Title: The Bobbsey Twins in the Country
Author: Hope, Laura Lee
Language: English
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THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY


BY

LAURA LEE HOPE



CONTENTS

     I.  THE INVITATION
    II.  THE START
   III.  SNOOP ON THE TRAIN
    IV.  A LONG RIDE
     V.  MEADOW BROOK
    VI.  FRISKY
   VII.  A COUNTRY PICNIC
  VIII.  FUN IN THE WOODS
    IX.  FOURTH OF JULY
     X.  A GREAT DAY
    XI.  THE LITTLE GARDENERS
   XII.  TOM'S RUNAWAY
  XIII.  PICKING PEAS
   XIV.  THE CIRCUS
    XV.  THE CHARIOT RACE
   XVI.  THE FLOOD
  XVII.  A TOWN AFLOAT
 XVIII.  THE FRESH-AIR CAMP
   XIX.  SEWING SCHOOL
    XX.  A MIDNIGHT SCARE
   XXI.  WHAT THE WELL CONTAINED
  XXII.  LITTLE JACK HORNER--GOOD-BYE



THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY



CHAPTER I

THE INVITATION

"There goes the bell! It's the letter carrier! Let me answer!" Freddie
exclaimed.

"Oh, let me! It's my turn this week!" cried Flossie.

"But I see a blue envelope. That's from Aunt Sarah!" the brother cried.

Meanwhile both children, Freddie and Flossie, were making all possible
efforts to reach the front door, which Freddie finally did by jumping
over the little divan that stood in the way, it being sweeping day.

"I beat you," laughed the boy, while his sister stood back,
acknowledging defeat.

"Well, Dinah had everything in the way and anyhow, maybe it was your
turn. Mother is in the sewing room, I guess!" Flossie concluded, and so
the two started in search of the mother, with the welcome letter from
Aunt Sarah tight in Freddie's chubby fist.

Freddie and Flossie were the younger of the two pairs of twins that
belonged to the Bobbsey family. The little ones were four years old,
both with light curls framing pretty dimpled faces, and both being just
fat enough to be good-natured. The other twins, Nan and Bert, were
eight years old, dark and handsome, and as like as "two peas" the
neighbors used to say. Some people thought it strange there should be
two pairs of twins in one house, but Nan said it was just like
four-leaf clovers, that always grow in little patches by themselves.

This morning the letter from Aunt Sarah, always a welcome happening,
was especially joyous.

"Do read it out loud," pleaded Flossie, when the blue envelope had been
opened in the sewing room by Mrs. Bobbsey.

"When can we go?" broke in Freddie, at a single hint that the missive
contained an invitation to visit Meadow Brook, the home of Aunt Sarah
in the country.

"Now be patient, children," the mother told them. "I'll read the
invitation in just a minute," and she kept her eyes fastened on the
blue paper in a way that even to Freddie and Flossie meant something
very interesting.

"Aunt Sarah wants to know first how we all are."

"Oh, we're all well," Freddie interrupted, showing some impatience.

"Do listen, Freddie, or we won't hear," Flossie begged him, tugging at
his elbow.

"Then she says," continued the mother, "that this is a beautiful summer
at Meadow Brook."

"Course it is. We know that!" broke in Freddie again.

"Freddie!" pleaded Flossie.

"And she asks how we would like to visit them this summer."  "Fine,
like it--lovely!" the little boy almost shouted, losing track of words
in his delight.

"Tell her we'll come, mamma," went on Freddie. "Do send a letter quick
won't you, mamma?"

"Freddie Bobbsey!" spoke up Flossie, in a little girl's way of showing
indignation. "If you would only keep quiet we could hear about going,
but--you always stop mamma. Please, mamma, read the rest," and the
golden head was pressed against the mother's shoulder from the arm of
the big rocking chair.

"Well, I was only just saying--" pouted Freddie.

"Now listen, dear." The mother went on once more reading from the
letter: "Aunt Sarah says Cousin Harry can hardly wait until vacation
time to see Bert, and she also says, 'For myself I cannot wait to see
the babies. I want to hear Freddie laugh, and I want to hear Flossie
"say her piece," as she did last Christmas, then I just want to hug
them both to death, and so does their Uncle Daniel.'"

"Good!--goody!" broke in the irrepressible Freddie again. "I'll just
hug Aunt Sarah this way," and he fell on his mother's neck and squeezed
until she cried for him to stop.

"I guess she'll like that," Freddie wound up, in real satisfaction at
his hugging ability.

"Not if you spoil her hair," Flossie insisted, while the overcome
mother tried to adjust herself generally.

"Is that all?" Flossie asked.

"No, there is a message for Bert and Nan too, but I must keep that for
lunch time. Nobody likes stale news," the mother replied.

"But can't we hear it when Bert and Nan come from school?" coaxed
Flossie.

"Of course," the mother assured her. "But you must run out in the air
now. We have taken such a long time to read the letter."

"Oh, aren't you glad!" exclaimed Flossie to her brother, as they ran
along the stone wall that edged the pretty terrace in front of their
home.

"Glad! I'm just--so glad--so glad--I could almost fly up in the air!"
the boy managed to say in chunks, for he had never had much experience
with words, a very few answering for all his needs.

The morning passed quickly to the little ones, for they had so much to
think about now, and when the school children appeared around the
corner Flossie and Freddie hurried to meet Nan and Bert, to tell them
the news.

"We're going! we're going!" was about all Freddie could say.

"Oh, the letter came--from Aunt Sarah!" was Flossie's way of telling
the news. But it was at the lunch table that Mrs. Bobbsey finished the
letter.

"'Tell Nan,'" she read, "'that Aunt Sarah has a lot of new patches and
tidies to show her, and tell her I have found a new kind of jumble
chocolate that I am going to teach her to make.' There, daughter, you
see," commented Mrs. Bobbsey, "Aunt Sarah has not forgotten what a good
little baker you are."

"Chocolate jumble," remarked Bert, and smacked his lips. "Say, Nan, be
sure to learn that. It sounds good," the brother declared.

Just then Dinah, the maid, brought in the chocolate, and the children
tried to tell her about going to the country, but so many were talking
at once that the good-natured colored girl interrupted the confusion
with a hearty laugh.

"Ha! ha! ha! And all you-uns be goin' to de country!"

"Yes, Dinah," Mrs. Bobbsey told her, "and just listen to what Aunt
Sarah says about you," and once more the blue letter came out, while
Mrs. Bobbsey read:

"'And be sure to bring dear old Dinah! We have plenty of room, and she
will so enjoy seeing the farming.'"

"Farming! Ha! ha! Dat I do like. Used to farm all time home in
Virginie!" the maid declared. "And I likes it fuss-rate! Yes, Dinah'll
go and hoe de corn and" (aside to Bert) "steal de watermelons!"

The prospects were indeed bright for a happy time in the country, and
the Bobbseys never disappointed themselves when fun was within their
reach.



CHAPTER II

THE START

With so much to think about, the few weeks that were left between
vacation and the country passed quickly for the Bobbseys. As told in
any first book, "The Bobbsey Twins," this little family had a splendid
home in Lakeport, where Mr. Bobbsey was a lumber merchant. The mother
and father were both young themselves, and always took part in their
children's joys and sorrows, for there were sorrows sometimes. Think of
poor little Freddie getting shut up all alone in a big store with only
a little black kitten, "Snoop," to keep him from being scared to death;
that was told of in the first book, for Freddie went shopping one day
with his mamma, and wandered off a little bit. Presently he found
himself in the basement of the store; there he had so much trouble in
getting out he fell asleep in the meantime. Then, when he awoke and it
was all dark, and the great big janitor came to rescue
him--oh!--Freddie thought the man might even be a giant when he first
heard the janitor's voice in the dark store.

Freddie often got in trouble, but like most good little boys he was
always saved just at the right time, for they say good children have
real angels watching over them. Nan, Bert, and Flossie all had plenty
of exciting experiences too, as told in "The Bobbsey Twins," for among
other neighbors there was Danny Rugg, a boy who always tried to make
trouble for Bert, and sometimes almost succeeded in getting Bert into
"hot water," as Dinah expressed it.

Of course Nan had her friends, as all big girls have, but Bert, her
twin brother, was her dearest chum, just as Freddie was Flossie's.

"When we get to the country we will plant trees, go fishing, and pick
blackberries," Nan said one day.

"Yes, and I'm going with Harry out exploring," Bert announced.

"I'm just going to plant things," prim little Flossie lisped. "I just
love melons and ice cream and--"

"Ice cream! Can you really plant ice cream?" Freddie asked innocently,
which made the others all laugh at Flossie's funny plans.

"I'm going to have chickens," Freddie told them. "I'm going to have one
of those queer chicken coops that you shut up tight and when you open
it it's just full of little 'kippies.'"

"Oh, an incubator, you mean," Nan explained. "That's a machine for
raising chickens without any mother."

"But mine are going to have a mother," Freddie corrected, thinking how
sad little chickens would be without a kind mamma like his own.

"But how can they have a mother where there isn't any for them?"
Flossie asked, with a girl's queer way of reasoning.

"I'll get them one," Freddie protested. "I'll let Snoop be their mamma."

"A cat! the idea! why, he would eat 'em all up," Flossie argued.

"Not if I whipped him once for doing it," the brother insisted. Then
Nan and Bert began to tease him for whipping the kitten after the
chickens had been "all eaten up."

So the merry days went on until at last vacation came!

"Just one more night," Nan told Flossie and Freddie when she prepared
them for bed, to help her very busy mother. Bert assisted his father
with the packing up, for the taking of a whole family to the country
meant lots of clothes, besides some books and just a few toys. Then
there was Bert's tool box--he knew he would need that at Meadow Brook.

The morning came at last, a beautiful bright day, a rare one for
traveling, for a fine shower the evening before had washed and cooled
things off splendidly.

"Now come, children," Mr. Bobbsey told the excited youngsters. "Keep
track of your things. Sam will be ready in a few minutes, and then we
must be off."

Promptly Sam pulled up to the door with the family carriage, and all
hurried to get in.

"Oh, Snoop, Snoop!" cried Freddie. "He's in the library in the box!
Dinah, get him quick, get him!" and Dinah ran back after the little
kitten.

"Here you is, Freddie!" she gasped, out of breath from hurrying. "You
don't go and forget poor Snoopy!" and she climbed in beside Sam.

Then they started.

"Oh, my lan' a-massy!" yelled Dinah presently in distress. "Sam
Johnson, you jest turn dat hoss around quick," and she jerked at the
reins herself. "You heah, Sam? Quick, I tells you. Get back to dat
house. I'se forgot to bring--to bring my lunch basket!"

"Oh, never mind, Dinah," Mrs. Bobbsey interrupted. "We will have lunch
on the train."

"But I couldn't leab dat nice lunch I got ready fo' de chillen in
between, missus," the colored woman urged. "I'll get it quick as a
wink. Now,  Sam, you rush in dar quick, and fetch dat red and white
basket dat smells  like chicken!"

So the good-natured maid had her way, much to the delight of Bert and
Freddie, who liked nothing so well as one of Dinah's homemade lunches.

The railroad station was reached without mishap, and while Mr. Bobbsey
attended to getting the baskets checked at the little window in the big
round office, the children sat about "exploring." Freddie hung back a
little when a locomotive steamed up. He clung to his mother's skirt,
yet wanted to see how the machine worked.

"That's the fireman," Bert told him, pointing to the man in the cab of
the engine.

"Fireman!" Freddie repeated. "Not like our firemen. I wouldn't be that
kind," He had always wanted to be a fireman who helps to put out fires.

"Oh, this is another kind," his father explained, just then coming up
in readiness for the start.

"I guess Snoop's afraid," Freddie whispered to his mother, while he
peeped into the little box where Snoop was peacefully purring. Glad of
the  excuse to get a little further away, Freddie ran back to where
Dinah sat  on a long shiny bench.

"Say, chile," she began, "you hear dat music ober dar? Well, a big fat
lady jest jumped up and down on dat machine and it starts up and plays
Swanee Ribber."

"That's a weighing machine," Nan said with a laugh. "You just put a
penny in it and it tells you how much you weigh besides playing a tune."

"Lan' o' massy! does it? Wonder has I time to try it?"

"Yes, come on," called Bert. "Father said we have plenty of time," and
at the word Dinah set out to get weighed. She looked a little scared,
as if  it might "go off" first, but when she heard the soft strain of
an old  melody coming out she almost wanted to dance.

"Now, ain't dat fine!" she exclaimed. "Wouldn't dat be splendid in de
kitchen to weigh de flour, Freddie?"

But even the interesting sights in the railroad station had to be given
up now, for the porter swung open a big gate and called: "All aboard
for Meadow Brook!" and the Bobbseys hurried off.



CHAPTER III

SNOOP ON THE TRAIN

"I'm glad Dinah looks nice," Flossie whispered to her mother, when she
saw how beautiful the parlor car was. "And isn't Freddie good?" the
little  girl remarked anxiously, as if fearing her brother might forget
his best  manners in such a grand place.

Freddie and Bert sat near their father on the big soft revolving chairs
in the Pullman car, while Nan and Flossie occupied the sofa at the end
near their mother. Dinah sat up straight and dignified, and, as Flossie
said, really looked nice, in her very clean white waist and her soft
black skirt. On her carefully parted hair she wore a neat little black
turban. Bert always laughed at the number of "parts" Dinah made in her
kinky hair, and declared that she ought to be a civil engineer, she
could draw such  splendid maps even on the back of her head.

The grandeur of the parlor car almost overcame Freddie, but he clung to
Snoop in the pasteboard box and positively refused to let the kitten go
into the baggage car. Dinah's lunch basket was so neatly done up the
porter carried it very carefully to her seat when she entered the
train, although lunch baskets are not often taken in as "Pullman car
baggage."

"I'm going to let Snoop out!" whispered Freddie suddenly, and before
anyone had a chance to stop him, the little black kitten jumped out of
the  box, and perched himself on the window sill to look out at the
fine  scenery.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, "the porter will put him off the train!"
and she tried to catch the now happy little Snoop.

"No, he won't," Mr. Bobbsey assured her. "I will watch out for that."

"Here, Snoop," coaxed Nan, also alarmed. "Come, Snoop!"

But the kitten had been captive long enough to appreciate his liberty
now, and so refused to be coaxed. Flossie came down between the velvet
chairs very cautiously, but as soon as Snoop saw her arm stretch out
for him, he just walked over the back of the highest seat and down into
the lap of a sleeping lady!

"Oh, mercy me!" screamed the lady, as she awoke with Snoop's tail
whisking over her face. "Goodness, gracious! what is that?" and before
she had  fully recovered from the shock she actually jumped up on the
chair, like  the funny pictures of a woman and a mouse.

The people around could not help laughing, but Freddie and the other
Bobbseys were frightened.

"Oh, will they kill Snoop now?" Freddie almost cried. "Dinah, please
help  me get him!"

By this time the much scared lady had found out it was only a little
kitten, and feeling very foolish she sat down and coaxed Snoop into her
lap again. Mr. Bobbsey hurried to apologize.

"We'll have to put him back in the box," Mr. Bobbsey declared, but that
was easier said than done, for no sooner would one of the Bobbseys
approach the cat than Snoop would walk himself off. And not on the
floor  either, but up and down the velvet chairs, and in and out under
the  passengers' arms. Strange to say, not one of the people minded it,
but all  petted Snoop until, as Bert said, "He owned the car."

"Dat cat am de worst!" Dinah exclaimed. "'Pears like it was so stuck up
an' fine dar ain't no place in dis 'yere Pullin' car good 'nough fer
him."

"Oh, the porter! the porter!" Bert cried. "He'll surely throw Snoop out
of the window."

"Snoop! Snoop!" the whole family called in chorus, but Snoop saw the
porter himself and made up his mind the right thing to do under the
circumstances would be to make friends.

"Cat?" exclaimed the good-looking colored man. "Scat! Well, I declare!
What you think of that?"

Freddie felt as if he were going to die, he was so scared, and
Flossie's tears ran down her cheeks.

"Will he eat him?" Freddie blubbered, thinking of some queer stories he
had heard like that. Mr. Bobbsey, too, was a little alarmed and hurried
to reach Snoop.

The porter stooped to catch the offending kitten, while Snoop walked
right up to him, sniffed his uniform, and stepped upon the outstretched
black hand.

"Well, you is a nice little kitten," the porter admitted, fondling
Snoop in spite of orders.

"Oh, please, Mr. Porter, give me my cat!" cried Freddie, breaking away
from all restraint and reaching Snoop.

"Yours, is it? Well, I don't blame you, boy, for bringing dat cat
along. An' say," and the porter leaned down to the frightened Freddie,
"it's against orders, but I'd jest like to take dis yer kitten back in
de kitchen and treat him, for he's--he's a star!" and he fondled Snoop
closer.

"But I didn't know it was wrong, and I'll put him right back in the
box," Freddie whimpered, not quite understanding the porter's intention.

"Well, say, son!" the porter exclaimed as Mr. Bobbsey came up. "What do
you say if you papa let you come back in de kitchen wid me? Den you can
jest see how I treat de kitty-cat!"

So Freddie started off after the porter, who proudly carried Snoop,
while Mr. Bobbsey brought up the rear. Everybody along the aisle wanted
to pet Snoop, who, from being a little stowaway was now the hero of the
occasion. More than once Freddie stumbled against the side of the big
seats as the cars swung along like a reckless automobile, but each time
his father caught him by the blouse and set him on his feet again,
until at last, after passing through the big dining car, the kitchen
was reached.

"What you got dar? Somethin' fer soup?" laughed the good-natured cook,
who was really fond of cats and wouldn't harm one for the world.

Soon the situation was explained, and as the porters and others
gathered around in admiration, Snoop drank soup like a gentleman, and
then took two courses, one of fish and one of meat, in splendid
traveler fashion.

"Dat's de way to drink soup on a fast train," laughed the porter. "You
makes sure of it dat way, and saves your clothes. Ha! ha! ha!" he
laughed, remembering how many men have to have their good clothes
cleaned of soup after a dinner on a fast train. Reluctantly the men
gave Snoop back to Freddie, who, this time, to make sure of no further
adventures, put the popular black kitten in his box in spite of
protests from the admiring passengers.

"You have missed so much of the beautiful scenery," Nan told Freddie
and her father when they joined the party again. "Just see those
mountains over there," and then they sat at the broad windows gazing
for a long time at the grand scenery as it seemed to rush by.



CHAPTER IV

A LONG RIDE

The train was speeding along with that regular motion that puts many
travelers to sleep, when Freddie curled himself on the sofa and went to
sleep.

"Poor little chap!" Mr. Bobbsey remarked. "He is tired out, and he was
so worried about Snoop!"

"I'm glad we were able to get this sofa, so many other people like a
rest and there are only four sofas on each car," Mrs. Bobbsey explained
to Dinah, who was now tucking Freddie in as if he were at home in his
own cozy bed. The air cushion was blown up, and put under the yellow
head and a shawl was carefully placed over him.

Flossie's pretty dimpled face was pressed close to the window pane,
admiring the big world that seemed to be running away from the train,
and Bert found the observation end of the train very interesting.

"What a beautiful grove of white birch trees!" Nan exclaimed, as the
train swung into a ravine. "And see the soft ferns clinging about them.
Mother, the ferns around the birch tree make me think of the fine lace
about your throat!"

"Why, daughter, you seem to be quite poetical!" and the mother smiled,
for indeed Nan had a very promising mind.

"What time will we get there, papa?" Bert asked, returning from the
vestibule.

"In time for dinner Aunt Sarah said, that is if they keep dinner for us
until one o'clock," answered the parent, as he consulted his watch.

"It seems as if we had been on the train all night," Flossie remarked.

"Well, we started early, dear," the mother assured the tired little
girl. "Perhaps you would like one of Dinah's dainty sandwiches now?"

A light lunch was quickly decided on, and Dinah took Flossie and Nan to
a little private room at one end of the train, Bert went with his
father to the smoking room on the other end, while the mother remained
to watch Freddie. The lunch was put up so that each small sandwich
could be eaten without a crumb spilling, as the little squares were
each wrapped separately in waxed paper.

There was a queer alcohol lamp in the ladies room, and other handy
contrivances for travelers, which amused Flossie and Nan.

"Dat's to heat milk fo' babies," Dinah told the girls, as she put the
paper napkins carefully on their laps, and got each a nice drink of
icewater out of the cooler.

Meanwhile Bert was enjoying his lunch at the other end of the car, for
children always get hungry when traveling, and meals on the train are
only served at certain hours. Two other little girls came into the
compartment while Flossie and Nan were at lunch. The strange girls wore
gingham aprons over their fine white dresses, to keep the car dust off
their clothes, and they had paper caps on their heads like the favors
worn at children's parties. Seeing there was no stool vacant the
strangers darted out again in rather a rude way, Nan thought.

"Take you time, honeys," Dinah told her charges. "If dey is very hungry
dey can get ice cream outside."

"But mother never lets us eat strange ice cream," Flossie reminded the
maid. "And maybe they can't either."

Soon the lunch was finished, and the Bobbseys felt much refreshed by
it. Freddie still slept with Snoop's box close beside him, and Mrs.
Bobbsey was reading a magazine.

"One hour more!" Bert announced, beginning to pick things up even that
early.

"Now we better all close our eyes and rest, so that we will feel good
when we get to Meadow Brook," Mrs. Bobbsey told them. It was no task to
obey this suggestion, and the next thing the children knew, mother and
father and Dinah were waking them up to get them ready to leave the
train.

"Now, don't forget anything," Mr. Bobbsey cautioned the party, as hats
and wraps were donned and parcels picked up.

Freddie was still very sleepy and his papa had to carry him off, while
the others, with some excitement, hurried after.

"Oh, Snoop, Snoop!" cried Freddie as, having reached the platform, they
now saw the train start off. "I forgot Snoop! Get him quick!"

"Dat kitten again!" Dinah exclaimed, with some indignation. "He's more
trouble den--den de whole family!"

In an instant the train had gotten up speed, and it seemed Snoop was
gone this time sure.

"Snoop!" cried Freddie, in dismay.

Just then the kind porter who had befriended the cat before, appeared
on the platform with the perforated box in his hand.

"I wanted to keep him," stammered the porter, "but I knows de little
boy 'ud break his heart after him." And he threw the box to Mr. Bobbsey.

There was no time for words, but Mr. Bobbsey thrust a coin in the man's
hand and all the members of the Bobbsey family looked their thanks.

"Well, I declare, you can't see anybody," called out a good-natured
little lady, trying to surround them all at once.

"Aunt Sarah!" exclaimed the Bobbseys.

"And Uncle Dan!"

"And Harry!"

"Hello! How do? How are you? How be you?" and such kissing and
handshaking had not for some time entertained the old agent at the
Meadow Brook station.

"Here at last!" Uncle Daniel declared, grabbing up Freddie and giving
him the kind of hug Freddie had intended giving Aunt Sarah.

The big wagon from the Bobbsey farm, with the seats running along each
side, stood at the other side of the platform, and into this the
Bobbseys were gathered, bag and baggage, not forgetting the little
black cat.

"All aboard for Meadow Brook farm!" called Bert, as the wagon started
off along the shady country road.



CHAPTER V

MEADOW BROOK

"Oh, how cool the trees are out here!" Flossie exclaimed, as the wagon
rumbled along so close to the low trees that Bert could reach out and
pick horse-chestnut blossoms.

"My, how sweet it is!" said Dinah, as she sniffed audibly, enjoying the
freshness of the country.

Freddie was on the seat with Uncle Dan and had Snoop's box safe in his
arms. He wanted to let the cat see along the road, but everybody
protested.

"No more Snoop in this trip," laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "He has had all the
fun he needs for to-day." So Freddie had to be content.

"Oh, do let me get out?" pleaded Nan presently. "See that field of
orange lilies."

"Not now, dear," Aunt Sarah told her. "Dinner is spoiling for us, and
we can often walk down here to get flowers."

"Oh, the cute little calf! Look!" Bert exclaimed from his seat next to
Harry, who had been telling his cousin of all the plans he had made for
a jolly vacation.

"Look at the billy-goat!" called Freddie.

"See, see, that big black chicken flying!" Flossie cried out excitedly.

"That's a hawk!" laughed Bert; "maybe it's a chicken hawk."

"A children hawk!" Flossie exclaimed, missing the word. Then everybody
laughed, and Flossie said maybe there were children hawks for bad girls
and boys, anyway.

Aunt Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey were chatting away like two schoolgirls,
while Dinah and the children saw something new and interesting at every
few paces old Billy, the horse, took.

"Hello there, neighbor," called a voice from the field at the side of
the road. "My horse has fallen in the ditch, and I'll have to trouble
you to help me."

"Certainly, certainly, Peter," answered Uncle Daniel, promptly jumping
down, with Mr. Bobbsey, Bert, and Harry following. Aunt Sarah leaned
over the seat and took the reins, but when she saw in what ditch the
other horse had fallen she pulled Billy into the gutter.

"Poor Peter!" she exclaimed. "That's the second horse that fell in that
ditch this week. And it's an awful job to get them out. I'll just wait
to see if they need our Billy, and if not, we can drive on home, for
Martha will be most crazy waiting with dinner."

Uncle Daniel, Mr. Bobbsey, and the boys hurried to where Peter Burns
stood at the brink of one of those ditches that look like mud and turn
out to be water.

"And that horse is a boarder too!" Peter told them. "Last night we said
he looked awful sad, but we didn't think he would commit suicide."

"Got plenty of blankets?" Uncle Daniel asked, pulling his coat off and
preparing to help his neighbor, as all good people do in the country.

"Four of them, and these planks. But I couldn't get a man around. Lucky
you happened by," Peter Burns answered.

All this time the horse in the ditch moaned as if in pain, but Peter
said it was only because he couldn't get on his feet. Harry, being
light in weight, slipped a halter over the poor beast's head.

"I could get a strap around him!" Harry suggested, moving out
cautiously on the plank.

"All right, my lad, go ahead," Peter told him, passing the big strap
over to Bert, who in turn passed it on to Harry.

It was no easy matter to get the strap in place, but with much tugging
and splashing of mud Harry succeeded. Then the ropes were attached and
everybody pulled vigorously.

"Get up, Ginger! Get up, Ginger!" Peter called lustily, but Ginger only
seemed to flop in deeper, through his efforts to raise himself.

"Guess we'll have to get Billy to pull," Uncle Daniel suggested, and
Mr. Bobbsey hurried back to the road to unhitch the other horse.

"Don't let Billy fall in!" exclaimed Nan, who was much excited over the
accident.

"Can't I go, papa?" Freddie pleaded. "I'll stay away from the edge!"

"You better stay in the wagon; the horse might cut up when he gets
out," the father warned Freddie, who reluctantly gave in.

Soon Billy was hitched to the ropes, and with a few kind words from
Uncle Daniel the big white horse strained forward, pulling Ginger to
his feet as he did so.

"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie from the wagon. "Billy is a circus horse,
isn't he, Uncle Dan?"

"He's a good boy," the uncle called back patting Billy affectionately,
while Mr. Bobbsey and the boys loosened the straps. The other horse lay
on the blankets, and Peter rubbed him with all his might, to save a
chill as he told the boys.

Then, after receiving many thanks for the help given, the Bobbseys once
more started off toward the farm.

"Hot work," Uncle Daniel remarked to the ladies, as he mopped his
forehead.

"I'm so glad you could help Peter," Aunt Sarah told him, "for he does
seem to have SO much trouble."

"All kinds of things happen in the country," Harry remarked, as Billy
headed off for home.

At each house along the way boys would call out to Harry, asking him
about going fishing, or berrying, or some other sport, so that Bert
felt a good time was in store for him, as the boys were about his own
age and seemed so agreeable.

"Nice fellows," Harry remarked by way of introducing Bert.

"They seem so," Bert replied, cordially.

"We've made up a lot of sports," Harry went on, "and we were only
waiting for you to come to start out. We've planned a picnic for
to-morrow."

"Here we are," called Uncle Daniel as Billy turned into the pretty
driveway in front of the Bobbseys' country home. On each side of the
drive grew straight lines of boxwood, and back of this hedge were
beautiful flowers, shining out grandly now in the July sun.

"Hello, Martha!" called the visitors, as the faithful old servant
appeared on the broad white veranda. She was not black like Dinah, but
looked as if she was just as merry and full of fun as anyone could be.

"Got here at last!" she exclaimed, taking Dinah's lunch basket.

"Glad to see you, Martha," Dinah told her. "You see, I had to come
along. And Snoop too, our kitty. We fetched him."

"The more the merrier," replied the other, "and there's lots of room
for all."

"Starved to death!" Harry laughed, as the odor of a fine dinner reached
him.

"We'll wash up a bit and join you in a few minutes, ladies," Uncle
Daniel said, in his polite way. The horse accident had given plenty of
need for a washing up.

"Got Snoop dis time," Freddie lisped, knocking the cover off the box
and petting the frightened little black cat. "Hungry, Snoopy?" he
asked, pressing his baby cheek to the soft fur.

"Bring the poor kitty out to the kitchen," Martha told him. "I'll get
him a nice saucer of fresh milk." And so it happened, as usual, Snoop
had his meal first, just as he had had on the Pullman car. Soon after
this Martha went outside and rang a big dinner bell that all the men
and boys could hear. And then the first vacation dinner was served in
the long old-fashioned dining room.



CHAPTER VI

FRISKY

Although they were tired from their journey, the children had no idea
of resting on that beautiful afternoon, so promptly after dinner the
baggage was opened, and vacation clothes were put on. Bert, of course,
was ready first; and soon he and Harry were running down the road to
meet the other boys and perfect their plans for the picnic.

Nan began her pleasures by exploring the flower gardens with Uncle
Daniel.

"I pride myself on those zinnias," the uncle told Nan, "just see those
yellows, and those pinks. Some are as big as dahlias, aren't they?"

"They are just beautiful, uncle," Nan replied, in real admiration. "I
have always loved zinnias. And they last so long?"

"All summer. Then, what do you think of my sweet peas?"

So they went from one flower bed to another, and Nan thought she had
never before seen so many pretty plants together.

Flossie and Freddie were out in the barnyard with Aunt Sarah.

"Oh, auntie, what queer little chickens!" Flossie exclaimed, pointing
to a lot of pigeons that were eagerly eating corn with the chickens.

"Those are Harry's homer pigeons," the aunt explained. "Some day we
must go off to the woods and let the birds fly home with a letter to
Dinah and Martha."

"Oh, please do it now," Freddie urged, always in a hurry for things.

"We couldn't to-day, dear," Aunt Sarah told him. "Come, let me show you
our new little calf."

"Let me ride her?" Freddie asked, as they reached the animal.

"Calfs aren't for riding, they're for milk," Flossie spoke up.

"Yes, this one drinks plenty of milk," Aunt Sarah said, while Frisky,
the calf, rubbed her head kindly against Aunt Sarah's skirts.

"Then let me take her for a walk," Freddie pleaded, much in love with
the pretty creature.

"And they don't walk either," Flossie persisted. "They mostly run."

"I could just hold the rope, couldn't I, Aunt Sarah?"

"If you keep away from the barnyard gate, and hold her very tight," was
the consent given finally, much to Freddie's delight.

"Nice Frisky," he told the calf, petting her fondly. "Pretty calf, will
you let Snoop play with you?" Frisky was sniffing suspiciously all the
time, and Aunt Sarah had taken Flossie in the barn to see the chickens'
nests.

"Come, Frisky, take a walk," suggested Freddie, and quite obediently
the little cow walked along. But suddenly Frisky spied the open gate
and the lovely green grass outside.

Without a moment's warning the calf threw her hind legs up in the air,
then bolted straight for the gate, dragging Freddie along after her.

"Whoa, Frisky! whoa!" yelled Freddie, but the calf ran right along.

"Hold tight, Freddie!" called Flossie, as she and Aunt Sarah appeared
on the scene.

"Whoa, whoa!" yelled the little boy constantly, but he might as well
have called "Get app," for Frisky was going so fast now that poor
little Freddie's hands were all but bleeding from the rough rope.

"Look out, Freddie! Let go!" called Aunt Sarah as she saw Frisky
heading for the apple tree.

The next minute Frisky made a dash around the tree, once, then again,
winding the rope as she went, and throwing Freddie out with force
against the side of the terrace.

"Oh," Freddie moaned feebly.

"Are you dead?" cried Flossie, running up with tears in her eyes.

"Oh," moaned the boy again, turning over with much trouble as Aunt
Sarah lifted him.

"Oh," he murmured once more, "oh--catch--Frisky!"

"Never mind her," Aunt Sarah said, anxiously. "Are you hurt, dear!"

"No--not--a bit. But look! There goes Frisky! Catch her!"

"Your poor little hands!" Flossie almost cried, kissing the red
blisters. "See, they're cut!"

"Firemen have to slide on ropes!" Freddie spoke up, recovering himself,
"and I'm going to be a fireman. I was one that time, because I tried to
save somebody and didn't care if I got hurted!"

"You are a brave little boy," Aunt Sarah assured him. "You just sit
here with sister while I try to get that naughty Frisky before she
spoils the garden."

By this time the calf was almost lost to them, as she plunged in and
out of the pretty hedges. Fortunately Bert and Harry just turned in the
gate.

"Runaway calf! Runaway calf!" called the boys. "Stop the runaway!" and
instantly a half-dozen other boys appeared, and all started in pursuit.

But Frisky knew how to run, besides she had the advantage of a good
start, and now she just dashed along as if the affair was the biggest
joke of her life.

"The river! The river!" called the boys

"She'll jump in!" and indeed the pretty Meadow Brook, or river, that
ran along some feet lower than the Bobbseys' house, on the other side
of the highway, was now dangerously near the runaway calf.

There was a heavy thicket a few feet further up, and as the boys
squeezed in and out of the bushes Frisky plunged into this piece of
wood.

"Oh, she's gone now, sure!" called Harry "Listen!"

Sure enough there was a splash!

Frisky must be in the river!

It took some time to reach the spot where the fall might have sounded
from, and the boys made their way heavy-hearted, for all loved the
pretty little Frisky.

"There's footprints!" Bert discovered emerging from the thick bush.

"And they end here!" Harry finished, indicating the very brink of the
river.

"She's gone!"

"But how could she drown so quickly?" Bert asked.

"Guess that's the channel," Tom Mason, one of the neighbors' boys,
answered.

"Listen! Thought I heard something in the bushes!" Bert whispered.

But no welcome sound came to tell that poor Frisky was hiding in the
brushwood. With heavy hearts the boys turned away. They didn't even
feel like talking, somehow. They had counted on bringing the calf back
in  triumph.

When Flossie and Freddie saw them coming back without Frisky they just
had to cry and no one could stop them.

"I tried to be a fireman!" blubbered Freddie. "I didn't care if the
rope hurted my hands either!"

"If only I didn't go in to see the chickens nests," Flossie whimpered,
"I could have helped Freddie!"

"Never you mind, little 'uns," Dinah told them. "Dinah go and fetch dat
Frisky back to-morrer. See if she don't. You jest don't cry no more,
but eat you supper and take a good sleep, 'cause we're goin' to have a
picnic to-morrer you knows, doesn't youse?"

The others tried to comfort the little ones too, and Uncle Daniel said
he knew where he could buy another calf just like Frisky, so after a
little while Freddie felt better and even laughed when Martha made the
white cat Fluffy and Snoop play ball in the big long kitchen.

"I'm goin' to pray Frisky will come back," Nan told her little brother
when she kissed him good-night, "and maybe the dear Lord will find her
for you."

"Oh, yes, Nannie, do ask Him," pleaded Freddie, "and tell Him--tell Him
if He'll do it this time, I'll be so good I won't never need to bother
Him any more."

Freddie meant very well, but it sounded strange, and made Aunt Sarah
say, "The Lord bless the little darling!" Then night came and an
eventful day closed in on our dear little Bobbseys.

"Seems as if something else ought to happen to-night," Bert remarked to
Harry as they prepared to retire. "This was such a full day, wasn't it?"

"It's early yet," Harry answered, "and it's never late here until it's
time to get early again."

"Sounds so strange to hear--those--those--"

"Crickets," Harry told him, "and tree toads and katydids. Oh, there's
lots to listen to if you shouldn't feel sleepy."

The house was now all quiet, and even the boys had ceased whispering.
Suddenly there was a noise in the driveway!

The next minute someone called out in the night!

"Hello there! All asleep! Wake up, somebody!"

Even Freddie did wake up and ran into his mother's room.

"Come down here, Mr. Bobbsey," the voice continued.

"Oh, is that you, Peter? I'll be down directly," called back Uncle
Daniel, who very soon after appeared on the front porch.

"Well, I declare!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed, loud enough for all the
listeners at the windows to hear. "So you've got her? Well, I'm very
glad indeed. Especially on the boys' account."

"Yes," spoke out Peter Burns, "I went in the barn a while ago with the
lantern, and there wasn't your calf asleep with mine as cozy as could
be. I brought her over to-night for fear you might miss her and get to
lookin', otherwise I wouldn't have disturbed you."

By this time the man from the barn was up and out too, and he took
Frisky back to her own bed; but not until the little calf had been
taken far out on the front lawn so that Freddie could see her from the
window "to make sure."

"The Lord did bring her back," Freddie told his mamma as she kissed him
good-night again and put him in his bed, happier this time than before.
"And I promised to be awful good to pay Him for His trouble," the
sleepy boy murmured.

Flossie had been asleep about two hours when she suddenly called to her
mother.

"What is it, my dear?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Somebody is playing the piano," answered the little girl. "Who is it?"

"Nobody is playing. You must be dreaming," answered the mother, and
smiled to herself.

"No, I am sure I heard the piano," insisted Flossie.

Mother and daughter listened, but could hear nothing.

"You were surely dreaming," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Come, I will tuck you
in again," and she did so.

But was Flossie dreaming? Let us wait and see.



CHAPTER VII

A COUNTRY PICNIC

When morning came everyone was astir early, for not only was a happy
day promised, but there was Frisky, the runaway, to be looked over. Mr.
Richard Bobbsey, Freddie's father, left on an early train for Lakeport,
and would not come back to Meadow Brook until Saturday afternoon.

"Let me go out and see Frisky," Freddie insisted, even before his
breakfast had been served. "I want to be sure it's her."

"Yes, that's her," Freddie admitted, "'cause there's the rope that cut
my hands when I was a real fireman!"

But Frisky didn't seem to care a bit about ropes or firemen, but just
chewed and chewed like all cows do, as if there was nothing in this
world to do but eat.

"Come on, sonny," called Dinah. "You can help me pick de radishes fo'
breakfast," and presently our little boy, with the kind-hearted maid,
was up in the garden looking for the best radishes of the early crop.

"See, Freddie," said Dinah. "De red ones show above de ground. And we
must only pull de ones wid de big leaves, 'cause dey're ripe."

Freddie bent down so close to find the radishes that a disturbed toad
hopped right up at his nose.

"Oh!" he cried, frightened. "Dinah, was that--a--a--a snake?"

"Snake, chile; lan' sakes alive! Dat was a poor little toady--more
scare' den you was," and she pointed to the big dock leaf under which
the hop-toad was now hiding.

"Let's pick beans," Freddie suggested, liking the garden work.

"Not beans fer breakfast," laughed Dinah.

"That stuff there, then," the boy persisted, pointing to the soft green
leaves of early lettuce.

"Well, I dunno. Martha didn't say so, but it sure does look pretty.
Yes, I guess we kin pick some fo' salad," and so Dinah showed Freddie
how to cut the lettuce heads off and leave the stalks to grow again.

"Out early," laughed Uncle Daniel, seeing the youngest member of the
family coming down the garden path with the small basket of vegetables.

"Is it?" Freddie asked, meaning early of course, in his queer way of
saying things without words.

"See! see!" called Nan and Flossie, running down the cross path back of
the cornfield.

"Such big ones!" Nan exclaimed, referring to the luscious red
strawberries in the white dish she held.

"Look at mine," insisted Flossie. "Aren't they bigger?"

"Fine!" ejaculated Dinah.

"But my redishes are-are--redder," argued Freddie, who was not to be
outdone by his sisters.

"Ours are sweeter," laughed Nan, trying to tease her little brother.

"Ours are--ours are--"

"Hotter," put in Dinah, which ended the argument.

Bert and Harry had also been out gathering for breakfast, and returned
now with a basket of lovely fresh water-cress.

"We can't eat 'em all," Martha told the boys, "But they'll go good in
the picnic lunch."

What a pretty breakfast table it was! Such berries, such lettuce, such
water-cress, and the radishes!

"Too bad papa had to go so early," Bert remarked. "He just loves green
stuff."

"So does Frisky," put in Freddie, and he wondered why everyone laughed.

After breakfast the lunch baskets were put up and while Bert and Harry,
Nan and Aunt Sarah, went to invite the neighboring children, Flossie
and Freddie were just busy jumping around the kitchen, where Dinah and
Martha were making them laugh merrily with funny little stories.

Snoop and Fluffy had become good friends, and now lay close together on
the kitchen hearth. Dinah said they were just like two babies, only not
so much trouble.

"Put peaches in my basket, Dinah," Freddie ordered.

"And strawberries in mine," added Flossie.

"Now, you-uns jest wait!" Dinah told them; "and when you gets out in de
woods if you hasn't 'nough to eat you kin jest climb a tree an' cut
down--"

"Wood!" put in Freddie innocently, while Martha said that was about all
that could be found in the woods in July.

The boys had come in from inviting the "other fellers," when Uncle
Daniel proposed a feature for the picnic.

"How would you like to take two homer pigeons along?" he asked them.
"You can send a note back to Martha to say what time you will be home."

"Jolly!" chorused the boys, all instantly making a run for the pigeon
house.

"Wait!" Harry told the visitors. "We must be careful not to scare
them." Then he went inside the wire cage with a handful of corn.

"See--de--coon; see--de--coon!" called the boys softly, imitating the
queer sounds made by the doves cooing.

Harry tossed the corn inside the cage, and as the light and dark homers
he wanted tasted the food Harry lowered the little door, and took the
birds safely in his arms.

"Now, Bert, you can get the quills," he told his cousin. "Go into the
chicken yard and look for two long goose feathers. Tom Mason, you can
go in the kitchen and ask Dinah for a piece of tissue paper and a spool
of silk thread."

Each boy started off to fulfill his commission, not knowing exactly
what for until all came together in the barnyard again.

"Now, Bert," went on Harry, "write very carefully on the slip of paper
the message for Martha. Have you a soft pencil?"

Bert found that he had one, and so following his cousin's dictation he
wrote on one slip:

"Have dinner ready at five." And on the other he wrote: "John, come for
us at four."

"Now," continued Harry, "roll the slips up fine enough to go in the
goose quills."

This was done with much difficulty, as the quills were very narrow, but
the task was finally finished.

"All ready now," concluded Harry, "to put the letters in the box," and
very gently he tied with the silken thread one quill under the wing of
each pigeon. Only one feather was used to tie the thread to, and the
light quill, the thin paper, and the soft silk made a parcel so very
small and light in weight that the pigeons were no way inconvenienced
by the messages.

"Now we'll put them in this basket, and they're ready for the picnic,"
Harry announced to his much interested companions. Then all started for
the house with Harry and the basket in the lead.

John, the stableman, was at the door now with the big hay wagon, which
had been chosen as the best thing to take the jolly party in.

There was nice fresh hay in the bottom, and seats at the sides for the
grown folks, while the little ones nestled in the sweet-smelling hay
like live birds.

"It's like a kindergarten party," laughed Nan, as the "birds' nests"
reminded her of one of the mother plays.

"No, 'tain't!" Freddie corrected, for he really was not fond of the
kindergarten. "It's just like a picnic," he finished.

Besides the Bobbseys there were Tom Mason, Jack Hopkins, and August
Stout, friends of Harry. Then, there were Mildred Manners and Mabel
Herold, who went as Nan's guests; little Roy Mason was Freddie's
company, and Bessie Dimple went with Flossie. The little pigeons kept
cooing every now and then, but made no attempt to escape from Harry's
basket.

It was a beautiful day, and the long ride through the country was
indeed a merry one. Along the way people called out pleasantly from
farmhouses, for everybody in Meadow Brook knew the Bobbseys.

"That's their cousins from the city," little boys and girls along the
way would say.

"Haven't they pretty clothes!" the girls were sure to add.

"Let's stop for a drink at the spring," suggested August Stout, who was
stout by name and nature, and always loved a good drink of water.

The children tumbled out of the wagon safely, and were soon waiting
turns at the spring.

There was a round basin built of stones and quite deep. Into this the
clear sprinkling water dropped from a little cave in the hill above. On
top of the cave a large flat stone was placed. This kept the little
waterfall clean and free from the falling leaves.

"Oh, what a cute little pond!" Freddie exclaimed, for he had never seen
a real spring before.

"That's a spring," Flossie informed him, although that was all she knew
about it.

The big boys were not long dipping their faces in and getting a drink
of the cool, clear water, but the girls had to take their hats off,
roll up their sleeves, and go through a "regular performance," as Harry
said, before they could make up their minds to dip into the water.
Mabel brought up her supply with her hands, but when Nan tried it her
hands leaked, and the result was her fresh white frock got wet.
Flossie's curls tumbled in both sides, and when she had finished she
looked as if she had taken a plunge at the seashore.

"Let me! Let me!" cried Freddie impatiently, and without further
warning he thrust his yellow head in the spring clear up to his neck!

"Oh, Freddie!" yelled Nan, grabbing him by the heels and thus saving a
more serious accident.

"Oh! oh! oh!" spluttered Freddie, nearly choked, "I'm drowned!" and the
water really seemed to be running out of his eyes, noses and ears all
at once.

"Oh, Freddie!" was all Mrs. Bobbsey could say, as a shower of clean
handkerchiefs was sent from the hay wagon to dry the "drowned" boy.

"Just like the flour barrel!" laughed Bert, referring to the funny
accident that befell Freddie the winter before, as told in my other
book "The Bobbsey Twins."

"Only that was a dry bath and this a wet one," Nan remarked, as
Freddie's curls were shook out in the sun.

"Did you get a drink?" asked August, whose invitation to drink had
caused the mishap.

"Yep!" answered Freddie bravely, "and I was a real fireman too, that
time, 'cause they always get soaked; don't they, Bert?"

Being assured they did, the party once more started off for the woods.
It was getting to be all woods now, only a driveway breaking through
the pines, maples, and chestnut trees that abounded in that section.

"Just turn in there, John!" Harry directed, as a particularly thick
group of trees appeared. Here were chosen the picnic grounds and all
the things taken from the wagon, and before John was out of sight on
the return home the children had established their camp and were flying
about the woods like little fairies.

"Let's build a furnace," Jack Hopkins suggested.

"Let's," said all the boys, who immediately set out carrying stones and
piling them up to build the stove. There was plenty of wood about, and
when the fire was built, the raw potatoes that Harry had secretly
brought along were roasted, finer than any oven could cook them.

Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had spread the tablecloth on the grass, and
were now busy opening the baskets and arranging the places.  There were
so many pretty little nooks to explore in the woods that Mrs. Bobbsey
had to warn the children not to get too far away.

"Are there giants?" Freddie asked.

"No, but there are very dark lonely places the woods and little boys
might find snakes."

"And bears!" put in Freddie, to which remark his mother said,
"perhaps," because there really might be bears in a woods so close to
the mountains.



CHAPTER VIII

FUN IN THE WOODS

"Dinner served in the dining car!" called Bert through the woods,
imitating the call of the porter on the Pullman car.

"All ready!" echoed the other boys, banging on an old boiler like the
Turks do, instead of ringing a bell.

"Oh, how pretty!" the girls all exclaimed, as they beheld the "feast in
the forest," as Nan put it. And indeed it was pretty, for at each place
was set a long plume of fern leaves with wood violets at the end, and
what could be more beautiful than such a decoration?

"Potatoes first!" Harry announced, "because they may get cold," and at
this order everybody broke the freshly roasted potatoes into the paper
napkins and touched it up with the extra butter that had come along.

"Simply fine!" declared Nan, with the air of one who knew. Now, my old
readers will remember how Nan baked such good cake. So she ought to be
an authority on baked potatoes, don't you think?

Next came the sandwiches, with the watercress Harry and Bert had
gathered before breakfast, then (and this was a surprise) hot
chocolate! This was brought out in Martha's cider jug, and heated in a
kettle over the boys' stone furnace.

"It must be fun to camp out," Mabel Herold remarked.

"Yes, just think of the dishes saved," added Mildred Manners, who
always had so many dishes to do at home.

"And we really don't need them," Nan argued, passing her tin cup on to
Flossie.

"Think how the soldiers get along!" Bert put in.

"And the firemen'" lisped Freddie, who never forgot the heroes of flame
and water.

Of course everybody was either sitting on the grass or on a "soft
stump." These latter conveniences had been brought by the boys for Aunt
Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey.

"What's that!" exclaimed little Flossie, as something was plainly
moving under the tables cloth.

"A snake, a snake!" called everybody at once, for indeed under the
white linen was plainly to be seen the creeping form of a reptile.

While the girls made a run for safety the boys carefully lifted the
cloth and went for his snakeship.

"There he is! There he is!" shouted Tom Mason, as the thing tried to
crawl under the stump lately used as a seat by Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Whack him!" called August Stout, who, armed with a good club, made
straight for the stump.

"Look out! He's a big fellow!" Harry declared, as the snake attempted
to get upright.

The boys fell back a little now, and as the snake actually stood on the
tip of his tail, as they do before striking, Harry sprang forward and
dealt him a heavy blow right on the head that laid the intruder flat.

"At him, boys! At him!" called Jack Hopkins, while the snake lay
wriggling in the grass; and the boys, making good use of the stunning
blow Harry had dealt, piled on as many more blows as their clubs could
wield.

All this time the girls and ladies were over on a knoll "high and dry,"
as Nan said, and now, when assured that the snake was done for they
could hardly be induced to come and look at him.

"He's a beauty!" Harry declared, as the boys actually stretched the
creature out to measure him. Bert had a rule, and when the snake was
measured up he was found to be five feet long!

"He's a black racer!" Jack Hopkins announced, and the others said they
guessed he was.

"Lucky we saw him first!" remarked Harry, "Racers are very poisonous!"

"Let's go home; there might be more!", pleaded Flossie, but the boys
said the snake hunt was the best fun at the picnic.

"Goodness!" exclaimed Harry suddenly, "we forgot to let the pigeons
loose!" and so saying he ran for the basket of birds that hung on the
low limb of a pretty maple. First Harry made sure the messages were
safe under each bird's wing, then he called:

"All ready!"

Snap! went something that sounded like a shot (but it wasn't), and then
away flew the pretty birds to take the messages home to John and
Martha. The shot was only a dry stick that Tom Mason snapped to imitate
a gun, as they do at bicycle races, but the effect was quite startling
and made the girls jump.

"It won't take long for them to get home!" said Bert, watching the
birds fly away.

"They'll get lost!" cried Freddie.

"No, they won't. They know which way we came," Nan explained.

"But they was shut up in the basket," argued Freddie.

"Yet they could see," Nan told him.

"Can pigeons see when they're asleep?" inquired the little fellow.

"Maybe," Nan answered.

"Then I'd like to have pigeon eyes," he finished, thinking to himself
how fine it would be to see everything going on around and be fast
asleep too.

"Oh, mamma, come quick!" called Flossie, running along a path at the
edge of the wood. "There's a tree over there pouring water, and it
isn't raining a drop!"

Everybody set out now to look at the wonderful tree, which was soon
discovered where Flossie had found it.

"There it is!" she exclaimed. "See the water dropping down!"

"A maple tree," Harry informed them, "and that sap is what they make
maple sugar out of."

"Oh, catch it!" called Freddie, promptly holding his cap under the
drops.

"It would take a good deal to make a sugar cake," Harry said, "but
maybe we can get enough of it to make a little cake for Freddie."

At this the country boys began looking around for young maples, and as
small limbs of the trees were broken the girls caught the drops in
their tin cups. It took quite a while to get a little, but by putting
it all together a cupful was finally gathered.

"Now we will put it in a clean milk bottle," Mrs. Bobbsey said, "and
maybe we can make maple syrup cake to-morrow."

"Let's have a game of hide-and-seek," Nan suggested.

In a twinkling every boy and girl was hidden behind a tree, and Nan
found herself "It." Of course it took a big tree to hide the girls'
dresses, and Nan had no trouble in spying Mildred first. Soon the game
was going along merrily, and the boys and girls were out of breath
trying to get "home free."

"Where's Roy?" exclaimed Tom Mason, the little boy's brother.

"Hiding somewhere," Bessie ventured, for it only seemed a minute before
when the little fat boy who was Freddie's companion had been with the
others.

"But where is he?" they all soon exclaimed in alarm, as call after call
brought no answer.

"Over at the maple tree!" Harry thought.

"Down at the spring," Nan said.

"Looking for flowers," Flossie guessed.

But all these spots were searched, and the little boy was not found.

"Oh, maybe the giants have stoled him!" Freddie cried.

"Or maybe the children's hawk has took him away," Flossie sobbed.

Meanwhile everybody searched and searched, but no Roy could they find.

"The boat!" suddenly exclaimed Tom, making a dash for the pond that ran
along at the foot of a steep hill.

"There he is! There he is!" the brother yelled, as getting over the
edge of the hill Tom was now in full view of the pond.

"And in the boat," called Harry, close at Tom's heels.

"He's drifting away!" screamed Bert. "Oh, quick, save him!"

Just as the boys said, the little fellow was in the boat and drifting.

He did not seem to realize his danger, for as he floated along he ran
his little fat hand through the water as happily as if he had been in a
steam launch, talking to the captain.

"Can you swim?" the boys asked Bert, who of course had learned that
useful art long ago.

"She's quite a long way out," Tom said,

"But we must be careful not to frighten him. See, he has left the oars
here. Bert and I can carry one out and swim with one hand. Harry and
Jack, can you manage the other?"

The boys said they could, and quickly as the heaviest clothes could be
thrown off they were striking out in the little lake toward the baby in
the boat. He was only Freddie's age, you know, and perhaps more of a
baby than the good-natured Bobbsey boy.

"Sit still, Roy," called the anxious girl from the shore, fearing Roy
would upset the boat as the boys neared him. It was hard work to swim
and carry oars, but our brave boys managed to do it in time to save
Roy. For not a great way down the stream were an old water wheel and a
dam. Should the boat drift there what would become of little Roy?

Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah were worrying over this as the boys were
making their way to the boat.

"Easy now!" called Bert. "Here we are," and at that moment the first
pair of swimmers climbed carefully into the boat, one from each side,
so as not to tip it over. Jack and Harry were not long in following,
and as the boys all sat in the pretty green rowboat with their white
under-clothing answering for athletic suits, they looked just like a
crew of real oarsmen.

"Hurrah, hurrah!" came shout after shout from the bank. Then as the
girls heard the rumble of wheels through the grove they all hurried off
to gather up the stuff quickly, and be ready to start as soon as the
boys dressed again. The wet under-clothing, of course, was carried home
in one of the empty baskets that Freddie ran back over the hill with to
save the tired boys the extra walk.

"Here they are! Here they are!" called the girls as the two little
fellows, Roy and Freddie, with the basket of wet clothes between them,
marched first; then came the two pairs of athletes who proved they were
good swimmers by pushing the heavy oars safely to the drifting boat.

"And all the things that happened!" exclaimed Flossie, as John handed
her into the hay wagon.

"That made the picnic lively!" declared, John, "and all's well that
ends well, you know."  So the picnic was over, and all were happy and
tired enough to go to bed early that night, as Nan said, seeing the
little ones falling asleep in hay wagon on their way home.



CHAPTER IX

FOURTH OF JULY

The day following the picnic was July third, and as the Meadow Brook
children were pretty well tired out from romping in the woods, they
were glad of a day's rest before entering upon the festivities of
Independence Day.

"How much have you got?" Tom Mason asked the Bobbsey boys.

"Fifty cents together, twenty-five cents each," Harry announced.

"Well, I've got thirty-five, and we had better get our stuff early, for
Stimpson sold out before noon last year," concluded Tom.

"I have to get torpedoes for Freddie and Flossie, and Chinese
fire-crackers for Nan," Bert remarked, as they started for the little
country grocery store.

"I guess I'll buy a few snakes, they look so funny coiling out," Tom
said.

"I'm going to have sky rockets and Roman candles. Everybody said they
were the prettiest last year," said Harry.

"If they have red fire I must get some of it for the girls," thoughtful
Bert remarked.

But at the store the boys had to take just what they could get, as
Stimpson's supply was very limited.

"Let's make up a parade!" someone suggested, and this being agreed upon
the boys started a canvass from house to house, to get all the boys
along Meadow Brook road to take part in the procession.

"Can the little ones come too?" August Stout asked, because he always
had to look out for his small brother when there was any danger like
fireworks around.

"Yes, and we're goin' to let the girls march in a division by
themselves," Bert told him. "My sister Nan is going to be captain, and
we'll leave all the girls' parts to her."

"Be sure and bring your flag," Harry cautioned Jack Hopkins.

"How would the goat wagons do?" Jack asked.

"Fine; we could let Roy and Freddie ride in them," said Bert. "Tell any
of the other fellows who have goat teams to bring them along too."

"Eight o'clock sharp at our lane," Harry told them for the place and
time of meeting. Then they went along to finish the arrangements.

"Don't tell the boys," Nan whispered to Mildred, as they too made their
way to Stimpson's.

"Won't they be surprised?" exclaimed Mabel.

"Yes, and I am going to carry a real Betsy Ross flag, one with thirteen
stars, you know."

"Oh, yes, Betsy Ross made the first flag, didn't she?" remarked
Mildred, trying to catch up on history.

"We'll have ten big girls," Nan counted. "Then with Flossie as Liberty
we will want Bessie and Nettie for her assistants."

"Attendants," Mabel corrected, for she had seen a city parade like that
once.

It was a busy day for everybody, and when Mr. Bobbsey came up on the
train from Lakeport that evening he carried boxes and boxes of
fireworks for the boys and girls, and even some for the grown folks too.

The girls could hardly sleep that night, they were so excited over
their part, but the boys of course were used to that sort of thing, and
only slept sounder with the fun in prospect.

"Are you awake, Bert?" called Harry, so early the next morning that the
sun was hardly up yet.

"Yep," replied the cousin, jumping out of bed and hastily dressing for
the firing of the first gun.

The boys crept through the house very quietly, then ran to the barn for
their ammunition. Three big giant fire-crackers were placed in the road
directly in front of the house.

"Be careful!" whispered Bert; "they're full of powder."

But Harry was always careful with fireworks, and when he touched the
fuses to the "cannons" he made away quickly before they exploded.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Hurrah!" shouted Freddie, answering the call from his window, "I'll be
right down!"

All the others too were aroused by the first "guns," so that in a very
short time there were many boys in the road, firing so many kinds of
fire-crackers that Meadow Brook resounded like a real war fort under
fire.

"Ouch!" yelled Tom Mason, the first one to bum his fingers. "A sisser
caught me right on the thumb."

But such small accidents were not given much attention, and soon Tom
was lighting the little red crackers as merrily as before.

"Go on back, girls!" called Bert. "You'll get your dresses burnt if you
don't."

The girls were coming too near the battlements then, and Bert did well
to warn them off.

Freddie and Flossie were having a great time throwing their little
torpedoes at Mr. Bobbsey and Uncle Daniel, who were seated on the
piazza watching the sport. Snoop and Fluffy too came in for a scare,
for Freddie tossed a couple of torpedoes on the kitchen hearth where
the kittens were sleeping.

The boys were having such fun they could hardly be induced to come in
for breakfast, but they finally did stop long enough to eat a spare
meal.

"It's time to get ready!" whispered Nan to Bert, for the parade had
been kept secret from the grown folks.

At the girls' place of meeting, the coach house, Nan found all her
company waiting and anxious to dress.

"Just tie your scarfs loose under your left arm," ordered Captain Nan,
and the girls quickly obeyed like true cadets. The broad
red-white-and-blue bunting was very pretty over the girls' white
dresses, and indeed the "cadets" looked as if they would outdo the
"regulars" unless the boys too had surprises in store.

"Where's Nettie?" suddenly asked Nan, missing a poor little girl who
had been invited.

"She wouldn't come because she had no white dress," Mildred answered.

"Oh, what a shame; she'll be so disappointed! Besides, we need her to
make a full line," Nan said. "Just wait a minute. Lock the door after
me," and before the others knew what she was going to do, Nan ran off
to the house, got one of her own white dresses, rolled it up neatly,
and was over the fields to Nettie's house in a few minutes. When Nan
came back she brought Nettie with her, and not one of her companions
knew it was Nan's dress that Nettie wore.

Soon all the scarfs were tied and the flags arranged. Then Flossie had
to be dressed.

She wore a light blue dress with gold stars on it, and on her pretty
yellow curls she had a real Liberty crown. Then she had the cleanest,
brightest flag, and what a pretty picture she made!

"Oh, isn't she sweet!" all the girls exclaimed in admiration, and
indeed she was a little beauty in her Liberty costume.

"There go the drums!" Nan declared. "We must be careful to get down the
lane without being seen." This was easily managed, and now the girls
and boys met at the end of the lane.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys, beating the drums and blowing their
horns to welcome the girls.

"Oh, don't you look fine!" exclaimed Harry, who was captain of the boys.

"And don't you too!" Nan answered, for indeed the boys had such funny
big hats on and so many flags and other red-white-and-blue things, that
they too made a fine appearance.

"And Freddie!" exclaimed the girls. "Isn't he a lovely Uncle Sam!"

Freddie was dressed in the striped suit Uncle Sam always wears, and had
on his yellow curls a tall white hat. He was to ride in Jack Hopkins'
goat wagon.

"Fall in!" called Harry, and at the word all the companies fell in line.

"Cadets first," ordered the captain.

Then Flossie walked the very first one. After her came Nan and her
company. (No one noticed that Nettie's eyes were a little red from
crying. She had been so disappointed at first when she thought she
couldn't go in the parade.) After the girls came Freddie as Uncle Sam,
in the goat wagon led by Bert (for fear the goat might run away), then
fifteen boys, all with drums or fifes or some other things with which
to make a noise. Roy was in the second division with his wagon, and
last of all came the funniest thing.

A boy dressed up like a bear with a big sign on him:

TEDDY!

He had a gun under his arm and looked too comical for anything.

It was quite warm to wear a big fur robe and false face, but under this
was Jack Hopkins, the bear Teddy, and he didn't mind being warm when he
made everybody laugh so.

"Right foot, left foot, right foot, forward march!" called Nan, and the
procession started up the path straight for the Bobbsey house.

"Goodness gracious, sakes alive! Do come see de childrens! Ha, ha! Dat
sure am a parade!" called Dinah, running through the house to the front
door to view the procession.

"Oh, isn't it just beautiful!" Martha echoed close at Dinah's heels.

"My!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey; "how did they ever get made up so pretty!"

"And look at Flossie!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah.

"And see Freddie!" put in Uncle Daniel.

"Oh, we must get the camera!" Mr. Bobbsey declared, while the whole
household, all excited, stood out on the porch when the parade advanced.

Such drumming and such tooting of fifes and horns!

Freddie's chariot was now in line with the front stoop, and he raised
his tall hat to the ladies like a real Uncle Sam.

"Oh, the bear! the bear!" called everybody, as they saw "Teddy" coming
up.

"That's great," continued Uncle Daniel.

By this time Mr. Bobbsey had returned with the camera.

"Halt!" called Harry, and the procession stood still.

"Look this way. There now, all ready," said Mr. Bobbsey, and snap went
the camera on as pretty a picture as ever covered a plate.

"Right wheel! forward march!" called Nan again, and amid drumming and
tooting the procession started off to parade through the center of
Meadow Brook.



CHAPTER X

A GREAT DAY

Never before had such a parade been seen in the little country place,
and all along the road cheer after cheer greeted our young friends, for
even the few old soldiers who lived in Meadow Brook enjoyed the
children's Fourth of July fun.

By lunch time the procession had covered all the ground planned, so
from the postoffice the cadets and regulars started back over the shady
country road.

And at home they found a surprise awaiting them!

Ice cream on the lawn for everybody in the parade.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Daniel had set out all the garden benches, and
with the two kinds of ice cream made by Dinah and Martha, besides the
cookies and jumbles Aunt Sarah supplied, with ice-cold lemonade that
John passed around, surely the tired little soldiers and cadets had
splendid refreshment!

"My goat almost runned away!" lisped Freddie. "But I held on tight like
a real fireman."

"And mine wanted to stop and eat grass in the middle of the big
parade," Roy told them.

"Now eat up your ice cream. Nettie, have some more? Jack, you surely
need two plates after carrying that bear skin," said Uncle Daniel.

The youngsters did not have to be urged to eat some more of the good
things, and so it took quite a while to "finish up the rations," as
Uncle Daniel said.

"They're goin' to shoot the old cannon off, father," Harry told Uncle
Daniel, "and we're all going over on the pond bank to see them, at
three o'clock."

"They're foolish to put powder in that old cracked gun," remarked Uncle
Daniel. "Take care, if you go over, that you all keep at a safe
distance."

It was not long until three o'clock, and then when all the
red-white-and-blue things had been stored away for another year, the
boys hurried off to see Peter Burns fire the old cannon.

Quite a crowd of people had gathered about the pond bank, which was a
high green wall like that which surrounds a reservoir.

Peter was busy stuffing the powder in the old gun, and all the others
looked on anxiously.

"Let's go up in that big limb of the willow tree," suggested Bert. "We
can see it all then, and be out of range of the fire."

So the boys climbed up in the low willow, that leaned over the pond
bank.

"They're almost ready," Harry said, seeing the crowd scatter.

"Look out!" yelled Peter, getting hold of the long string that would
fire the gun.

Peter gave it a tug, then another.

Everybody held their breath, expecting to hear an awful bang, but the
gun didn't go off.

Very cautiously Peter stepped nearer the cannon to see what might be
the matter, when the next instant with a terrific report the whole
cannon flew up in the air!

Peter fell back! His hat seemed to go up with the gun!

"Oh, he's killed!" yelled the people.

"Poor Peter!" gasped Harry.

"He ought to know better!" said Mr. Mason.

"Father said that cannon was dangerous," Harry added.

By this time the crowd had surrounded Peter, who lay so still and
looked so white. The Bobbsey boys climbed down from the tree and joined
the others.  "He's only unconscious from the shock," spoke up Mr.
Mason, who was leaning down very close to Peter. "Stand back, and give
him air."

The crowd fell back now, and some of the boys looked around to find the
pieces of cannon.

"Don't touch it," said Tom Mason, as a little fellow attempted to pick
up a piece of the old gun. "There might be powder in it half lighted."

Mrs. Burns had run over from her home at the report of the accident,
and she was now bathing Peter's face with water from the pond.

"He's subject to fainting spells," she told the frightened people, "and
I think he'll be all right when he comes to."

Peter looked around, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Did it go off?" he smiled, remembering the big report.

"Guess it did, and you went off with it," Mr. Mason said. "How do you
feel?"

"Oh, I'll be all right when my head clears a bit. I guess I fainted."

"So you did," said Mrs. Burns, "and there's no use scolding you for
firing that old gun. Come home now and go to bed; you have had all the
fireworks you want for one day."

Quite a crowd followed Peter over to his home, for they could not
believe he was not in any way hurt.

"Let us go home," Harry said to his cousin. "We have to get all our
fireworks ready before evening."

The boys found all at home enjoying themselves. Freddie's torpedoes
still held out, and Flossie had a few more "snakes" left. Nan had
company on the lawn, and it indeed was an ideal Fourth of July.

"Look at the balloon!" called John from the carriage house. "It's going
to land in the orchard." This announcement caused all the children to
hurry up to the orchard, for everybody likes to "catch" a balloon.

"There's a man in it," John exclaimed as the big ball tossed around in
the air.

"Yes, that's the balloon that went up from the farmers' picnic," said
Harry.

The next minute a parachute shot out from the balloon; and hanging to
it the form of a man could be seen.

"Oh, he'll fall!" cried Freddie, all excited. "Let's catch him--in
something!"

"He's all right," John assured the little boy. "That umbrella keeps him
from coming down too quickly."

"How does it?" Freddie asked.

"Why, you see, sonny, the air gets under the umbrella and holds it up.
The man's weight then brings it down gently."

"Oh, maybe he will let us fly up in it," Freddie remarked, much
interested.

"Here he comes! here he comes!" the boys called, and sure enough the
big parachute, with the man dangling on it, was now coming right
down--down--in the harvest-apple tree!

"Hello there!" called the man from above, losing the colored umbrella
and quickly dropping himself from the low tree.

"Hello yourself!" answered John. "Did you have a nice ride?"

"First class," replied the man with the stars on his shirt. "But I've
got a long walk back to the grove. Could I hire a bicycle around here?"

Harry spoke to his father, and then quickly decided to let the balloon
man ride his bicycle down to the picnic grounds.

"You can leave it at the ice-cream stand," Harry told the stranger. "I
know the man there, and he will take care of it for me until I call for
it."

The children were delighted to talk to a real live man that had been up
in a balloon, and the balloonist was indeed very pleasant with the
little ones. He took Freddie up in his arms and told him all about how
it felt to be up in the sky.

"You're a truly fireman!" Freddie said, after listening to all the
dangers there are so far above ground. "I'm a real fireman too!"

Just then the balloon that had been tossing about in the air came down
in the other end of the orchard.

"Well, there!" exclaimed the man. "That's good luck. Now, whichever one
of you boys gets that balloon first will get ten dollars. That's what
we pay for bringing it back!"

With a dash every boy started for the spot where the balloon had
landed. There were quite a few others besides the Bobbseys, and they
tumbled over each other trying to get there first. Ned Prentice,
Nettie's brother, was one of the best runners, and he cut across the
orchard to get a clear way out of the crowd.

"Go it, Bert!" called John.

"Keep it up, Harry!" yelled someone else.

"You'd get it, Tom!" came another voice.

But Ned was not in the regular race, and nobody noticed him.

"They've got it," called the excited girls.

"It's Harry!"

"No, it's Bert!"

"'Tisn't either--it's Ned!" called John, as the only poor boy in the
crowd proudly touched the big empty gas-bag!

"Three cheers for Ned!" called Uncle Daniel, for he and Mr. Bobbsey had
joined in the crowd.

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted all the boys good-naturedly, for Ned
was a favorite companion, besides being one who really needed the money.

"Suppose we drive down," Uncle Daniel suggested. "Then we can bring Ned
back with his ten dollars."

This was agreed upon as a good plan, and as quickly as John had hitched
up the big wagon ail the boys piled in with the aeronaut and started
for the grove.



CHAPTER XI

THE LITTLE GARDENERS

When little Ned Prentice put the ten-dollar bill in his mother's hand,
on that pleasant Fourth of July evening, he felt like a man. His mother
could hardly believe the story of Ned's getting the money just for
finding a balloon, but when it was explained how valuable the balloon
was, and how it sometimes takes days of searching in the woods to find
one after the balloonist lets go and drops down with his parachute, she
was finally convinced that the money rightfully belonged to Ned.

"No one needs it more than I do," Mrs. Prentice told Mr. Bobbsey, who
had brought Ned home in the wagon, "for since the baby was sick we have
hardly been able to meet our bills, it cost so much for medicine."

"We were all glad when Ned got there first,"

Harry said politely, "because we knew he deserved the reward most."

As Ned was a poor boy, and had to work on farms during vacation, his
father being dead and only one brother being old enough to go to work,
the reward turned out a great blessing, for ten dollars is a good deal
of money for a little boy to earn at one time.

"Be sure to come up to our fireworks tonight," Harry called, as they
drove away, and Ned promptly accepted the invitation.

"It has certainly been a great Fourth of July!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed,
later in the evening when the children fired off their Roman candles
and sky rockets and burned the red fire. The little children had
beautiful pinwheels and "nigger chasers" that they put off on the
porch. Then Nan had a big fire balloon that she sent up, and they
watched it until it was out of sight, away over the pond and clear out
of Meadow Brook.

It was a very tired lot of children that rolled off to sleep that
night, for indeed it had been a great day for them all.

For a few days after the Fourth it rained, as it always does, on
account of all the noise that goes up in the air to shake the clouds.

"You can play in the coach house," Aunt Sarah told the children, "but
be careful not to run in and out and get wet."  The children promised
to remember, and soon they were all out in the big wagon house playing
merrily. Freddie climbed in the wagon and made believe it was a "big
fire engine." Bert attached a bell on the side for him, and when he
pulled a rope this bell would clang like a chemical apparatus. Nan and
Flossie had all their dolls in the pretty new carriage with the soft
gray cushions, and in this the little girls made believe driving to New
York and doing some wonderful shopping.

"Freddie, you be coachman," coaxed Flossie, "because we are inside and
have to have someone drive us."

"But who will put out all the fires?" Freddie asked, as he clanged the
bell vigorously.

"Make b'lieve they are all out," Flossie told him.

"But you can't make b'lieve about fires," argued the little fellow,
"'cause they're really."

"I tell you," Nan suggested. "We will suppose this is a great big high
tally-ho party, and the ladies always drive them. I'll be away up high
on the box, but we ought to have someone blow a horn!"

"I'll blow the horn," Freddie finally gave in, "cause I got that big
fire out now."

So Freddie climbed up on the high coach with his sisters, and blew the
horn until Nan told them they had reached New York and were going to
stop for dinner.

There were so many splendid things to play with in the coach house,
tables, chairs, and everything, that the Bobbseys hardly knew it before
it was lunch time, the morning passed so quickly.

It cleared up in the afternoon and John asked the children if they
wanted to help him do some transplanting.

"Oh! we would love to," Nan answered, for she did love gardening.

The ground was just right for transplanting, after the rain, and the
tender little lettuce plants were as easy to take up as they were to
put down again.

"I say, Nan," John told her, "you can have that little patch over there
for your garden. I'll give you a couple of dozen plants, and we will
see what kind of a farmer you will make."

"Oh, thank you, John," Nan answered. "I'll do just as I have seen you
doing," and she began to take the little plants in the pasteboard box
from one bed to the other.

"Be careful not to shake the dirt off the roots," said John, "and be
sure to put one plant in each place. Put them as far apart here as the
length of this little stick, and when you put them in the ground press
the earth firmly around the roots."

Flossie was delighted to help her sister, and the two girls made a very
nice garden indeed.

"Let's put little stones around the path," Flossie suggested, and John
said they could do this if they would be careful not to let the stones
get on the garden.

"I want to be a planter too," called Freddie, running up the path to
John. "But I want to plant radishes," he continued, "'cause they're the
reddist."

"Well, you just wait a few minutes, sonny," said John, "and I'll show
you how to plant radishes. I'll be through with this lettuce in a few
minutes."

Freddie waited with some impatience, running first to Nan's garden then
back to John's. Finally John was ready to put in a late crop of
radishes.

"Now, you see, we make a long drill like this," John explained as he
took the drill and made a furrow in the soft ground.

"If it rains again that will be a river," said Freddie, for he had
often played river at home after a rain.

"Now, you see this seed is very fine," continued John. "But I am going
to let you plant it if you're careful."

"That ain't redishes!" exclaimed Freddie "I want to plant redishes."

"But this is the seed, and that's what makes the radishes," John
explained.

"Nope, that's black and it can't make it red?" argued Freddie.

"Wait and see," the gardener told him. "You just take this little paper
of seeds and scatter them in the drill. See, I have mixed them with
sand so they will not grow too thick."

Freddie took the small package, and kneeling down on the board that
John used, he dropped the little shower of seeds in the line.

"They're all gone!" he told John presently; "get some more."

"No, that's enough. Now we will see how your crop grows. See, I just
cover the seed very lightly like mamma covers Freddie when he sleeps in
the summer time."

"Do you cover them more in the winter time too, like mamma does?"
Freddie asked.

"Yes, indeed I do," said the gardener, "for seeds are just like babies,
they must be kept warm to grow."

Freddie stood watching the line he had planted the seed in.

"They ain't growing yet," he said at last. "Why don't they come up,
John?"

"Oh!" laughed the gardener, "they won't come up right away. They have
to wake up first. You will see them above the ground in about a week, I
guess."

This was rather a disappointment to the little fellow, who never
believed in waiting for anything, but he finally consented to let the
seeds grow and come back again later to pick the radishes.

"Look at our garden!" called Nan proudly, from across the path.
"Doesn't it look straight and pretty?"

"You did very well indeed," said John, inspecting the new lettuce
patch. "Now, you'll have to keep it clear of weeds, and if a dry spell
should come you must use the watering can."

"I'll come up and tend to it every morning," Nan declared. "I am going
to see what kind of lettuce I can raise."

Nan had brought with her a beautiful string of pearl beads set in gold,
the gift of one of her aunts. She was very proud of the pearls and
loved to wear them whenever her mother would let her.

One afternoon she came to her mother in bitter tears.

"Oh, mamma!" she sobbed. "The the pearls are gone,"

"Gone! Did you lose them?" questioned Mrs. Bobbsey quickly.

"Yes."

"Where?"

"I--I don't know," and now Nan cried harder than ever.

The news soon spread that the string of pearls were lost, and everybody
set to work hunting for them.

"Where do you think you lost 'em?" asked Bert.

"I--I don't know. I was down in the garden, and up the lane, and at the
well, and out in the barn, and over to the apple orchard, and feeding
the chickens, and over in the hayfield,--and lots of places."

"Then it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack," declared
Aunt Sarah.

All the next day the boys and girls hunted for the string of pearls,
and the older folks helped. But the string could not be found. Nan felt
very bad over her loss, and her mother could do little to console her.

"I--I sup--suppose I'll never see them again," sobbed the girl.

"Oh, I guess they'll turn up some time," said Bert hopefully.

"They can't be lost so very, very bad," lisped Flossie. "'Cause they
are somewhere on this farm, ain't they?"

"Yes, but the farm is so very big!" sighed poor Nan.

For a few days Freddie went up to the garden every morning to look for
radishes. Then he gave up and declared he knew John had made a mistake
and that he didn't plant radishes at all. Nan and Flossie were very
faithful attending to their garden, and the beautiful light green
lettuce grew splendidly, being grateful for the good care given it.

"When can we pick it?" Nan asked John, as the leaves were getting quite
thick.

"In another week!" he told the girls, and so they continued to watch
for weeds and kept the ground soft around the plants as John had told
them.

Freddie's radishes were above ground now, and growing nicely, but they
thought it best not to tell him, as he might pull them up too soon. Nan
and Flossie weeded his garden as well as their own and showed they
loved to see things grow, for they did not mind the work of attending
to them.

"Papa will come up from Lakeport to-night," Nan told Flossie; "and
won't he be pleased to see our gardens!"

That evening when Mr. Bobbsey arrived the first thing he had to do was
to visit the garden.

"Why, I declare!" he exclaimed in real surprise. "You have done
splendidly. This is a fine lettuce patch."

Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had also come up to see the girls' garden,
and they too were much surprised at the result of Nan's and Flossie's
work.

"Oh!" screamed Freddie from the other side of the garden. "See my
redishes! They growed!" and before anyone could stop him he pulled up a
whole handful of the little green leaves with the tiny red balls on the
roots.

"They growed! They growed!" he shouted, dancing around in delight.

"But you must only pick the ripe ones," his father told him. "And did
you really plant them?" Mr. Bobbsey asked in surprise.

"Yep! John showed me," he declared, and the girls said that was really
Freddie's garden.

"Now I'll tell you," Aunt Sarah remarked. "We will let our little
farmers pick their vegetables for dinner, and then we will be able to
say just how good they are."

At this the girls started in to pick the very biggest heads of lettuce,
and Freddie looked carefully to get the very reddest radishes in his
patch. Finally enough were gathered, and down to the kitchen the
vegetables were carried.

"You will have to prepare them for the table," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "Let
us see, girls, what a pretty dish you can make."

This was a pleasant task to Nan and Flossie, who both always loved to
play at housekeeping, and when at last Nan brought the dish in to the
dinner table everybody said how pretty it looked.

"Them's my redishes!" exclaimed Freddie, as he saw the pretty bright
red buttons peeping out from between the lettuce leaves.

"But we can all have some, can't we, Freddie?" his father asked.

"Yes, 'course you can. But I don't want all my good redishes smothered
in that big dish of green stuff," he pouted.

"Now, Nan, you can serve your vegetables," Aunt Sarah said, and then
Nan very neatly put a few crisp lettuce leaves on each small plate, and
at the side she placed a few of Freddie's radishes, "with handles on"
as Dinah said, meaning the little green stalks.

"Just think, we've done it all from the garden to the table!" Nan
exclaimed, justly proud of her success at gardening.

"I done the radishes," put in Freddie, gulping down a drink of water to
wash the bite off his tongue, for his radishes were quite hot.

"Well, you have certainly all done very nicely," Mrs. Bobbsey said.
"And that kind of play is like going to school, for it teaches you
important lessons in nature."

The girls declared they were going to keep a garden all summer, and so
they did.

It was an unusually warm night, and so nearly all the doors were left
open when the folks went to bed. Freddie was so worked up over his
success as a gardener he could not go to sleep.

At last he dozed off, but presently he awoke with a start. What was
that strange sound ringing in his ears? He sat up and listened.

Yes, somebody must surely be playing the piano. But what funny music!
It seemed to come in funny runs and curious thumps. He called out
sharply, and his mother came at once to his side.

"I heard piano-playing," said Freddie, and Mrs. Bobbsey started, for
she remembered how Flossie had once told her the same thing.

"Oh, Freddie, are you sure?" she asked.

"Sure," repeated the little fellow. "But it wasn't very good playing."

Mrs. Bobbsey called Uncle Daniel, and the latter lit a lamp and went
below into the parlor. Nobody was at the piano or in the room.

"I've made a careful examination," he said, on coming back. "I can see
nothing unusual. Some of the children left a piece of cake on the keys
of the piano, that's all."

"Well, cake can't play," put in Freddie. "Maybe it was a ghost."

"No, you must have been dreaming," said his mother. "Come, go to
sleep," and presently Freddie dropped off. Mrs. Bobbsey was much
worried, and the next day the older folks talked the matter over; but
nothing came of it.



CHAPTER XII

TOM'S RUNAWAY

"Tom Mason is going to bring his colt out this afternoon," said Harry
to Bert, "and we can all take turns trying him."

"Oh, is it that pretty little brown horse I saw in the field back of
Tom's home?" asked Bert.

"That's him," Harry replied. "Isn't he a beauty!"

"Yes, I would like first-rate to ride him, but young horses are awful
skittish, aren't they?"

"Sometimes, but this one is partly broken. At any rate, we wouldn't
have far to fall, for he is a little fellow," said Harry.

So the boys went down to Tom's home at the appointed time, and there
they met Jack Hopkins.

"We've made a track around the fields," Tom told his companions, "and
we will train him to run around the ring, for father thinks he may be a
race-horse some day, he's so swift."

"You may go first," the boys told him, "as he's your horse."

"All right!" Tom replied, making for the stake where Sable, the pony,
was tied. Sable marched along quietly enough and made no objections to
Tom getting on his back. There was no saddle, but just the bit in the
horse's mouth and attached to it a short piece of rein.

"Get app, Sable!" called Tom, snapping a small whip at the pony's side.

But instead of going forward the little horse tried to sit down!

"Whoa! whoa!" called the boys, but Tom clung to Sable's neck and held
on in spite of the pony's back being like a toboggan slide.

"Get off there, get off there!" urged Tom, yet the funny little animal
only backed down more.

"Light a match and set it under his nose," Harry suggested. "That's the
way to make a balky horse go!"

Someone had a match, which was lighted and put where Sable could sniff
the sulphur.

"Look out! Hold on, Tom!" yelled the boys all at once, for at that
instant Sable bolted off like a deer.

"He's running away!" called Bert, which was plain to be seen, for Tom
could neither turn him this way or that, but had all he could do to
hold on the frightened animal's neck.

"If he throws him Tom will surely be hurt!" Harry exclaimed, and the
boys ran as fast as they could across the field after the runaway.

"Whoa! whoa! whoa!" called everybody after the horse, but that made not
the slightest difference to Sable, who just went as if the woods were
afire. Suddenly he turned and dashed straight up a big hill and over
into a neighbor's cornfield.

"Oh, mercy!" cried Harry, "those people are so mean about their garden,
they'll have Tom arrested if there's any corn broken."

Of course it was impossible for a runaway horse to go through a field
of corn and do no damage, and Tom realized this too. By this time the
dogs were out barking furiously, and altogether there was wild
excitement. At one end of the field there was a high board fence.

"If I could only get him there he would have to stop," thought Tom, and
suddenly he gave Sable a jerk in that direction.

"Drop off, Tom, drop off!" yelled the boys. "He'll throw you against
the fence!"

But at that minute the little horse threw himself against the boards in
such a way that Tom slid off, yet held tightly to the reins.

The horse fell, quite exhausted.

As quickly as they could get there the boys came up to help Tom.

"Hurry!" said Harry, "there is scarcely any corn broken, and we can get
away before the Trimbles see us. They're away back in the fields
planting late cabbage."

Tom felt hardly able to walk, but he limped along while Harry led Sable
carefully between the cornhills. It was only a few feet to the edge of
the field, and then they were all safe on the road again.

"Are you hurt?" the boys asked Tom, when finally they had a chance to
speak about the runaway.

"I feel as if I had dropped from a balloon onto a lot of cobblestones,"
Tom answered, "but I guess that's only the shaking up I got. That pony
certainly can go."

"Yes indeed," Harry admitted; "I guess he doesn't like the smell of
sulphur matches. Lucky he was not injured with that fall against the
fence."

"I found I had to throw him," Tom said, "and I thought the fence was
softer than a tree."

"I suppose we ought to make him run until he is played out," said Bert,
"That's the way to cure a horse of running away."

But none of the boys felt like risking their bones even to cure Sable,
so the panting animal was led to the stable and for the rest of the day
allowed to think over his bad conduct.

But that was not the last of the runaway, for in the evening just after
supper old Mr. Trimble paid a visit to Tom's father.

"I came over to tell you what a scallywag of a boy you've got," began
the cross old man. "He and a lot of young loafers took a horse and
drove him all through my cornfield to-day, and now you've got to pay
the damages."

"My son is not a scallywag," Mr. Mason declared, "and if you call him
names like loafer and scallywag I'll make you pay damages."

"Oh! you will, eh?" the other sneered. "Think I'm afraid of an old
constable up here, do you?"

"Well now, see here," Mr. Mason said, "Be reasonable and do not quarrel
over an accident. If any corn is knocked down I'll get Tom to fix it
up, if it's broken down we will see what it would cost to replace it.
But the boys did not do it purposely, and it was worse for Tom than
anyone else, for he's all black and blue from the hard knocks he got."

At this the cross man quieted down and said, Well, he would see about
it. Mr. Trimble was one of those queer people who believe all a boy is
good for is doing mischief and all a boy deserves is scolding or
beating. Perhaps this was because he had no sons of his own and
therefore had no regard for the sons of other people.

Mr. Mason went directly to the cornfield with his neighbor. He looked
carefully over every hill, and with a spade and hoe he was able to put
back into place the few stalks that had been knocked down in Sable's
flight.

"There now," said Mr. Mason, "I guess that corn is as good as ever. If
it wants any more hoeing Tom will come around in the morning and do it.
He is too stiff to move to-night."

So that ended the runaway, except for a very lame boy, Tom Mason, who
had to limp around for a day or two from stiffness.

"How would you like to be a jockey!" laughed his companions. "You held
on like a champion, but you were not in training for the banging you
got."

"Well, I guess Sable will make a fine racehorse," said Tom, "when he's
broken. But it will take someone stronger than I am to break him in."

The next afternoon all the boys went fishing. They had been out quite
late the night before to find the "night walkers" for bait, as those
little worms only come out of the ground after dark. Bert had a new
line his father brought from Lakeport, and the others boys had nets and
hooks, as most country boys who live near streams are always fond of
fishing.

"Let's go over to the cove," Harry said when they all started off.
"There's lots of good fish in that dark corner."

So the cove was chosen as a good spot to fish from, and soon the
Bobbsey boys and their friends were lying around the edge of the deep
clear stream, waiting for a bite.

Bert was the first to jerk his line, and he brought it up with such
force that the chubfish on his hook slapped Harry right in the face!

"Look out!" called Harry, trying to dodge the flapping fish. "Put your
catch down. He's a good one, but I don't care about having him kiss me
that way again."

All the boys laughed at Bert, who was a green fisherman they said. The
fish was really a very nice plump chub and weighed more than a pound.
He floundered around in the basket and flapped his tail wildly trying
to get away from them.

"I've got one," called Tom next, at the same moment pulling his line
and bringing up a pretty little sunfish. Now "sunnies" are not
considered good eating, so Tom's catch did not come up to Bert's, but
it was put in the basket just the same.

"I'm going out on the springboard," August Stout announced, stepping
cautiously out on the board from which good swimmers dived.

"You know you can't swim, August," said Harry, "and if you get a catch
and jerk it you'll tumble in."

"Oh! I'll be all right," August answered, lying down flat on the narrow
springboard and dropping his line.

For a time all the boys lay watching for a bite. No one spoke, for
sometimes they say fish are very sensitive to sound and go in another
direction if they hear a voice.

It was a beautiful July day, and perhaps the boys were a little lazy.
At any rate, they all became so quiet the little woodpeckers on the
trees went on with their work pecking at the tree bark as if no human
being was in sight.

Suddenly there was a big splash!

"August!" yelled all the boys at once, for indeed August was gone from
the springboard.

"Quick!" called Harry to his companions. "He can't swim!"

The next minute the boy in the water came to the top and threw up his
arm. But no one was near enough to reach it.

"Strike out, August!" yelled Bert. "We're coming," and one boy after
the other dropped in the water now, having thrown off their heavy
clothing.

"Oh, where is he?" screamed Bert in terror, for no movement on the
water's surface showed them where August was.

"Here!" cried Tom Mason, who was quite a distance out. "Here he is!
Help! come quick!"

No need to urge the boys to hasten, for all realized the danger their
companion was in.

"Don't pull down, August," went on Tom. "Try to help yourself, or
you'll pull me under." Harry had around his neck a strong piece of rope
he picked up as he made a dive into the water.

"Take hold of this," he called to August, "and we can all pull."

As the rope was put in August's hand the other boys all took hold and
soon towed the unfortunate boy in.

"He's very weak," said Harry when they pulled August up on the shore.
"I guess he has swallowed a lot of water. We better roll him on the
grass and work his arms up and down. That will revive him."

August was indeed very weak, and had had a narrow escape. For some time
his companions worked over him before he opened his eyes and spoke.

"Oh!" he murmured at last, "I'm so sick!"

"I guess you are, August," said Tom, "but you'll be all right soon."
They lifted him carefully under a shady tree and removed his wet
clothing.

"I'll run over to Smith's and get him something to wear home," said
Harry, who hurried across lots and presently returned with an old suit
of clothes. August was able to dress himself now, and as soon as he
felt strong enough the boys helped him home.

"You can have my fish, August," said Bert nobly.

"And mine too," Tom added. August did not want to accept the boys'
offers at first, but at last they prevailed upon him to do so.

"I think I fell asleep," said he, referring to the accident.

"Guess we all did!" added Harry, "for we only woke up when we heard the
splash."

It seems the number of accidents country boys have only make them truer
friends, for all the things that happened in Meadow Brook made each boy
think more of his companions both in being grateful for the help given
and being glad no dear friend's life was lost.



CHAPTER XIII

PICKING PEAS

"Mother," said Harry, using that loved name to show that what he was
about to say was something important, "Peter Burns is sick. He has not
been able to work since the cannon exploded and gave him the shock, and
all his peas are spoiling because there's no one to pick them. Mrs.
Burns hired some boys yesterday, but they broke down so many vines she
had to stop them; and, mother, would you mind if Bert and I picked some
to-day? The sun is not hot."

"Why, my dear," replied Aunt Sarah, "it would be very nice of you to
help Peter; he has always been a kind neighbor. I don't think it would
do you any harm to pick peas on a cool day like this. Bert can ask his
mother, and if she is satisfied you can put on your play overalls and
go right along."

Both boys were given the desired permission, and when Tom and Jack
heard where the Bobbseys were going they said at once they would go
along.

"Are you sure your mother won't mind?" Mrs. Burns asked the boys,
knowing Harry's folks did not need the money paid to pick the peas. "Of
course I'm very glad to have you if your mothers are satisfied."

Soon each boy had a big basket under his arm, and was off for the
beautiful field of soft green peas, that stretched along the pond bank
at the side of Mrs. Burns' home. Now, peas are quite an expensive
vegetable when they come in first, and farmers who have big fields of
them depend upon the return from the crop as an important part of the
summer's income. But the peas must be picked just as soon as they are
ripe, or else they will spoil. This was why Harry got his friends to
turn in to help poor Peter Burns.

"I'll go down this row and you take that." suggested Bert to Harry.
"Then we can talk to each other without hollering."

"All right," Harry replied, snapping the peas off the vines and
dropping them into his basket like a real farmer.

"Let's have a race," called Tom. "See who gets his basket full first."

"But no skipping for big ones," put in Jack. "You have to pick every
ripe one."

The boys all started in at the top of the hill, each working two rows
at a time. They were so interested in the race that scarcely a word was
spoken. The peas were plentiful and ripe too, so that the baskets were
filling up quickly. Mrs. Burns herself was picking, in fact she had
been in the field since the very first peep of dawn, and she would be
sure to stay out until the darkness would drive her in.

"You are fine pickers," she told the boys, seeing how quickly they
worked. "I pay ten cents a basket, you know."

"I guess we can earn a dollar a day at this rate," laughed Tom, whose
basket was almost full.

"I'm done," called Jack from his row.

"No, you're not," said Harry, "you have to cover the rim."

"Oh!" exclaimed Jack, who had just slipped between the rows. "Oh! there
goes my basket."

And sure enough the big basket had been upset in Jack's fall, and most
of the peas were scattered on the ground.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Bert. "I'm first. My basket is full."

"I'm next!" called Tom, picking his basket up in his arms.

"Well, I'll be last I guess," laughed Tom, trying hard to pick up the
scattered peas.

"There's mine!" called Harry, and now all the boys carried their
baskets to the big bag at the end of the field and dumped them in.

"It won't take long to fill the bag," said Harry, "and it will be so
good for Peter to have them ready, for to-morrow is market day."

So the boys worked on right along until lunch time, each having picked
four big baskets full. August Stout came along and helped some too, but
he could not stay long, as he had to cut some clothes poles for his
mother.

"Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Burns, looking at the three full bags the
boys had picked. "Isn't that splendid! But I can't pay until Peter
comes from market."

"We just did it for fun," answered Harry. "We don't want any pay."

"Indeed you must have forty cents apiece, ten cents a basket," she
insisted. "See what a good load you have picked!"

"No, really, Mrs. Burns; mother wouldn't like us to take the money,"
Harry declared. "We are glad to have helped you, and it was only fun."

Poor Mrs. Burns was so grateful she had to wipe her eyes with her
gingham apron.

"Well," she said finally, "There are some people in this world who talk
about charity, but a good boy is a gift from heaven," and she said this
just like a prayer of blessing on the boys who had helped her.

"The crop would have been spoiled to-morrow," remarked Tom, as he and
his companions started up the road. "I'm awfully glad you thought of
helping her, Harry."

It seemed all that day everything went right for the boys; they did not
have even a single mishap in their games or wanderings. Perhaps it was
because they felt so happy over having done a good turn for a poor
neighbor.

"Say, fellows," Tom said later, while they sat on the pond bank trying
to see something interesting in the cool, clear water, "what do you say
if we make up a circus!"

"Fine," the others answered, "but what will be the show?"

"Animals of course," continued Tom; "we've got plenty around here,
haven't we?"

"Well, some," Harry admitted. "There's Sable, for instance."

At this the boys all laughed at Tom, remembering the runaway.

"Well, I could be a cowboy, and ride him just the same," spoke up Tom.
"I rode him around the track yesterday, and he went all right. He was
only scared with that sulphur match when he ran away."

"A circus would be fine," Bert put in. "We could have Frisky as the
Sacred Calf."

"And Snoopy as the Wild Cat," said Harry.

"And two trained goats," August added.

"And a real human bear, 'Teddy'?" suggested Jack.

"Then a cage of pigeons," went on Harry.

"Let's get them all in training," said Tom, jumping up suddenly,
anxious to begin the sport.

"I tell you!" Harry planned. "We can each train our own animals and
then we can bring them together in a well-organized circus."

"When will we have it?" August asked impatiently.

"About next week," Harry thought, and this was decided upon.

During the interval the boys were so busy training that they had little
time for other sports, but the girls found out-door life quite as
interesting as their brothers did, and now made many discoveries in and
about the pretty woodlands.

"Oh, we saw the prettiest little rabbits today," Nan told her mother,
after a trip in the woods. "Flossie and Freddie were sitting on an old
stump when two rabbits ran right across the road in front of them.
Freddie ran after them as far as he could go in the brushwood, but of
course no one can go as fast as a rabbit."

"And the squirrels," Flossie told them. "I think the squirrels are the
prettiest things that live in the woods. They have tails just like
mamma's feather boa and they walk sitting up so cute."

"Oh, I think the rabbits are the nicest," lisped Freddie, "'cause they
are Bunnies, and Bunnies bring Easter eggs."

"And we have made the loveliest fern garden up back of the swing," said
Flossie. "We got a whole basket of ferns in the woods and transplanted
them."

"In the center we have some lovely Jack-in the-pulpits," Nan added.
"Some are light green striped, and the largest are purple with gold
stripes. The Jacks stand up straight, just like real live boys
preaching in a pulpit."

"Don't you think, mamma," asked Flossie, "that daisies and violets make
a lovely garden? I have a round place in the middle of our wild flower
bed just full of light blue violets and white daisies."

"All flowers are beautiful," their mamma told them, "but I do think
with Flossie that daisies and violets are very sweet."

"And, mamma, we got a big piece of the loveliest green moss! It is just
like real velvet," said Flossie. "We found a place all covered with it
down by the pond, under the dark cedar trees. Nan said it wouldn't grow
in our garden, but I brought some home to try. I put it in a cool dark
place, and I'm going to put lots of water on it every day."

"Moss must be very cool and damp to grow," Mrs. Bobbsey replied. "I
remember how disappointed I used to be when I was a little girl and
tried to make it grow around my geraniums. It would always dry up and
turn brown in a few days."

"Oh," called Freddie from his garden under the cherry tree, "come
quick! Look at the funny bugs!"

Nan and Flossie hurried to where their little brother had dug a hole in
the earth.

"They're mice!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, aren't they cute! Let's catch them.
Call Bert or Harry."

While Flossie ran to tell Bert, Nan watched the tiny mice so that they
would not get away.

"It's a nest of field mice," Harry told them.

"We'll put them in a cage and have them in our circus."

"But they're my mice," cried Freddie, "and I won't let anybody have
them!"

"We're only going to help you take care of them in a little box. Oh,
there's the mother--catch her, Harry," called Bert.

The mother mouse was not so easy to catch, however, and the boys had
quite a chase after her. At last she ran into a tin box the boys had
sunk in the ground when playing golf. Here Harry caught the frightened
little creature.

"I've got a queer kind of a trap," Harry said. "It's just like a cage.
We can put them in this until we build a larger one. We can make one
out of a box with a wire door."

The mice were the smallest, cutest things, not larger than Freddie's
thumb. They hardly looked like mice at all, but like some queer little
bugs. They were put in the cage trap, mother and all, and then Bert got
them a bit of cheese from the kitchen.

"What! Feed mice!" exclaimed Dinah "Sakes alive, chile! you go bringing
dem mice in de house to eat all our cake and pie. You just better drown
dem in de brook before dey bring a whole lot more mices around here."

"We'll keep them away from the house," Bert told Dinah. "We're going to
have a circus, you know, and these will be our trained mice."

Freddie, of course, was delighted with the little things, and wanted to
dig for more.

"I tell you!" said Bert. "We might catch butterflies and have them
under a big glass on the table with all the small animals."

"That would be good," Harry agreed. "We could catch some big brown ones
and some little fancy ones. Then after dark we could get some big moths
down by the postoffice electric light."

The girls, too, went catching butterflies. Nan was able to secure four
or five yellow ones in the flower garden near the porch, and Flossie
got two of the small brown variety in the nasturtium bed. Harry and
Bert searched in the close syringa bushes where the nests are usually
found.

"Oh! look at this one!" called Freddie, coming up with a great green
butterfly. "Is it bird?" he asked. "See how big it is!"

It really was very large, and had such beautiful wings it might easily
be mistaken for some strange bird.

"We will try to keep them alive," said Harry, "and perhaps we can get
ma's big glass globe to put them in. She has one she used to put wax
flowers under."

"And, oh say!" exclaimed Bert, "couldn't we have an aquarium with
snakes and turtles and toads in?"

"Fine!" declared Harry. "We've got a big glass tank I used to have gold
fish in. We'll get the other fellows to help catch some snakes, fish,
and turtles and toads, and--and anything else that will stand water!"

Then what a time they had hunting for reptiles! It seemed each boy had
a different variety on his premises. August Stout brought three turtles
and Jack Hopkins caught two snakes under a big stone in his back yard.
Tom Mason supplied four lovely gold fish, while Ned Prentice brought
three bright green frogs.

"I can catch hop-toads," declared Freddie, and sure enough the little
fellow brought two big ones and a baby toad in his hat down to the
boys, who had their collection in a glass tank in the barn.

"We can't put the snakes in with the others or they'll eat them up,"
said Jack. "I'll get a big glass jar for the snakes."

"And say!" said Harry. "Will we charge admission to the show?"

"Sure--five cents each," said Tom, "and give the money to the fresh-air
camp over on the mountain."

This was considered a good plan, and now it was only a few days more
until Wednesday--the day of the circus!



CHAPTER XIV

THE CIRCUS

News of the circus had spread from one end of Meadow Brook to the
other. Every boy and girl in the place expected to get in to see the
sights, and even some grown folks had made up their minds, from what
they heard, there would be something interesting for them to see, and
so they decided to go too.

Mrs. Bobbsey, Aunt Sarah, Dinah, and Martha had bought tickets for
reserved seats (these cost ten cents each). Then Mildred Manners was
going to bring her mother and her big sister, and Mabel Herold expected
to have her mother with her also. Mr. Bobbsey was coming up from
Lakeport purposely to see the circus, and Uncle Daniel had helped the
boys put up the seats and fix things generally. A big tent had been
borrowed from the Herolds; they were only out at Meadow Brook for the
summer, and this tent was erected in the open field between the Bobbsey
and the Mason farms, alongside the track where Tom had tried Sable.

The tent had large flaps that opened up the entire front, so that all
the exhibits could be shown nicely to the people on the seats out side.

The seats were made of boards set on most anything that would hold
them, with a few garden benches for reserved seats at the front.

Everything was ready, and the circus day came at last.

"Lucky it isn't raining," the boys declared as they rushed around
putting the final touches to everything.

August Stout was appointed to collect the tickets, and Ned Prentice was
to show the people to their seats.

Two o'clock!

Only one hour more!

Lots of children came early to get good seats. Roy Mason sat right in
the front row alongside of Freddie. Nettie Prentice was on the very
first bench back of the reserved seats. The Herolds came next, and had
Aunt Sarah's front garden bench, the red one. Mildred Manners' folks
paid ten cents each too, and they had the big green bench from the side
porch.

"Give Mrs. Burns a front seat," Harry whispered to Ned, as the busy
farmer's wife actually stopped her work to see what all the excitement
was about.

The Bobbseys had come--Mr. Bobbsey and all,--and Dinah wore her best
black bonnet.

"When will it begin?" Flossie asked, just trembling with excitement.

"I saw Harry and Bert go in the tent some time ago," whispered Nan;
"and see, they are loosing the tent flap."

There was a shout of applause when Harry appeared. He actually wore a
swallowtail coat and had on a choker--a very high collar--and a bright
green tie. He wore long trousers too, and looked so queer even Aunt
Sarah had to laugh when she saw him.

"Oh!" exclaimed all the children when they looked inside the tent.

"Isn't it grand!" whispered Flossie.

Then Bert stepped up on the soap box in the middle of the ring.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, making a profound bow, "ladies and
gentlemen."

Then everybody roared laughing.

Bert had to wait until they got through laughing at his funny costume,
which was a good deal like Harry's, only the latter wore a red tie.

In a few moments Bert went on again.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Our first number is Frisky, the Sacred Calf of
India!" he exclaimed, imitating that queer-voiced man called a "Barker"
and used at circuses.

Snap! snap! went Bert's whip, and out from a side place, back of a big
screen, came Jack Hopkins dressed like a real clown, leading our old
friend Frisky, the runaway calf.

How awfully funny it was!

The calf had over him a plush portiere that reached clear down to the
ground, and over each ear was tied a long-handled feather duster!

Such laughing and clapping as greeted this "first number"!

Frisky just turned around square in front and looked the people
straight in the face. This funny move made Mr. Bobbsey "die laughing,"
as Flossie said, and Uncle Daniel too was hilarious.

"The sacred calf is too sacred to smile," laughed Uncle Daniel, while
Dinah and Martha just roared.

The children didn't think they ought to laugh out loud and spoil the
show; even Freddie raised his finger to Dinah.

Suddenly the clown jumped on the calf's back. He tried to stand on his
head. Then he turned a somersault on to the sawdust.

Everybody clapped hard now, and the children began to shout.

But Bert snapped his whip and the clown went down on his hands and
knees to apologize. Of course clowns are not supposed to speak, so Jack
did everything by pantomime.

Next he came around and kissed Frisky. This made everybody roar again,
and no matter what the clown did it certainly looked very funny.

Finally Bert snapped his whip three times, and the clown jumped on
Frisky's back, over the plush curtain and all, and rode off.

"Wasn't that splendid!" everybody exclaimed.

"I really never enjoyed a big circus more than this!" remarked Mrs.
Bobbsey to Mrs. Burns. The others all said nice things too; and then
Bert announced the next turn.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began again, "our next number will introduce
to you the famous wildcats, Snoop and Fluffy. Real wildcats from the
jungle, and this is the first--time--they--have ever been exhibited
in--this country!"

Snap went the whip, and out came Harry with our little kitten friends
one on each arm.

He whistled, and Snoop climbed on his shoulder!

He whistled again, and Fluffy climbed on the other shoulder.

This "brought the house down," as Uncle Daniel said, and there was so
much noise the kittens looked frightened.

Next Harry stretched out both arms straight and the kittens carefully
walked over into his hands.

"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Dinah. "Jest see dat Snoopy kitty-cat! If
he can't do real reg'lar circus tricks! And jest to think how he cut up
on de cars! 'Pears like as if he was doin' it fer jokes den too!"

"And look at Fluffy!" exclaimed Martha; "as white as Snoop is black!"
Harry stooped down and let the kittens jump through his hands, which is
an old but none the less a very pretty trick.

With the air of a real master, Bert snapped his whip and placed on the
table a little piece of board. He rubbed something on each end (it was
a bit of dried herring, but the people didn't know that), then Harry
put Snoop on one end and Fluffy on the other.

"Oh, a teeter-tauter!" called Freddie, unable to restrain his joy any
longer. "I bet on Snoop. He's the heaviest."

At the sound of Freddie's voice Snoop turned around and the move sent
Fluffy up the air.

"Oh! oh! oh!" came a chorus from the children, but before anybody in
the circus had time to interfere off went Fluffy, as hard as she could
run, over the lots, home.

The next minute Snoop was after her, and Harry stood alone in the ring
bowing to the "tremendous applause."

When the laughing had ceased Bert made the next announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we will now introduce our famous
menagerie. First we have the singing mice."

"They're mine!" called Freddie, but Nan insisted on him keeping quiet.

"Now you will hear the mice sing," said Bert, and as he held up the
cage of little mice somebody whistled a funny tune back of the scenes.

"Good! good!" called Mr. Bobbsey. "We've got real talent here," he
added, for indeed the boys had put together a fine show.

"Now you see our aquarium," went on Bert as Harry helped him bring
forward the table that held the glass tank.

"Here we have a real sea serpent," he said, pointing to a good fat chub
that flopped around in the water.

"Let the little ones walk right up and see them," Bert said. "Form in
line and pass in this way."

Not only the children went up, but grown folks too, for they wanted a
look into the tank.

"Now here are our alligators and crocodiles," announced Bert, pointing
his whip at the turtles.

"And these are sea-lions," he said, pointing out Freddie's hop-toads.

At each announcement everybody laughed, but Bert went on as seriously
as if he were deaf.

"In this separate tank," he declared, "we have our boa-constrictors,
the largest and fiercest in the world. This is the first time one of
this specimen has ever been captured alive. Note the dangerous stripe
on his back!"

It was Jack's snakes that came in for this description, and the girls
were quite afraid of them, although they were in a glass jar.

"Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Burns. "If this isn't a sure-enough
circus. I often paid a half-dollar when I went to see things no better
than these!"

Everybody thought everything was splendid, and the boys were well paid
for their efforts.

"Now," said Bert, "here are our crystal fish from the deep sea!" (These
were Tom's goldfish.) "You will notice how bespangled they are. They
say this comes from the fish eating the diamonds lost in shipwrecks."

"What a whopper!" called someone back of the scenes whose voice sounded
like Tom Mason's.

Snap! went Bert's whip, and the boys did not interrupt him again.

"The last part of our menagerie is the cage of prize butterflies," said
Bert. "These butterflies are rare and scarce and--"

"Hard to catch!" remarked someone not on the programme.

"Now there will be ten minutes' intermission," the announcer said, "so
all may have time to see everything in the menagerie.

"After that we will give you the best number of the programme, our
chariot race."

"Oh, that's going to be Tom!" exclaimed Roy.

"No, it's Bert," said Flossie.

"Well, Jack has our goat-wagon," said Mildred.

"I guess there'll be a whole lot in the race," said Freddie, "and maybe
they'll have firemen."

During the intermission August sold a whole big basket of peanuts, and
the people wanted more. They knew all the money was to go to the
fresh-air camp, which was probably the reason they bought so generously.

"I don't know when I have enjoyed myself so much," declared Mrs.
Manners, fanning herself. "I had no idea boys could be so clever."

"That's because you only have girls," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Don't you think we ought to give them a treat for working so hard?"
whispered Mrs. Herold to Aunt Sarah. "I would be delighted to have them
all to dinner," she added, in her society way, for the Herolds were
quite rich.

"That would be very nice, I'm sure," Aunt Sarah replied; "boys always
have good appetites after having a lot of fun."

All this time there was plenty of noise back of the scenes, and it was
evident something big was being prepared.

Presently Bert and Harry came out and lowered the tent flap, first
making sure all the little sightseers were outside.

"They're comin'!" exclaimed Freddie, clapping his fat hands.

"Oh, I'm just so nervous!" whispered Flossie! "I hope none of the
animals will get loose."

"Now, ladies and gentlemen," called Tom Mason, appearing at the tent,
"if you will just turn round the other way in your seats and face that
ring we will give you an exhibition of cowboy life on the plains!"



CHAPTER XV

THE CHARIOT RACE

Tom's costume was a splendid imitation of a cowboy. He wore tan-colored
overalls and a jumper, the jumper being slashed up at the sides like an
Indian's coat. On his head was a very broad sombrero, this hat having
really come from the plains, as it belonged to a Western farmer who had
lately moved to Meadow Brook.

Presently Tom appeared again, this time riding the fiery Sable.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys, as Tom drove into the ring like a
major.

Bert now stepped into the middle of the ring alongside of some soap
boxes that were piled up there.

"Now you see ladies and gentlemen," began Bert, laughing a little at
the show in broad daylight, "you see this (the soap boxes) is a mail
coach. Our cowboy will rob the mail coach from his horse just as they
used to do in the mountains of Arizona."

Snap went the whip, and away went Sable around the ring at a nice even
canter. After a few turns around Tom urged his horse on a little until
he was going on a steady run. Every one kept quiet, for most of Meadow
Brook people had heard how Sable had run away some days before.

"There ought to be music," whispered Jack to Harry, for indeed the
circus was so real it only lacked a brass band.

Now Bert put on top of the soap boxes Harry's canvas schoolbag stuffed
full of papers.

"This is the United States mail," he said. "We will understand that the
coach has stopped for a few minutes."

Sable was going along splendidly by this time, and everybody said what
a pretty little horse he was.

"He's goin' to steal the mail box now!" whispered Flossie to Freddie.
"I hope Sable won't fall or anything."

Snap! snap! went the whip as the horse ran faster and faster.

All of a sudden Tom got a good tight hold on the reins, then he pulled
up alongside of the mail coach, leaned over, grabbed the mail bag, and
spurred his horse at full speed around the ring.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted everybody.

"Well done!" called Uncle Daniel.

"Couldn't be better!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.

Tom waved his hat now and patted Sable affectionately, as all good
riders do when their horses have done well in the ring.

The men admired the little horse so much they came up and asked the
"cowboy" a lot of questions about him, how old he was and who broke him
in.

"One more number," called Bert. "The chariot race."

At this all took their seats again, and out trotted two clowns, Jack
and August, each riding in a little goat wagon.

The goats were decorated with the Fourth of July buntings and the
wagons had the tailboards out and were tipped up like circus chariots.

The clowns pulled up in line.

"One, two, three!" called Bert, with a really big revolver up in the
air.

"Ready! Set! Go!" Bang! went the revolver (a blank cartridge, of
course) and away started the chariots.

Jack wore a broad green belt and August had yellow. Jack darted ahead!

"Go it, green!" shouted one group of boys.

"Pass him, orange!" called another crowd.

Now August passed Jack just as they crossed the line.

"One!" called Bert. "We will have ten rounds."

In the next the wagons kept almost even until just within a few feet of
the line, then Jack crossed first.

"Two!" called Bert, while all the boys shouted for their favorite.

In the next three or four turns the riders divided even. Finally the
last round was reached and the boys had tied; that is, both were even
when the round started. This of course made the race very interesting,
as both had equal chances of winning.

"I'll put a dollar on green," called Mr. Bobbsey. "For the fresh-air
fund."

"I'll put one on orange," called Uncle Daniel, "for the same charity."

Then the ladies all wanted to bet, but Bert said it was against the
rules to allow betting.

"We will take all the money you want to give us," said Bert, "but we
cannot allow betting on the races."

"All ready!" called the ringmaster, holding his revolver high in the
air again.

Bang went the gun!

Off went the chariots!

My, how those little goats did run!

"Go it, green!"

"Go it, orange!"

Shout after shout greeted the riders as they urged their steeds around
the ring.

Suddenly Jack's chariot crossed in front of August.

"Foul!" called Bert, while Jack tried his best to get on his own side
again.

"Back! back!" yelled Jack to his horse (goat), but the little animal
was too excited to obey.

Finally fat August Stout, the funniest clown: dashed home first and won
the race!

"Hurrah for Nero!" called everybody. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted
the boys long and loud.

The circus was over!

The money was counted, and there was exactly twenty-three dollars to be
given the poor children in the Meadow Brook Fresh-Air Camp.

Wasn't that splendid? And to think everybody had such a good time too!

Freddie and Roy were allowed to ride home in the goat wagons, and they
tried to race along the way.

A committee of five boys, Bert, Harry, Jack, Tom, and August, took the
money over to the fresh-air camp the next day, and the managers said it
was a very welcome gift, for new coats were needed for some sick
children that were expected to come out from the city as soon as
provision could be made for them.

"Somebody dropped a two-dollar bill in the ticket box," August told his
companions. "Then there were the other two dollars from the race,
besides some fifty-cent pieces I don't know who gave. Of course we
couldn't make all that just on five-and ten-cent seats. And I took in
two dollars on the peanuts besides."

"Well, we're all satisfied," said Harry. "And I guess everybody had a
good time."

"Sure they did," spoke up Tom, "and I hope Bert will come out here next
year to help us with another big circus. They're the best fun we ever
had."

For some days every boy and girl in Meadow Brook talked about the
circus, which had really been a greater success than even the boys
themselves had expected.

It was a warm afternoon quite late in July--one of those days that make
a boy feel lazy and inclined to stretch himself.

Bert and Harry were down back of the barn sitting on the fresh stack of
hay that had just been piled up by John the stableman.

"Did you ever try smoking?" Harry asked Bert suddenly, as if he had
discovered something new and interesting.

"No!" answered Bert in surprise. "Father wouldn't let me smoke."

"Neither would pa," said Harry, "but I suppose every fellow has to try
it some time. I've seen them make cigarettes out of corn silk."

"I suppose that is not as bad as tobacco," replied Bert.

"No," answered Harry, "there's no harm in corn silk. Guess I'll try to
roll a cigarette."

At this Harry slid down off the hay and pulled from the fast withering
corn some dry silk.

With a good handful he went back to Bert.

"I've got some soft paper," he said, sitting down again and beginning
the task.

Bert watched with interest, but really had no idea of doing wrong.

"There!" exclaimed Harry, giving the ends of the cigarette a twist.
"How is that?"

"Pretty good," answered Bert; "looks like a real one."

"Let's try it!" went on Harry.

"Not in the hay," exclaimed Bert; "you might drop the match."

At this Harry slid down along the side of the stack, and Bert followed.

It did seem wrong as soon as Harry struck the match, but the cigarette
being only corn silk made the boys forget all the warnings never to
smoke.

Harry gave a puff or two. Then he choked a little.

"Kinder strong," he spluttered. "You try it!"

Bert put the cigarette in his mouth. He drew it once or twice, then
quickly tossed it aside.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed. "Tastes like old shoes!"

At that time John came up and piled on some more hay. The boys of
course had to act as if nothing had happened, and dared not look around
to find the lighted cigarette even though they wanted to very much.

"I hope it went out," Bert said, as John walked away again.

"If it didn't it's under the hay," said Harry, somewhat alarmed. "But I
guess it's out."

"My, look at the storm coming!" Bert exclaimed suddenly. "We ought to
help John with that load of hay."

"All right," said Harry, "come along!" and with this the two boys
started on a run down through the fields into the open meadow, where
the dry hay was being packed up ready to put on the hay rick.

John, of course, was very glad of the help, for it spoils hay to get it
wet, so all three worked hard to load up before the heavy shower should
come up.

"All ready!" called John, "and no time to lose."

At this the boys jumped up and all started for the barn.

"There's smoke!" exclaimed Harry in terror as they neared the barn.

"The barn is afire!" screamed John the next minute, almost falling from
his seat on the wagon in his haste to get down.

"Quick! quick!" yelled the boys, so frightened they could hardly move.

"The hose!" called John, seeing flames now shoot out of the barn
windows, "Get the hose, Harry; it's in the coach house. I'll get a
bucket while you attach the hose."

By this time everybody was out from the house.

"Oh, mercy!" cried Aunt Sarah. "Our whole barn will be burned."

Uncle Daniel was with John now, pouring water on the flames, that were
gaining in spite of all efforts to put them out.

"Where's the firemen!" cried little Freddie, in real tears this time,
for he, like all the others, was awfully frightened.

The boys had a stream from the hose now, but this too was of no
account, for the flames had shot up from the big pile of dry hay!

"The firemen!" called Freddie again.

"There are no firemen in the country, Freddie," Nan told him. "We have
to put the fire out ourselves."

"We can't then," he went on, "and all the other barns will burn too."

There was indeed great danger, for the flames were getting ahead
rapidly.

All this time the terrific thunderstorm was coming up.

Clap after clap of thunder rolled over the hills and made the fire look
more terrible against the black sky.

"The rain!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel at last, "The rain may put it out;
we can't."

At this one terrific clap of thunder came. Then the downpour of rain.
It came like a very deluge, and as it fell on the flames it sent out
steam and smoke but quickly subdued the cracking and flashing of the
fire.

Everybody ran to the back porch now but John and Uncle Daniel. They
went in the coach house at the side of the barn.

"How could it have caught fire?" Aunt Sarah said. But Harry and Bert
were both very pale, and never said a word.

How heavily the rain did pour down, just like a cloudburst! And as it
struck the fire even the smoke began to die out.

"It's going out!" exclaimed Harry. "Oh, I hope it keeps on raining!"

Soon there was even no more smoke!

"It's out!" called John, a little later. "That was a lucky storm for
us."



CHAPTER XVI

THE FLOOD

The heavy downpour of rain had ceased now, and everybody ran to the
barn to see what damage the fire had done.

"It almost caught my pigeon coop!" said Harry, as he examined the
blackened beams in the barn near the wire cage his birds lived in.

"The entire back of this barn will have to be rebuilt," said Uncle
Daniel. "John, are you sure you didn't drop a match in the hay?"

"Positive, sir!" answered John. "I never use a match while I'm working.
Didn't even have one in my clothes."

Bert whispered something to Harry. It was too much to have John blamed
for their wrongdoing.

"Father!" said Harry bravely, but with tears in his eyes. "It was our
fault; we set the barn afire!"

"What!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel in surprise. "You boys set the barn
afire!"

"Yes," spoke up Bert. "It was mostly my fault. I threw the cigarette
away and we couldn't find it."

"Cigarette!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel. "What!--you boys smoking!"

Both Bert and Harry started to cry. They were not used to being spoken
to like that, and of course they realized how much it cost to put that
nasty old cigarette in their mouths. Besides there might have been a
great deal more damage if it hadn't been for the rain.

"Come with me!" Uncle Daniel said; "we must find out how all this
happened," and he led the unhappy boys into the coach house, where they
all sat down on a bench.

"Now, Harry, stop your crying, and tell me about it," the father
commanded.

Harry tried to obey, but his tears choked him. Bert was the first able
to speak.

"Oh, Uncle Daniel," he cried, "we really didn't mean to smoke. We only
rolled up some corn silk in a piece of paper and--"

His tears choked back his words now, and Harry said:

"It was I who rolled the cigarette, father, and it was awful, it almost
made us sick. Then when Bert put it in his mouth--"

"I threw it away and it must have fallen in the hay!" said Bert.

"Why didn't you come and tell me?" questioned Uncle Daniel severely.
"It was bad enough to do all that, but worse to take the risk of fire!"

"Well, the storm was coming," Harry answered, "and we went to help John
with the hay!"

"Now, boys," said Uncle Daniel, "this has been a very serious lesson to
you and one which you will remember all your lives. I need not punish
you any more; you have suffered enough from the fright of that awful
fire. And if it hadn't been that you were always pretty good boys the
Lord would not have sent that shower to save us as He did."

"I bet I'll never smoke again as long as I live," said Harry
determinedly through his tears.

"Neither will I," Bert said firmly, "and I'll try to make other fellows
stop if I can."

"All right," answered Uncle Daniel, "I'm sure you mean that, and don't
forget to thank the Lord to-night for helping us as He did. And you
must ask His pardon too for doing wrong, remember."

This ended the boys' confession, but they could not stop crying for a
long time, and Bert felt so sick and nervous he went to bed without
eating any supper. Uncle Daniel gave orders that no one should refer to
the fire or cause the boys any more worry, as they were both really
very nervous from the shock, so that beyond helping John clear things
up in the burned end of the barn, there was no further reference to the
boys' accident.

Next day it rained very hard--in fact, it was one of those storms that
come every summer and do not seem to know when to go away.

"The gate at the sawmill dam is closed," Harry told Bert, "and if the
pond gets any higher they won't be able to cross the plank to open up
the gate and let the water out."

"That would be dangerous, wouldn't it?" Bert asked.

"Very," replied Harry. "Peter Burns' house is right in line with the
dam at the other side of the plank, and if the dam should ever burst
that house would be swept away."

"And the barn and henhouse are nearer the pond than the house even!"
Bert remarked. "It would be an awful loss for a poor man."

"Let's go up in the attic and see how high the pond is," Harry
suggested.

From the top of the house the boys could see across the high pond bank
into the water.

"My!" Bert exclaimed; "isn't it awful!"

"Yes, it is," Harry replied. "You see, all the streams from the
mountains wash into this pond, and in a big storm like this it gets
very dangerous."

"Why do they build houses in such dangerous places?" asked Bert.

"Oh, you see, that house of Burns' has stood there maybe one hundred
years--long before any dam was put in the pond to work the sawmill,"
said Harry.

"Oh, that's it--is it?" Bert replied. "I thought it was queer to put
houses right in line with a dam."

"See how strong the water is getting," went on Harry. "Look at that big
log floating down."

"It will be fun when it stops raining," remarked Bert. "We can sail
things almost anywhere."

"Yes, I've seen the pond come right up across the road down at Hopkins'
once," Harry told his cousins. "That was when it had rained a whole
week without stopping."

"Say," called Dinah from the foot of the stairs. "You boys up there
better get your boots on and look after that Frisky cow. John's gone
off somewhere, and dat calf am crying herself sick out in de barn.
Maybe she a-gettin' drownded."

It did not take long to get their boots and overcoats on and hurry out
to the barn.

"Sure enough, she is getting drownded!" exclaimed Harry, as they saw
the poor little calf standing in water up to her knees.

"Where is all the water coming from?" asked Bert.

"I don't know," Harry answered, "unless the tank upstairs has
overflowed."

The boys ran up the stairs and found, just as Harry thought, the tank
that supplied all the barns with water, and which also gave a supply
for the house to be used on the lawn, was flowing over.

"Is there any way of letting it out?" asked Bert, quite frightened.

"We can open all the faucets, besides dipping out pailfuls," said
Harry. "But I wish John would get back."

Harry ran to get the big water pail, while Bert turned on the faucet at
the outside of the barn, the one in the horse stable, another that
supplied water for the chickens and ducks, and the one John used for
carriage washing. Frisky, of course, had been moved to a dry corner and
now stopped crying.

Harry gathered all the large water pails he could carry, and hurried up
to the tank followed by Bert.

"It has gone down already," said Harry, as they looked into the tank
again. "But we had better dip out all we can, to make sure. Lucky we
found it as soon as we did, for there are all father's tools on the
bench right under the tank, besides all those new paints that have just
been opened."

"Here comes John now," said Bert, as he heard the barn door open and
shut again.

"Come up here, John!" called Harry; "we're almost flooded out. The tank
overflowed."

"It did!" exclaimed John. "Gracious! I hope nothing is spoiled."

"Oh, we just caught it in tine," Harry told him, "and we opened up the
faucets as soon as we could. Then we began dipping out, to make sure."

"You were smart boys this time," John told him, "and saved a lot of
trouble by being so prompt to act. There is going to be a flood sure.
The dam is roaring like Niagara, and they haven't opened the gates yet."

"I'm glad we are up high," Bert remarked, for he had never seen a
country flood before, and was a good deal frightened at the prospect.

"Hey, John!" called Freddie from the back porch. "Hey, bring me some
more nails, will you? I need them for my ark."

"He's building an ark!" laughed Bert. "Guess we'll need it all right if
this keeps on."

Harry got some nails from his toolbox in the carriage house, and the
boys went up to the house.

There they found Freddie on the hard cement cellar floor, nailing
boards together as fast as his little hammer could drive the nails in.

"How's that?" asked the little fellow, standing up the raft.

"I guess that will float," said Bert, "and when it stops raining we can
try  it."

"I'm going to make a regular ark like the play one I've got home," said
Freddie, "only mine will be a big one with room for us all, besides
Frisky, Snoop, Fluffy, and--"

"Old Bill. We'll need a horse to tow us back when the water goes down,"
laughed Harry.

Freddie went on working as seriously as if he really expected to be a
little Noah and save all the people from the flood.

"My, but it does rain!" exclaimed somebody on the front porch.

It was Uncle Daniel, who had just returned from the village, soaking
wet.

"They can't open the gates," Uncle Daniel told Aunt Sarah. "They let
the water get so high the planks sailed away and now they can't get
near the dam."

"That is bad for the poor Burns family!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah. "I had
better have John drive me down and see if they need anything."  "I
stopped in on my way up," Uncle Daniel told her, "and they were about
ready to move out. We'll bring them up here if it gets any worse."

"Why don't they go to the gates in a boat?" asked Bert.

"Why, my dear boy," said Uncle Daniel, "anybody who would go near that
torrent in a boat might as well jump off the bridge. The falls are
twenty-five feet high, and the water seems to have built them up twice
that. If one went within two hundred feet of the dam the surging water
would carry him over."

"You see," said Harry, explaining it further, "there is like a window
in the falls, a long low door. When this is opened the water is drawn
down under and does not all have to go over the falls."

"And if there is too much pressure against the stone wall that makes
the dam, the wall may be carried away. That's what we call the dam
bursting," finished Uncle Daniel.

All this was very interesting to Bert, who could not help being
frightened at the situation.

The boys told Uncle Daniel how the tank in the barn had overflowed, and
he said they had done good work to prevent any damage.

"Oh, Uncle Daniel!" exclaimed Freddie, just then running up from the
cellar. "Come and see my ark! It's most done, and I'm going to put all
the animals and things in it to save them from the flood."

"An ark!" exclaimed his uncle, laughing. "Well, you're a sensible
little fellow to build an ark to-day, Freddie, for we will surely need
one if this keeps up," and away they went to examine the raft Freddie
had actually nailed together in the cellar.

That was an awful night in Meadow Brook, and few people went to bed,
staying up instead to watch the danger of the flood. The men took turns
walking along the pond bank all night long, and their low call each
hour seemed to strike terror in the hearts of those who were in danger.

The men carried lanterns, and the little specks of light were all that
could be seen through the darkness.

Mrs. Burns had refused to leave her home.

"I will stay as long as I can," she told Uncle Daniel. "I have lived
here many a year, and that dam has not broken yet, so I'm not going to
give up hope now!"

"But you could hardly get out in time should it break," insisted Uncle
Daniel, "and you know we have plenty of room and you are welcome with
us."

Still she insisted on staying, and each hour when the watchman would
call from the pond bank, just like they used to do in old war-times:
"Two o'clock-and--all is--well!" Mrs. Burns would look up and say,
"Dear Lord, I thank Thee!"

Peter, of course, was out with the men. He could not move his barns and
chicken house, but he had taken his cow and horse to places of safety.

There were other families along the road in danger as well as the
Burnses, but they were not so near the dam, and would get some warning
to escape before the flood could reach them should the dam burst.

How the water roared! And how awfully dark it was! Would morning ever
come?

"Four o'clock--the water rises!" shouted the men from the bank.

"Here, Mary!" called Peter Burns at the door of their little home, "you
put your shawl on and run up the road as fast as you can! Don't wait to
take anything, but go!"

"Oh, my babies' pictures!" she cried. "My dear babies! I must have
them."

The poor frightened little woman rushed about the house looking for the
much-prized pictures of her babies that were in heaven.

"It's a good thing they all have a safe home to-night," she thought,
"for their mother could not give them safety if they were here."

"Come, Mary!" called Peter, outside. "That dam is swaying like a
tree-top, and it will go over any minute." With one last look at the
little home Mrs. Burns went out and closed the door.

Outside there were people from all along the road. Some driven out of
their homes in alarm, others having turned out to help their neighbors.

The watchmen had left the bank. A torrent from the dam would surely
wash that away, and brave as the men were they could not watch the
flood any longer.

"Get past the willows quick!" called the men. "Let everybody who is not
needed hurry up the road!"

Mr. Mason, Mr. Hopkins, Uncle Daniel, and John, besides Peter Burns,
were the men most active in the life-saving work. There were not many
boats to be had, but what there were had been brought inland early in
the day, for otherwise they would have been washed away long before
down the stream into the river.

"What's that?" called Uncle Daniel, as there was a heavy crash over
near the gates.

Then everybody listened breathless.

It was just coming daylight, and the first streak of dawn saw the end
of the awful rain.

Not one man in the crowd dared to run up that pond bank and look over
the gates!

"It's pretty strong!" said the watchman. "I expected to hear it crash
an hour ago!"

There was another crash!

"There she goes!" said Mr. Burns, and then nobody spoke.



CHAPTER XVII

A TOWN AFLOAT

"Is she going?" asked Uncle Daniel at last, after a wait of several
minutes.

Daylight was there now; and was ever dawn more welcome in Meadow Brook!

"I'll go up to the pipes," volunteered John. "And I can see from there."

Now, the pipes were great water conduits, the immense black iron kind
that are used for carrying water into cities from reservoirs. They were
situated quite a way from the dam, but as it was daylight John could
see the gates as he stood on the pipes that crossed above the pond.

Usually boys could walk across these pipes in safety, as they were far
above the water, but the flood had raised the stream so that the water
just reached the pipes, and John had to be careful.

"What's that?" he said, as he looked down the raging stream.

"Something lies across the dam!" he shouted to the anxious listeners.

This was enough. In another minute every man was on the pond bank.

"The big elm!" they shouted. "It has saved the dam!"

What a wonderful thing had happened! The giant elm tree that for so
many, many years had stood on the edge of the stream, was in this great
flood washed away, and as it crossed the dam it broke the force of the
torrent, really making another waterfall.

"It is safe now!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel in surprise. "It was the tree
we heard crash against the bank. The storm is broken at last, and that
tree will hold where it is stuck until the force goes down. Then we can
open the  gates."

To think that the houses were safe again! That poor Mrs. Burns could
come back to the old mill home once more!

"We must never have this risk again," said Mr. Mason to Uncle Daniel.
"When the water goes down we will open the gates, then the next dry
spell that comes when there is little water in the pond we will break
that dam and let the water run through in a stream. If the mill people
want water power they will have to get it some place where it will not
endanger lives."

Uncle Daniel agreed with Mr. Mason, and as they were both town
officials, it was quite likely what they said would be done in Meadow
Brook.

"Hey, Bert and Harry!" called Tom Mason, as he and Jack Hopkins ran
past the Bobbsey place on their way to see the dam. "Come on down and
see the flood."

The boys did not wait for breakfast, but with a buttered roll in hand
Harry and Bert joined the others and hurried off to the flood.

"Did the dam burst?" was the first question everybody asked along the
way, and when told how the elm tree had saved it the people were
greatly astonished.

"Look at this," called Tom, as they came to a turn in the road where
the pond ran level with the fields. That was where it was only stream,
and no embankment had been built around it.

"Look!" exclaimed Jack; "the water has come up clear across the road,
and we can only pass by walking on the high board fence."

"Or get a boat," said Tom. "Let's go back to the turn and see if
there's a boat tied anywhere."

"Here's Herolds'," called Harry, as they found the pretty little
rowboat, used for pleasure by the summer cottagers, tied up to a tree.

"We'll just borrow that," said Jack, and then the four boys lifted the
boat to that part of the road where the water ran.

"All get in, and I'll push off," said Harry, who had hip-boots on. The
other three climbed in, then Harry gave a good push and scrambled over
the edge himself.

"Think of rowing a boat in the middle of a street," said Bert. "That's
the way they do in Naples," he added, "but I never expected to see such
a thing in Meadow Brook."

The boys pushed along quite easily, as the water was deep enough to use
oars in, and soon they had rounded the curve of the road and were in
sight of the people looking at the dam.

"What an immense tree!" exclaimed Bert, as they left their boat and
mounted the bank.

"That's what saved the dam!" said Harry. "Now Mrs. Burns can come back
home again."

"But look there!" called Tom. "There goes Peter Burns' chicken house."

Sure enough, the henhouse had left its foundation and now toppled over
into the stream.

It had been built below the falls, near the Burns house, and Peter had
some valuable ducks and chickens in it.

"The chickens!" called Jack, as they ran along. "Get the boat, Harry,
and we can save some."

The boys were dashing out now right in the stream, Jack and Tom being
good oarsmen.

But the poor chickens! What an awful noise they made, as they tried to
keep on the dry side of the floating house!

The ducks, of course, didn't mind it, but they added their queer
quacking to the noise.

"We can never catch any of the chickens," said Harry. "We ought to have
a rope and pull the house in."

"A rope," called Tom to the crowd on the shore. "Throw us a rope!"

Someone ran off and got one, and it was quickly thrown out to the boys
in the boat.

"Push up closer," Tom told Harry and Bert, who had the oars now. Tom
made a big loop on the rope and threw it toward the house. But it only
landed over a chicken, and caused the frightened fowl to fly high up in
the air and rest in a tree on the bank.

"Good!" cried the people on the edge. "One is safe, anyhow!"

Tom threw the rope again. This time it caught on a corner of the
henhouse, and as he pulled the knot tight they had the floating house
secure.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the people.

By this time Mr. Mason and Uncle Daniel had reached the spot in their
boat.

"Don't pull too hard!" called the men to the boys. "You'll upset your
boat."

"Throw the line to us," added Uncle Daniel,

This the boys did, and as it was a long stretch of rope the men were
able to get all the way in to shore with it before pulling at the house.

"Now we'll have a tug of war," said Mr. Mason.

"Wait for us!" cried the boys in the boat "We want to have a pull at
that."

All this time the chickens were cackling and screeching, as the house
in the water lunged from one side to the other. It was a large new coop
and built of strong material that made it very heavy.

"Now," said Uncle Daniel, as the boys reached the shore and secured
their boat, "all take a good hold."

Every inch of the rope that crossed the water's edge was soon covered
with somebody's hand.

"All pull now!" called Mr. Mason, and with a jerk in came the floating
house, chickens, ducks and all, and down went everybody that had
pulled. The force of the jerk, of course, threw them all to the ground,
but that was only fun and gave the boys a good chance to laugh.

Just as soon as the chickens reached the shore they scampered for
home--some flying, some running, but all making a noise.

"We may as well finish the job," said Mr. Mason. "Tom, go hitch Sable
up to  the cart and we'll bring the henhouse back where it belongs."

By running across the fields that were on the highest part of the road
Tom was able to get to his barn without a boat, and soon he returned
with the cart and Sable.

It took all hands to get the henhouse on the cart, but this was finally
done, and away went Sable up the road with the queer load after him in
the dump cart.

"You had better put it up on the hill this time," Peter told them. "The
water isn't gone down yet." So at last the chicken coop was settled,
and not a hen was missing.

There were many sights to be seen about Meadow Brook that afternoon,
and the boys enjoyed the flood, now that there was no longer any danger
to life.

Bert caught a big salmon and a black-spotted lizard that had been
flooded out from some dark place in the mountains, Harry found a pretty
toy canoe that some small boy had probably been playing with in the
stream before the water rose, and Jack was kept busy towing in all
kinds of stuff that had broken loose from barns along the pond.

Freddie had boots on, and was happy sailing his "ark" up and down the
road. He insisted on Snoop taking a ride, but cats do not fancy water
and the black kitten quickly hid himself up in the hay loft, out of
Freddie's reach.

Little by little the water fell, until by the next afternoon there was
no longer a river running through the roads. But there were plenty of
wet places and enough of streams washing down the rain the gutters to
give Freddie a fine canal to sail boats in.

Nan and Flossie had boats too which Bert and Harry made for them. In
fact, all the girls along Meadow Brook road found something that would
sail while the flood days lasted.

As it was still July the hot sun came down and dried things up pretty
quickly, but many haymows were completely spoiled, as were summer
vegetables that were too near the pond and came in for their share of
the washout.

This loss, however, was nothing compared with what had been expected by
the farmers, and all were satisfied that a kind Providence had saved
the valley houses from complete destruction.



CHAPTER XVIII

THE FRESH-AIR CAMP

Quiet had settled down once more upon the little village of Meadow
Brook. The excitement of the flood had died away, and now when the
month of July was almost gone, and a good part of vacation had gone
with it, the children turned their attention to a matter of new
interest--the fresh-air camp.

"Mildred Manners was over to the camp yesterday," Nan told her mother,
"and she says a whole lot of little girls have come out from the city,
and they have such poor clothes. There is no sickness there that anyone
could catch, she says (for her uncle is the doctor, you know), but
Mildred says her mother is going to show her how to make some aprons
for the little girls."

"Why, that would be nice for all you little girls to do," said Mrs.
Bobbsey. "Suppose you start a sewing school, and all see what you can
make!"

"Oh, that would be lovely!" exclaimed Nan. "When can we start?"

"As soon as we get the materials," the mother replied. "We will ask
Aunt Sarah to drive over to the camp this afternoon; then we can see
what the children need."

"Can I go?" asked Flossie, much interested in the fresh-air work.

"I guess so," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "If we take the depot wagon there will
be room for you and Freddie."

So that was how it came about that our little friends became interested
in the fresh-air camp. Nan and Mildred, Flossie and Freddie, with Aunt
Sarah and Mrs. Bobbsey, visited the camp in the afternoon.

"What a queer place it is!" whispered Flossie, as they drove up to the
tents on the mountain-side.

"Hush," said Nan; "they might hear you."

"Oh, these are war-camps!" exclaimed Freddie when he saw the white
tents. "They're just like the war-pictures in my story book!"

The matron who had charge of the camp came up, and when Mrs. Bobbsey
explained her business, the matron was pleased and glad to show them
through the place.

"Oh, it was your boys who brought us all that money from the circus?"
said the woman. "That's why we have all the extra children here--the
circus money has paid for them, and they are to have two weeks on this
beautiful mountain."

"I'm glad the boys were able to help," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It really
was quite a circus."

"It must have been, when they made so much money," the other answered.

"And we are going to help now," spoke up Nan. "We are starting a sewing
school."

"Oh, I'm so glad somebody has thought of clothes," said the matron. "We
often get gifts of food, but we need clothes so badly."

"There is no sickness?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as they started on a tour
of the camp.

"No; we cannot take sick children here now," said the matron. "We had
some early in the season, but this is such a fine place for romping we
decided to keep this camp for the healthy children and have another for
those who are sick."

By this time numbers of little girls and boys crowded around the
visitors. They were quite different from the children of Meadow Brook
or Lakeport. Somehow they were smaller, but looked older. Poor children
begin to worry so young that they soon look much older than they really
are.

Nan and Mildred spoke kindly to the girls, while Freddie and Flossie
soon made friends with the little boys. One small boy, smaller than
Freddie, with sandy hair and beautiful blue eyes, was particularly
happy with Freddie. He looked better than the others, was almost as fat
as Freddie, and he had such lovely clear skin, as if somebody loved to
wash it.

"Where do you lib?" he lisped to Freddie.

"At Uncle Daniel's," Freddie answered. "Where do you live?"

"With mamma," replied the little boy. Then he stopped a minute. "Oh,
no; I don't live with mamma now," he corrected himself, "'cause she's
gone to heaven, so I live with Mrs. Manily."

Mrs. Manily was the matron, and numbers of the children called her
mamma.

"Can I come over and play with you?" asked the boy. "What's your name?"

"His name is Freddie and mine is Flossie," said the latter. "What is
your name?"

"Mine is Edward Brooks," said the little stranger, "but everybody calls
me Sandy. Do you like Sandy better than Edward?"

"No," replied Flossie. "But I suppose that's a pet name because your
hair is that color."

"Is it?" said the boy, tossing his sunny curls around. "Maybe that's
why!"

"Guess it is," said Freddie. "But will Mrs. Man let you come over to
our house?"

"Mrs. Manily, you mean," said Sandy. "I'll just go and ask her."

"Isn't he cute!" exclaimed Flossie, and the pretty little boy ran in
search of Mrs. Manily.

"I'm going to ask mamma if we can bring him home," declared Freddie.
"He could sleep in my bed."

The others of the party were now walking through the big tents.

"This is where we eat," the matron explained, as the dining room was
entered. The tent was filled with long narrow tables and had benches at
the  sides. The tables were covered with oilcloth, and in the center of
each was a beautiful bunch of fresh wild flowers--the small pretty kind
that grow in the woods.

"You ought to see our poor children eat," remarked the matron. "We have
just as much as we can do to serve them, they have such good appetites
from the country air."

"We must send you some fresh vegetables," said Aunt Sarah, "and some
fruit for Sunday."

"We would be very grateful," replied Mrs Manily, "for of course we
cannot afford much of a variety."

Next to the dining room was the dormitory or sleeping tent.

"We have a little boys' brigade," said the matron, "and every pleasant
evening they march around with drums and tin fifes. Then, when it is
bedtime, we have a boy blow the 'taps' on a tin bugle, just like real
soldiers do."

Freddie and Sandy had joined the sightseers now, and Freddie was much
interested in the brigade.

"Who is the captain?" he asked of Mrs. Manily.

"Oh, we appoint a new captain each week from the very best boys we
have. We only let a very good boy be captain," the matron told him.

In the dormitory were rows and rows of small white cots. They looked
very clean and comfortable, and the door of this tent was closed with a
big green mosquito netting.

"How old are your babies?" asked Aunt Sarah.

"Sandy is our baby!" replied the matrons patting the little boy fondly,
"and he is four years old. We cannot take them any younger without
their mothers."

"Freddie is four also," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "What a dear sweet child
Sandy is!"

"Yes," said Mrs. Manily, "he has just lost a good mother and his father
cannot care for him--that is, he cannot afford to pay his board or hire
a housekeeper, so he brought him to the Aid Society. He is the pet of
the camp, and you can see he has been well trained."

"No mother and no home!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Dear little fellow!
Think of our Freddie being alone in the world like that!"

Mrs. Bobbsey could hardly keep her tears back. She stooped over and
kissed Sandy.

"Do you know my mamma?" he asked, looking straight into the lady's kind
face.

"Mrs. Manily is your mamma, isn't she?" said Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Yes, she's my number two mamma, but I mean number one that used to
sleep with me."

"Come now, Sandy," laughed Mrs. Manily. "Didn't you tell me last night
I was the best mamma in the whole world?" and she hugged the little
fellow to make him happy again.

"So you are," he laughed, forgetting all his loneliness now. "When I
get to be a big man I'm goin' to take you out carriage riding."

"Can't Sandy cone home with us?" asked Freddie. "He can sleep in my
bed."

"You are very good," said the matron. "But we cannot let any of our
children go visiting without special permission from the Society."

"Well," said Aunt Sarah, "if you get the permission we will be very
glad to have Sandy pay us a visit. We have a large place, and would
really like to have some good poor child enjoy it. We have company now,
but they will leave us soon, and then perhaps we could have a little
fresh-air camp of our own."

"The managers have asked us to look for a few private homes that could
accommodate some special cases," replied Mrs. Manily, "and I am sure I
can arrange it to have Sandy go."

"Oh, let him come now," pleaded Freddie, as Sandy held tight to his
hand. "See, we have room in the wagon."

"Well, he might have a ride," consented the matron, and before anyone
had a chance to speak again Freddie and Sandy had climbed into the
wagon.

Nan and Mildred had been talking to some of the older girls, who were
very nice and polite for girls who had no one to teach them at home,
and Nan declared that she was coming over to the camp to play with them
some whole day.

"We can bring our lunch," said Mildred, "and you can show us all the
pleasant play-places you have fixed up in stones over the
mountain-side."

One girl, Nellie by name, seemed very smart and bright, and she brought
to Mrs. Bobbsey a bunch of ferns and wild flowers she had just gathered
while showing Nan and Mildred around.

"You certainly have a lovely place here," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as they
got ready to leave, "and you little girls will be quite strong and
ready for school again when you go back to the city."

"I don't go to school," said Nellie rather bashfully.

"Why?" asked Aunt Sarah.

"Oh, I go to night school," said the little girl. "But in the daytime I
have to work."

"Why, how old are you?" asked Aunt Sarah.

"Twelve," said Nellie shyly.

"Working at twelve years of age!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey in surprise.
"What do you do?"

"I'm a cash-girl in a big store," said Nellie with some pride, for many
little girls are not smart enough to hold such a position.

"I thought all children had to go to school," Aunt Sarah said to Mrs.
Manily.

"So they do," replied the matron, "but in special cases they get
permission from the factory inspector. Then they can work during the
day and go to school at night."

"I think it's a shame!" said the mother. "That child is not much larger
than Nan, and to think of her working in a big store all day, then
having to work at night school too!"

"It does not seem right!" admitted the matron; "but, you see, sometimes
there is no choice. Either a child must work or go to an institution,
and we strain every point to keep them in their homes."

"We will drive back with Sandy," said Aunt Sarah as they got into the
wagon.

"Can't Nellie come too?" asked Nan. "There is plenty of room."

The matron said yes, and so the little party started off for a ride
along the pretty road.

"I was never in a carriage before in all my life," said Nellie
suddenly. "Isn't it grand!"

"Never!" exclaimed the other girls in surprise.

"No," said Nellie. "I've had lots of rides in trolley cars, and we had
a ride in a farm wagon the other day, but this is the first time I have
ever been in a carriage."

Aunt Sarah was letting Sandy drive, and he, of course, was delighted.
Freddie enjoyed it almost as well as Sandy did, and kept telling him
which rein to pull on and all that. Old Bill, the horse, knew the road
so well he really didn't need any driver, but he went along very nicely
with the two little boys talking to him.

"We will stop and have some soda at the postoffice," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
For the postoffice was also a general store.

This was good news to everybody, and when the man came out for the
order Aunt Sarah told him to bring cakes too.

Everybody liked the ice cream soda, but it was plain Nellie and Sandy
had not had such a treat in a long time.

"This is the best fun I've had!" declared the little cash-girl,
allowing how grateful she was. "And I hope you'll come and see us
again," she added politely to Mildred and Nan.

"Oh, we intend to," said Mildred. "You know, we are going to have a
sewing school to make aprons for the little ones at the camp."

Old Bill had turned back to the fresh-air quarters again, and soon, too
soon, Sandy was handed back to Mrs. Manily, while Nellie jumped down
and said what a lovely time she had had.

"Now be sure to come, Sandy," called Freddie, "'cause I'll expect you!"

"I will," said Sandy rather sadly, for he would rather have gone along
right then.

"And I'll let you play with Snoop and my playthings," Freddie called
again. "Good-bye."

"Good-bye," answered the little fresh children.

Then old Bill took the others home.



CHAPTER XIX

SEWING SCHOOL

"Let's get Mabel and all the others," said Nan to Mildred. "We ought to
take at least six gingham aprons and three nightgowns over to the camp."

Aunt Sarah had turned a big long attic room into a sewing school where
Nan and Mildred had full charge. Flossie was to look after the spools
of thread, keeping them from tangling up, and the girls agreed to let
Freddie cut paper patterns.

This was not a play sewing school but a real one, for Aunt Sarah and
Mrs. Bobbsey were to do the operating or machine sewing, while the
girls were to sew on tapes, buttons, overhand seams, and do all that.

Mildred and Nan invited Mabel, Nettie, Marie Brenn (she was visiting
the Herolds), Bessie, and Anna Thomas, a big girl who lived over
Lakeside way.

"Be sure to bring your thimbles and needles," Nan told them. "And come
at two o'clock this afternoon."

Every girl came--even Nettie, who was always so busy at home.

Mrs. Bobbsey sat at the machine ready to do stitching while Aunt Sarah
was busy "cutting out" on a long table in front of the low window.

"Now, young ladies," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "we have ready some blue
gingham aprons. You see how they are cut out; two seams, one at each
side, then they are to be closed down the back. There will be a pair of
strings on each apron, and you may begin by pressing down a narrow hem
on these strings. We will not need to baste them, just press them down
with the finger this way."

Mrs. Bobbsey then took up a pair of the sashes and turned in the edges.
Immediately the girls followed her instructions, and very soon all of
the strings were ready for the machine.

Nan handed them to her mother, and then Aunt Sarah gave out the work.

"Now these are the sleeves," said Aunt Sarah, "and they must each have
little gathers brought in at the elbow here between these notches. Next
you place the sleeve together notch to notch, and they can be stitched
without basting."

"Isn't it lively to work this way?" said Mildred. "It isn't a bit of
trouble, and see how quickly we get done."

"Many hands make light work," replied Mrs. Bobbsey. "I guess we will
get all the aprons finished this afternoon."

Piece by piece the various parts of the garments were given out, until
there remained nothing more to do than to put on buttons and work
buttonholes, and overhand the arm holes.

"I'll cut the buttonholes," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "then Nan and Mildred
may work the buttonholes by sticking a pin through each hole. The other
girls may then sew the buttons on."

It was wonderful how quickly those little pearl buttons went down the
backs of the aprons.

"I believe I could make an apron all alone now," said Nan, "if it was
cut out."

"So could I," declared Mildred. "It isn't hard at all."

"Well, here's my patterns," spoke up Freddie, who with Flossie had been
busy over in the corner cutting "ladies" out of a fashion paper.

"No, they're paper dolls," said Flossie, who was standing them all up
in a row, "and we are going to give them to the fresh-air children to
play with on rainy days."

It was only half-past four when Nan rang the bell to dismiss the sewing
school.

"We have had such a lovely time," said Mabel, "we would like to have
sewing to do every week."

"Well, you are welcome to come," said Aunt Sarah. "We will make night
dresses for the poor little ones next week, then after that you might
all bring your own work, mending, fancywork or tidies, whatever you
have to do."

"And we might each pay five cents to sew for the fresh-air children,"
suggested Mildred.

"Yes, all charity sewing classes have a fund," Mrs. Bobbsey remarked.
"That would be a good idea."

"Now let us fold up the aprons," said Nan. "Don't they look pretty?"

And indeed the half-dozen blue-and-white ginghams did look very nice,
for they were carefully made and all smooth and even.

"When can we iron them out?" asked Flossie, anxious to deliver the
gifts to the needy little ones.

"To-morrow afternoon," replied her mother. "The boys are going to pick
vegetables in the morning, and we will drive over in the afternoon."

Uncle Daniel had given the boys permission to pick all the butter-beans
and string-beans that were ripe, besides three dozen ears of the
choicest corn, called "Country Gentleman."

"Children can only eat very tender corn," said Uncle Daniel, "and as
that is sweet and milky they will have no trouble digesting it."

Harry looked over every ear of the green corn by pulling the husks down
and any that seemed a bit overripe he discarded.

"We will have to take the long wagon," said Bert, as they began to
count up the baskets. There were two of beans, three of corn, one of
lettuce, two of sweet apples, besides five bunches of Freddie's
radishes.

"Be sure to bring Sandy back with you," called Freddie, who did not go
to the camp this time. "Tell him I'll let him be my twin brother."

Nan and Aunt Sarah went with the boys, but how disappointed they were
to find a strange matron in charge of the camp, and Sandy's eyes red
from crying after Mrs. Manily.

"Oh, I knowed you would come to take me to Freddie," cried he, "'cause
my other mamma is gone too, and I'm all alone."

"Mrs. Manily was called away by sickness in her family," explained the
new matron, "and I cannot do anything with this little boy."

"He was so fond of Mrs. Manily," said Aunt Sarah, "and besides he
remembers how lonely he was when his own mother went away. Maybe we
could bring him over to our house for a few days."

"Yes, Mrs. Manily spoke of that," said the matron, "and she had
received permission from the Society to let Edward pay a visit to Mrs.
Daniel Bobbsey. See, here is the card."

"Oh, that will be lovely!" cried Nan, hugging Sandy as tight as her
arms could squeeze.

"Freddie told us to be sure to bring you back with us."

"I am so glad to get these things," the matron said to Aunt Sarah, as
she took the aprons, "for everybody has been upset with Mrs. Manily
having to leave so suddenly. The aprons are lovely. Did the little
girls make them?"

Aunt Sarah told her about the sewing school, and then she said she was
going to have a little account printed about it in the year's report of
good work done for the Aid Society.

"And Mrs. Manily has written an account of your circus," the matron
told Harry and Bert, for she had heard about the boys and their
successful charity work.

Some of the girls who knew Nan came up now and told her how Nellie, the
little cash-girl, had been taken sick and had had to be removed to the
hospital tent over in the other mountain.

This was sad news to Nan, for she loved the little cash-girl, and hoped
to see her and perhaps have her pay a visit to Aunt Sarah's.

"Is she very sick?" Aunt Sarah asked the matron.

"Yes indeed," the other replied. "But the doctor will soon cure her, I
think."

"The child is too young to work so hard," Aunt Sarah declared. "It is
no wonder her health breaks down at the slightest cause, when she has
no strength laid away to fight sickness."

By this time a big girl had washed and dressed Sandy, and now what a
pretty boy he was! He wore a blue-and-white-striped linen suit and had
a jaunty little white cap just like Freddie's.

He was so anxious to go that he jumped in the wagon before the others
were ready to start.

"Get app, Bill!" he called, grabbing at the reins, and off the old
horse started with no one in the wagon but Sandy!

Sandy had given the reins such a jerk that Bill started to run, and the
more the little boy tried to stop him the harder he went!

"Don't slap him with the reins!" called Harry, who was now running down
the hill as hard as he could after the wagon. "Pull on the reins!" he
called again.

But Sandy was so excited he kept slapping the straps up and down on
poor Bill, which to the horse, of course, meant to go faster.

"He'll drive in the brook," called Bert in alarm also rushing after the
runaway.  "Whoa, Bill! whoa, Bill!" called everybody, the children from
the camp having now joined in following the wagon.

The brook was directly in front of Sandy.

"Quick, Harry!" yelled Bert. "You'll get him in a minute."

It was no easy matter, however, to overtake Sandy, for the horse had
been on a run from the start. But Sandy kept his seat well, and even
seemed to think it good fun now to have everybody running after him and
no one able to catch him.

"Oh, I'm so afraid he'll go in the pond!" Nan told Aunt Sarah almost in
tears.

"Bill would sit down first," declared Aunt Sarah, who knew her horse to
be an intelligent animal.

"Oh! oh! oh!" screamed everybody, for the horse had crossed from the
road into the little field that lay next the water.

"Whoa, Bill!" shouted Aunt Sarah at the top of her voice, and instantly
the horse stood still.

The next minute both Bert and Harry were in the wagon beside Sandy.

"Can't I drive?" asked the little fellow innocently, while Harry was
backing out of the swamp.

"You certainly made Bill go," Harry admitted, all out of breath from
running.

"And you gave us a good run too," added Bert, who was red in the face
from his violent exercise.

"Bill knew ma meant it when she said whoa!" Harry remarked to Bert. "I
tell you, he stopped just in time, for a few feet further would have
sunk horse, wagon, and all in the swamp."

Of course it was all an accident, for Sandy had no idea of starting the
horse off, so no one blamed him when they got back to the road.

"We'll all get in this time," laughed Aunt Sarah to the matron. "And
I'll send the boys over Sunday to let you know how Sandy is."

"Oh, he will be all right with Freddie!" Bert said, patting the little
stranger on the shoulders. "We will take good care of him."

It was a pleasant ride back to the Bobbsey farm, and all enjoyed
it--especially Sandy, who had gotten the idea he was a first-class
driver and knew all about horses, old Bill, in particular.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Freddie, when the wagon turned in the drive.
"I knowed you would come, Sandy!" and the next minute the two little
boys were hand in hand running up to the barn to see Frisky, Snoop, the
chickens, ducks, pigeons, and everything at once.

Sandy was a little city boy and knew nothing about real live country
life, so that everything seemed quite wonderful to him, especially the
chickens and ducks. He was rather afraid of anything as big as Frisky.

Snoop and Fluffy were put through their circus tricks for the
stranger's benefit, and then Freddie let Sandy turn on his trapeze up
under the apple tree and showed him all the different kinds of turns
Bert and Harry had taught the younger twin how to perform on the swing.

"How long can you stay?" Freddie asked his little friend, while they
were swinging.

"I don't know," Sandy replied vaguely.

"Maybe you could go to the seashore with us," Freddie ventured. "We are
only going to stay in the country this month."

"Maybe I could go," lisped Sandy, "'cause nobody ain't got charge of me
now. Mrs. Manily has gone away, you know, and I don't b'lieve in the
other lady, do you?"

Freddie did not quite understand this but he said "no" just to agree
with Sandy.

"And you know the big girl, Nellie, who always curled my hair without
pulling it,--she's gone away too, so maybe I'm your brother now," went
on the little orphan.

"Course you are!" spoke up Freddie manfully, throwing his arms around
the other, "You're my twin brother too, 'cause that's the realest kind.
We are all twins, you know--Nan and Bert, and Flossie and me and you!"

By this time the other Bobbseys had come out to welcome Sandy. They
thought it best to let Freddie entertain him at first, so that he would
not be strange, but now Uncle Daniel just took the little fellow up in
his arms and into his heart, for all good men love boys, especially
when they are such real little men as Sandy and Freddie happened to be.

"He's my twin brother, Uncle Daniel," Freddie insisted. "Don't you
think he's just like me curls and all?"

"He is certainly a fine little chap!" the uncle replied, meaning every
word of it, "and he is quite some like you too. Now let us feed the
chickens. See how they are around us expecting something to eat?"

The fowls were almost ready to eat the pearl buttons off Sandy's coat,
so eager were they for their meal, and it was great fun for the two
little boys to toss the corn to them.

"Granny will eat from your hand," exclaimed Uncle Daniel, "You see, she
is just like granite-gray stone, but we call her Granny for short."

The Plymouth Rock hen came up to Sandy, and much to his delight ate the
corn out of his little white hand.

"Oh, she's a pretty chicken!" he said, stroking Granny as he would a
kitten. "I dust love chitens," he added, sitting right down on the
sandy ground to let Granny come up on his lap. There was so much to see
in the poultry yard that Sandy, Freddie, and Uncle Daniel lingered
there until Martha appeared at the back door and rang the big dinner
bell in a way that meant, "Hurry up! something will get cold if you
don't."

And the something proved to be chicken pot-pie with dumplings that
everybody loves. And after that there came apple pudding with hard
sauce, just full of sugar.

"Is it a party?" Sandy whispered to Freddie, for he was not accustomed
to more than bread and milk at his evening meal.

"Yes, I guess so," ventured Freddie; "it's because you came," and then
Dinah brought in little play cups of chocolate with jumbles on the
side, and Mrs. Bobbsey said that would be better than the pudding for
Freddie and Sandy.

"I guess I'll just live here," solemnly said the little stranger, as if
his decision in such a matter should not be questioned.

"I guess you better!" Freddie agreed, "'cause it's nicer than over
there, isn't it?"

"Lots," replied Sandy, "only maybe Mrs. Manily will cry for me," and he
looked sad as his big blue eyes turned around and blinked to keep back
some tears. "I dust love Mrs. Manily, Freddie; don't you?" he asked
wistfully.

Then Harry and Bert jumped up to start the phonograph, and that was
like a band wagon to the little fellows, who liked to hear the popular
tunes called off by the funny man in the big bright horn.



CHAPTER XX

A MIDNIGHT SCARE

"Sometimes I'm afraid in the bed tent over there," said Sandy to
Freddie. "'Cause there ain't nothing to keep the dark out but a piece
of veil in the door."

"Mosquito netting," corrected Freddie. "I would be afraid to sleep
outdoors that way too. 'Cause maybe there's snakes."

"There sure is," declared the other little fellow, cuddling up closer
to Freddie. "'Cause one of the boys, Tommy his name is, killed two the
other day."

"Well, there ain't no snakes around here," declared Freddie, "an' this
bed was put in this room, right next to mama's, for me, so you needn't
be scared when Aunt Sarah comes and turns out the lights."

Both little boys were very sleepy, and in spite of having so many
things to tell each other the sand-man came around and interrupted
them, actually making their eyes fall down like porch screens when
someone touches the string.

Mrs. Bobbsey came up and looked in at the door.

Two little sunny heads so close together!

"Why should that little darling be left alone over in the dark tent!"
she thought. "See how happy he is with our own dear son Freddie."

Then she tucked them a little bit, half closed the door, and turned out
the hall light.

Everybody must have been dreaming for hours, it seemed so at any rate,
when suddenly all were awake again.

What was it?

What woke up the household with such a start?

"There it is again!" screamed Flossie. "Oh, mamma, mamma, come in my
room quick!"

Sandy grabbed hold of Freddie.

"We're all right," whispered the brave little Freddie. "It's only the
girls that's hollering."

Then they both put their curls under the bedquilts.

"Someone's playing the piano," Bert said to Harry; and, sure enough, a
nocturnal solo was coming up in queer chunks from the parlor.

"It's a crazy burglar, and he never saw a piano before," Flossie said.

The hall clock just struck midnight. That seemed to make everybody more
frightened.

Uncle Daniel was hurrying down the stairs now.

"There it is again," whispered Bert, as another group of wild chords
came from the piano.

"It must be cats!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel. "Harry, come down here and
help light up, and we'll solve this mystery."

Without a moment's hesitation Bert and Harry were down the stairs and
had the hall light burning as quickly as a good match could be struck.

But there was no more music and no cats about.

"Where is Snoop?" asked Uncle Daniel.

The boys opened the hall door into the cellarway, and found there Snoop
on his cushion and Fluffy on hers.

"It wasn't the cats," they declared.

"What could it be?"

Uncle Daniel even lighted the piano lamp, which gave a strong light,
but there didn't seem to be any disturbance about.

"It certainly was the piano," he said, much puzzled.

"And sounded like a cat serenade," ventured Harry.

"Well, she isn't around here," laughed Uncle Daniel, "and we never
heard of a ghost in Meadow Brook before."

All this time the people upstairs waited anxiously. Flossie held Nan so
tightly about the neck that the elder sister could hardly breathe.
Freddie and Sandy were still under the bedclothes, while Mrs. Bobbsey
and Aunt Sarah listened in the hall.

"Dat sure is a ghost," whispered Dinah to Martha in the hall above.
"Ghosts always lub music," and her funny big eyes rolled around in that
queer way colored people have of expressing themselves.

"Ghosts nothin'," replied Martha indignantly. "I dusted every key of
the piano to-day, and I guess I could smell a ghost about as quick as
anybody."

"Well, I don't see that we can do any good by sitting around here,"
remarked Uncle Dan to the boys, after the lapse of some minutes. "We
may as well put out the lights and get into bed again."

"But I cannot see what it could be!" Mrs. Bobbsey insisted, as they all
prepared to retire again.

"Neither can we!" agreed Uncle Daniel. "Maybe our piano has one of
those self-playing tricks, and somebody wound it up by accident."

But no sooner were the lights out and the house quiet than the piano
started again.

"Hush! keep quiet!" whispered Uncle Daniel. "I'll get it this time,
whatever it is!"

With matches in one hand and a candle in the other he started
downstairs in the dark without making a sound, while the piano kept on
playing in "chunks" as Harry said, same as it did before.

Once in the parlor Uncle Daniel struck a match and put it to the
candle, and then the music ceased.

"There he is!" he called, and Flossie thought she surely would die.
Slam! went the music-book at something, and Sandy almost choked with
fear.

Bang! went something else, that brought Bert and Harry downstairs to
help catch the burglar.

"There he is in the corner!" called Uncle Daniel to the boys, and then
began such a slam banging time that the people upstairs were in terror
that the burglar would kill Harry and Bert and Uncle Daniel.

"We've got him' We've got him!" declared Harry, while Bert lighted the
lamp.

"Is he dead?" screamed Aunt Sarah from the stairs.

"As a door-nail!" answered Harry.

"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, hardly able to speak.

"A big gray rat," replied Uncle Daniel, and everybody had a good laugh.

"I thought it might be that," said Mrs. Bobbsey.

"So did I," declared Nan. "But I wasn't sure."

"I thought it was a big black burglar," Flossie said, her voice still
shaking from the fright.

"I thought it was a policeman," faltered Sandy. "'Cause they always
bang things like that."

"And I thought, sure's yo' life, it was a real ghost," laughed Dinah.
"'Cause de clock jest struck fer de ghost hour. Ha! ha! dat was suah a
musicanious rat."

"He must have come in from the fields where John has been plowing. Like
a cat in a strange garret, he didn't know what to do in a parlor," said
Uncle Daniel.

Harry took the candle and looked carefully over the keys.

"Why, there's something like seeds on the keys!" he said.

"Oh, I have it!" exclaimed Bert. "Nan left her hat on the piano last
night, and it has those funny straw flowers on it. See, the rat got
some of them off and they dropped on the keys."

"And the other time he came for the cake," said Aunt Sarah.

"That's it," declared Uncle Daniel, "and each time we scared him off he
came back again to finish his meal. But I guess he is through now," and
so saying he took the dead rodent and raising the side window tossed
him out.

It was some time before everybody got quieted down again, but finally
the rat scare was over and the Bobbseys turned to dreams of the happy
summer-time they were enjoying.

When Uncle Dan came up from the postoffice the next morning he brought
a note from the fresh-air camp.

"Sandy has to go back!" Nan whispered to Bert. "His own father in the
city has sent for him, but mamma says not to say anything to Sandy or
Freddie--they might worry. Aunt Sarah will drive over and bring Sandy,
then they can fix it. I'm so sorry he has to go away."

"So am I," answered Nan's twin. "I don't see why they can't let the
little fellow alone when he is happy with us."

"But it's his own father, you know, and something about a rich aunt.
Maybe she is going to adopt Sandy."

"We ought to adopt him; he's all right with us," Bert grumbled. "What
did his rich aunt let him cry his eyes out for if she cared anything
for him?"

"Maybe she didn't know about him then," Nan considered. "I'm sure
everybody would have to love Sandy."

At that Sandy ran along the path with Freddie. He looked like a live
buttercup, so fresh and bright, his sunny sandy curls blowing in the
soft breeze. Mrs. Bobbsey had just called the children to her.

"We are going over to see Mrs. Manily today, Sandy," she said. "Won't
you be awfully glad to see your own dear Mamma Manily again?"

"Yep," he faltered, getting a better hold on Freddie's hand, "but I
want to come back here," he finished.

Poor darling! So many changes of home in his life had made him fear
another.

"Oh, I am sure you will come to see us again," Mrs. Bobbsey declared.
"Maybe you can come to Lakeport when we go home in the fall."

"No, I'm comin' back here," he insisted, "to see Freddie, and auntie,
and uncle, and all of them."

"Well, we must get ready now," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "John has gone to
bring the wagon."

Freddie insisted upon going to the camp with Sandy, "to make sure he
would come down again," he said.

It was only the happiness of seeing Mamma Manily once more that kept
Sandy from crying when they told him he was to go on a great big fast
train to see his own papa.

"You see," Mrs. Manily explained to Mrs. Bobbsey, "a wealthy aunt of
Edward's expects to adopt him, so we will have to give him up, I am
afraid."

"I hope you can keep track of him," answered Mrs. Bobbsey, "for we are
all so attached to him. I think we would have applied to the Aid
Society to let him share our home if the other claim had not come first
and taken him from us."

Then Freddie kissed Sandy good-bye. It was not the kind of a caress
that girls give, but the two little fellows said good-bye, kissed each
other very quickly, then looked down at the ground in a brave effort
not to cry.

Mrs. Bobbsey gave Sandy a real mother's love kiss, and he said:

"Oh, I'm comin' beck--to-morrow. I won't stay in the city. I'll just
run away and come back."

So Sandy was gone to another home, and we hope he will grow to be as
fine a  boy as he has been a loving child.

"How lonely it seems," said Nan that afternoon. "Sandy was so jolly."

Freddie followed John all over the place, and could not find anything
worth doing. Even Dinah sniffed a little when she fed the kittens and
didn't have "dat little buttercup around to tease dem."

"Well," said Uncle Daniel next day, "we are going to have a very poor
crop of apples this year, so I think we had better have some cider made
from the early fruit. Harry and Bert, you can help John if you like,
and take a load of apples to the cider mill to-day to be ground."

The boys willingly agreed to help John, for they liked that sort of
work, especially Bert, to whom it was new.

"We'll take the red astrachans and sheepnoses to-day," John said.
"Those trees over there are loaded, you see. Then there are the orange
apples in the next row; they make good cider."

The early apples were very plentiful, and it took scarcely any time to
make up a load and start off for the cider mill.

"Old Bennett who runs the mill is a queer chap," Harry told Bert going
over; "he's a soldier, and he'll be sure to quiz you on history."

"I like old soldiers," Bert declared; "if they do talk a lot, they've
got a lot to talk about."

John said that was true, and he agreed that old Ben Bennett was an
interesting talker.

"Here we are," said Harry, as they pulled up before a kind of barn. Old
Ben sat outside on his wooden bench.

"Hello, Ben," they called out together, "we're bringing you work early
this year."

"So much the better," said the old soldier; "There's nothing like work
to keep a fellow young."

"Well, you see," went on John, "we can't count on any late apples this
year, so, as we must have cider, we thought that we had better make hay
while the sun shines."

"How much have you got there?" asked Ben, looking over the load.

"About a barrel, I guess," answered John "Could you run them through
for us this morning?"

"Certainly, certainly!" replied the others. "Just haul them on, and
we'll set to work as quick as we did that morning at Harper's Ferry.
Who is this lad?" he asked, indicating Bert.

"My cousin from the city," said Harry, "Bert's his name."

"Glad to see you, Bert, glad to see you!" and the old soldier shook
hands warmly. "When they call you out, son, just tell them you knew Ben
Bennett of the Sixth Massachusetts. And they'll give you a good gun,"
and he clapped Bert on the back as if he actually saw a war coming down
the hill back of the cider mill.

It did not take long to unload the apples and get them inside.

"We'll feed them in the hopper," said John, "if you just get the sacks
out, Ben."

"All right, all right, my lad; you can fire the first volley if you've
a mind to," and Ben opened up the big cask that held the apples to be
chopped. When a few bushels had been filled in by the boys John began
to grind. He turned the big stick round and round, and this in turn set
the wheel in motion that held the knives that chopped the apples.

"Where does the cider come from?" asked Bert, much interested.

"We haven't come to that yet," Harry replied; "they have to go through
this hopper first."

"Fine juicy apples," remarked Ben. "Don't know but it's just as well to
make cider now when you have a crop like this."

"Father thought so," Harry added, putting in the last scoop of
sheepnoses. "If it turns to vinegar we can use it for pickles this
fall."

The next part of the process seemed very queer to Bert; the pulp or
chopped apples were put in sacks like meal-bags, folded over so as to
hold in the pulp. A number of the folded sacks were then placed in
another machine "like a big layer cake," Bert said, and by turning a
screw a great press was brought down upon the soft apples.

"Now the boys can turn," John suggested, and at this both Bert and
Harry grabbed hold of the long handle that turned the press and started
on a run around the machine.

"Oh, there she comes!" cried Bert, as the juice began to ooze out in
the tub. "That's cider, all right! I smell it."

"Fine and sweet too," declared Ben, seeing to it that the tub was well
under the spout.

"But I don't want you young fellows to do all my work."

"Oh, this is fun," spoke up Bert, as the color mounted to his cheeks
from the exercise. A strong stream was pouring into the tub now, and
the wholesome odor of good sweet cider filled the room.

"I think I'll try to get a horse this fall when my next pension comes
due," said old Ben,    "I'm a little stiff to run around with that
handle like you young lads, and sometimes I'm full of rheumatism too."

"Father said he would sell our Bill very cheap if he wasn't put at hard
work," Harry said.

"We have had him so long we don't want to see him put to a plow or
anything heavy, but I should think this would be quite easy for him."

"Just the thing for a worn-out war-horse like myself," answered Ben,
much interested. "Tell your father not to think of selling Bill till I
get a chance to see him. I won't have my pension money for two months
yet, but I might make a deposit if any more work comes in."

"Oh, that would be all right," spoke up John. "Mr. Bobbsey would not be
afraid to trust you."

"There now!" exclaimed Ben; "I guess you've got all the juice out.
John, you can fill it in your keg, I suppose, since you have been so
good as to do all the rest. Will you try it, boys?"

"Yes, we would like to, Ben," Harry replied.

"It's a little warm to make cider in July," and he wiped his face to
cool off some.

Ben went to his homemade cupboard and brought out a tin cup.

"There's a cup," he said, "that I drank out of at Harper's Ferry. I
keep it in everyday use, so as not to lose sight of it."

Bert took the old tin cup and regarded it reverently.

"Think of us drinking out of that cup," reflected Bert. "Why, it's a
war relic!"

"How's the cider?" asked the old soldier.

"Couldn't be better," said Harry. "I guess the cup helps the flavor."

This pleased old Ben, for the light of glory that comes to all
veterans, whether private or general, shone in his eyes.

"Well, a soldier has two lives," he declared. "The one under fire and
the other here," tapping his head and meaning that the memories of
battles made the other life.

The cider was ready now, and the Bobbseys prepared to leave.

"I'll tell father about Bill," said Harry. "I'm sure he will save him
for you."

"All right, sonny--thank you, thank you! Good-bye, lads; come again,
and maybe some day I'll give you the war cup!" called the soldier.

"That would be a relic!" exclaimed Harry. "And I guess father will give
him Bill for nothing, for we always do what we can for old soldiers."

"I never saw cider made before," remarked Bert, "and I think it's fun.
I had a good time to-day."

"Glad you did," said John, "for vacation is slipping now and you want
to enjoy it while it lasts."

That evening at dinner the new cider was sampled, and everybody
pronounced it very fine.



CHAPTER XXI

WHAT THE WELL CONTAINED

The next day everybody was out early.

"The men are going to clean the well," Harry told the others, "and it's
lots of fun to see all the stuff they bring up."

"Can we go?" Freddie asked.

"Nan will have to take charge of you and Flossie," said Mrs. Bobbsey,
"for wells are very dangerous, you know."

This was arranged, and the little ones promised to do exactly as Nan
told them.

The well to be cleaned was the big one at the corner of the road and
the lane. From the well a number of families got their supply of water,
and it being on the road many passersby also enjoyed from it a good
cold drink.

"There they come," called Bert, as two men dressed like divers came up
the road.

They wore complete rubber suits, hip-boots, rubber coats, and rubber
caps. Then they had some queer-looking machines, a windlass, a force
pump, grappling irons, and other tools.

The boys gathered around the men--all interested, of course, in the
work.

"Now keep back," ordered Nan to the little ones. "You can see just as
well from this big stone, and you will not be in any danger here."

So Freddie and Flossie mounted the rock while the large boys got in
closer to the well.

First the men removed the well shelter--the wooden house that covered
the well. Then they put over the big hole a platform open in the
center. Over this they set up the windlass, and then one of the men got
in a big bucket.

"Oh, he'll get drownded!" cried Freddie.

"No, he won't," said Flossie. "He's a diver like's in my picture book."

"Is he, Nan?" asked the other little one.

"Yes, he is one kind of a diver," the sister explained, "only he
doesn't have to wear that funny hat with air pipes in it like ocean
divers wear."

"But he's away down in the water now," persisted Freddie. "Maybe he's
dead."

"See, there he is up again," said Nan, as the man in the bucket stepped
out on the platform over the well.

"He just went down to see how deep the water was," Bert called over.
"Now they are going to pump it out."

The queer-looking pump, with great long pipes was now sunk into the
well, and soon a strong stream of water was flowing from the spout.

"Oh, let's sail boats!" exclaimed Freddie, and then all the bits of
clean sticks and boards around were turned into boats by Flossie and
Freddie. As the water had a good clear sweep down the hill the boats
went along splendidly, and the little folks had a very fine time of it
indeed.

"Don't fall in," called Nan. "Freddie, look out for that deep hole in
the gutter, where the tree fell down in the big flood."

But for once Freddie managed to save himself, while Flossie took no
risk at all, but walked past that part of the "river" without guiding
her "steamboat."

Presently the water in the "river" became weaker and weaker, until only
the smallest stream made its way along.

"We can't sail boats in mud," declared Freddie with some impatience.
"Let's go back and see what they're doing at the well."

Now the big pump had been removed and the man was going down in the
bucket again.

"We lost lots of things in there," remarked Tom Mason. "I bet they'll
bring up some queer stuff."

It took a few minutes for the other man to send the lanterns down after
his companion and then remove the top platform so as to give all the
air and light possible to the bottom of the well.

"Now the man in the well can see stars in the sky," said Harry to the
other boys.

"But there are no stars in the sky," Bert contradicted, looking up at
the clear blue sky of the fine summer day.

"Oh! yes there are," laughed the man at the well, "lots of them too,
but you can only see them in the dark, and it's good and dark down in
that deep well."

This seemed very strange, but of course it was true; and the well
cleaner told them if they didn't believe it, just to look up a chimney
some day, and they would see the same strange thing.

At a signal from the man in the well the other raised the first bucket
of stuff and dumped it on the ground.

"Hurrah! Our football!" exclaimed Harry, yanking out from the muddy
things the big black rubber ball lost the year before.

"And our baseball," called Tom Mason, as another ball was extracted
from the pile.

"Peter Burns' dinner pail," laughed Harry, rescuing that article from
the heap.

"And somebody's old shoe!" put in Bert, but he didn't bother pulling
that out of the mud.

"Oh, there's Nellie Prentice's rubber doll!" exclaimed Harry. "August
and Ned were playing ball with it and let it fly in the well."

Harry wiped the mud off the doll and brought it over to Nan.

"I'm sure Nellie will be glad to get this back," said Nan, "for it's a
good doll, and she probably never had one since she lost it."

The doll was not injured by its long imprisonment in the well and when
washed up was as good as ever. Nan took charge of it, and promised to
give it to Nellie just as soon as she could go over to see her.

Another bucket of stuff had been brought up by that time, and the first
thing pulled out was a big long pipe, the kind Germans generally use.

"That's old Hans Bruen's," declared Tom "I remember the night he
dropped it."

"Foolish Hans--to try to drink with a pipe like that in his mouth!"
laughed the well cleaner.

As the pipe had a wooden bowl and a hard porcelain stem it was not
broken, so Tom took care of it, knowing how glad Hans would be to get
his old friend "Johnnie Smoker" back again.

Besides all kinds of tin cups, pails, and saucepans, the well was found
to contain a good number of boys' caps and some girls' too, that had
slipped off in attempts made to get a good cool drink out of the bucket.

Finally the man gave a signal that he was ready to come up, and soon
the windlass was adjusted again and the man in very muddy boots came to
the top.

"Look at this!" he said to the boys' holding a beautiful gold watch.
"Ever hear of anyone losing a watch in the well?"

No one had heard of such a loss, and as there was no name anywhere on
the watch that might lead to its identification, the well cleaner put
it away in his vest pocket under the rubber coat.

"And what do you think of this?" the man continued, and drew from his
pocket a beautiful string of pearl beads set in gold.

"My beads! My lost beads!" screamed Nan. "Oh, how glad I am that you
found them!"

She took the beads and looked at them carefully. They were a bit dirty,
but otherwise as good as ever.

"I thought I should never see these again," said Nan. "I must tell
mamma of this!" And she started for the house with flying feet. Mrs.
Bobbsey was glad indeed to learn that the strings of pearls had been
found, and everybody declared that Nan was certainly lucky.

"I am going to fasten them on good and tight after this," said Nan, and
she did.

Down by the well the man was not yet through handing over the things he
had found.

"And there's a wedding ring!" he said next, while he turned out in his
hand a thin gold band.

"Oh, Mrs. Burns lost that!" chorused a number of the boys. "She felt
dreadful over it too. She'll be tickled to get that back all right."

"Well, here," said the man, turning to Harry. "I guess you're the
biggest boy; I'll let you take that back to Mrs. Burns with my best
wishes," and he handed Harry the long-lost wedding ring.

It was only a short distance to Mrs. Burns' house, and Harry lost no
time in getting there.

"She was just delighted," Harry told the man, upon returning to the
well. "She says Peter will send you over something for finding it."

"No need," replied the other; "they're welcome to their own."

The last part of the well-cleaning was the actual scrubbing of the big
stone in the bottom.

This stone had a hole in the middle through which the water sprang up,
and when the flag had been scrubbed the well was clean indeed.

"Now you people will have good water," declared the men, as they
gathered all their tools, having first put the top on the well and
tried a bucketful of water before starting off.

"And are there really stars in the bottom of the well?" questioned
Freddie.

"Not exactly," said the man, "but there are lots of other things in the
bottoms of wells. You must get your daddy to show you the sky through a
fireplace, and you will then know how the stars look in daylight," he
finished, saying good-bye to all and starting off for the big deep
well-pump over in the picnic grove, that had not been cleaned since it
had been dug there three years before.



CHAPTER XXII

LITTLE JACK HORNER,--GOOD-BYE

"I've got a special delivery letter for you," called the boy from the
postoffice to Harry.

Now when Jim Dexter rode his wheel with the special delivery mail
everybody about Meadow Brook knew the rush letter bore important news.

Jim jumped off his wheel and, opening the little bag, pulled out a
letter for Mrs. Richard Bobbsey from Mrs. William Minturn of Ocean
Cliff.

"I'll take it upstairs and have your book signed," Harry offered, while
Jim sat on the porch to rest.

"That's from Aunt Emily," Bert told Harry when the messenger boy rode
off again. "I guess we're going down to Ocean Cliff to visit there."

"I hope you won't go very soon," replied Harry. "We've arranged a lot
of ball matches next month. We're going to play the school nine first,
then we're to play the boys at Cedarhurst and a picked nine from South
Meadow Brook."

"I'd like first-rate to be here for the games," said Bert. "I'm a good
batter."

"You're the player we need then, for Jim Smith is a first-rate pitcher
and we've got really a fine catcher in Tom Mason, but it's hard to get
a fellow to hit the ball far enough to give us runs."

"Oh, Bert!" called Nan, running out of the house. "That was an
invitation for us to go to Aunt Emily's at the seashore. And Cousin
Dorothy says we will have such a lovely time! But I'm sure we could
never have a better time than we had here, Harry," she added to her
cousin.

"I'll be awfully sorry to have you go, Nan," replied Harry. "We have
had so much fun all month. I'll just be dead lonesome, I'm sure," and
Harry sat down in dejection, just as if his loved cousins had gone
already.

"There's no boy at Uncle William's;" said Bert. "Of course Nan will
have Dorothy, but I'll have to look around for a chum, I suppose."

"Oh, you'll find lots of boys at the beach," said Harry. "And to think
of the fun at the ocean! Mother says we will go to the shore next
summer."

"I wish you were going with us," said Bert politely.

"Maybe you will come down for a day while we are there," suggested Nan.
"Aunt Emily isn't just exactly your aunt, because she's mamma's sister,
and it's papa who is Uncle Daniel's brother. But the Minturns, Aunt
Emily's folks, you know, have been up here and are all like real
cousins."

"We're going away!" exclaimed Freddie, joining the others just then.
"Mamma says I can stick my toes in the water till the crabs bite me,
but I'm going to have a fishhook and catch them first."

"Are you going to take Snoop?" Harry asked his little cousin.

"Yep," replied the youngster. "He knows how to go on trains now."

"Dorothy has a pair of donkeys," Nan told them, "and a cart we can go
riding in every day."

"I'll be the driver," announced Freddie. "And I suppose you'll have a
sailboat, Bert!" said Harry.

"Not in the ocean," said nervous little Flossie, who had been listening
all the time and never said a word until she thought there was some
danger coming.

"Certainly not," said Bert; "there is always a little lake of quiet
water around ocean places."

Aunt Sarah came out now, all dressed for a drive.

"Well, my dears," she said, "you are going to Ocean Cliff to-morrow, so
you can invite all your Meadow Brook friends to a little lawn party
to-day. I'm going down now to the village to order some good things for
you. I want you all to have a nice time this afternoon."

"I'm going to give some of my books to Nettie," said Flossie, "and some
of my paper dolls too."

"Yes. Nettie has not many things to play with," agreed Nan, "and we can
get plenty more."

"I'm going to get all my birds' nests together," said Bert, "and that
pretty white birch bark to make picture frames for Christmas."

"I've got lovely pressed flowers to put on Christmas post-cards," said
Nan. "I'm going to mount them on plain white cards with little verses
written for each friend. Won't that be pretty?"

Then what a time there was packing up again! Of course Mrs. Bobbsey had
expected to go, and had most of the big things ready but the children
had so many souvenirs.

"John gave me this," cried Freddie, pulling a great big pumpkin in his
express wagon down to the house. "And I'm going to bring it to Aunt
Emily."

"Oh, how could we bring that!" protested Nan.

"In the trunk, of course," Freddie insisted.

"Well, I have to carry a box of ferns," said Flossie; "I'm going to
take them for the porch. There are no ferns around the salt water,
mamma says."

So each child had his or her own pet remembrances to carry away from
Meadow Brook.

"We had better go and invite the girls for this afternoon," Nan said to
Flossie.

"And we must look after the boys," Harry told Bert.

A short invitation was not considered unusual in the country, so it was
an easy matter to get all the children together in time for the
farewell lawn party.

"We all hope you will come again next year," said Mildred Manners. "We
have had such a lovely time this summer. And I brought you this little
handkerchief to remember me by."  The gift was a choice bit of lace,
and Nan was much pleased to accept it.

"There is something to remember me by," said Mabel Herold, presenting
Nan with a postcard album.

The little girls brought Flossie a gold-striped cup and saucer, a set
of doll's patterns, and the dearest little parasol. This last was from
Bessie Dimple.

And Nettie brought--what do you think?

A little live duck for Freddie!

It was just like a lump of cotton batting, so soft and fluffy.

"We'll fatten him up for Christmas," laughed Bert, joking.

"No, you won't!" snapped Freddie. "I are going to have a little house
for him and a lake, and a boat--"

"Are you going to teach him to row?" teased Harry.

"Well, he can swim better than--than--"

"August Stout," answered Bert, remembering how August had fallen in the
pond the day they went fishing.

When the ice cream and cake had been served on the lawn, Mrs. Bobbsey
brought out a big round white paper pie. This she placed in the middle
of a nice clean spot on the lawn, and all around the pie she drew out
long white ribbons. On each ribbon was pinned the name of one of the
guests.

"Now this is your Jack Horner pie," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "and when you
put in your thumb you will pull out a plum."

Nan read off the names, and each girl or boy took the place assigned.
Finally everybody had in hand a ribbon.

"Nettle has number one," said Nan; "you pull first, Nettie."

Nettie jerked her ribbon and pulled out on the end of it the dearest
little play piano. It was made of paper, of course, and so very small
it could stand on Nettie's hand.

"Give us a tune!" laughed the boys, while Nettie saw it really was a
little box of candy.

"Mildred next," announced Nan.

On the end of Mildred's ribbon came an automobile!

This caused a laugh, for Mildred was very fond of automobile rides.

Mabel got a hobby-horse--because she was learning to ride horseback.

Nan received a sewing machine, to remind her of the fresh-air work.

Of course Tom Mason got a horse--a donkey it really was; and Jack
Hopkins' gift was a wheelbarrow. Harry pulled out a boat, and Bert got
a cider barrel.

They were all souvenirs, full of candy, favors for the party, and they
caused no end of fun.

Freddie was the last to pull and he got--

A bunch of real radishes from his own garden!

"But they're not candy," he protested, as he burned his tongue with one.

"Well, we are going to let you and Flossie put your thumbs in the pie,"
said his mamma, "and whoever gets the prize will be the real Jack
Horner."

All but the center of the pie was gone now, and in this Flossie first
put her thumb. She could only put in one finger and only fish just one,
and she brought out--a little gold ring from Aunt Sarah.

"Oh, isn't it sweet!" the girls all exclaimed.

Then Freddie had his turn.

"Can't I put in two fingers?" he pleaded.

"No; only one!" his mother insisted.

After careful preparation Freddie put in his thumb and pulled out a big
candy plum!

"Open it!" called Nan.

The plum was put together in halves, and when Freddie opened it he
found a real "going" watch from Uncle Daniel.

"I can tell time!" declared the happy boy, for he had been learning the
hours on Martha's clock in the kitchen.

"What time is it, then?" asked Bert.

Freddie looked at his watch and counted around it two or three times.

"Four o'clock!" he said at last, and he was only twenty minutes out of
the way. The watch was the kind little boys use first, with very plain
figures on it, and it was quite certain before Freddie paid his next
visit to Uncle Daniel's he would have learned how to tell time exactly
on his first "real" watch.

The party was over, the children said good bye, and besides the play
favors each carried away a real gift, that of friendship for the little
Bobbseys.

"Maybe you can come down to the seashore on an excursion," said Nan to
her friends. "They often have Sunday-school excursions to Sunset Beach."

"We will if we can," answered Mabel, "but if I don't see you there, I
may call on you at Lakeport, when we go to the city."

"Oh yes, do!" insisted Nan. "I'll be home all winter I guess, but I
might go to boarding school. Anyhow, I'll write to you. Good-bye,
girls!"

"Good-bye!" was the answering cry, and then the visitors left in a
crowd, waving their hands as they disappeared around a turn of the road.

"What a perfectly lovely time we have had!" declared Nan to Bert.

"Oh, the country can't be beat!" answered her twin brother. "Still,
I'll be glad to get to the seashore, won't you?"

"Oh yes; I want to see Cousin Dorothy."

"And I want to see the big ocean," put in Freddie.

"I want to ride on one of the funny donkeys," lisped Flossie. "And I
want to make a sand castle."

"Me too!" chimed in Freddie.

"Hurrah for the seashore!" cried Bert, throwing his cap into the air,
and then all went into the house, to get ready for a trip they looked
forward to with extreme pleasure. And here let us say good-bye, hoping
to meet the Bobbsey Twins again.





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