you must belong to it."

  "We do," explained Bert. "Our father and mother are back in thecamp--at the log cabin, you know."

  "Yes, I know where it is very well," said the man, with a smile. "And,just to make sure you children won't go near any other trees that areready to fall, I'll go back with you. I want to see Mr. and Mrs.Bobbsey, anyhow."

  "Do you work here?" asked Bert.

  "Yes, I think you could call it that," answered the man, with a smile.

  He took Flossie and Freddie by the hands, and they walked along withhim, while Bert and Nan followed. On the way back to the camp, orplace where the log cabins and other shacks were built, they met a mancoming along with an axe on his shoulder.

  "That big tree fell down," said the man who had saved the Bobbseytwins. "After this don't go away and leave a trunk nearly choppedthrough. These children might have been hurt."

  "I'm sorry," said the man with the axe. "I won't do it again. But,just as I was going to finish chopping it down, one of the boys neededhelp with his team, and I ran to him. I forgot all about the bigtree."

  "Well, don't forget again," said the man who had saved Flossie andFreddie.

  As the Bobbseys walked along with their new friend they saw theirfather and mother coming toward them.

  "Bert, Nan, where have you been?" asked their mother.

  "Off in the woods," Bert answered.

  "And we saw a big tree fall down and it 'most falled on us!" addedFlossie.

  "But he pulled us out from under it! Didn't you?" went on Freddie, andhe looked up at the big man in the big boots, who wore a red shirtlike the other lumbermen.

  "What's that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "Were you children near a fallingtree?"

  "That's what they were--too near for comfort," said the man as he letgo of the hands of Flossie and Freddie, so the small Bobbsey twinsmight run to their mother. "It was careless of one of the men to leavea tree half chopped through. But no harm is done. I managed to get thekiddies out of the way in time."

  Mr. Bobbsey must have guessed how it happened, for he shook handsheartily with the lumberman.

  "I can't thank you enough," said the children's father. "You savedFlossie and Freddie from being hurt, if not killed! Do you work here?"

  "I'm the foreman," answered the man quietly.

  "Oh, we have been looking for you," said Bert's mother. "I am Mrs.Bobbsey."

  "That's what I guessed, lady," answered the man. "I am glad to meetyou. I've been expecting you."

  "So you are the foreman," said Mr. Bobbsey slowly. "May I ask yourname?"

  The man seemed t
o wait a few seconds before answering. Then he lookedaway over the tops of the trees and said:

  "Bill Dayton."

  And his voice sounded rather strange, Mrs. Bobbsey thought.