The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  “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 today.”

  “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 XXX

  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 strange-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 strange-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 funny 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 today. 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’v
e 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.