The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  In a little while Mr. Hickson drove up for the trunks which were loaded on the lumber wagon.

  “You’re going to have a fine day to start for the West,” said the old man, who had entirely got over his hurt got in the railroad wreck. “A very fine day!”

  The June sun was shining, there was just enough wind to stir the leaves of the trees, and, as Mr. Hickson said, it was indeed a fine day for going out West, or anywhere else. Very happy were the Bobbsey twins.

  With rattles and bangs, the trunks were piled on the lumber wagon, such valises as were not to be carried by Mr. or Mrs. Bobbsey, or Bert or Nan, were put in among the trunks. Flossie and Freddie were each to carry a basket which contained some things their mother thought might be needed on the trip.

  “All aboard!” called Mr. Hickson, as he took his seat and gathered up the reins.

  “That’s what the conductor on the train says!” laughed Freddie, as he and Flossie had to stop playing hide-and-go-seek among the trunks.

  “Well, I’m making believe this lumber wagon is a train,” went on the old man. “I wish it was a train, and that I was going out West to find my two boys, Charley and Bill.” Then he drove off with his head bowed.

  “When do we start?” asked Bert. It was about the tenth time he had asked that same question that morning.

  “We’re going to leave soon now,” his mother told him. “Don’t go away, any of you. Nan, you look after Flossie and Freddie. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Freddie were to get lost at the last minute.”

  Just then Freddie and his little sister were running around in the yard, playing tag, and neither of the smaller Bobbsey twins showed any signs of getting lost. But one never could tell what would happen to them—never!

  Finally everything seemed to be in readiness for the start. The last words about looking after the house while the Bobbseys were in the West had been said to Sam and Dinah, and Mr. Bobbsey had telephoned his final message to his office to say that he was about to start. The automobile had been brought around, and Harry Truesdell, who was to drive it back from the station, was waiting.

  “Come, children, we’ll start now!” called Mother Bobbsey. “Get the satchels you are to carry, Nan and Bert. Where are Flossie and Freddie?” she asked. “I want them to take their baskets.”

  “They were here a minute ago,” replied Nan, looking around the yard for her smaller brother and Flossie.

  “But they’re not here now!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “See if you can find them, Nan. Tell them we must leave now.”

  Nan set down the valise she had taken up and was about to go around to the back yard when some excited cries were heard. Dinah’s voice sounded above the others.

  “Heah, now, you stop dat, Freddie Bobbsey!” called the colored cook. “Whut are yo’ doin’? Heah, Freddie, yo’ let mah clothes line alone!”

  There was a moment of silence, and then Dinah’s voice went on.

  “Oh, land o’ massy! Oh, I ’clare to goodness, yo’ suah has gone an’ done it now! Oh, mah po’ li’l honey lamb! Oh, Freddie, look what you has gone an’ done!”

  At this moment the crying voice of Flossie was heard. The little girl seemed to be in trouble.

  “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to!” shouted Freddie.

  “Something has happened!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “I knew it would, just at the last minute!”

  “It does seem so,” said Mr. Bobbsey, coming out on the porch. “I’ll go and see what it is!” he added, as he ran around the side path.

  “I’ll come, too,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. And Nan and Bert thought they had better follow.

  They could hear Flossie crying, while Dinah was saying:

  “Oh, mah po’ li’l honey lamb! Freddie Bobbsey, look whut you gone an’ done!”

  And Freddie kept saying:

  “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know it was going to come down!”

  “I wonder what it was that came down,” thought Mrs. Bobbsey, as she hurried after her husband, with Bert and Nan bringing up the rear and Snap barking as hard as he could bark.

  When Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey got around to the back yard they saw at a glance what had happened. One of the clothes lines, on which Dinah had hung the sheets she had just washed, had come down. And two or three sheets had fallen right over Flossie.

  Of course the little girl was not hurt, for the sheets were not heavy. But they were damp from the tub, and Flossie was all tangled up in them and in the line. In fact, Flossie could not be seen, for she was between the two sides of a sheet, and only that Dinah was there, trying to get her out, told Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey what had happened to their little girl. Oh, yes! I forgot! Flossie was crying, and that was a sign she was there, even though she could not be seen.

  Freddie was standing near a clothes post with the kitchen bread knife in his hand.

  “What happened, Dinah?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as she helped the fat, colored cook get Flossie out from under the sheets. “What is it all about?”

  “Oh, dat Freddie boy he done cut mah clothes line an’ let mah clean wash down on da ground!” exclaimed Dinah. “I didn’t minded dat so much!” she said, as she wiped away the tears from the face of the frightened Flossie. “I kin wash de sheets ober ag’in. But I’m so s’prised dat Freddie done scared his li’l sister, dat’s whut I am. Freddie done scared honey lamb mos’ to pieces!”

  “I—I didn’t mean to,” repeated Freddie.

  “But did you really cut down Dinah’s wash line?” his mother asked him, when it had been found that Flossie was only frightened and not hurt.

  “I—I cut off a little piece,” said Freddie, showing a dangling end in his hand. “I didn’t think it would fall down. I didn’t mean to make it.”

  “But what made you cut any of it?” asked his father, tying the cut ends together while Dinah took up the sheets which had fallen to the ground and had some black spots on them. “Why did you cut the clothes line, Freddie?”

  Mr. Bobbsey did not call his little boy “fireman” now. That was a pet name, and used only when Freddie had been good, and he had been a little bad now, though perhaps he did not mean to.

  “I—I cut the line to get a piece of rope,” said Freddie.

  “What did you want a piece of rope for?” asked his father.

  “I wanted to make a lasso to lasso Indians as Bert’s going to do,” Freddie answered. “I wanted a piece of clothes line for a lasso. But I didn’t mean to make the clothes come down.”

  “No, I don’t guess you did,” said Dinah, as she came out of the laundry with the sheets which she had rinsed clean. “Ole Dinah done gwine to forgib her honey lamb ’cause he’s gwine away far off from her. An’ Dinah’s other honey lamb didn’t get hurted any. It was only two sheets an’ Dinah’s done washed ’em clean again. But don’t you go lassoin’ any Injuns, Freddie! Dey mightn’t like it.”

  “No, I won’t!” promised the little fellow.

  “And don’t cut any more clothes lines,” added his father.

  “No, sir, I won’t!”

  Freddie was ready to promise anything, now that he found nothing serious had happened. At first, after he had cut the rope and let the sheets down on Flossie’s head as she was running through the yard, Freddie had been very much frightened.

  “Well, I’m glad it was no worse,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she straightened Flossie’s hat, which had been knocked to one side. “Now we must hurry, or we’ll be late for the train.”

  “Yes, come along!” called Mr. Bobbsey.

  Freddie gave up the bread knife to Dinah, the last good-byes were said, and the children started for the automobile. Snap leaped around Bert, barking and whining.

  “Better tie up the dog, Sam, or he’ll follow us,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

  “Yes, sah. I’ll do dat.”

  Poor Snap was led away whining. He did not want to be left behind, but it had to be.

  “Good-bye!” called Bert to his pet. “Good-bye, Snap!”r />
  Flossie took up her basket, and Freddie had his. Each one had something to carry. Into the automobile they hurried and soon they were on the way to the station to take the train for the West.

  They did not have many minutes to wait. Harry Truesdell sat in the automobile, until Mr. Bobbsey and the family should be aboard the train before he went back to the garage.

  The Bobbsey twins were standing on the station platform. Mr. Bobbsey was talking to a man he knew, and Mrs. Bobbsey was speaking to two friends. Bert and Nan were putting pennies in a weighing machine to see how heavy they had grown, and Freddie was looking at the pictures on the magazine covers at the news stand.

  Suddenly Flossie, who had set her basket down on one of the outside seats, gave a cry.

  “What’s the matter?” asked her mother, turning quickly. “What is it, Flossie?”

  “Oh, my basket! My basket!” cried the little girl. “There’s something in it! Something alive! Look, it’s wriggling!”

  And, surely enough, the basket she had carried, was “wriggling.” It was swaying from side to side on the station seat.

  CHAPTER IX

  Dinner for Two

  Freddie Bobbsey, called away from looking at the magazine pictures on the news stand, came running over when he heard Flossie shout.

  “What’s the matter?” asked the little boy. “Did something else fall on you, Flossie, like the sheets flopping over your head?”

  “No, nothing falled on me!” exclaimed Flossie. “But look! Look at my basket! It’s wriggling!”

  “There’s something in it!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, while her husband quickly hurried away from the man to whom he was talking, and prepared to see what the matter was. “There’s something in your basket, Flossie! Did you put anything in?”

  “No, Mother!” answered the little girl. “I Just put in the things you gave me. And just before I came away I took off the cover to put in some cookies Dinah handed me.”

  “I think I can guess what happened,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “While the cover was off the basket something jumped in, Flossie.”

  “Oh, I see what it is! A little black squirrel!” cried Nan.

  “Squirrels aren’t black!” Bert said. There were some squirrels in the trees near the Bobbsey house, but all Bert had ever seen were gray or reddish brown.

  “It’s something furry, anyhow,” Nan went on. “I can see it through the cracks in the basket.”

  And just then, to the surprise of every one looking on, including the Bobbsey twins, of course, the cover of the basket was raised by whatever was wriggling inside, and something larger than a squirrel, but black and furry, looked out.

  “Gee!” exclaimed Bert.

  “Oh, it’s Snoop!” cried Nan.

  “It’s our cat!” added Freddie.

  “In my basket!” exclaimed Flossie. “How did you get there, Snoop?” she asked, as Bert took the cat up in his arms, while the other passengers at the station laughed.

  “Perhaps Snoop felt lonesome when he knew you were going to leave him,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “And when you took off the cover of your basket, Flossie, to put in the cookies Dinah gave you, Snoop must have seen his chance and crawled in.”

  “He kept still all the way in the auto, so we wouldn’t know he was there,” added Nan.

  “Maybe he thought we’d take him with us,” said Bert. “Did you, Snoop?” he asked. But the big black cat, who must have found it rather hard work to curl up in the basket, snuggled close to Bert, who was always kind to animals.

  Just then the whistle of the train was heard down the track.

  “Dear me! what shall we do?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “We can’t possibly take Snoop with us, and we can’t leave him here at the depot.”

  “Harry will take Snoop back home in the auto,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

  “Yes, give him to me—I’ll be careful of him,” promised the young man from the lumberyard office, and Bert carried his pet over to the waiting automobile.

  Snoop mewed a little as Bert put the big, black cat into Harry’s arms.

  “Good-bye, Snoop!” Bert said, patting his pet on the head.

  “Come, Bert, hurry!” called his father.

  Then, as the train pulled into the station, Bert ran back and caught up his valise. The other Bobbsey twins took up their things, Flossie put back on her basket the cover the cat had knocked off in getting out, and soon they were all on the train.

  “All aboard!” called the conductor, and, as the engine whistled and the cars began to move, Bert and Nan looked from the windows of their seats and had a last glimpse of Snoop being held in Harry’s arms, as he sat in the automobile.

  Flossie and Freddie forgot all about their cat, dog, and nearly everything in Lakeport in their joy at going out West. For they were really started on their way now, after several little upsets and troubles, such as the clothes line coming down on Flossie, and the cat hiding himself away in the basket.

  “Well, now I can sit back and rest,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a sigh of relief. “I know the children are all here, and they can’t get lost for a while, at least, and I don’t see what mischief they can get into here.”

  Now, indeed, the children were all right for a time. Freddie sat with his father, next to the window, and Flossie was in the seat with her mother pressing her little nose close against the glass, so she would not miss seeing anything, as the train flew along.

  Bert and Nan were sitting together, Nan being next to the window. Bert had, very politely, let his sister have that place, though he wanted it himself. However, before the first part of the journey was over there was a seat vacant on the other side of the car, and Bert took that. Then he, too, had a window.

  Bert and Nan noticed, as the train passed Mr. Bobbsey’s lumberyard, Mr. Hickson standing amid a pile of boards. The old man did not see the children, of course, for the train was going rather swiftly, but they saw him.

  “I wish we could help him find his two sons,” said Nan to Bert.

  “Yes, I wish we could,” Bert answered. “But it’s so long ago maybe Mr. Hickson wouldn’t know his boys even if he saw them again.”

  “He’d know their names, wouldn’t he?” Nan asked.

  “Yes, I s’pose he would,” Bert replied.

  Then the older Bobbsey twins forgot about Mr. Hickson in the joys and novelty of traveling.

  The Bobbseys were going to travel in this train only as far as a junction station. There they would change to a through train for Chicago, and in that big western city they would again make a change. On this through train Mr. Bobbsey had had reserved for him a drawing room. That is part of the sleeping car built off from the rest at one end.

  On arriving at the junction the Bobbseys left the train they had been on since leaving Lakeport and got on the through train, which drew into the junction almost as soon as they did. They went into the little room at the end of the sleeping coach which Mr. Bobbsey had had reserved for them. In there the twins had plenty of room to look from the windows, as no other passengers were in with them.

  “It’s just like being in our own big automobile,” said Nan, and so it was. The children liked it very much.

  The trip to Chicago would take a day and a night, and Flossie and Freddie, as well as Bert and Nan, were interested in going to sleep on a train in the strange little beds the porter makes up from what are seats in the daytime.

  It was not the first time the children had traveled in a sleeping car, but they were always interested. It did seem odd to them to be traveling along in their sleep.

  “Almost like a dream,” Nan said, and I think she was quite right.

  “Where’s my basket?” Flossie asked, after they had ridden on for about an hour.

  “Do you want to see if Snap is in it this time?” her father jokingly inquired.

  “Snap’s too big to get in my basket,” Flossie answered. “He’s a big dog. But I want to get some of the cookies Dinah gave me. I’m hungry.”

  “So’
m I!” cried Freddie, who had been looking from the window. “I want a cookie too!”

  “Dinah gave me some for you,” Flossie said, and, when her basket had been handed down from the brass rack over the seat, she searched around in it until she had found what she was looking for—a bag of molasses and sugar cookies.

  “Oh, Dinah does make such good cookies!” said Flossie, with her mouth half full, though, really, to be polite, I suppose, she should not have talked that way.

  “Shall we get any cookies out on the cattle ranch?” asked Nan. “If we don’t, Flossie and Freddie will miss them.”

  “Oh, they have cooks on ranches, same as they do in lumber camps,” Bert declared. “I saw a picture once of a Chinese cook on a cattle ranch.”

  “Can a Chinaman cook?” asked Nan, in surprise. “I thought they could only iron shirts and collars.”

  “Some Chinese are very good cooks,” explained Mr. Bobbsey. “And Bert is right when he says that on some ranches in the West a Chinese man does the cooking. I don’t know whether we shall find one where we are going or not.”

  “Are we going to the lumber tract first, or to the ranch?” asked Bert.

  “To where the big trees grow,” answered his father. “The tract your mother is going to own is near a place called Lumberville. It is several hundred miles north and west of Chicago. We will stop off there, and go on later to the ranch. That is near a place called Cowdon.”

  “What funny names,” laughed Bert. “Lumberville and Cowdon. You would think they were named after the trees and the cows.”

  “I think they were,” his father said. “Out West they take names that mean something, and Lumberville and Cowdon just describe the places they are named after.”

  While Flossie and Freddie were looking from the window of the coach in which they were riding, while Bert and Nan were telling one another what good times they would have on the ranch and in the lumber camp, and while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were discussing matters about the trip, there came a knock on the door.

  Mr. Bobbsey opened it and a lady came in, saying: