“Oh, maybe he’ll come along all right,” said Nan, trying to be helpful and comforting.
“If he doesn’t pretty soon it’ll be night, and in all this storm he never can find his way after dark. But you children take your things off and sit up and have a cup of tea with me. I’ve got some tea and condensed milk left, anyhow.”
“We can’t take tea unless it’s very weak,” said Nan, remembering her mother’s rule in this respect.
“All right, dearie, I’ll make it weak for you twins, though I like it strong myself,” said Mrs. Bimby. “My, what a storm! What a storm!” and she drew her shawl more closely around her shoulders as the wind howled down the chimney.
Bert and Nan took off their warm things, laying their packages of lunch and the bags of chestnuts on the table. Nan saw the old woman go to a closet, and the glimpse the Bobbsey girl had of the shelves showed her that they contained only a little food.
“Bert and I have some of our lunch left,” said Nan.
“And you can have some, if you want to,” went on Bert. “We put up a pretty good lunch, and there’s more’n half of it left.”
“Bless your hearts, my dears,” said Mrs. Bimby. “I wouldn’t take your lunch. You’ll need it yourselves. I’ve a little victuals left in the house, though if my Jim doesn’t get back soon there won’t be much for to-morrow. My, what a storm! What a storm!”
The small log cabin seemed to shake and tremble in the wind, as though it would blow away. And the snow was now coming down so thickly that Bert and Nan could see only a short distance out of the window. There was little to see, anyhow, save trees and bushes, and these were fast becoming covered with snow.
Mrs. Bimby busied herself about the stove, putting the kettle on so she could make tea, and Bert and Nan watched her. The Bobbsey twins were wondering what would happen, how they could get home, and whether or not their father and mother would worry. Nan looked about the cabin. She did not see any beds, but a steep flight of stairs, leading up to what seemed to be a second story, might provide bedrooms, Nan thought. The cabin was clean and neat, and she was glad of that.
“I do hope Jim comes,” murmured Mrs. Bimby, as she poured the boiling water on the dry tea leaves in the pot. “I do hope he isn’t storm-bound!”
Bert and Nan hoped the same thing, for, somehow, Bert thought if Mr. Bimby came along he would take the twins back to Cedar Camp.
“Now sit up, dearies, and have some weak tea, and I’ll take mine strong. I need it for my nerves,” said the old woman.
And while Bert and Nan had thus found shelter from what turned out to be one of the worst storms ever remembered in the country around Cedar Camp, the other Bobbsey twins, Flossie and Freddie, were safe at home with their mother. Flossie was now cozy and warm after her dip into the water.
“There’s your father!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, as she heard someone stamping off the snow at the front door. “I hope he has Bert and Nan with him.”
But when Mr. Bobbsey came in alone and heard that the older twins had not come back from their nutting trip, a worried look came over his face.
“Not back yet!” he exclaimed. “Why, it’s getting dark and the storm is growing worse! I must start out after them with some of the lumbermen. They must be lost!”
CHAPTER XIII
Old Jim
“Don’t you think Bert and Nan will be along in a little while?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey of her husband, as she crossed the big front room in the log cabin to meet him.
“Be in soon!” he exclaimed. “Why, they’ve been gone too long now, and—”
Mrs. Bobbsey, not letting Flossie and Freddie see her, made a motion with her hands toward her husband. Then he understood that his wife did not want him to frighten the smaller twins by letting it become known how worried he was about Bert and Nan.
“Oh—yes,” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he understood his wife’s idea. “Oh, yes, Bert and Nan will be along soon now.”
“I’ll be glad!” exclaimed Freddie.
“So will I,” added Flossie, from her place on one of the bunks in a bedroom opening out of the living room. “I want some chestnuts.”
“Hello, little Fat Fairy! what’s the matter with you?” asked her father, noticing for the first time that Flossie was in bed. “Sick?” he asked.
“I just fell in the water,” Flossie explained.
“I dumped her in, but I didn’t mean to,” Freddie said.
“Oh! Up to some of your fireman tricks, were you?” laughed Mr. Bobbsey, for he saw, by a glance at his wife, that the small twins were now in no danger.
“No, Daddy, I wasn’t playing fireman,” Freddie answered, though that was one of his favorite pastimes. “We were going to make a sawmill.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. “Well, whatever you do, keep away from the big buzz saw,” he warned. “And now,” he went on in a low voice to his wife, so Freddie and Flossie would not hear, “we must do something about Bert and Nan.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I’m worried about them, but I didn’t want Flossie and Freddie to know. Oh, to think of their being out in this storm!”
“It is pretty bad,” her husband admitted. “I was caught in it, and hurried back. I didn’t think the children would go far away.”
“Nor I,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I suppose they didn’t find chestnuts where they expected to, and wandered on. Are there any wild animals in the woods?”
“Well, no, none to speak of,” her husband said slowly. “You don’t need to worry about that. But I’ll get Jim Denton, and some of the men, and we’ll start right out after Bert and Nan.”
“I wish I could come with you!” exclaimed his wife, as anxious and worried as was Mr. Bobbsey.
“You’ll have to stay here with Flossie and Freddie,” he said. “I’ll soon find Bert and Nan and bring them back.”
“I hope so,” murmured his wife, but as she glanced out of the window and saw how dark it was getting and how fast the snow still came down and heard how the wind howled, it is no wonder the mother of the older Bobbsey twins was worried. So was Mr. Bobbsey.
“I’ll go right away and get Jim and some of the men, and we’ll start out on the search,” said Mr. Bobbsey, having warmed himself at the stove. “We must not wait!”
“No,” agreed Mrs. Bobbsey. “I’ll stay and amuse Flossie and Freddie.”
The smaller Bobbsey twins, of course, did not worry because Bert and Nan had not yet come home. Flossie and Freddie were having too much fun playing a little game on the foot of Flossie’s bed. Mrs. Baxter, the housekeeper, had started the game for the children by bringing in some funny wooden blocks her husband had cut out on one of the long winter evenings that were sometimes so dreary in Cedar Camp.
The blocks could be fitted together to make a house, a bridge, a boat and many other play objects, and Flossie and Freddie enjoyed playing with them, for which their mother was glad. She really was so worried that she could not very well talk to them or tell them stories.
Telling his wife to keep up her courage and not to worry too much, Mr. Bobbsey went out into the storm again.
“Where is daddy going?” asked Flossie, hearing the door shut.
“He’s going to bring back Bert and Nan—and the chestnuts,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, quickly. She knew the smaller twins would think more of the chestnuts than anything else, just at present.
“Oh, I like chestnuts!” cried Freddie. “I’m going to boast ’em an’ roil ’em!” he exclaimed.
“Listen to him, Mother!” laughed Flossie. “He said ‘boast an’ roil,’ an’ he meant roast an’ boil ’em, didn’t he?”
“I think he did,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to let the small twins see how worried she was.
“Oh, Freddie Bobbsey, look what you did!” suddenly cried Flossie. “You knocked over my steamboat!” For Freddie had toppled over the pile of blocks that Flossie had erected on the foot of her bed.
“Never mind. He didn’t mean to,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“You can make another boat, Flossie.”
“An’ I’ll help,” offered Freddie.
Thus the two smaller Bobbsey twins amused themselves, with little thought of Bert and Nan except, perhaps, to wonder when they would come home with the chestnuts.
Meanwhile Mr. Bobbsey hurried through the fast-gathering darkness and the storm to the cabin of Jim Denton. Like the other men in the Christmas tree and lumber camp, the foreman had stopped work when the storm came with such blinding snow and a wind that turned bitter cold toward night.
“What’s that?” cried Jim Denton, when Mr. Bobbsey called at his cabin. “Bert and Nan not back from chestnutting yet? Why, I s’posed they were back hours ago!”
“So did I, and I wish they were,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
“Oh, shucks now! don’t worry,” said the jolly foreman. “We’ll find ’em all right. We’ll start right out.”
He put on his big boots and warm coat and went with Mr. Bobbsey to the cabins of some of the lumbermen. Soon a searching party was organized, and away they started through the storm along the path that earlier in the day Bert and Nan had taken to go to the chestnut grove.
“They took their lunch with them,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “so they wouldn’t be hungry until now. But they may be lost or have fallen into some hole and be half snowed over.”
“Or they may have found some logger’s or hunter’s cabin, and have gone in,” said Jim Denton. “There are plenty of cabins scattered through these woods.”
“I hope they have found shelter,” said Mr. Bobbsey anxiously.
On through the storm went the father of the Bobbsey twins and his lumbermen searchers. They stopped now and then and shouted, but no answers came back.
They had been out about an hour, and had gone more than a mile along the path that it was supposed Bert and Nan had taken, when one of the men called:
“Wait a minute! I think I heard someone call.”
They all stopped and listened. Above the blowing of the wind and the swishing of the fast-falling snowflakes, a faint and far-off voice could be heard.
“Help! Help!” it called.
“There they are!” shouted one of the lumbermen.
“That doesn’t sound like either Bert or Nan,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But it may be someone who started to bring them back to camp and he, too, became lost.”
They all listened again, and once more came the call, but still faint and far away.
“Help! Help!”
“It’s over here!” cried Jim Denton. “Over to the right!”
Through the storm and darkness the rescue party hurried, sending out calls to tell that they were on the way. Now and again they heard the cry in answer, and it sounded nearer now.
At last Mr. Bobbsey saw a dark figure huddled in a heap near a pile of snow, which had drifted around a large rock.
“Here’s someone!” cried Mr. Bobbsey.
A moment later he and the lumbermen were standing over the figure of a man, partly buried in the snow.
“Why, it’s Jim! Old Jim Bimby!” exclaimed Jim Denton. “I know him. He lives several miles from here. He must have been lost in the storm, too. Jim! Jim!” he cried. “What you doing here?”
“I—I started to town for victuals,” said old Jim Bimby, in faint tones. “The storm was too much for me. I was about giving up.”
“We heard you call,” said Tom Case.
“Did you see anything of two small children?” eagerly asked Mr. Bobbsey. “Twins, a boy and a girl! Did you see them?”
Anxiously he bent over to catch the old logger’s answer.
CHAPTER XIV
Snowed In
Having been out in the cold and storm so long, Jim Bimby seemed to have become half frozen. He did not appear to understand what Mr. Bobbsey asked him. The old logger staggered to his feet, helped by some of the men from Cedar Camp, and looked about him.
“What’s the matter?” asked Old Jim in a faint voice. “Did something happen? I remember startin’ off to get—to get something to eat for my wife and me. Then I fell down, tired out, I guess.”
“I guess you did!” exclaimed Tom Case. “And if we hadn’t found you, you’d have been done for. We must get you to shelter.”
“Take him around behind this big pine tree a minute,” suggested Jim Denton. “He’ll be out of the wind there, and we can give him a drink of the hot tea we brought along.”
Some hot tea, mixed with milk, had been put in a thermos bottle and taken with the party to have ready for Nan and Bert, should the Bobbsey twins be found. Now this hot drink would do for poor old Jim Bimby.
Some of the men managed to light lanterns they carried, though it was hard work on account of the wind and snow, and the whole party, including the rescued man, went to the side of the big pine tree, which kept off some of the storm.
“There! I feel better,” said Old Jim, as he swallowed the warm drink.
“And now can you tell us whether or not you saw my two children, Nan and Bert—the Bobbsey twins?” again asked their father anxiously.
Old Jim shook his head.
“No,” he answered. “I didn’t see any children. I came straight from my cabin, over the hill trail, to go to the village to get some food. The cupboard is almost bare at my house. I didn’t think it was goin’ to storm, and I was all taken aback when it did. I kept on, but I must have lost my way.”
“Guess you did,” said Mr. Peterson. “And you’re not likely to get back on it in this storm, either.”
“What!” cried Old Jim. “You mean to say I can’t keep on to the store and take some food back to my wife?”
“Not in this storm!” said Tom Case. “You’re miles from the store now, and more miles from your cabin. You’d best come to Cedar Camp with us, and in the morning, when the storm is over, you can go on again. Your wife has enough food to last until morning, hasn’t she?”
“Yes, I guess so,” answered Mr. Bimby.
“But what has become of Bert and Nan?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“Now look here, Mr. Bobbsey,” said Tom Case, “don’t go to worrying about those children. They’re all right. Bert and Nan are smart, and when they saw this storm coming on they went to some shelter, you can depend on that. They’d know better than to try to make their way back to camp.”
“Well, perhaps they would,” admitted the father of the missing twins. “And perhaps, when we get back to camp, we’ll find them there. Some logger or hunter may have found them and taken them to our cabin.”
“Of course,” agreed Mr. Peterson.
By this time “Old Jim,” as he was called, to distinguish him from Jim Denton, the lumber foreman, was feeling much better. He was still weak, and he leaned on the arm of one of the lumbermen as they turned back. The storm was still fierce, and it was now night, but lanterns gave light enough to see the way through the forest.
Had it not been that the lumber and Christmas tree men knew their way through the woods, the party might never have reached Cedar Camp. As it was they lost the trail once, and had hard work to find it again. But finally they plunged through several drifts of snow that had formed, and broke out into the clearing around the sawmill.
“Did you find them?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, when her husband came to the cabin, knocking the snow off his feet.
“No,” he answered, and he tried to make his voice as cheerful as possible. “We didn’t find them, but they’re all right. They were probably taken in by some hunter or logger.”
Even as he said this Mr. Bobbsey was disappointed that Bert and Nan had not been brought back to camp during his absence, for he had half hoped that he would find them there on his own return.
“Oh, I do hope they’re all right!” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Of course they are!” her husband told her. “They’ll be here in the morning.”
“With chestnuts?” asked Flossie, who, with Freddie, had been awakened from an early evening sleep by the return of their father.
“Yes, th
ey’ll bring chestnuts,” replied Mr. Bobbsey, trying to smile, though it was hard work, for he was really very much worried, as was his wife.
However, they did not let Flossie and Freddie know this. And as Mr. Bobbsey ate the warm supper which Mrs. Baxter set out for him, he told about the finding of Mr. Bimby, who had been taken to the cabin of Tom Case, there to spend the night.
“Can we see him?” cried Flossie, who did not seem any the worse for having fallen into the water.
“Maybe he can tell us a story about a real bear,” added Freddie, for he had been rather disappointed, since coming to Cedar Camp, because no one could tell him where to find a bear.
“Maybe he can,” said his father. “You shall see Old Jim, as the boys call him, in the morning.”
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey did not pass a very happy night. They were much worried about the missing Nan and Bert, and though he tried to sleep, after Flossie and Freddie had gone to Slumberland, Mr. Bobbsey found it hard work. So did his wife.
More than once during the night, as they awakened after fitful naps and heard the wind howling around the cabin and the snow rattling against the windows, one or the other would say:
“Oh, I hope Bert and Nan are all right!”
And the other would say:
“I hope so!”
Morning came at last, but it was not such a morning as all in Cedar Camp had hoped for. They had expected the storm to be over, so that a searching party could again set out to find Bert and Nan.
But instead of the storm being over, it was even worse than the night before. A regular blizzard had set in, the snow coming out of the north on the wings of a cold wind. Great drifts were piled high here and there through the camp clearing, and when Freddie and Flossie looked from the window they could hardly see the sawmill.
“Oh, oh!” squealed Freddie. “Look, Flossie! Just look!”
“We’re snowed in!” cried Flossie. “Oh, what fun we’ll have!”
“It’s just like Snow Lodge!” added Freddie, remembering a time spent there, when several adventurous happenings had taken place.
“Yes, I’m afraid we are snowed in,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with an anxious look out of the window. “But I hope it will not last long. Well, here come Tom Case and Old Jim. I must see what they want,” and he went to the door to let them in.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 166