“Say, there are a lot of you!” cried the boy with a laugh.
“It was a big auto,” explained Flossie. “But the man had to stop and give it some water, so we got down to pet the cat. It’s a nice cat.”
“Yes, it’s a nice cat all right,” agreed the strange boy, and he came down the steps and began to rub the animal. “I like cats,” he went on to the children. “What’s your names?”
“Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey,” answered Freddie. “What’s yours?”
“Tom Walker,” was the answer. “I guess I know where you came from. It’s one of those big, sight-seeing autos. They often go through this street, but I never saw one stop before. You’d better look to see that it doesn’t go off and leave you.”
“Oh, the man said we could get down,” returned Freddie. “And one man is going to stretch his legs. I’d like to see a man stretch his legs.” he went on. “I wonder how far he can stretch them?”
“Not very far, I guess,” remarked Tom Walker. “But I’m glad to see you, anyhow. I’ve been sick, and I had to stay home from school, but I’m better now, and I’m going back to-morrow. But I haven’t had any one to play with, and I’m glad you came in—you and the cat.”
“’Tisn’t our cat!” Flossie hastily explained.
“Oh, I know!” agreed the boy. “But he came in with you.”
“We thought maybe there were kittens in that box,” and Freddie pointed to the one he had been about to open.
“Oh, that was the place where I used to keep my rabbits,” said Tom. “I haven’t any now, but maybe I’ll get some more; so I left the little house in the yard. I like rabbits.”
“So do I!” declared Freddie.
“And their nose goes sniff-snuff so funny!” laughed Flossie. “Rabbits eat a lot of cabbage,” she said. “If I had something to eat now I would like it.”
“Say, I can get some cookies!” cried Tom. “Wait, I’ll go in the house after some. You wait here!”
“We’ll wait!” said Freddie.
Into the house bounded Tom, and to the cook in the kitchen he called:
“Oh, please give me some cookies. There’s a stray cat in our yard and some stray children, and I want to give ’em something to eat, and—”
“My goodness, boy, how you do rattle on!” cried the cook. “What do you mean about stray cats and stray children?”
CHAPTER XV
“Where Are They?”
Freddie and Flossie walked slowly up the yard, away from the empty rabbit house, and stood at the foot of the back steps up which Tom Walker had hurried to ask the cook for something to eat for the “stray children.” The little Bobbsey twins had not heard what the cook said to Tom after he had asked for something to eat. But the cook repeated her question.
“What do you mean by stray cats and stray children?”
“There are the stray children out in the yard now,” answered Tom. “They strayed away from some place, just as that dog I kept for a while once did. There was a stray cat, too, but I don’t see it now.”
“Stray children, is it?” cried the jolly cook. “Oh, look at the little darlin’s!” she exclaimed, as she saw the small Bobbsey twins standing out in the yard, waiting for Tom to come back. Freddie and Flossie certainly did look very sweet and pretty with their new winter coats and caps on, though it was not very cold. It was not as cold in Washington as in Lakeport.
“Do you think he’ll bring us anything to eat?” asked Freddie of Flossie, as they stood there waiting.
“I hope he does,” the little girl answered. “I’m hungry.”
“So’m I!” Freddie admitted. “I guess that cat was, too. Where did he go?”
The cat answered himself, as though he knew he was being talked about. He came out from under the back steps, rubbed up against Flossie’s fat, chubby legs with a mew and a purr, and then, seeing a place where the sun shone nice and warm on the steps, the cat curled up there and began to wash its face, using its paws as all cats do.
“Please, Sarah, can’t I have something to eat for the stray children, and maybe for the cat?” again asked Tom of the cook.
“Oh, I dunno!” she answered. “Sure an’ you’re a bother! Your mother’s out and I don’t know what to do. These must be lost children, and, most likely, their father or mother’s lookin’ all over for ’em now. But I’d better bring ’em in an’ keep ’em safe here, rather than let ’em wander about the streets. How did they come into our yard, do you think, Tom?”
“They just walked in, after the stray cat. They were on one of the big automobiles, and it stopped, so they got off. I told ’em maybe their folks would be looking for them,” went on Tom, who was older than Flossie and Freddie. “But they seem to think it’s all right.”
“Well, they’re lost, as sure as anything,” declared the cook. “But it’s best to keep ’em here until their folks can come after ’em. I’ll give you something for them to eat, Tom, and then you must look after ’em, as I’m too busy, getting ready for the party your mother is going to have this night.”
The kind cook soon got ready a plate of cookies and some glasses of milk for Flossie and Freddie. And, as Tom began to feel hungry himself when he saw something being made ready for his new little friends, a place was set for him, also, on a side table in the dining room.
“Call ’em in, now!” said the cook. “Everything is ready. And is the cat there?”
“Yes,” answered Tom, as he looked out and saw the pussy curled up in the sun on the steps. “It’s there.”
“Well, I think I’ll give it some milk,” said the cook.
So, a little later, Flossie and Freddie, the stray children—for that is what they were—sat down to a nice little lunch in a strange, house. Tom Walker sat down with them, and the stray cat had a saucer of milk in the kitchen.
“I looked out in the street,” said the cook, as she came back to get Freddie another glass of milk, “but I don’t see any automobile there. Did you really ride here in an auto?”
“Oh, yes,” answered Freddie. “And the man on it all the time talked through a red horn, but I didn’t know what he said.”
“That was the man speaking through a megaphone so everybody on the sight-seeing auto would know what they were looking at as they rode along,” said Tom. “They often pass through here, though I haven’t seen any today.”
“But what to do about you children I don’t know,” said the cook, when Flossie and Freddie had eaten as much as they wanted. “If you did come here on an auto it’s gone now, and there isn’t a sign of it. I think you must have come two or three streets away from the car before you turned in here.”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Freddie. “When we got down off the auto we saw the cat and we came in after it. The auto was right out in front.”
“Well, it isn’t there now,” said the cook. “I guess it must have gone away and taken your folks with it. Maybe they’re looking for you. But I guess you’ll have to stay here until they come to find you. You’re too small to be allowed to go about alone.”
“We like it here,” said Flossie, settling back comfortably in her chair. “We can stay as long as you want us to.”
“And we can stay to supper if you ask us,” went on Freddie. “Course mother wouldn’t let us ask for an invitation, but if you want to ask us to stay we can’t help it.”
“’Specially if you have cake,” added Flossie, smoothing out her dress.
“Yes, ’specially cake!” agreed Freddie.
“Oh my!” laughed the cook. “Sure an’ you’re very funny! But I like you. And I only wish I knew where your folks were. But the best I can do is to keep you here until they come. They must know about where they lost you. Come, Tom, take the stray children out and amuse them. Your mother’ll be home pretty soon.”
If Tom’s mother had been at home she would have at once telephoned and told the police that she had two lost—or stray—children at her house, so that in case Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey inquired, as they did, they would kno
w that the tots were all right.
But Mrs. Walker was not at home, and the cook did the best she could. She made sure the children were safe and comfortable while they were with her.
And, after they had eaten, Tom got out some of his toys, and he and Flossie and Freddie had a good time playing about the house and in the yard. The stray cat wandered away while Flossie and Freddie were eating their little lunch, and the Bobbsey twins did not see him again.
Now while Flossie and Freddie were having a pretty good time, eating cookies and drinking milk, there was much excitement on the big sight-seeing car where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, Nan, Bert, and the other, still had their seats.
For some little time after the car had stopped to allow the man to put water in the radiator, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Bobbsey missed their smaller twins. They were busy talking, and Bert and Nan were looking about and having a good time, talking to Billy and Nell Martin.
At last, however, the auto man called:
“Everything is all right! Get on board!”
That meant he was going to start off again, and it was not until then that Mrs. Bobbsey thought to look around to see if Flossie and Freddie were all right. And, of course, she did not see them.
“Flossie! Freddie! Where are you?” called Mrs. Bobbsey.
There was no answer, and the seat which the two smaller children had been in on the big bus, was empty.
“Oh, Daddy!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, “Flossie and Freddie have gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?” Mr. Bobbsey asked,
“That’s it—I can’t say,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey. “The last I saw of them was when the auto stopped.”
“I saw the two little tots climb down off the rear steps of the car,” said the man who had wanted to “stretch his legs.”
“They seemed to be going after something,” he added.
“It was a cat,” said the woman next to the big man who had last spoken. “I saw the children get down and go toward a stray cat and then I got to thinking of something else.”
“Oh, if it was a cat you might know it!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey with a laugh. “I guess they’re all right. They can’t have gone far. Probably they are on the other side of the street, looking at some bedraggled kitten.” But a look up and down the street did not show Flossie and Freddie. By this time the auto was all ready to start off again.
“But we can’t go without Flossie and Freddie!” cried Nan.
“I should say not!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “Oh, where are they? Where can my darlings have gone? What has happened?”
CHAPTER XVI
The Fire Bell
Mrs. Bobbsey’s cries of alarm, of course, excited all the other passengers who had got back on the sight-seeing auto, ready to start off again. They had had a little rest while the water was being put into the radiator, and the man had “stretched his legs” all he wanted to, it seemed.
“The children can’t be far away,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “They were here only a moment ago. Even if they have wandered off, which is probably what they have done, they can’t be far.”
“They’re all right,” the man who drove the car assured Mr. Bobbsey. “I didn’t see ’em go away, of course, as I was busy, but I’m sure nothing has happened.”
“But what shall we do?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, and tears came into her eyes. “It does seem as if more things have happened to Flossie and Freddie since we started on this trip than ever before.”
“Oh, they’ll be all right,” declared Mr. Bobbsey. “I’ll look around. Perhaps they may have gone into one of these houses.”
“Did you look under the seats?” asked Bert.
“Under the seats!” exclaimed Billy. “What good would that do? Your brother and sister couldn’t be under there!”
“Pooh, you don’t know much about Flossie and Freddie!” answered Bert. “They can be in more places than you can think of; can’t they, Nan?”
“Yes, they do get into funny places sometimes. But they aren’t under my seat,” and Nan looked, to make sure.
“Nor mine,” added Nell, as she looked also.
Some of the other passengers on the auto did the same thing. Mr. Bobbsey really thought it might be possible that Freddie and Flossie, for some strange reason, might have crawled under one of the seats when the big machine stopped for water. But the children were not there.
“Oh, what shall we do?” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
“They’ll be all right,” her husband answered. “They can’t be far away.”
“That’s right ma’am,” said a fat, jolly-looking man.
“Some of you go and inquire in the houses near here,” suggested the man who drove the auto. “And I’ll go and telephone back to the office, and see if they’re there.”
“But how could they be at your automobile office?” Mrs. Bobbsey wanted to know.
“It might easily happen,” replied the man. “We run a number of these big machines. One of them may have passed out this way while I was stopping here for water, and perhaps none of us notice it, and the children may have climbed on and gone on that car, thinking it was this one.”
“They couldn’t get on if the auto didn’t stop,” said Billy.
“Well, maybe it stopped,” returned the driver. “Perhaps it passed up the next street. The children may have gone down there and gotten on. Whatever has happened, your little ones are all right, ma’am; I’m sure of that.”
“I wish I could be!” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey.
Several men volunteered to help Mr. Bobbsey look for the missing twins, and they went to the doors of nearby houses and rang the bells. But to all the answer was the same. Flossie and Freddie had not been seen.
And the reason for this was that the small Bobbsey twins, in following the stray cat, had turned a corner and gone down another street, and were on the block next the one where the auto stood. That was the reason the Walker cook, looking out in front, could see no machine, and why it was that none of those who helped Mr. Bobbsey look for the missing children could find them.
“Well, this is certainly odd!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, when at none of the houses was there any word of Flossie and Freddie.
“But what are we to do?” cried his wife.
“I think we’d better notify the police,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “That will be the surest way.”
“Yes, I think it will,” agreed the auto man. “I telephoned to the office, but they said no lost children had been turned in. Get aboard, every one, and I’ll drive to the nearest police station.”
Away started the big auto, leaving Flossie and Freddie behind in the home of Tom Walker on the next street. And though Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Nan and Bert and Billy and Nell were much worried, Flossie and Freddie themselves, were having a good time.
For they were playing with Tom, who showed them his toys, and he told them about the rabbits he used to keep.
“I have had as many as six big ones at a time,” Tom said. “And I had one pair that had the finest red eyes you ever saw.”
“Red eyes!” cried Flossie. “What funny rabbits they must have been!”
“Oh, I know some rabbits have red eyes,” declared Freddie. “But not very many. Bert said so.”
“I don’t believe I’d like to have red eyes,” answered his twin sister. “Everybody’d think I’d been crying.”
“They’re not red that way,” explained Tom. “They just have the color red in them; just as some people have black eyes, blue eyes, and brown eyes—like that.”
“Oh! Say, I heard Nan say once that a girl in her room at school had one black eye and one grey eye. Wasn’t that funny?”
“It certainly was,” answered Tom. And then he showed the little Bobbsey twins a number of picture books and a locomotive which went around a little track.
Freddie and Flossie were having such a good time that they never thought their father and mother might be worried about them.
But, after a while, Mrs. Walker came home. You can well imagine
how surprised she was when she found the two lost, strayed children in her house.
“And so they got off one of the sight-seeing autos, did they?” cried Tom’s mother. “Oh, my dears! I’m glad you’re here, of course, and glad you had a good time with Tom. But your mother and father will be much frightened! I must telephone to the police at once.”
“We’ll not be arrested, shall we?” asked Freddie anxiously.
“No, indeed, my dear! Of course not! But your parents have probably already telephoned the police, who must be looking for you. I’ll let them know I have you safe.”
“Why, course we’re safe!” cried Flossie.
So Mrs. Walker telephoned. And, just as she guessed, the police were already preparing to start out to hunt for the missing children. But as soon as they got Mrs. Walker’s message everything was all right.
“They’re found!” cried Mr. Bobbsey to his wife, when a police officer telephoned to the hotel to let the father of the small Bobbsey twins know that the children were safe. “They’re all right!”
“Where were they?” asked his wife,
“All the while they were right around the corner and just in the next street from where our auto was standing.”
“Oh, dear me!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, “what a relief.”
“I should say so!” agreed Mrs. Martin, who had gone to the hotel, where her friends were staying, to do what she could to help them.
“I’ll get a taxicab and bring them straight here,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
A little later Flossie and Freddie were back “home” again. That is, if you call a hotel “home,” and it was, for the time, to the traveling Bobbseys.
“What made you do it?” asked Flossie’s mother, when the story had been told. “What made you go after the stray cat?”
“It was such a nice cat!” said the little girl,
“And we wanted to see if it was like our Snoop,” added Freddie.
“Well, don’t do such a thing again!” ordered Mr. Bobbsey.
“No, we won’t!” promised Freddie.
“No, but they’ll do something worse,” said Bert in a low voice to his friend Billy, who had also come to the hotel.
So the little excitement was over, and soon the Bobbsey twins were in bed. Not, however, before Nan had asked her father:
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 142