CHAPTER XVI
DOROTHY'S DOINGS
"Here they come!" called Nellie, who was searching around the barn,and saw the farmer with the two children crossing the hill.
"I'm Robinson Crusoe!" insisted Freddie, "and this is my man, Friday,"he added, pointing to the farmer.
Of course it did not take long to clear up the mystery of the littleones' disappearance. But since his return Freddie acted like a hero,and certainly felt like one, and Flossie brought home with her adainty bouquet of pink sebatia, that rare little flower so like a tinywild rose. The farmer refused to take anything for his time andtrouble, being glad to do our friends a favor.
Aunt Sarah and Harry were to leave for Meadow Brook that afternoon,but the worry over the children being lost made Aunt Sarah feel quiteunequal to the journey, so Aunt Emily prevailed upon her to waitanother day.
"There are so many dangers around here," remarked Aunt Sarah, when allthe "scare" was over. "It is different in the country. We neverworry about lost children out in Meadow Brook."
"But I often got lost out there," insisted Freddie. "Don't youremember?"
Aunt Sarah had some recollection of the little fellow's adventures inthat line, and laughed over them, now that they were recalled.
Late that afternoon Dorothy, Nan, and Nellie had a conference: thatis, they talked with their heads so close together not even Flossiecould get an idea of what they were planning. But it was certainlymischief, for Dorothy had most to say, and she would rather have agood joke than a good dinner any day, so Susan said.
Harry, Hal, and Bert had been chasing through the woods after aqueer-looking bird. It was large, and had brilliant feathers, andwhen it rested for a moment on a tree it would pick at the bark as ifit were trying to play a tune with its beak. Each time it struck thebark its head bobbed up and down in a queer way for a bird. But theboys could not get it. They set Hal's trap, and even used an airrifle in hopes of bringing it down without killing it, but the birdputtered from place to place, not in a very great hurry, but justfast enough to keep the boys busy chasing it.
That evening, at dinner, the strange bird was much talked about.
"Dat's a ban-shee!" declared Dinah, jokingly. "Dat bird came to bringa message from somebody. You boys will hear dat tonight, see if youdoesn't," and she gave a very mysterious wink at Dorothy, who justthen nearly choked with her dessert.
A few hours later the house was all quiet. The happenings of the daybrought a welcome night, and tired little heads comfortably huggedtheir pillows.
It must have been about midnight, Bert was positive he had just heardthe clock strike a lot of rings, surely a dozen or so, when at hiswindow came a queer sound, like something pecking. At first Bert gotit mixed up with his dreams, but as it continued longer and louder, hecalled to Harry, who slept in the alcove in Bert's room, and togetherthe boys listened, attentively.
"That's the strange bird," declared Harry. "Sure enough it isbringing us a message, as Dinah said," and while the boys took thegirl's words in a joke, they really seemed to be coming true.
"Don't light the gas," cautioned Bert, "or that will surely frightenit off. We can get our air guns, and I'll go crawl out on the verandaroof back of it, so as to get it if possible."
All this time the "peck-peck-peck" kept at the window, but just assoon as Bert went out in the hall to make his way through thestoreroom window to the veranda roof, the pecking ceased. Harryhurried after Bert to tell him the bird was gone, and then togetherthe boys put their heads out of their own window.
But there was not a sound, not even the distant flutter of a bird'swing to tell the boys the messenger had gone.
"Back to bed for us," said Harry, laughing. "I guess that bird is ajoker and wants to keep us busy," and both boys being healthy werequite ready to fall off to sleep as soon as they felt it was of no useto stay awake longer looking for their feathered visitor.
"There it is again," called Bert, when Harry had just begun to dreamof hazelnuts in Meadow Brook. "I'll get him this time!" and withoutwaiting to go through the storeroom, Bert raised the window and boltedout on the roof.
"What's de matter down dere?" called Dinah from the window above."'Pears like as if you boys had de nightmare. Can't you let nobodyget a wink ob sleep? Ebbery time I puts my head down, bang! comes anoise and up pops my head. Now, what's a-ailin' ob you, Bert?" andthe colored girl showed by her tone of voice she was not a bit angry,but "chock-full of laugh," as Bert whispered to Harry.
But the boys had not caught the bird, had not even seen it, for thatmatter.
Both Bert and Harry were now on the roof in their pajamas.
"What's--the--matter--there?" called Dorothy, in a very drowsy voice,from her window at the other end of the roof.
"What are you boys after?" called Uncle William, from a middle window.
"Anything the matter?" asked Aunt Sarah, anxiously, from the spareroom.
"Got a burgulor?" shrieked Freddie, from the nursery.
"Do you want any help?" offered Susan, her head out of the top-floorwindow.
All these questions came so thick and fast on the heads of Bert andHarry that the boys had no idea of answering them. Certainly the birdwas nowhere to be seen, and they did not feel like advertising their"April-fool game" to the whole house, so they decided to crawl intobed again and let others do the same.
The window in the boys' room was a bay, and each time the peckingdisturbed them they thought the sound came from a different part ofthe window. Bert said it was the one at the left, so where the "bird"called from was left a mystery.
But neither boy had time to close his eyes before the noise started upagain!
"Well, if that isn't a ghost it certainly is a ban-shee, as Dinahsaid," whispered Bert. "I'm going out to Uncle William's room andtell him. Maybe he will have better luck than we had," and so saying,Bert crept out into the hall and down two doors to his uncle's room.
Uncle William had also heard the sound.
"Don't make a particle of noise," cautioned the uncle, "and we can goup in the cupola and slide down a post so quietly the bird will nothear us," and as he said this, he, in his bath robe, went cautiouslyup the attic stairs, out of a small window, and slid down the postbefore Bert had time to draw his own breath.
But there was no bird to be seen anywhere!
"I heard it this very minute!" declared Harry, from the window.
"It might be bats!" suggested Uncle William. "But listen! I thoughtI heard the girls laughing," and at that moment an audible titter wasmaking its way out of Nan's room!
"That's Dorothy's doings!" declared Uncle William, getting ready tolaugh himself. "She's always playing tricks," and he began to feelabout the outside ledge of the bay window.
But there was nothing there to solve the mystery.
"A tick-tack!" declared Harry, "I'll bet, from the girls' room!" andwithout waiting for another word he jumped out of his window, ranalong the roof to Nan's room, and then grabbed something.
"Here it is!" he called, confiscating the offending property. "Youjust wait, girls!" he shouted in the window. "If we don't give you agood ducking in the ocean for this to-morrow!"
The laugh of the three girls in Nan's room made the joke on the boysmore complete, and as Uncle William went back to his room he declaredto Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Emily that his girl, Dorothy, was more funthan a dozen boys, and he would match her against that number for thebest piece of good-natured fun ever played.
"A bird!" sneered Bert, making fun of himself for being so easilyfooled.
"A girls' game of tick-tack!" laughed Harry, making up his mind thatif he did not "get back at Dorothy," he would certainly have to haulin his colors as captain of the Boys' Brigade of Meadow Brook; "forshe certainly did fool me," he admitted, turning over to sleep atlast.