OFF FOR CLOVERBANK
Nan Bobbsey and some of her girl chums, as well as Danny Rugg and the
boys with whom Bert Bobbsey played, also wondered why Bert had to go to
the principal’s office.
“Did Bert do anything?” whispered Grace Lavine, who sat behind Nan.
“I don’t know,” was the low-voiced reply. “I don’t think so. I didn’t
see him.”
“Well, anyhow, he couldn’t have thrown any snowballs,” said Nellie
Parks. “I mean like the time he once did and Danny said he broke the
church window.”
“No,” agreed Nan, remembering the winter when she and her brother and
the smaller twins “kept house,” with Mrs. Pry ill in bed.
“Was Bert fighting with any of the fellows?” inquired Charlie Mason of
Danny, who sat near him. “Mr. Tarton doesn’t like fighting.”
“I know he doesn’t,” Danny answered. “But I don’t believe Bert was. It
must be for something else.”
“Attend to your lessons now, children. Bert will be back soon,” said
Miss Skell.
Nan gave a sigh of relief on hearing this. It could not be so very
serious, then.
As for Bert, his heart was beating rather faster than usual as he
entered Mr. Tarton’s office, but the smile with which the head of the
school greeted the pupil seemed to tell the boy that he was not brought
down for anything serious.
“Good-morning, Bert!” said the principal. “I called you here to see if
you have a top in your pocket--you know what I mean--a top that spins
with a string wound around it. Have you such a top?”
“Why--er--yes--yes, sir,” stammered the boy. What in the world could
Mr. Tarton want of a top? Could he have turned childish and have a
desire to play with a top in his office, Bert wondered.
Then another thought came into the mind of the lad. Perhaps Mr. Tarton
thought Bert had been playing with a top during class time. So the boy
said:
“But I didn’t have it out in the room, Mr. Tarton! Really I didn’t! I
was spinning it in front of the school, but I put it in my pocket when
I came in and----”
“Yes, I know you did, Bert,” and again Mr. Tarton smiled. “I saw you
spinning your top, and that’s why I sent for you. I want you to come
and spin the top for me in front of the class in science.”
This was more and more puzzling.
The principal must have seen that Burt was puzzled and a bit worried,
for he laughed a little and said:
“It’s all right, Bert. The science class is studying motion, and I want
to illustrate to them the principle of the gyroscope. I have that kind
of a top here, but I had no common top, and I remembered seeing you
spin yours, and that it was a large red one, which can easily be seen
when you spin it on the platform in front of the high-school class. You
see I want to show the science boys and girls the difference between a
gyroscope top and the common top.”
“And you want me to spin a top in school--for a lesson?” asked Bert in
surprise.
“That’s it--yes,” answered the principal. “I think you know what a
gyroscope top is, don’t you?” Bert did, having been given one for
Christmas. Mr. Tarton quickly brought his queer top out and spun it.
A gyroscope top is a heavy, small wheel fitted inside a round ring of
metal, and the ring has a sort of top peg on it. When the heavy wheel
inside the metal ring is set spinning by means of a string wound about
it and pulled off, the wheel goes so fast that it will hold up the
metal ring in any position. Thus the gyroscope top will spin upside
down, lying on its side and in many other positions.
“But your top will spin in one way only, and that is standing straight
up, Bert,” said the principal. “That’s what I want the boys and girls
in the high-school class to understand. Of course I could tell them
about it, but they will learn much more quickly if they see the two
different tops spinning in front of them. So come with me now, if you
please, and bring your top.”
Bert could hardly help smiling as he followed the principal to the
high-school part of the building. It seemed so queer to be asked, as
a favor, to spin a top in class. But the older boys and girls were as
much in earnest as was Mr. Tarton. They wanted to learn this rule
about spinning bodies, for the earth we live on, you know, spins about
like a giant top. So the high-school lads and lassies did not laugh
when Mr. Tarton wound up and spun the gyroscope nor when Bert set his
red top to spinning. They asked many questions and seemed eager to
learn. Bert himself was much interested.
“You are a good top-spinner,” said Mr. Tarton to him when the lesson
was over. “You may go back to your class, and you may take the
gyroscope top with you and tell Miss Skell I said you could spin it and
show the smaller boys and girls how it works.”
So the mystery of why Bert was sent to the principal’s office was soon
solved. Going back to his room, in a few words Bert told Miss Skell
about it. He also delivered the message about the gyroscope, and soon
the boys and girls were much interested in watching Bert spin it on
Miss Skell’s desk.
“If she’d let us write a composition about that funny top I believe I
could do a good one,” said Nellie Parks to Nan when the class was let
out for the noon recess.
“But the prize composition must be about something that happens on our
summer vacation,” answered Nan. “Oh, I do hope I win the prize!”
“I hope you do, too,” said Nellie generously. “There’s no use in me
hoping for it. I never can write a decent composition. But I hope you
win, Nan!”
“Thanks,” replied Bert’s sister.
On the way home Nan told her brother how worried she had been when he
was sent to the principal’s office.
“I was worried myself, at first,” Bert admitted. “But I had to laugh
when he asked me to spin the top.”
“I wish Mr. Tarton would send for me and ask me to turn somersaults in
class!” laughed Freddie, when he heard his older brother and sister
talking about what had happened. “I can do them fine--look!”
And on the grass at the edge of the sidewalk he flopped down and turned
three somersaults one after the other.
“Good!” cried Bert.
“I can do that, too!” declared Flossie. “Want to see me?”
“No! No!” objected Nan. “You mustn’t! Not here on the street! You’re a
girl and Freddie is a boy--that’s different!”
“Well, I can turn somersaults as good as he can!” declared Flossie.
But by this time they were nearly home, and as Flossie was eager to
see what Dinah had for lunch she ran on ahead, forgetting about the
somersaults.
Around the lunch table that noon Bert told about the spinning tops, and
Nan spoke of Miss Skell’s offer of a prize for the best composition on
the summer vacation happenings.
“Mother, do you think anything will happen when we get to Cloverbank?”
asked the little girl eagerly.
“Many things may happen,” was the answer. “I hope they will all be
happy happenings, though; for you can just as well write about them as
about sad ones, I should think.”
“Oh, yes!” agreed Nan. “I want them to be happy and funny.”
The end of the school term was coming. By Thursday the last
examinations would be over and then would come the closing session.
It was all settled about the Bobbsey twins going to Cloverbank. Mr.
Bobbsey had written to Mr. Watson, thanking him, his wife, and also
“Baby May,” for the kind invitation to come to spend the summer on the
big country place.
“We will drive to Hitchville in the automobile,” Mr. Bobbsey said, in
talking over the plans. “Cloverbank is the name of Mr. Watson’s farm,
and it is just outside Hitchville.”
“Will Dinah and Sam come with us?” asked Flossie, for she loved the
dear old colored couple who had so long looked after the children.
“No, Sam and Dinah are going to have a vacation, too,” Mrs. Bobbsey
answered.
“Are we going to take Snoop and Snap?” asked Freddie, as he looked at
the dog and the cat who were playing together out in the yard. The two
were great friends.
“I fancy there will be many animals on Mr. Watson’s farm, so there will
be no need to take Snap and Snoop,” Mrs. Bobbsey replied. “We will
send our dog and cat away to be boarded for the summer as we have done
before.”
“Well, I’m going to take my fishing pole, anyhow,” declared Bert.
“And I’m going to take my toy fire engine,” declared Freddie. “The
farmhouse might catch fire and I could put it out.”
“Don’t take too many toys,” warned his mother. “Your engine is all
right, and Flossie may take one of her dolls. But we haven’t room for
all your things.”
It was not easy for the two smaller twins to leave their many
playthings behind, and Flossie could hardly decide which of her many
dolls she wanted with her. But at last the choices were made, Bert and
Nan took what they wanted (Nan’s choice was a book or two) and finally
everything was packed ready to leave.
The last day of school came. Good-bye messages were exchanged and
pupils and teachers separated to meet again in the fall, which now
seemed a long way off.
“Don’t forget about the prize composition!” called Miss Skell to her
pupils.
“We’ll remember!” promised Nan.
The Bobbsey twins could hardly wait for the hours to pass until they
should be in the car and on the road to Hitchville. But at last the
house was closed. Snap and Snoop had been sent away, not without
many farewells on the part of Flossie and Freddie. Sam and Dinah had
departed to visit relatives. Then away from Lakeport rolled the Bobbsey
family.
“I hope a lot of things happen before we get back,” remarked Nan to her
mother. “I want them to put in my composition.”
It was a pleasant day for the start of the trip. Mr. Bobbsey expected
to reach Hitchville early in the evening.
Most of the morning had passed and they had covered nearly a hundred
miles of the journey when came a question which was always asked,
sooner or later, on all the trips the Bobbseys took.
“When do we eat?” demanded Freddie, about eleven o’clock.
“Why, you aren’t hungry now, are you?” inquired his mother.
“Sure I am,” he said. “I can eat a lot. And I wish I had a drink of
milk.”
“We didn’t bring any milk along,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I was afraid it
would sour, the weather is so warm.”
“I fancy we can get some milk to drink with our lunch at that
farmhouse,” said Mr. Bobbsey, pointing to one a short distance ahead.
“I see cows in the field back of it, and they must sell milk. We’ll
stop and inquire.”
A basket of Dinah’s best lunch had been put up to eat on the trip,
and milk would make a welcome addition to it, Mrs. Bobbsey thought.
Her husband was right in his guess about the farmhouse. When the auto
stopped there the lady said they would be glad to sell as much milk as
the children could drink.
“Bring your lunch in and eat it under the trees in the yard,” she
invited. “It’s cool and shady there. I’ll bring the milk up from the
cellar.”
“It will be nice to get out of the car for a change,” said Mrs.
Bobbsey, and soon there was a jolly little picnic party under the trees
in front of the old-fashioned farmhouse.
The children would have been pleased to stay there most of the
afternoon, to look about the place, but when lunch was over and each of
the twins had had two glasses of milk, Mr. Bobbsey suggested that they
had better travel on, as he did not want to arrive in Hitchville after
dark.
Back into the car they climbed, and with many thanks to the
good-natured farm lady, once more they were on their way. Flossie and
Freddie were quieter now, as they always were after lunch, and even
Bert and Nan did not talk as much as they had during the first part of
the trip.
But soon the quiet of the journey was broken by Mrs. Bobbsey, who gave
a little jump. Their mother was sitting in the rear with Flossie and
Freddie. She exclaimed:
“There’s something in this car!”
“Why, of course there is!” laughed her husband. “The whole Bobbsey
family is in it!”
“No, I mean something else--something extra! Some kind of an animal!”
insisted his wife. “I can feel it moving around my feet! Listen! What
is it? Stop the car, Dick! There is some animal in it!”