“Yes’m—I mean yes, sir,” Freddie answered.
Neither he nor Flossie had any more trouble with the “bad” boy, about whose teasing they had talked on their way to school that morning. I think, after being locked up, that Nick was afraid of Freddie. At any rate, Flossie’s hair was not again pulled.
“Our smaller twins are growing up,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife at home that night, when the story of what had happened in school had been told at the supper table.
“Yes,” agreed Mrs. Bobbsey. “Our little ‘fireman’ and our ‘fat fairy’ will soon be almost as big as Bert and Nan.” Fireman and fairy were the pet names for the smaller Bobbsey twins. But they were getting almost too old for pet names now.
The weeks passed, and the weather grew colder, though, as yet, no snow had appeared. Freddie and Flossie, who had gotten out their sleds soon after coming home from the West, looked at the sky anxiously each day.
“Do you think it will ever snow?” asked Flossie of her mother. “I want to go coasting.”
“So do I, and skating, too,” Freddie added.
“Oh, there is still plenty of time for it to snow this winter,” said their mother. “Why, it isn’t Thanksgiving yet.”
“Oh, that’s so!” exclaimed Freddie. “Thanksgiving is coming, an’ we’ll have cranberry sauce an’ turkey!”
“An’ pie an’ cake!” cried Flossie.
“Thanksgiving is not meant only for feasting,” said their mother. “It is a time for being thankful for all your blessings. It is a time, also, to think of the poor, and to try to help them.”
“I wish we could help some poor,” said Flossie. “Is it fun, Mother?”
“Well, I don’t know that you would call it fun,” her mother replied, with a smile, “though it gives more pleasure than many things that you do call ‘fun’. Just try it and see.”
Rather thoughtful, Flossie and Freddie went out together. It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving and they did not have to go to school. They each had two cents to spend, and it was while going down the street to the nearest candy store that they passed the home of Miss Alicia Pompret.
“Hello, Bobbsey twins!” called Miss Pompret to Flossie and Freddie.
“Hello!” answered the blue-eyed little boy and girl. They knew Miss Pompret quite well, since Bert and Nan had, on their trip to Washington, discovered some of the elderly lady’s missing valuable china. Miss Pompret was what some people would call “rich,” and she had offered a reward for the finding of her rare sugar-bowl and milk-pitcher. It was these pieces that Nan had, by chance, seen in a secondhand store window, and Miss Pompret paid the older Bobbsey twins the reward, which they turned in to charity.
“Are you going to the store for your mother?” asked Miss Pompret of Flossie and Freddie, as they paused at her door.
“We’re going to the store for ourselves,” Freddie answered.
“We have two cents apiece,” added his sister.
“Oh, I see!” laughed the elderly, maiden lady. “Well, on your way would you mind stopping at the grocer’s and telling him he hasn’t yet sent the barrel of flour, the barrel of potatoes, and the ten hams I ordered. Tell him I expect them today.”
“My! you’re gettin’ a lot of stuff, Miss Pompret,” said Flossie.
“Well, you see, I am going to give a large dinner to a number of poor people for Thanksgiving,” said Miss Pompret, “and I want some things for them to take home with them. That’s why I’m ordering so much.”
“For the poor!” murmured Freddie.
“Yes, dear,” went on the lady. “You know Thanksgiving is not meant to see how much we can eat, but to think of our blessings and help other persons to have blessings that they may be thankful for.”
“That’s what mother said,” remarked Flossie. “Yes’m, we’ll stop at the grocery for you.”
“Thank you,” called Miss Pompret.
Then, as she and Freddie walked on, Flossie turned to her brother and said:
“Freddie, didn’t we ought to do something for the poor?”
“Maybe we ought,” he agreed. “But who is poor?”
“Anybody that has ragged clothes is poor,” observed Flossie. “We could give ’em some of our clothes, ’cause I’ve got so many my closet is full.”
“I’ve two pair of pants,” observed Freddie. “I don’t need but one, I guess. But you can’t eat clothes, Flossie.”
“I know it, but you have to have clothes when it’s cold. And it maybe will snow for Thanksgiving. Oh, Freddie! we could give our two cents to somebody poor for Thanksgiving!” Flossie’s eyes were shining with delight.
“Yes, we could do that,” said Freddie, slowly. “But you can’t get much clothes for two cents and not much to eat, I don’t guess.”
Flossie thought this over for a moment, and then her face lighted up.
“I know what we can do!” she said. “We can look for some poor ragged people, and take them to our house for Thanksgiving. Mother or father could give them some clothes and they could have some of our turkey. Daddy and mother have some dressings, too, like Miss Pompret said.”
“She didn’t say ‘dressings,’” objected Freddie. “It’s ‘blessings,’ like you get in Sunday-school.”
“Oh,” said Flossie. “Well, we could get some for the poor. Let’s do it, Freddie.”
“All right,” agreed the little fellow.
They were just going into the candy store, having stopped at the grocer’s with the message from Miss Pompret, when Flossie and Freddie caught sight of a ragged boy and girl, about their own age, standing with their faces close against the glass of the show window of the toy and candy shop.
“Freddie, look!” whispered Flossie.
“They’re poor!” whispered Freddie. “Let’s take them!”
Flossie nodded in agreement, and then they went up to the ragged children who were eagerly gazing in the window, which was partly filled with Christmas toys.
“Come on with us,” said Freddie, tapping the other boy on the shoulder.
Quickly the boy turned, doubled up his fist, and, thrusting the ragged girl behind him, he exclaimed:
“Now you let us alone! We wasn’t doin’ nothin’! We was just lookin’ in the winder, an’ that’s what it’s for! You let us alone!”
CHAPTER IV
Bert in Danger
Flossie and Freddie were so surprised at the strange action on the part of the ragged boy that they hardly knew what to do. Flossie looked at Freddie and Freddie looked at his sister, and then they looked at the strange boy and girl.
“You let her alone, an’ you let me alone!” ordered the ragged boy. “I ain’t done nothin’, an’ she ain’t done nothin’!”
“You shouldn’t say ‘ain’t,’ ’cause it ain’t—I mean it isn’t a good word. Our teacher says so,” Flossie quickly admonished the strange boy.
“Well, I don’t care what I say, you oughtn’t to drive us away from lookin’ in this winder,” objected the boy. “Nice smells comes out; and when you ain’t—I mean when you isn’t got any money to buy candy, you can smell it!”
Flossie and Freddie looked at each other in surprise. To be so poor that one had to “smell” candy instead of eating it, was to be poor indeed! Flossie opened her fat chubby hand and looked at the two moist pennies clutched there. Freddie did the same. Then the small Bobbsey twins, with one accord, held out the money to the boy and girl.
“Here,” said Freddie. “Take it!”
“Mine too!” added Flossie. “You can buy candy with it!”
For a moment the ragged boy and girl did not know what to say. Then a smile came over the boy’s face. His fist unclenched, and his sister smiled too.
“You mean this—for us?” he asked.
“Sure!” answered Freddie. “We don’t need candy, and we’ll feel good for Thanksgivin’!”
“Oh, I’m going to buy two lollypops!” cried the ragged girl.
“I want gum!” said the boy,
and into the store they disappeared.
Freddie drew a long breath.
“I—I feel happy, don’t you?” he asked Flossie.
“Yes,” she answered. “I—I guess I do! Anyhow, we can ask mother for more pennies when we go home.”
“Let’s take them home for Thanksgiving,” suggested Freddie.
“You mean that ragged boy and girl?” asked Flossie.
“Yes. Miss Pompret is going to feed some poor, and we can feed some at our house. Let’s take ’em home,” went on Freddie.
“Oh, that will be fine!” Flossie agreed. “Let’s!”
When they came out of the candy store the ragged boy and his sister, who at first thought Flossie and Freddie had wanted to drive them away from the window, were smiling.
“You’re coming home with us!” announced Freddie, taking the boy’s hand.
“For Thanksgiving,” added Flossie. “Course it isn’t Thanksgiving yet, but we want to feel good when it does come, so we’re going to feed you now.”
“Well, I’m hungry all right,” sighed the ragged boy.
“So’m I,” said his sister.
And so, hardly knowing what was going to happen, the ragged boy, who said his name was Dick, and his sister, who was Mary Thompson, went with the little Bobbsey twins.
Mrs. Bobbsey was very much surprised when her little son and daughter came up the steps, leading a strange ragged boy and girl.
“We brought them home for Thanksgiving, like Miss Pompret’s going to do,” said Freddie.
“So’s to make us be more happier,” added Flossie. “And we gave them our two cents, so please can we have more? And they’re hungry, Mother!”
Mrs. Bobbsey understood that it was the kind hearts of Flossie and Freddie that had brought all this about. So she welcomed the two strange children, and took them out to Dinah, who, you may be sure, fed them enough, and almost too much.
After that meal, which Dick said was the “best feed” he ever had eaten, and after Flossie and Freddie had finished watching their strange, ragged guests eat, Mrs. Bobbsey asked Dick and his sister some questions.
She found out that they lived on the other side of town, that their father was dead, and that their mother did what she could for her children.
“Do you go to our school?” asked Freddie, during a pause in his mother’s questions. “We’ve a nice school, and our teacher’s name is Miss Snell, and—”
“And Freddie locked a boy up in the tool shed ’cause he pulled my hair—I mean the bad boy pulled my hair,” broke in Flossie.
“We don’t go to school—our clothes is too ragged,” said Mary, in a low voice.
“Never mind, my dear. Perhaps I can find some clothes for you that aren’t quite so full of holes,” offered Mrs. Bobbsey kindly. “Clothes with holes in are fine for summer,” she said, with a laugh, “but not so good for winter. I’ll see what I can find.”
She found some good, half-worn garments belonging to the twins, and Dick and Mary took the clothes home. The result was that they appeared at school the following Monday. But neither Flossie nor Freddie spoke of their mother having given the two fatherless children clothes to wear.
“Now we’ll be happy for Thanksgiving; won’t we, Freddie?” asked Flossie, when it was settled that Dick and Mary were to be taken care of.
“Yes,” Freddie agreed. “And I hope we have a big turkey!”
“An’ cranberry sauce!” added his sister.
There was a fine Thanksgiving dinner at the Bobbsey home, but the mother of the four twins did not forget the poor. She helped Miss Pompret with that lady’s Thanksgiving feast for those who were not fortunate enough to have one of their own, and Mr. Bobbsey and some other good-hearted men of Lakeport provided money so that the Salvation Army could feed a number of hungry men who were out of work.
Still there was one reason why at least Flossie and Freddie, of the Bobbsey family, were not quite happy that Thanksgiving day. And the reason was because there was no snow. The children had polished their sleds, had wiped the rust off the runners, and were all ready for a coast. But without snow there can be no sleigh riding, and though the weather was cold, the sun shone from a cloudless sky, and Flossie and Freddie were much disappointed.
“Do you think it will ever snow, Mother?” asked Flossie for about the twentieth time.
“And will there be ice so I can skate?” Freddie wanted to know.
“Well, my dears, there will be snow and ice, surely, in a little while,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey. “But when I can not say. You must be patient. Think of your blessings, as Uncle William would say.”
“I want to have some fun,” complained Freddie. “Oh, look!” he suddenly cried, coming back to the window away from which he had started to go.
“What is it?” asked Flossie.
“It’s our cat—Snoop! A big dog just came along and Snoop ran up the tree. Now he can’t get down!”
“Oh, of course Snoop can get down out of a tree,” said Nan. “He’s often climbed up and down before.”
But this time Snoop did not come down. Whether he had been too much frightened by the dog, or whether he was afraid of falling if he started to come down backward out of the tree, I don’t know. But Snoop stayed up on a limb, where he cried pitifully.
“I’ll get him down,” offered Bert. “I can climb out on that limb from our front porch roof. I’ve done it before.”
Bert went upstairs, climbed out on the porch roof, and a little later was over in the tree where Snoop was perched.
“Mew! Mew!” dismally cried the cat.
“I’m coming to get you,” said Bert, kindly. “Wait a minute, Snoop!”
From the ground Flossie, Freddie and Nan watched Bert make his way out on a limb toward Snoop. And then, all of a sudden, there was a cracking, breaking sound and Bert cried:
“Oh, I’m falling! I’m going to fall!”
CHAPTER V
Christmas Trees
Several things happened all in a moment. The cracking limb, Bert’s cries, and the swaying of the bough as it bent toward the ground with the weight of the Bobbsey boy frightened Snoop, the cat. All this did just what was needed, for it so frightened Snoop that down he scrambled out of the tree, not caring whether or not he fell.
Bert, as soon as he felt the tree branch giving way with him, reached out his arms and grasped whatever came first to his hands. This happened to be another branch over his head, so that there he was, his feet on one limb that was slowly bending beneath his weight, and his hands grasping a branch above him.
And, to add to the excitement, Flossie and Freddie, who saw what danger Bert was in, set up a dismal crying.
“Oh, Bert’s going to fall! Bert’s going to fall!” yelled Freddie.
“Daddy! Mother! Dinah! Somebody! Come quick!” exclaimed Flossie. “Catch Bert before he falls!”
Nan ran out under the tree and stood with her dress held up, as she used to do when her father picked apples and dropped them down to her. Nan may have thought Bert could drop down and she would catch him, as a man jumps into a circus net from the top of the tent. But, again, perhaps Nan was so excited that she really did not know what she was doing.
However, daddy and mother came hurrying to the window, attracted by the cries of the children, and Mr. Bobbsey, seeing just what was needed, said to his wife:
“Run and tell Sam to come here with the ladder. It stands back of the chicken house.”
“I will,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. So, instead of running out after Mr. Bobbsey to see poor Bert dangling in the tree, she hurried to the rear door and called to Sam, who was working over Mr. Bobbsey’s automobile.
“Sam! Sam! Bring the ladder out in front, quick!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Ladder! De ladder?” repeated the colored husband of fat Dinah. “Am dey a fire some place?”
“No fire!” answered Mrs. Bobbsey. “But Bert is up a tree and he is falling! Mr. Bobbsey wants the ladder to get him down! Hurry!”
> “Oh!” answered Sam. Then he hurried to the chicken house, got the ladder, and hurried around to the front of the house with it.
“Can you hold on a little longer, Bert?” asked his father anxiously, as Sam began to raise the ladder up into the tree.
“I—I guess so,” was the answer. “Is Snoop all right?”
“Yes, Snoop’s all right. He jumped. But don’t you jump!” called Nan.
“I—I won’t,” Bert answered.
Then his father and Sam raised the ladder up into the tree, and a few minutes later they had rescued Bert, helping him so that he could put his feet on the ladder and climb down.
“What made you go up?” asked his mother, when the excitement was all over.
“I went up after Snoop,” said Bert. “A strange dog chased him up the tree.”
“Well, of course, you meant to be kind,” said his father. “But you must be careful when in a tree. Very often a branch may look sound and strong, as though it would hold you up. But when you step on it or pull on it, it breaks. It is always a good plan, if you climb a tree in the woods—or anywhere else—to pull on a limb to test it before you bear your full weight on it. If you hear a cracking sound it means that the branch will break.”
“I heard a cracking sound,” Bert said. “But that was after I got out on the limb with my feet.”
“Then it was almost too late,” his father said. “But remember always to test a branch before you trust yourself to it.”
The Bobbsey twins and the others went back into the house, and the rest of the Thanksgiving day passed pleasantly. Snoop and Snap had been given especially good dinners in honor of the occasion.
In the morning, when Flossie and Freddie awakened, which generally happened at the same time, the little fellow ran to the window and looked out.
“Oh, look, Flossie! Look!” he cried. “Come and see!”
“Is Snoop up the tree again?” asked the little girl.
“No, but it’s snowing! Snowing hard! Now we can have some fun with our sleds! Come on, we’ll go coasting!”
Later the two smaller Bobbsey twins, having had their breakfasts, ran out to play in the snow. Quite a little had fallen during the night, and more was coming down. It was just about right for starting to make a coasting hill.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 161