“I’m going to have a ride,” thought Freddie. “I’ll have a little ride, while I’m waiting for Flossie.”
Freddie had a velocipede of his own, but that had three wheels instead of two. Freddie thought two wheels were much more fun than three.
“If I can get up on that bicycle, I’ll have a nice ride,” murmured Freddie. He looked toward the house. Flossie was not in sight. She had not yet found the straps.
Then Freddie looked toward Bert and Nan. They were still busy talking about the houseboat. They paid no attention to Freddie.
The little twin chap looked around until he had found a small box. By stepping on this he could get up on the seat of the bicycle, which was leaning against the shed. Then Freddie could give himself a little push, and away he would go. There was a little hill leading from where the bicycle stood down to the gate, and into the road. The gate was open.
“Maybe I can even ride down the road a little way,” thought Freddie to himself. “That would be great.”
It was rather hard work for Freddie to get up on the bicycle from the box, but he managed it. Then he sat on the leather saddle, and took hold of the handle bars. As I have told you, he knew how to steer, even though he could not reach the pedals.
“Here I go!” cried Freddie softly, as he gave himself a little push. Down the hill he went, along the path, straight for the yard gate.
“Oh! I’m going out in the road!” exclaimed Freddie, this time out loud, for he was far enough away from Nan and Bert now.
And into the road he did go, on Bert’s bicycle. The wheel was going faster and faster, for Bert had just oiled it and it rode very smoothly.
“This is great!” Freddie cried. “Maybe I can ride all the way to the bridge.”
He looked down the road to where a little white bridge spanned a small brook. And then, as Freddie looked, he saw something which made his heart beat very fast indeed. For, coming right toward him, was a team of horses, hitched to a big lumber wagon—it was one of Freddie’s papa’s own lumber teams, as the little boy could see for himself.
On came the trotting team, pulling the heavily laden lumber wagon, and, worst of all, there was no driver on the seat to guide the horses. They were trotting away all by themselves, and Freddie was out in the road, on the bicycle that was far too big for him.
“Oh dear!” cried Freddie.
Just then he heard Flossie scream. She had come out on the side porch, and she saw the team coming toward her little brother.
“Nan! Bert!” screamed Flossie. “Look at Freddie!”
Nan and Bert jumped up and raced down the path.
“Freddie’s in trouble again!” thought Bert.
It was not the first time Freddie had gotten into mischief. Though usually he was a pretty good boy, he sometimes made trouble without intending to.
I have told you there were two sets of Bobbsey twins, and those of you who have read the first book of this series know what I mean by that. The first book is called “The Bobbsey Twins,” and in that I told you how the Bobbsey family lived in an eastern city called Lakeport, at the head of Lake Metoka. Mr. Bobbsey was a lumber merchant, and owned a large sawmill, and a yard, near the lake, in which yard were piled many stacks of lumber.
Nan and Bert were the older Bobbsey twins, being past nine, while Flossie and Freddie were about “half-past-five.” So you see that is how there were two sets of twins. Nan was a tall, slender girl, with a dark face and red cheeks. Her eyes were brown, and so were her curls. Bert, too, was quite dark, like Nan.
Flossie and Freddie were very light, with blue eyes. They were short and fat, instead of tall and thin. So you see the two sets of twins were very different.
Oh! such good times as the Bobbsey twins had! I could not tell you all of them, if I wrote a dozen books. But some of the good times I have related in the first book. In the second, called “The Bobbsey Twins in the Country,” there are more happenings mentioned.
Uncle Daniel Bobbsey, his wife Sarah, and their son Harry lived in the country, at a place called Meadow Brook, and there the twins often went on their vacation.
Uncle William Minturn, and his wife Emily, with their nine-year-old daughter Dorothy, lived at Ocean Cliff. As you might guess, this was on the coast, and in the third book, “The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore,” I have told you of the good times the children had there, how they saw a wreck, and what came of it.
In “The Bobbsey Twins at School” you will find out how they came to get the dog Snap, as a pet. They already had a black cat, named Snoop, but one day, when the twins, with their father and mother, were on a railroad train, something happened, and Snoop was lost.
They found Snap, instead. He was a circus dog, and—but there, if you want to read of Snap, you must do so in the book about him. I shall tell you this much, though. Snap was a very fine dog, and could do many tricks, and in the end the Bobbseys kept him for a pet, as well as getting back their lost cat Snoop.
When school was over for the winter holidays one year, the Bobbseys went to “Snow Lodge,” and in the book of that name I have told you about a mystery the twins helped solve while out amid the snow and ice.
Now the Bobbseys were back in their fine house in Lakeport, where Dinah, the fat cook, gave them such good things to eat, and where Sam Johnson, her husband, kept the lawns so nice and green for the children to play on.
Just now Freddie Bobbsey would have been very glad, indeed, to be playing on that same lawn instead of being on his brother’s bicycle, rolling toward the team of lumber horses, who were coming straight for him.
“Oh, look at Freddie! Look at Freddie!” screamed Flossie, dropping the two book straps which she had at last found. “Save him, Nan! Bert! Oh, Freddie!”
“I ‘clar t’ goodness!” exclaimed fat Dinah in the kitchen. “Dem chillens am up t’ some mo’ trouble!”
“Freddie, steer to one side! Steer out of the way!” shouted Bert, as he ran for the gate. He could not hope to reach his little brother in time, though.
Freddie was too frightened and excited to steer. The bicycle was going fast—faster than he had ever ridden on it before. All he could do was to sit tight, and hold fast to the handle bars.
“Oh, he’ll be run over!” cried Nan, as she, too, raced after Bert.
The team, with no driver to guide it, ran faster and faster. Freddie began to cry. And then, all at once, the front wheel of the bicycle ran over a stone, and turned to one side. The handle bars were jerked from Freddie’s grasp, and over he went, wheel and all!
Luckily for him, he fell to one side of the road, on the soft grass, or he might have been injured, but, as it was, the fall did not hurt him at all. One of his little fat legs, though, became tangled up in the wire spokes of the front wheel, and Freddie lay there, with the wheel on top of him, unable to get up.
“Oh, Bert! Bert!” screamed Nan.
“Grab him—quick!” shouted Dinah, waddling down the walk. But she was too fat to go fast enough to do any good.
“Roll out of the way, Freddie!” cried Bert.
Freddie was too much entangled in the wheel to be able to move. And, all the while, the lumber team was coming nearer and nearer to him. Would the horses, with no driver at the reins, know enough to turn to one side, or would the wheels roll over poor Freddie and the bicycle?
Nan covered her face with her hands. She did not want to look at what was going to happen.
“I must get there in time to pull him out of the way!” thought Bert, as he ran as fast as he could. But the team was almost on Freddie now.
Suddenly the dog Snap, who had jumped up when he heard the shouts, saw what the danger was. Snap knew about horses, and he was smart enough to know that Freddie was in danger.
Without waiting for anyone to tell him what to do, Snap ran straight for the lumber team. Leaping up in front of them, and barking as loudly as he could, Snap turned the trotting horses to one side. And just in time, too, for, a little more, and one of the front whe
els of the heavily loaded lumber wagon would have run over the bicycle in which Freddie was still entangled.
“Bow wow!” barked Snap. The horses were perhaps afraid of being bitten, though Snap was very gentle. At any rate, they turned aside, and would have run on faster, only Snap, leaping up, grabbed the dangling reins in his teeth and pulled hard on them. “Whoa!” called Bert. When the horses heard this, and felt the tug on the lines, they knew it meant to stop. And stop they did. Snap had saved Freddie.
CHAPTER III
Dinah’s Upset
“What’s the matter? What has happened?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, who had run out to the front porch, upon hearing the excited cries, and the exclamations of fat Dinah, the cook. “Oh! has anything happened to any of the children?”
“Yes’m, I s’pects there has, ma’am,” said Dinah. “Pore li’l Freddie am done smashed all up flatter’n a pancake, Mrs. Bobbsey!”
“Freddie—Oh!”
“He’s all right!” shouted Bert, who had, by this time, reached his little brother, and was lifting him out of the bicycle. “Not hurt a bit, are you, Freddie?”
“N—no, I—I guess not,” said Freddie, a bit doubtfully. “I—I’m scared, though.”
“Nothing to be frightened at now, Freddie,” said Bert, holding up the little chap, so his mother could see him.
“Why, Freddie isn’t hurt, Dinah,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, in great relief. “What made you think so?”
“Well, I seed him all tangled up in dat two-wheeled velocipede ob Bert’s, an’ de hoss team was comin’ right down on de honey-lamb. I thought shuah he was gwine t’ be squashed flatter’n a pancake. But he ain’t! Bless mah soul he ain’t! Oh, dere’s mah cake burnin’!” and into the kitchen ran Dinah, glad, indeed, that nothing had happened worse than the scare Freddie received.
“Good Snap! Good old dog!” said Nan, as she patted his head.
“Bow wow!” barked Snap. He still held the horse reins in his strong white teeth. He was not going to let the horses go yet.
“Oh, Freddie!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, when she understood what had happened. “What danger you were in! Why did you take Bert’s wheel?”
“I—I wanted a ride, Mamma. I didn’t think I’d fall off, or that the team would come.”
“You must never do it again,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Never get on Bert’s wheel again, unless he is with you to hold you. You are, too small, yet, for a bicycle.”
“Yes’m,” said Freddie in a low voice.
“But where is the driver of the wagon?” went on Mrs. Bobbsey, looking at the empty seat.
“Maybe he fell off,” suggested Nan, who had taken Freddie from Bert, the latter picking up his wheel, and looking to see if it had been damaged by the fall. But it was all right.
“Here comes a driver now,” said Flossie, who saw one of the men from her father’s lumber yard hurrying along the road.
“Is anybody hurt?” the man asked, as he came up, running and breathing fast, for he had come a long way.
“No one, I think,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey. “But my little boy had a very narrow escape.”
“I am sorry,” said the driver. “I left the team standing out in front of the lumber yard, while I went in the office to find out where I was to deliver the planks. When I came out the horses were trotting away. I guess they were scared by something. I ran fast, but I could not catch them.”
“Snap caught them for you,” said the twins’ mother, as she looked at the former circus dog, who was still holding the horse-reins.
“Yes, he’s a good dog,” the lumber wagon driver said. “I was afraid, when I saw how far the horses had gone, that they might do some damage. But I’m glad no one was hurt.”
“I think we all are glad,” spoke Mrs. Bobbsey. “It was partly my little boy’s own fault, for he should not have gotten on his brother’s bicycle. But he won’t do it again.”
“No, I never will!” promised Freddie, as he rubbed his leg where it had been bruised a little from becoming tangled up in the wire spokes.
Snap barked and wagged his tail, as the driver took the lines from him, and then, when the man drove off with the horses and the load of lumber, Mrs. Bobbsey went with the twins back into the yard.
“Well, I’m glad all the excitement is over,” she said. “Where were you, Nan? Grace Lavine called for you, but I looked out in the yard and did not see you, so she went away again.”
“Why, I went down to papa’s office, Mamma, with that letter you gave me for him.”
“Yes, I know, but I supposed you had come back. What kept you so long?”
“Well, I—er—I was talking to papa, and—”
Nan did not want to go on, for she did not want to tell that she had been talking about the houseboat.
Mr. Bobbsey had been intending to keep that as a little secret surprise for his wife, but now, if her mother asked about it, Nan felt she would have to tell. She hardly knew what to say, but just then something happened that made everything all right.
Mr. Bobbsey himself came hurrying down the street, from the direction of his lumber office. He seemed much excited, and his hat was on crooked, as though he had not taken time to put it on straight.
“Is everything all right?” he called to his wife. “None of the children hurt?”
“No, none of them,” she answered with a smile. Mr. Bobbsey could see that for himself now, since Freddie and Flossie were going up the walk together, Freddie tying one of the book straps around the dog’s neck, while Nan and Bert followed behind them, with Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Someone telephoned to me,” said the lumber merchant, “that they saw one of our teams running away down this street, and I was afraid our children, or those of some of the neighbors, might be hurt. So I hurried down to see. Did you notice anything of a runaway team?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “But everything is all right now. Only I haven’t yet heard what it was that kept Nan so long down at your office,” and she smiled.
Nan looked at her father, and Mr. Bobbsey looked at Nan. Then they both smiled and laughed.
“To tell you the truth,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with another smile, “Nan discovered a secret I was not going to tell at once.”
“A secret?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey in surprise.
“Yes, it’s about—” began Nan.
Then she stopped.
“Go on. You might as well tell her,” said Mr. Bobbsey, laughing.
“I know!” exclaimed Freddie, who was all over his fright now. “It’s about a boathouse and—”
“A houseboat!” interrupted Bert. “You’ve got the cart before the horse, Freddie.”
“That’s it!” exclaimed Nan. “Papa has bought the Marvin’s houseboat, Mamma, and we’re going to have lovely times in it this summer.”
“And I’m going to run the engine,” declared Bert.
“I’m going to be fireman!” cried fat Freddie. “I’m going to put on coal and squirt water on the fires!”
“I’m going to sit on deck and play with my dolls,” spoke Flossie, who was trying to climb up on Snap’s back to get a ride.
Mrs. Bobbsey looked at her husband.
“Really?” she asked. “Have you bought the boat?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I have. You know we have been thinking of it for some time. Lake Metoka would be just fine for a houseboat, and we could go on quite a cruise with one. Mr. Marvin wanted to sell his boat, and as he and I had some business dealings, and as he owed me some money, I took the boat in part payment.”
“And is it ours now, Papa?” asked Bert.
“Yes, the houseboat is ours. It is called the Bluebird, and that is a good name for it, since it is painted blue—like your eyes, little fat fairy!” he cried, catching Flossie up in his arms.
“Is it a big boat, Papa?” asked Bert. Like most boys he liked things big and strong.
“Well, I think it will be large enough,” said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile as he set down Flossie and caught up Fred
die in the same way. “Were you frightened when you fell down and saw the lumber team coming toward you?” he asked.
“A little,” Freddie said. “But I wished my legs were long enough so I could ride Bert’s bicycle. Then I could get out of the way.”
“You’d better keep away from the wheel until you are bigger,” said his father, who had been told about the accident and the excitement. “But now I must get back to the office. I have plenty of work to do.”
“Oh, but can’t you stay just a little longer, to tell us more about the boat!” pleaded Nan. “When can we have a ride in it?”
“A boat is called ‘her,’” interrupted Bert,
“Well, ‘her’ then,” said Nan. “Tell us about her, papa. I didn’t hear much at your office.”
“You heard more than I meant you to,” said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile. “Nan came in with that letter just as Mr. Marvin and I were finishing our talk about the houseboat,” he went on. “I was going to keep it secret a little longer, but it’s just as well you should know now.
“I think you will like the Bluebird. It has a little gasoline engine, so we can travel from place to place. And there is a large living room, a kitchen, several bed rooms and a nice open deck, where we can sit, when it is too hot to be inside.”
“Oh, that’s going to be great!” cried Bert. “I want a room near the engine.”
“And can I be a fireman?” asked Freddie.
“I want to be near mamma—and you,” spoke little Flossie.
“Oh, isn’t it going to be lovely!” exclaimed Nan, clapping her hands.
“Scrumptious, I call it!” cried Bert, and he ran into the house, through the hall, and into the dining-room, just as big, fat Dinah, the cook, was entering the same room, carefully holding a big cake which she had just covered with white frosting.
“Oh dear!” cried Bert, as he ran, full tilt, Into the big cook.
“Good land ob massy!” fairly yelled Dinah. “Wha—wha—”
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