The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  “Yes, Snow Lodge is closed up,” said Mr. Carford. “I don’t suppose it will ever be used again. But I’ve told you the story of it, and I’m afraid I’ve tired you.”

  “No you haven’t,” said Nan. “We enjoyed it very much.”

  “That’s right!” exclaimed Bert.

  “Did—did you ever see any bears there?” asked Freddie, “any real big bears?”

  “Or tigers—or—or elephants?” asked Flossie, not to let her brother get ahead of her in asking questions.

  “Huh! Elephants don’t grow here—only bears,” said Freddie.

  “No, I never saw anything bigger than foxes,” said Mr. Carford with a laugh. “Snow Lodge isn’t very far from here, you know, so you have the same kind of animals there that you have here. Only there are more woods at Snow Lodge.

  “But I must be getting back with you youngsters. It is getting late and your folks may worry about you. I’ll bring the sled around, and my sister Emma can tuck you in. Then I’ll get you home, and see to my Christmas packages. It’s going to be a hard winter on the poor.”

  “We give the poor people something,” said Freddie. “At school we all brought something just before vacation, and Mr. Tetlow is going to give it to all the poor people.”

  “That was at Thanksgiving, dear,” said Nan.

  “Well, maybe they’ve got some left for Christmas,” said Freddie, as the others laughed.

  “That’s right—try and make other people happy, little man,” said Mr. Carford, patting Freddie’s head.

  The big sled with the horses and their jingling bells was soon at the door. Miss Carford had warmed some bricks to put down in the straw, to keep the children’s feet warm, and soon, cozily wrapped up, they were on their way home.

  CHAPTER VIII

  A Kind Offer

  “Nan!” called Freddie from under a big fur robe, as he sat in the warm straw of Mr. Carford’s sled next to his sister.

  “Yes, what is it?” asked Nan, bending over him to look at his face in the gathering dusk of the winter afternoon. “Are you warm enough, Freddie?”

  “Yes, I’m as warm as the toast Dinah makes for breakfast. But say, I want to ask you—do you think we’ll meet Santa Claus before we get home?”

  “No, Freddie. The idea! What makes you think that?”

  “Well, it’s near Christmas, and we’re out in a sled, and he goes out in a sled, only with reindeers of course, and—”

  Freddie’s voice trailed off sleepily. In fact he had aroused himself from almost a nap to ask Nan the question. Flossie, warmly wrapped up, was already slumbering in Bert’s arms.

  “No, I don’t believe we’ll meet Santa Claus this trip,” said Nan. “He is only supposed to travel at night, you know, Freddie.”

  “That’s so. Well, if we do meet him, and I’m asleep, you wake me up: will you?”

  “Yes, Freddie,” promised his sister, and she looked across at Bert and smiled. The two younger twins were soon both soundly slumbering, for being out in the cold air and wind does seem to make one sleepy when, later on, one gets warm and comfortable.

  Mr. Carford sat up on the seat in front driving the sturdy horses, while the string of bells around them jingled at every step.

  “Wasn’t that a strange story of Snow Lodge?” asked Nan of Bert, in a low voice.

  “It surely was,” he replied. “It seems too bad to have the place all shut up, with no one to use it this winter. It would be just great, I think, if we could go up there for the Christmas holidays. We could go up right after Christmas, and not come back until the middle of January, for school doesn’t open again until then. Wouldn’t it be great!”

  “Fine!” agreed Nan. “But I don’t s’pose we could. Mr. Carford doesn’t want Snow Lodge used, I guess. But he gave us a good time at his house.”

  “Indeed he did,” agreed Bert.

  On glided the sled, the bells making merry music. A light snowfall began, and Mr. Carford urged the horses to faster speed, for he wanted to get back home before the storm broke.

  “Wake up, Freddie!”

  “Wake up, Flossie!”

  Nan and Bert gently shook their little brother and sister to arouse them. The sled had stopped in front of the Bobbsey home.

  “Is it—is it morning?” asked Flossie, as she rubbed her eyes.

  “Did Santa Claus come?” demanded Freddie, trying to wiggle out of Bert’s arms.

  “Not yet,” laughed Mr. Carford. “But I think he soon will be here. Can you manage them, Nan—Bert?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes, we often carry them,” replied Nan. “They’ll soon be wide awake again, and they won’t want to go to sleep until late tonight, on account of the nap they’ve had.”

  Mrs. Bobbsey was at the door waiting for the children Flossie and Freddie soon roused up enough to walk in.

  “Won’t you come in?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey of Mr. Carford. “I can give you a cup of tea. Mr. Bobbsey just came home. Perhaps you’d like to say ‘how-d’ye-do.’”

  “Thanks, I’ll come in for just a minute,” was the answer. “Then I must be getting back before the storm breaks. And I’ll tie my horses, too. I can’t risk another runaway,” Mr. Carford said with a smile at Bert.

  Mr. Bobbsey greeted the caller cordially, and the children were soon telling their parents of the nice visit they had had.

  “And Miss Carford can make almost as good cookies as Dinah!” cried Freddie.

  “Ha! Ha!” laughed Mr. Carford. “I’ll have to tell my sister that. She’ll be real proud.”

  Bert, looking from his father to Mr. Carford, wondered what could have once taken place between the two men. That there was some sort of secret he felt sure, and up to now there had been no explanation of the strange words used by the aged man at the time Bert and the others caught the runaways.

  “I haven’t seen you in some time, Mr. Bobbsey,” said Mr. Carford, after they had talked about the weather.

  “No, I’ve been very busy, and I suppose you have also. Have you been at Snow Lodge lately?”

  “No, and I don’t expect to set foot in the place again. I guess you know why. And I want to say now, that though I was rather cross with you when you tried to get me to change my mind about that matter, some time ago, I want to say that I’m sorry for it. I realize that you did it for the best.”

  “Yes,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “I did, but I know how you felt about it. I believed then, and I believe now, that you made a mistake about your nephew Henry.”

  “No, I don’t think I did,” was the slow reply. “I am afraid Henry is a bad young man. I don’t want to see him again, nor Snow Lodge either. But I’m glad you tried to help me. However, I have come about a different matter now. How would you and your family like to spend the winter there? How would a vacation at Snow Lodge suit you?”

  No one spoke for a few seconds. All were surprised at the kind offer made by Mr. Carford.

  “A vacation at Snow Lodge!” said Mr. Bobbsey slowly.

  “Do you mean it, Mr. Carford?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “I certainly do,” was the answer. “I have told your youngsters something about Snow Lodge, and they seemed to like the place. I heard them talking among themselves, on the way back here, how they’d like to go there.

  “Oh, that’s all right—no harm done!” exclaimed Mr. Carford, as he looked at the blushing faces of Nan and Bert. “I’m glad I did overhear what you were saying. It is a shame to keep that place locked up, and I’m just beginning to realize it.

  “I don’t want to go there myself, but that’s no reason why others shouldn’t. So, Mr. Bobbsey, if you like, you can take your whole family up there to Snow Lodge, near the lake, and in the woods, and stay as long as you like. Here are the keys!” and Mr. Carford tossed a jingling bunch on the table.

  CHAPTER IX

  Mr. Bobbsey’s Story

  “Snow Lodge! Oh, Papa, could we go there?” cried Flossie, now wide awake.

  “What fun we could have!” exclaim
ed Freddie, whose eyes were now as wide open as ever they had been.

  Bert and Nan said little, but there was a look of pleased anticipation on their faces. They, too, realized what fun they could have in a big, old-fashioned farmhouse in winter, particularly when the building was refitted with a furnace, and had big fireplaces in it.

  And Bert was wondering, more than ever, what strange reason Mr. Carford could have for not wanting to go back to lovely Snow Lodge.

  “Say we can go, Daddy!” pleaded the two smaller twins, as they tried to get into their father’s lap.

  “Well,” said Mr. Bobbsey slowly, “this is certainly very kind of, you, Mr. Carford, but I am not sure I can accept it. I am very much obliged to you, however—”

  “Accept! Of course you can accept!” exclaimed the aged man. “There’s no reason why you and your family shouldn’t have a holiday vacation at Snow Lodge. The place has been closed up a long time, but a day or so, with a good fire in it, would make it as warm as toast. I know, for I’ve been there on the coldest winter days. Now you just plan to go up there with the wife and children, and have a good time. It might as well be used as to stand idle and vacant, as it is.”

  “What do you say, Mother?” and Mr. Bobbsey looked at his wife. “Shall we go to Snow Lodge?”

  “The children would like it,” said Mrs. Bobbsey slowly.

  “Like it! I should say we would!” cried Nan. “I can take some pictures of the birds with my new camera—the one I am going to get for Christmas,” she added with a smile.

  “Oh ho! So you are going to have a camera for Christmas; are you?” laughed her father.

  “I—I hope so,” she replied.

  “And I can build a snowhouse and live in it like the Esquimos,” added Bert.

  “Then I’m going to live with you!” cried Freddie. “Please go to Snow Lodge, Mamma!”

  “Yes, take the youngsters up,” urged Mr. Carford. “At least don’t decide against it now. I’ll leave the keys with you, and you can go any time you like. I don’t suppose it will be until after Christmas, though, for Santa Claus might not be able to get up there,” and he pinched Freddie’s fat cheek.

  “No, don’t go until after Santa Claus has been here,” urged Flossie seriously, and her mother laughed.

  “Well, I must be going, anyhow,” said Mr. Carford, after a pause. “It will be dark before I get back, and the storm seems to be coming up quickly. Emma will worry, I’m afraid. Now you just think it over about Snow Lodge,” he concluded, “and I guess you will go, Mr. Bobbsey. You know my reasons for not wanting to set foot in the place, so I don’t need to tell you.

  “Now, good-bye. Go to Snow Lodge, and have a good time, and when you come back, children, tell me all about it. If I can’t go there at least I like to hear about the place.”

  Mr. Carford went out to his team, through the now driving snow. He little realized what a joyful story the Bobbsey twins were to bring back to him from Snow Lodge, nor how it was to change his feeling in regard for his boyhood home.

  “Papa,” said Bert soberly, after the visitor had gone, leaving the keys of Snow Lodge behind him, “what is the secret about Mr. Carford and that winter place? And you’re mixed up in it, I’m sure.”

  “What makes you sure, Bert?”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking so ever since that day I helped to catch his runaway horses, and he said this was the second time a Bobbsey had tried to do him a favor.’”

  “Had your favor anything to do with Snow Lodge, Papa?” asked Nan, as she put her arms about his neck.

  “Well, yes, daughter, in a way. And, since Mr. Carford has told you part of the story, I may as well tell you the other half, I suppose.”

  “Oh, another story!” cried Flossie, in delight.

  “Yes, we must be quiet and listen,” said Freddie, as he drew up a stool close to his father.

  “It isn’t a very nice sort of story,” went on Mr. Bobbsey. “In fact it is rather sad. But I’ll tell it to you, anyhow. Did Mr. Carford tell you about when he was a boy?”

  “Yes, and how he went away, and came back rich, and found all his folks gone and the farm sold,” said Nan.

  “Yes. Well, I guess he told you then, how he took his nephew, Henry Burdock, to live with him. He loved Henry almost as if he were his own son, and did everything for him. In fact he planned to leave him all his money. Then came a quarrel.”

  “What about?” asked Bert softly.

  “Over some money. Henry was a young man who liked to spend considerable, and though he was not bad he was different from the country boys. Mr. Carford gave him plenty of spending money, however, and did not ask him what became of it.

  “Then, one day, a large sum of money was missing from Snow Lodge. Mr. Carford accused Henry of taking it, and Henry said he had seen nothing of it. Then came a quarrel, and Mr. Carford, in a fit of temper, drove Henry away from Snow Lodge. There were bitter words on both sides, and after that Mr. Carford closed up the place, and has not been near it since. That is the part of the story Mr. Carford did not tell you.”

  “But where do you come in, Daddy?” asked Nan. “Did you find the missing money?”

  “No, Nan, though I wish I had. But I was sure Henry had not taken it, and I tried to make Mr. Carford believe so. That is what he meant by me trying to do him a favor. But he would not have it so, and, for a time, he had some feeling against me. But it passed away, for he realized that I was trying to help him.

  “But since then Mr. Carford and his nephew, Henry Burdock, have not spoken. As I said, Mr. Carford drove the young man away from Snow Lodge. It was in a raging storm and Henry might have frozen, only I found him and took him to a hotel. I helped look after him until he could get a start. It was a very sad affair, and it has spoiled Mr. Carford’s life, for he loved Henry very much.”

  “And did Henry really take the money?” asked Freddie. “That was wicked, I think.”

  “You must not say so, Freddie,” spoke Mr. Bobbsey. “We do not know that Henry did take it. No one knows. It is a mystery. I, myself feel sure that Henry did not, but I can not prove that he did not take it. His uncle believes that he did. At any rate the money disappeared.”

  “And where was it when Mr. Carford last saw it?” asked Nan.

  “Mr. Carford left it on the mantlepiece in the big living room of Snow Lodge,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Henry was the only other person, beside himself, who was in the room, and in some way the money was taken. I even went so far as to have a man from the police station look all over the house, hoping he could find the roll of bills somewhere, but it did not come to light. And so, ever since, there has been a bad feeling between Henry and his uncle.”

  “What does Henry Burdock do now?” asked Bert.

  “He roams about the woods, as a sort of guide and hunter. Sometimes, I am told, he comes close to Snow Lodge and looks down on it from a distant hill, thinking of the happy days he spent there.”

  “Maybe we’ll see him when we go up,” said Freddie. “If I do I’ll give him all the money in my bank so he can be friends with his uncle again.”

  “No, Freddie,” said Mrs. Bobbsey solemnly. “You must not speak of what you have just heard. It is a sad story, and is best forgotten. Both Mr. Carford and Henry feel badly enough about it, so it will be best not to mention it. Just forget all about it if we go to Snow Lodge.”

  “But we are going; aren’t we, Papa?” asked Bert. “The trip to the woods would do us all good.”

  “Well, I think we might take advantage of Mr. Carford’s kind offer,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Yes, we’ll plan to go to Snow Lodge!”

  “Hurrah!” cried Nan and Bert, grasping each other by the hands and swinging around in a sort of waltz.

  “Can we take our sleds,” asked Flossie.

  “I’m going to take my skates—maybe I’ll skate all the way there—I could—on the lake!” exclaimed Freddie, and he wondered why the others laughed.

  “Well, we’ll make our plans later,” said
Mrs. Bobbsey. “Now, children, we’ll have an early supper and then you must all get to bed. Christmas will come so much earlier if you go to sleep now.”

  “Oh, jolly Christmas!” cried Nan. “I can hardly wait!”

  CHAPTER X

  Unwelcome News

  “Merry Christmas!”

  “Merry Christmas to everybody!”

  “Oh, Christmas is here! I wonder what I got?”

  “I’m going to get up and see!”

  The Bobbsey twins were calling to one another from their rooms, and papa and mamma Bobbsey were replying to their children’s happy greetings. It was Flossie who had made the exclamation about wondering what Santa Claus had brought her, and it was Freddie who declared he was going to get up to see.

  Soon the patter of bare feet announced that the two younger twins were scampering downstairs.

  “You must put on your dressing gowns and slippers, my dears!” called Mrs. Bobbsey. “You’ll take cold. Nan, look after them; will you?”

  “Yes, mother, in just a minute. As soon as I can find my own things,” and Nan got out of bed. She and Bert were not in so much of a hurry as Flossie and Freddie for they were getting older, and though Christmas was still a source of great joy to them they were not so anxious to see what gifts they had. Still Nan was eager to know if her camera had come.

  From the parlor below came cries, shouts and peals of delighted and surprised laughter as Flossie and Freddie discovered their different gifts.

  “Look at my book!” cried Flossie. “And a doll—a doll that you can wind up, and she walks and says ‘mamma.’ Look, Freddie!” and the little girl started the doll off across the room.

  “Pooh! Look at what I got!” cried Freddie. “It’s a fire engine, and it squirts real water. I’m going to put some in it, and play fire.”

  He started for the kitchen with his toy, but Nan caught him.

  “Not just yet, little fat fireman,” she said with a laugh, as she took him up in her arms. “You can’t splash in the cold water until you have more clothes on. Get dressed and then you may play with your toys.”