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The Bobbsey Twins in Washington
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE BOBBSEY TWINS," "THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES," "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES THE BOBBSEY TWINS THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT HOSTESS HOUSE
CONTENTS
I UNDER THE HAY II DIGGING OUT III THE WASHINGTON CHILDREN IV MISS POMPRET'S CHINA V "WHAT A LOT OF MONEY!" VI WONDERFUL NEWS VII ON A TRIP VIII IN NEW YORK IX WASHINGTON AT LAST X LOST XI THE PRESIDENT XII WASHINGTON MONUMENT XIII A STRAY CAT XIV STRAY CHILDREN XV "WHERE ARE THEY?" XVI THE FIRE BELL XVII FREDDIE'S REAL ALARM XVIII THE ORIENTAL CHILDREN XIX "OH LOOK!" XX A GREAT BARGAIN XXI JUST SUPPOSE XXII HAPPY DAYS
CHAPTER I
UNDER THE HAY
"This is 'most as much fun as we had on Blueberry Island, or when we went to Florida on the deep, blue sea, isn't it, Bert?" asked Nan Bobbsey, as she sat on the porch and fanned herself with her hat. She and her brother had been running around the house, playing a new game, and Nan was warm.
"Yes, it's fun all right," agreed Bert. "But I liked the deep, blue sea better—or even Blueberry Island," and off came his hat to cool his flushed face, for, though it was late in September, the day was warm.
"But we couldn't stay on the island, always," went on Nan. "We have to go to school, daddy says!"
"Don't speak about it!" begged Bert. "I don't want to go to school for a long, long time, and not then!"
"Have we got to go to school?" asked a little light-haired and blue-eyed girl, as she ran up the steps, to sink in a heap at the feet of her sister, Nan Bobbsey. "When do we go?" she went on.
"Oh, not right away, 'little fat fairy!'" laughed Nan, giving Flossie the name her father sometimes called her. "School won't open for two weeks more."
"Hurray!" cried Bert. "The longer it stays closed the better I like it.
But come on, Nan! Let's have some more fun. This isn't like Blueberry
Island, sitting still on a porch!"
"You haven't sat still more than three minutes, Bert Bobbsey!" cried his sister. "I can hardly get my breath, you made me run so fast!"
Just then a little boy, who had the same sort of blue eyes and golden hair that made Flossie such a pretty little girl, came tumbling up the steps with a clatter and a bang, falling down at Bert's feet. The older boy caught his small brother just in time, or there might have been a bumped nose.
"Hi there, Freddie, what's the matter?" asked Bert, with a laugh. "Is our dog Snap chasing you, or have you been playing a trick on our cat Snoop?"
"I—I—I'm a—a fireman!" panted Freddie, for he, too, was out of breath from running. "I'm a fireman, and I—I've got to get the engine. There's a big, big fire!" and his eyes opened wide and round.
"A big fire—really?" asked Nan quickly.
"Course not! He's only making believe!" replied Bert.
"Well, I thought maybe he might have seen some boys start a bonfire somewhere," explained Nan. "They sometimes do."
"I know they do," admitted Bert. "And I hope they don't start one near daddy's lumberyard."
"There was a fire down in the lumber once!" exclaimed Freddie. He was too young to have seen it, but he had heard his father and mother talk about the time Mr. Bobbsey's lumberyard was nearly burned out. Freddie Bobbsey was very fond of a toy fire engine he had been given for Christmas, and his father often called Freddie a "little fireman," just as Flossie was named a "fairy."
"Well, if it's only a make-believe fire we can sit here and cool off," went on Nan. "What were you doing, Flossie?" she asked her little sister.
"Oh, I was having a race with our cat Snoop; but I guess I beat, 'cause
Snoop didn't get here to the porch before I did."
"Yes, you won the race all right," laughed Bert. "But it's too hot for any more running games. I wish we were back on the island where we found that boy, Jack Nelson, and could play we were sailors and could splash in the water."
"That would be fun!" sighed Nan, as she fanned herself harder than ever with her hat.
The Bobbsey twins had, a few days before, returned to their home from a vacation spent on a strange island off the coast of Florida. They had gone there with Cousin Jasper Dent to rescue a boy who had been left in a lonely cave, and very many strange adventures the Bobbsey twins and their father and mother, to say nothing of Cousin Jasper, had had on that voyage.
Now the simple games they tried to get up around the house, and the thought of having to go back to school soon, made them feel a bit lonesome for the deep, blue sea, over which they had made a voyage to rescue the boy, Jack Nelson, and also for Blueberry Island, where once they spent a vacation.
"I know what we can do!" cried Nan, after a rest.
"What?" asked Bert, always ready to join Nan in any fun she thought of.
"What can we do?"
"Go out to the barn and play that's a ship like the one we went on to
Florida. It'll be cooler in the barn than it is here, anyhow."
"That's so," admitted Bert. "And oh! I know how we can have packs of fun!"
"How?" This time it was Nan who eagerly asked.
"Why we can swing on some of the ropes that are in the haymow. I guess the ropes are there to tie things up on in the winter. But we can swing on 'em now, and make believe we're sailors, just as we did when we found that boy in the cave where we went with Cousin Jasper."
"Oh, so we can!" cried Nan. "Come on!"
"I'll be a fireman on the ship!" declared fat Freddie, as he got slowly to his feet from the floor where he had been sitting near Bert. "I'll be a fireman and squirt water."
"Not real—only make believe," cried Bert. "Water spoils hay, you know,
Freddie. You can't splash any water on daddy's hay in the barn."
"No, I'll only make believe," agreed the light-haired little boy. "Come on Flossie!" he called to his sister, who had slipped down off the porch to run after a big black cat that marched along with his tail in the air, "like a fishing pole," Bert said. "Come on, Flossie!" called Freddie. "We'll go out to the barn and play ship and sailors, and I'll be a fireman and you can be——"
"I'm going to be hungry, and have something good to eat! That's what
I'll be," declared Flossie quickly. "I'm going to be AWFUL hungry!"
"Oh dear!" exclaimed Nan, but she was laughing. "That's always the way.
Those two want to do something different."
"Well, we can all make believe we're hungry," said Bert. "And maybe
Dinah will give us some cookies to eat."
"There she goes now. I'll ask her!" offered Nan, as she saw the Bobbsey's fat and good-natured colored cook cross the lawn with a small basket of clothes to hang up. "We'll have a little play-party out in the barn."
"But I'm going to be real hungry—not make believe!" said Freddie. "I want to eat real."
"And so you can!" declared Nan. "I'll get enough for all of us."
A little later the Bobbsey twins—the two pairs of them—were on the way to the barn that stood a little way back of the house. Mr. Bobbsey did not live on a farm. He lived in a town, but his place was large enough to have a barn on it as well as a house. He kept a horse, and sometimes a cow, but just now there was no cow in the stable—only a horse.
And the horse was not there, either, just then, for it was being used to pull a wagon about the streets of Lakeport. Mr. Bobbsey had an automobile, but he also kept the horse, and this animal was sometimes used by the clerks from the lumber office.
So out to the barn, which had in it the winter supply of hay and oats for the horse, went the Bobbsey twins. Nan and Bert, being older, reached the place first, each one carrying some sugar and molasses cookies Dinah had given them. After Nan and Bert ran Flossie and Freddie, each one looking anxiously at the packages of cookies.
"Don't those cookies look good?" cried Flossie.
"And I guess they'll eat just as good as they look," was Freddie's comment.
Just then Nan's foot slipped on a small stone, and she came very near falling down.
"Oh!" cried Flossie and Freddie together.
"Don't drop your cookies, Nan!" came quickly from Bert.
"Oh, if you dropped 'em they'd get all dirty," said Flossie.
"They wouldn't get very dirty," answered Freddie hopefully. "Anyway, we could brush 'em off. They'd be good enough to eat, wouldn't they?" and he looked at Bert.
"I guess they wouldn't get very dirty," answered Bert. "Anyway, Nan didn't drop them. But you'd better be careful, Nan," he went on.
"Don't be so scared, Bert Bobbsey," answered his sister. "I won't drop them."
In a minute more the Bobbsey twins were at the barn where the sugar and molasses cookies Dinah had given them were put in a safe place.
"There are the ropes!" exclaimed Bert, as he pointed to some dangling from a beam near the haymow.
"They're too high to climb!" Nan said, for some of the ropes were fast to the rafters of the barn.
"Oh, we won't climb 'em!" Bert quickly returned, for he knew his mother would never allow this. "We'll just swing on 'em, low down near this pile of hay, so if we fall we can't hurt ourselves."
"I want to swing on a rope, too!" exclaimed Freddie, as he heard what his older brother and sister were talking of. "I like to be a sailor and swing on a rope."
"Not now, Freddie," answered Bert. "The ropes are too high for you and Flossie. You just play around on the barn floor, and you can watch Nan and me swing. Then we'll play steamboat, maybe."
"I want to be the steam, and go puff-puff!" cried Freddie.
"And I want to be the captain and say 'All aboard!'" was Flossie's wish.
"You can take turns," agreed Bert. "Now don't get in our way, Flossie and Freddie. Nan and I want to see how big a swing we can take by holding to the ropes."
"All right. I'll go and see if I can find any eggs," replied Freddie.
"Hens lay eggs in the barn."
"Well, if you find a nest don't step in it and break all the eggs," warned Nan.
She and Bert, as Flossie and Freddie went marching around the big barn, climbed up on the pile of hay, and began swinging on the ropes. To and fro swung the older Bobbsey twins.
"Isn't this better than Blueberry Island?" asked Nan.
"Well no, it isn't any better," said Bert; "but it's just as good. Look,
I'm going to let go and drop on the hay."
"Be careful and don't hurt yourself!" begged Nan, as she swung to and fro, her feet raised from the hay beneath her, while Bert, also, swayed slowly to and fro.
"Oh, I'll be careful!" Bert promised. "Anyhow, the hay is nice and soft to fall in. I'll make believe I'm a man in the circus, falling from the top of the tent."
He swung a little farther to and fro, and then suddenly cried:
"Here I go!"
"Oh!" screamed Nan, but, really, nothing happened to harm Bert. He just dropped into the pile of soft hay.
"Come on, Nan! You try it! Lots of fun!" laughed Bert as he scrambled up and made for his rope again.
Nan said "no" at first, but when Bert had swung once more and again dropped into the hay, she took her turn. Into the hay she plunged, and sank down to her shoulders in the soft, dried grass.
"Come on—let's do it some more!" laughed Bert. Then he and his older sister had lots of fun swinging on the ropes and dropping into a pile of hay.
"I wonder what Flossie and Freddie are doing," said Bert, after they had had about an hour of this fun. "I haven't seen them for a long while."
"Maybe they found a hen's nest and took the eggs to the house," said
Nan. "They'd do that."
"Yes, if they found one," agreed Bert. "Well, we'll see where they are after I take another swing. And I'm going to take a big one."
"So will I!" decided Nan. "Oh, it's just as nice as Blueberry Island or on the deep, blue sea, isn't it, Bert?"
"It is when we play this way—yes. But just watch me."
"Here come Flossie and Freddie now!" exclaimed Nan, as she glanced at her older brother, who was taking a firm hold of the rope for his big swing. The two smaller twins, at this moment, came into the barn through the door that led to the cow stable.
"Where have you been?" asked Nan, as she watched Bert get ready for his swing.
"Oh, we had fun," said Flossie.
"And I squirted water, out where the horse drinks," added Freddie,
"I hope you didn't get wet!" exclaimed Nan. "If you did——"
"Well, I have on a dirty waist, so it won't hurt me any if I am wet," said Freddie calmly. "I want to swing like that, Bert," he added. "Give me a swing!"
"After I've had my turn I'll give you and Flossie each one," promised
Nan. "Watch me, Bert!" she called.
Off the mow swung Nan, clinging to the swaying rope with both hands.
"Come on—let's both let go together and see who falls into the hay first!" proposed Bert.
"All right!" agreed Nan.
"One, two, three!" cried Bert. "Ready! Let go!"
He and Nan let go of the ropes at the same time. Together they dropped down to the hay—and then something happened! The two older Bobbsey children jumped too near the edge of the mow, where the hay was piled in a big roll, like a great feather bed bolster, over the top rail. And Bert and Nan, in their drop, caused a big pile of hay—almost a wagonload—to slip from the mow and down to the barn floor. And directly underneath were Flossie and Freddie!
Down on the two little twins fell Bert and Nan and the big pile of dried grass, and, in an instant, the two golden heads were buried out of sight on the barn floor in a large heap of hay.
CHAPTER II
DIGGING OUT
"Oh, Bert Bobbsey! look what you did," cried Nan.
She picked herself up from the barn floor, to which she had slid after having come down with the pile of hay, with her brother, right where Flossie and Freddie had been playing a moment before.
"Look what you did!" she cried again.
"I didn't do it any more than you did!" exclaimed Bert. "But where is Flossie? And where's Freddie?" He looked around, not seeing the smaller twins, and not having noticed exactly what had happened to them. "Where are they, Nan?"
"Under the hay, and we've got to dig 'em out! I'll get the pitchfork. That's what Sam does when he gets the hay to feed the horse. I can dig out Flossie and Freddie!" cried Nan.
She started to run across the barn floor, but was stopped by a call from
Bert.
"Don't do that!" he said.
"What?" she asked.
"Don't get the pitchfork! It's sharp and might hurt Flossie and Freddie.
I'll pull the hay off with my hands. You go and tell mother or Dinah!
Somebody's got to help! There's 'most a whole load of hay on 'em I
guess!"
And indeed it was a large part of the pile of hay in the Bobbsey barn that had slid from the mow when Bert jumped on it. And this hay now covered from sight the "little fireman" and the "little fat fairy," as Daddy Bobbsey called his two little twins.
"Yes, I'll go for Dinah!" cried Nan. "She knows how to dig under the hay, I guess!"
"And I'll start digging now," added Bert, as he began tossing aside the wisps of dried grass that covered his small brother and sister from sight.
And while the rescue of Freddie and Flossie is being arranged for, I will take this chance to tell my new readers something of the four children, about whom I am going to write in this book.
There are other books ahead of this one, and the first is named after the children. It is called "The Bobbsey Twins," and relates some of the early adventures of Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie. Those are the names of the twins, as you have already learned.
The Bobbsey family lived in an eastern city called Lakeport, at the head of Lake Metoka. Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business and had an office near his lumberyard, which was "down town" as the children called it.
Now I'll tell you just a little about the four children, their friends and something about the other books, and then I'll get on with the story, which I hope you will wish to read.
There were two sets of twins, you see. Bert and Nan were the older. They each had dark brown hair, brown eyes and were rather tall for their age, and not so very fat; though, of late, with all the good times they had had in the country at Blueberry Island and on the deep, blue sea, the older twins were getting stouter. "Fatter," Freddie called it.
Flossie and Freddie were just the opposite of Bert and Nan. The smaller pair of twins were short and stout, and each had light hair, and blue eyes that looked at you, sometimes, in the funniest way you can imagine.
Besides Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey there was Dinah, the fat, good-natured colored cook, who knew how to make more kinds of cake than you could eat in one day. And then there was Sam Johnson, her husband. Sam worked about the Bobbsey house and barn, looked after the horse and sometimes drove the automobile, though he said he liked a horse better. But the Bobbsey family liked the automobile, so the horse was used down in the lumberyard more often than to take Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie for a ride.
The Bobbsey twins had many friends and relations, but I will not take up your time, now, telling you about them. I must not forget, however, to mention Snoop and Snap. Snoop was a fine, big cat, and he was named "Snoop" because he always seemed to be "snooping" into everything, as Dinah said. Snoop didn't do that to be bad, he just wanted to find out about things. Once he wanted to find out what was inside an empty tin can, and so he stuck his head in and he couldn't get it out until Bert helped him.
Snap was the Bobbsey dog, and he wasn't called "Snap" because he would snap at you. No indeed! It was because, when Bert put a cracker on his dog's nose, the animal would "snap" it off with a jerk of his head and eat it—eat the cracker I mean. That was one reason he was called "Snap." But there were other reasons, too.
And so the Bobbsey twins lived in a fine house in a pleasant city and they had lots of fun. Those of you who have read the other books know that. They went to the country and to the seashore, to visit Uncle William at the latter place, and Uncle Daniel Bobbsey in the former.
Of course the Bobbsey twins went to school, and there is a book telling about them there, and the fun and adventures they had. Later on they went to "Snow Lodge," and after an exciting winter, they spent part of the summer on a houseboat.
When Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie went to Meadow Brook, which was the country home of Uncle Daniel, the twins never expected very much to happen. But it did, and they talked about it for a long time. Then they came home to have more good times, and, later on, went to a great city. I haven't space, here, to tell you all that happened. You must get the book and read it for yourself.
After that they spent a summer on Blueberry Island, and there were gypsies on the island. Some strange things happened, but the Bobbsey twins enjoyed every hour of their stay, and did not want to come home.
But they had to, of course, and still more strange adventures awaited them. Those you may read about in the book just before this. It is called: "The Bobbsey Twins on the Deep, Blue Sea," and in it is related how the family went on a voyage to an island off the coast of Florida, to rescue a poor, sick boy who had been left there by mistake.
Now they were home once more.
It was almost time for school to open for the fall term, and the twins were playing in the barn, making the most of the last days of their vacation, when the accident happened about the hay, as I have told you.
"Flossie! Freddie! Are you under there?" called Bert, anxiously, as he threw aside armful after armful of the dried grass. "Are you down there under the hay?"
He paused a moment to listen for an answer, but none came. If Flossie and Freddie were there, either they did not hear him or they were so smothered by the hay that they could not answer.
"Oh, I hope nothing has happened to them!" exclaimed Bert, and he began digging away faster than before.
Certainly it was a large pile of hay to have fallen on two little children. But then the hay was soft, and Bert, himself, had often been buried under a pile in the field. It had not hurt, but the dust had made him sneeze.
Faster and faster Bert dug away at the hay. He heard feet pattering on the barn floor back of him, and, turning, saw Snap, the big dog, come running in.
"Oh, Snap!" cried Bert, "Flossie and Freddie are under the hay! Help me dig 'em out!"
"Bow wow!" barked Snap, just as if he understood. Of course he didn't really know what had happened, but he saw Bert digging away and Snap himself knew enough to do that. Often enough he had dug up, with his front paws, a bone he had buried in the hard ground. This digging in the soft hay was easier than that.
So Snap began to paw aside the hay, just as Bert was doing, and while boy and dog were doing this into the barn came fat Dinah, with Nan running ahead of her.
"Whut's dish yeah has happened, Bert? Whut's all dish yeah I heah Nan say?" demanded the black cook. "Whut you done gone an' done to yo' l'il broth' an' sistah? De pooh l'il honey lambs!"
"I didn't do anything!" declared Bert. "I was swinging on a rope, over the haymow, and so was Nan. And Flossie and Freddie were playing on the barn floor under the mow. I fell on the hay and so did Nan, and a whole lot of it slid down and fell on top of Flossie and Freddie and—and—now they're down under there, I guess!"
"Good land ob massy!" exclaimed Dinah. "Dat suah is a lot to happen to mah poor l'il lambkins! Where is you, Flossie? Where is you, Freddie?" she cried.
There was no answer.
"Oh, Dinah! do get them out," begged Nan.
"I will, honey! I will!" exclaimed the colored woman.
"Shall I go to get Sam?" Nan wanted to know. "Mother isn't at home," she added to Bert. "She went over to Mrs. Black's. Oh, maybe we can't ever get Flossie and Freddie out!"
"Hush yo' talk laik dat!" cried Dinah. "Co'se we git 'em out! We kin do it. No need to git Sam. Come on now, Bert an' Nan! Dig as fast as yo' kin make yo' hands fly!"
Dinah bent over and began tossing aside the hay as Bert had been doing.
Nan also helped, and Snap—well he meant to help, but he got in the way
more than he did anything else, and Bert tried to send his dog out, but
Snap would not go.
Faster and faster worked Dinah, Nan and Bert, and soon the big pile of hay, which had fallen on Flossie and Freddie grew smaller. It was being stacked on another part of the floor.
"Maybe I'd better go and telephone to daddy!" suggested Nan, when the hay pile had been made much smaller. "You don't see anything of them yet, do you Dinah?" she asked anxiously.
"No, not yet, honey! But I soon will. We's 'most to de bottom ob de heap. No use worritin' yo' pa. We'll git Freddie and Flossie out all right!"
Bert was tossing aside the hay so fast that his arms seemed like the spokes of a wheel going around. He felt that it was partly his fault that the hay had fallen on his little brother and sister.
"Now we'll git 'em!" cried Dinah, after a bit. "I see de barn flo' in one place. Come on out, chilluns!" she cried. "Come on out, Flossie an' Freddie! We's dug de hay offen yo' now! Come on out!"
Indeed the hay pile was now so small at the place where it had slid from the mow, that it would not have hidden Snap, to say nothing of covering the two Bobbsey twins.
But something seemed to be wrong. There were no little fat legs or chubby arms sticking out. The little Bobbsey twins were not in sight, though nearly all the hay had been moved aside.
Bert, Nan and Dinah gazed at the few wisps remaining. Then, in a queer voice Nan said:
"Why—why! They're not there!"
CHAPTER II
THE WASHINGTON CHILDREN
THERE was no doubt of it. Flossie and Freddie were not under the pile of hay that had fallen on them. The hay had all been cast aside now, so far away from the place where it had fallen that it could not serve for a hiding place. And Bert and Nan could see the bare floor of the barn.
"Where are they?" asked Bert, looking in surprise at Nan. "Where are
Flossie and Freddie?"
"Dat's whut I wants to know!" declared Dinah. "Where is dey? Has yo' all been playin' a trick on ole Dinah?" and she looked sadly at Bert and Nan.
"Playing a trick?" cried Nan.
"We didn't play any trick!" exclaimed Bert. "Flossie and Freddie were down under that hay!"
"But they're not there now!" went on Nan.
"No," said Dinah, as she poked aside some of the wisps of hay with her foot. "Dey isn't heah now, an' where is dey? Dat's whut I'se askin' yo' all, Bert an' Nan? Where is dem two little lambkins?"
Bert looked at Nan and Nan looked at Bert. It was a puzzle. What had become of Flossie and Freddie between the time they disappeared under the sliding pile of hay and now, when it had been cleared away to another part of the barn.
"I saw them playing on the floor," said Nan. "Then, when Bert and I let go the ropes and jumped in the mow, a lot of hay came down all at once, and then I—I didn't see Flossie and Freddie any more. They surely were under the hay!"
"Yes," agreed Bert, "they were. But they aren't here now. Maybe they fell down through the floor!" he added hopefully. "The cow stable is under this part of the barn."
"Yes, but there isn't any hole in the barn floor here," said Nan. "And the cracks aren't big enough for Flossie and Freddie to slip through."
"No, dey didn't go t'rough de flo', dat's suah!" exclaimed Dinah. "It's
mighty queer! I guess yo' all had best go call Sam," she went on to Nan.
"Mebby he know something 'bout dish yeah barn dat I don't know. Go git
Sam an'—"
Just then there came a joyous shout from the big barn doors behind Nan,
Bert and Dinah.
"Here we are! Here we are! Oh, we fooled you! We fooled you!" cried two childish voices, and there stood the missing Flossie and Freddie, hay in their fluffy, golden hair, hay hanging down over their blue eyes, and hay stuck over their clothes.
"Here we are!" cried Freddie. "Did you was lookin' for us?"
"I should say we did was!" cried Bert, laughing, now, at Freddie's queer way of speaking, for, though the little fireman usually spoke quite properly, he sometimes went wrong.
"Where have you been?" asked Nan. "And how did you get out?"
"We crawled out from under the hay when it fell on us," explained Flossie. "Then Freddie says let's play hide and coop and we climbed up the little ladder and went up in the haymow and then we slid out of the little window and got outside the barn and then we just hid an' waited to see what you'd do." By this time Flossie was out of breath, having said all this without pause.
"But you didn't come after us," said Freddie, "and so we came to see where you were. And we fooled you, didn't we? We fooled you bad."
"I should say you did!" cried Bert. "We were digging the hay away. I thought you'd be away down underneath."
"We were," went on Flossie. "But we wiggled out, an' you didn't see us wiggle."
"No," agreed Nan, "we didn't see you. But, oh, I'm so glad you are all right!" she cried, and she hugged Flossie in her arms. "You aren't hurt, are you?"
"No, but I was tickled," said Flossie. "The hay did tickle me in my nose, and I wanted to sneeze."
"But I wouldn't let her!" explained Freddie. "I held my hand over her nose so she couldn't sneeze."
"I tried hard so I wouldn't," said Flossie, "and Freddie helped me. It feels awful funny not to sneeze when you want to. It tickles!"
"And the hay tickled me," went on Freddie. "It's ticklin' me now. There's some down my back," and he wiggled and twisted as he stood in the middle of the barn floor. Snap, the big dog, put his head to one side, and cocked up his ears, looking at the two smaller twins as if asking what it was all about, and what the digging in the hay was all for.
"Well, it's mighty lucky laik dat it wasn't no wuss!" exclaimed fat
Dinah, with a sigh of relief. "I suah was clean skairt out ob mah seben
senses when yo' come runnin' into mah kitchen, Nan, an' says as how
Flossie an' Freddie was buried under de hay!"
"And they were!" said Nan. "I saw the hay go down all over them."
"So did I!" added Bert.
"But we wiggled out and hid so we could fool you!" laughed Freddie.
"Didn't you see us crawl out?"
"No," answered Bert, "I didn't. If I had I wouldn't have dug so hard."
"Ouch! Something tickles me awful!" complained Freddie, twisting around as though he wanted to work his way out of his clothes. "Maybe there's a hay-bug down my back!" he went on.
"Good land of massy!" cried Dinah, catching him up in her arms. "Yo' come right in de house wif me, honey lamb, an' ole Dinah'll undress yo' an' git at de bug—if dey is one!"
"I guess we've had enough fun in the barn," said Nan. "I don't want to play here any more."
"I guess we'll have to put back the hay we knocked down," said Bert. That was one of the Bobbsey rules—to put things back the way they had been at first, after their play was done.
"Yes, we must put the hay up in the mow again," agreed Nan. "Daddy wouldn't like to have us leave it on the floor. I'll help you, Bert, 'cause I helped knock it down."
Dinah led the two younger twins off to the kitchen, with a promise of a molasses cookie each and a further promise to Freddie that she would take out of his clothes whatever it was tickling his back—a hay-bug or some of the dried wisps of grass.
Bert and Nan had not long been working at stacking the hay back in place before Sam came in. He had heard what had happened from Dinah, his wife, and he said, most kindly:
"Run along an' play, Bert an' Nan! I'll put back de hay fo' yo' all.
'Tain't much, an' it won't take me long."
"Thank you, Sam!" said Bert. "It's more fun playing outdoors to-day than stacking hay in a barn."
"Are you very sure you don't mind doing it, Sam?" asked Nan, for she wanted to "play fair."
"Oh, I don't mind!" exclaimed the good-natured Sam. "Hop along!"
"Didn't you ever like to play outdoors, Sam?" questioned Bert, as he and
Nan started to leave the barn.
"Suah I did," answered Sam. "When I was a youngster like you I loved to go fishin' and swimmin' in the ole hole down by the crick."
"Oh, Sam, did you like to swim?" went on the Bobbsey boy quickly.
"I suah did, Bert. Down in our pa'ts I was considered the bestes' swimmer there."
"Some day I'm going to see you, Sam," declared Bert. "Maybe you could teach me some new strokes."
"I doan know about that, Bert. You see, I ain't quite so limber as what I used to be when I was your age or jest a little older. Now you jest hop along, both of you, and enjoy yourselves."
So Nan and Bert went out to find some other way of having fun. They wanted to have all the good times they could, as school would soon begin again.
"But we'll have a vacation at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New
Year's," said Nan, as she and her brother talked it over.
"Thanksgiving's a long way off," said Bert, with a sigh.
The two children were walking along the side path toward the front yard when suddenly Snap, their dog, gave a savage growl. It was the kind of growl he never gave unless he happened to be angry, and Bert knew, right away, something must be wrong.
"What is it, Snap? A tramp?" asked the boy, looking around. Often Snap would growl this way at tramps who might happen to come into the yard. Now there may be good tramps, as well as bad ones, but Snap never stopped to find out which was which. He just growled, and if that didn't scare away the tramp then Snap ran at him. And no tramp ever stood after that. He just ran away.
But now neither Bert nor Nan could see any tramp, either in the yard or in the street in front of the house. Snap, though, kept on growling deep down in his throat, and then, suddenly, the children saw what the matter was. A big dog was digging a hole under the fence to get into the Bobbsey yard. The gate was closed, and though the dog might have jumped the fence, he didn't. He was digging a hole underneath. And Snap saw him. That's why Snap growled.
"Oh, Bert! Look!" cried Nan.
As she spoke the dog managed to get through the hole he had dug, and into the Bobbsey yard he popped. But he did not stay there long. Before he could run toward Bert and Nan, if, indeed, he had that notion, Snap had leaped toward the unwelcome visitor.
Snap growled and barked in such a brave, bold way that the other dog gave one long howl, and then back through the hole he wiggled his way, faster than he had come in. But fast as he wiggled out, he was not quick enough, for Snap nipped the end of the big dog's tail and there was another howl.
"Good boy!" cried Bert to his dog, as Snap came back to him, wagging his tail, having first made sure, however, that the strange dog was running down the street. "Good, old Snap!"
And Snap wagged his tail harder than ever, for he liked to be told he had been good and had done something worth while.
"I wonder what that dog wanted?" asked Nan.
"I don't know," answered Bert. "He was a strange one. But he didn't stay long!"
"Not with our Snap around!" laughed Nan.
The two older Bobbsey twins were wondering what they could do next to have a good time, when they heard their mother's voice calling to them from the side porch. She had come back from a little visit to a lady down the street, and had heard all about the accident to Flossie and Freddie.
"Ho, Nan! Ho, Bert! I want you!" called Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I guess she's going to scold us for making the hay slide on Flossie and
Freddie," said Bert, rather anxiously.
"Well, we couldn't help it," replied his sister. "We didn't know it was so slippery. Yes, Mother; we're coming!" she answered, as Mrs. Bobbsey called again.
But, to the relief of Nan and Bert, their mother did not scold them. She just said:
"You must be a little more careful when you're playing where Flossie and Freddie are. They are younger than you, and don't so well know how to look out for themselves. You must look out for them. But now I want you to go down to daddy's office."
"What do you want us to do?" asked Nan.
"Here is a letter that he ought to have right away," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "It came to the house by mistake. It should have gone to daddy's lumber office, but the postman left it while I was out, and Dinah was out in the barn with you children, so she could not tell him to carry it on down town. So I wish you'd take it to daddy. He has been expecting it for some time. It's about some business, and I don't want to open the letter and telephone what's in it. But if you two will just run down with it—"
"Of course we will!" cried Bert. "It'll be fun!"
"And may we stay a little while?" asked Nan.
"Yes, if you don't bother daddy. Here is the letter."
A little later Nan and Bert were in their father's office. The clerks knew the children and smiled at them, and the stenographer, who wrote Mr. Bobbsey's letters on the clicking typewriter machine, took the twins through her room into their father's private office.
As the door opened, Bert and Nan saw a strange man talking to Mr. Bobbsey. But what interested them more than this was the sight of two children—a boy and a girl about their own age—in their father's private office. The boy and girl were sitting on chairs, looking at the very same lumber books—those with pictures of big woods in them—that Nan and Bert often looked at themselves.
Mr. Bobbsey glanced up as the door opened. He saw his two older twins, and, smiling at them, said:
"Come in, Nan and Bert. I want you to meet these Washington children!"
CHAPTER IV
MISS POMPRET'S CHINA
Bert and Nan looked at one another in some surprise as they stood in the door of their father's private office. What did he mean by saying that they were to come in and meet the "Washington children?" Who were the "Washington children?"
Nan and Bert were soon to know, for their father spoke again.
"Come on in. These are two of my twins, Mr. Martin," he added to the gentleman who was sitting near his desk. The two "Washington children," looked up from the lumber books they had been reading. No, I am wrong, they had not been reading them—only looking at the pictures.
"Two of your twins?" repeated Mr. Martin, with a smile. "Do you mean to say you have more twins at home?"
"Oh, yes, another set. Smaller than these. I wish you would see Flossie and Freddie. Come here, Bert and Nan. This is my friend, Mr. Martin," he continued, "and these are his children, Billy and Nell. They live in Washington, D.C."
So that was what Mr. Bobbsey meant. At first, Nan said afterward, she had a little notion that her father might have meant the boy and girl were the children of General George Washington. But a moment's thought told Nan that this could not be. General Washington's children, supposing him to have had any, would have been grown up into old men and women and would have passed away long ago. But Billy and Nell Martin lived in Washington, District of Columbia (which is what the letters D.C. stand for) and, Bert and Nan knew, Washington was the capital, or chief city, of the United States.
"Mr. Martin came in to see me on business," explained Daddy Bobbsey. "He is traveling for a lumber firm, and on this trip he brought his boy and girl with him."
"They aren't twins, though," said Mr. Martin with a nod at Nan and Bert.
"I think it's lovely to be a twin!" said Nell, with a smile at Nan.
"Don't you have lots of fun?"
"Yes, we do," Nan said.
"I should think you could have fun in this lumberyard," remarked Billy
Martin. "I'd like to live near it."
"Yes, we play in it," said Bert; and now that the "ice had been broken," as the grown folks say, the four children began to feel better acquainted.
"Did you come down for anything special?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Bert.
"Yes, Daddy. Here's a letter mother gave us for you," the boy answered.
"Oh, this is the one I have been expecting," said Mr. Bobbsey to Mr.
Martin. "Now we can talk business. Bert and Nan, don't you want to take
Billy and Nell out in the yard and show them the lake? But don't fall
in, and don't climb on the lumber," he added.
"Oh, I'd love to look at the lake!" cried Nell.
"And I like to see big piles of lumber," said her brother Billy.
"The children will be all right," said Mr. Bobbsey, in answer to a look from Mr. Martin. "My older twins often play about the lumberyard, and they'll see that Billy and Nell come to no harm."
So while the two men talked over lumber matters, Bert and Nan showed
Billy and Nell the sights of their father's lumberyard, and took the
Washington children down to Lake Metoka, where the blue waters sparkled
in the sun.
"Oh, this is lovely!" exclaimed Nell. "It's nicer than Washington!"
"Don't you have a lake there?" asked Bert.
"No; but we have the Potomac River," answered Billy. "That's nice, but not as nice as this lake. Now let's go and look at the big piles of lumber."
"Yes, let's," echoed Nell.
The children tossed some chips into the lake, pretending they were boats, and then they walked around the yard to where long boards and planks were stacked into great piles, waiting to be taken away on boats or wagons.
Bert asked one of the workmen if they could play with some of the boards, and, receiving permission to do so, they had fun making something they called a house, and then on a see-saw.
"Oh, I always did love to see-saw!" said the little girl from Washington. "We don't get much of a chance to play that way where I come from."
"We have see-saw rides lots of times down here," answered Nan.
"Well, that's Because your father owns a lumberyard, and you can get plenty of boards to use for a see-saw," said Henry.
For an hour or more Bert and Nan entertained the Washington children in the lumberyard, and then, as it was getting close to dinner time, Nan told Bert they had better go back to their father's office.
They found Mr. Martin about to leave. And then Mr. Bobbsey thought of something.
"Look here, Henry!" he exclaimed to his friend, "there's no need of your going back to that hotel. Come out to the house—you and the children—and have dinner with me. I want you and your boy and girl to meet Flossie and Freddie, and I want you to meet Mrs. Bobbsey."
"Well, I'd like to," said Mr. Martin slowly, while the eyes of Nell and
Billy glowed in delight. "But, perhaps it might bother your wife."
"Oh, no!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "She likes company. I'll telephone out that we're coming, and Dinah, that's our cook, will be delighted to get up something extra. They'll be glad to see you. Come out to the house, all of you, and make me a nice visit. Can't you stay a day or so?"
Eagerly Nan and Bert waited for the answer, for they liked the
Washington children very much.
"Oh, no, we can't stay later than this evening," said Mr. Martin. "I've got other business to look after. But I'll come out to dinner with you."
"Oh, we'll have lots of fun!" whispered Nan to Nell. "You'll just love
Flossie—she's so cute!"
"I'll show you my dog Snap," said Bert to Billy. "You ought to have seen him scare a strange dog just before we came down here."
"I like dogs," said Billy. "We could have one in Washington if we had a barn to keep him in."
"We've got a barn," went on Bert. "You ought to have seen what happened there this morning to Flossie and Freddie," and then he told about the little twins having been hidden under the hay.
Mr. Bobbsey's automobile was in the lumberyard, and in this the trip was quickly made to the home of the four twins, after Mrs. Bobbsey had been told, by telephone, that company was coming.
Nell and Billy were glad to see Flossie and Freddie, and the six children had fun playing around the house and barn with Snoop and Snap.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey wanted Mr. Martin to stay two or three days with his children, but the Washington lumberman said it could not be done this time.
"I'm on a business trip," he said, "and I can't spend as much time in visiting and pleasure as I'd like, though I am trying to give Billy and Nell a good time. This is the first time I have ever taken them on a trip with me."
"And we've had such a lovely time!" exclaimed Nell.
"Packs of fun!" added her brother.
"I'm sorry we can't stay longer," went on Mr. Martin. "You folk must come to Washington some day."
"Yes, I expect to," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I've been counting on going there some day on some business matters."
"Well, when you come be sure to bring the children," said the father of
Nell and Billy. "I think they would enjoy seeing the White House, the
big Capitol building, the Congressional Library, Washington's home at
Mt. Vernon and places like that."
"Could we see the Washington Monument?" asked Nan. She remembered looking at a picture of that in her geography.
"Oh, yes, I'd show you that, too," said Mr. Martin.
"And could we see the Potomac River?" Bert wanted to know.
"Surely!" laughed Billy's father. "I'll show you all the sights of Washington if you'll come and pay me a visit—all you Bobbsey twins!" he added.
"I wish we could go!" sighed Nan.
"Perhaps you can," said her father.
"Have you got any hay in Wash'ton?" asked Freddie, suddenly, and every one else laughed except himself and Flossie.
"Oh, I guess I could find enough hay for you and your little sister to hide under," answered Mr. Martin with a laugh, for he had heard the story of what had happened in the barn.
A little later Mr. Martin and his boy and girl had to leave. They said "good-bye," and while the father of the Washington children again asked Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey to come to visit him at his home, Nell and Billy whispered to Nan and Bert:
"Be sure and come, and bring Flossie and Freddie with you!"
"We will!" promised Nan, but neither she nor Bert guessed what a queer little adventure they were soon to have in Washington.
A few days later school opened, and the Bobbsey twins had to go back to their class-rooms. At first they did not like it, after the long, joyous vacation on the deep, blue sea, but their teachers were kind, and finally the twins began to feel that, after all, school was not such a bad place.