The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  “He’s gone off in the woods and is lost,” said Harry.

  “Snap knows better than to get lost,” declared Bert. “He could find his way home from almost anywhere. I think he must have followed someone away.”

  “Would he do that?” asked Harry.

  “He might with someone he knew, if that person petted him,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

  “That hunter—Henry Burdock!” suddenly exclaimed Bert. “Snap made great friends with him when we met him out in the woods the other day, and Henry said he’d make a fine hunting dog.”

  “I don’t believe Henry Burdock would entice our dog away,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a shake of his head.

  “Oh, of course I didn’t mean on purpose,” said Bert. “But Snap may have been running about in the woods at dusk when he met Henry. Then he may have followed him, for Snap is part hunting dog, and he gets crazy when he sees a gun. Maybe he followed Henry, and wouldn’t be driven back through the snow.”

  “Maybe that’s so,” agreed Mr. Bobbsey. “In that case Snap will be all right, and we can get him in the morning. So don’t worry any more.”

  They went back in the Lodge, to find Freddie and Flossie almost in tears. But the little twins felt better when it was explained to them that Snap might, after all, be safe with the young hunter.

  “And will you get him first thing in the morning?” asked Freddie.

  The following day was so nice that Flossie and Freddie were allowed to go with Bert, Nan, Harry and Dorothy to the cabin of Henry Burdock to look for Snap. The small twins were put on two sleds, the older children taking turns pulling them.

  They easily found Henry’s cabin, having been there several times since the night they spent in it. The hunter was just about to start off on a trip.

  “Where’s Snap?” called Bert, eagerly.

  “Snap? I haven’t seen him since that day I met you with him in the woods,” answered the hunter.

  “What! Isn’t he here?” asked Harry.

  Then they told of the missing dog. But Henry Burdock had not seen him.

  “Where can he be?” spoke Nan, wonderingly.

  Flossie and Freddie began to cry.

  “Oh, a bear has Snap!” wailed Flossie.

  “No, he hasn’t!” declared Bert. “We’ll find him.”

  “But where can he be?” said Dorothy. “Is there anyone else around here who might take him?”

  Bert and Nan thought of the same thing at the same time.

  “Danny Rugg!” they exclaimed.

  “What do you mean?” asked Henry Burdock.

  “He’s a mean boy who is camping with his father near us,” explained Bert. “Harry and I pelted him good with snowballs the other day, after he bothered us. I think he has enticed Snap away.”

  “Would your dog go with him?”

  “Yes, he’s friendly with Danny, for sometimes Danny is fairly good, and comes to our house. If he offered Snap a nice bone our dog might go with him.”

  “Then I advise you to have a look over where Danny is camping,” said the young hunter.

  It was quite a trip back to Snow Lodge and then over to the Rugg lumber camp, and Mrs. Bobbsey thought it too far to take Flossie and Freddie, so they were left behind on the second trip, Nan and Dorothy going with Bert and Harry.

  They saw Danny Rugg standing in front of a log cabin which was on the edge of a lumber camp. The bully seemed uneasy at the sight of Harry and Bert, and called out:

  “If you’re coming here to make any trouble I’ll tell my father on you. He’s right over there.”

  “We’re not going to make any trouble, Danny Rugg, if you don’t,” said Bert slowly, “But we came for Snap, our dog.”

  “I don’t know anything about your dog,” answered Danny, in surly tones.

  “I think you do,” said Bert, quietly. Then raising his voice, he called:

  “Snap! Snap! Where are you, old fellow? Snap!”

  There was a moment of silence, and then, from a small cabin some distance away, came loud barks.

  “There’s Snap! That’s our dog!” cried Nan, joyfully, and at the sound of her voice the barking grew louder. There could also be heard the rattling of a chain.

  “You’ve got him tied, Danny Rugg!” cried Bert, angrily. “Let him go at once or I’ll hit you!”

  “Don’t you dare touch me!” cried the bully. “And you get off our land!”

  “Not until I get my dog,” said Bert, firmly.

  He started for the cabin where the dog was, but Danny stepped in front of him. Bert shoved Danny to one side, and just then Mr. Rugg came up.

  “Here! What does this mean?” he asked. “Bert Bobbsey, you here?”

  “Yes, sir. I came after my dog. Danny has him tied up!”

  “Danny, is this so?” asked Mr. Rugg, who knew some of his son’s mean ways, and had tried in vain to break him of them. “Have you Bert’s dog?”

  “Well, maybe it is his dog. It was dark when he followed me home last night, and I tied him in that shack.”

  “I guess he wouldn’t have followed you if you hadn’t coaxed him,” said Bert.

  “Well, I couldn’t drive him back,” went on Danny, but the Bobbseys believed that he had deliberately coaxed Snap off to make trouble.

  “Let the dog out at once,” said Mr. Rugg to his son, and Danny had to do so, though he was angry and sullen over it.

  How Snap leaped about his master and mistress and their cousins! How delightedly he barked! And his tail wagged to and fro so fast that it looked like two tails, as Freddie said afterward.

  “Poor Snap!” said Bert, as he patted his pet “And so you were tied up all night? It was a mean trick!” and his eyes flashed at Danny, who looked on sneeringly.

  “I am sorry for this, Bert,” said Mr. Rugg. “If I had known Danny enticed away your dog I would have made him bring it back. Now I am going to punish him. You go back home today, Danny. You can’t stay in the lumber camp any longer.”

  Danny felt badly, of course, but it served him right.

  The Bobbseys and their cousins lost no time for getting back to Snow Lodge with Snap, who was hugged so much by Flossie and Freddie that Dinah said:

  “Good land a’ massy! Dat dog must be mos’ starved, an’ yo’-all is lubbin him so dat he ain’t time to eat a sandwich. Let him hab some breakfast, an’ den hug him!”

  “Oh, but we like him so!” cried Flossie.

  So Snap was restored, and Danny was sent home out of the woods, so there was no more trouble from him.

  In the days that followed, the Bobbsey twins at Snow Lodge had many more good times. They made snow forts, and had snow-battles, they made big snow men and threw snowballs at them, and went on sleigh rides, or skated and ice-boated and played around generally, to their hearts’ content.

  Occasionally the two older boys went on long tramps with Henry Burdock as he visited his traps. They invited him to come to Snow Lodge, but he said:

  “No, I’m never coming there until I can prove to my uncle that I never touched his money. Then I’ll come.”

  One day, when Bert and Harry had been in the woods with the young hunter, he said to them:

  “Don’t go far away from Snow Lodge to-morrow, boys.”

  “Why not?” asked Bert.

  “Because I think we’re in for a big storm, and you might easily get lost again. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s going to snow hard before morning.”

  Henry Burdock proved a true weather prophet, for when the Bobbseys and the other got up the next morning the ground was covered with a mantle of newly-fallen snow, and more was sifting down from the clouds. The wind, too, was blowing fiercely.

  “It’s going to be a bad storm,” said Mr. Bobbsey, looking out after breakfast. “Luckily we have plenty of wood and plenty to eat.”

  The wind howled around Snow Lodge while the white flakes came down thicker and faster.

  “Maybe we’ll be snowed in,” said Nan.

  “That would be fun!” cried Be
rt.

  CHAPTER XXI

  The Falling Tree

  How the wind did blow! How the snow swirled and drifted about the old farmhouse! But within it all were warm and comfortable. The fire on the open hearth was kept roaring up the chimney, Sam piling on log after log. In the cozy kitchen Dinah kept at her work over the range, singing old plantation melodies.

  The blowing wind and the drifting snow kept up all day. Flossie and Freddie begged to be allowed to go out for a little while, but their mother would not think of it. Bert and Harry tried to go a little way beyond the barn but were driven back by the cold, wintry blasts. Dorothy and Nan managed to have a good time in the attic of the old house, dressing up in some clothes of a by-gone age, which they found in some trunks.

  “My! I hope the chimneys don’t blow off!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, as a particularly fierce blast shook the old house. “A fire now would be dreadful.”

  “I don’t imagine there is much danger,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. “The way they built houses and chimneys when Snow Lodge was put up was different from nowadays. They were built to stay.”

  “Oh, but this is a terrible storm!”

  “Yes, and it seems to be getting worse,” agreed Mr. Bobbsey. “I hope no one is out in it. But, as I said, we have plenty to eat, and wood to keep us warm, and that is all we can ask.”

  The day slowly passed, but toward afternoon Flossie and Freddie grew fretful from having been kept in. They were used to going out of doors in almost any kind of weather.

  “Come on up in the attic with us,” suggested Nan, “and we’ll have a sort of circus.”

  “And Snap can do tricks,” cried Freddie, “and I’ll give an exhibition with my fire engine.”

  “Of course!” exclaimed Dorothy, and the little Bobbsey twins forgot their fretfulness in a new series of games.

  Harder blew the wind, and fiercer fell the snow. The path Mr. Bobbsey had shoveled was soon filled up again. Out at the back door was a drift that covered the rear stoop.

  “If this keeps up we will be snowed in,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife, as they prepared to lock up for the night.

  They were gathered around the big open fire, popping corn and roasting apples, when a louder blast of wind than ever shook the house.

  “Oh, what a night!” said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a shudder. “I wish we were in our home again!”

  Hardly had she spoken than there came a fearful crash, and the whole house trembled. At the same time a blast of cold wind swept through it, scattering the fire on the hearth.

  “Oh, what was that?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “That old apple tree, at the corner of the house,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “The storm has blown it over, and it has smashed a corner of the Lodge. Don’t be afraid. We’ll be all right,” and he ran to close the door, to keep out the cold wind.

  CHAPTER XXII

  The Missing Money

  “What happened?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, when her husband had come back after going out to take a look around. “Is the house safe?”

  “As safe as ever,” he answered. “Just as I told you, the old apple tree blew over, and smashed the corner of the house near this living room. That’s why we felt the crash so. But there is no great harm done. We can keep this door closed and not use that other part of the house at all. We have room enough without it. The wind and storm can’t get at us here.”

  “I suah ‘nuff thought de house was comin’ down,” said Dinah, who had run in from the kitchen at the sound of the crash.

  “It was a hard blow,” said Bert “Look, all the ashes are scattered,” and he pointed to where the wind had blown them about the hearth.

  Dinah soon swept them up, however, and more wood was put on the fire, and the Bobbseys were as comfortable as before. The part of the house which had been smashed by the tree was closed off from the rest.

  Soon it was time to go to bed, but all night long the storm raged, making Snow Lodge tremble in the blast. Everyone was up early in the morning to see by daylight what damage had been done.

  The sun rose clear, for the storm had passed. But oh? what a lot of snow there was! In big drifts it was scattered all over the place, and one side door was snowed in completely; and could not be opened. Sam had to shovel a lot of snow away from the kitchen steps before Dinah could go out.

  “Let’s go see where the tree fell,” suggested Bert to Harry, when they were dressed, Nan and Dorothy joined them. They went to the corner of the house and there saw a strange sight. The old apple tree lay partly in the room into which it had crashed through the side of the house. And much snow had blown in also.

  This room, however, was little used, except for storage, and there was nothing in it to be damaged save some old furniture. Bert and Harry made their way into the apartment, and the girls followed.

  They were looking about at the odd sight, when something in a corner of the room, along the wall that was next to the living room, where the Bobbseys had spent the evening, caught Bert’s eyes. He went toward it. He picked up a roll of what seemed to be green paper. It had been in a crack of the wall that had been made wider by the falling tree.

  “Oh, look?” he cried. “What is this? Why, it’s money!”

  “A roll of bills!” added Harry, looking over his cousin’s shoulder.

  Slowly Bert unrolled them. There seemed to be considerable money there. One bill was for a hundred dollars.

  “Where did it come from?” asked Nan.

  “From a crack in the wall,” spoke her brother. “It must have slipped down, and the falling tree made the crack wider, so I could see it.”

  “I wonder who could have put it there?” said Dorothy.

  Bert and Nan looked at each other. The same thought came into their minds.

  “The missing money!” cried Bert, “The roll of bills that Mr. Carford thought his nephew took! Can this be it?”

  “Oh, if it only is!” murmured Nan. “Let’s tell papa right away!”

  Carrying the money so strangely found, the young folks went into the house where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were. The roll of bills was shown, and Mr. Bobbsey was much surprised.

  “Do you think this can be the money Mr. Carford lost?” asked Bert.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Mr. Bobbsey, quickly. “I’ll take a look. Mr. Carford said he left it on the mantel in the living room, and you found it in the room back of that. I’ll look.”

  Quickly he examined the mantel. Then he said:

  “Yes, that’s how it happened. There is a crack up here, and the money must have slipped down into it. All these years it has been in between the walls, until the falling tree made a break and showed where it was. Mr. Carford was mistaken. His nephew did not take the money. I always said so. It fell into the crack, and remained hidden until the storm showed where it was.”

  “Oh, how glad I am!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “Now Henry’s name can be cleared! Oh, if he were only here to know the good news!”

  There seemed to be no doubt of it. Years before Mr. Carford had placed the money on the shelf of the living room. He probably did not know of the crack into which it slipped. The roll of bills had gone down between the walls, and only the breaking of them when the tree fell on the house brought the money to light.

  “It is a strange thing,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “The missing money is found after all these years, and in such an odd way! We must tell Henry as soon as possible, and Mr. Carford also.”

  Suddenly there came a knock on the door. Bert went to it and gave a cry of surprise. There stood the young hunter—Henry Burdock.

  “I came over to see if you were all right,” he said. “We have had a fearful storm. Part of my cabin was blown away, and I wondered how you fared at Snow Lodge. Are you all right?”

  “Yes, Henry, we are,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “And the storm was a good thing for you.”

  “I don’t see how. My cabin is spoiled. I’ll have to build it over again.”

  “You won’t have to, He
nry. You can come to live at Snow Lodge now.”

  “Never. Not until my name is cleared. I will never come to Snow Lodge until the missing money is found, and my uncle says I did not take it.”

  “Then you can come now, Henry,” cried Mr. Bobbsey, holding out the roll of bills. “For the money is found and we can clear your name!”

  “Is it possible!” exclaimed the young hunter, in great and joyful surprise. “Oh, how I have prayed for this! The money found! Where was it? How did you find it?”

  Then the story was told, the children having their share in it.

  “I can’t tell you how thankful I am,” said the young hunter. “This means a lot to me. Now my uncle will know I am not a thief. I must go and tell him at once.”

  “No, I’ll go,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I want to prove to him that I was right, after all, in saying you were innocent. You stay here until I bring him.”

  Mr. Bobbsey went off in the big sled with Sam to drive the horses. It was a hard trip, on account of the drifts, but finally Newton was reached and Mr. Carford found. At first he could hardly believe that the money was found, but when he saw and counted it, finding it exactly the same as when he had put it on the shelf years before, he knew that he had done wrong in accusing Henry.

  “And I’ll tell him so, too,” he said. “I’ll beg his pardon, and he and I will live together again. Oh, how happy I am! Now I can go to Snow Lodge with a light heart.”

  Uncle and nephew met, and clasped hands while tears stood in their eyes. After years of suffering they were friends again. It was a happy, loving time for all.

  “And I’ll never be so hasty again,” said Mr. Carford. “Oh, what a happy day this is, after the big storm! We must have a big celebration. I know what I’ll do. I’ll get up a party, and invite all the people in this part of the country. They all know that I accused Henry of taking that money. Now they must know that he did not. I will admit my mistake.”

  And that is what Mr. Carford did. He sent out many invitations to an old-fashioned party at Snow Lodge. The place where the tree had crashed through, to show the missing money, was boarded up, and the house made cozy again.