The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  “Oh, mamma, he’s awful nice!” exclaimed Flossie. “He’s just as gentle, and he’s soft, like the little toy lamb I used to have.”

  “Indeed he does seem to be a gentle dog,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “But come along now. Don’t pet him any more, or he may follow us. Flossie, and whoever owns him would not like it. Come on.”

  “Forward—march!” called Freddie, strutting along the moonlit path as much like a soldier as he could imitate, tired as he was.

  The Bobbseys and their faithful Dinah started off again toward the distant trolley that would take them to their home. The dog sat down and looked after them.

  “I—I wish he was ours,” said Flossie wistfully, waving her hand to the dog.

  The Bobbseys had not gone on very far before Nan, looking back, called out:

  “Oh, papa, that dog is following us!”

  “He is?” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “That’s odd. He must have taken a sudden liking to us. But I guess he’ll go back where he belongs pretty soon. Are you getting tired, little Fat Fireman? And you, my Fat Fairy?”

  “Oh, no, papa,” laughed Flossie. “I sat down so much in the train that I’m glad to stand up now.”

  “So am I,” said Freddie, who made up his mind that he would not say he was tired if his little sister did not. And yet, truth to tell, the little Fat Fireman was very weary.

  On and on went the Bobbsey family, and soon Bert happened to look back, and gave a whistle of surprise.

  “That dog isn’t going home, papa,” he said. “He’s still after us, and look! now he’s running.”

  They all glanced back on hearing this. Surely enough the big white dog was running after them, wagging his tail joyfully, and barking from time to time.

  “This will never do!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “Whoever owns him may think we are trying to take him away. I’ll drive him back. Go home! Go back, sir!” exclaimed Papa Bobbsey in stern tones.

  The dog stopped wagging his tail. Then he sat down on the path, and calmly waited. Mr. Bobbsey walked toward him.

  “Oh, don’t—don’t whip him, papa!” exclaimed Flossie.

  “I don’t intend to,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But I must be stern with him or he will think I’m only playing. Go back!” he cried.

  The dog stretched out on the path, his head down between his fore paws.

  “He—he looks—sad,” said Freddie. “Maybe he hasn’t any home, papa.”

  “Oh, of course a valuable dog like that has a home,” declared Bert.

  “But maybe they didn’t treat him kindly, and he is looking for a new one,” suggested Nan, hopefully.

  “He doesn’t seem illtreated,” spoke Mrs. Bobbsey. “Oh, I do wish he’d go back, so we could go on.”

  Mr. Bobbsey pretended to pick up a stone and throw it at the dog, as masters sometimes do when they do not want their dogs to follow them. This dog only wagged his tail, as though he thought it the best joke he had ever known.

  “Go back! Go back, I say!” cried Papa Bobbsey in a loud voice. The dog did not move.

  “I guess he won’t follow us any more,” went on Mr. Bobbsey. “Hurry along now, children. We are almost at the trolley.” He turned away from the dog, who seemed to be asleep now, and the family went on. For a minute or two, as Nan could tell by looking back, the dog did not follow, but just as the Bobbseys were about to make a turn in the path, up jumped the animal and came trotting on after the children and their parents, wagging his tail so fast that it seemed as if it would come loose.

  “Is he coming?” asked Flossie.

  “He certainly is,” answered Bert, who was in the rear. “I guess he wants us to take him home with us.”

  “Oh, let’s do it!” begged Flossie.

  “Please, papa,” pleaded Freddie. “We haven’t got Snoop now, so let us have a dog. And I’m sure we could teach him to do tricks—he’s so smart.”

  “And so he’s coming after us still!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “Well, well, I don’t know what to do,” and he came to a stop on the path.

  “Couldn’t we take him home just for tonight?” asked Nan, “and then in the morning we could find out who owns him and return him.”

  “Oh, please do,” begged Freddie and Flossie, impulsively.

  “But how can we take him on a trolley car?” asked Mr. Bobbsey. “The conductor would not let us.”

  “Maybe he would—if he was a kind man,” suggested Freddie. “We could tell him how it was, and how we lost our cat.”

  “And our silver cup,” added Flossie.

  “Well, certainly the dog doesn’t seem to want to go home,” said Mr. Bobbsey, after he had tried two or three times more to drive the animal back. But it would not go.

  “Go on a little farther,” suggested Mrs. Bobbsey. “By the time we get to the trolley he may get tired, and go back. And if we want to lose him I think we can, by getting on the car quickly.”

  “But we don’t want to lose him!” cried Freddie.

  “No, no!” said Flossie. “We want to keep him. He can run along behind the trolley car. I’ll ask the motorman to go slow, papa.”

  “My! This has been a mixedup day!” sighed Mr. Bobbsey. “I really don’t know what to do.”

  The dog seemed to think that he was one of the family, now. He came up to Flossie and Freddie and let them pat him. His tail kept wagging all the while.

  “Well, we’ll see what happens where we get to the trolley,” decided Mr. Bobbsey, thinking that there would be the best and only place to get rid of the dog. “Come along, children.”

  Freddie and Flossie came on, the dog between them, and this seemed to suit the fine animal. He had found friends, now, he evidently thought. Mr. Bobbsey wondered why so valuable a dog would leave its home. And he was very much puzzled as to what he should do if the children insisted on keeping the animal, and if it came aboard the trolley car.

  “There’s the car!” exclaimed Bert, as they went around another turn in the path and came to a road. Down it could be seen the headlight of an approaching trolley, and also the twin lamps of an oncoming automobile.

  “Look out for the auto, children!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey.

  They stood at the side of the road, and as the auto came up the man in it slowed down his machine. It was a big car and he was alone in it.

  “Well, I declare!” exclaimed the autoist, as his engine stopped. “If it isn’t the Bobbsey family—twins and all! What are you doing here, Mr. Bobbsey?”

  “Why, it’s Mr. Blake!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, seeing that the autoist was a neighbor, and a business friend of his. “Oh, our train was held back by a circus wreck, so we walked across the lots to the car. We’re homeward bound from the seashore.”

  “Well, well! A circus wreck, eh? Where did you get the dog?”

  “Oh, he followed us,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “And we’re going to keep him, too!” exclaimed Flossie.

  “And take him in the trolley with us,” added her little brother.

  “Well, well!” exclaimed Mr. Blake. “Say, now, I have a better plan than that,” he went on. “Why should you folks go home in a trolley, when I have this big empty auto here? Pile in, all of you, and I’ll get you there in a jiffy. Come, Dinah, I see you, too.”

  “Yes, sah, Massa Blake, I’se heah! Can’t lose ole Dinah!”

  “But we lost our cat, Snoop!” said Flossie regretfully.

  “And we nearly ran over an elephant,” added Freddie, bound that his sister should not tell all the news.

  “Well, get in the auto,” invited Mr. Blake.

  “Do you really mean it?” asked Mr. Bobbsey. “Perhaps we are keeping you from going somewhere.”

  “Indeed not. Pile in, and you’ll soon be home.”

  “Can we bring the dog, too?” asked Flossie.

  “Yes, there’s plenty of room for the dog,” laughed Mr. Blake. “Lift him in.”

  But the strange dog did not need lifting. He sprang into the tonneau of the auto as soon as the do
or was opened. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey lifted in Flossie and Freddie, and Nan and Bert followed. Then in got Papa and Mamma Bobbsey and Mr. Blake started off.

  “This is lovely,” said Mrs. Bobbsey with a sigh of relief. She was more tired than she had thought.

  “It certainly is kind of you, Mr. Blake,” said Papa Bobbsey.

  “I’m only too glad I happened to meet you. Are you children comfortable?”

  “Yep!” chorused Freddie and Flossie.

  “And the dog?”

  “We’re holding him so he won’t fall out,” explained Flossie. She and her little brother had the dog between them.

  On went the auto, and with the telling of the adventures of the day the journey seemed very short. Soon the Bobbsey home was reached. There were lights in it, for Sam, the colored man, had been telephoned to, to have the place opened for the family. Sam came out on the stoop to greet them and his wife Dinah.

  “Here we are!” cried Papa Bobbsey. “Come, Flossie Freddie we’re home.”

  Flossie and Freddie did not answer. They were fast asleep, their heads on the shaggy back of the big dog.

  CHAPTER V

  Snap Does Tricks

  “We’ll have to carry them in,” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he looked in the rear of the auto, and saw his two little twins fast asleep on the dog’s back.

  “I’ll take ’em,” said Sam kindly. “Many a time I’se carried ’em in offen de porch when dey falled asleep. I’ll carry ’em in.”

  And he did, first taking Flossie, and then Freddie. Then he and Dinah brought in the bundles and valises, while Nan and Bert and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey followed, having bidden goodnight to Mr. Blake, and thanking him for the ride.

  “Where—where are we?” asked Flossie, rubbing her eyes and looking around the room which she had not seen in some months.

  “An’—an’ where’s our dog?” demanded Freddie.

  “Oh, bless your hearts—that dog!” cried Mamma Bobbsey. “Sam took him out in the barn. You may see him in the morning, if he doesn’t run away in the night.”

  The twins looked worried over this suggestion, until Sam said:

  “Oh, I locked him up good an’ proper in a box stall; ‘deed an’ I did, Mrs. Bobbsey. He won’t get away tonight.”

  “That’s—good,” murmured Freddie, and then he fell asleep again.

  Soon the little twins were undressed and put to bed; Nan and Bert soon followed, but Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey stayed up a little later to talk over certain matters.

  “It’s good to be home again,” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he looked about the rooms of the town house.

  “Yes, but we had a delightful summer,” spoke his wife, “and the children are so well. The country was delightful, and so was the seashore. But I think I, too, am glad to be back. It will be quite a task, though, to get the children ready for school. Flossie and Freddie will go regularly now, I suppose, and with Nan and Bert in a higher class, it means plenty of work.”

  “I suppose so,” said her husband.

  “But Dinah is a great help,” went on Mrs. Bobbsey, for she did not mean to complain. Flossie and Freddie had tried a few days in the kindergarten class at school, but Flossie said she did not like it, and, as Freddie would not go without her, their parents had taken them both out in the Spring.

  “There will be plenty of time to start them in the Fall,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, and so it had been arranged. And now the four twins were all to attend the same school, which would open in about a week.

  Flossie and Freddie were both up early the next morning, and, scarcely halfdressed, they hurried out to the barn.

  “Whar yo’ chillers gwine?” demanded Dinah, as she prepared to get breakfast.

  “Out to see our dog,” answered Freddie. “Is Sam around?”

  “Yes, he’s out dere somewheres, washin’ de carriage. But don’t yo’ let dat dog bite yo’.”

  “We won’t,” said Freddie.

  “He wouldn’t bite anyhow,” declared Flossie.

  Sam opened the box stall for them, and out bounced the big white dog, barking in delight, and almost knocking down the twins, so glad was he to see them.

  “What shall we call him?” asked Freddie. “Maybe we’d better name him Snoop, like our cat. I guess Snoop is gone forever.”

  “No, we mustn’t call him Snoop,” said Flossie, “for some day our cat might come back, and he’d want his own name again. We’ll call our dog Snap, ’cause see how bright his eyes snap. Then if our cat comes back we’ll have Snoop and Snap.”

  “That’s a good name,” decided Freddie, after thinking it over. “Snoop and Snap. I wonder how we can make this dog stand on his hind legs like he did before?”

  “Bert snapped his fingers and he did it,” suggested Flossie. “But maybe he’ll do it now if you just ask him to.”

  Freddie tried to snap his fingers, but they were too short and fat. Then he patted the dog an the head and said:

  “Stand up!”

  At once the dog, with a bark, did so. He sat up on his hind legs and then walked around. Both the children laughed.

  “I wonder if he can do any other tricks?” asked Flossie.

  “I’m going to try,” said her brother. “What trick do you want him to do?”

  “Make him lie down and roll over.”

  “All right,” spoke Freddie. “Now, Snap, lie down and roll over!” he called. At once the fine animal did so, and then sprang up with a bark, and a wag of his tail, as much as to ask:

  “What shall I do next?”

  “Oh, isn’t he a fine dog!” cried Flossie. “I wonder who taught him those tricks?”

  “Let’s see if he can do any more,” said Freddie. “There’s a barrel hoop over there. Maybe he’ll jump through it if we hold it up.”

  “Oh, let’s do it!” cried Flossie, as she ran to get the hoop. Snap barked at the sight of it, and capered about as though he knew just what it was for, and was pleased at the chance to do more of his tricks. The hoop was a large one, and Freddie alone could not hold it very steady. So Flossie took hold of one side. As soon as they were in position, Freddie called:

  “Come on now, Snap. Jump!”

  Snap barked, ran back a little way, turned around and came racing straight for the twins. At that moment Sam Johnson came up running, a stick in his hand.

  “Heah! heah!” shouted the colored man, “You let dem chillers alone, dog! Go ’way, I tells yo’!”

  “That’s all right, Sam,” said Freddie. “Don’t scare him. He’s our new dog Snap, and he’s going to do a trick,” for the colored gardener had supposed the dog was running at Flossie and Freddie to bite them.

  Snap paid no attention to Sam, but raced on. When a short distance from where Flossie and Freddie held the hoop, Snap jumped up into the air, and shot straight through the wooden circle, landing quite a way off.

  “Mah gracious sakes alive!” gasped Sam. “Dat’s a reg’lar circus trick—at’s what it am!”

  He scratched his head in surprise, and the stick he had picked up, intending to drive away the dog with, stuck straight out. In a moment Snap raced up, and jumped over the stick.

  “Oh, look!” cried Flossie.

  “Another trick!” exclaimed Freddie.

  “Mah gracious goodness!” cried Sam. “Dat suah am wonderful!”

  Snap ran about barking in delight. He seemed happy to be doing tricks.

  “Let’s go tell papa,” said Freddie. “He’ll want to know about this.”

  “Oh, I do hope he lets us keep him,” said Flossie.

  Mr. Bobbsey had not yet gone to his lumber office. He listened to what the little twins had to tell them about Snap, who lay on the lawn, seeming to listen to his own praises.

  “A trick dog; eh?” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “I wonder who owns him?”

  “Maybe he escaped from the circus,” suggested Bert, who came out just then to see how his pigeons were getting along.

  “That’s it!” cried Mr. Bobbsey. “I wonder I did not t
hink of it before. The dog must have escaped from the wrecked circus train, and he followed us, not knowing what else to do. That accounts for his tricks.”

  “But we can keep him; can’t we?” begged Flossie.

  “Hum! I’ll have to see about that,” said Mr. Bobbsey slowly. “I suppose the circus people will want him back, for he must be valuable. Perhaps some clown trained him.”

  “But if we can’t have Snoop, our cat, we ought to have a dog,” asserted Freddie.

  “I’ll try to get Snoop back,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I’ll have one of my men go down to the place where the wreck was, today, and inquire of the railroad men. He may be wandering about there.”

  “Poor Snoop!” said Nan, coming out to feed some of her pet chickens, that Sam had looked after all summer.

  “And while you are about it,” suggested Mrs. Bobbsey, who was on the front porch, “I wish, Richard, that you would see if you can locate that fat lady, and get back the children’s silver cup.”

  “I will,” replied Mr. Bobbsey. “I will have to write to them anyhow, about the dog, and at the same time I’ll ask about the cup. Though I don’t believe the fat lady meant to keep it.”

  “Oh, no,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Probably she just held it, in the excitement over the wreck, and she may have left it in the car. But please write about it.”

  “I will,” promised Mr. Bobbsey, as he started for the office, while the twins gathered about the new dog, who seemed ready to do more tricks.

  CHAPTER VX

  Danny Rugg Is Mean

  That afternoon a small fire broke out in Mr. Bobbsey’s lumber yard. The alarm bell rang, and Mrs. Bobbsey, hearing it, and knowing by the number that the blaze must be near her husband’s place of business, came hurrying down stairs.

  “Oh, I must go and see how dangerous it is,” she said to Dinah. “It is too bad to have it happen just after Mr. Bobbsey comes back from his summer vacation.”

  “’Deed it am!” cried the fat, colored cook. “But maybe it am only a little fire, Mrs. Bobbsey.”

  “I’m sure I hope so,” was the answer.

  As Mrs. Bobbsey was hurrying down the front walk Flossie and Freddie saw her.

  “Where are you going, mamma?” they called.