Bert was not sure whether or not he was going to like it, but he said nothing. He had to shut his teeth tight to keep from crying out with pain as he straightened up with Flossie on his back, for her weight, small as she was, put too much weight on his injured leg. Flossie was quite “chunky” for her size, as Dinah was wont to say.
“Hold steady now, Flossie,” directed Bert, as he straightened up. “Put your arms around my neck.”
“I guess I know how to ride piggy-back!” laughed Flossie. She was not so tired now, when something like this happened to change her thoughts.
Bert staggered along through the snow with his sister on his back. Though he did not want to say so, his leg hurt him very much. But he tried not to limp, though Freddie at last noticed it, and asked:
“Have you got a stone in your shoe, Bert?”
“Oh, no, I—I just sprained it a little,” Bert answered in a low voice, so Flossie would not hear. For of course if she had known it hurt her brother to carry her she would not ask him to. But just then Flossie was reaching up to take hold of a branch of a tree as Bert passed beneath it. And, catching hold of it, Flossie, with a merry laugh, showered herself and Bert with snow that clung to the branch.
“Don’t, Flossie, dear!” Bert had to say. “There’s snow enough without pulling down any more. And we’ll get plenty if the clouds spill more flakes.”
“Do you think it will storm some more?” Freddie wanted to know.
Bert did not answer right away. He was thinking what he could do about Flossie. If she could not walk then she must be carried, but he felt that he could not hold her on his back much longer, his leg was paining too much.
Just then the sight of Rover, the big, strong dog, floundering about in the snow, gave Bert an idea. Rover did not seem to care how much breath or strength he wasted, for he ran everywhere, barking and trying to dig things out from under the drifts.
“Oh, Flossie! wouldn’t you like to ride on Rover’s back?” asked poor, tired Bert.
“Oh, that will be lovely!” cried the little girl.
“Here, Rover!” cried Freddie.
The dog came leaping through the snow, very likely hoping to have some sticks thrown that he might race after them. But he did not seem surprised when Flossie was placed on his back and held there by Freddie on one side and Bert on the other.
“Now I’m having a ride on a make-believe elephant!” laughed Flossie. Rover could not run with the little girl on his back, and I must say he behaved very nicely, carrying her along through the drifts. Her legs hung “dangling down-o,” but that did not matter.
“I guess I’m rested now,” said Flossie, after a bit. “I’m cold, and it will make me warmer to walk. I’ll walk and hold your hand, Bert.”
If Rover was glad to have the load taken from his back he did not say so, but by the way he raced on ahead when Flossie got off I think he was.
“I guess there’s more snow coming,” suddenly cried Bert.
There was, the flakes coming down almost as thick and fast as when the blizzard first swirled about Cedar Camp. Bert took the hands of Flossie and Freddie and led them on through the storm. It was hard work, and the smaller children were crying with the cold and from fear at the coming darkness when Rover suddenly barked.
“Hey!” cried Bert. “I guess someone is coming!”
“Maybe it’s daddy!” half sobbed Flossie.
Shouts were coming through the storm—the shouts of men. Rover barked louder and rushed forward. Bert held to the hands of his brother and sister and peered anxiously through the falling flakes and the fast-gathering darkness.
Suddenly a man rushed forward, and, a moment later, had Flossie and Freddie in his arms, hugging and kissing them. Then he clasped Bert around the shoulders.
“Daddy! Daddy!” cried Flossie and Freddie together. “You found us, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But I didn’t know you were away from camp,” said Mr. Bobbsey, for it was he. “Where’s Nan?” he asked Bert quickly, while Rover leaped about his master, Mr. Case, and Old Jim.
“She’s at Mrs. Bimby’s cabin,” Bert answered.
“My wife!” exclaimed Old Jim. “Is she—is she all right?”
“She was when I came away this morning to get help,” said Bert. “I shot a rabbit for her and Nan. It was good, too. But I guess she’ll need food now.”
“We have a lot for her,” said Tom Case. “Rover, you rascal!” he went on, patting his dog, “I wondered where you ran away to, but it’s a good thing you found the children.”
“And he drove away the wildcat,” Bert announced.
It was a happy, joyful party in spite of the storm, which was getting worse. Mr. Bobbsey and the two men with him had gotten off the road that led to Old Jim’s cabin, and it was because of that fact that they had found the lost children.
“What had we better do?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, when it was learned that Bert, Freddie and Flossie had really suffered no harm from being lost. “Should we go back to Cedar Camp or to your cabin, Mr. Bimby?”
“The cabin is nearer,” said Tom Case. “If you folks go there, with Jim to guide you, I’ll back track to Cedar Camp and fetch a sled. You can ride the Bobbsey twins home in that.”
“Yes, we’d better go to my cabin,” said Old Jim. “We can make room for you, and we’ll take the food with us.”
So this plan was decided on, Tom Case and Rover going to Cedar Camp for the sled, while Mr. Bobbsey, Mr. Bimby and the three children trudged back to Mrs. Bimby’s cabin.
You can imagine how glad Nan and the old woman were to see not only Bert but the others.
“Oh, I was afraid when it began to storm again,” said Nan, as she hugged Flossie and Freddie. “But I never dreamed you two would be out in it.”
“Nor I,” said their father.
“You ought to see the bear skin we found!” exclaimed Freddie, to change the subject. “It’s going to be for Mrs. Bimby, to keep her warm.”
“Bless their hearts!” murmured Old Jim’s wife. “I can keep warm all right, but it’s hard to get food in a storm.”
However, there was plenty of that now, and they all soon gathered about the table and had a hot meal. The second storm was not as bad as the first had been, and later that evening up came a big sled, filled with straw and drawn by powerful horses, and in it was Mrs. Bobbsey and some of the men from Cedar Camp.
After a joyful reunion, in piled the Bobbsey twins with their father and mother, and good-byes were called to the Bimby family, who now had food enough to last through many storms.
There was not much trouble getting to Cedar Camp, though the road was so blocked with snow that once the sled almost upset. But before midnight the Bobbsey twins were back in the cabin, all safe together once again.
“We’ve had a lot of adventures since we came here,” said Bert, as they sat about the cozy fire.
“Too many,” remarked his mother. “I don’t know when I’ve been so worried, and it was worse after Flossie and Freddie went away.”
“We won’t run away again,” promised the small twins.
“Did you find your Christmas trees, Daddy?” asked Nan.
“No, not yet,” he replied. “I guess they’re lost, and we’ll have to cut more.”
But the next day, when the storm ceased and the sun shone, a man came to camp with word about the missing trees. The railroad cars on which they were loaded had been switched off on a wrong track and had been held at a distant station awaiting someone to claim them. This Mr. Bobbsey did, and soon the shipment of Christmas trees was on its way to Lakeport.
“And as long as they are found there is no excuse for staying in Cedar Camp any longer,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
But the children like it so that they prevailed on their father and mother to remain a few days longer. And then the Bobbsey twins had many good times, playing in the woods and about the sawmill. For there came a thaw after the big storms, and most of the snow melted. Bert and Nan got more chestnuts, to
o.
“But I hope we’ll have some snow for Christmas,” said Nan.
“So we can make a snow fort!” added Freddie.
“And a snowman and knock his hat off!” laughed Flossie.
“I should think you’d had enough snow,” remarked their mother.
But the Bobbsey twins seldom had enough of anything when there was fun and excitement going, and you may be sure this was not the last of their adventures. But now let us say good-bye.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR
CHAPTER I
The Broken Bridge
“Aren’t you glad, Nan? Aren’t you terrible glad?”
“Why, of course I am, Flossie!”
“And aren’t you glad, too, Bert?” Flossie Bobbsey, who had first asked this question of her sister, now paused in front of her older brother. She looked up at him smiling as he cut away with his knife at a soft piece of wood he was shaping into a boat for Freddie. “Aren’t you terrible glad, Bert?”
“I sure am, Flossie!” Bert answered, with a laugh. “What makes you ask such funny questions?”
“Well, if you’re glad why doesn’t you wiggle like I do?” asked Flossie, without answering Bert. “I feel just like wigglin’ and squigglin’ inside and outside!” she added.
“Well, wiggle as much as you please, dear, but don’t get your dress dirty, whatever you do,” advised Nan, with the air of a little mother, for she felt that she must look after her smaller sister, since Mrs. Bobbsey was not there to do it.
“Oh, I won’t get my dress dirty!” laughed Flossie. “’Cause if I do—”
“’Cause if you do you can’t go to the picnic!” finished Freddie, who was so interested in watching brother Bert make the little wooden ship that he forgot all about talking.
“I’m just goin’ to wiggle standin’ up,” Flossie said, and she did so, squirming about in delight at the fun which was soon to come.
“Don’t forget your ‘g’ letters!” called Nan, shaking her finger at her sister. “You must say going and standing not goin’, my dear, or standin’, you know.”
“Yes, I know. But when you feel like wigglin’—I mean wiggling,” and Flossie said the last syllable very loudly, “why, then you don‘t think about ‘g’ letters; do you, Freddie?”
“I don’t guess so,” he answered, not taking his eyes off the knife that was flashing in Bert’s hand, making the white slivers of wood scatter over the green grass.
“Oh, I just can hardly wait till the auto truck comes; can you, Nan?” asked Flossie, dancing over the lawn like a fairy in a play. “Oh, I’m so glad it doesn’t rain!” and she looked anxiously up at the sky as if some cloud might float across the wonderful blue and spoil the day of pleasure.
“Yes, the weather is lovely,” agreed Nan. “And if you don’t think so much about it, Flossie, the truck will get here all the sooner.”
“But I like to think about it!” cried Flossie. “It’s the same as Christmas! The more you think about it the more fun it is! Oh, I’m going to look down the road and see if the truck is coming!”
Down toward the front gate she skipped, the big bow of ribbon on her hair flapping up and down like the wings of some great blue butterfly.
“Be careful about climbing on the gate!” warned Nan. “If you get rusty spots on your white dress they won’t come out!”
“I’ll be careful,” Flossie promised, calling back over her shoulder, and, as she tripped along she sang: “We’re going to a picnic! We’re going to a picnic!”
“I think I’d better watch her so she won’t soil her clothes,” said Nan, getting up from a bench, where she had been sitting beside the boxes and baskets of lunch. “It would be too bad if she should get her dress dirty and couldn’t go.”
“I’m not going to get my clothes dirty, am I, Nan?” asked Freddie, as he looked at his white blouse.
“I hope not,” Nan answered.
Suddenly there was an exclamation from Bert, as Nan started down the path toward Flossie.
“Ouch!” cried Bert.
“What’s the matter?” Nan asked quickly.
“Cut myself!”
“Oh! Oh, dear!” screamed Freddie, who did not like the sight of the red blood which oozed from the end of his brother’s finger.
“Oh, don’t get any on my clean blouse, else I can’t go to the picnic!”
Bert, who had popped the cut finger into his mouth as soon as he felt the hurt, now took it out to laugh.
“That’s all you care about me, Freddie!” he joked. “I cut my finger, while making you a little boat, and all you care about is that I mustn’t dirty your white blouse! I’ll make you a lot more ships—I guess not!”
“Oh, but I am sorry for you!” Freddie declared. “Only I do so want to go to the picnic!”
“Yes, I know,” Bert went on, seeing that Freddie was taking his talk too seriously. “I won’t get any blood on you!”
“Is it much of a cut?” asked Nan “Do you want me to get the iodine?” Their Mother had taught the Bobbsey twins not to neglect hurts of this kind, and iodine, they knew, was good to “kill the germs,” whatever that meant. Iodine smarted when put into a cut, but it was better to stand a little smart at first than a big pain afterward, so Daddy Bobbsey had said.
“Oh, it isn’t much of a cut,” Bert said. “I guess I don’t need any iodine. You’d better go look after Flossie. The trucks may be along any time now, and we don’t want to keep them waiting.”
“All right. But you’d better not whittle any more on that boat or you may cut yourself so bad you can’t go to the picnic.”
“Let the boat go!” advised Freddie. “It’s good enough, anyhow, and I want you to go to the picnic, Bert.”
“All right. The little ship is almost finished, anyhow. I just have to make about three more cuts and then I’m done.”
His finger had stopped bleeding—indeed the cut was a very small one—and Bert was soon putting the last touches to the tiny craft which Freddie wanted to sail in the little lake at the picnic grounds.
Just as Bert handed the homemade toy to his brother, and when Nan reached Flossie, in time to stop her from climbing on the gate, a noise of honking horns was heard down the street.
“Oh, here they come! Here come the trucks!” cried Flossie, dancing up and down.
“Get the lunch!” called Freddie, to make sure they would not go hungry on the picnic.
“I’ll go in and tell mother we’re going,” called Nan to Bert, who shut up his knife, brushed the whittlings off his clothes, and began to gather up the boxes and baskets of lunch. “Watch Flossie!” Nan added, for there was no telling what the excitable little “fairy” might do at the last moment.
“All right,” Bert answered. “Here, Freddie!” he called. “Don’t run with that sharp-pointed boat in your hand. If you fall on it you’ll get hurt.”
“But I’m not going to fall!” said Freddie.
“You can’t tell what you’re going to do! Go easy!” Bert advised, and Freddie walked as slowly as he could to the gate where Flossie was eagerly gazing down the road.
The noise of the auto horns sounded more loudly, and soon two big trucks, filled with children and gay with flags, came into view. Boxes had been placed in the trucks for seats, and on these boxes, laughing, shouting, waving their hands and flags, were scores of happy, smiling boys and girls.
One of the trucks drew up at the gate of the house where lived the Bobbsey twins, the other auto keeping on, as it was well filled. But room had been saved in this one for Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.
“Come on, Nan! Come on!” cried Flossie, still jumping up and down.
“Tell Nan to hurry!” added Freddie to his brother.
“She’s coming,” Bert said, as he walked down to the gate with the packages of lunch.
“Hello, Bert!” called Charlie Mason, from the truck. “Got enough to eat?”
“I guess so,” Bert answered his chum, holding up the boxes a
nd baskets. “Enough for two picnics I should say!”
“You can eat a lot when you’re off in the woods,” added Dannie Rugg. “It’s like camping out.”
“Here comes Nan!” exclaimed Grace Lavine, a particular chum of the older Bobbsey girl.
Nan, having hurried in to tell her mother the trucks had arrived, now hastened down the path, her hair flying in the wind.
“Have you everything? Take good care of Flossie and Freddie! Have a good time, and don’t fall into the water!” Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she waved good-by to her twins while they clambered up into the truck.
“We will!” they answered.
“Good-by, Mother! Good-by!”
“Good-by, children!”
“Honk! Honk!” tooted the auto horn.
“All aboard!” called Nellie Parks. “All aboard!”
“I want to sit on the end!” declared Freddie, struggling to get in this position.
“You might fall out going up hill,” said Bert. “I’ll sit there, Freddie, and you can sit next me.” The little fellow had to be content with this.
With children laughing, children singing, children shouting and children smiling, with flags flying and the horn tooting, the big auto started off, having taken aboard the Bobbsey twins; and soon the two trucks were out of sight around a turn in the road, bound for Pine Grove, on the outskirts of the town of Lakeport. It was the yearly picnic of one of the Lakeport Sunday schools.
“Isn’t it a wonderful day?” asked Grace of Nan. The two friends and Nellie were sitting together.
“Yes, beautiful. We nearly always have a good day for the picnic.”
“Did you bring any olives in your lunch. Nan?”
“Yes, and some dill pickles, too!”
“Oh, I just love dill pickles!” exclaimed Grace, “and we didn’t have one in the house.”
“I’ll give you some of mine,” offered Nan.
Flossie and Freddie were too excited, looking at sights along the road, to talk much, but they were as happy as if they had been chattering away like the others.
“Did your dog Snap bite your finger, Bert?” asked Dannie Rugg.
“No, my knife slipped when I was making Freddie a boat. Say, Freddie,” he asked the little fellow, “did you lose your boat?”
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 172