“Oh, I’ll be glad to see him!” exclaimed Bert.
“So will I!” echoed Nan. “I like our lumberman.”
During the week that followed the Bobbsey twins had good times at Three Star ranch. The weather was fine, but getting colder, and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey began to think of packing to go home. They would do this, they said, as soon as they had signed the papers Bill Dayton was bringing to them.
And one day, when the wagon had been sent to the same station at which the Bobbseys left the train some months before, the ranch foreman came into the room where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were talking with the children and said:
“He’s here!”
“Who?” asked Bert’s father.
“My brother Bill! He just arrived! My, but he has changed!”
“And I suppose he said the same thing about you,” laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Yes, he did,” admitted the ranch foreman. “It’s been a good while since we were boys together. Much has happened since then.”
Bill Dayton came in to see Mrs. Bobbsey. The two brothers looked very much alike when they were together, though Bill was younger. They appeared very glad to see one another.
Bill Dayton had brought quite a bundle of papers for Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey to sign in connection with the timber business, and it took two days to finish the work. During that time the Bobbsey twins had fun in a number of ways, from riding on ponies and in the cart, to watching the cowboys.
One day when Nan and Bert were putting their ponies in the stable after a ride, they saw the two Dayton brothers talking together near the barn. Without meaning to listen, the Bobbsey twins could not help hearing what was said.
“Don’t you think we ought to tell the boss?” asked the ranch foreman of his brother, the timber foreman.
“You mean tell Mr. Bobbsey?” asked Bill Dayton.
“Yes, tell Mrs. Bobbsey—she’s the boss as far as we are concerned. We ought to tell them that our name isn’t Dayton—or at least that that isn’t the only name we have. They’ve been so good to us that we ought to tell them the truth,” answered Charles.
“I suppose we ought,” agreed Bill. “We’ll do it!”
And then they walked away, not having noticed Bert or Nan.
The two Bobbsey twins looked at one another.
“I wonder what they meant?” asked Nan.
“I don’t know,” answered her brother. “We’d better tell daddy or mother.”
A little later that day Bert spoke to his father, asking:
“Daddy, can a man have two names?”
“Two names? Yes, of course. His first name and his last name.”
“No, I mean can he have two last names?” went on Bert.
“Not generally,” Mr. Bobbsey said “I think it would be funny for a man to have two last names.”
“Well, the two foremen have two last names,” said Bert. “Haven’t they, Nan?”
“What do you mean?” asked their father.
Then Bert and Nan told of having overheard Bill and Charles talking about the need for telling Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey the truth about their name.
“What do you suppose this means?” asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “But you remember we did think there was something odd about Bill Dayton at the lumber camp.”
“I know we did. I think I’ll have a talk with the two foremen,” Mr. Bobbsey went on. “Maybe they would like to tell us something, but feel a little nervous over it. I’ll just ask them a few questions.”
And later, when Mr. Bobbsey did this, speaking of what Nan and Bert had overheard, Bill Dayton said:
“Yes, Mr. Bobbsey, we have a secret to tell you. We were going to some time ago, but we couldn’t make up our minds to it. Now we are glad Nan and Bert heard what we said. I’m going to tell you all about it.”
“You children had better run into the house,” said Mr. Bobbsey to Nan and Bert, who stood near by.
“Oh, let them stay,” said the ranch foreman. “It isn’t anything they shouldn’t hear, and it may be a lesson to them. To go to the very bottom, Mr. Bobbsey, Dayton isn’t our name at all.”
“What is, then?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“Hickson,” was the unexpected answer. “We are Bill and Charley Hickson. We took the name of Dayton when we ran away from home, as that was our mother’s name before she was married. And we have been called Bill and Charley Dayton ever since. But Hickson is our real name.”
Bert and Nan looked at one another. They felt that they were on the edge of a strange secret.
“Bill and Charley Hickson!” exclaimed Nan.
“Oh, is your father’s name Hiram?” Bert asked excitedly.
“Hiram? Of course it is!” cried Bill. “Hiram Hickson is the name of our father!”
“Hurray!” shouted Bert.
“Oh, oh!” squealed Nan.
“Then we’ve found you!” yelled both together.
“Found us?” echoed Bill. “Why, we weren’t lost! That is, we—” he stopped and looked at his brother.
“There seems to be more of a mystery here,” said Charley Hickson to give him his right name. “Do you know what it is?” he asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“Oh, let me tell him!” cried Bert
“And I want to help!” added Nan.
“We know where your father is!” went on Bert eagerly.
“His name is Hiram Hickson!” broke in Nan.
“And he works in our father’s lumberyard,” added Bert.
“He said he had two boys who—who went away from home,” said Nan, not liking to use the words “ran away.”
“And the boys names were Charley and Bill,” went on Bert. “He said he wished he could find you, and we said, when we started away from home, that maybe we could help. But I didn’t ever think we could.”
“I didn’t either,” said Nan.
“Well, you seem to have found us all right,” said Bill Dayton Hickson, to give him his complete name. “Of course I’m not sure this Hiram Hickson who works in your lumberyard is the same Hiram Hickson who is our father,” he added to Mr. Bobbsey.
“I believe he is,” answered Mr. Bobbsey. “Three such names could hardly be alike unless the persons were the same. But I’ll write to him and find out.”
“And tell him we are sorry we ran away from home,” added Charles. “We haven’t had very good luck since—at least, not until we met the Bobbsey twins,” he went on. “We were two foolish boys, and we ran away after a quarrel.”
“Your father says it was largely his fault,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, who had come to join in the talk. “I think you had all better forgive each other and start all over again,” she added.
“That’s what we’ll do!” exclaimed Bill.
It was not long before a letter came from Mr. Hickson of Lakeport, saying he was sure the ranch and lumber foremen were his two missing boys. Mr. Bobbsey sent the old man money to come out to the ranch, where Bill and his brother were still staying. And on the day when Hiram Hickson was to arrive the Bobbsey twins were very much excited indeed.
“Maybe, after all, these won’t be his boys,” said Nan.
“Oh, I guess they will,” declared Bert.
And, surely enough, when Hiram Hickson met the two foremen he held out his hands to them and cried:
“My two boys! My lost boys! Grown to be men! Oh, I’m so glad I have found you again!”
And then the Bobbseys and the cowboys who had witnessed the happy reunion went away and left the father and sons together.
So everything turned out as Bert and Nan hoped it would, after they had heard the two foremen speaking of their new name. And, in a way, the Bobbsey twins had helped bring this happy time about. If they had not gone to the railroad accident, if they had not heard Hiram Hickson tell about his long-missing sons, and if they had not heard the cowboy and the lumberman talking together, perhaps the little family would not have been so happily brought together.
Mr. H
ickson and his sons told each other their stories. As the old man had said, there had been a quarrel at home, and his two sons, then boys, had been hot-headed and had run away. They traveled together for a time, and then separated. They did not want to go back home.
As the years went on, the two brothers saw each other once in a while, and then for many months they would neither see nor hear from each other. They kept the name Dayton, which they had taken after leaving their father. As for Mr. Hickson, at first he did not try to find his sons, but after his anger died away he felt lonely and wanted them back. He felt that it was because of his strangeness that they had gone away.
But, though he searched, he could not find them.
“And I might never have found you if I hadn’t been in the train wreck and met the Bobbsey twins,” said Mr. Hickson. “Coming to Lakeport was the best thing I ever did.”
“How’s everything back in Lakeport?” asked Bert of Mr. Hickson, after the first greetings between father and sons were over.
“Oh, just about the same,” was the answer, “We haven’t had any more train wrecks, thank goodness.”
“But we were in one!” exclaimed Freddie.
“So I heard. Well, I’m glad you weren’t hurt. But I must begin to think of getting back to your lumberyard, I guess, Mr. Bobbsey.”
“No, you’re going to live with us,” declared Charley. “Part of the time you can spend on Three Star ranch with me, and the rest of the time you can live with Bill in the woods.”
“Well, that will suit me all right,” said Mr. Hickson, and so it was arranged. He was to spend the winter on the ranch, where he would help his son with Mrs. Bobbsey’s cattle. Bill Hickson went back to the lumber camp, and a few days later the Bobbsey twins left for home.
Nan had her wish in getting an Indian doll. One day, just before they were to leave the ranch, a traveling band of Indians stopped to buy some cattle. The Indian women had papooses, and some of the Indian children had dolls made of pieces of wood with clothes of bark and skin. Mr. Bobbsey bought four of the dolls, one each for Nan and Flossie, and two for Nan’s girl friends at home. For Bert and Freddie were purchased some bows and arrows and some Indian moccasins, or slippers, and head-dresses of feathers. So, after all, the Bobbsey twins really saw some Indians.
“Good-bye, Bobbsey twins!” cried all the cowboys, and they fired their revolvers in the air. The Bobbseys were seated in the wagon, their baggage around them, ready to go to the station at Cowdon to take the train for the return to Lakeport. “Come and see us again!” yelled the cowboys.
“We will!” shouted Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie. They were driven over the prairie to the railroad station, looking back now and then to see the shouting, waving cowboys and Charles Hickson and his father. The Bobbsey twins left happy hearts behind them.
And now, as they are on their homeward way, back to Dinah and Sam, back to Snoop and Snap, we will take leave of the Bobbsey twins.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
CHAPTER I
Freddie’s Surprise
Very still and quiet it was in the home of the Bobbsey twins. There was hardly a sound—that is, of course, except that made by four figures tiptoeing around through the halls and different rooms.
“Hush!” suddenly exclaimed Bert Bobbsey.
“Hush!” echoed his sister Nan.
They were two of the twins.
Again came the shuffling noise made by tiptoeing feet on the front stairs.
“Quiet now, Flossie and Freddie!” whispered Bert. “Go easy, and don’t make a racket!”
He turned toward Nan, who was carrying something in a paper that rattled because of its stiffness.
“Can’t you be quieter?” asked Bert.
“It isn’t me—it’s this paper,” Nan answered. “I should have taken some of the tissue kind.”
“I wish you had,” Bert went on. “But it’s too late now. We’re almost there. As soon as we get everything hidden it will be all right.”
Suddenly there was a sound behind Bert and Nan as though someone were choking. It was followed by a smothered laugh.
“What’s that?” asked Bert in a sharp whisper. “Do you want to have everybody in the house down here seeing what we’re doing? Who did that?”
He spoke a bit sharply, in a tense whisper, but his voice was not really cross. It was as though Bert were the leader of some secret band of soldiers or of Indians, and wanted the men to do just as he had told them.
“Who did that?” he asked again.
“I—I guess I did,” answered the voice of his little sister Flossie.
“What did you do?” asked Nan. “You must try to be quiet, dear, else our fun will be spoiled. Better take sister’s hand.”
“Holdin’ your hand won’t do any good,” answered Flossie, and though she tried to talk in a whisper it was rather a loud one. “Your hand can’t stop makin’ me sneeze,” Flossie went on. “Can it?”
“Oh, did you sneeze, dear?” asked Nan, who, since she and Bert were “growing up,” felt that she must take a little more motherly care of Flossie.
“Yes, I did sneeze,” Flossie answered. “An’ maybe I’ll sneeze more again. I feel so, anyhow.”
“Don’t you dare!” exclaimed Bert.
“She didn’t sneeze! Not a reg’lar sneeze!” declared Freddie, who was carrying a cigar box. Did I mention that Freddie and Flossie were the other pair of Bobbsey twins? I meant to, anyhow.
“If she didn’t sneeze, what did she do?” asked Nan.
“I did sneeze!” insisted Flossie.
“You did not!” asserted Freddie. “You—”
“Hush! Hush!” cautioned Bert. “You’ll spoil everything!”
But Freddie was not to be shut off in that way. He came to a stop in the hall, along which the two pairs of twins were tiptoeing their way through the house, and in the half-darkness, for the light was turned low, he pointed his fat, chubby forefinger at Flossie, holding, the while, his cigar box under his other arm.
“She did not sneeze—not a reg’lar, full, fair sneeze!” he declared. “She put her hand over her mouth an’ she choked, an’ she made more noise ’n if she had sneezed. Guess I know what she done!”
“Did, dear! Did!” corrected Nan. “You must use right words now that you are in regular classes at school and are out of the kindergarten. Did—not done.”
“Well, Flossie did snort and she did not done sneeze,” went on the fat little “fireman,” as his father sometimes called him.
“I—I could ’a’ sneezed if I’d wanted to,” said Flossie. “Only I’ve an awful loud sneeze, I have. It’s louder’n yours, Freddie Bobbsey.”
“’Tis not!” declared Freddie. “You wait till I tickle my nose, an’ I’ll sneeze an’ I’ll show you! I’ll show you who can sneeze loudest!”
“No, you will not!” said big brother Bert kindly, but firmly. “You two youngsters must keep quieter, or we can’t do what we’re going to do. Nan and I will take you back upstairs and mother will make you go to bed! There!”
This was such a dreadful threat, especially as Flossie and Freddie had been allowed to stay up past their regular bedtime hour on their promise to be good, that they at once quieted down.
With Bert and Nan in the lead, the smaller Bobbsey twins followed their older brother and sister. Bert reached a door opening into a large closet near the kitchen. It was in this closet that the children were to hide the things they were carrying, and why they were going to do this you will soon learn.
But just as Bert was about to open the closet door, Flossie gave a little wriggle, and, pulling her hand away from Nan—the hand that did not hold a package—the little Bobbsey girl whispered:
“It—it’s goin’ to be some more, Nan!”
“What is, dear?”
“My—my ker—snee—!”
The rest was a sort of gurgle, choke, and cough mingled with a sneeze. Flossie had covered her mouth and nose with one hand, and thus tried
not to make as much noise as she otherwise would.
“Say! everything will be spoiled,” declared Bert. “I never saw such children! We ought to ’a’ made them hide their things this afternoon!”
“Flossie can’t help it,” said Nan kindly. “Maybe she is catching cold. I must tell mother to give her some medicine.”
“’Tisn’t cold,” declared Flossie. “It’s some dust got up my nose. There was dust in the closet where Freddie made me crawl to get him a cigar box.”
“What did he want of a cigar box?” asked Nan.
“Don’t tell!” cautioned Freddie. “You promised you wouldn’t tell, Flossie Bobbsey!”
“All right, I won’t,” she promised. “Anyhow, I don’t know, ’cause you didn’t tell me. But I got him a box, an’ it was dusty an’ it makes me sneeze an’—”
“That’s enough of this sneezing!” declared Bert. “Let’s hide what we have and get out. Dinah’s in the kitchen now, and if she hears us scuffling around she’ll open the door and see us and she’ll think something is going to happen.”
“Well, something is going to happen,” whispered Nan, with a smile. But you could not see the smile because it was rather dark in the hall. “To-morrow is Dinah’s birthday, and, oh! won’t she be surprised?”
“She’ll be more surprised,” said Freddie, though neither Bert nor Nan knew just what he meant just then. Later they did.
True enough, it was the birthday of Dinah Johnson, the fat, jolly, good-natured colored cook of the Bobbsey family, which included the four twins. Dinah’s birthday was always celebrated, especially by the twins, who always brought out their presents as a sort of surprise.
This time they were bringing them down from their rooms the night before the birthday, to hide the things in a big closet near the kitchen.
Thus the gifts would be ready the first thing in the morning, to give to Dinah at the breakfast table, when daddy would call her in from the kitchen to be surprised.
It was Bert’s plan thus to hide the things ahead of time, and Flossie and Freddie, of course, had begged to be allowed to take part.
“I guess she didn’t hear anything,” said Bert, after listening a moment, for Dinah was still in the kitchen, finishing her day’s work. “The door’s shut,” Bert added. “Now then,” he went on, after a pause, “let’s hide our things and go back upstairs. Pass yours to me, Nan.”
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