OFF FOR MEADOW BROOK
Little Freddie, who sat beside his older brother, Bert, in Mr.
Bobbsey's automobile, looked on with wonder in his childish eyes, as
he saw the boy Mr. Mason had been shaking run down the road.
"What's the matter with him, Bert?" Freddie asked. "Didn't he like to
be shook?"
"I should say _not_!" exclaimed Bert "And I wouldn't myself. I don't
think that man did right to shake him so."
"It was too bad," added Freddie. "Say, Bert," he went on eagerly,
"maybe we could catch up to him in the automobile, and we could take
him to Meadow Brook with us. Nobody would shake him there."
"No, I guess they wouldn't," said Bert: slowly, thinking how kind his
uncle and aunt were.
"Then let's go after him!" begged Freddie.
"No, we couldn't do that, Freddie," Bert said with a smile at his
little brother. "The boy maybe wouldn't want to come with us, and
besides, papa wouldn't let me run the auto, though I know which
handles to turn, for I've watched him," Bert went on, with a firm
belief that he could run the big car almost as well as could Mr.
Bobbsey.
"Well, when papa comes back I'm going to ask him to go after that boy
and bring him with us," declared Freddie. "I don't like to see boys
shook."
"I don't, either," murmured Bert.
By this time Mr. Bobbsey had come up to where Mr. Mason was standing.
"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Bobbsey," spoke the other lumber man. "I
didn't expect to see you for some days."
"I did come a little ahead of time," went on the twins' father. "But I
am going to take my family off to the country, so I thought I would
come and see you, and finish up our business before going away."
"I'm always glad to talk business," Mr. Mason said, "but I thought
your folks were out somewhere on a houseboat."
"We were, and just came back to-day. But the summer isn't over, and
we're going to my brother's place, at Meadow Brook Farm. But you seem
to be having some trouble," he went on, nodding down the road in the
direction the sobbing boy had run. "Of course it isn't any affair of
mine, but--"
"Yes, trouble! Lots of it!" interrupted Mr. Mason bitterly. "I have
had a lot of trouble with that boy."
"That's too bad," spoke Mr. Bobbsey. "He seems a bright sort of chap.
He isn't your son, is he?"
"No, I'm his guardian. He's my ward. His father was a friend of mine
in business, and when he died he asked me to look after the boy. His
name is Frank Kennedy."
"Oh, yes, I heard about him," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Heard about him! I guess you didn't hear any good then!" exclaimed
the other lumber man, rather crossly. "What do you mean?"
"Why, we came past your house a little while ago," said Mr. Bobbsey,
"and your wife mentioned a Frank Kennedy who used to take your two
daughters out rowing. If he had been there to-day the girls probably
wouldn't have gone out alone, and drifted away."
"Drifted away! What do you mean?" cried Mr. Mason. "Has anything
happened?"
"It's all right, my papa went out in a boat and got 'em!" cried
Freddie in his shrill, childish voice, for he heard what his father
and Mr. Mason were saying.
"I--I don't understand," said the other lumber dealer, seriously. "Was
there an accident?"
"Oh, it wasn't anything," Mr. Bobbsey said. "When I went past your
house, near the river, I saw the two girls adrift in a boat, not far
from shore. They had floated out while playing. I went after them and
your wife, before she showed me this short cut to your place, spoke
about an adopted boy, Frank Kennedy, who used to play with the
children."
"Oh, I'm much obliged to you," said Mr. Mason, after a pause. "Yes,
Frank did look after the girls some. That was he who just ran down the
road. But he did better at home than he's doing in my office.
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering why it was that Mr.
Mason had so severely shaken the boy who had run away.
"Well, I mean that Frank just lost twenty dollars for me," proceeded
the lumber man.
"Twenty dollars! How was that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"I left him in charge of my office, while I was out on some other
business," went on the lumber dealer, "and a strange man came in and
bought two dollars worth of expensive boards. Frank gave them to him,
and the man took them away with him, as they were not very large, or
heavy to carry."
"Two dollars--I thought you said twenty!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.
"So I did. Wait until I tell you all. As I said, Frank sold this
strange man two dollars worth of boards. The man gave Frank a twenty
dollar bill, and Frank gave him back eighteen dollars in change."
"Well, wasn't that right?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "Two
dollars from twenty leave eighteen--or it used to when I went to
school."
"That part is all right," Mr. Mason said, bitterly, "but the fact is
that the twenty dollar bill Frank took from the strange man is no
good. It is bad money, and no one but a child would take it. It's a
bill that was gotten out by the Confederate states during the Civil
War, and of course their money isn't any better than waste-paper now.
I don't see how Frank was fooled that way. I wouldn't have been if I
had been in the office."
"Perhaps the boy never saw a Confederate bill before," suggested Mr.
Bobbsey.
"No matter, he should have known that it wasn't good United States'
money!" declared Mr. Mason. "By his carelessness to-day he lost me
twenty dollars; the eighteen dollars in my good money that he gave the
man in change, and the two dollars worth of boards. And all I have to
show for it is that worthless piece of paper!" and Mr. Mason took from
his pocket a crumpled bill.
Mr. Bobbsey looked at it carefully.
"Yes, that's one of the old Confederate States' bills all right," he
said, "and it isn't worth anything, except as a curiosity."
"It cost me twenty dollars, all right," said Mr. Mason, with a sour
look on his face. "I can't see how Frank was so foolish as to be taken
in by it."
"Well, the poor boy knew no better, and probably he is sorry enough
now," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"I guess he's sorry enough!" exclaimed Mr. Mason, bitterly. "I gave
him a good shaking, as he is too big to whip. I shook him and scolded
him."
"Well, almost anyone, not very familiar with money, might have made
that mistake," spoke Mr. Bobbsey. "This Confederate bill looks very
much like some of ours, and a person in a hurry might have been fooled
by it."
"Oh, nonsense!" broke in Mr. Mason. "There was no excuse for Frank
being fooled as he was. I won't listen to any such talk! He lost me
twenty dollars and he'll have to make it up to me, somehow."
"But how can he, when he has run away?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, and he felt
very sorry for Frank, who was not much older than Bert. Mr. Bobbsey
knew how grieved he would be if something like that happened to his
son.
"Yes, he pretended to run away," said Mr. Mason, "but he'll soon run
back again."
"How do you know?" Mr. Bobbsey wanted to know. "Did he ever run away
before?"
"No, he never did," admitted Mr. Mason, "but he'll have to run back
because he has nowhere to run to. He can't get anything to eat, he has
no money, and he can't find a place to sleep. Of course he'll come
back!
"And when he does come back," Mr. Mason went on, "I'll make him work
doubly hard to pay back that twenty dollars. I can't afford to lose
that much money."
"But it was an accident; a mistake that anyone might have made," said
Mr. Bobbsey again.
"Nonsense!" cried the other lumber man. "I'll make Frank Kennedy pay
for his mistake!"
"Perhaps the strange man did not mean to give him the Confederate
bill," went on Bert's father. "Some persons carry those old Southern
bills as souvenirs, or pocket-pieces, and this man might have paid his
out by mistake. I know that once happened to me with a piece of money.
He may come back and give you a good twenty dollar bill."
"I am not so foolish as to hope anything like that will happen," said
Mr. Mason. "No, I'm out twenty good hard-earned dollars. That's all
there is to it. But I'll get it out of Frank Kennedy, somehow."
"If he ever comes back," said Mr. Bobbsey, in a low voice.
"Oh, he'll come back--never fear!" responded the other lumber dealer.
Mr. Bobbsey gently shook his head. He was not so sure of that. Frank,
as he ran down the road, crying, seemed to feel very badly indeed, and
when he said he would never come back it sounded as though he meant
it.
"Poor little chap!" thought Mr. Bobbsey to himself. "I am very sorry
for him. I wonder where he will sleep to-night?" And he could not help
thinking how badly he would feel if he knew his own two dear boys had
to be without a place to sleep, or somewhere to get a meal.
Mr. Mason did not appear to worry about the plight of his ward, for
whom he was guardian.
The lumber dealers finished their business and Mr. Mason again thanked
Mr. Bobbsey for what he had done for the two girls in the boat.
"I guess I'd better keep Frank at the house after this," went on Mr.
Mason. "He's safer there than at the office, and wouldn't lose me so
much money. But I'll get it out of him, some way," and he thrust back
into his pocket the bad twenty dollar bill.
Bert had understood most of the talk between his father and Mr. Mason,
but little Freddie did not know much of what went on except that Frank
had run away.
"I wouldn't run away from my home," he said. "I like it too much."
"Yes, but you haven't anyone at your home to shake you as hard as that
man did," said Bert. "I don't blame Frank for running away."
"Poor boy!" sighed Mr. Bobbsey. "Life is a hard matter for a little
chap with no real home."
In the automobile the lumber man and his two boys went back to
Lakeport, passing on their way the house where Mr. Mason lived. The
two little girls waved their hands to Freddie and Bert as the boys
rode past. But there was no sign of Frank Kennedy.
The sadness of the scene the two Bobbsey boys had witnessed was soon
forgotten in the joys of getting ready to go to Meadow Brook. They
spent that night in their city house, unpacking only such few things
as they needed. When morning came Flossie and Freddie were the first
up.
"We're going to the country!" sang Flossie, walking about in a long
night-gown that trailed over the floor.
"Going to Meadow Brook!" chanted Freddie. "Where's Snoop? I'm going to
take him!"
"And may we take Snap, too?" asked Bert, who had taught the former
circus dog many new tricks.
[Illustration: THE BOBBSEY HOUSE WAS SOON A VERY BUSY PLACE]
"Yes, we'll take them both," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Now hurry, children
dear. We are going to leave soon after breakfast, and it is a long
ride in the train, you know."
"Are we going to ride in the 'merry-go-round car'?" asked Flossie.
"She means a parlor car, with chairs that swing around," said Nan,
with a laugh.
"Yes, we'll ride in a chair car," decided Mr. Bobbsey.
The Bobbsey house was soon a very busy place. Valises that had been
opened were packed again. Dinah got a quick breakfast. Mr. Bobbsey had
much telephoning to do about business matters, and Mrs. Bobbsey--well,
she had to do what all mothers do on such occasions--look after
everything. Nan and Bert helped as much as they could.
Flossie and Freddie tried to help, but you know how it is with little
children. The two smaller twins were very anxious that Snoop, the
black cat, be taken with them in his little traveling crate.
"I'll get him and pack him up," said Freddie.
"And I'll help," offered Flossie.
Soon all was in readiness for the start to the depot where the
Bobbseys would take the train for Meadow Brook. Just as the automobile
came up to the door to take the family, there arose a cry from the
direction of the side porch where Flossie and Freddie had gone with
the cat-cage, in which to put Snoop.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I wonder what has happened now? I
hope those twins are all right!"
"I'll go see!" offered Nan, setting off on a run.