The Bobbsey Twins at Meadow Brook

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  THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK

  By Laura Lee Hope

  CONTENTS

  I. A CROCKERY CRASH

  II. NEW SUMMER PLANS

  III. THE RUNAWAY BOY

  IV. OFF FOR MEADOW BROOK

  V. SNAP'S ESCAPE

  VI. AT MEADOW BROOK

  VII. THE PICNIC

  VIII. LOST IN THE HAY

  IX. THE FIVE-PIN SHOW

  X. A SHAM BATTLE

  XI. MOVING PICTURES

  XII. THE BOBBSEYS ACT

  XIII. THE CIRCUS

  XIV. FREDDIE IS MISSING

  XV. FOUND AGAIN

  XVI. FRANK'S STORY

  XVII. A WILD ANIMAL SCARE

  XVIII. WHAT FREDDIE SAW

  XIX. IN SWIMMING

  XX. FRANK COMES BACK

  XXI. BAD MONEY

  XXII. HAPPY DAYS

  CHAPTER I

  A CROCKERY CRASH

  "Well, here we are back home again!" exclaimed Nan Bobbsey, as she satdown in a chair on the porch. "Oh, but we have had _such_ a goodtime!"

  "The best ever!" exclaimed her brother Bert, as he set down the valisehe had been carrying, and walked back to the front gate to take asmall satchel from his mother.

  "I'm going to carry mine! I want to carry mine all the way!" criedlittle fat Freddie Bobbsey, thinking perhaps his bigger brother mightwant to take, too, his bundle.

  "All right, you can carry your own, Freddie," said Bert, pleasantly."But it's pretty heavy for you."

  "It--it isn't very heavy," panted Freddie, as he struggled on with hisbundle, his short fat legs fairly "twinkling" to and fro as he came upthe walk. "It's got some cookies in, too, my bundle has; and Flossieand I are going to eat 'em when we get on the porch."

  "Oh, so that's the reason you didn't want Bert to take your package,is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile, as she patted the little fatchap on the head.

  "Oh, well, I'll give Bert a cookie if he wants one," said Freddie,generously, "but I'm strong enough to carry my own bundle all the way;aren't I, Dinah?" and he appealed to a fat, good-natured lookingcolored woman, who was waddling along, carrying a number of packages.

  "Dat's what yo' is, honey lamb! Dat's what yo' is!" Dinah exclaimed."An' ef I could see dat man ob mine, Sam Johnson, I'd make him takesome ob dese yeah t'ings."

  As Dinah spoke there came from around the corner of the house a tall,slim colored man, who as soon as he saw the party of returningtravelers, ran forward to help them carry their luggage.

  "Well, it's about time dat yo' come t' help us, Sam Johnson!"exclaimed his wife. "It's about time!"

  "Didn't know yo' all was a-comin', Dinah! Didn't know yo' all wouldget heah so soon, 'deed I didn't!" Sam exclaimed, with a laugh, thatshowed his white teeth in strange contrast to his black face."Freddie, shall I take yo' package? Flossie, let me reliebe yo',little Missie!"

  "No, Sam, thank you!" answered the little girl, who was just about thesize and build of Freddie. "I have only Snoop, our cat, and I cancarry him easily enough. You help Dinah!"

  "'Deed an' he had better help me!" exclaimed the colored cook.

  Sam took all the packages he could carry, and hurried with them to thestoop. But he had not gone very far before something happened.

  From behind him rushed a big dog, barking and leaping about, glad,probably, to be home again from part of the summer vacation.

  "Look out, Sam!" called Bert Bobbsey, who was carrying the valise hismother had had. "Look out!"

  "What's de mattah? Am I droppin' suffin?" asked Sam, trying to turnabout and look at all the bundles and packages he had in his arms andhands.

  "It's Snap!" cried Nan, who was sitting comfortably on the shadyporch. "Look out for him, Sam."

  "Snap! Behave yourself!" ordered little fat Flossie, as she set down awooden cage containing a black cat. "Be good, Snap!"

  "Here, Snap! Snap! Come here!" called Freddie.

  Snap, the big dog, was too excited just then to mind. With anotherloud, joyous bark he rushed up behind Sam, and, as the colored man ofall work about the Bobbsey place had very bow, or curved, legs, Snapran right between them. That is, he ran half way, and then, as he wasa pretty fat dog, he stuck there.

  "Good land ob massy!" exclaimed Sam, as he looked down to see the doghalf way between his bow legs, Snap's head sticking out one way, andhis wagging tail the other. "Get out ob dat, Snap!" cried Sam. "Getout! Move on, sah!"

  "Bow wow!" barked Snap, which might have meant almost anything.

  "Look out!" shouted Sam. "Yo'll upset me! Dat's what you will!"

  And indeed it did seem as though this might happen. For Sam was soladen down with packages that he could not balance himself very well,and had almost toppled over.

  "Here, Snap!" called Bert, who was laughing so hard that he couldhardly stand up, for really it was a funny sight.

  "Don't call him, Bert," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you do he'll runout, and then Sam surely will be knocked over. And there are somefresh eggs in one of those packages he took from Dinah."

  Snap himself did not seem to know what to do. There he was, tightlyheld fast, his fat sides between Sam's bow legs. Snap could go neitherforward nor backward just then. He barked and wagged his tail, for heknew it was all in fun.

  "Open your legs wider, Sam, man!" exclaimed his wife. "Den de dorg kingit out!"

  Sam, holding tightly to the packages, did manage to stoop down and sospread his legs a little farther apart. This released Snap, who, witha happy bark, and a wild wagging of his tail, bounded up on the stoopwhere Nan sat.

  A little later the whole Bobbsey family, with the exception of Mr.Bobbsey, were sitting comfortably in the porch chairs, while Sam wasopening the front shutters, having already unlocked the front door forthe returning family.

  "Home again!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, with a little sigh, as shelooked around at the familiar scenes. "My, but how dusty it is afterbeing on the lovely water."

  "Yes'm, dey shuah has been lots ob dust!" exclaimed Sam. "We need rainmighty bad, an' I've had de garden hose goin' ebery night, too."

  "I'll soon sweep off dish yeah porch," said Dinah. "Sam, yo' git me abroom."

  "Oh, don't bother now, Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Make a cup of tea,first. The dust doesn't matter, and we'll not be here long."

  "Won't we?" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, where are we going next?"

  "We'll talk about it as soon as your father comes home," said Mrs.Bobbsey, for her husband had stopped on the way from the houseboatdock, where the family had lately landed, to go to his lumber officefor a little while.

  "Let Snoop out!" begged little Flossie. "Snoop's tired of being shutup in that box." In order to carry him from the boat to the houseSnoop had been put in a small traveling crate.

  "I'll let him out as soon as I get a screwdriver," promised Bert. "My,but it's hot here!"

  "Indeed it is," agreed his mother, who was fanning herself with herpocket handkerchief as she sat in a rocking-chair. "It isn't much likeour nice houseboat, is it?"

  "No, indeed," agreed Nan. "I wish we hadn't come home."

  "And summer is only half over," went on Bert. "Here it is onlyAugust."

  "Oh, well, there are plenty of good times ahead of you children yet,before school begins," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Now let's see. Have weeverything?" and she looked at the pile of bundles and valises on theporch.

  "I guess we didn't forget anything, except papa," said Freddie. "Andhe's coming," he added, as the others laughed.

  "Sam, am de fire made?" demanded Dinah. "I wants t' make a cup obtea."
br />   "Fire all made," reported the colored man. "I'll go git a fresh pailob water now. I didn't know jest prezackly when yo' was comin'," hesaid to Mrs. Bobbsey, "or I'd a' been down to de dock t' meet dehouseboat."

  "Might a' come anyhow," muttered Dinah. "Yo' all didn't hab nuffin' t'do heah!"

  "Huh! I didn't, eh?" cried Sam. "Nuffin t' do! Why, I cut de grass,an' fed de chickens, an' watered de lawn, an'--an'--"

  "Go 'long wif yo'," ordered his wife with a laugh. "Bring in some mo'wood for de fire!"

  "And get a screw-driver so I can let Snoop out," begged Flossie. "He'stired of being shut up in the crate!"

  "Right away, Missie! Right away!" promised good-natured Sam.

  A little later Snoop, the black cat, was stretching himself on theporch, while Snap, the big dog, rushed up and down the lawn, barkingloudly to let all the neighbors' dogs know he was back home again--atleast for a time.

  Meanwhile Bert, as the "little man of the house," had brought in thepackages and satchels from the porch. Nan was helping her mother getout a cool kimona, while Dinah was down in the kitchen getting ready acup of tea for Mrs. Bobbsey.

  Flossie and Freddie, as the youngest Bobbsey twins, had nothing inparticular to do, so they ran about, here, there, everywhere, renewingacquaintance with the familiar objects about the yard--things they hadforgotten during the two months they had been away on a houseboat, forpart of their summer vacation.

  "Oh, look! My flower-bed is full of weeds!" cried Flossie, as she cameto a corner of the yard where she had set out some pansy plants justbefore going away.

  "And I can't even see the lettuce I planted," said Freddie. "I guessSam didn't weed our gardens."

  "Never mind, we can make new ones," Flossie said. "Oh, Freddie, look!There's a strange cat!" Both children ran to where Snoop was makingthe acquaintance of a pussy friend. The cats seemed to like oneanother and the strange one let the little twins pet it as it lappedsome milk from Snoop's saucer.

  A little later Dinah called Flossie and Freddie into the house to havea glass of milk and some bread and jam, for it was past lunch time.The small twins came willingly enough.

  "What are we going to do the rest of the summer?" asked Nan, as shesat next to her mother at the table. "Are we going away again?"

  "I hope so!" exclaimed Bert. "The houseboat suited me, but if we canhave a trip to the seashore, or go to the country, so much thebetter."

  "We shall see," half-promised Mrs. Bobbsey. "As soon as papa comeshome from the office, he will know how much more time he can sparefrom business to go with us. Then I can tell you--"

  "There he comes now, mamma!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, excuse me forinterrupting you," she went on, for Mrs. Bobbsey insisted upon thechildren being just as polite at home, and to one another, as theywould be among strangers.

  "That's all right, Nan," said her mother kindly. "When papa comes in,and has had a cup of tea, we'll talk over matters, and decide what todo."

  "Well, are you all settled?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, as he came in,catching little Freddie up in his strong arms. "Haven't put out anyfires since you got here, have you?" he asked, for Freddie had a greatlove for playing fireman, and he often put out "make-believe" blazeswith a toy fire engine he had, which squirted real water.

  "No alarms to-day," laughed Freddie, for his father was tickling himin his "fat ribs," as Freddie called them.

  "How's my little fat fairy?" went on Mr. Bobbsey, catching Flossie upas he had Freddie.

  "All right." she answered. "Oh, papa, your whiskers prick!" she cried,as Mr. Bobbsey kissed her.

  "Sit down and have a cup of tea," invited Mrs. Bobbsey. "Then we cantalk about what we are to do. The children are anxious to get awayagain, and if we _are_ to go there is no need of unpacking more thanwe have to."

  "Would you like to go to Meadow Brook?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, looking athis happy family.

  "You know I would," answered his wife, with a smile.

  "Meadow Brook! Oh, are we going there?" cried Nan.

  "Well, Uncle Daniel has sent us an invitation," said Mr. Bobbsey, "andyour mother and I are thinking of it."

  "Can you leave your lumber business long enough to go with us?" askedMrs. Bobbsey.

  "I think so," replied her husband. "I just stopped at the office, andeverything there is going along nicely. So I think we'll go to MeadowBrook, in the country, for the rest of the summer."

  "Hurray! Hurrah! Oh, how nice!" cried the children.

  "Dinah, I think I'll have another cup of tea," went on Mr. Bobbsey, asthe colored cook waddled in. "Make it cold, this time--with ice in it.I am very warm."

  "Yais-sah," said Dinah, taking his cup.

  Then followed a confusion of talk, the two sets of twins doing themost. They were joyfully excited at the idea of going to Meadow Brookfarm.

  "I'm going to turn somersaults in the grass--just like this," criedFreddie, rolling over and over on the floor. He rolled toward the doorthat led from the dining-room to the kitchen, and, just as he reachedit, Dinah came in with Mr. Bobbsey's cup of iced tea.

  Before Freddie could stop himself, and before fat Dinah could get outof the way, the little Bobbsey chap had rolled right into the cook,and down she went in a heap on the floor, the cup and saucer crashinginto dozens of pieces, and the tea spilling all over.