“Isn’t this fun?” cried Nan to Dorothy.
“Indeed it is! Oh, I can’t tell you how glad I am that you asked me to come on this trip!”
“Oh! Look at that big bug!” suddenly cried Freddie, and he made a jump toward his mother, to get out of the way of a big cricket that had hopped onto the white table cloth.
“Look out, Freddie!” called his father. “You’ll upset your glass of lemonade!”
Mr. Bobbsey spoke too late. Freddie’s heel kicked over the glass, and the lemonade spilled right into Mrs. Bobbsey’s lap.
“Oh, Freddie!” cried Bert.
“Never mind—it’s an old dress,” laughed Mrs. Bobbsey, “and there’s more lemonade. Accidents will happen on picnics. Never mind, Freddie.”
The cricket was “shooed” away by Nan, Freddie’s glass was filled again, and the picnic went on merrily. Soon it was time to go back to the boat.
As they walked along through the woods, Mr. Bobbsey glanced up now and then through the trees at the sky.
“Do you think it’s going to rain?” his wife asked.
“Not right away, but I think we are soon going to have a storm,” he said.
“Oh, well, the houseboat doesn’t leak, does it?”
“No, but I don’t want to go out on Lake Romano in a storm, and I intended this evening to go on up the creek until we reached the lake. But I’ll wait and see what the weather does.”
“Well, did anything happen while we were gone?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey of Captain White, as they got back to the houseboat.
“No, not a thing,” he answered. “It was so still and quiet here, that Snoop and I had a nice sleep,” and he pointed to the black cat, who was stretched out in his lap, as he sat on deck.
As it did not look so much like a storm now, Mr. Bobbsey decided to move the houseboat farther up the creek, almost to where the stream flowed from Lake Romano, so as to be ready to go out on the larger body of water in the morning, if everything was all right.
The engine was started, and just before supper, the Bluebird came to a stop in Lemby Creek about a mile from the big lake. She was tied to the bank, and then supper was served.
Then followed a pleasant hour or two on deck, and when it was dark, the children went into the cabin and played games until bedtime—Nan and Bert, as well as the smaller twins and the cousins, were asleep when Mrs. Bobbsey, who had sat up to write some letters, heard her husband walking about on deck.
“What are you doing?” she called to him through a window.
“Oh, just looking at the weather,” he answered. “I think we’re going to have a storm after all, and a hard one, too. I’m glad we’re safely anchored.”
Sure enough. That night, about twelve o’clock, the storm came. There was at first distant, muttering thunder, which soon became louder. Then lightning followed, flashing in through the windows of the houseboat, so that Mrs. Bobbsey was awakened.
“Oh, it’s going to be a terrible storm,” she said to her husband.
“Oh, perhaps not so very bad,” he answered. “Here comes the rain!”
Then it began to pour. But the houseboat was well built, and did not leak a bit.
Next the wind began to blow, gently at first, but finally so hard that Mr. Bobbsey could hear the creaking of the ropes that tied the boat to trees on shore.
“I think I’d better look and see if those ropes are well tied,” he said, getting up to dress, and putting on a raincoat.
He had hardly gotten out on deck, before the houseboat gave a sudden lurch to one side, and then began to move quickly down stream.
“Oh, what has happened?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
At the same time Flossie and Freddie awakened, because of the loud noise from the storm.
“Mamma! Mamma!” they cried.
“Richard, has anything happened?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Yes!” he shouted. “The strong wind has broken the ropes, and we are adrift. But don’t worry. We’ll soon be all right!”
Faster and faster went the Bluebird, while all about her the rain splashed down, the wind blew, the thunder roared, and the lightning flashed.
CHAPTER XVIII
Strange Noises
The frightened cries of Flossie and Freddie soon awakened Nan and Bert, and it was not long before Harry and Dorothy, too, had roused themselves.
“What’s the matter?” asked Bert.
“Oh, we’ve gone adrift in the storm,” his mother said. “But don’t worry. Papa says it will be all right.”
“Come up on deck and see what’s going on!” cried Bert to Harry.
He had begun to dress, and now he thrust his head out from his room. “Hurry up, Harry,” he added. “We want to see this storm.”
“No, you must stay here,” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “It is too bad a storm for you children to be out in, especially this dark night. Your papa and Captain White will do all that needs to be done.”
“Mamma, it—it isn’t dark when the lightning comes,” said Freddie. He did not seem to be afraid of the brilliant flashes.
“No, it’s light when the flashes come,” said his mother. “But I want you all to stay here with me. It is raining very hard.”
“I should say it was!” exclaimed Harry, as he heard the swish of the drops against the windows of the houseboat.
“Is Snap all right, mamma?” asked Flossie. “And Snoop? I wouldn’t want them out in the storm.”
“They’re all right,” Mrs. Bobbsey said.
“Oh, what’s that!” suddenly cried Nan, as the houseboat gave a bump, and leaned to one side.
“We hit something,” Bert said. “Oh, I wish I could go out on the deck!”
“No, indeed!” cried his mother. “There! They’ve started the engine. Now we’ll be all right.”
As soon as Mr. Bobbsey had found out that the houseboat had broken loose from the mooring ropes in the storm, he awakened Captain White, and told him to start the motor.
This had been done, and now, instead of drifting with the current of the creek, the boat could be more easily steered. Soon it had been run into a sheltered place, against the bank, where, no matter how hard the wind blew, it would be safe.
“Are we all right now?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as her husband came down to the cabin.
“Yes, all right again,” he said. “There really was not much danger, once we got the motor started.”
“Is it raining yet?” asked Freddie, who was sitting in his mother’s lap, wrapped in a sweater.
“Indeed it is, little fat fireman,” his father answered. “You wouldn’t need your engine to put out a fire tonight.”
The patter of the raindrops on the deck of the houseboat could still be heard, and the wind still blew hard. But the thunder and lightning were not so bad, and gradually the storm grew less.
“Well, we’d better get to bed now,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “To-morrow we shall go to the big lake.”
“Did the storm take us far back down the creek?” asked Bert.
“Not more than a mile,” said his father.
“And the man can’t tie us in with wire again, can he?” Freddie wanted to know. “If he does, and I had one of those cutter-things, I could snip it.”
“You won’t have to, Freddie,” laughed Bert.
“Speaking of that mean farmer reminds me of the poor boy who ran away from him,” said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband, when the children had gone to bed. “I wonder where he is tonight, in this storm?”
“I hope he has a sheltered place,” spoke the father of the Bobbsey twins.
Not very much damage had been done by the storm, though it was a very hard one. In the morning the children could see where some big tree branches had blown off, and there had been so much rain, that the water of the creek was higher. But the houseboat was all right, and after breakfast, when they went up the creek again, they stopped and got the pieces of broken rope, where the Bluebird had been tied before.
The houseboat then went on, an
d at noon, just before Dinah called them to dinner, Nan, who was standing near her father at the steering wheel, cried:
“Oh, what a lot of water!”
“Yes, that is Lake Romano,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “We’ll soon be floating on that, and we’ll spend the rest of our houseboat vacation there.”
“And where shall we spend the rest of our vacation?” asked Bert, for it had been decided that the houseboat voyage would last only until about the middle of August.
“Oh, we haven’t settled that yet,” his father answered.
On and on went the Bluebird, and, in a little while, she was on the sparkling waters of the lake.
“I don’t see any waterfall,” said Freddie, coming toward his father, after having made Snap do some of his circus tricks.
“The waterfall is at the far end of the lake,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
“I wonder if there are any fish in this lake?” spoke Bert.
“Let’s try to catch some,” suggested his cousin Harry, and soon the two boys were busy with poles and lines.
The Bobbsey twins, and their cousin-guests, liked Lake Romano very much indeed. It was much bigger than the lake at home, and there were some very large boats on it.
Bert and Harry caught no fish before dinner, but in the afternoon they had better luck, and got enough for supper. The evening meal had been served by Dinah, Snap and Snoop had been fed, and the family and their guests were up on deck, watching the sunset, when Dinah came waddling up the stairs, with a funny look on her face.
“Why, Dinah! What is the matter?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, seeing that something was wrong. “Have you lost some more sandwiches?”
“No’m, it ain’t sandwiches dish yeah time,” Dinah answered. “But I done heard a funny noise jest now down near mah kitchen.”
“A funny noise?” repeated Mr. Bobbsey. “What was it like?”
“Jes like some one cryin’,” Dinah answered. “I thought mebby one ob de chilluns done got locked in de pantry, but I opened de do’, an’ dey wasn’t anybody dere. ’Sides, all de chilluns is up heah. But I shuah did heah a funny noise ob somebody cryin’!”
Mrs. Bobbsey looked at her husband and said:
“You’d better go see what it is, Richard.”
CHAPTER XIX
Snap’s Strange Actions
The Bobbsey twins looked at one another. Then they glanced at their cousins, Harry and Dorothy. Next the eyes of all the children were turned on fat Dinah.
“Was—was it a baby crying?” Freddie wanted to know.
“Yes, honey lamb—it done did sound laik a baby—only a big baby,” explained the colored cook.
“Maybe it was one of Flossie’s dolls,” the little “fat fireman” went on.
“Flossie’s dolls can’t cry!” exclaimed Nan. “Not even the one that says ‘mama,’ when you punch it in the back. That can’t cry, because it’s broken.”
“Well, Flossie says her dolls cry, sometimes,” said Freddie, “and I thought maybe It was one of them now.”
“It was Snoop, our cat,” said Bert, with a laugh. “That’s what you heard, Dinah, Snoop crying for something to eat. Maybe she’s shut up in a closet.”
“Probably that’s what it was, Dinah,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“I’ll go let her out,” said Mr. Bobbsey, starting toward the lower part of the houseboat.
“’Scuse me, Mr. Bobbsey,” said Dinah firmly, “but dey ain’t no use yo’ going t’ let out no cat Snoop.”
“Why not, Dinah?”
“Because it wasn’t any cat dat I done heah. It was a human bein’ dat I heard cryin’, dat’s what it was, an’ I know who it was, too,” the colored woman insisted.
“Who, Dinah?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“It was de same ghostest dat done took mah cakes an’ sandwiches, dat’s who it was. I’se mighty sorry t’ leab yo’, Mrs. Bobbsey, but I guess I’ll done be goin’ now.”
“What, Dinah!” cried her mistress. “Going? Where?”
“Offen dish yeah boat, Mrs. Bobbsey. I cain’t stay heah any mo’ wif a lot of ghostests.”
“Nonsense, Dinah!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “There isn’t any such thing as a ghost, and you know it! It’s silly to even talk about such a thing. Now you just come with me, and show me where you heard those noises.”
“No, sah, I cain’t do it, Mr. Bobbsey,” the colored cook exclaimed, moving backward.
“Why not?” Mr. Bobbsey wanted to know.
“’Cause it’s bad luck, dat’s why. I ain’t goin’ neah no ghostest—”
“Don’t say that again, Dinah!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey sharply, with a glance at the children.
“Oh, we’re not afraid, mother!” chimed in Bert. “We know there’s no such thing as a ghost.”
“That’s right,” spoke his father. “But, Dinah, I must get this matter settled. It won’t do for you to be frightened all the while. You must come and show me where you heard the noise.”
“Has I got to do it, Mrs. Bobbsey?” asked Dinah.
“Yes, I think you had better.”
“Well, den, I heard de noise right down in de passageway dat goes from de kitchen to de dinin’ room. Dat’s where it was. A noise laik somebody cryin’ an’ weepin’.”
“And are you sure it wasn’t Snoop, Dinah?”
“Shuah, Mr. Bobbsey. ’Cause why? ’Cause heah’s Snoop now, right ober by Miss Dorothy.”
This was very true. The little seashore Cousin had been playing with the black cat.
“Snap howls sometimes,” said Freddie, who seemed to be trying to find some explanation of the odd noise. “Lots of times he used to howl under my window, and I’d think it was some boy, but it was only Snap. He used to like to howl at the moon.”
“Dat’s right, so he does, honey lamb,” Dinah admitted. “But dere ain’t no moon now, an’ Snap’s eatin’ a bone. He don’t never howl when he’s eatin’ a bone, I’se sartain ob dat.”
“Oh, well, if it wasn’t the dog or cat, it was some other noise that can easily be found,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I’ll go have a look.”
“I’m coming, too,” said Nan.
“And so am I!” exclaimed Bert.
Harry and Dorothy looked at each other a moment, and then Dorothy said, rather unhesitatingly:
“I’m not afraid!”
“I should say not!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “What is there to be afraid of, just in a noise?”
“Let’s all go!” suggested Harry.
“Good!” cried Mr. Bobbsey, for he wanted his children not to give way to foolish fears. They were not “afraid of the dark,” as some children are, and from the time when they were little tots, their parents had tried to teach them that most things, such as children fear, are really nothing but things they think they see, or hear.
“Aren’t you coming, Dinah?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as they all started for the lower part of the houseboat.
“No’m, I’ll jest stay up heah an’—an’ git a breff ob fresh air,” said the colored cook.
“Come on, children,” called Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. “We’ll very soon find out what it was.”
They went down off the deck, to the passageway between the kitchen and dining-room. This place was like a long, narrow hall, and on one side of it were closets, or “lockers,” as they are called on ships. They were places where different articles could be stored away. Just now, the lockers were filled with odds and ends—bits of canvass that were sometimes used as sails, or awnings, old boxes, barrels and the like. Mr. Bobbsey opened the lockers and looked in.
“There isn’t a thing here that could make a crying noise, unless it was a little mouse,” he said, “and they are so little, I can’t see them. I guess Dinah must have imagined it.”
“Let’s listen and see if we can hear it,” suggested Mrs. Bobbsey.
All of them, including the children, kept very quiet. Snap, the trick dog, was still gnawing his bone in the kitchen. They could hear him banging it on the floor as he tried t
o get from it the last shreds of meat. Snoop, the black cat, was up on deck in the sun.
“I don’t hear a thing,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
Indeed it was very quiet.
“Hey!” suddenly called Nan. “Isn’t that a noise?”
They all listened sharply, and then they did hear a faint sort of crying, or whining, noise.
“Oh!” exclaimed Freddie. “It’s a—”
“It’s the boat pulling on one of the anchor ropes,” said Mr. Bobbsey, for the Bluebird was anchored out in the lake by two anchors and ropes, one at each end. “The wind blows the boat a little,” the children’s father explained, “and that makes it pull on the ropes, which creak on the wooden posts with a crying noise.”
“I know!” exclaimed Flossie. “Just like our swing rope creaks, when it’s going slow.”
“Exactly,” said her mother. Mrs. Bobbsey was glad that the little girl could think out an explanation for herself that way.
“There it goes again!” suddenly exclaimed Bert.
They all heard the funny noise. There was no doubt but that it was the creaking of the rope by which the boat was tied.
“Here, Dinah!” called Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. “Come down here. We’ve found your ghost.”
“I doan’t want to see it!” exclaimed the colored cook, “Jest toss it overbo’d!”
“It’s nothing but a noise made by a creaking rope,” said Nan. “And you can’t throw that overboard.”
“All right, honey lamb. Yo’ can call it a rope-noise ef yo’ all laiks,” said Dinah, when finally she had been induced to come down. “But I knows it wasn’t. It was some real pusson cryin’, dat’s what it was.”
“But you said it was a ghost, Dinah!” laughed Bert, “and a ghost is never a real person, you know. Oh, Dinah!”
“Oh, go long wif yo’, honey lamb!” exclaimed the fat cook. “I ain’t got no time t’ bodder wif you’. I’se got t’ set mah bread t’ bake t’morrow. An’ dere’s some corn cakes, ef yo’ ma will let yo’ hab ’em.”
“I guess she will,” said Bert, with a laugh. “Some cakes and then bed.”
They all thought the “ghost” scare was over, but Mr. Bobbsey noticed that when Dinah went through the passage between the kitchen and dining-room, she hurried as fast as her feet would take her, and she glanced from side to side, as though afraid of seeing something.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 67