The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  “Well, I guess we’d better be going now,” said Mr. Bobbsey, after a bit. “Come, children! Nan—Bert—Flossie—Why, where is Freddie?” he asked, looking around.

  “Isn’t he here?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, her face turning white.

  “I don’t see him,” went on Mr. Bobbsey. “He must have gone inside.” But Freddie was not there, nor was he anywhere on the outside platform that surrounded the topmost peak of the tall building.

  “Oh, where is he? What has happened to Freddie?” cried his mother. “If he has fallen! Freddie!”

  CHAPTER IX

  Washington at Last

  The startled cries of Mrs. Bobbsey alarmed a number of other women on the tower platform, and some one asked:

  “Did your little boy fall off?”

  “I don’t know what happened to him!” said Mrs. Bobbsey, who was now almost crying. “He was here a moment ago, and now he’s gone!”

  “He couldn’t have fallen off!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “Some one would have seen him. I think he must have gone down by himself in the little elevator. I’ll ask the man.”

  The elevator, just then, was at the bottom of the tower, but it was soon on its way up, and Mrs. Bobbsey fairly rushed at the man as he opened the door.

  “Where is my little boy? Oh, have you seen my little boy?” she cried.

  “Well, I don’t know, lady,” answered the elevator man. “What sort of little boy was he?”

  “He has blue eyes and light hair and—”

  “Let me explain,” Mr. Bobbsey spoke quietly. “My little boy, Freddie, was out on the tower platform with us looking at the view, a few minutes ago, and now we can’t find him. We thought perhaps he slipped in here by himself and rode down with you.”

  “Well, he might have slipped into my elevator when I wasn’t looking,” answered the man. “I took two or three little boys down on the last load, but I didn’t notice any one in particular. Better get in and ride to the ground floor. Maybe the superintendent or the head elevator man can tell you better than I. Get in and ride down with me.”

  “Oh, yes, and please hurry!” begged Mrs. Bobbsey. “Oh, what can have happened to Freddie?”

  “I think you’ll find him all right,” said the elevator man. “No accident has happened or I’d have heard of it.”

  “Yes; don’t worry!” advised Mr. Bobbsey.

  But Mrs. Bobbsey could not help worrying, and Nan, Bert and Flossie were very much frightened. They were almost crying. Even though the Bobbseys got in an express elevator after getting out of the small, slower one, it could not go down fast enough to suit Freddie’s mother. When the ground floor was reached she was the first to rush out.

  One look around the big corridor of the Woolworth Building showed Mrs. Bobbsey that something had happened over near one of the elevators. There was a crowd there, and, for a moment, she was very much frightened. But the next second she saw Freddie himself, with a crowd of men around him, and they were all laughing.

  “Oh, Freddie! where did you go and what have you been doing?” cried his frightened mother as she caught him up in her arms.

  “I’ve been having rides in the elevator,” announced the small boy. “And it went as fast as anything! I rode up and down lots of times!”

  “Yes, that’s what he did,” said the elevator man, with a laugh. “I didn’t pay much attention to him at first, but when I saw that he was staying in my car trip after trip, I asked him at what floor he wanted to get out. He said he didn’t want to get out at all—that he liked me, and liked to stay in and ride!”

  And at this the crowd laughed again.

  “And is that what you have been doing, Freddie—riding up and down in the elevator?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.

  “Yes, and I liked it!” exclaimed Freddie. “I wished Flossie was with me.”

  “I’m here now!” said the “little fat fairy,” laughing. “I can ride with you now, Freddie.”

  “No! There has been enough of riding,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “And you gave me a bad fright, Freddie. Why did you wander away?”

  “’Cause I liked an elevator ride better than staying up so high where the wind blew,” explained the little fellow.

  And when they asked him more about it he said he had just slipped away from them while they were on the tower platform, gone back into the room and ridden down in the elevator with the other passengers. No one realized that Freddie was traveling all by himself, the elevator man thinking the blue-eyed and golden-haired boy was with a lady who had two other children by the hands.

  Freddie rode to the ground floor, and then he just stayed in the express elevator, riding up and down and having a great time, until the second elevator man began to question him.

  “Well, don’t ever do it again,” said Mr. Bobbsey, and Freddie promised that he would not.

  After this there was a lunch, and then they all went up to Bronx Park, traveling in the subway, or the underground railway, which seems strange to so many visitors to New York. But the Bobbsey twins had traveled that way before, so they did not think it very odd.

  “It’s just like a big, long tunnel,” said Bert, and so the subway is.

  The Bronx Park is not such a nice place to visit in winter as it is in summer, but the children enjoyed it, and they spent some time in the elephant house, watching the big animals. There was also a hippopotamus there, and oh! what a big mouth he had. The keeper went in between the bars of the hippo’s cage, with a pail full of bran mash, and cried:

  “Open your mouth, boy!”

  “Oh, look!” cried Bert.

  And, as they looked, the hippopotamus opened his great, big red jaws as wide as he could, and the man just turned the whole pail full of soft bran into the hippo’s mouth!

  “Oh, what a big bite!” cried Freddie, and every one laughed.

  “Does he always eat that way?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey of the keeper.

  “Well, I generally feed him that way when there are visitors here,” was the answer. “The children like to see the big red mouth open wide. And here’s something else he does.”

  After the hippo, which is a short name for hippopotamus, had swallowed the pail full of bran mash, the keeper took up a loaf of bread from a box which seemed to have enough loaves in it for a small bakery, and cried: “Open again, old fellow!”

  Wide open went the big mouth, and right into it the man tossed a whole loaf of bread. And the hippo closed his jaws and began chewing the whole loaf of bread as though it were Only a single bite.

  “Oh my!” cried Freddie and Flossie, and Freddie added: “If he came to a party you’d have to make an awful lot of sandwiches!”

  “I should say so!” laughed the keeper. “One sandwich would hardly fill his hollow tooth, if he had one.”

  The children spent some little time in the Bronx Park, and enjoyed every moment. They liked to watch the funny monkeys, and see the buffaloes, which stayed outdoors even though it was quite cold.

  The Bobbsey twins spent four days in New York, and every day was a delight to them. They had many other little adventures, but none quite so “scary” as the one where Freddie slipped away to ride in the elevator.

  Finally, Mr. Bobbsey’s business was finished, and one evening he said:

  “To-morrow we go to Washington.”

  “Hurray!” exclaimed Bert. “Then I can see Billy Martin.”

  “And I can see Nell. I like her very much,” added Nan.

  “And I’m going to see the big monument!” cried Freddie.

  Early the next morning the Bobbsey family took a train at the big Pennsylvania Station to go to Washington. Nothing very strange happened on that trip except that a lady in the same car where the twins rode had a beautiful little white dog, and Flossie and Freddie made friends with it at once, and had lots of fun playing with the animal.

  “Washington! Washington!” called the trainman, after a ride of about five hours. “All out for Washington!”

  “Here at last, and I am glad of i
t,” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey. “I shall be glad to have supper at the hotel and get to bed. I am tired!”

  But the children did not seem to be tired. They had enjoyed every moment of the trip. In an automobile they rode to their hotel, and soon were in their rooms, for Mr. Bobbsey had engaged three with a nice bath. He had decided it would be best to stay at a hotel rather than at the Martins’ house, because there were so many Bobbseys; but they expected to visit their friends very often.

  It was evening when the Bobbseys arrived in Washington, and too late to go sight-seeing. But on the way to the hotel in the automobile they had passed the Capitol, with the wonderful lights showing on the dome, making it look as though it had taken a bath in moon-beams.

  “Oh, it’s just lovely here!” exclaimed Nan, with a happy little sigh as they went down to supper, or “dinner” as it is generally called, even though it is eaten at night.

  “Scrumptious!” agreed Bert.

  The Bobbsey family had a little table all to themselves at one side of the room, and a waiter came up to serve them, Mr. Bobbsey giving the order.

  Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie looked about. It was not the first time they had stopped at a big hotel, but there was always something new and strange and interesting to be seen.

  Bert, who had been gazing about the room, began to look at the dishes, knives and forks the waiter was putting on the table. Suddenly the dark-haired boy took hold of the sugar bowl and turned it over, spilling out all the lumps.

  “Why Bert! you shouldn’t do that,” exclaimed his father.

  “I want to see what’s on the bottom of this bowl,” Bert said. “It looks just like the one Miss Pompret lost, and if it’s the same I’ll get a hundred dollars! Oh, look, it is the same! Nan, I’ve found her lost sugar bowl!” cried Bert.

  CHAPTER X

  Lost

  Several persons, dining at different tables, looked over to the one where the Bobbseys were. They smiled as they heard Bert’s excited voice and saw him with the empty, overturned sugar bowl in his hand.

  “Yes, this is the very one Miss Pompret lost!” Bert went on. “If we can only find the milk pitcher now we’ll have both pieces and we can get the reward. Look at the pitcher, Nan, and see if it’s got the dog—I mean the lion—on as this has.”

  “Don’t dare turn over the milk!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as Nan reached for the pitcher. “Spilling the sugar was bad enough. Bert, how could you?”

  “But, Mother, that’s the only way I could tell if it was Miss Pompret’s!” said the boy, while Flossie and Freddie looked curiously at the heap of square lumps of sugar where Bert had emptied them in the middle of the table.

  “Let me see that bowl, Bert,” said Mr. Bobbsey a bit sternly. “I think you are making a big mistake. This isn’t at all like the kind of china Miss Pompret has. Hers is much finer and thinner.”

  “But this has got a lion on the bottom, and it’s in a circle just like the lion on Miss Pompret’s dishes!” said Bert, as he passed the bowl to his father.

  “Are the letters there—the letters ‘J.W.’?” Nan asked eagerly.

  “I don’t see them,” said Bert. “But the lion is there. Maybe the letters rubbed off, or maybe the tramp scratched ’em off.”

  “No, Bert,” and Mr. Bobbsey shook his head, “this sugar bowl has a lion marked on the bottom, it is true, but it isn’t the same kind that is on Miss Pompret’s fine china. This tableware is made in Trenton, New Jersey, and it is new—it isn’t as old as that Miss Pompret showed you. Now please pick up the sugar, and don’t act so quickly again.”

  “Well, it looked just like her sugar bowl,” said Bert, as he began putting the square lumps back where they belonged. A smiling waiter saw what had happened, and came up with a sort of silver shovel, finishing what Bert had started to do.

  “Wouldn’t it have been great if we had really found her milk pitcher and sugar bowl?” asked Nan. “If we had the hundred dollars we could buy lots of things in Washington.”

  “Don’t count on it,” advised Mrs. Bobbsey. “You will probably never see or hear of Miss Pompret’s missing china. But I’m glad Bert overturned the sugar bowl and not the milk pitcher searching for the lion mark.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t upset the milk’” exclaimed Bert with a laugh. “I knew the sugar wouldn’t hurt the tablecloth.”

  So that incident passed, much to the amusement of the other hotel guests, and, really, no great harm was done, for the sugar was easily put back in the bowl. Then dinner was served, and for a time the Bobbsey twins did not talk very much. They were too busy with their knives, forks and spoons.

  Bert wanted to go out and take a look at the Capitol by night, to see the searchlights that were arranged to cast their glow up on the dome from the outside. Nan, also, said she would like to take a little walk, and as Mrs. Bobbsey was tired she said she would stay in with Flossie and Freddie.

  So it was arranged, and Mr. Bobbsey took the two older children out of the hotel. It was still early evening, and the streets were filled with persons, some on foot, some in carriages, and many in automobiles.

  It was not far from the hotel where the Bobbseys were staying to the Capitol, and soon Bert and Nan, with their father, were standing in front of the beautiful structure, with its long flight of broad steps leading up to the main floor.

  “It’s just like the picture in my geography!” exclaimed Nan, as she stood looking at it.

  “But the picture in your book isn’t lighted up,” objected Bert.

  “Well, no,” admitted Nan.

  “The lights have not been in place very long,” explained Mr. Bobbsey. “Very likely the picture in Nan’s book was made before some one thought of putting search lamps on the dome.”

  “Could we go inside?” Bert wanted to know. “I’d like to see where the President lives.”

  “He doesn’t live in the Capitol,” explained Nan. “He lives in the White House; doesn’t he Daddy? Our history class had to learn that.”

  “Yes, the White House is the home of the President,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But we could go inside the Capitol for a few minutes I guess. The senators and congressmen are having a night session.”

  “What for?” asked Nan. “Do they have to work at night?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “They don’t work,” declared Bert. “They just talk. I know, ’cause I heard Mr. Perkins say so down in our post-office at home one day. He said all the senators and congressmen did was talk and talk and talk!”

  “Well, they do talk a lot!” laughed Bert’s father. “But that is one of the ways in which they work. Now we’ll go inside for a little while.”

  In spite of the fact that it was night the Capitol was a busy place. Later Mr. Bobbsey learned that the senators and congressmen were meeting at night in order to finish a lot of work so they could the sooner end the session—“adjourn,” as it is called.

  Bert and Nan walked around the tiled corridors. They saw men hurrying here and there, messenger boys rushing to and fro, and many visitors like themselves.

  The children looked at the pictures and statues of the great men who had had a part in the making of United States history, but, naturally, Nan and Bert did not care very much for this.

  “It isn’t any fun!” exclaimed Bert. “Can’t we go in and hear ’em talk and talk and talk, like Mr. Perkins said they did?”

  “We’ll go in and hear the senators and congressmen debate, or talk, as you call it, some other time,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “We mustn’t stay too late now on account of having left mother and Freddie and Flossie at the hotel. I think you’ve seen enough for the first evening.”

  So, after another little trip about the corridors, Bert and Nan followed their father outside and down the flight of broad steps.

  “Say, this would be a great place to slide down with a sled if there was any ice or snow!” exclaimed Bert.

  “They wouldn’t let him, would they, Daddy?” asked Nan.

  “Hardly,” a
nswered her father.

  “Well, I can have fun some other way,” Bert said. “I wish I could find Miss Pompret’s dishes and get the hundred dollars.”

  “So do I!” sighed Nan.

  But their father shook his head and told them not to hope or think too much about such a slim chance as that.

  Flossie and Freddie were in bed and asleep when Mr. Bobbsey and Bert and Nan reached the hotel again, and, after a little talk with their mother, telling her what they had seen, the two older Bobbsey twins “turned in,” as Bert called it, having used this expression when camping on Blueberry Island, and taking the voyage on the deep, blue sea.

  Because they were rather tired from their trip, none of the Bobbseys arose very early the next morning.

  “It’s a real treat to me to be able to lie in bed one morning as long as I like,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a happy sigh as Flossie crept in with her. “And I don’t have to think whether or not Dinah will have breakfast on time. I’m having as much fun out of this trip as the children are,” she told her husband.

  “I am glad you are, my dear,” he said. “I’ll be able to go around with you a little today, but after that, for about a week, I shall be quite busy with Mr. Martin. But Mrs. Martin and Nell and Billy will go around with you ant the children.”

  “When are we going to see Billy and Nell?” asked Bert, at the breakfast table.

  “Today,” answered his father. “I telephoned Mr. Martin last night that we had arrived, and they expect us to lunch there today. But first I thought I’d take the children into the Congressional Library building. It is very wonderful and beautiful.”

  And it certainly was, as the children saw a little later, when their father led them up the broad steps. The library building was across a sort of park, or plaza, from the Capitol.

  “We will just look around a little here, and then go on to Mr. Martin’s,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “It takes longer than an hour to see all the beautiful and wonderful pictures and statues here.”

  Mrs. Bobbsey was very much interested in the library, but I can not say as much for Flossie and Freddie, though Nan and Bert liked it. But the two smaller Bobbsey twins were anxious to get outdoors and “go somewhere.”