The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  Again Bert and Nan spent the night in the little rooms of the cabin, but they slept better this time, Nan not even awakening for a drink of water. And in the morning Bert looked from a window and cried:

  “Hurray! The snow’s stopping! I’m going to start out and go back to camp!”

  “You are?” asked Nan. “Are you going to take me?”

  “No,” said Bert. “You’d better stay here. I’ll go to camp and send daddy back in a sled for you. He can hitch a horse to one of the lumber sleds now that the snow is stopping, and he can ride you home. And if I find your husband I’ll send him back with a lot of things to eat,” he told Mrs. Bimby.

  “I wish you would, dearie,” said the old woman. “But are you really going to start out, Bert?”

  “Yes’m! My father and mother will be worried about us. I can get to camp now, I’m sure, as the storm is almost over.”

  Mrs. Bimby, who, though not very wise, was kind, made him take a little lunch with him, packing up some cold boiled chestnuts and part of the cold rabbit meat. It was all there was.

  “But maybe I’ll get to camp before I have to eat,” said Bert. “And I’ll send back help to you.”

  So Bert started out, Mrs. Bimby showing him the direction he was to take. It was still snowing a little, but he hoped it would soon stop.

  CHAPTER XVII

  Trying Again

  Though Flossie and Freddie had what they called “good times” in the log cabin at Cedar Camp, and though Old Jim played with them, making boats and dolls of wood, still the small Bobbsey twins wished for the time to come when they might go out of doors. They also began to wish for the return of Bert and Nan.

  “When will they come, Mother?” Flossie asked over and over again.

  “And bring us chestnuts!” teased Freddie.

  “Oh, they’ll come soon now,” Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she looked out of the window at the flakes of snow, still falling, and listened to the whistle of the cold wind around the cabin.

  And in her heart how very much Mrs. Bobbsey wished that Bert and Nan would come back soon! Mr. Bobbsey wished the same thing, and the only comfort the father and mother had in those worrisome days was the thought that their older twins must have found shelter somewhere in the woods.

  Old Jim declared that this was so, as, likewise, did Tom Case and Jim Denton. But it was still storming too much for another searching party to set out and look for Nan and Bert. Those who searched might themselves become lost in the blizzard. For that is what the storm now was—a regular blizzard.

  Mr. Bobbsey could do nothing toward searching for the lost shipment of Christmas trees. The lumbermen could not work at cutting down trees, floating or sledding them to the mill or carting them to the railroad. Even the sawmill was shut down, and all there was to do was to wait.

  Flossie and Freddie were not used to staying in the house so long at a time. They wanted to go out and play even if there was snow, but their mother would not let them in such an unusual storm.

  “It’s like when we were at Snow Lodge,” sighed Flossie, as she stood with her little nose pressed flat against the window, thereby making her face cold.

  “We could go out a little there,” sighed Freddie.

  “I think you children are very lucky,” said their mother. “You have a warm place to stay. Think of poor Nan and Bert. They may—”

  She stopped suddenly. She dared not think of what her older son and daughter might be suffering. She glanced quickly at Flossie and Freddie. She was afraid lest she should make them worry, too.

  But, fortunately, Flossie and Freddie were not that sort. They did not believe in worrying, unless it was over not having fun enough. However, the log cabin was of good size, and with Old Jim to come over now and then to amuse them with cutting out wooden toys, the two Bobbsey twins did not have such a sad time as might be imagined.

  Today, however, when the storm had kept up so long, and when they had not had a chance to go out, they felt rather lonesome and as if they wanted to “do something.” So, presently, when Flossie had grown tired of pressing her nose against the glass, making it cold, and then holding it on Freddie’s cheek to hear him exclaim in surprise, the little girl wandered about looking for something to do. Freddie joined her, and while their mother was in another room, talking to Mr. Bobbsey, and saying he ought, soon, to make another trip and search for Bert and Nan, Flossie and Freddie went up in the top story of the log cabin.

  The log cabin was the largest in that part of the woods, and was higher than most, so that in addition to the bedrooms on the second floor, there was, above them, an open attic, reached by a short flight of steps, and in it were stored all sorts of odds and ends.

  “Maybe we can find something here to play with,” suggested Flossie.

  “Maybe,” agreed Freddie.

  They rummaged around in the half-dark place, back in corners where the roof came down slanting and making little “cubby-holes,” and it was after a glance into one of these places that Flossie drew back and whispered to Freddie:

  “There’s a bear in here!”

  “A bear! Where?” and Freddie moved over closer to Flossie and looked where she pointed.

  “There,” said the little girl, and, glancing along the line of her outstretched finger, Freddie saw a big, furry heap in a dark corner. “I touched it first with my foot,” said Flossie, “and it was soft, just like the bear I touched that the Italian had once, leading around by a string in his nose. And then I put out my hand and I felt his fur!”

  “Oh!” exclaimed Freddie. “Did he—did he bite you?” He had been looking for something to play with on the other side of the attic, and, therefore, had not seen all that Flossie had.

  “Course he didn’t bite me!” the little girl answered. “You didn’t hear me holler, did you?”

  “No,” said Freddie, “I didn’t. I’m going to touch him!”

  “Come over here,” advised Flossie, moving to one side so Freddie could thrust his hand forward and touch that mysterious heap of fur. “I—I guess maybe he’s asleep, that’s why he didn’t growl or nothin’!”

  “I guess maybe,” agreed Freddie. Neither of the Bobbsey twins felt surprised because they had an idea a bear might be in the attic with them. Nor were they afraid. A sleeping bear is not dangerous, of course. Any little boy or girl knows that!

  Freddie crawled a little way farther under the sloping roof and, by stretching out his hand, managed to touch the fur. It felt warm and soft to his fingers.

  “Oh, it is a bear!” he whispered, and he was delighted. “Let’s go and tell mother, and we can bring it downstairs and play with it. I guess it’s a little bear!”

  “Yes, we’d better tell mother,” agreed Flossie. Somehow, the more she thought of a bear being up in the attic the more she thought it better to have some of the older folks know about it.

  Down the stairs went the two Bobbsey twins, walking softly so as not to awaken the bear. They didn’t want him suddenly aroused from his sleep and made cross. Who would?

  “Where have you children been?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as she saw the two twins. They were covered with dust and cobwebs from having crawled so far under the sloping roof in the attic. The floor was dirty, too, not having been swept in many months, and they had sat right down in the worst of the dust.

  “Oh, Mother!” gasped Flossie, “we’ve been up in the attic, and what do you think’s up there? It’s a—”

  “Bear!” burst out Freddie, not wanting his sister to tell all the wonderful news. “He’s asleep, an’ I touched him!”

  “Nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “A bear? It can’t be!”

  And yet she knew there were bears in the North Woods, and it might be possible that one had crawled into the cabin before they had come, and had gone to the attic to have his long winter sleep.

  “Yes, it is a bear!” insisted Flossie, and both children were so certain about the heap of fur that Mrs. Bobbsey called her husband, who was out in the woo
dshed with Tom Case and Jim Bimby.

  “A bear!” cried the mill foreman. “Well, there are some around these woods, but I never knew of one coming into a cabin. I’ll take a look.”

  “Hadn’t you better take a gun?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, as he and Old Jim followed the foreman upstairs. “There’s one here.”

  “Well, you might hand it to me,” said Mr. Case. “But I reckon if it is a bear that’s crawled in to go to sleep, he’ll be so lazy I can take him by the back of the neck and throw him out.”

  Freddie and Flossie waited with their mother while their father and the two men went to the attic. They could hear the three moving around up overhead, and soon there was a shout of laughter.

  “Maybe it’s a circus bear, and he’s doing tricks!” exclaimed Flossie.

  “Oh, I hope it is!” added Freddie, feeling quite excited.

  Their father and the two men came downstairs. Tom Case carried something—something brown and shaggy, just like the fur of some animal.

  “There’s your ‘bear!’” he said, laughing, as he tossed the furry object over a chair. “A bear skin! Ha! Ha!”

  And that is what it was. The skin of a big bear, made into a lap robe for use in cold weather. The fur was warm, thick and soft, and when the skin was huddled up in a heap in a corner no wonder the Bobbsey twins mistook it for a real bear, especially in the dark.

  “That’s a good warm fur robe,” said Old Jim. “If it was made into a fur coat it would keep out the cold.”

  “Maybe that’s what the man who used to live here was going to use it for,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “He moved away and forgot it. Well, you children can play with it,” he said to Flossie and Freddie. “It was a bear once.”

  And the Bobbsey twins had fun taking turns wrapping the bear skin about them and pretending to be different kinds of wild animals.

  It was when the storm began to grow less severe, the wind not blowing so hard and the snow not coming down so thickly, that Mr. Bobbsey, looking from the window when Flossie and Freddie were playing “bear,” said:

  “I think I’ll start out again.”

  “Where?” asked his wife.

  “To find Bert and Nan,” he answered. “I think the blizzard is about over, and they will probably be starting for home. I’ll go to meet them.”

  “Oh, take us!” cried Flossie and Freddie. “We want to see Bert and Nan.”

  “Oh, no, I couldn’t take you,” said their father. “The snow is piled deep in drifts, and you’d sink away down in—over your heads. I’ll take some of the men and start,” he said to his wife.

  And so, a little later, another searching party started away from Cedar Camp to find the missing Bobbsey twins.

  “I’ll go along,” said Old Jim, who was now able to travel. “I must take some food to my wife. She’ll be ’most starved.”

  “Yes, come with us,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “We’ll take some food to Mrs. Bimby.”

  CHAPTER XVIII

  A Little Searching Party

  Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey were two of the kindest children in the world. They were fond of fun and of having a good time, but whenever their mother did work for the church at home, helping poor families, taking food to people who had but little, Freddie and Flossie always wanted to do their share. So did Bert and Nan; but as the older twins had to spend more time in school than did Flossie and Freddie, the two latter had more chances to help their mother.

  More than once they had gone with her when she carried a basket of food or a bundle of clothing to some poor family in Lakeport. And now, in Cedar Camp, having heard their father say he was going to take food to Mrs. Bimby, Flossie and Freddie at once had an idea.

  While Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were out of the room, talking over the coming trip through the woods to look for Bert and Nan, as well as to take food to Mrs. Bimby, Freddie said to Flossie:

  “Let’s go, too!”

  “Daddy won’t let us,” Flossie answered.

  “We—we’ll tag after him,” said Freddie in a whisper. “We can put on our rubber boots and our coats and mittens, and we can go behind him. He can’t hear us, ’cause there’s so much snow our boots won’t make any noise.”

  “That’s so,” agreed Flossie. “And, oh, Freddie! I know what we can do.”

  “What?”

  “We can take Mrs. Bimby that bear robe. It’ll keep her warm, ’cause it’s so nice and soft!”

  “So ’tis!” agreed Freddie. “We’ll take it, and something to eat, too.”

  “We’ll not have to do that, Daddy and the other men are going to take her something to eat.”

  “I meant something to eat for us,” Freddie said. “We ought to take a lunch with us, ’cause maybe we’ll get hungry in the woods.”

  The younger Bobbsey twins had a feeling that if they were seen packing up a lunch for themselves, putting on their boots and outdoor garments, and taking the bear skin, they would be stopped. They felt sure they would not be allowed to go in search of Nan and Bert. And they were probably right.

  So, as they had done more than once before, they said nothing of their plans, but went about them secretly and quietly. While their mother and Mrs. Baxter were packing two large baskets with food for Old Jim’s wife, and while Daddy Bobbsey was talking to the men about the coming trip through the snow-filled woods, Flossie and Freddie took their boots, coats, caps and mittens to the back door of the log cabin.

  “We can slip out and put ’em on there when nobody is looking,” said Freddie.

  “We’ve got to take the bear skin out, too,” Flossie remarked.

  But when they tried to bundle the skin of the bear up so they could carry it, they found it so heavy and slippery to lift that they had to give it up.

  “What’ll we do?” asked Flossie, as, after several trials she had to admit that the skin could not be carried. “Mrs. Bimby’ll be so disappointed!”

  “We can tell her it’s here, and Mr. Jim can come and get it,” suggested Freddie.

  “Oh, that’ll be nice!” his sister agreed. “We’ll leave the skin.”

  How to pack up a lunch for themselves was also a hard matter. But, as it happened, Mrs. Bobbsey was so busy getting things ready for her husband and the other men that she did not pay much attention to what Flossie and Freddie did. She saw them moving about, now in the pantry and now in the kitchen and again stepping to the back door, but she did not dream they were getting ready to set off on a search by themselves.

  However, this is just what Flossie and Freddie were going to do, and, after a while, they managed to pack into a pasteboard box what they thought would be lunch enough for them until they came back with Bert and Nan.

  “Put in lots of cake,” whispered Freddie to Flossie, on one of the little girl’s trips to the pantry. “Cake tastes awful good in the woods.”

  “I will,” Flossie whispered back. “And I got some pie, too!”

  “Oh, that’s fine!” Freddie exclaimed. “Now we must slip out when they don’t see us.”

  This the small Bobbsey twins managed to do. While Mr. Bobbsey, with Old Jim and Tom Case, was making ready to start on his searching expedition, to find and bring back Bert and Nan, as well as to take food to lonely Mrs. Bimby, Flossie and Freddie slipped quietly to the back door with their strange package of lunch.

  They soon donned their boots, coats and caps, and with their little hands covered with warm, red mittens, they started off, keeping behind the cabin so they would not be seen by those in front who were getting ready to start on the main searching trip. It was snowing a little, but not nearly so hard as at first, and the wind was not so strong or cold.

  “It’ll be fun!” said Flossie to Freddie.

  “Lots of fun!” agreed her twin. “We’ll wait until daddy and Mr. Jim and Mr. Case get in the woods, and then we’ll follow ’em. They won’t send us back!”

  “No,” agreed Flossie, “I don’t guess they will.”

  The plan of the little Bobbsey twins was to follow their
father on the search. They did not want to go through the woods alone, even though it was now daylight, though the sun did not shine because of the snow clouds.

  And so, a little while after Mr. Bobbsey and the two men started away from the log cabin, Flossie and Freddie set out on their own little searching party. Mrs. Bobbsey and Mrs. Baxter were so busy “cleaning up” after the men left that they gave no thought to the children for a time.

  “There they go!” whispered Flossie to Freddie, as, hiding behind a woodpile, they saw their father, Mr. Bimby and Tom Case start off.

  “Wait a little, and then we’ll go after ’em,” advised Freddie.

  As soon as the main party had marched off along the trail that led through the woods toward the chestnut grove that Bert and Nan had set out to visit two days before, the small Bobbsey twins set forth. They went around behind a clump of trees so they would not be seen from the cabin.

  Flossie and Freddie expected soon to catch up to their father, but the snow was so deep and the men traveled so fast that, after trudging along for half an hour, Freddie and his sister had not yet come within sight of the others.

  “Do you s’pose they ran away from us?” asked Flossie, as she stopped a moment to rest.

  “Course not,” answered Freddie. “They don’t even know we’re comin’ after ’em.”

  “That’s so,” Flossie said. “Well, anyhow, I hope we don’t get lost.”

  “I do, too,” agreed Freddie. “But we have something to eat, anyhow,” and he patted the box of lunch he carried.

  The children looked around them. They were in a lonely part of the woods, a place they had never been before, but they felt sure they would soon catch up to their father. They had been following the tracks in the snow left by the men who had gone to find Bert and Nan and take food to Mrs. Bimby.

  Suddenly, however, there came a harder flurry of snow, and for a time Flossie and Freddie could not see very well. And when the little squall, as sudden storms are called, had passed, the two Bobbsey twins found they had wandered off to one side of the trail.