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THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of "The Bobbsey Twins."
New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
[Illustration: "Oh, will she have to stay there forever?" asked Freddie.
_The Bobbsey Twins at Home_]
Copyright, 1916, by
Grosset & Dunlap.
The Bobbsey Twins at Home
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. TOMMY TODD'S STORY 1
II. A SUDDEN STOP 13
III. SNAP AND SNOOP 24
IV. HOME AGAIN 36
V. TOMMY'S TROUBLES 45
VI. SCHOOL DAYS 57
VII. THE SCHOOL PLAY 67
VIII. SNOOP IN TROUBLE 76
IX. NAN BAKES A CAKE 86
X. IN THE LUMBER YARD 98
XI. A QUEER PLAY-HOUSE 108
XII. TOMMY IS REWARDED 117
XIII. THE FIRST FROST 129
XIV. AFTER CHESTNUTS 139
XV. THE STORM 151
XVI. THE FIRST SNOW 161
XVII. ON THE HILL 171
XVIII. BERT'S SNOWSHOES 181
XIX. THROUGH THE ICE 191
XX. LOST IN A STORM 202
XXI. THE STRANGE MAN 214
XXII. HAPPY DAYS 228
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
CHAPTER I
TOMMY TODD'S STORY
"Mother, how many more stations before we'll be home?"
"Oh, quite a number, dear. Sit back and rest yourself. I thought you
liked it on the train."
"I do; but it's so long to sit still."
The little fellow who had asked the question turned to his golden-haired
sister, who sat in the seat with him.
"Aren't you tired, Flossie?" he asked.
"Yes, Freddie, I am!" exclaimed Flossie. "And I want a drink of water."
"Dinah will get it for you," said Mother Bobbsey. "My! But you are a
thirsty little girl."
"Deed an' dat's whut she am!" exclaimed a fat, good-natured looking
colored woman, smiling at the little girl. Dinah was the Bobbsey family
cook. She had been with them so long that she used to say, and almost
do, just what she pleased. "Dis am de forty-sixteen time I'se done bin
down to de end ob de car gittin' Miss Flossie a drink ob watah. An' de
train rocks so, laik a cradle, dat I done most upsot ebery time. But
I'll git you annuder cup ob watah, Flossie lamb!"
"And if you're going to upset, and fall down, Dinah, please do it where
we can see you," begged Freddie. "Nothing has happened since we got on
this train. Do upset, Dinah!"
"Yes, I want to see it, too," added Flossie. "Here, Freddie, you can
have my place at the window, and I'll take yours on the outside. Then I
can see Dinah better when the car upsets her."
"No, I want to sit here myself, Flossie. You wanted the window side, and
now you must stay there."
"No, I don't want to. I want to see Dinah upset in the aisle. Mamma,
make Freddie let me sit where I can see Dinah fall."
"Well, ob all t'ings!" gasped the fat, colored cook. "If you chilluns
t'ink dat I'se gwine t' upsot mahse'f so yo' kin see suffin t' laugh at,
den all I'se got t' say is I ain't gwine t' do it! No, sah! Not fo' one
minute!" And Dinah sat up very straight in her seat.
"Children, be nice now," begged Mother Bobbsey. "I know you are tired
with the long ride, but you'll soon hear the brakeman call out
'Lakeport'; and then we'll be home."
"I wish I were home now," said Freddie. "I want to get my dog Snap out
of the baggage car, and have some fun with him. I guess he's lonesome
for me."
"And he's lonesome for me, too!" cried Flossie. "He's as much my dog as
he is yours, Freddie Bobbsey. Isn't he, Mother?"
"Yes, dear, of course. I don't know what's the matter with you two
children. You never used to dispute this way."
"I guess the long train ride is tiring them," said Papa Bobbsey, looking
up from the paper he was reading.
"Anyhow, half of Snoop, our black cat, is mine then," said Freddie.
"Isn't she, Mother?"
"Yes. And now please don't talk like that any more. Look out of the
window and watch the trees shoot past."
"Oh, I'm going to see Snoop!" exclaimed Flossie, suddenly.
"So'm I," added Freddie. And in a moment the two children were bending
over a basket which was in the seat with Dinah. In the basket was Snoop,
the big black cat. She always traveled that way with the Bobbseys. And
she seemed very comfortable, for she was curled up on the blanket in the
bottom of the basket. Snoop opened her eyes as Freddie and Flossie put
their fingers through cracks and stroked her as well as they could.
"I wish Snap was in here with us," said Freddie, after a bit. "I hope he
gets a drink of water."
"Oh, I want a drink of water!" exclaimed Flossie, suddenly. "I forgot I
was thirsty. Mother, can't I have a drink?" she went on.
"Oh, yes, dear. I suppose so. I'll get it for you."
"No, let Dinah get it so she'll upset," begged Flossie.
"I'll get it for you, Flossie," offered Freddie. "Dinah might get hurt."
"Dat's de li'l gen'man," said the fat cook, smiling. "He lubs ole
Dinah."
"I love you too, Dinah," said Flossie, patting the black hand that had
done many kind acts for the twins. "But I _do_ want a drink, and you
know you _would_ look funny if you upset here in the car."
"Yes, I spects I would, chile," laughed Dinah.
"May I get Flossie a drink?" asked Freddie.
"You may both go down to the end of the car where the water-cooler is,"
said Mrs. Bobbsey. "The train is slowing down now, and going to stop, I
think, so you won't fall. But be careful."
Flossie and Freddie started toward the end of the long car, but their
sister Nan, who with her brother Bert was a few seats away, went with
them, to make sure nothing would happen.
"I'm not thirsty any more," Flossie said, after having had two cups of
cold water.
"No, but you will be in half an hour, I'm sure," laughed Nan. "Every
one seems to get thirsty on a railroad journey. I do myself," and she
took some water after Freddie had had enough.
The train now came to a stop, and Flossie and Freddie hurried back to
their seat to look out at the station. Hardly were they both crowded
close to the window before there was the sound of shouting and laughing,
and into the car came rushing a number of children. With them were two
ladies who seemed to be in charge. There were boys and girls--about
twenty all together--and most of them made rushes for the best seats,
while some hurried down to the tank to get drinks of ice-water.
"I had that cup first!" cried one.
"You did not! I had it myself," said another.
"That's my seat by the window!" shouted a third.
"It is not! I had it first, you can see where I left my hat! Oh, my
hat's gone!" a boy exclaimed.
"I threw it on the floor, I wanted to sit here myself," said a big girl
with red curls.
"Children! Children! You must be quiet!" called one of the ladies.
The train started again, all the other passengers watching the queer
children who were making such a confusion.
"Oh, see the cow!" cried a tall boy. "It's the last cow you'll see for a
year, fellows, so take a good look at her," he added as the train passed
along a field.
"No more good times for a long while," sighed a boy who had a seat near
Freddie and Flossie. "I wish I could live in the country always."
Flossie and Freddie looked at him. His clothes were patched here and
there, but they were clean. And his face and hands were clean, which
could not be said of all the other children, though some of them showed
that they had tried to make themselves neat.
"The country is the best place," he said, and he looked at the two
smaller Bobbsey twins as though he would like to speak to them. "I'm
going to be a farmer when I grow up," he went on, after a pause.
"He--he's a nice boy," whispered Flossie to her brother. "I'm going to
speak to him. We can talk about the country."
"Wait a minute," advised Freddie. "Maybe mother wouldn't want us to talk
to strangers."
Flossie looked back to where her father and mother were sitting. Mrs.
Bobbsey was speaking to one of the ladies who had come in the car with
the noisy children.
"Are you taking part of an orphan asylum on an outing?" Flossie heard
her mother ask.
"No. These are some 'fresh air' children. They have been out in the
country for two weeks, and now we are taking them home. Poor things! I
wish we could have kept them longer out in the green fields and woods,
but there are others waiting for their chance to go.
"You see," she went on, and Flossie and Freddie listened carefully,
"some kind people give us money so that the poor children of the city
may have a little time in the country during the hot weather. We board
them out at different farmers' houses. This company of children has been
on two different farms near Branchville, where we just got on the train.
Some of the little ones are from Sanderville." This was a large city
not far from Lakeport, a smaller city where the Bobbsey twins lived.
"Others are from Lakeport," went on the lady, speaking to Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Indeed!" exclaimed Freddie's mother. "I did not know there was a fresh
air society in our city."
"It has only just been formed," said the lady, who was a Miss Carter.
"We haven't much money left, I'm sorry to say."
"Then you must let me give you some," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And I will get
some friends of mine to give money also. Our own children enjoy it so
much in the country that I want to see others have a good time, too."
Then he and Mrs. Bobbsey began to talk about ways of helping poor
children, and Flossie and Freddie did not listen any more. Besides, just
then the train was passing along a field in which were many horses, some
of which raced alongside the cars, and that interested the twins.
"Oh, look at 'em run!" cried the fresh air boy who sat in front of the
smaller Bobbsey twins. "Don't they go fast?"
The other fresh air youngsters crowded to their windows to look out, and
some tried to push their companions away so they might see better. Then
a number all wanted a drink of water at the same time, and the two
ladies who were in charge of the children were kept busy making them
settle down.
The quiet, neat boy about whom Flossie had whispered to her brother,
turned around in his seat and, looking at Freddie, asked:
"Were you ever on a farm?"
"Yes," answered Freddie, "we just came from our uncle Dan's farm, at
Meadow Brook. We were there 'most all Summer. Now we're going back
home."
"Where do you live, and what's your name?" asked the strange boy.
"My name's Freddie Bobbsey, and this is my sister Flossie," was the
answer. "We're twins. Up there, in that other seat, are my brother and
sister, Bert and Nan. They're twins too, but they're older'n we are. We
live in Lakeport."
"You do?" cried the boy in surprise. "Why, that's where I live! My name
is Tommy Todd."
"That's a nice name," put in Flossie politely. "I don't know any one of
that name in Lakeport though. Where does your father live?"
Tommy Todd did not answer at once, and Freddie was surprised to see
tears in the eyes of the strange boy.
"I--I guess you folks don't ever come down to our part of Lakeport," he
said. "We live down near the dumps. It isn't very nice there."
Freddie had heard of the "dumps." It was on the farther side of the
city, a long distance from his nice home. Once, when he was very little,
he had wandered away and been lost. A policeman who found him had said
Freddie was near the "dumps."
Freddie remembered that very well. Afterward, he heard that the "dumps"
was a place where the ashes, tin cans, and other things that people
threw away were dumped by the scavengers. So Freddie was sure it could
not be a very nice place.
"I live out near the dumps, with my grandmother," went on Tommy Todd.
"We've a grandmother too," said Flossie. "We go to see her at Christmas.
We've two grandmas. One is my mother's mother, and the other is my
father's mother. That's my papa and my mother back there," and Flossie
pointed to where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were talking to the fresh air
lady.
"Doesn't your father live with you and your grandmother?" asked Freddie.
"I--I haven't any father," said Tommy, and once more the tears came into
his eyes. "He was lost at sea. He was a captain on a ship, and it was
wrecked."
"Oh, please tell us about it!" begged Freddie. "I just love stories
about the ocean; don't you, Flossie?"
"Yes, I do."
"I'm going to be a sea captain when I grow up," said Freddie. "Tell us
about your father, Tommy."
So while the train rushed on Tommy Todd told his sad little story.