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THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
By Laura Lee Hope
CONTENTS
I. A CROCKERY CRASH
II. NEW SUMMER PLANS
III. THE RUNAWAY BOY
IV. OFF FOR MEADOW BROOK
V. SNAP'S ESCAPE
VI. AT MEADOW BROOK
VII. THE PICNIC
VIII. LOST IN THE HAY
IX. THE FIVE-PIN SHOW
X. A SHAM BATTLE
XI. MOVING PICTURES
XII. THE BOBBSEYS ACT
XIII. THE CIRCUS
XIV. FREDDIE IS MISSING
XV. FOUND AGAIN
XVI. FRANK'S STORY
XVII. A WILD ANIMAL SCARE
XVIII. WHAT FREDDIE SAW
XIX. IN SWIMMING
XX. FRANK COMES BACK
XXI. BAD MONEY
XXII. HAPPY DAYS
CHAPTER I
A CROCKERY CRASH
"Well, here we are back home again!" exclaimed Nan Bobbsey, as she sat
down in a chair on the porch. "Oh, but we have had _such_ a good
time!"
"The best ever!" exclaimed her brother Bert, as he set down the valise
he had been carrying, and walked back to the front gate to take a
small satchel from his mother.
"I'm going to carry mine! I want to carry mine all the way!" cried
little fat Freddie Bobbsey, thinking perhaps his bigger brother might
want to take, too, his bundle.
"All right, you can carry your own, Freddie," said Bert, pleasantly.
"But it's pretty heavy for you."
"It--it isn't very heavy," panted Freddie, as he struggled on with his
bundle, his short fat legs fairly "twinkling" to and fro as he came up
the walk. "It's got some cookies in, too, my bundle has; and Flossie
and I are going to eat 'em when we get on the porch."
"Oh, so that's the reason you didn't want Bert to take your package,
is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile, as she patted the little fat
chap on the head.
"Oh, well, I'll give Bert a cookie if he wants one," said Freddie,
generously, "but I'm strong enough to carry my own bundle all the way;
aren't I, Dinah?" and he appealed to a fat, good-natured looking
colored woman, who was waddling along, carrying a number of packages.
"Dat's what yo' is, honey lamb! Dat's what yo' is!" Dinah exclaimed.
"An' ef I could see dat man ob mine, Sam Johnson, I'd make him take
some ob dese yeah t'ings."
As Dinah spoke there came from around the corner of the house a tall,
slim colored man, who as soon as he saw the party of returning
travelers, ran forward to help them carry their luggage.
"Well, it's about time dat yo' come t' help us, Sam Johnson!"
exclaimed his wife. "It's about time!"
"Didn't know yo' all was a-comin', Dinah! Didn't know yo' all would
get heah so soon, 'deed I didn't!" Sam exclaimed, with a laugh, that
showed his white teeth in strange contrast to his black face.
"Freddie, shall I take yo' package? Flossie, let me reliebe yo',
little Missie!"
"No, Sam, thank you!" answered the little girl, who was just about the
size and build of Freddie. "I have only Snoop, our cat, and I can
carry him easily enough. You help Dinah!"
"'Deed an' he had better help me!" exclaimed the colored cook.
Sam took all the packages he could carry, and hurried with them to the
stoop. But he had not gone very far before something happened.
From behind him rushed a big dog, barking and leaping about, glad,
probably, to be home again from part of the summer vacation.
"Look out, Sam!" called Bert Bobbsey, who was carrying the valise his
mother had had. "Look out!"
"What's de mattah? Am I droppin' suffin?" asked Sam, trying to turn
about and look at all the bundles and packages he had in his arms and
hands.
"It's Snap!" cried Nan, who was sitting comfortably on the shady
porch. "Look out for him, Sam."
"Snap! Behave yourself!" ordered little fat Flossie, as she set down a
wooden cage containing a black cat. "Be good, Snap!"
"Here, Snap! Snap! Come here!" called Freddie.
Snap, the big dog, was too excited just then to mind. With another
loud, joyous bark he rushed up behind Sam, and, as the colored man of
all work about the Bobbsey place had very bow, or curved, legs, Snap
ran right between them. That is, he ran half way, and then, as he was
a pretty fat dog, he stuck there.
"Good land ob massy!" exclaimed Sam, as he looked down to see the dog
half way between his bow legs, Snap's head sticking out one way, and
his wagging tail the other. "Get out ob dat, Snap!" cried Sam. "Get
out! Move on, sah!"
"Bow wow!" barked Snap, which might have meant almost anything.
"Look out!" shouted Sam. "Yo'll upset me! Dat's what you will!"
And indeed it did seem as though this might happen. For Sam was so
laden down with packages that he could not balance himself very well,
and had almost toppled over.
"Here, Snap!" called Bert, who was laughing so hard that he could
hardly stand up, for really it was a funny sight.
"Don't call him, Bert," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you do he'll run
out, and then Sam surely will be knocked over. And there are some
fresh eggs in one of those packages he took from Dinah."
Snap himself did not seem to know what to do. There he was, tightly
held fast, his fat sides between Sam's bow legs. Snap could go neither
forward nor backward just then. He barked and wagged his tail, for he
knew it was all in fun.
"Open your legs wider, Sam, man!" exclaimed his wife. "Den de dorg kin
git out!"
Sam, holding tightly to the packages, did manage to stoop down and so
spread his legs a little farther apart. This released Snap, who, with
a happy bark, and a wild wagging of his tail, bounded up on the stoop
where Nan sat.
A little later the whole Bobbsey family, with the exception of Mr.
Bobbsey, were sitting comfortably in the porch chairs, while Sam was
opening the front shutters, having already unlocked the front door for
the returning family.
"Home again!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, with a little sigh, as she
looked around at the familiar scenes. "My, but how dusty it is after
being on the lovely water."
"Yes'm, dey shuah has been lots ob dust!" exclaimed Sam. "We need rain
mighty bad, an' I've had de garden hose goin' ebery night, too."
"I'll soon sweep off dish yeah porch," said Dinah. "Sam, yo' git me a
broom."
"Oh, don't bother now, Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Make a cup of tea,
first. The dust doesn't matter, and we'll not be here long."
"Won't we?" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, where are we going next?"
"We'll talk about it as soon as your father comes home," said Mrs.
Bobbsey, for her husband had stopped on the way from the houseboat
dock, where the family had lately landed, to go to his lumber office
for a little while.
"Let Snoop out!" begged little Flossie. "Snoop's tired of being shut
up in that box." In order to carry him from the boat to the house
Snoop had been put in a small traveling crate.
"I'll let him out as soon as I get a screwdriver," promised Bert. "My,
but it's hot here!"
"Indeed it is," agreed his mother, who was fanning herself with her
pocket handkerchief as she sat in a rocking-chair. "It isn't much like
our nice houseboat, is it?"
"No, indeed," agreed Nan. "I wish we hadn't come home."
"And summer is only half over," went on Bert. "Here it is only
August."
"Oh, well, there are plenty of good times ahead of you children yet,
before school begins," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Now let's see. Have we
everything?" and she looked at the pile of bundles and valises on the
porch.
"I guess we didn't forget anything, except papa," said Freddie. "And
he's coming," he added, as the others laughed.
"Sam, am de fire made?" demanded Dinah. "I wants t' make a cup ob
tea."
"Fire all made," reported the colored man. "I'll go git a fresh pail
ob water now. I didn't know jest prezackly when yo' was comin'," he
said to Mrs. Bobbsey, "or I'd a' been down to de dock t' meet de
houseboat."
"Might a' come anyhow," muttered Dinah. "Yo' all didn't hab nuffin' t'
do heah!"
"Huh! I didn't, eh?" cried Sam. "Nuffin t' do! Why, I cut de grass,
an' fed de chickens, an' watered de lawn, an'--an'--"
"Go 'long wif yo'," ordered his wife with a laugh. "Bring in some mo'
wood for de fire!"
"And get a screw-driver so I can let Snoop out," begged Flossie. "He's
tired of being shut up in the crate!"
"Right away, Missie! Right away!" promised good-natured Sam.
A little later Snoop, the black cat, was stretching himself on the
porch, while Snap, the big dog, rushed up and down the lawn, barking
loudly to let all the neighbors' dogs know he was back home again--at
least for a time.
Meanwhile Bert, as the "little man of the house," had brought in the
packages and satchels from the porch. Nan was helping her mother get
out a cool kimona, while Dinah was down in the kitchen getting ready a
cup of tea for Mrs. Bobbsey.
Flossie and Freddie, as the youngest Bobbsey twins, had nothing in
particular to do, so they ran about, here, there, everywhere, renewing
acquaintance with the familiar objects about the yard--things they had
forgotten during the two months they had been away on a houseboat, for
part of their summer vacation.
"Oh, look! My flower-bed is full of weeds!" cried Flossie, as she came
to a corner of the yard where she had set out some pansy plants just
before going away.
"And I can't even see the lettuce I planted," said Freddie. "I guess
Sam didn't weed our gardens."
"Never mind, we can make new ones," Flossie said. "Oh, Freddie, look!
There's a strange cat!" Both children ran to where Snoop was making
the acquaintance of a pussy friend. The cats seemed to like one
another and the strange one let the little twins pet it as it lapped
some milk from Snoop's saucer.
A little later Dinah called Flossie and Freddie into the house to have
a glass of milk and some bread and jam, for it was past lunch time.
The small twins came willingly enough.
"What are we going to do the rest of the summer?" asked Nan, as she
sat next to her mother at the table. "Are we going away again?"
"I hope so!" exclaimed Bert. "The houseboat suited me, but if we can
have a trip to the seashore, or go to the country, so much the
better."
"We shall see," half-promised Mrs. Bobbsey. "As soon as papa comes
home from the office, he will know how much more time he can spare
from business to go with us. Then I can tell you--"
"There he comes now, mamma!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, excuse me for
interrupting you," she went on, for Mrs. Bobbsey insisted upon the
children being just as polite at home, and to one another, as they
would be among strangers.
"That's all right, Nan," said her mother kindly. "When papa comes in,
and has had a cup of tea, we'll talk over matters, and decide what to
do."
"Well, are you all settled?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, as he came in,
catching little Freddie up in his strong arms. "Haven't put out any
fires since you got here, have you?" he asked, for Freddie had a great
love for playing fireman, and he often put out "make-believe" blazes
with a toy fire engine he had, which squirted real water.
"No alarms to-day," laughed Freddie, for his father was tickling him
in his "fat ribs," as Freddie called them.
"How's my little fat fairy?" went on Mr. Bobbsey, catching Flossie up
as he had Freddie.
"All right." she answered. "Oh, papa, your whiskers prick!" she cried,
as Mr. Bobbsey kissed her.
"Sit down and have a cup of tea," invited Mrs. Bobbsey. "Then we can
talk about what we are to do. The children are anxious to get away
again, and if we _are_ to go there is no need of unpacking more than
we have to."
"Would you like to go to Meadow Brook?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, looking at
his happy family.
"You know I would," answered his wife, with a smile.
"Meadow Brook! Oh, are we going there?" cried Nan.
"Well, Uncle Daniel has sent us an invitation," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and
your mother and I are thinking of it."
"Can you leave your lumber business long enough to go with us?" asked
Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I think so," replied her husband. "I just stopped at the office, and
everything there is going along nicely. So I think we'll go to Meadow
Brook, in the country, for the rest of the summer."
"Hurray! Hurrah! Oh, how nice!" cried the children.
"Dinah, I think I'll have another cup of tea," went on Mr. Bobbsey, as
the colored cook waddled in. "Make it cold, this time--with ice in it.
I am very warm."
"Yais-sah," said Dinah, taking his cup.
Then followed a confusion of talk, the two sets of twins doing the
most. They were joyfully excited at the idea of going to Meadow Brook
farm.
"I'm going to turn somersaults in the grass--just like this," cried
Freddie, rolling over and over on the floor. He rolled toward the door
that led from the dining-room to the kitchen, and, just as he reached
it, Dinah came in with Mr. Bobbsey's cup of iced tea.
Before Freddie could stop himself, and before fat Dinah could get out
of the way, the little Bobbsey chap had rolled right into the cook,
and down she went in a heap on the floor, the cup and saucer crashing
into dozens of pieces, and the tea spilling all over.