QUEER NOISES
“What is going on down there, my dears?” called Mrs. Bobbsey from the
top of the stairs. Down in the hall below she could see, gathered about
the mysterious box, the four twins. She had heard the bell ring, and at
first thought it was her husband, coming home early on account of the
birthday celebration.
But when she heard the strange tones of the expressman she realized
that something else had happened, and she was curious to know what it
was about.
“It’s a big box for Daddy,” explained Bert.
“We don’t know where it’s from,” went on Nan.
“And the ’spress man didn’t know what was in it,” added Flossie.
“But I guess it’s for Daddy’s birthday,” exclaimed Freddie. “And I
got----”
He stopped just in time. He had been about to speak of the “’riginal”
present he himself had hidden down cellar.
“Well, if it’s for Daddy we must let it alone until he comes home,”
said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Come now and get ready for supper. It will not be
long before Daddy arrives, and he will open the box.”
“I wonder what’s in it,” murmured Bert as he moved away, with a
backward look at the mysterious package.
“And I wonder where it’s from,” said Nan, who was as curious as her
brother.
But they would not think of trying to open it, or of trying to pry off
one corner to look inside. Indeed, this would have been hard to do,
since the box was strongly made.
Flossie and Freddie were as eager as their older brother and sister to
know about the box. But perhaps they were thinking so much of their own
presents that they did not say much about the package the expressman
had delivered.
While the four are getting ready for the evening meal I will beg just
a few moments of the time of my new readers to introduce them to the
Bobbsey twins. There were four of the twins, as you have learned by
this time. Bert and Nan, who had dark hair and eyes, were the older
pair, and Flossie and Freddie, whose eyes were blue and whose hair was
golden, came next. Their father was Richard Bobbsey, who owned a large
lumberyard in the eastern city of Lakeport on Lake Metoka.
“The Bobbsey Twins” is the name of the first book which tells about
these children and what happened to them and their friends. After that
Bert and his brother and sisters had many adventures in the country, at
the seashore, and at school.
From Snow Lodge the twins went on a voyage in a houseboat and then to
Meadow Brook. Happenings at home, in a great city, on Blueberry Island
and, later, on the deep, blue sea, kept the boys and girls busy for
several vacations, and then they went to Washington, where some strange
happenings occurred. But no more strange, perhaps, than in the great
West or at Cedar Camp.
The county fair, where Mr. Bobbsey took his children, was a most
interesting event, and when they went camping out they had great fun.
But the finding of Baby May was, perhaps, the most mysterious thing
that ever happened to the Bobbseys. They found a little baby on their
doorstep after a storm, and kept the infant, calling her Baby May
Washington Bobbsey, because a queer woman, who had been seen at the
railroad station with the baby’s basket, had murmured a name something
like “Washington.”
But this proved to be a mistake, since the baby’s right name was Jenny
Watson. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Watson, and had been
left in charge of a Mrs. Martin while Mr. and Mrs. Watson made a voyage
to South America. Mrs. Martin was Mrs. Watson’s cousin.
Because of an accident, when some dishes fell on her head, Mrs. Martin
went crazy and had an idea that she must give Baby Jenny away, which
she did, by leaving the infant on the Bobbsey steps.
In due time “Baby May,” the name by which Flossie and Freddie still
called the little child, was taken to her mother and father, and Mrs.
Martin, who recovered from her crazy spell, and the Watsons became good
friends of the Bobbsey family.
Following the excitement over the finding of the baby, the Bobbsey
twins had some very strange adventures which you will find set down
in the book just before the one you are now reading. That volume is
entitled “The Bobbsey Twins Keeping House,” and tells what happened
when Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had to go away, when Dinah and Sam also
departed, and when Mrs. Pry, the housekeeper who had been engaged by
Mrs. Bobbsey, was taken ill.
However, everything comes to an end in time, and finally all was
straightened out in the Bobbsey house. This took place in the winter,
and now it was the beginning of summer, and the eve of Mr. Bobbsey’s
birthday.
The mysterious box--at least the twins thought it was mysterious--had
arrived, and they were all excited, waiting for their father to come
home to open it.
“Isn’t Daddy late to-night?” asked Nan, when she had finished dressing
and had gone into her mother’s room.
“No, not later than usual,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile as she
glanced at the clock on her bureau.
“Then time is going awfully slow!” commented Bert, looking in from the
hall. “I wish Daddy would hurry! I want to see him open his birthday
box.”
“Don’t be too sure that is a box for Daddy’s birthday,” remarked Mrs.
Bobbsey. “It may be something about business.”
“If it was business they would send it to him at his office,” came from
Nan.
“Besides,” added Bert, “the expressman said they got a letter asking
’em to deliver the box before supper this evening, and everybody knows
we always give Daddy his presents at supper on the night before his
birthday.”
“So we do,” agreed Mrs. Bobbsey. “But not every one knows that, Bert.
However, if you children have any presents for your father perhaps you
had better be getting them ready. I suppose you are going to give him
something, aren’t you?” she asked, with a smile.
Instead of answering, the four twins looked one at the other. Each one
was trying to keep a secret, but it was not easy. But before they could
reply there was heard from the hall below the noise of a door opening.
“There’s Daddy now!” cried Bert.
“Wait for me!” begged Flossie, as she saw the others make a dash out of
the room.
“Let me go first!” begged Freddie, and he was so anxious to get ahead
of Bert that he stooped down and crawled between the legs of his
brother, just as Bert was in the doorway of his mother’s room.
So eager was Freddie, and such a shove did he give himself to crawl
through Bert’s legs that, before he knew what was happening, the fat
little lad had slipped, rolled to the top of the stairs, and then he
rolled all the way down, bumping from step to step.
But, as it happened, Mr. Bobbsey reached the bottom of the flight of
stairs in time to catch Freddie before the little fellow reached the
last step.
“Well, well, what’s all this?” cried Mr. Bobbsey, holding Freddie in
his arms. “Is my little fireman trying to make a rescue?” Mr. Bobbsey
often spoke of Freddie as a “fireman,” since the little fellow was so
fond of playing that game. He had a toy fire engine that spouted real
water, too. And Flossie’s pet name was “little fat fairy.”
“Is he hurt?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, coming down the stairs.
“No--I’m all right!” protested Freddie. “I--now--I just slipped--that’s
all. I was in a hurry.”
“I should say you were!” laughed his father. “But you are so fat and
the stairs are so thickly carpeted, that you aren’t hurt a bit!”
Freddie was set upon his feet, and, with the others, made a circle
about Mr. Bobbsey and the mysterious box. Then, for the first time, the
lumber merchant appeared aware of the bulky package in the lower hall.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Something for you, it seems,” answered his wife.
“It’s for your birthday!” cried Nan.
“It came by express!” added Bert.
“And we’d like to see what’s in it,” remarked Flossie.
“Don’t go ’way now,” begged Freddie. “’Cause there’s other things for
you--I mean for your birthday--I guess they are,” he added, not wanting
to appear too sure. “But open this box first.”
“All right,” agreed Mr. Bobbsey. “It’s a surprise to me, I’ll say
that. I don’t even know where it’s from.”
“Maybe it tells on the other side,” suggested Bert, who had brought a
hammer and a screw driver for his father to use in opening the box.
“Perhaps,” was the answer. “We’ll take a look.”
As he turned the box on its other side to discover whence it had come,
a strange sound was heard issuing from inside.
“Oh!” cried Flossie. “It sounds like a little baby!”
“Nonsense!” laughed her mother. “There would be no baby in such a box!”
Mr. Bobbsey now had the box turned on the other side, and there
appeared a card which read:
“From Mr. and Mrs. Henry Watson of Cloverbank!”
“Oh, Mr. Watson remembered your birthday! How nice!” exclaimed Mrs.
Bobbsey. “I didn’t think he knew it.”
“Nor did I,” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he got ready to pry off the box cover.
“Watson! Watson!” murmured Bert, thinking hard. “Oh, yes!” he cried.
“That’s the name of the father and mother of Baby May, whom we found
on our doorstep. That box came from Baby May!”
“Yes, or from her parents,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
As he moved the box, in order to get a better chance to pry off the
cover, again there came from inside it a strange wailing cry.
“Oh, Daddy! Open it--quick!” cried Freddie. “Baby May must be inside
that box. Her father and mother sent her back to you for a birthday
present! Open it--quick--and take Baby May out!”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “Nobody would put a baby in a box
like that and send it by express!”
The queer noises sounded again, and, really, they seemed to be such
cries as a baby might make.
“Open the box! Open the box!” cried Nan, much excited, and Mr. Bobbsey
hurriedly began using the hammer and screw driver while the twins and
their mother leaned eagerly forward.