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+Project Gutenberg's The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West, by Laura Lee Hope
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West
+
+Author: Laura Lee Hope
+
+Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #5952]
+Release Date: June, 2004
+First Posted: September 27, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOBBSEY TWINS IN GREAT WEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
+
+BY
+
+LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+
+Author of "The Bobbsey Twins Series," "The
+Bunny Brown Series," "The Outdoor
+Girls Series," "The Six Little
+Bunkers Series," Etc.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+NEW YORK
+1920
+
+
+
+
+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 BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
+
+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
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
+
+THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM'S
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S
+
+SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S
+
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+(Ten Titles)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I.     THE TRAIN WRECK
+
+II.    THE QUEER OLD MAN
+
+III.   MR. BOBBSEY REMEMBERS
+
+IV.    THE OLD MAN'S STORY
+
+V.     NEWS FROM THE WEST
+
+VI.    AUNT EMELINE
+
+VII.   HAPPY DAYS
+
+VIII.  OFF FOR THE WEST
+
+IX.    DINNER FOR TWO
+
+X.     FREDDIE, AS USUAL
+
+XI.    IN CHICAGO
+
+XII.   NEARING LUMBERVILLE
+
+XIII.  THE SAWMILL
+
+XIV.   THE BIG TREE
+
+XV.    BILL DAYTON
+
+XVI.   THE TRAIN CRASH
+
+XVII.  AT THE RANCH
+
+XVIII. A RUNAWAY PONY
+
+XIX.   THE WILD STEER
+
+XX.    THE ROUND-UP
+
+XXI.   IN THE STORM
+
+XXII.  NEW NAMES
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TRAIN WRECK
+
+
+"Come on, let's make a snow man!" cried Bert Bobbsey, as he ran about
+in the white drifts of snow that were piled high in the yard in front
+of the house.
+
+"That'll be lots of fun!" chimed in Freddie Bobbsey, who was Bert's
+small brother. "We can make a man, and then throw snowballs at him,
+and he won't care a bit; will he, Bert?"
+
+"No, I guess a snow man doesn't care how many times you hit him with
+snowballs," laughed the older boy, as he tried to catch a dog that was
+leaping about in the drifts, barking for joy. "The more snowballs you
+throw at a snow man the bigger he gets," said Bert.
+
+"Oh, Bert Bobbsey, he does not!" cried a girl with dark hair and
+sparkling brown eyes, as she ran along with a smaller girl holding her
+red-mittened hand. "A snow man can't grow any bigger! What makes you
+tell Freddie so?"
+
+"Course a snow man can grow bigger!" declared Bert. "A snowball grows
+bigger the more you roll it in the snow, doesn't it?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Nan--Nan being the name of the brown-eyed girl, Bert's
+twin sister. "I know a snowball grows bigger the more you roll it, but
+you don't roll a snow man!" went on the brown-eyed girl.
+
+"Ho, ho! wouldn't that be funny?" laughed the little girl, whose hand
+Nan held.
+
+"What would be funny, Flossie?" asked Freddie, and one look at the two
+smaller Bobbsey children would have told you that they, too, were
+twins. In fact the four Bobbseys were twins--that is there were two
+sets of them--Bert and Nan, and Flossie and Freddie. "What would be
+funny?" Freddie wanted to know. "Tell me! I want to laugh."
+
+"Yes, you generally do want to laugh, little fireman!" and Bert
+Bobbsey laughed himself as he gave his small brother the pet name that
+Daddy Bobbsey had thought up some time ago. "But, as Flossie says, it
+would be funny to see a snow man rolling around in the drifts to make
+himself bigger," went on Bert.
+
+"But you said he'd get bigger if we threw snowballs at him," insisted
+Nan.
+
+"And he will," went on Bert. "You see, a snowball gets bigger when you
+roll it around the yard, because more snow keeps sticking to it all
+the while. And if we make a snow man and then throw little snowballs
+at him, these snowballs will stick to him and he'll grow bigger, won't
+he?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't know you meant _that_ way!" and now Nan, herself,
+began to laugh. Of course Flossie and Freddie joined in, though I am
+not sure that they knew what the joke was all about, but they were
+having fun in the snow and that was all they cared for.
+
+It was a fine snow storm, at least for the Bobbsey twins and the other
+children of Lakeport. It was not too cold, and the white flakes had
+come down so fast that there was now enough snow to make many snow men
+and snowballs, and leave plenty for coasting down hill.
+
+The Bobbsey twins had hurried out to play in the snow as soon as they
+got home from school, and now they were having fine fun. Snap, their
+dog, was playing with them, leaping about in the drifts, diving
+through them, as the Bobbsey twins had seen swimmers dive through
+waves down at the seashore and Snap would come out on the other side
+of the drift all covered with white flakes, as though he were a snow
+dog.
+
+Dear old Dinah, the fat, jolly, good-natured colored cook, who had
+been with the Bobbseys many years, stood at the window looking at the
+children having fun in the snow.
+
+"Why doesn't yo' go out an' jine 'em?" she asked, as she looked at a
+sleek cat that was curled up asleep near the stove. "Why doesn't yo'
+go out in de snow? Dat's whut I asks yo', Snoop," went on Dinah. "Dar
+dey is--Flossie an' Freddie an' Nan an' Bert. An' Snap's out wif 'em,
+too. Why don't yo' go out an' jine de party?"
+
+But Snoop seemed to like it better by the warm fire. He didn't want to
+"jine" any party, as Dinah called it. Snoop didn't like snow or water.
+
+"Well, shall we make a snow man?" asked Bert, as he raced about with
+Snap, making the dog chase after sticks which would become buried deep
+under the snow, where Snap had to dig them out. But the dog liked
+this.
+
+"Let's make a snow house. I think that would be more fun," said Nan.
+
+"Oh, yes, and I can get my doll, and we can have a play party in the
+snow house," cried Flossie.
+
+"Can't we take the snow man into the snow house?" Freddie wanted to
+know. "That'll be more fun than dolls. And we can make believe the
+snow house gets on fire, and I'll be a fireman and put it out. Oh,
+let's play that!" he cried, his eyes shining in fun.
+
+"Yes, anything like playing fireman suits you," returned Bert. "But it
+would be pretty hard even to _pretend_ a snow house was burning.
+Snow can't catch fire, Freddie!"
+
+"Well, we could make believe!" said the little fellow. "Anyhow, I'm
+going to start to make a snow man, and you can make the snow house."
+
+"And I'll get my doll!" added Flossie, starting toward the house, her
+little fat legs and feet making holes in the snow drifts as she tried
+to hurry along.
+
+"Wait, I'll carry you," offered Nan. "You're getting so fat, little
+fairy, that you'll look like a snow man yourself, if you keep on."
+
+"Are snow mans always fat?" asked Flossie.
+
+"They always seem to be," Nan said, as she lifted up her little sister
+in her arms. Snap, the dog, came flurrying through the snow after
+them. "My, I can hardly carry you!" panted Nan, for Flossie was indeed
+growing fast, and was heavy.
+
+However, Nan managed to carry Flossie over to a path Mr. Bobbsey had
+told Sam, who was Dinah's husband, to shovel through the snow that
+morning. It was easier for Flossie to walk on the shoveled path, so
+Nan put her down.
+
+The two girls went into the house, Flossie to get her doll, while Nan
+went to the kitchen and said something to Dinah, the fat, jolly cook.
+
+"Suah, I gibs 'em to yo'!" exclaimed Dinah, laughing all over at Nan's
+question. "I'll put 'em in a bag, so's yo'all won't spill 'em!"
+
+And when Flossie was ready to go out again with her doll, Nan went
+with her, carrying a bag, at which Snap sniffed hungrily.
+
+"What you got?" asked the little girl.
+
+"Oh, you'll see pretty soon," Nan answered,
+
+"Is it a secret?" Flossie kept on teasing.
+
+"Sort of secret," Nan answered.
+
+When the two girls reached the place where they had left the two boys,
+Bert was beginning to make a snow house and Freddie was rolling a
+snowball as the start of a snow man. You know how they are made; a
+small snowball for the man's head, and a larger one for his body, with
+legs underneath. Freddie hoped Bert would help him when it came to the
+big snowball part of it.
+
+"Is the snow house ready?" asked Flossie, who had gone in especially
+to get her doll, so she might have a "play party."
+
+"Oh, no, it takes a good while to make a snow house," Bert said. "I
+don't believe I'll get it done before night if you don't help me."
+
+"I'll help," offered Flossie. "Can I make the chimbley?"
+
+"They don't have chimbleys on a snow house!" declared Freddie, pausing
+in his rolling of the snowball. "They don't have chimbleys on snow
+houses, 'cause they don't have fires in 'em; do they Bert?"
+
+"That's right, Freddie," agreed the older boy. "But maybe, if Flossie
+wants it, we could put a make-believe chimney on the snow house."
+
+"Oh, I do want it--awful much!" cried Flossie. "Come on, Nan, you help
+Bert make the snow house, and then we can all play in it.
+
+"And you've got to let my snow man come in!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Yes, we'll let him come in if you don't make him too big," agreed
+Bert, with a laugh.
+
+Bert and Nan, the older Bobbsey twins, generally did what they could
+to please Flossie and Freddie, who sometimes wanted their own way too
+much.
+
+"I guess I'll help make the snow house first," went on Freddie,
+walking away from the snowball he had partly rolled. "After that I'll
+make the man. It's better to make the house first, and then I'll know
+how big I can make the man."
+
+"Yes, that would be a good idea, little fireman!" returned Bert, with
+a laugh and a look at Nan. And then Bert caught sight of the bag in
+his sister's hand--the bag around which Snap was sniffing so hungrily.
+
+"What have you, Nan?" asked Bert, pausing in the midst of shoveling
+snow in a heap for the start of the snow house.
+
+"Oh--something!" and Nan smiled.
+
+"Something good?" Bert went on.
+
+"I guess they're good," Nan said, smiling. "I haven't tasted 'em yet,
+but Dinah nearly always makes good cookies!"
+
+"Oh, have you got some of Dinah's cookies?" cried Bert, dropping the
+shovel, and running toward Nan. "Give me some! Please!"
+
+"I want some, too!" cried Flossie.
+
+"So do I!" chimed in Freddie.
+
+Snap didn't say anything, but from the way he barked and leaped about
+I am sure he, too, wanted some of the cookies.
+
+"Dinah gave me enough for all of us," said Nan, as she opened the bag.
+"Yes, and there's a broken piece off one that you can have," she went
+on to Snap, the dog.
+
+Beginning with Flossie, then handing one to Freddie, next passing a
+cookie to Bert and helping herself last, as was polite, Nan gave out
+the cookies. Forgotten, now, were snow houses, snow men, snowballs,
+and even Flossie's doll. The Bobbsey twins were eating Dinah's
+cookies.
+
+They had each begun on the second helping, when suddenly a loud crash
+sounded, which seemed to come from the direction of the railroad
+tracks which ran not far from the Bobbsey home. The crash was followed
+by loud shouting.
+
+"I wonder what that was?" cried Bert.
+
+"Sounded like thunder," returned Nan.
+
+"Let's go and see," said Bert.
+
+Just as they were starting from the yard, Charley Mason, a boy who
+lived farther up the street, on the hill, came running along.
+
+"Oh, you ought to see it!" he cried, his eyes big with wonder.
+
+"See what?" asked Bert.
+
+"Smash-up on the railroad, down in the rocky cut!" answered Charlie.
+"Two engines smashed together, and the cars are all busted! I saw it
+from the top of the hill! I'm going down! Come on!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE QUEER OLD MAN
+
+
+The first impulse of Bert and Nan Bobbsey was, of course, to rush out
+of the yard and go with Charley Mason to see the train wreck. And,
+naturally, as soon as Bert and Nan began to run, Flossie and Freddie,
+forgetting snow men, snow houses, and even Dinah's cookies, started
+after their older brother and sister.
+
+"Go on back!" cried Bert to the two smaller children. "You can't come
+with us!"
+
+"We want to see the wreck!" declared Freddie. "Maybe it's on fire, an'
+if I'm goin' to be a fireman I must see fires!"
+
+He always declared he was going to be a fireman when he grew up, and
+he was eager to see the engines every time they went out in answer to
+an alarm of fire.
+
+"Come on, Bert, if you're coming!" called Charley Mason, from the
+street in front of the Bobbsey home. "It's a terrible wreck--cars off
+the track--engines all smashed up--everything!"
+
+"Here, Nan, you take Flossie and Freddie into the house! I'm going
+with Charley!" said Bert.
+
+"I want to see the wreck, too!" objected Nan. "You go into the house,
+Freddie, and I'll bring you a lollypop when I come back," she added.
+"Don't want a lollypop! I want to see the busted engines!" declared
+Freddie almost ready to cry.
+
+"So do I!" chimed in Flossie. She generally did want to see the same
+things Freddie saw.
+
+"Oh, dear! what shall we do?" exclaimed Nan.
+
+Just then, from the door, Mrs. Bobbsey called:
+
+"Children, children, what's the matter? What was that loud noise that
+seemed to shake the house?"
+
+"It's a train wreck and I want to go down with Charley Mason to see
+it!" answered Bert. "But Flossie and Freddie want to come, and they're
+too little and--and--"
+
+Then Flossie and Freddie began to talk, and so did Nan and so did
+Charley, and there was so much talking that I will wait a few minutes
+for every one to get quiet, and then go on with the story. And, while
+I am waiting, I will tell my new readers something about the Bobbsey
+twins as they have been written about in the books that come before
+this one in the series.
+
+The four children lived in the eastern city of Lakeport, at the head
+of Lake Metoka. Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business, and boats on
+the lake in summer and trains on the railroad in winter brought piles
+of boards to his yard.
+
+"The Bobbsey Twins" is the name of the first book of this series, and
+in it you may read of the fun Bert and Nan and Flossie and Freddie had
+together, playing with Charley Mason, Danny Rugg, Nellie Parks and
+other children of the neighborhood. Sometimes the children had little
+quarrels, as all boys and girls do, and, once in a while, Bert and Nan
+would be "mad at" Charley Mason or Danny Rugg. But they soon became
+friends again, and had jolly times together. Just at present Charley
+and Bert were on good terms.
+
+The second book is called "The Bobbsey Twins in the Country," and
+those who have read it remember the summer spent on the farm of Uncle
+Daniel Bobbsey and his wife Sarah, who lived at Meadow Brook.
+
+Another uncle, named William Minturn, a brother-in-law of Mrs.
+Bobbsey's, lived at Ocean Cliff; and in the third book, called "The
+Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore," you may learn of the good times Bert
+and the others had playing on the beach and having adventures.
+
+After that the Bobbsey twins went to school, and they spent part of a
+winter at Snow Lodge. Some time later they made a trip on a houseboat,
+and stopped again at Meadow Brook. The next adventures of the children
+took place at home, and from there they went to a great city where
+many wonderful things happened. Blueberry Island was as nice a place
+as the name sounds, and Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie never forgot
+the fun they had there. It was almost as exciting as when they
+traveled on the deep, blue sea. But you can imagine how happy the
+Bobbsey twins were when their father told them he was going to take
+them to Washington!
+
+The book about the Washington trip, telling of the mystery of Miss
+Pompret's china, comes just before the one you are now reading, and it
+was on their return from that capital city that the children were
+having fun in the snow.
+
+Christmas had come and gone, bringing much happiness, and it was
+because they had discovered some of Miss Pompret's missing china in a
+very strange way that the Bobbsey twins had a much nicer Christmas
+than usual.
+
+After the holidays winter set in hard and fast, but of course it could
+not last forever, and there were some who said this snow storm, which
+gave the Bobbsey twins such a fine chance to have fun, would be the
+last of the season.
+
+It was, as I have told you, while Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie were
+making a snow house and a snow man that they had heard the loud crash
+and Charley Mason had called out about the wreck.
+
+"Has there really been an accident?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, when the talk
+had somewhat quieted down.
+
+"Oh, yes'm!" exclaimed Charley. "From my house up on the hill I can
+look right down into the railroad cut. I was out feeding my dog, and I
+heard the noise and I looked and I saw the two engines all smashed
+together and cars off the track and a lot of people running around
+and--and--everything!"
+
+Charley had to stop to catch his breath.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey looked down the street and saw a number of men and women
+and some girls and boys hurrying to the railroad tracks.
+
+"We want to go to see it!" begged Bert.
+
+"And we want to go, too!" pleaded Freddie.
+
+Sam Johnson, the husband of Dinah, the cook, came around the corner of
+the house.
+
+"There's somethin' must 'a' happened down by the railroad," he said to
+Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, it's a wreck," she answered. "The children want to go, but I
+can't have them going alone. You may take them down, Sam, but if it is
+too bad--you know what I mean, too many people hurt--bring them right
+back."
+
+"Yassum, I'll do that there!" agreed Sam, glad himself to get the
+chance to see what all the excitement was about. "Come along,
+chilluns!" he added, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, now we can go!" cried Flossie, as she raced over and took one of
+Sam's hands. "Now we can go!"
+
+"Yep! Sam'll take care of us. Won't you, Sam?" asked Freddie as he
+took the other hand. "And if there's a fire I can go near tie firemen,
+can't I?" he begged.
+
+"We'll see," said the colored man, with a nod to Mrs. Bobbsey to show
+that he understood how to look after the smaller twins.
+
+"Come on!" cried Charley. "I want to see that wreck!"
+
+"So do I!" added Bert, as he hurried on ahead with Nan and Charley.
+Sam, leading Flossie and Freddie by the hands, followed more slowly
+out into the street, where the sidewalks had been cleared of snow so
+the walking was easier. Snap, the dog, tried to follow, but fearing
+that he might get hurt, Bert drove him back.
+
+The railroad ran at the foot of the street on which the Bobbsey house
+stood. The street went downhill to the tracks, and the railroad passed
+through what Charley had called a "cut."
+
+That is, a cut had been made through the side of the hill so the
+tracks would be as nearly level as possible. Sometimes, when a hill is
+too high the railroad has to go through it in a tunnel. And a "cut" is
+a tunnel with the top taken off.
+
+As Bert, Nan, and the others hurried along the street they saw many
+other persons hastening in the direction of the wreck. In a cutter,
+drawn by a horse that had a string of jingling bells on, Dr. Brown
+passed, waving to the Bobbsey twins.
+
+"I guess there must be somebody hurt, or Dr. Brown wouldn't be going,"
+said Charley Mason.
+
+"I guess so," agreed Bert. "I never saw a big wreck."
+
+"Well, this is a big one!" cried Charley. "I saw the two engines all
+smashed up."
+
+A little later the Bobbsey twins, in charge of Sam, came to the edge
+of the cut. They could look down to the railroad tracks and see the
+wreck. Surely enough, two trains had come together, one engine
+smashing into the other. Both trains were on the same track, and had
+been going in opposite directions. There was a curve in the cut, and
+neither engineer had seen the other train coming until it was too late
+to stop.
+
+"Why--why, they just bunketed right together, didn't they?" cried
+Freddie. "They just bunketed right together, like my express wagon
+when it ran into Henry Watson's push-o-mobile the other day."
+
+"That's just what happened," said Bert.
+
+For a moment the Bobbsey twins stood and looked down at the wreck.
+Just as Charley had said, the two engines were smashed and there were
+some cars knocked off the track. But the wreck was not as bad as it
+had seemed at first, and I am glad to say no one was killed, though a
+number of people were hurt.
+
+The Bobbsey twins could see these persons, who had been passengers on
+one or the other of the trains, moving about down in the railroad cut.
+Some of them did not seem to know just what had happened. The accident
+had so frightened them that they were in a daze.
+
+Trainmen, policemen, and even some firemen, were helping the injured
+persons away from the wreck. There had been no fire, and, much as
+Freddie liked to see the engines, he was glad there was no blaze to
+make matters worse for the poor people who were hurt.
+
+"Dat suah is a smash!" declared Sam, as he stood on the bank, holding
+the hands of Freddie and Flossie. "Dey suah did bump togedder
+lickity-smash!"
+
+"Let's go down closer!" suggested Charley Mason.
+
+Bert looked at Sam, as if asking if this might be done.
+
+"No, indeedy!" exclaimed the faithful colored man. "Yo'all jest stay
+right yeah! Yo'all's ma tole me to look after yo', an' I'se gwine to
+do it! Yo'all kin see whut dey is to see right yeah! If you goes any
+closter one ob dem bullgines might blow up!"
+
+"I don't want to be blowed up; do I, Sam?" put in Flossie.
+
+"No, indeedy!" he answered.
+
+"Well, I'm going down!" declared Charley.
+
+And, not having any one with him to make him mind, he slid down the
+snow-covered bank to the tracks, where there was quite a large crowd
+now gathered.
+
+The railroad men were starting to work to get the wreck off the
+tracks, so other trains might pass. The injured persons were being
+cared for by Dr. Brown and others, and the worst of the wreck seemed
+over. Still there was much for the Bobbsey twins to look at.
+
+Flossie and Freddie kept tight hold of Sam's hand, and Bert and Nan
+stood a little way off, gazing down into the cut. As the Bobbsey twins
+stood there they saw, climbing up a narrow foot-path on the side of
+the railroad hill, a queer old man. He was dressed somewhat as the
+children had seen Uncle Daniel Bobbsey dress on a cold day at the
+farm, with a red scarf about his neck. And this man was carrying his
+hat in one hand while in the other he held a banana half-pealed and
+eaten.
+
+The queer man seemed very much frightened, and he was hurrying up the
+hill path as though trying to run away from something. Bert had just
+time to see that there was a cut on the man's head, which was
+bleeding, when, all at once, the queer character cried:
+
+"There! I forgot my satchel! I thought this was it!" and he looked at
+the banana he was carrying. He turned, as though to hurry back down
+toward the wreck, and then he slipped and fell in the snow.
+
+"Mah goodness!" cried Sam, as he dropped the hands of the smaller
+Bobbsey twins and sprang toward the man. "You's gwine to slide right
+down on de tracks ag'in ef you don't be keerful!" And Sam caught the
+queer man just in time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MR. BOBBSEY REMEMBERS
+
+
+The Bobbsey twins at first did not know what to think of the queer man
+who had fallen down in the snow just as he reached the top of the
+hill, at the bottom of which was the train wreck. But when Bert
+noticed the bleeding cut on the head he guessed what had happened.
+
+"I guess he was one of the passengers, and got hurt," said the boy to
+Nan.
+
+"I guess so, too." she said.
+
+Flossie and Freddie, not having Sam's hand to take hold of now, were
+holding each other's and watching the colored man help the stranger.
+
+"Hold on now! Jest take it easy!" advised Sam, in, a soothing voice.
+"Yo's gwine to feel better soon. Is you much hurted?"
+
+The man seemed more dazed than ever. He put his hand to his head,
+letting go of the banana he had been holding, and when he saw that his
+fingers were red, because they had touched the bloody cut, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, now I remember what happened! I was in the train wreck!"
+
+"That's right! I guess you was," said Sam, "You come up de hill from
+down by de railroad tracks, an' you done slipped back down ag'in
+almost! I jest caught you in time!"
+
+"Thank you," said the man. "I really didn't know what I was doing. All
+I wanted to do was to get away from the wreck, and I took the first
+path I saw. I must have got out of breath, for when I reached the top
+of the hill I couldn't go any more, and I just slipped down."
+
+"I saw you!" exclaimed Sam. "Maybe dat whack you got on top ob yo'
+haid makes you feel funny."
+
+"I rather think it does," said the man. "But I'm feeling better now.
+When the crash came I jumped out of my seat--as soon as I could get up
+after being knocked down--and rushed out of the car. I must have been
+wandering around for some time. Then I saw this path leading up the
+hill and I took it."
+
+"Why didn't you put your hat on?" asked Bert, who, with the other
+Bobbsey twins, had been looking closely at the stranger.
+
+"My hat? That's so, I did forget to put it on," he said, and, for the
+first time, he seemed to remember that he was carrying his hat in his
+hand.
+
+"You might catch cold," remarked Nan.
+
+"That's right, little girl--so I might," he said, and he smiled at
+her. He had a kind smile, had the man, though his face looked weary
+and sad.
+
+"Did you get much hurt in the wreck?" asked Bert.
+
+"No, I think not," was the answer, and again he put his hand to his
+head. "It's only a cut, I'm thankful to say. I'll be all right in a
+little while. I'll hold a little snow to it. That will wash the blood
+off, as well as water would."
+
+With Sam's help, he now managed to stand up. The colored man took up a
+handful of snow and gave it to the stranger, who held it to the cut on
+his head. The cold snow seemed to make him feel better, and when he
+had wiped away the blood he put on his hat, shook the snow from his
+overcoat, and looked at the banana which he had dropped in a drift.
+
+"Well, I do declare!" cried the stranger.
+
+"What's de mattah?" asked Sam.
+
+"Why, all the while I thought that banana was my satchel," was the
+answer. "I was eating it when the crash came--eating the banana I
+mean, not my satchel," and he smiled at Bert and Nan, who smiled back
+at this little joke. Flossie and Freddie stood there looking on.
+
+"I was sitting in my seat, eating this banana," went on the man,
+"when, all of a sudden, there was a terrible crash, and I was so
+shaken up, together with a lot of other passengers, that I fell out of
+my seat. That's how my head was cut, I suppose. I thought I was
+grabbing up my satchel, so I could run out and be safe, but I must
+have kept hold of the banana instead.
+
+"I know I got my hat down from the rack overhead, where I had put it,
+and then out I rushed. My! it was a terrible sight, though I heard it
+said that nobody was killed, and I'm glad of that. But it was a
+terrific crash, and it made me feel dizzy. I evidently didn't know
+what I was doing."
+
+"I should think so, sah!" exclaimed Sam with a smile. "When a body
+takes a banana for a satchel he's jest natchully out ob his mind I
+say!"
+
+"I didn't seem to come to myself until I got up here on top of the
+hill," went on the man "But I'm feeling better now. I'm not really
+hurt at all, except this cut on my head, and that's only a scratch.
+I'm going down and get my satchel. I can see the car I was in. It
+isn't smashed at all. I'll go for my valise."
+
+"I'll go with you," offered Sam. "You chilluns stay heah till I come
+back," he went on. "Don't move away. I got to he'p dis gen'man find
+his baggage."
+
+"It will be a great help to me," said the man.
+
+"I might get dizzy again and fall. It's rather steep going down that
+hill. Will the children be all right if you leave them?"
+
+"Yes, we'll stay right here," promised Nan.
+
+"And we'll look after Flossie and Freddie," added Bert
+
+With this promise, Sam thought it would be all right to go down to the
+wreck and help the stranger look for the valise he had left near his
+seat in the car. While the two men were gone, the colored servant
+helping the other, the Bobbsey twins watched the railroad men starting
+to clear away the wreck. A big derrick had been brought up on another
+train, and with this the engines and cars that had left the tracks
+could be lifted back on to them.
+
+In a short time Sam came back with the man, and the colored helper at
+the Bobbsey home was carrying a large valise.
+
+"We found it all right," said the stranger. "It was right near my
+seat. I might have stayed there, but I was so excited I didn't know
+what I was doing. What place is this, anyhow?"
+
+"This is Lakeport," answered Bert. "The station's down the track a
+little way. Your train hadn't got to it yet."
+
+"No, the other train got in the way," said the man with a smile.
+"Well, accidents will happen, I suppose. So this is Lakeport! Well,
+this is the very place I was coming to, but I didn't expect to reach
+it amid so much excitement."
+
+"You were coming here?" repeated Nan.
+
+"To Lakeport, yes. I want to find a Mr. Richard Bobbsey. Maybe you
+children can tell me where he lives."
+
+The Bobbsey twins looked so surprised on hearing this that the man
+gazed at them in astonishment.
+
+"Do you know Mr. Bobbsey?" he asked. "I hope he hasn't moved away from
+here. I want to see him most particularly. Do you know him?"
+
+"Does dey _know_ him!" exclaimed Sam, his eyes opening wide.
+"Does dey _know_ him? Well I should say dey _does!_"
+
+"He's our father!" exclaimed Nan and Bert together.
+
+"Mr. Bobbsey your father! Well, I do declare!" cried the strange man,
+and he smiled at the children. They were beginning to like him very
+much. "Just think of that now!" he went on. "My railroad train gets in
+a wreck right near Lakeport, where I want to get off, and first I know
+I run into Mr. Bobbsey's children! Well, well! To think of that!"
+
+"Here comes daddy now!" cried Flossie, pointing to a figure walking
+over the snow toward them.
+
+"Oh, Daddy, I saw the train wreck!" yelled Freddie. "And I saw the
+firemans, I did, but they didn't have any engines, and I--I--I saw--"
+But Freddie was too much out of breath from running to meet his father
+to tell any more just then.
+
+It was indeed Mr. Bobbsey who had come along just then. He had come
+home earlier than usual from the lumberyard office, and his wife had
+told him that the children had gone down the street with Sam to look
+at the railroad wreck.
+
+"I'll go down and bring them back," said Mr. Bobbsey, "I heard about
+the wreck. It isn't as bad as at first they thought it was. No one was
+killed."
+
+"I'm glad of that," replied his wife. "I told Sam to bring the
+children back if it was too bad."
+
+So it had come about that Mr. Bobbsey reached the top of the cut, down
+in which the railroad wreck was, just as the strange man was asking
+the Bobbsey children about their father.
+
+"Well, little fireman and little fat fairy," asked Mr. Bobbsey of
+Flossie and Freddie, "did you see all there was to see?"
+
+"I saw the engines all smashed together," answered Flossie.
+
+"And I saw a fireman help get a lady out of a car," added Freddie.
+
+"Is this Mr. Bobbsey?" asked the voice of the man, as he stepped
+forward and stood near the children's father.
+
+"Yes, that is my name," was the answer. "Did you wish to see me?"
+
+"I came all the way to Lakeport for that," the stranger went on; "but
+I didn't mean to come in just this exciting way."
+
+"Were you in the wreck?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Oh, yes, he was in it, and he thought a banana was his satchel!"
+exclaimed Flossie, "Wasn't that funny, Daddy?"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey did not quite know what to make of this.
+
+"Your little girl is quite right," said the man. "I was so excited,
+from being in the wreck, where I got a cut on the head, that I rushed
+from the car carrying a banana instead of my valise.
+
+"However, I'm all right now, and Sam here, as the children call him,
+was good enough to help me get back my satchel," went on the man. "I
+was just telling the children that I came here to find Mr. Bobbsey,
+when, to my great surprise, they let me know that he is their father,
+and along you came."
+
+"Yes, these are my youngsters," said Mr. Bobbsey, smiling at Bert and
+Nan and Flossie and Freddie. "Sam Johnson helps us look after them,
+and his wife, Dinah, cooks for us. But what did you want to see me
+about?" and he looked at the man.
+
+"Don't you remember me?" came the question.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey looked more closely at the stranger. He did not recognize
+him.
+
+"Hickson is my name," said the man.
+
+"Hiram Hickson. I used to know you when--"
+
+"Oh, now I remember! Now I know you!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Hiram
+Hickson! Of course! I remember you well now! Well, well! This is a
+surprise! How did you come--"
+
+But just then a loud shouting in the railroad cut below caused Mr.
+Bobbsey to stop speaking.
+
+"Look out! Look out!" came the cry, and people began rushing away from
+the cars, some of which were almost overturned, while others were
+completely on their side. "Look out!" cried the warning voice again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE OLD MAN'S STORY
+
+
+Mr. Bobbsey caught Flossie and Freddie up in his arms and started to
+run with them. At the same time Sam Johnson pulled Nan to one side,
+catching hold of her hand, and the strange man, who had said he was
+Hiram Hickson, took hold of Bert.
+
+"We'd better get out of harm's way!" said Mr. Hickson.
+
+As the Bobbsey twins were thus hurried out of any possible danger the
+two older children looked back over their shoulders, down to where the
+railroad wreck was strewed about along the tracks. They saw the
+railroad men and other persons running away after the warning shout
+had been given, and Bert and Nan wondered what was going to happen.
+
+They saw a big puff of steam shoot out from one of the engines that
+was partly overturned, and then came a loud noise, as of an explosion.
+
+A few moments later, however, the cloud of steam was blown away by the
+wind, the noise stopped, and the people no longer ran away.
+
+"I guess the danger is over," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he stopped and set
+Flossie and Freddie down on the ground a little way back from the edge
+of the cliff, from which they had been looking at the train wreck. "In
+fact," went on Mr. Bobbsey, "I don't believe we would have been hurt
+if we had stayed where we were. But when I heard that shouting I
+didn't know what was going to happen."
+
+"That's right," returned Mr. Hickson, who had let go of Bert. "You
+never know what is going to happen in a railroad wreck. I didn't have
+any idea, when I was riding so easily in my seat, that, a minute
+later, I'd be thrown out with my head cut and a banana in my hand."
+
+"What happened down there, Daddy?" asked Nan.
+
+"There must have been a blow-out, or an explosion, in the locomotive,"
+answered Mr. Bobbsey. "The fire got too hot after the wreck, and the
+steam burst out at one side of the boiler. But no one seems to be
+hurt, and I'm glad of that. The wreck was bad enough."
+
+The railroad men and others who had run out of danger when some one,
+who saw the boiler about to explode, had given the warning, now came
+back. They started again to clear the tracks so that waiting trains
+could pass.
+
+"Well, I don't believe there's much more to see," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"We'd better be getting back home, children, or your mother will worry
+about you."
+
+"Can't I stay and see the firemen just a little longer?" begged
+Freddie.
+
+"I don't believe they are going to do much more," answered his father.
+"Their work is nearly done. All the people who were hurt have been
+taken away."
+
+This was true. The scene of the wreck was now being cleared, and in a
+little while the damaged engine and cars would be hauled away to the
+shops to be mended.
+
+"Did you get everything belonging to you, Mr. Hickson?" asked Mr.
+Bobbsey of the man who had been slightly hurt in the wreck.
+
+"Yes, I have my satchel," he answered. "And as I was going to get out
+at the Lakeport station I'm right at the place where I was going, even
+if there had been no wreck." "And so you were coming to see me, were
+you?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "Well, I don't know what your plans are, but
+I would be very glad to have you come to supper with me."
+
+"Maybe your wife mightn't like it," said Mr. Hickson. "She might not
+be ready for company, and I'd better tell you that I'm quite hungry."
+
+"So'm I!" exclaimed Freddie. "I'm hungry, and I eat a lot. But
+Dinah--she's our cook--has lots to eat in her kitchen!"
+
+"Well, then maybe she'd have enough for me," replied Mr. Hickson, with
+a laugh. "If you're sure it won't put your wife out I'll come," he
+said to Mr. Bobbsey. "I want to see you, anyhow, and have a talk with
+you. I want to ask your advice."
+
+"Very well, come along, then," returned the children's father.
+
+"We can talk after supper," went on Mr. Bobbsey, as the little party
+walked along the Lakeport street away from the railroad wreck. "That
+is, if you feel able, Mr. Hickson."
+
+"Oh, I'm beginning to feel all right again," said Mr. Hickson. "I was
+pretty well shaken up and knocked around when the cars stopped so
+suddenly, and I was a bit dazed, so I didn't know what I was
+doing--taking a banana for my satchel, for instance!" And he smiled at
+Flossie and Freddie, who laughed as they remembered how queer this had
+seemed to them.
+
+"Yes, I'm all right now, Dick," went on the old man, and Bert and Nan
+wondered how it was that this stranger called their father by the name
+their mother used in speaking to her husband.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey saw that Bert and Nan were wondering about this, and he
+explained by saying that he and Mr. Hickson had known each other for
+many years.
+
+"We used to know one another," said Mr. Bobbsey to his children. "But
+it's been a good many years since I have seen him."
+
+"Yes, it has been a good many years," said Mr. Hickson, in rather a
+sad voice. "And they haven't been altogether happy years for me,
+either; I can tell you that, Dick."
+
+"I'm sorry to hear you say so," replied Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Were you in lots of railroad wrecks, and did the firemans have to
+come and get you out?" asked Freddie. To him railroad wrecks seemed
+very bad things, indeed, though having the firemen come was something
+he always liked to watch.
+
+"No, this is the only railroad wreck I have ever been in," said Mr.
+Hickson. "I don't want to be in another, either. No, my bad luck
+didn't have anything to do with wrecks or firemen. I'll tell you my
+story after supper," he said to Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Will you tell us a story, too?" begged Flossie.
+
+"I'm afraid my kind of story isn't the kind you want to hear," said
+the man, smiling rather sadly.
+
+"Daddy will tell you a story, little fat fairy!" said Mr. Bobbsey as
+he gently pinched the chubby cheek of his little girl. "I'll tell you
+and my little fireman a story after supper."
+
+Flossie and Freddie clapped their hands and danced along the sidewalk
+in glee at hearing this.
+
+The little party was soon at the Bobbsey home, and you can imagine how
+surprised Mrs. Bobbsey was when she saw, not only her husband, the
+children, and Sam coming in the gate, but a strange man. She must have
+shown the surprise she felt, for Mr. Bobbsey said:
+
+"Mary, you remember Hiram Hickson, don't you? He and I used to know
+each other when I was a boy in Cedarville."
+
+"Why, of course I remember you!" said the children's mother. "Though I
+don't know that I should have known you if I had met you in the
+street."
+
+"No, I've changed a lot, I suppose," said the old man.
+
+"And you have been in the wreck! You are hurt!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "Shall I get a doctor?"
+
+"Oh, I'm not hurt anything to speak of," said the man. "Just shaken up
+a bit and scratched. I'll be all right once I get a cup of tea."
+
+After supper Flossie and Freddie, as had been promised, were taken up
+on their father's lap, and they listened to one of daddy's wonderful
+make-believe stories.
+
+"Please put a fairy in it!" Flossie had begged.
+
+"And I want a fireman in it!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"Very well then, I'll tell about a fairy fireman who used to put out
+fires by squirting magical water on them from a morning glory flower,"
+said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+This pleased both the little children, and when they had listened to
+the very end, with eyes that were almost closed in sleep, they were
+taken off to bed.
+
+"Now, if you'll come with me to the library I'll let you tell me your
+story," said Mr. Bobbsey to Hiram Hickson.
+
+Bert and Nan, who did not have to go to bed as early as did Flossie
+and Freddie, rather hoped they might sit up and hear the queer man's
+story. But in this they were disappointed.
+
+However, Mr. Bobbsey let them hear, the next morning, the reason why
+Mr. Hickson had traveled to Lakeport.
+
+"He really was coming to see me," said Mr. Bobbsey. "He wants work, he
+says, and, as he knows something of the lumber trade and as he knew I
+had a lumberyard, he came to me."
+
+"But hasn't he any folks of his own?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey who, like the
+children, was listening to her husband.
+
+"He has two sons, but he doesn't know where they are," answered Mr.
+Bobbsey.
+
+"Did they get hurt in railroad wrecks?" asked Freddie.
+
+"No, I don't believe so," replied his father. "It is rather a sad
+story. Hiram Hickson is a strange man. He is kind, but he is queer,
+and once, many years ago, while his two boys were living with him,
+there was a quarrel. Mr. Hickson says, now, that it was his fault.
+Anyhow, his two boys ran away, and he has never seen them since."
+
+"Doesn't he know where they are?" asked Bert.
+
+"No, he hasn't the least idea. At first he didn't try to find them,
+for he was angry with them, and he thinks they were angry with him.
+But, as the years passed, and he felt that he had not done exactly
+right toward his boys, he began to wish he could find them.
+
+"But he could not, though he wrote to many places. His wife was dead,
+and he was left all alone in the world. He has a little money, but not
+much, and, as he is strong and healthy, he felt that he wanted to go
+to work. He has about given up, now, trying to find his two boys,
+William--or Bill, as he usually called him--and Charles, and what he
+wants is a home and some work by which he can make a living."
+
+"Where is he going to work?" asked Nan
+
+"He is going to work in my lumberyard," answered her father. "I need a
+good, honest man, and though Hiram Hickson is a bit queer, I know he
+is good and honest. I am going to give him work."
+
+"And where is he going to live?" asked Bert.
+
+"Here, with us, for a while," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "We have room for
+him, and, as he is an old friend, and as he was once very kind to me,
+I want to do all I can for him.
+
+"I said he could have a room in the house but he says he is used to
+living alone of late and so he is going to take one of the rooms over
+the stable, or what used to be the stable, before we got the
+automobile. Dinah and Sam have their rooms there, but there is another
+room for Mr. Hickson. So he will be like part of the family, and I
+want you children to be kind to him, as he has had trouble."
+
+"I like him!" declared Bert.
+
+"So do I," said Nan.
+
+"Come, children," said their mother, "it is time to go to school; and
+there goes Mr. Hickson to work in daddy's lumberyard!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+NEWS FROM THE WEST
+
+
+The Bobbsey twins looked from the window and saw Hiram Hickson walking
+through the yard on his way from the garage. He had slept all night in
+the comfortable room in the former stable, where Dinah and Sam also
+lived.
+
+As the old man passed he saw Flossie and Freddie and Bert and Nan
+looking from the window at him. He smiled up at the children, and
+waved his hand to them.
+
+"He looks a little like Uncle Daniel, doesn't he?" remarked Bert.
+
+"Yes," agreed Nan. "Only his hair is whiter. I guess he's had lots of
+troubles."
+
+"Maybe about his two sons," Bert went on, as the old man passed from
+sight toward the lumberyard. "I wish we could help him find them."
+
+"I don't see how we could ever do that," returned Nan.
+
+Flossie and Freddie stood with their noses pressed against the window
+glass, looking at Mr. Hickson until he was out of sight down the
+street. Then they got down off the chairs on which they had been
+kneeling, and Freddie asked:
+
+"May I have an apple dumpling to take to school, Mother?"
+
+"An apple dumpling to take to school!" she exclaimed. "Why, what in
+the world do you want to do that for?"
+
+"I want it to eat at recess," explained the little fellow. "All the
+boys bring something to eat."
+
+"And so do the girls," added Flossie. "I want something to eat, too.
+And Dinah is baking apple dumplings this morning--I smelled 'em when
+she opened the oven door."
+
+"Well, I'm afraid apple dumplings are too big to take to school for a
+recess lunch," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a laugh. "I'll get Dinah to give
+you some cookies, though."
+
+And Dinah not only gave some to Flossie and Freddie, but to Bert and
+Nan. Then, happy and laughing, the Bobbsey twins started for school.
+
+"Did you go down and see the big railroad wreck yesterday?" asked
+Danny Rugg of Bert at the school-yard gate.
+
+"Sure I saw it," was the answer.
+
+"And we got a man out of it, too," said Nan.
+
+"You got a man out of the wreck! What do you mean?" exclaimed Danny.
+"Did you go down and pull him out?"
+
+"No," Nan went on. "But we saw him, and he's at our house now."
+
+"He works for my father," said Bert, and he told the story of Hiram
+Hickson, not speaking, however, about the two sons of the old man who
+had run away from him because of a quarrel. Bert did not think his
+father would like to have him tell this outside the family.
+
+"I was right close to the engine when it puffed out a lot of steam,"
+said Danny Rugg. "And I ran away like anything!"
+
+"So did we!" said Bert.
+
+All the boys and girls were talking about the wreck that morning, and
+because they had had such a curious part in it--having at their home
+one of the passengers who had been hurt--Bert and Nan were the center
+of a little throng that wanted to hear, over and over again, about it.
+So the older Bobbsey twins told all they knew concerning it from the
+time of having first heard about the wreck from Charley Mason until
+they came home accompanied by Hiram Hickson, who had been slightly
+hurt in the accident.
+
+"Is he all right now?" Danny Rugg wanted to know.
+
+"Oh, yes. He's gone to work in my father's lumberyard," explained
+Bert. "I'm going to stop in to see him this afternoon."
+
+"Can't we go, too?" asked Danny, as he and Charley Mason walked back
+into the school with Bert, some of the talk having taken place at
+recess.
+
+"Yes, I guess so," was the answer.
+
+Bert often stopped at the lumberyard on his way home from school. He
+liked to play among the piles of logs and sawed boards, as did the
+other boys. Flossie and Freddie liked this, too, but they were not
+allowed to climb around on the lumber piles unless their father or
+some other older person was with them. Often Bert and Nan made
+"sea-saws" on a lumber pile, but to-day Nan wanted to hurry home with
+Grace Lavine and Nellie Parks, for they had a new story book they were
+reading together, and over which they were very much excited, each
+pretending she was one of the principal characters.
+
+So, after school was out, and the cookies which Dinah had given the
+children had been eaten down to the last crumbs, Nan took Flossie and
+Freddie home with her, and Bert and some of his boy chums went to the
+lumberyard. On the way they made snowballs and threw them at trees and
+fences.
+
+"There he is!" said Bert to Charley and Danny, as they saw Mr. Hickson
+measuring a pile of boards and marking the lengths down in a book.
+"There's the man that came out of the railroad wreck!"
+
+"Pooh, he isn't hurt a bit!" exclaimed Danny Rugg. "I thought you said
+his head was cut, Bert Bobbsey!"
+
+"'Tis cut!" declared Bert. "Isn't your head cut, and weren't you hurt
+in the railroad wreck?" cried Bert, as Mr. Hickson waved his hand in
+greeting.
+
+"Well, it isn't cut much--you can see where it is," and, taking off
+his hat, the old man showed the boys a piece of sticking plaster which
+had been put over the cut.
+
+"There! What'd I tell you?" cried Bert.
+
+Danny and Charley said nothing. They were satisfied now that they had
+actually seen the man himself and the cut he had got in the wreck.
+
+The three boys played about on the lumber piles until it was time for
+them to go home, and Bert promised to bring his chums next day to have
+more fun on the masses of lumber. Some of the boards were so stacked
+up that there were spaces between, and these the boys played were
+"robber-caves."
+
+It was nearing the end of winter when the railroad wreck had taken
+place. There was still plenty of snow and ice, but the sun was slowly
+working his way back from the south, where he had stayed so long, and
+each day brought spring nearer.
+
+Mr. Hickson continued to live in his room over the Bobbsey garage. He
+liked it there, and he liked his work in the lumberyard. Mr. Bobbsey
+said the former Cedarville man was a good helper, and he was glad he
+had been able to hire him.
+
+"And do you think he'll ever find his two boys?" asked Bert one day,
+when he and Nan had been talking to their father about Mr. Hickson.
+
+"I'm afraid he'll never find them now, it has been so many years since
+they went away," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "They were boys then, sixteen
+or seventeen years old, and now they would be grown men. No, I don't
+believe Mr. Hickson will ever find his sons, though I wish he might,
+for I think it would make him much happier."
+
+Bert and Nan wished they might help their father's friend to find his
+sons, but they did not see how it could be done. They even talked
+about it to Miss Pompret, the woman whose rare china they had so
+strangely discovered.
+
+"Well, you Bobbsey twins are very lucky," said Miss Pompret, when Nan
+and Bert were at her house one early spring day. "You were very lucky
+about my china, and maybe you will be lucky about Mr. Hickson's sons.
+I hope he finds them. It is very sad to be old and to have no one in
+the world who really belongs to you. I hope you may be able to help
+him."
+
+As has been said, the spring had come. The Bobbsey twins and the other
+children of Lakeport had made the most of winter while it lasted. They
+had built snow houses, snow men and had had snowball battles--at
+least--Bert, Charley Mason and Danny Rugg and the bigger boys, as well
+as Nan and her particular girl friends, had. The smaller ones, like
+Freddie, had coasted downhill on their sleds. This was fun in which
+Flossie also shared.
+
+April came with plenty of showers, but the showers brought the May
+flowers, just as it says in the little verse. And then came June,
+which seemed the best month of all.
+
+"Aren't you glad?" asked Bert of Nan, as four Bobbsey twins were on
+their way to school one beautiful June morning, when the birds were
+singing and the flowers in the yards along the way were all in
+blossom.
+
+"Glad? What for?" asked Nan.
+
+"'Cause school will soon be over and we'll have a long vacation,"
+answered Bert.
+
+"Oh, that's so!" agreed Nan. "We have only a few more weeks of school.
+I hope I pass my examinations."
+
+"I hope so, too," agreed Bert. "I'm going to study real hard."
+
+"So'm I!" murmured Nan. "Oh, look! There goes Mr. Hickson on a pile of
+daddy's lumber!" she cried. "Maybe he'll give us a ride to school."
+
+They shouted to the old man, who was now one of the best of Mr.
+Bobbsey's helpers in the lumberyard.
+
+"Whoa, Esmeralda!" called Mr. Hickson to the horse he was driving.
+"What is it?" he asked of the Bobbsey twins, who were on the sidewalk.
+"Did you want me?" he asked. "The boards rattle so I couldn't hear
+what you said. There hasn't been another railroad wreck, has there?"
+and he smiled.
+
+"No," answered Bert. "But could you give us a ride to school, if
+you're going down that way?"
+
+"I am and I will," answered Mr. Hickson. "Wait a minute, Flossie and
+Freddie," he called to the smaller children. "I'll help you up. Now
+don't run away, Esmeralda!" he called to the horse.
+
+"Oh, she won't run! She's the slowest horse daddy has!" laughed Nan.
+
+"She's a good horse, though," said Mr. Hickson, as he carefully put
+Flossie and Freddie up on the boards on the wagon. "Yes, she's a good
+horse, but she's getting old like me. Now are you up, Bert and Nan?"
+he asked, as he saw Bert helping his sister to her place.
+
+"All ready!" Bert answered.
+
+"Get along, Esmeralda!" called the man to the horse, and so the
+Bobbsey twins had a ride to school.
+
+"Let's go down and play on your father's lumber piles to-day," said
+Danny Rugg to Bert, when school was out in the afternoon.
+
+"Yes, we had a dandy time the other day!" chimed in Charley Mason.
+"Let's go again."
+
+"All right, we'll go!" agreed Bert.
+
+But when he and the two boys reached the yard where the sweet-smelling
+boards were piled in great heaps, Bert saw his father coming from the
+office.
+
+"May we play on the lumber?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes, but come home early," Mr. Bobbsey answered. "I'm going home now,
+Bert, and I think you'd better come soon."
+
+"Is anything the matter?" asked the boy, for he knew it was early for
+his father to leave his office unless something had happened.
+
+"Nothing serious," was the answer. "But I have just had some strange
+news from the West, and I want to tell your mother about it. The news
+came in a letter, and it may make a big change in our plans for the
+summer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AUNT EMELINE
+
+
+When Bert Bobbsey reached home that afternoon, having stopped his play
+on the lumber piles with Charley and Danny earlier than usual, the
+small boy saw his father and mother talking together on the side
+porch. Nan, Nellie Parks, and Grace Lavine were down in the yard under
+the shady grapevine playing.
+
+"Well, I don't see anything for us to do except to go out West," Bert
+heard his father saying.
+
+"Oh, do you really mean that?" cried the boy. "Are we going out West
+where there are Indians and cowboys and ponies and mountains and--and
+everything?"
+
+His eyes were wide open with excitement.
+
+"I didn't think you were around, or I wouldn't have spoken so loudly,"
+said Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh.
+
+"But, tell me, Daddy! Are we really going out West?" asked Bert. "I've
+always wanted to go there, and I guess Nan has, too."
+
+"Oh, you can depend upon it, Nan will always want to go where you go,
+and so will Flossie and Freddie, for that matter!" said Mrs. Bobbsey,
+with a laugh.
+
+Bert had passed his small brother and sister as he entered the yard.
+They were playing with a little cart of Freddie's, and, as you can
+easily guess, Freddie was pretending he was a fireman.
+
+"When are we going?" asked Bert. "Can't we go right away? School is
+almost over, and I know I'm going to pass 'cause the teacher said so.
+Nan is, too!"
+
+"My, but you are getting in a hurry!" said Mr. Bobbsey. "We have only
+just begun to talk of the West and here you are stopping school to
+go."
+
+"But what is it all about?" Bert went on. "Why do you have to go out
+West, Daddy? Aren't you going to have the lumberyard any more?"
+
+"Oh, indeed I am, and perhaps a larger one than before if things turn
+out the way I expect," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "But here comes Nan," he
+went on. "I think we might as well tell her and Bert all about it," he
+said to his wife. "If we go out West Bert and Nan will have to make
+believe they are almost grown up."
+
+"What's it all about?" asked Nan, as she sat down on the steps beside
+her brother. Grace and Nellie had gone home to help their mothers get
+supper.
+
+"Well, to begin at the beginning," said Mr. Bobbsey, "I had a letter
+to-day from some lawyers out West. Children, your mother has been left
+a cattle ranch and a lumber tract by a relative who died and made his
+will in your mother's favor."
+
+"A cattle ranch?" cried Nan. "Oh, I know what that is! We have a
+picture of one in our geography! There's a lot of cattle in the
+picture, and cowboys are catching them with lassos."
+
+"Yes, that's one of the things that happen on a ranch," said Mr.
+Bobbsey. "Well, your mother now owns one of those."
+
+"She does?" cried Nan with wide-open eyes. "Oh, what are you going to
+do with it?"
+
+"I'm going to be a cowboy on it!" decided Bert, as quickly as that.
+"I've always wanted to be a cowboy, and now I'm going to. When can I
+go on your ranch, Mother?" and jumping up eagerly he stood beside her,
+waiting for her answer.
+
+"Oh, but, dear boy! I don't know anything about it yet," said Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "The letter has just come, and your father and I were talking
+over the news when you came. Poor Uncle Watson! I never knew him very
+well, though I had heard he was quite rich. But I never expected he
+would leave me his fine ranch, to say nothing of a lumber tract."
+
+"What's a lumber tract?" Nan asked. "Is it a lumberyard like yours,
+Daddy?"
+
+"No, my dear," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "A lumber tract is what you
+children would call big woods. It is a place where trees grow that may
+be cut down and made into lumber. All the boards and planks in my
+lumberyard were once big trees, growing out West, or up North, or down
+South. Now it seems that your mother's uncle owned a big forest of
+trees where lumber is cut, as well as owning a cattle ranch."
+
+"And has he left them both to you?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes," his mother answered. "And the letter from the lawyers who made
+Uncle Watson's will tells me that I had better come out to look after
+the property that has been left to me."
+
+"Are you going?" Nan wanted to know.
+
+"I think I must," Mrs. Bobbsey replied. "It isn't every day I have so
+much property given me. I must go out West to look after it. But daddy
+is coming with me, so I'll be all right."
+
+"Hurray!" cried Bert, tossing his hat into the air.
+
+"What are you 'hurrahing' about?" asked his father.
+
+"'Cause I'm going to be a cowboy on mother's ranch!" answered Bert.
+"Whoop-la! I'll be a lumberman, too, part of the time!"
+
+"Now wait a minute, Son," said Mr. Bobbsey gently. "I don't want to
+spoil your fun, but we can't take you out West with us."
+
+"You can't?" cried Bert. "Why, I thought we could all go--Nan,
+Flossie, Freddie, everybody!"
+
+"No, I don't see how we can take you children," said Mr. Bobbsey,
+while his wife also shook her head. "You see we have to leave in a
+hurry, and it would not do to take you youngsters out of school. We
+will not be gone longer than we can help."
+
+"And have we got to stay here all alone?" asked Nan, and there was a
+suspicion of tears in her voice.
+
+"You won't mind staying here," said her mother. "There will be Dinah
+to cook for you and to look after Freddie and Flossie. Sam will be
+around the house all the while, and there will be Mr. Hickson, too.
+Besides this we have a surprise for you."
+
+"What is it?" cried Bert. "Are you going to take us after all? Oh, say
+you are! Tell me you were only fooling when you said we would have to
+stay here all alone!"
+
+"No, I wasn't fooling," replied his mother. "I don't really see how we
+can take you children West with us. But the surprise is this. I am
+going to ask Aunt Emeline to come and stay with you, to keep house for
+you while your father and I are away. Aunt Emeline will come."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Emeline!" gasped Nan.
+
+"Aunt Emeline!" cried Bert. "Why she--she--"
+
+Then he stopped short. He knew what he had been going to say was not
+polite.
+
+"Aunt Emeline will be very kind to you," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "I will
+go in and write to her now, asking her to come."
+
+"And I must go in and telephone," said Mr. Bobbsey. "If I am to go
+West I shall have a lot of work to do to get ready."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey entered the house, leaving Nan and Bert sitting
+out on the steps. For a moment or two the Bobbsey twins said nothing.
+They could hear Flossie and Freddie in the front yard laughing
+together as they played their games. Then Bert looked at Nan.
+
+"Aunt Emeline!" he said, in a strange voice.
+
+"Aunt Emeline!" responded Nan, and she sighed.
+
+"I'll have to wipe my feet three times every time I come into the
+house once!" went on Bert, in a grumbly voice. "She'll always be
+looking at my hands to see if they're clean and--and--Oh, I don't want
+Aunt Emeline to come!" he exclaimed.
+
+"She never likes to have me run," said Nan, and her voice was gloomy.
+"She won't want me to have the other girls in here to play up in the
+attic, and she doesn't believe in eating cookies between meals!"
+
+"It's going to be awful--terrible!" exclaimed Bert. "I know what I'm
+going to do!" he declared desperately.
+
+"What?" asked Nan, in a frightened sort of voice.
+
+"I'm going to run away, like Mr. Hickson's boys did!" Bert went on.
+"You can run away with me if you want to, Nan!" he added. "I'm going
+to be a cowboy and you can be the cook at the ranch."
+
+"What ranch?" asked Nan.
+
+"The one mother is going to get by Uncle Watson's will," explained her
+brother. "That's where I'm going to run to. I wouldn't run away to
+just any old place, but mother and father won't mind if I run off to
+our own ranch. They'll be glad to see me. Will you come, Nan?"
+
+His sister shook her head.
+
+"No," she answered. "Aunt Emeline is terrible, but she isn't bad
+enough to run away from, and maybe she'll be different now."
+
+"She can't ever be any different," declared Bert. "I guess she means
+to be kind and good, but, say, a fellow can't be always washing his
+hands and wiping his feet!"
+
+"And a girl's got to run and romp sometimes," added Nan. "But we'll
+have to do as father and mother want us to, I guess."
+
+"Oh, I s'pose so!" agreed Bert. "Well, maybe I won't run away if you
+aren't coming with me. But I'd like to!" he said.
+
+Flossie and Freddie heard something of the plans. They did not
+remember Aunt Emeline very well, though Bert and Nan easily recalled
+the queer old lady, who really was very particular when it came to
+children. She never had had any of her own, and perhaps this made a
+difference.
+
+At first Flossie and Freddie had clamored to be taken out West with
+their father and mother, as Bert and Nan had done. But when told they
+must stay at home and help Bert and Nan keep house, they seemed to be
+satisfied. They were some years younger than the older Bobbsey twins.
+
+"I'll put out the fire if our house starts to burn while you're away,"
+Freddie promised.
+
+"There'll not be much danger of fire with Aunt Emeline here to look
+after things," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I wouldn't leave my children with
+every one, but I know they'll be safe with Aunt Emeline," she said to
+Dinah.
+
+"Yassum, dey's suah gwine to be _safe!_" declared the fat, jolly
+colored cook. "She suah will look after 'em! But will dey gets enough
+to _eat?_ Dat's whut I'se askin' yo'!" and she looked earnestly
+at Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Well, you'll be doing the cooking as usual. Dinah," said the
+children's mother. "I depend on you to feed them well."
+
+"Dat's all right, den!" exclaimed Dinah, with a satisfied air. "I
+knows she won't starve 'em at de table, even ef she suah has terrible
+'tickler manners. But ef she says dey shan't eat 'tween meals, den
+I'll says to her as how dey can. I ain't gwine to hab mah honey lambs
+starvin', dat's whut I ain't!" and Dinah shook her woolly head.
+
+"Oh, Aunt Emeline isn't as bad as all that," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "She
+is strict, I know, but it is for the children's good. I expect a
+letter from her very soon, saying when she can come. As soon as she
+can Mr. Bobbsey and I will start for the West."
+
+Bert and Nan tried to be cheerful as the days passed, and they thought
+more and more of their father and mother going away from them. Flossie
+and Freddie had fretted a little at first, but, being younger, they
+were over it more quickly.
+
+At last the letter came from Aunt Emeline. Bert and Nan were home when
+their mother read it to their father. A look of surprise came over
+Mrs. Bobbsey's face as she read.
+
+"Dear me," she exclaimed, "this is quite surprising!"
+
+"What is it?" asked her husband.
+
+"Aunt Emeline can't come to stay with the children while we go West,"
+was the answer. "She says she is too old to take charge of a house and
+four children now, and she begs to be excused. Aunt Emeline isn't
+coming after all!"
+
+Bert and Nan had hard work not to shout: Hurrah!
+
+Mr. Bobbsey took the letter to read for himself.
+
+"Then I'm sure I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "All our
+plans are made for going out West to look after the lumber tract and
+the cattle ranch. If Aunt Emeline can't come to stay with the
+children, what are we going to do?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HAPPY DAYS
+
+
+Mr. Bobbsey sat looking at Aunt Emeline's letter, reading parts of it
+over again. Mrs. Bobbsey watched her husband. The Bobbsey twins looked
+at their father and mother. A great hope was beginning to come into
+the hearts of Bert and Nan.
+
+As for Flossie and Freddie, they were rather too small to know what it
+was all about, but they realized that something had happened that did
+not happen every day.
+
+"What's the matter, Mommie?" asked Freddie, slipping down out of his
+chair and going over to her. He saw that she was worried. "Have you
+got the toothache?" he wanted to know. Once Freddie's tooth had ached
+and he knew how it hurt.
+
+"No, dear," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "I haven't the toothache. But I
+have a letter from Aunt Emeline and she can't come to stay with you
+children while daddy and I go out West."
+
+"Aunt Emeline not come?" repeated Freddie.
+
+"No, dear. She thinks she is too old to look after you four lively
+youngsters. And perhaps she is right. I wouldn't want to make too much
+work for her."
+
+"Aunt Emeline not coming!" said Freddie again in a thoughtful voice.
+"Ho! Then I go and get a cookie!"
+
+Nan and Bert burst out laughing.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked their father and mother, as Freddie slipped
+down out of his mother's lap, into which he had climbed, and started
+for the kitchen to find Dinah. "What made you laugh, Bert?" asked his
+mother.
+
+"Oh, I guess Freddie must have heard Nan and me talking about Aunt
+Emeline not letting us have anything to eat except at meal time,"
+replied Bert. "And, now she isn't coming, he thinks he can have a
+cookie whenever he wants it."
+
+"Oh, I see!" and Mr. Bobbsey smiled. "Well, Aunt Emeline may be
+strict, but she is a very good housekeeper. I am sorry she can not
+come to stay while we are in the West. I really don't know what we are
+going to do."
+
+"Nor I," sighed Mrs. Bobbsey. "We counted on Aunt Emeline all the
+while, and now I don't know whom else I can get on such short notice.
+Can't we wait a while about going West?" she asked her husband.
+
+"I don't very well see how we can wait," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "The
+tickets are bought, and all my plans are made. I have hired a man to
+come to the lumber office while I am away. I have written the men at
+the timber tract and at the cattle ranch that we are coming. Now, what
+are we to do?"
+
+"We can't leave the children here alone," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "That is
+certain."
+
+"No, we couldn't do that," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "As good a cook as
+Dinah is, and careful as Sam is, we couldn't leave the children with
+them."
+
+"Dinah gave me a cookie, an' she says she'll give you one, too, if you
+want it, Flossie," announced Freddie, coming into the room then,
+munching a sweet cake.
+
+"Course I want it!" exclaimed the little "fat fairy," as her father
+called her, and she slipped out of her mother's lap, where she had
+climbed after Freddie got down, and, like her brother, hurried to the
+kitchen.
+
+"Well, since we can't leave the children here at home by themselves,
+or only with Dinah and Sam," said Mr. Bobbsey, after a pause, "there
+is only one thing to do."
+
+"You mean we must stay at home?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, and the hearts of
+Bert and Nan felt very sad indeed.
+
+"Stay at home? No, indeed!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "We must take the
+children with us!"
+
+"Out West?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, out West!" her husband said. "We'll take the children with us
+since Aunt Emeline can't come to stay with them."
+
+"Hurray!" cried Bert.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad!" echoed Nan.
+
+"Yes, that will be the best way out of it," went on Mr. Bobbsey to his
+wife, after Bert and Nan had stopped dancing around the room, hands
+joined, with Flossie and Freddie in the ring they made, the two
+younger twins each eating one of Dinah's cookies. "We'll take the
+Bobbsey twins out West."
+
+"But what about school?" asked his wife, who just happened to think
+that the summer term would not end for about three weeks.
+
+"Oh we don't need to go to school!" said Bert.
+
+"We can take our books with us and study on the train," suggested Nan.
+
+"I fear there wouldn't be much studying done," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.
+"But do you really think we might take the children out of school?"
+she asked.
+
+"That is something we will have to find out about," her husband
+answered. "Of course it will not be much loss to Flossie and Freddie,
+as they are not as far along in their studies as are Nan and Bert. But
+I wouldn't like to have them lose much of their lessons."
+
+"Teacher said I was at the head of my class, and I'd pass easy!"
+declared Bert.
+
+"And my teacher said I was one of her best students," added Nan. She
+and Bert were in the same grade but in different classes.
+
+"Well, since we really have to go out West to look after the lumber
+and cattle properties that are to be your mother's," said Mr. Bobbsey,
+"and since we must take you children with us, I'll see your teachers,
+Bert and Nan, and ask them if it will put you back much to lose the
+last two weeks of the term."
+
+"Oh, goodie! Goodie!" shrieked Nan, jumping up and down.
+
+"Hurray!" cried Bert. "Now I'm going to be a cowboy. Whoop!"
+
+"Mercy me!" exclaimed their mother, covering her ears with her hands
+as Bert and Nan shouted loudly.
+
+"Come on, Flossie!" called Freddie to his small sister. "Let's go and
+ask Dinah for more cookies."
+
+That was Freddie's way of celebrating the good news.
+
+Then came happy days.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey, once he had made up his mind that the children were to go
+out West with him and his wife, went to the school and saw the
+teachers who had charge of Bert and Nan. He found that the older
+Bobbsey twins were so well along in their studies that it would not
+hold them back in the fall to stop now. So they were given permission
+to leave school before the regular time.
+
+There was no trouble at all about Flossie and Freddie. They had simple
+lessons, and they could easily be taught at home to make up for the
+time they would lose.
+
+It was arranged that Dinah and Sam should stay at home in the Bobbsey
+house to look after it during the summer, while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey
+and the twins went out West.
+
+"And be sure to feed Snap!" said Bert to Sam, as the colored man was
+cutting the grass on the lawn one day, while the dog frisked about
+chasing sticks that Bert and Freddie tossed here and there for him.
+
+"Oh, I won't forget Snap!" promised Sam.
+
+"And you must give Snoop a saucer of milk every day, Dinah!" said Nan,
+as she rubbed the black cat which was purring around her legs.
+
+"Oh, indeedy Snoop and I am mighty good friends!" declared Dinah. "I
+suah won't forget to feed Snoop!"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey bought other tickets, so he could take the children on the
+Western trip. He made all the arrangements, trunks were packed, and
+finally, one day, Bert and Nan and Flossie and Freddie said good-bye
+to their school chums.
+
+"I'm going out West to learn to be a cowboy!" said Bert.
+
+"I wish I was going!" exclaimed Danny Rugg.
+
+"So do I," said Charley Mason.
+
+"I'll see some Indians, too," Bert went on.
+
+"And will you see those darling little papooses they carry on their
+backs?" asked Nellie Parks.
+
+"I guess I'll see them," Nan said. "I don't like Indian men and women,
+but the babies must be cute."
+
+"Wouldn't it be great if you could get an Indian doll?" asked Grace.
+
+"Indians don't have dolls!" declared Danny.
+
+"Indian girls do!" exclaimed Nellie. "I saw a picture in one of my
+books of an Indian girl, and she had a doll made of corn silk and a
+corncob and some tree bark."
+
+"What a funny doll!" exclaimed Grace. "Do try and bring one home,
+Nan!"
+
+"I will," she promised.
+
+Bert and Nan were so excited at the prospect of going West that if
+their father and mother had expected the children to pack the trunks
+and valises it never would have been done. But Mrs. Bobbsey knew
+better than to expect this. She and Dinah looked after the packing.
+
+Flossie and Freddie, of course, were too small to do any of this,
+though one day Mrs. Bobbsey saw the little boy stuffing something into
+an old stocking.
+
+"Freddie Bobbsey, what are you doing?" asked his mother.
+
+"Dinah gave me some cookies," was the answer, "and I'm goin' to take
+'em out West with me. Maybe I'll get hungry, an' maybe I'll get lost,
+or carried off by the Indians, an' then I'll have cookies to eat!"
+
+"Oh, dear me! you can't take a lot of cookies in a stocking," laughed
+Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"There'll be plenty to eat out West. As for getting lost, I suppose
+you will do that; you always have, but we manage to find you. However,
+I hope you won't get lost too often. And I don't think you'll be
+carried off by the Indians. Or, if so, they'd return you quickly."
+
+The happy days seemed to grow happier as the time came nearer to take
+the train for the great West. One afternoon, the day before the
+Bobbsey twins were to start, Bert and Nan went down to their father's
+lumberyard office with a message sent by their mother.
+
+"What's all this I hear about you?" asked Mr. Hickson, the old man who
+had been in the railroad wreck. He was out loading a wagon with
+boards. "What are you children going to do out West?" he asked them.
+
+"I'm going to learn to be a cowboy," declared Bert.
+
+"And I'm going to get an Indian doll!" said Nan.
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed the old man, smiling at the Bobbsey twins,
+for he liked them very much. "I hope you have a good time. That's what
+makes children happy--to have a good time. I wish I could find my
+children. I haven't seen my boys, Charley and Bill, for a long while.
+They must be grown-up men now. Yes, I certainly wish I could find
+Charley and Bill. It was all a mistake when they ran away from home. I
+wish I had them back," and slowly and sadly shaking his head he went
+on loading the lumber wagon.
+
+Bert and Nan felt sorry for Mr. Hickson, and they wished they might
+help him find his "boys," as he called Bill and Charley, though, as he
+said, they must be grown men now. But Bert and Nan had too many things
+to think about in getting ready to go out West to feel sorry very
+long. They took the message to their father and then hurried home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OFF FOR THE WEST
+
+
+Monday morning was the day set for the start of the Bobbsey twins for
+the great West. They had said good-bye to their school friends the
+Friday before, and now, while the bells were ringing to call the other
+boys and girls to their classes, Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie stood
+on their front porch and watched their friends go past. "Oh, but you
+are lucky!" called Danny Rugg to Bert, as the Bobbseys waved their
+hands to him.
+
+"I wish I could be you!" added Charley Mason, as he swung his strap of
+books over his head. "I'm going out West to be a cowboy when I grow
+up."
+
+"I'll tell you all about it when I come back," promised Bert.
+
+Nan's girl friends, as they went past on their way to school, blew
+kisses to her from their hands, and wished her all sorts of good luck.
+
+Flossie and Freddie were too busy running around and playing
+hide-and-go-seek among the trunks to pay much attention to their
+little school friends who went past the house.
+
+The trunks and valises had been stacked on the front porch, and in a
+little while Mr. Hickson was to come with his lumber wagon to take
+them to the station. Later the Bobbseys would go down in the
+automobile, one of the men from Mr. Bobbsey's office bringing it back.
+Sam Johnson, though he used to drive the Bobbsey horse when they had
+one, never could get used to an automobile, he said.
+
+Snap, the jolly dog, seemed to know that something out of the ordinary
+was going on. He did not run about and play as he nearly always did,
+but stayed close to Bert and Nan. He seemed to know they were going
+away from him.
+
+"You'll have to watch Snap," said Mrs. Bobbsey to Sam. "He may try to
+sneak after us and get on the train, as he did once before. Mr.
+Bobbsey had to get off at the next station and bring him back."
+
+"Yassum, I'll watch Snap," promised Sam. "But he suah does want to go
+wif yo' all pow'ful bad!"
+
+"I wish we could take Snap and Snoop!" said Bert.
+
+"Oh, dear boy, we couldn't think of it!" exclaimed his mother. "We
+have a long way to travel to get to the West, and we couldn't look
+after a cat and a dog. They'll be much better off here at home."
+
+"Snoop maybe will," argued Bert, "'cause he doesn't like to have rough
+fun the way Snap does. But I guess my dog would like to see an Indian
+and some cowboys!"
+
+However, the older Bobbsey twins knew it was out of the question to
+take their pets with them, so they made the best of it, Bert petting
+Snap and talking kindly to him. Snoop had gone out to the barn where
+he knew he might catch a mouse.
+
+In a little while Mr. Hickson drove up for the trunks which were
+loaded on the lumber wagon.
+
+"You're going to have a fine day to start for the West," said the old
+man, who had entirely got over his hurt got in the railroad wreck. "A
+very fine day!"
+
+The June sun was shining, there was just enough wind to stir the
+leaves of the trees, and, as Mr. Hickson said, it was indeed a fine
+day for going out West, or anywhere else. Very happy were the Bobbsey
+twins.
+
+With rattles and bangs, the trunks were piled on the lumber wagon,
+such valises as were not to be carried by Mr. or Mrs. Bobbsey, or Bert
+or Nan, were put in among the trunks. Flossie and Freddie were each to
+carry a basket which contained some things their mother thought might
+be needed on the trip.
+
+"All aboard!" called Mr. Hickson, as he took his seat and gathered up
+the reins.
+
+"That's what the conductor on the train says!" laughed Freddie, as he
+and Flossie had to stop playing hide-and-go-seek among the trunks.
+
+"Well, I'm making believe this lumber wagon is a train," went on the
+old man. "I wish it was a train, and that I was going out West to find
+my two boys, Charley and Bill." Then he drove off with his head bowed.
+
+"When do we start?" asked Bert. It was about the tenth time he had
+asked that same question that morning.
+
+"We're going to leave soon now," his mother told him. "Don't go away,
+any of you. Nan, you look after Flossie and Freddie. It wouldn't
+surprise me in the least if Freddie were to get lost at the last
+minute."
+
+Just then Freddie and his little sister were running around in the
+yard, playing tag, and neither of the smaller Bobbsey twins showed any
+signs of getting lost. But one never could tell what would happen to
+them--never!
+
+Finally everything seemed to be in readiness for the start. The last
+words about looking after the house while the Bobbseys were in the
+West had been said to Sam and Dinah, and Mr. Bobbsey had telephoned
+his final message to his office to say that he was about to start. The
+automobile had been brought around, and Harry Truesdell, who was to
+drive it back from the station, was waiting.
+
+"Come, children, we'll start now!" called Mother Bobbsey. "Get the
+satchels you are to carry, Nan and Bert. Where are Flossie and
+Freddie?" she asked. "I want them to take their baskets."
+
+"They were here a minute ago," replied Nan, looking around the yard
+for her smaller brother and Flossie.
+
+"But they're not here now!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "See if you can
+find them, Nan. Tell them we must leave now."
+
+Nan set down the valise she had taken up and was about to go around to
+the back yard when some excited cries were heard. Dinah's voice
+sounded above the others.
+
+"Heah, now, you stop dat, Freddie Bobbsey!" called the colored cook.
+"Whut are yo' doin'? Heah, Freddie, yo' let mah clothes line alone!"
+
+There was a moment of silence, and then Dinah's voice went on.
+
+"Oh, land o' massy! Oh, I 'clare to goodness, yo' suah has gone an'
+done it now! Oh, mah po' li'l honey lamb! Oh, Freddie, look what you
+has gone an' done!"
+
+At this moment the crying voice of Flossie was heard. The little girl
+seemed to be in trouble.
+
+"I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to!" shouted Freddie.
+
+"Something has happened!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I knew it would,
+just at the last minute!"
+
+"It does seem so," said Mr. Bobbsey, coming out on the porch. "I'll go
+and see what it is!" he added, as he ran around the side path.
+
+"I'll come, too," said Mrs. Bobbsey. And Nan and Bert thought they had
+better follow.
+
+They could hear Flossie crying, while Dinah was saying:
+
+"Oh, mah po' li'l honey lamb! Freddie Bobbsey, look whut you gone an'
+done!"
+
+And Freddie kept saying:
+
+"I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to! I didn't know it was going to
+come down!"
+
+"I wonder what it was that came down," thought Mrs. Bobbsey, as she
+hurried after her husband, with Bert and Nan bringing up the rear and
+Snap barking as hard as he could bark.
+
+When Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey got around to the back yard they saw at a
+glance what had happened. One of the clothes lines, on which Dinah had
+hung the sheets she had just washed, had come down. And two or three
+sheets had fallen right over Flossie.
+
+Of course the little girl was not hurt, for the sheets were not heavy.
+But they were damp from the tub, and Flossie was all tangled up in
+them and in the line. In fact, Flossie could not be seen, for she was
+between the two sides of a sheet, and only that Dinah was there,
+trying to get her out, told Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey what had happened to
+their little girl. Oh, yes! I forgot! Flossie was crying, and that was
+a sign she was there, even though she could not be seen.
+
+Freddie was standing near a clothes post with the kitchen bread knife
+in his hand.
+
+"What happened, Dinah?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as she helped the fat,
+colored cook get Flossie out from under the sheets. "What is it all
+about?"
+
+"Oh, dat Freddie boy he done cut mah clothes line an' let mah clean
+wash down on da ground!" exclaimed Dinah. "I didn't minded DAT so
+much!" she said, as she wiped away the tears from the face of the
+frightened Flossie. "I kin wash de sheets ober ag'in. But I'm so
+s'prised dat Freddie done scared his li'l sister, dat's whut I am.
+Freddie done scared honey lamb mos' to pieces!"
+
+"I--I didn't mean to," repeated Freddie.
+
+"But did you really cut down Dinah's wash line?" his mother asked him,
+when it had been found that Flossie was only frightened and not hurt.
+
+"I--I cut off a little piece," said Freddie, showing a dangling end in
+his hand. "I didn't think it would fall down. I didn't mean to make
+it."
+
+"But what made you cut any of it?" asked his father, tying the cut
+ends together while Dinah took up the sheets which had fallen to the
+ground and had some black spots on them. "Why did you cut the clothes
+line, Freddie?"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey did not call his little boy "fireman" now. That was a pet
+name, and used only when Freddie had been good, and he had been a
+little bad now, though perhaps he did not mean to.
+
+"I--I cut the line to get a piece of rope," said Freddie.
+
+"What did you want a piece of rope for?" asked his father.
+
+"I wanted to make a lasso to lasso Indians as Bert's going to do,"
+Freddie answered. "I wanted a piece of clothes line for a lasso. But I
+didn't mean to make the clothes come down."
+
+"No, I don't guess you did," said Dinah, as she came out of the
+laundry with the sheets which she had rinsed clean. "Ole Dinah done
+gwine to forgib her honey lamb 'cause he's gwine away far off from
+her. An' Dinah's other honey lamb didn't get hurted any. It was only
+two sheets an' Dinah's done washed 'em clean again. But don't you go
+lassoin' any Injuns, Freddie! Dey mightn't like it."
+
+"No, I won't!" promised the little fellow.
+
+"And don't cut any more clothes lines," added his father.
+
+"No, sir, I won't!"
+
+Freddie was ready to promise anything, now that he found nothing
+serious had happened. At first, after he had cut the rope and let the
+sheets down on Flossie's head as she was running through the yard,
+Freddie had been very much frightened.
+
+"Well, I'm glad it was no worse," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she
+straightened Flossie's hat, which had been knocked to one side. "Now
+we must hurry, or we'll be late for the train."
+
+"Yes, come along!" called Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+Freddie gave up the bread knife to Dinah, the last good-byes were
+said, and the children started for the automobile. Snap leaped around
+Bert, barking and whining.
+
+"Better tie up the dog, Sam, or he'll follow us," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, sah. I'll do dat."
+
+Poor Snap was led away whining. He did not want to be left behind, but
+it had to be.
+
+"Good-bye!" called Bert to his pet. "Good-bye, Snap!"
+
+Flossie took up her basket, and Freddie had his. Each one had
+something to carry. Into the automobile they hurried and soon they
+were on the way to the station to take the train for the West.
+
+They did not have many minutes to wait. Harry Truesdell sat in the
+automobile, until Mr. Bobbsey and the family should be aboard the
+train before he went back to the garage.
+
+The Bobbsey twins were standing on the station platform. Mr. Bobbsey
+was talking to a man he knew, and Mrs. Bobbsey was speaking to two
+friends. Bert and Nan were putting pennies in a weighing machine to
+see how heavy they had grown, and Freddie was looking at the pictures
+on the magazine covers at the news stand.
+
+Suddenly Flossie, who had set her basket down on one of the outside
+seats, gave a cry.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked her mother, turning quickly. "What is it,
+Flossie?"
+
+"Oh, my basket! My basket!" cried the little girl. "There's something
+in it! Something alive! Look, it's wriggling!"
+
+And, surely enough, the basket she had carried, was "wriggling." It
+was swaying from side to side on the station seat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+DINNER FOR TWO
+
+
+Freddie Bobbsey, called away from looking at the magazine pictures on
+the news stand, came running over when he heard Flossie shout.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the little boy. "Did something else fall on
+you, Flossie, like the sheets flopping over your head?"
+
+"No, nothing falled on me!" exclaimed Flossie. "But look! Look at my
+basket! It's wriggling!"
+
+"There's something in it!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, while her husband
+quickly hurried away from the man to whom he was talking, and prepared
+to see what the matter was. "There's something in your basket,
+Flossie! Did you put anything in?"
+
+"No, Mother!" answered the little girl. "I Just put in the things you
+gave me. And just before I came away I took off the cover to put in
+some cookies Dinah handed me."
+
+"I think I can guess what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey. "While the
+cover was off the basket something jumped in, Flossie."
+
+"Oh, I see what it is! A little black squirrel!" cried Nan.
+
+"Squirrels aren't black!" Bert said. There were some squirrels in the
+trees near the Bobbsey house, but all Bert had ever seen were gray or
+reddish brown.
+
+"It's something furry, anyhow," Nan went on. "I can see it through the
+cracks in the basket."
+
+And just then, to the surprise of every one looking on, including the
+Bobbsey twins, of course, the cover of the basket was raised by
+whatever was wriggling inside, and something larger than a squirrel,
+but black and furry, looked out.
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Bert.
+
+"Oh, it's Snoop!" cried Nan.
+
+"It's our cat!" added Freddie.
+
+"In my basket!" exclaimed Flossie. "How did you get there, Snoop?" she
+asked, as Bert took the cat up in his arms, while the other passengers
+at the station laughed.
+
+"Perhaps Snoop felt lonesome when he knew you were going to leave
+him," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "And when you took off the cover of your
+basket, Flossie, to put in the cookies Dinah gave you, Snoop must have
+seen his chance and crawled in."
+
+"He kept still all the way in the auto, so we wouldn't know he was
+there," added Nan.
+
+"Maybe he thought we'd take him with us," said Bert. "Did you, Snoop?"
+he asked. But the big black cat, who must have found it rather hard
+work to curl up in the basket, snuggled close to Bert, who was always
+kind to animals.
+
+Just then the whistle of the train was heard down the track.
+
+"Dear me! what shall we do?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "We can't possibly
+take Snoop with us, and we can't leave him here at the depot."
+
+"Harry will take Snoop back home in the auto," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, give him to me--I'll be careful of him," promised the young man
+from the lumberyard office, and Bert carried his pet over to the
+waiting automobile.
+
+Snoop mewed a little as Bert put the big, black cat into Harry's arms.
+
+"Good-bye, Snoop!" Bert said, patting his pet on the head.
+
+"Come, Bert, hurry!" called his father.
+
+Then, as the train pulled into the station, Bert ran back and caught
+up his valise. The other Bobbsey twins took up their things, Flossie
+put back on her basket the cover the cat had knocked off in getting
+out, and soon they were all on the train.
+
+"All aboard!" called the conductor, and, as the engine whistled and
+the cars began to move, Bert and Nan looked from the windows of their
+seats and had a last glimpse of Snoop being held in Harry's arms, as
+he sat in the automobile.
+
+Flossie and Freddie forgot all about their cat, dog, and nearly
+everything in Lakeport in their joy at going out West. For they were
+really started on their way now, after several little upsets and
+troubles, such as the clothes line coming down on Flossie, and the cat
+hiding himself away in the basket.
+
+"Well, now I can sit back and rest," said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a sigh of
+relief. "I know the children are all here, and they can't get lost for
+a while, at least, and I don't see what mischief they can get into
+here."
+
+Now, indeed, the children were all right for a time. Freddie sat with
+his father, next to the window, and Flossie was in the seat with her
+mother pressing her little nose close against the glass, so she would
+not miss seeing anything, as the train flew along.
+
+Bert and Nan were sitting together, Nan being next to the window. Bert
+had, very politely, let his sister have that place, though he wanted
+it himself. However, before the first part of the journey was over
+there was a seat vacant on the other side of the car, and Bert took
+that. Then he, too, had a window.
+
+Bert and Nan noticed, as the train passed Mr. Bobbsey's lumberyard,
+Mr. Hickson standing amid a pile of boards. The old man did not see
+the children, of course, for the train was going rather swiftly, but
+they saw him.
+
+"I wish we could help him find his two sons," said Nan to Bert.
+
+"Yes, I wish we could," Bert answered. "But it's so long ago maybe Mr.
+Hickson wouldn't know his boys even if he saw them again."
+
+"He'd know their names, wouldn't he?" Nan asked.
+
+"Yes, I s'pose he would," Bert replied.
+
+Then the older Bobbsey twins forgot about Mr. Hickson in the joys and
+novelty of traveling.
+
+The Bobbseys were going to travel in this train only as far as a
+junction station. There they would change to a through train for
+Chicago, and in that big western city they would again make a change.
+On this through train Mr. Bobbsey had had reserved for him a drawing
+room. That is part of the sleeping car built off from the rest at one
+end.
+
+On arriving at the junction the Bobbseys left the train they had been
+on since leaving Lakeport and got on the through train, which drew
+into the junction almost as soon as they did. They went into the
+little room at the end of the sleeping coach which Mr. Bobbsey had had
+reserved for them. In there the twins had plenty of room to look from
+the windows, as no other passengers were in with them.
+
+"It's just like being in our own big automobile," said Nan, and so it
+was. The children liked it very much.
+
+The trip to Chicago would take a day and a night, and Flossie and
+Freddie, as well as Bert and Nan, were interested in going to sleep on
+a train in the queer little beds the porter makes up from what are
+seats in the daytime.
+
+It was not the first time the children had traveled in a sleeping car,
+but they were always interested. It did seem queer to them to be
+traveling along in their sleep.
+
+"Almost like a dream," Nan said, and I think she was quite right.
+
+"Where's my basket?" Flossie asked, after they had ridden on for about
+an hour.
+
+"Do you want to see if Snap is in it this time?" her father jokingly
+inquired.
+
+"Snap's too big to get in my basket," Flossie answered. "He's a big
+dog. But I want to get some of the cookies Dinah gave me. I'm hungry."
+
+"So'm I!" cried Freddie, who had been looking from the window. "I want
+a cookie too!"
+
+"Dinah gave me some for you," Flossie said, and, when her basket had
+been handed down from the brass rack over the seat, she searched
+around in it until she had found what she was looking for--a bag of
+molasses and sugar cookies.
+
+"Oh, Dinah does make such good cookies!" said Flossie, with her mouth
+half full, though, really, to be polite, I suppose, she should not
+have talked that way.
+
+"Shall we get any cookies out on the cattle ranch?" asked Nan. "If we
+don't, Flossie and Freddie will miss them."
+
+"Oh, they have cooks on ranches, same as they do in lumber camps,"
+Bert declared. "I saw a picture once of a Chinese cook on a cattle
+ranch."
+
+"Can a Chinaman cook?" asked Nan, in surprise. "I thought they could
+only iron shirts and collars."
+
+"Some Chinese are very good cooks," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "And Bert
+is right when he says that on some ranches in the West a Chinese man
+does the cooking. I don't know whether we shall find one where we are
+going or not."
+
+"Are we going to the lumber tract first, or to the ranch?" asked Bert.
+
+"To where the big trees grow," answered his father. "The tract your
+mother is going to own is near a place called Lumberville. It is
+several hundred miles north and west of Chicago. We will stop off
+there, and go on later to the ranch. That is near a place called
+Cowdon."
+
+"What funny names," laughed Bert. "Lumberville and Cowdon. You would
+think they were named after the trees and the cows."
+
+"I think they were," his father said. "Out West they take names that
+mean something, and Lumberville and Cowdon just describe the places
+they are named after."
+
+While Flossie and Freddie were looking from the window of the coach in
+which they were riding, while Bert and Nan were telling one another
+what good times they would have on the ranch and in the lumber camp,
+and while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were discussing matters about the trip,
+there came a knock on the door.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey opened it and a lady came in, saying:
+
+"I am so glad to see you! I am traveling to Chicago all alone, and I
+saw you get on as I looked from my window in the next car. I came back
+to speak to you."
+
+"Why, it's Mrs. Powendon!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey as she saw a lady
+whom she had first met at a Red Cross meeting. Mrs. Powendon lived in
+a village near Lakeport, and often came over to see Mr. and Mrs.
+Bobbsey and other friends. "I am very glad you saw us and came in to
+see us," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Do sit down! So you are going to
+Chicago?"
+
+"Yes. But what takes you away from Lakeport?"
+
+"I don't suppose you heard the news, but an old uncle of mine, whom I
+had not seen for years, died and left me a western lumber tract and a
+cattle ranch. Mr. Bobbsey and I are on our way there now to look after
+matters, and we had to take the children with us."
+
+"And I suppose they were very sorry about that," said Mrs. Powendon
+with a smile, as she looked at Nan and Bert.
+
+"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bert "Indeed we weren't sorry! We're going to have
+fine times!"
+
+Then Mrs. Powendon sat down and began talking to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey,
+while Nan and Bert looked at magazines their father had bought for
+them from the train boy.
+
+No one paid much attention to Flossie and Freddie, and it was not
+until some little time later that Mrs. Bobbsey, looking around the
+drawing room, exclaimed:
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Who?" asked her husband.
+
+"Flossie and Freddie. They aren't here!"
+
+That was very evident. There was no place in the little room for them
+to hide, and yet the children could not be seen.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, "can they have fallen off the train?"
+
+"Of course not!" answered her husband "They must just have gone
+outside in the car. I'll look."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey was about to open the door when a knock came on it, and,
+as the door swung back, the face of a colored porter looked in. The
+man wore a white jacket.
+
+"'Scuse me, sah," he said, talking just as Sam Johnson did, "but did
+you-all only want dinnah for two?"
+
+"Dinner for two? What do you mean?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Why, dey's two li'l children in de dinin' car. Dey says as how dey
+belongs back yeah, an' dey's done gone an' ordered dinnah for
+two--jest fo' der own selves--jest two! I was wonderin' ef you-all
+folks wasn't goin' to eat!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+FREDDIE, AS USUAL
+
+
+"Dinner for two! Little children!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"It is Flossie and Freddie!" cried his wife. "Where is the dining
+car?"
+
+The waiter from the dining car, who had come back to the sleeping car
+where the Bobbseys had their places, smiled as he finished telling
+about the two children.
+
+"Dey's right up forward in my dinin' car," he said to Mrs. Bobbsey.
+"An' dey is all right, too, lady! I tooked good keer ob 'em. Dey jest
+walked right in, laik dey owned de place, an' I says to 'em, what will
+dey hab?
+
+"Dey tells me dat dey done want dinnah fo' two, an' I starts to gib it
+to 'em, but de conductor says as how dey belonged to a party back
+heah, an' mebby de odder folks would want somethin' to eat, too. An',
+as anyhow, dey had bettah be tol'."
+
+"I'm hungry!" exclaimed Bert.
+
+"So'm I!" added Nan.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I must go and see about them."
+
+"We will all go," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I did not know it was so near
+lunch time. But I suppose Freddie and Flossie never forget anything so
+important as that."
+
+"Trust children to remember their meals!" said Mrs. Powendon. "I fear
+I am to blame for your two little ones running away."
+
+"Oh, no," murmured Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"How?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"By coming in here, and talking to you. Probably I left the door of
+your drawing room open. Flossie and Freddie must have slipped out that
+way."
+
+"Very likely they did," said their father. "But no great harm is done.
+We will all go to lunch now. Won't you come with us, Mrs. Powendon?"
+
+"Thank you, I will," answered the lady who had come visiting, and so
+the rest of the Bobbseys and their friend went to the dining car.
+
+There, surely enough, seated at a little table all by themselves, were
+Flossie and Freddie. The two tots looked up as their father and
+mother, with Nan and Bert and Mrs. Powendon, came into the car.
+
+"I'm going to have a piece of pie!" shouted Freddie so loudly that
+every one in the car must have heard, for nearly every one laughed.
+
+"So am I going to have pie!" echoed Flossie, and there was another
+laugh.
+
+"Well, what have you children to say for yourselves?" asked Mrs.
+Bobbsey, in the voice she used when she was going to scold just a
+little bit. "What have you to say, Freddie?"
+
+"I like it in here!" he said. "It's a nice place to eat."
+
+"And I like it, too!" added Flossie.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey tried not to laugh.
+
+"But you shouldn't have slipped away while we were talking and come in
+here all alone," went on Mother Bobbsey. "Why did you do it?"
+
+"I was hungry," said Freddie, and that seemed to be all there was to
+it.
+
+"Our cookies were all in crumbs," explained Flossie. "They wasn't a
+one left in my basket. I was hungry, too."
+
+"I presume that's as good an excuse as any," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a
+laugh. "And so we'll all sit down and have lunch."
+
+And while they were eating Flossie and Freddie told how they had
+slipped out, when their mother and father were busy talking to Mrs.
+Powendon, and while Bert and Nan were looking out of the window. They
+had been in dining cars on railroad trains before, and so they knew
+pretty nearly what to do.
+
+But when they ordered dinner for themselves, or at least told the
+smiling, black waiter to bring them something to eat, the Pullman
+conductor, who had seen the children in the sleeping coach, suspected
+that all was not right, so he sent the waiter back to tell Mrs.
+Bobbsey about Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"And you mustn't do it again," said Mrs. Bobbsey, when the story had
+been told.
+
+"No'm, we won't!" promised Freddie.
+
+"No, he won't do just this again," said Bert with a laugh to Nan. "But
+he'll do something else just as queer."
+
+And of course Freddie did.
+
+After lunch Mrs. Powendon went back to her car, and the Bobbseys took
+their seats in the drawing room which they occupied. The meal and the
+riding made Flossie and Freddie sleepy, so their mother fixed a little
+bed for them on the long seat, and soon they were dreaming away,
+perhaps of cowboys and Indians and big trees being cut down in the
+forest to make lumber for playhouses.
+
+The train rumbled on, stopping now and then at different stations,
+and, after a while, even Bert and Nan began to get tired of it, though
+they liked traveling.
+
+"How much farther do we have to go?" asked Bert, as the afternoon sun
+began to go down in the west.
+
+"Oh, quite a long way," his father answered. "We are not even in
+Chicago yet. We shall get there to-morrow morning, and stay there two
+days. Then we will go on to Lumberville. How long we shall stay there
+I do not know. But as soon as we can attend to the business and get
+matters in shape, we will go on to Cowdon."
+
+"That's the place I want to get to!" exclaimed Bert. "I want to see
+some Indians and cowboys."
+
+"There may not be any there," said his mother.
+
+"What! No cowboys on a ranch?" cried the boy.
+
+"Why, Mother!" exclaimed Nan.
+
+"I meant Indians," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Of course there'll be cowboys
+to look after the cattle, but Indians are not as plentiful as they
+once were, even out West."
+
+"I only want to see an Indian baby and get an Indian doll," put in
+Nan. "I don't like grown-up Indians. They have a lot of feathers on,
+like turkeys."
+
+"That's what I like!" Bert declared. "If I wasn't going to be a cowboy
+I'd be an Indian, I guess."
+
+Night came, and when the electric lights in the cars were turned on
+Freddie and Flossie awakened from their nap.
+
+"How do you feel?" asked his mother, as she smoothed her little boy's
+rumpled hair.
+
+"I--I guess I feel hungry!" he said, though he was still not quite
+awake.
+
+"So'm I!" added Flossie. You could, nearly always, depend on her to
+say and do about the same things Freddie did and said.
+
+"Well, this is a good time to be hungry," said Mr. Bobbsey with a
+laugh. "I just heard them say that dinner was being served in the
+dining car. We'll go up and eat again."
+
+After dinner the porter made up the funny little beds, or "berths," as
+they are called, and soon the Bobbsey twins had crawled into them and
+were asleep.
+
+It must have been about the middle of the night that Mrs. Bobbsey, who
+was sleeping with Flossie on one side of the aisle, heard a noise just
+outside her berth. It was as if something had fallen to the floor with
+a thud. She opened the curtains and looked out. Freddie and his father
+had gone to sleep in the berth just across from her, but now she saw a
+little white bundle lying on the carpeted floor of the car.
+
+"What is that? Who is it?" the mother of the twins exclaimed.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey poked his head out from between his curtains.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Anything gone wrong?" he added
+sleepily.
+
+"Look!" exclaimed his wife. "What's that?" and she pointed to the
+bundle lying on the floor.
+
+"That? Oh, that must be _Freddie_," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "As
+usual he's done something we didn't expect. He's fallen out of his car
+bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN CHICAGO
+
+
+Surely enough Freddie Bobbsey had fallen out of bed, or his "berth,"
+as beds are called in sleeping cars. The little fellow had been
+resting with his father, and on the inside, too, But he must have
+become restless in his sleep, and have crawled over Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+At any rate, when Freddie fell out he made a thud that his mother, in
+her berth across the aisle, had heard.
+
+But the carpet on the floor of the car was so soft, and Freddie was
+such a fat, chubby little fellow, and he was so sound asleep, that he
+was not at all hurt in his tumble, and he never even awakened. He just
+went on sleeping, right there on the floor.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile at his wife as he picked Freddie
+up, "you can generally depend on his doing something unusual, or
+different. Well, he's a nice little boy," he murmured softly, as he
+picked up the "fireman" and put him back in the berth.
+
+Even then Freddie did not completely wake up. But he murmured
+something in his dreams, though Mr. Bobbsey heard only a few words
+about Indians and cowboys and sugar cookies.
+
+"He's hungry even in his sleep!" said the father, with a silent laugh.
+
+The other Bobbsey twins knew nothing of what had happened until
+morning, when they were told of Freddie's little accident.
+
+"And did I really fall out of bed?" asked Freddie, himself as much
+surprised as any one.
+
+"You certainly did!" laughed his mother. "At first I was startled,
+being aroused so suddenly, but I saw that you were still sleeping and
+I knew you couldn't be hurt very much."
+
+"I didn't even feel it!" laughed Freddie. "And now I want my
+breakfast!"
+
+"Dear me! You want to eat again, after dreaming about sugar cookies?"
+cried Mr. Bobbsey, and he told his little boy what he had heard him
+say in his sleep. "Well, we had all better go to the dining car again.
+It will be our last meal there."
+
+"Our last meal!" cried Bert. "Aren't we going to eat again?"
+
+"Not on this train," his father answered. "We'll be in Chicago in time
+for dinner."
+
+Breakfast over, the Bobbseys began gathering up their different things
+to be ready to get out at Chicago when the train should reach that big
+and busy city.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when the station was reached, and the Bobbsey
+twins thought they had never been in such a noisy place, nor one in
+which there were more people.
+
+But Daddy Bobbsey had traveled to Chicago before, and he knew just
+what to do and where to go. He called an automobile, and in that the
+whole family rode to the hotel where they were to stay while they were
+in the city.
+
+Two days were to be spent in Chicago, which Mrs. Bobbsey had not
+visited for some time. She wanted to look around a little, and show
+the children the various sights. Mr. Bobbsey planned to attend to some
+business in the "Windy City," as Chicago is sometimes called.
+
+Both Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey wanted their children to see all there was
+to be seen.
+
+"Travel will broaden their minds," Mrs. Bobbsey had said to her
+husband when they had talked the matter over one night after the twins
+had gone to bed. "Just see how much they learned when we took them to
+Washington."
+
+"They not only learned something, but they brought back something--I
+mean Miss Pompret's china pieces," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Yes, traveling
+is good for children if they do not do too much of it."
+
+So when the Bobbsey twins reached the big Chicago hotel they were not
+as strange and surprised as they would have been if they had never
+been at a hotel before.
+
+"I like this better than the hotel we stayed at in Washington," said
+Nan to Bert, as they were shown to their rooms, after riding up in an
+elevator.
+
+"Yes, you can see lots farther," agreed Bert, as he glanced from one
+of the windows.
+
+"I didn't mean that," his sister said. "I mean the curtains and chairs
+and such things are ever so much nicer."
+
+"You can't eat curtains!" exclaimed Bert. "And I'm hungry. I hope they
+have good things to eat."
+
+"I think they will," his father remarked with a laugh.
+
+And when, a little later, they went down to the dining room, the
+Bobbsey twins found that it was a very good hotel, indeed, as far as
+things to eat were concerned.
+
+Though Mrs. Bobbsey was very much interested in Chicago, and though
+Mr. Bobbsey was glad to get there to look after some matters of his
+lumber business, I must admit that none of the Bobbsey twins thought a
+great deal of the big city.
+
+"'Tisn't any different from New York!" declared Bert, as he looked at
+the big buildings, the elevated roads, the street cars and the
+hurrying crowds. "I wouldn't know but what I was in New York."
+
+"Yes, in some ways it is much like New York," his mother agreed.
+
+"But there isn't any big lake in New York, such as there is here,"
+said Nan.
+
+"Well, I guess the New York Atlantic Ocean is bigger than Lake
+Michigan," returned Bert. "And the ocean has salt water in it, too,
+and Lake Michigan is fresh!"
+
+"That makes it better!" declared Nan, who decided then and there to
+"stick up" for Chicago. "If you're thirsty you can't drink the salty
+ocean water, but you could drink the lake water."
+
+"Well, maybe that's better," admitted Bert. "I didn't think of that."
+
+And when he and the other children had been taken by their father out
+to the city lake front, and had seen the bathing beach, Bert had to
+admit that, after all, Chicago was just as good as New York. But he
+would not say it was better.
+
+As for Flossie and Freddie, any place was nice to them if they had
+Bert and Nan and daddy and mother along. The smaller twins seemed to
+have fun over everything; even riding up and down in the hotel
+elevator amused them.
+
+After a day of sight-seeing about Chicago, Mrs. Bobbsey was rather
+tired, and she thought the children were, too, for she told them they
+had better go to bed early, as they would still have another day
+to-morrow to see things.
+
+"Oh, I don't want to go to bed!" exclaimed Bert. "There's a nice
+moving picture in the theater near this hotel! It's all about Indians
+and cowboys, and daddy said he'd take us after supper. Anyhow, he said
+he'd take Nan and me."
+
+"If he said so I suppose he will," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But I can't let
+Flossie and Freddie go, and I am too tired to go myself."
+
+"Oh, I want to see the Indians!" cried Freddie when he heard what was
+being talked about.
+
+"No, dear. You and Flossie stay here with me in the hotel, and I'll
+read you a story," promised his mother. She knew by his tired little
+legs and his sleepy eyes that she would not have to read more than one
+story before he and Flossie would be fast asleep.
+
+And so it proved. Mr. Bobbsey took Nan and Bert to the moving picture
+theater a few doors from the hotel, promising to bring them back
+early, so they would not lose too much sleep. Then Mrs. Bobbsey sat
+down to read to Flossie and Freddie.
+
+Just as she had expected, before she reached the end of the story two
+little heads were nodding and four sleepy eyes could hardly keep open.
+
+"Bed is the place for my tots!" said Mrs. Bobbsey softly, and soon
+Flossie and Freddie were slumbering together.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came in with Nan and Bert about an hour later, the
+pictures having been enjoyed very much.
+
+"I surely am going to be a cowboy!" declared Bert. "I can easily be
+one on the ranch you are going to own, can't I, Mother?"
+
+"We'll see," replied Mrs. Bobbsey, with a quiet smile at her husband.
+
+Then Nan and Bert went to bed and were soon asleep.
+
+"Well, I hope Freddie doesn't fall out of bed again to-night, and wake
+me up," said the children's mother.
+
+"So do I," echoed her husband. "I think we shall all rest well to-night."
+
+But trying to sleep in a big city hotel is quite different from trying
+to sleep in one's own, quiet home. There seemed to be even more noises
+than on the railroad train, where the motion of the cars, and the
+clickety-click of the wheels, appears to sing a sort of slumber song.
+So it was that in the Chicago hotel Mrs. Bobbsey did not get to sleep
+as soon as she wished.
+
+However, after a while, she did close her eyes, and then she knew
+nothing of what happened until she heard a loud whistle, something
+like that of a steam locomotive outside. She also heard some shouting,
+and then she felt some one shaking her and a voice saying:
+
+"Mother! Mother! Come and see 'em!"
+
+Quickly Mrs. Bobbsey opened her eyes, and, in the dim light that came
+from the hall, she saw Freddie standing beside her bed.
+
+"What is it?" she asked, sitting up and taking her little boy by the
+arm.
+
+"They're here! Come and see 'em!" exclaimed Freddie again. "I heard
+'em, and I saw 'em! There's a whole lot of 'em!"
+
+"What in the world is the child talking about?" said Mrs. Bobbsey, and
+then her husband awakened.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he asked sleepily. "Oh, is that you,
+Freddie?" he went on, as he saw the little Bobbsey twin. "What's the
+matter? Did you fall out of bed again?"
+
+"No Daddy. But there's a whole lot of fire engines down in the street.
+I saw 'em!"
+
+"Fire engines!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, Dick! do you suppose--"
+
+What Mrs. Bobbsey feared was that the hotel was on fire, but she did
+not want to say this in Freddie's hearing.
+
+"There's a great big engine, and it's puffing and blowing out sparks,"
+said the little fellow.
+
+"Freddie ought to know a fire engine by this time when he sees one,"
+Mr. Bobbsey said. "I'll get up and have a look. There may be a small
+fire next door. Don't get frightened."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey got up too and slipped on a bath robe then, taking
+Freddie by the hand, she went with him to the window in his room where
+he had said he had looked out and had seen the fire engine.
+
+But as Mr. Bobbsey took a look he laughed and said:
+
+"This is the time you were fooled, little fireman! That isn't a fire
+engine at all. That's some sort of engine they use for fixing the
+streets. They have to work on the streets here after dark, as there
+are too many automobiles and wagons on them in the day time. There
+isn't any fire, Freddie!"
+
+"Maybe there'll be a fire to-morrow," returned Freddie, rather
+hopefully, though of course he did not really want any one's house to
+be burned.
+
+"Well, there isn't a fire to-night--at least not around here," said
+Mr. Bobbsey. "Now we can go back to bed."
+
+Bert nor Nan nor Flossie had been awakened by the noise which roused
+Freddie. And really it had sounded like a fire engine. A gang of men
+with a big steam roller was at work in the street just below the
+little Bobbsey twins' window. And smoke and sparks were spouting from
+the boiler of the steam roller just as they often spouted from a fire
+engine.
+
+Freddie slept soundly after that little excitement, and the Bobbsey
+family did not get up very early the next morning, as they were all
+tired from their travel.
+
+"Do we go on to Lumberville to-day, Daddy?" asked Bert after breakfast
+in the hotel.
+
+"Yes, we start this evening and travel all night again," his father
+answered. "In the morning, or rather, about noon to-morrow, we ought
+to be at the lumber tract."
+
+"And shall I see 'em cut down trees?" asked Freddie.
+
+"They don't do much cutting down of trees in the summer," said Mr.
+Bobbsey. "Winter is the time for that. Still there may be some cutting
+going on, and I hope you can see it."
+
+"I'd rather see cowboys," put in Bert. "That was a dandy picture of
+cowboys lassoing wild steers last night."
+
+"I wish I could go and see that!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"Some other time, maybe," his mother promised. "I am going to take you
+all shopping now, and buy you each something."
+
+Nan's eyes shone in delight at this, for she liked, very much, to go
+shopping with her mother.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey still had some business to look after, and when he had
+left the hotel, promising to come back at lunch time, Mrs. Bobbsey
+gathered her four "chickens" as she sometimes called them, about her,
+and made ready to go shopping. No, I am wrong. She only gathered three
+"chickens." Freddie was missing.
+
+"Where can he be?" asked his mother. "He was right by that window a
+moment ago!"
+
+"Oh, I hope he hasn't fallen out!" shrieked Nan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NEARING LUMBERVILLE
+
+
+Bert Bobbsey was the first to spring to the window and look down when
+his sister said this. As the rooms Mr. Bobbsey had taken were on the
+tenth floor it would have been quite a fall for Freddie if he had
+tumbled out. But after one look Bert said:
+
+"Freddie couldn't have fallen from here. There's an iron railing all
+around the outside of the window, and even Freddie couldn't get
+through."
+
+"I wonder where he is!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm sure I saw him
+here a moment ago!"
+
+"Yes, he was here," said Nan. "I washed a speck of dirt off his chin,
+and then Flossie wanted me to wash her hands."
+
+"But I washed my own hands, I did!" exclaimed Flossie, looking at her
+pink palms.
+
+"And the soap slid all over the floor and every time I picked it up it
+slid some more; didn't it, Nan?" she asked with a laugh.
+
+"Yes," answered the older girl. "But where can Freddie be?"
+
+"That's what I'm wondering," added Mrs. Bobbsey. "We must find him."
+
+"I guess he went out into the hall," said Bert. "There's a boy in the
+rooms next door about as old as Freddie, and I saw them talking
+together yesterday."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey hurried into the hall outside their apartment in the
+hotel. Bert, Nan and Flossie followed, Flossie still laughing at the
+funny way the cake of soap had slid around the bathroom when she
+washed her hands.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey looked up and down the corridor, but she saw nothing of
+her little boy. She was hurrying toward the elevators, where the red
+light burned at night, when she met one of the chambermaids who looked
+after the rooms and made up the beds.
+
+"Are you looking for your little boy?" asked the maid, smiling
+pleasantly at Mrs. Bobbsey and the children.
+
+"Yes, I am," answered Freddie's mother. "Have you seen him?"
+
+"Yes," was the answer. "You needn't look for him, I gave him the
+money."
+
+"You gave him the money! What money?" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I
+didn't send him for any money."
+
+"Why, I saw him come out of your room and start for the elevator," the
+maid went on. "I was working across the hall. I heard your little boy
+saying that he couldn't get in without money and then he looked at me.
+He asked me if I had eleven cents and I gave it to him."
+
+"You gave my little boy Freddie eleven cents?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey
+wondering if it were all a joke. "Why did you do that?"
+
+"Because he said he wanted it to get into the moving picture place
+just down the street," the chambermaid said. "I thought you had let
+him go, and that he had forgotten the money. It's ten cents for
+children to get in afternoons, you know, and a penny for war tax. I
+gave it to him."
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "The idea of his doing that! Which
+moving picture place was it?"
+
+"I know!" broke in Bert. "It must be the one we were in yesterday
+where they had the cowboy and Indian scenes. Freddie has gone there
+again."
+
+"He did want to see an Indian," added Nan.
+
+"But would they let such a little boy in all alone?" asked Mrs.
+Bobbsey.
+
+"Oh, lots of the children get grown-ups to take them in," the
+chambermaid explained. "I've often seen 'em do it."
+
+"But I don't want Freddie going by himself or with people he doesn't
+know!" said the little boy's mother. "But it was kind of you to give
+him the money, and here is your change back," she said to the hotel
+maid. "But now we must get Freddie."
+
+"I'll get him," offered Bert. "I know just where the place is."
+
+"I wish you would," returned Mrs. Bobbsey. "Bring him right back here.
+I shall have to scold him a little."
+
+Bert went down in the elevator. The man running the big wire cage,
+which lifted people up and down instead of having them go by the
+stairs, nodded and smiled at Bert.
+
+"I took yo' little brother down awhile ago," said the elevator man,
+who was colored like Sam Johnson.
+
+"Yes, he ran away," replied Bert.
+
+"Guess you'll find him at de movies!" laughed the elevator man. "He
+had 'leven cents, an' he was talkin' 'bout Indians an' cowboys."
+
+"Yes, he's crazy about 'em," answered Bert. "We're going out West you
+know."
+
+"Is you?" asked the man, as the elevator went down. "Well, de West am
+a mighty big place. I suah hopes yo' l'il brother doan git lost in de
+big West."
+
+"We'll have to keep watch over him," returned Bert, as he got out of
+the car and hurried down the street toward the moving picture theater.
+On the way he was wondering as to the best way of getting Freddie out
+of the show. It would be dark inside, Bert knew, though the picture on
+the screen made it light at times. But it would be too dark to pick
+Freddie out of the crowd, especially as the theater was a large place
+and Bert did not know where his small brother would be sitting.
+
+"I guess I'll have to speak to the girl that sells tickets, and maybe
+she can tell me how to find Freddie," thought Bert.
+
+But when he reached the moving picture theater he had no trouble at
+all. For Freddie was there, and he was outside, and not inside at all.
+And the reason Freddie had not gone in was for the same reason that a
+number of other boys and girls were standing outside the theater.
+
+In the lobby, or the open place near the ticket window, stood a tall
+man, wearing a red shirt, a big hat with a leather band on it, and,
+around his neck, a large purple handkerchief. The man wore big boots,
+and his trousers, instead of being of cloth as were those of Bert's
+father, were made of sheepskin.
+
+"Oh, he's a cowboy!" exclaimed Bert. And so the man was. At least he
+was dressed as some cowboys dress, especially in moving pictures, and
+this man was standing in front of the theater to advertise the
+photoplay and draw a crowd.
+
+The crowd was there, and Freddie was right up in front, looking with
+open eyes and open mouth at the cowboy, who was walking back and
+forth, letting himself be looked at.
+
+"Freddie! Freddie!" called Bert, when he had worked his way close to
+his little brother. "What you doing here?"
+
+"I'm going to the show!" declared Freddie. "I want to see the wild
+cows again. And look, Bert! Here's a cowboy like those we're going to
+see a lot of when we get out West!"
+
+Freddie spoke so loudly that many in the crowd laughed, as did the
+cowboy himself. Then as the big man in the red shirt and sheepskin
+trousers happened to remember that he was there to advertise the show
+he began saying:
+
+"Step right inside, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls. See the
+big cattle round-up and the Indian raid! Step in and see the cowboys
+taming the wild horses!"
+
+"Come on in!" called Freddie to Bert. "I want to see it! I want to see
+the show! I've 'leven cents! The lady in the hotel gave it to me!"
+
+"No, you can't go in now!" said Bert firmly, as he kept hold of his
+little brother's hand. "Mother want you. She didn't like it because
+you ran away. We thought maybe you fell out the window."
+
+"But I didn't!" cried Freddie. "I came down in the levelator, and I
+want to see the show."
+
+"Not now," said Bert kindly, as he led Freddie out of the crowd.
+"Mother is going to take us all down town to buy things."
+
+"But I want to see the show!" insisted Freddie, and he was going to
+cry, Bert feared, when there appeared, out in front of the hotel, an
+Italian with a hurdy-gurdy.
+
+Freddie was always ready to look at something like this, and soon he
+was in the crowd listening to the man grind out the tunes.
+
+"I'm going to give him this penny," said Freddie, showing the coins
+the chambermaid had given him. "I'll keep the ten cents, and maybe I
+can get another penny to go to the movies. But I'll give the man this
+one."
+
+"All right," agreed Bert, glad enough to get Freddie away from the
+cowboy. And then Freddie seemed to forget all about wanting to go to
+the movies in listening to the music.
+
+By this time Mrs. Bobbsey, Nan and Flossie had come down from their
+rooms. They saw Bert and Freddie in the crowd around the hurdy-gurdy
+man.
+
+"Oh, I'm glad you have found him!" exclaimed Freddie's mother, as she
+saw her little son. "You did very wrong to run away," she added.
+
+Freddie looked sorry, for he knew he was being scolded.
+
+"I--I didn't go into the movies," he said, "and I have ten cents left.
+I gave a penny to the man," and he showed his mother the ten-cent
+piece in his chubby fist.
+
+"You must never do such a thing again, Freddie," went on Mrs. Bobbsey.
+"Now I'm going to take that ten cents away from you, and when you want
+to go to the movies you must ask me."
+
+"Will you take me to see the cowboy after we go shopping?" the little
+fellow wanted to know.
+
+"I don't believe we'll have time," Mrs. Bobbsey answered, trying not
+to smile. "We must get ready to leave for Lumberville then."
+
+"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Freddie. "I want to see the big trees.
+Maybe I'll climb one."
+
+"And that's something else you must not do!" went on his mother. "You
+must not go out in the woods nor climb trees alone."
+
+"I won't. Bert will come with me," said Freddie.
+
+Then the Bobbsey twins went shopping with their mother, and that night
+they again got aboard a sleeping car and started for Lumberville,
+which was reached the next morning.
+
+And when Flossie and Freddie and Bert and Nan opened their eyes and
+looked from the car window they saw a strange sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SAWMILL
+
+
+When Bert, who was the first of the Bobbsey twins to awaken, looked
+from the car window he had hard work to tell whether or not he was
+dreaming. For he seemed to be traveling through a scene from a moving
+picture. There were trees, trees, trees on both sides of the track.
+Nothing could be seen but trees. The railroad was cut through a dense
+forest, and at times the trees seemed so near that it appeared all
+Bert would have to do would be to stretch out his hand to touch the
+branches.
+
+Then Nan awakened, and she, too, saw the great numbers of trees on
+both sides of the train. Quickly she and Bert dressed, and, finding a
+place where a sleeping berth had been folded up and the seats made
+ready for use again, the two children took their places there and
+looked out.
+
+"What makes so many trees?" asked Nan. "Is this a camping place?"
+
+"It would be a dandy place for us Boy Scouts to camp," said Bert. "But
+I guess this must be where they get lumber from, isn't it, Daddy?" he
+asked, as his father came through the car just then, having been to
+the wash-room to shave.
+
+"Yes, this is the place of big trees and lumber," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"We are coming to Lumberville soon, and half our journey will be
+over."
+
+"Is this the West?" asked Nan.
+
+"Yes, this is the West," her father told her, "though it is not as far
+West as we are going. The cattle ranch is still farther on. It will
+take us some time to get there, but we are going to stay in
+Lumberville nearly a week."
+
+By this time Flossie and Freddie had awakened and their mother had
+helped them to dress. The two smaller Bobbsey twins came to sit with
+Nan and Bert and look out of the windows.
+
+"My, what a lot of trees!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"You couldn't climb all them, could you?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Not all at once, but I could climb one at a time," Freddie answered,
+as the train puffed on through the forest. "Can't we stop in the
+woods?" he wanted to know. "These are terrible big woods."
+
+"Yes, this is a large forest," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It is one of the
+largest in the United States, and some of my lumber and boards come
+from here. But we can't stop here. If we did we would have no nice hot
+breakfast."
+
+"Oh, then I don't want to stop!" exclaimed Freddie. "I'm hungry."
+
+"We'll soon have breakfast," said his mother. "It is wonderful among
+the trees," she said. "And to think that I will really own a tract of
+woodland like this!"
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Bobbsey. "Your lumber tract will be much like this,
+except there will be places where trees have been cut down to be made
+into boards and planks. I suppose there are such places in these
+woods, but we cannot see them from the train."
+
+Once, just before they went into the dining car to breakfast, the
+Bobbsey twins saw in a clearing a big wagon loaded with logs and drawn
+by eight horses.
+
+"Oh, look!" cried Bert, pointing to it. "Will you have teams like
+that, Mother?"
+
+"Well, I suppose so," she answered. "I don't really know what is on my
+lumber tract, as yet."
+
+"We'll soon see," said Mr. Bobbsey, looking at his watch. "We'll be at
+Lumberville in about two hours."
+
+They went to breakfast while the train was still puffing along through
+the woods. The scenery was quite different from that on the first part
+of their journey, where they had scarcely ever been out of sight of
+houses and cities, with only now and then a patch of wooded land. Here
+there were hardly any houses to be seen--only trees, trees, and more
+trees.
+
+Freddie was not the only one of the Bobbsey twins who was hungry, for
+Flossie, Nan, and Bert also had good appetites. But, to tell you the
+truth, the children were more interested in looking out of the window
+than in eating, though they did not miss much that was on the table.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were glad they had brought the twins along, for
+they felt the trip would do them good and let the children see things
+they never would have seen but for the travel.
+
+After they had gone back into the sleeping car, where the berths had
+all been folded up against the roof by this time, Mr. Bobbsey said
+they had better begin getting their baggage ready.
+
+"The train does not stop long at Lumberville, and we must hurry out,"
+he said. "Lumberville isn't a big, city station, like the one in
+Chicago."
+
+"Are there any moving pictures there?" Freddie wanted to know.
+
+"No, not a one," his mother answered. "But there will be plenty of
+other things for you to see."
+
+Soon after the satchels, baskets, and bundles belonging to the Bobbsey
+twins had been gathered together by the car porter and put at the end,
+near the door, the train began to run more slowly.
+
+"Is this Lumberville?" asked Bert, who had noticed that the trees were
+not quite so thick now.
+
+"Lumberville--Lumber-ville!" called the porter, smiling back at the
+Bobbsey twins as he stood near their pile of baggage. "All out for
+Lumberville."
+
+"That's us!" cried Bert, with a laugh.
+
+Slowly the train came to a stop. Bert and Nan, standing near the
+window from which they had been looking all the morning, saw a small,
+rough building flash into view. Near it were flatcars piled high with
+lumber and logs. But there was no sign of a city or a town.
+
+"Come on!" called Daddy Bobbsey to his family.
+
+The porter carried out their baggage, and the children jumped down the
+car steps. They found themselves on the platform of a small station--a
+station that looked more like a shanty in the woods than a place for
+railroad trains to stop.
+
+"Good-bye! An' good luck to yo' all!" called the smiling porter, as he
+climbed up the car steps, carrying the rubber-covered stool he had put
+down for the passengers to alight on.
+
+Then the train puffed away and the Bobbsey twins, with their father
+and mother, and with their baggage around them, stood on the platform
+of the station which, as Bert could see, was marked "Lumberville."
+
+"But where's the place? Where's the town? Where's the men cutting down
+trees and all that?" Bert asked. He was beginning to feel
+disappointed.
+
+"Oh, this is only where the trains stop," his father said.
+"Lumberville isn't a city, or even a town. It's just a settlement for
+the lumber-men. Our timber tract is about seven miles from here."
+
+"Have we got to walk?" asked Nan, as she looked down at her dainty,
+new shoes which her mother had bought in Chicago.
+
+"No, we don't have to walk. I think this is our automobile coming
+now," replied Mr. Bobbsey, and he smiled at his wife.
+
+Bert and Nan heard a rumbling sound back of the rough, wooden railroad
+station. Flossie and Freddie were too busy watching and listening to
+some blue jays in a tree overhead to pay attention to much else. But
+as the rumbling sound grew louder Bert saw a big wagon approaching,
+drawn by two powerful horses.
+
+"Where's the automobile?" asked the boy, with a look at his father.
+
+"I was just joking," said Mr. Bobbsey. "The roads here are too rough
+for autos. Lumber wagons are about all that can get through."
+
+"Are we going in that wagon?" Nan demanded.
+
+Before her father could answer the man driving the big horses called
+to them to stop, and when they did he spoke to Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Are you the folks I'm expected to take out to the Watson timber
+tract?" the driver asked.
+
+"Well, we are the Bobbseys," said Bert's father.
+
+"Then you're the folks I want!" was the good-natured answer. "Just
+pile in and make yourselves comfortable. I'll get your baggage in."
+
+"I'd better help you," said Mr. Bobbsey. "There's quite a lot of it."
+
+"Oh, we're going to have a ride!" cried Freddie as he ran over to the
+lumber wagon, followed by Flossie, "This is better than an
+automobile."
+
+"Well, it's more sure, over the roads we've got to travel," said the
+driver, who was carrying two valises while Mr. Bobbsey took two more
+to put in the wagon.
+
+"Pile in!" invited the driver again, and when the Bobbsey twins
+reached the wagon they found it was half-filled with pine tree
+branches, over which horse blankets had been spread.
+
+"Why, it's as soft as a sleeping car!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, how nice
+this is!" and she sank down with a sigh of contentment.
+
+Bert helped Flossie and Freddie in, and Mr. Bobbsey helped in his
+wife.
+
+"Got everything?" asked the driver, as he climbed up on his seat,
+which was made of two boards with springs between them.
+
+"Yes, we're all ready," Mr. Bobbsey answered.
+
+"Gid-dap!" called the man to his big, strong horses, and they started
+off.
+
+The Bobbsey twins soon knew why it was that no automobile could have
+traveled over the roads through the woods to the lumber camp. There
+were so many holes that the wagon lurched about as the boat had when
+the Bobbseys were on the deep blue sea.
+
+But rough as was the road, and tossed about as they were in the wagon,
+the Bobbsey twins were not hurt a bit, as the blankets spread over the
+spicy-smelling pine branches made a couch almost as soft as a feather
+bed for them.
+
+Through the same sort of forest they had seen from the car windows the
+children rode. The day was a sunny, pleasant one, and it was just warm
+enough to be comfortable.
+
+"Are we going to stop at a hotel?" asked Nan, when they had ridden for
+what seemed to her a long time.
+
+"No," her father answered. "They don't have hotels off here in the
+woods. We are going to stay in the lumber camp."
+
+"And camp out?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes, it will be like camping out."
+
+"Oh, that's dandy!" exclaimed the boy.
+
+And as he said that there sounded, as if from the woods just ahead of
+them, a loud shrieking sound. Flossie at once turned to her mother,
+and clasped Mrs. Bobbsey by the arm. Freddie turned to his father, and
+looked up at him.
+
+"What was that?" asked Nan.
+
+"Sounded like a wild animal," replied Bert, in a hushed voice.
+
+"That's the sawmill!" said the driver of the lumber wagon, with a
+laugh. "We're coming to your place," he added. "That's the sawmill you
+heard. The saw must have struck a hard knot in a log and it let out a
+screech. There's the sawmill!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE BIG TREE
+
+
+The Bobbsey twins saw, just ahead of them, a stream of water sparkling
+in the sun. They also saw a place that had been cleared of trees,
+which had been cut down, making a vacant place in the woods. And in
+this clearing, or vacant place, near the small river, were a number of
+rough-looking buildings. It was from one of these "shacks," as Bert
+afterward called them, that the screeching sound came. And puffs of
+steam coming from a pipe sticking out of the roof of this shack showed
+that there was an engine there.
+
+"Is this the lumber camp that I am to own?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as she
+looked ahead and saw the buildings, the piles of logs, and the stacks
+of boards.
+
+"This is the place," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It is bigger than I thought.
+We will have to get some one to look after it for you, Mother. You and
+I can't be running out here to see that the men cut down the trees
+right, and make them into boards. Yes, we shall have to get some one
+to help us."
+
+"Couldn't I help?" asked Bert. "Maybe I'd rather be a lumberman than a
+cowboy."
+
+"You'll have to grow some before you'll be of much use around a lumber
+camp," said the driver of the wagon. "It's hard work chopping down
+trees."
+
+"Do you ever have a fire here?" Freddie demanded suddenly.
+
+"Sometimes, my little man," the driver answered. "Why? Do you like to
+see fires? I don't, myself, for they burn up a lot of good lumber."
+
+"I don't like to see fires, but I like fire engines," said Freddie.
+"And I have a fire engine at home, and it squirts real water. But I
+couldn't bring it with me 'cause it was too heavy to carry. But if
+there was a fire here maybe I could watch the engines--I mean the big
+ones."
+
+"We don't have fire engines in lumber camps," said the driver, whose
+name was Harvey Hallock. "When it starts to burn we just have to let
+her burn. But I guess--"
+
+However, no one heard what he said, for at that moment the saw must
+have come to another hard knot in a log, for there was that same loud
+screeching sound like a wild animal yelling.
+
+Nan covered her ears with her hands, but Bert and Freddie and Flossie
+seemed to like the noise.
+
+"Mercy me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, "I hope that doesn't happen very
+often."
+
+"Well, I might as well tell you it does," said Mr. Hallock. "We keep
+the sawmill going all day, but of course we shut down at night. It
+won't keep you awake, anyhow."
+
+"That's good," said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a laugh. "I don't believe I'd
+want to own a lumber saw if it kept me awake with a noise like that."
+
+Certainly this sawmill in the midst of the big lumber tract was very
+different from the small one in Mr. Bobbsey's place at Lakeport. The
+children often watched the men sawing up boards at the yard their
+father owned, but the work there was nothing like this.
+
+The saw cut through the hard knot and the screeching sound came to an
+end, at least for a time.
+
+"This is where you folks are going to stay," said Mr. Hallock, as he
+stopped his team in front of a building, at the sight of which Bert
+and Nan gave shouts of joy.
+
+"It's a regular log cabin! Oh, it's a regular log cabin!" cried Bert,
+as he saw where they were to live during their stay in the lumber
+camp.
+
+"So this is to be our cabin, is it?" said Mr. Bobbsey as he got down
+and helped his wife, while the driver lifted out the children and then
+the baggage.
+
+"Yes, the boys fixed this up for you," answered Mr. Hallock. "We hope
+you'll like it."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she looked inside the log
+cabin, for it really was that, the sides being made of logs piled one
+on the other, the ends being notched so they would not slip out.
+
+"Isn't it cute!" exclaimed Nan, as she followed her mother inside the
+cabin. "It has tables and chairs and a cupboard and everything!"
+
+"And it's all made of wood!" cried Bert. "Say, the Boy Scouts would
+like this all right."
+
+"I believe they would," agreed his father. "As for everything being
+made of wood, it generally is in a lumber camp. Now we must get
+settled. Where can I find the foreman?" he asked of the driver of the
+wagon who had brought the Bobbseys over from the railroad station.
+
+"He's outside somewhere in the woods," was the answer. "I'll find him
+and tell him you're here. I'll send the cook over to see if he can get
+you anything to eat. Are you hungry?" he asked the children.
+
+"I am!" admitted Bert.
+
+"And so am I!"
+
+"And I!" echoed Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"Well, that's the way to be!" said Mr. Hallock. "Children wouldn't be
+children unless they were hungry. We've got plenty to eat here, such
+as it is. Not much pie and cake, perhaps, but other things."
+
+"We don't want pie and cake when we're camping in the woods," declared
+Bert. "We didn't have it at Blueberry Island--that is, not every day."
+
+"All right! I guess you'll get along!" laughed the driver, as he went
+off through the trees to find the cook and some of the men of the
+lumber camp.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were looking about the log cabin that was to be
+their home for about a week, and the children were playing about
+outside, watching some squirrels and chipmunks that were frisking
+about in the trees, when a voice called:
+
+"Well, I see you got here all right!"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey and his wife, who were putting some of their baggage in
+one of the inner rooms, came to the outside door. They saw a big
+bearded man, wearing heavy boots, with his trousers tucked in the tops
+of them, smiling at them.
+
+"Are you the foreman?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"No, I'm Tom Jackson, his helper," was the answer. "Mr. Dayton will be
+over in a few minutes. He's seeing about some big trees that are being
+cut down."
+
+"I don't want to take him away from his work," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Oh, he's coming over, anyhow, to see how you stood the trip out to
+this rough place," said Mr. Jackson. "Of course it isn't as rough as
+it is in the winter time, when we do most of our tree-cutting, but
+it's rough enough, even now."
+
+"We are used to roughing it," said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile. "We
+like it, and the children think there is no better fun than camping
+out."
+
+"Well, that's what this is--camping out," said the foreman's helper.
+"But here comes the cook, and he looks as if he had something for you
+to eat."
+
+A little bald-headed man, with a white apron draped in front of him,
+was coming along a woodland path with some covered dishes on a tray
+held on one hand, while in the other he carried what seemed to be a
+coffee pot.
+
+"Just brought you folks some sandwiches and a pot of tea," he said, as
+he set the things down on the table in the log cabin. "This is tea
+even if it's made in the coffee pot. But I washed it out good first,"
+he said to Mrs. Bobbsey. "Mostly the lumber men like coffee, though in
+winter they're fond of a hot cup of tea. I give 'em both, and
+generally I have a teapot, but I can't find it just this minute. I
+brought some fried cakes for the children, too."
+
+"I thought he said there wasn't any cake in a lumber camp," said Bert,
+looking out toward the driver who was going off with his team.
+
+"Well, generally I don't get much time to make fried cakes," said the
+little bald-headed man who acted as cook. "But I made some specially
+for you youngsters to-day," and he lifted off the cover of one dish
+and showed some crisp, brown doughnuts, which he called "fried cakes."
+
+"Oh, I want some!" cried Freddie.
+
+"So do I!" echoed Flossie.
+
+"There's enough for all of you," remarked the cook. "Now, then, Mrs.
+Bobbsey, you'll have a cup of tea, I know," and he poured out a hot,
+steaming cup that smelled very good.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey ate some of the sandwiches and had a cup of tea, and,
+after they had taken the edge off their hunger on the doughnuts, the
+children also ate some of the bread and meat.
+
+While their father and mother were talking to the assistant foreman
+and the cook, who said his name was Jed Prenty, the four Bobbsey twins
+wandered outside the log cabin. It stood on the edge of a clearing in
+the forest, and not far away there were other log buildings, most of
+them larger than the one where the Bobbseys were to live. These other
+buildings were where the lumbermen slept and ate, and one was where
+Jed Prenty did his cooking. In another building, farther off, the
+horses were stabled.
+
+"Let's take a walk in the woods," said Bert to Nan. "I want to see 'em
+cut down trees."
+
+"So do I," she said. "We can take Flossie and Freddie with us. We
+won't go far."
+
+"Are there any cowboys here?" Freddie wanted to know.
+
+"Not any, I guess," laughed Bert. "We'll find them when we get to
+Cowdon, where mother's ranch is."
+
+Before they knew it the Bobbsey twins had walked quite a little way
+along a path into the woods. They heard the sound of axes being used
+to chop down trees, and they were eager to see the lumbermen at work.
+
+"Oh, look at this big tree!" called Freddie to Bert. "Some one cut it
+almost down!" He and Flossie had, for the moment, wandered away from
+Bert and Nan, though they were still within sight. At Freddie's call
+Bert looked up and toward his small brother.
+
+Bert saw the two small Bobbsey twins standing beside a big tree which,
+as Freddie had said, was partly cut down. Just then came a puff of
+wind. The big tree slowly swayed and began to fall over. And Flossie
+and Freddie were standing near it, right where it would crash down on
+them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BILL DAYTON
+
+
+"Look out there! Look out!"
+
+Bert and Nan Bobbsey, standing near a big stump, heard some one shout
+this to Flossie and Freddie as the two small Bobbsey twins looked up
+at the great tree which was slowly falling toward them. And then Bert
+and Nan added their voices to the shout which came from they knew not
+whom.
+
+"Oh, Flossie! Run! Run!" cried Nan.
+
+"Come here, Freddie! Come here!" yelled Bert.
+
+The two small children did not really know they were in danger. There
+was so much to see in the woods, and they were so interested in
+watching the big tree fall, that they did not know it might fall right
+on them and crush them.
+
+"Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?" sobbed Nan, for she was
+crying now, for fear her little brother and sister would be hurt.
+
+"I'll get 'em!" exclaimed Bert.
+
+He started to run toward Flossie and Freddie, but he never could have
+reached them in time to snatch them out of the way of the falling
+tree.
+
+However, there was some one else in the forest who knew just what to
+do and when to do it. There was another cry from some unseen man.
+
+"Stand still! Don't move!" he shouted.
+
+Then there was a crackling in the underbrush, and some one rushed out
+at Flossie and Freddie, who were standing under the tree looking up at
+the tottering trunk which was slowly falling toward them.
+
+If the two little children had been alone in the woods they might have
+thought that the crackling and crashing in the underbrush was made by
+a bear breaking his way toward them. But they were not thinking of
+bears, just then.
+
+In another instant Bert and Nan saw a man, dressed as were nearly all
+the "lumberjacks," spring down a little hill and rush at Flossie and
+Freddie. As for the two small Bobbsey twins themselves, they had no
+time to see anything very clearly. The first they knew they were
+caught up in the man's arms, Freddie on one side and Flossie on the
+other. That big, strong lumberman just tucked Freddie under his left
+arm and Flossie under his right and then he gave a jump and a leap
+that carried them all out of danger.
+
+And only just in time, too! For no sooner had the lumberman picked up
+the two children and leaped off the path with them into a little
+cleared space than down crashed the big tree!
+
+It made a sound like the boom of a big gun, or like the pounding of
+the giant waves in a storm at the seashore, where once the Bobbsey
+twins had spent a vacation.
+
+Down crashed the big tree, breaking off smaller trees and bushes that
+were in its way. Down it fell, raising a big cloud of dust, and
+Flossie and Freddie, still held in the arms of the big man, saw it
+fall. But they were far enough away to escape getting hurt, though
+some pieces of bark and a shower of leaves scattered over them. The
+lumbermen had snatched them out of danger just in time.
+
+"Oh! Oh! They're all right! They're saved!" gasped Nan, no longer
+crying now that she saw Flossie and Freddie were not hurt.
+
+"Whew! That was pretty near a bad accident," said Bert, who had
+stopped running toward his brother and sister when he saw that the
+lumberman was going to get them.
+
+As for the two little children themselves, they were so surprised at
+first that they did not know what to think. One moment they had been
+looking up at a big tree, wondering why it was toppling over toward
+them as they had sometimes seen their tall towers of building blocks
+fall. The next instant they had heard somebody rushing toward them out
+of the woods, they had felt themselves caught up in strong arms, and
+now they were being set down at a safe distance away from the fallen
+tree by a big man.
+
+Flossie and Freddie looked at the big trunk which had crashed down.
+Then they saw Bert and Nan coming toward them. Next they looked up at
+the big lumberman.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Freddie.
+
+"That's just what I was going to ask you," replied the big man, with a
+laugh. "I think I can guess, though. You are the Bobbsey twins, aren't
+you? That is you're half of them, and the other half is over there,"
+and he pointed to Bert and Nan who were walking toward Flossie and
+Freddie.
+
+"Yes, we're the Bobbsey twins," answered Freddie. "We've come to the
+lumber camp. My mother--she owns it."
+
+"So I've heard," the man said. "Well, if I were you I wouldn't go off
+by myself among the trees again. You never can tell when one is going
+to fall down. The man who cut this one should have stayed and finished
+it, and not have left it to fall with the first puff of wind. I must
+speak to him about it. And now I had better take you to your father
+and mother. Where are they?"
+
+"We'll take them back, thank you," said Nan, who, with Bert, came up
+just then.
+
+"Yes, we want to thank you a lot for getting them out of the way of
+the falling tree," went on Bert.
+
+"It was the only way to save them," replied the lumberman. "I couldn't
+make them understand they must step back out of danger, so I had to
+rush to them and grab them. I'm afraid I did it pretty roughly, but I
+didn't mean to."
+
+"You pinched me a little," said Flossie, speaking for the first time.
+"But I don't care. I wouldn't want that tree to hit me."
+
+"I should say not!" exclaimed the lumberman. "We don't want the
+Bobbsey twins to get hurt."
+
+"How'd you know our names are Bobbsey?" asked Freddie. "Are you a
+policeman? If you are, where's your brass buttons?"
+
+"No, I'm not a policeman," answered the lumberman. "I suppose, in the
+city where you came from, all the policemen know you. But I guessed
+who you were because I sent a man to the depot to-day to meet the
+Bobbsey family, and you must belong to it."
+
+"We do," explained Bert. "Our father and mother are back in the
+camp--at the log cabin, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know where it is very well," said the man, with a smile. "And,
+just to make sure you children won't go near any other trees that are
+ready to fall, I'll go back with you. I want to see Mr. and Mrs.
+Bobbsey, anyhow."
+
+"Do you work here?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes, I think you could call it that," answered the man, with a smile.
+
+He took Flossie and Freddie by the hands, and they walked along with
+him, while Bert and Nan followed. On the way back to the camp, or
+place where the log cabins and other shacks were built, they met a man
+coming along with an axe on his shoulder.
+
+"That big tree fell down," said the man who had saved the Bobbsey
+twins. "After this don't go away and leave a trunk nearly chopped
+through. These children might have been hurt."
+
+"I'm sorry," said the man with the axe. "I won't do it again. But,
+just as I was going to finish chopping it down, one of the boys needed
+help with his team, and I ran to him. I forgot all about the big
+tree."
+
+"Well, don't forget again," said the man who had saved Flossie and
+Freddie.
+
+As the Bobbseys walked along with their new friend they saw their
+father and mother coming toward them.
+
+"Bert, Nan, where have you been?" asked their mother.
+
+"Off in the woods," Bert answered.
+
+"And we saw a big tree fall down and it 'most falled on us!" added
+Flossie.
+
+"But he pulled us out from under it! Didn't you?" went on Freddie, and
+he looked up at the big man in the big boots, who wore a red shirt
+like the other lumbermen.
+
+"What's that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "Were you children near a falling
+tree?"
+
+"That's what they were--too near for comfort," said the man as he let
+go of the hands of Flossie and Freddie, so the small Bobbsey twins
+might run to their mother. "It was careless of one of the men to leave
+a tree half chopped through. But no harm is done. I managed to get the
+kiddies out of the way in time."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey must have guessed how it happened, for he shook hands
+heartily with the lumberman.
+
+"I can't thank you enough," said the children's father. "You saved
+Flossie and Freddie from being hurt, if not killed! Do you work here?"
+
+"I'm the foreman," answered the man quietly.
+
+"Oh, we have been looking for you," said Bert's mother. "I am Mrs.
+Bobbsey."
+
+"That's what I guessed, lady," answered the man. "I am glad to meet
+you. I've been expecting you."
+
+"So you are the foreman," said Mr. Bobbsey slowly. "May I ask your
+name?"
+
+The man seemed to wait a few seconds before answering. Then he looked
+away over the tops of the trees and said:
+
+"Bill Dayton."
+
+And his voice sounded rather strange, Mrs. Bobbsey thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE TRAIN CRASH
+
+
+"Well, Mr. Dayton," said Mr. Bobbsey, after a moment's pause, "as I
+said before, I do not know how to thank you for what you did to save
+Flossie and Freddie. I hope, some day, I may be able to do you as
+great a service as you did me."
+
+And the time was nearer than Mr. Bobbsey supposed when he could do a
+kindness to the lumber foreman.
+
+They all walked back to the log cabin near the other buildings, all of
+which made what was called the "lumber camp." The story was told of
+the falling tree, and how nearly Flossie and Freddie had been caught
+under it.
+
+"That foreman of ours sure is quick on his feet!" said Harvey Hallock,
+the driver who had brought the Bobbseys from the station. Mr. Hallock
+was speaking to Mr. Bobbsey, outside the log cabin. "Yes, Bill Dayton
+is sure a quick man," went on the driver.
+
+"Has he been foreman here long?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"No, not very long," was the answer. "He came here when your wife's
+uncle owned the tract, just before the uncle died. But we don't know
+much about Bill Dayton. He's a quiet man, and he doesn't talk much."
+
+"I thought there was something queer about him," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"But I shall always be his friend, for he saved my two children."
+
+The Bobbsey twins thought they never had eaten such a jolly meal as
+the one served a little later in the log cabin. Even though it was in
+the midst of a great forest and in a lumber camp, the food was very
+good. The little bald-headed cook seemed to know almost as much as did
+black Dinah about making things taste good.
+
+"The children have good appetites up here," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he
+filled Bert's plate for the second time.
+
+"I want some, too!" called Freddie. "I'm hungry like a bear!"
+
+"But you mustn't eat like a bear!" said his mother, laughing. "You
+must wait your turn," and she served Flossie first, for that little
+"fairy" was as hungry as the others.
+
+"What funny little beds!" exclaimed Nan, when she saw where they were
+to sleep in the log cabin.
+
+"They're almost like the berths in the sleeping car," said Bert.
+
+"They are called 'bunks,'" his father told him. "Lumbermen move about
+so, from camp to camp, that they could not take regular beds with
+them. So they build bunks against the wall, spreading their blankets
+over pine or, hemlock boughs, as the driver did in the wagon we rode
+over in from the station."
+
+But the bunks in the log cabin had mattresses stuffed with straw, and
+though they were not like the beds in the Pullman car, nor like those
+in the Bobbsey home, all the children slept well.
+
+They did not awaken all night, nor did Freddie fall out of bed, as
+sometimes happened.
+
+"I never slept so well in all my life!" exclaimed Mother Bobbsey, when
+she was getting ready for breakfast the next morning. "The sweet air
+of the lumber camp seems to agree with all of us."
+
+Bert and Nan, as well as Flossie and Freddie, also felt fine, and they
+were ready for a day of fun. They had it, too, for there were so many
+things to do in the big tract of trees their mother now owned that the
+children did not know what to start first.
+
+Of course Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had business to look after--the
+business of taking over the lumber camp, since Mrs. Bobbsey was now
+the owner. But she made no changes. She said she wanted Bill Dayton
+still to act as foreman, and she wished to keep the same men he had
+hired from the first, as he said they were all good workers.
+
+But while their father and mother were in the office of the lumber
+camp, looking over books and papers, Bert and Nan and Flossie and
+Freddie roamed about. They did not go alone, as that would not have
+been safe. Harvey Hallock, the good-natured driver of the wagon, went
+with them, and foreman Bill Dayton told him to be especially careful
+not to let Flossie and Freddie stray away.
+
+"I guess he thinks I'll get lost," said Freddie, when the little
+"fireman" heard this order given to the driver.
+
+"Do you often get lost?" asked Harvey Hallock.
+
+"Oh, lots of times!" exclaimed Freddie. "I can get lost as easy as
+anything! But I always get found again!"
+
+"Well, that's good!" laughed the driver.
+
+He took the children to the sawmill, and, at a safe distance from the
+big saw, they watched to see how logs were turned into boards, planks,
+and beams.
+
+They saw the rumbling wagons drive up, loaded with logs that were
+fastened on with chains so they would not roll off. The men, with big
+hooks fastened on handles of wood; turned the logs over, and slid them
+this way and that until they could be shoved up to the saw.
+
+The logs were put on what was called a "carriage," to be sawed. This
+carriage moved slowly along on a little track, and the Bobbsey twins
+were allowed to ride on the end of the log farthest from the saw. When
+the end came too close to the big, whirring teeth that ripped through
+the hard knots with such a screeching sound, Bert and Nan and Flossie
+and Freddie were lifted off by the driver.
+
+The children saw the place where the jolly, bald-headed cook made the
+meals ready for the hungry men. There was a big stove, and on it a pot
+of soup was cooking, and when Jed Prenty opened the oven door a most
+delicious smell came out.
+
+"What's that?" asked Bert.
+
+"Baked beans," the cook answered. "They're 'most done, too! Want
+some?"
+
+"Oh, I do!" cried Freddie. "And I want a fried cake, too!"
+
+"So do I!" echoed Flossie.
+
+"Well, you shall have some," answered the good-natured cook. So he
+gave the children a little lunch on one end of the big, long table
+where the lumbermen would soon crowd in to dinner.
+
+The Bobbsey twins had no fear of "spoiling their appetites" by eating
+thus before their regular lunch was ready. Walking about in the woods
+seemed to make them hungry all the while.
+
+As the days passed Mrs. Bobbsey found she would have to stay in
+Lumberville longer than she had at first thought. There was much
+business to be done in taking over the property her uncle had left
+her.
+
+"The longer we stay the better I like it!" said Nan to Bert. "There
+are so many birds here, and squirrels and chipmunks. And the squirrels
+are so tame that they come right up to me."
+
+"Yes, they are nice," said Bert. "But I want to get out West on the
+ranch, and see the cowboys and the Indians."
+
+"I want to be an Indian, too!" exclaimed Freddie, who did not quite
+catch what Bert said.
+
+"What else do you want to be?" laughed the older brother. "First
+you're going to be a fireman, and now you want to be an Indian!"
+
+"Couldn't I be both?" Freddie wanted to know.
+
+"Hardly," said Nan, with a laugh. "You'd better just stay what you
+are--Freddie Bobbsey!"
+
+Day after day the twins were taken around the woods by the driver or
+some of the lumbermen who were not busy. They saw big trees cut down,
+but were careful not to get in the way of the great, swaying trunks.
+They played in the piles of sawdust, jumping off powdery wood.
+
+"This is as nice as Blueberry Island!" cried Nan one day, when they
+were all playing on the sawdust heap.
+
+"Yes, and we're having as much fun as we did in Washington, where we
+found Miss Pompret's china," added Bert. "I wonder if we'll discover
+any mystery on this trip."
+
+"I don't believe so," returned Nan.
+
+However, the Bobbsey twins were to help in solving something which you
+will read about before this book is finished.
+
+But all things have an end, even the happy days in the lumber camp,
+and one morning, after the little bald-headed cook had served
+breakfast in the log cabin, Mr. Bobbsey said to the children:
+
+"Well, we are going to travel on."
+
+"Where are we going?" asked Bert.
+
+"To Cowdon; to the cattle ranch," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "I have
+settled all the business here, and now we must go farther out West."
+
+"I'll be sorry to see you go," said the foreman, Bill Dayton, when
+told that the Bobbseys were going to leave. "I've enjoyed the children
+very much."
+
+"Did you ever have any of your own?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"No--never did," was the answer. "I'm not much of a family man. Used
+to be, when I was a boy and lived at home," he went on, "But that's a
+good many years ago."
+
+"Haven't you any family--any relatives?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, for she
+thought the foreman spoke as if he were very lonesome.
+
+"Well, yes, I've got some folks," answered Bill Dayton slowly. "I've
+got a brother somewhere out West. He's a cowboy, I believe. Haven't
+seen him for some years."
+
+"Are your father and mother dead?" asked Mr. Bobbsey gently.
+
+"My mother is," was the answer. "She died when my brother and I were
+boys. As for my father--well, I don't talk much about him," and the
+foreman turned away as if that ended it.
+
+"Why doesn't he want to talk about his father?" asked Bert of Mr.
+Bobbsey a little later, when they were packing the valises.
+
+"I don't know," was the answer. "Perhaps he and his father quarreled,
+or something like that. We had better not ask too many questions. Bill
+Dayton is a queer man."
+
+Bert thought so himself, but he did as his father had suggested, and
+did not ask the foreman any more questions.
+
+The packing was soon finished, and then the Bobbsey twins said
+good-bye to their friends in the lumber camp. The bald-headed cook gave
+them a bag of "fried cakes" to take with them. They were to ride to
+the station in the same lumber wagon that had brought them to the
+camp, and Harvey Hallock was to drive them.
+
+"Good-bye!" said Bill Dayton to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, after he had
+talked to the Bobbsey twins. "If you stop off here on your way home
+from your ranch, we'll all be glad to see you."
+
+"Perhaps we may stop off," Mrs. Bobbsey answered. "Now that I own a
+lumber tract I must look after it, though I am going to leave the
+management of it to you."
+
+"I'll do my best with it," promised the foreman. "And if you should
+happen to meet my brother out among the cowboys tell him I was asking
+for him. I don't s'pose you will meet him, but you might."
+
+And then the Bobbsey twins started off on another part of their trip
+to the great West. They did not have long to wait for the train in the
+Lumberville station, and, as they got aboard and began their travels
+once more, they could see Harvey Hallock waving to them from his
+wagon.
+
+"And one of the horses shook his head good-bye to me!" exclaimed
+Flossie, who pressed her chubby nose against the window to catch the
+last view of the lumber team.
+
+"I hope we have as good a time on the cattle ranch as we had in the
+lumber camp," said Nan, as she and the other children settled down for
+the long ride.
+
+"We'll have more fun!" declared Bert. "We can ride ponies out on the
+ranch!"
+
+"Oh, may we?" asked Nan with shining eyes, turning to her mother.
+
+"I guess so," was the answer.
+
+"I want a pony, too!" cried Freddie. "If Bert and Nan ride pony-back
+Flossie and I want to ride, too."
+
+"We'll ride you in a little cart," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh.
+"That will be safer--you won't fall so easily."
+
+They were to ride all that day, all night, and part of the next day
+before they would reach the cattle ranch which Mrs. Bobbsey's uncle
+had left her. The railroad trip was enjoyed by the Bobbseys, but the
+children were eager to get to the new place they were going to visit.
+Bert wanted to see the cowboys and the Indians, Nan wanted to ride a
+pony and get an Indian doll, and as for Flossie and Freddie, they just
+wanted to have a good time in any way possible.
+
+Supper was served on the train, and then came the making up of the
+berths in the sleeping car. This was nothing new to the Bobbseys now,
+and soon they were all in bed.
+
+It was dark and about the middle of the night when all in the sleeping
+car were suddenly awakened by a loud crash. The train stopped with a
+jerk, there was a shrieking of whistles, and then loud shouts.
+
+"What is it?" called Mrs. Bobbsey from her berth.
+
+"Probably there has been a wreck," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he quickly got
+out of his berth and into the aisle. "But no one here seems to be
+hurt, though I think the car is off the track."
+
+Flossie and Freddie and Bert and Nan stuck their heads out between the
+curtains hanging in front of their berths. They wondered what had
+happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AT THE RANCH
+
+
+After the first crash in the night, and the rattling and bumping of
+the sleeping car in which they were riding, the Bobbsey twins heard
+nothing more that was exciting except the whistling of the locomotive
+and the shouting of men outside the train.
+
+But though the sleeping car no longer bumped unevenly over the wooden
+ties of the road bed, and though it had come to a stop, the people in
+it were all very much excited. Men and women quickly dressed, and came
+out in the aisle where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were now standing.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Are we off the track?"
+
+These and many other questions were being asked by every one it
+seemed.
+
+"I was dreamin' that I fell out of bed and I got a big bump!" said
+Freddie Bobbsey, and, hearing that, many of the passengers laughed.
+
+This seemed to make them feel better, and when it was seen that the
+sleeping car was not broken and that no one in it was hurt, the men
+and women began to talk about what had best be done.
+
+"We're off the track, that's sure," said one man who had a berth next
+to Mr. Bobbsey. "You can tell we're off the track by the way this car
+is tipped to one side."
+
+"Yes, I believe we are," said the children's father. "Well, if it
+isn't anything worse than being off the track we will not worry much.
+But there was a pretty hard crash, and I'm afraid some of the
+passengers in the other cars are hurt."
+
+"You're right--it was a hard crash," said a woman to whom Mrs. Bobbsey
+was speaking. "It awakened me from a sound sleep. If we are off the
+track I wonder how long it will take us to get back on?"
+
+"I have a train of cars," said Freddie, who, with the other Bobbsey
+children, was now partly dressed. "I have a train of cars, and when
+they get off the track Flossie and I put 'em back on."
+
+"Well, I wish you could do that with this train, my little engineer!"
+laughed the man who had talked to Freddie's father.
+
+"I'm not an engineer!" exclaimed the little fellow, smiling.
+
+"No?" asked the man.
+
+"Nope! I'm a fireman, and my sister's a fairy!" went on Freddie,
+pointing to Flossie so every one would know he did not mean Nan.
+
+"Well, if she is a fairy maybe she can wave her magic wand and put us
+all back on the track again," went on the man. "Can you do that,
+little fairy?" he asked. "Where is your magic wand?"
+
+"I--I hasn't any," answered Flossie, who was feeling a bit shy and
+bashful because so many persons were looking at her and smiling.
+
+"Well, here comes the conductor," said some one. "Perhaps he can tell
+us what the matter is, even if he can't put the train back on the
+rails. What's wrong, conductor?" asked a man whose hair was all
+tousled from having gotten out of his berth in such a hurry.
+
+"There has been an accident," explained the train conductor. "It isn't
+a bad one, but it will hold us here for an hour or two."
+
+"Is any one hurt?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"No, I'm glad to say no one is," the conductor said. "Our train ran
+into a freight car that stuck too far over the edge of its own track
+out on our track. Our engine smashed the freight car, some damage was
+done to the locomotive itself, and the crash threw some of our cars
+off the rails. But no one was hurt more than being shaken up."
+
+"That's good," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Then had we better stay right in our
+car?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the conductor. "That's what I came in to tell
+you--stay right here. We have sent for the wrecking crew, and we will
+go on again as soon as we can. There is no danger. You need not be
+afraid, even if you get shaken up again."
+
+"Are you going to shake us up?" asked Bert.
+
+"No, but the wrecking crew will when they pull this car back on the
+rails," the conductor replied. "But don't be afraid--no one will be
+hurt."
+
+The passengers quieted down after hearing this, and some of them who
+were good sleepers went back to bed. The Bobbsey twins were too
+wide-awake, their mother thought, to go to sleep so soon after the
+excitement, so she let them sit up a while to get quiet.
+
+Going to the end of the car, in the little passageway near the wash
+room, Bert and Nan could look out of the window. They saw men with
+flaring oil torches hurrying here and there. These were the railroad
+workers getting ready to put the train back on the track.
+
+There was not so much shouting, now that it was known no one was hurt,
+and soon the children heard the puffing of engines and the rumble of
+wheels.
+
+"The wrecking crew has arrived," said Mr. Bobbsey, who came down the
+aisle to see if Bert and Nan were all right.
+
+"What's a wrecking crew, Daddy?" asked Nan.
+
+"They are the men who clear away wrecked trains," her father answered.
+"Don't you remember? You saw them at the wreck in our town."
+
+"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Nan. "There was one car with a big derrick on it,
+and it lifted the broken pieces of the wrecked cars out of the way."
+
+"That's the wreck Mr. Hickson was hurt in," went on Bert. "I guess his
+wreck was worse than this one."
+
+"Yes, it was," said Mr. Bobbsey. "All railroad wrecks are bad enough,
+but some are worse than others. But now I think you children had
+better get back to your berths. There isn't much more to see. You can
+feel the rest."
+
+"You mean we can feel the bumping when they put us back on the rails?"
+asked Bert.
+
+"Yes," his father told him.
+
+And a little while after Bert and his sister had got back in their
+berths they did feel a rumbling and bumping. There were more shouts
+out in the darkness of the night, and, peering under the edges of
+their curtains, the children saw more flickering torches and moving
+men.
+
+Then came an extra big bump, and the sleeping car swayed from side to
+side. A moment later it began to roll along smoothly.
+
+"I guess we're back on the track now," said Bert.
+
+"Yes," his father answered, "we are. Now we'll travel along."
+
+And in about two hours after the wreck the train was on its journey
+again, not much the worse for the accident. The freight car had been
+smashed and so had the front part of the passenger engine. But another
+locomotive had come with the wrecking train, and this was used to haul
+the Bobbseys and other passengers where they wanted to go.
+
+"Now we'll have something to tell Mr. Hickson when we get back home,"
+said Bert to Nan the next morning at the breakfast table.
+
+"You mean about the wreck?" asked Nan.
+
+"Yes," replied Bert. "Course ours wasn't a big wreck, like his, but it
+was big enough."
+
+"I don't want another," said Nan. "I like Mr. Hickson; don't you,
+Bert?"
+
+"Yes, I do. And I wish we could find his two sons for him, but I don't
+s'pose we can."
+
+"No," agreed Nan, "we can't ever do that."
+
+It was about noon on the day after the night of the wreck, that Mr.
+Bobbsey said to his wife and children:
+
+"We will get out soon."
+
+"Shall we be in Cowdon?" asked Bert. "At the ranch?"
+
+"No, not exactly at the ranch," his father told him. "But we'll reach
+the town of Cowdon, and from there we'll drive to the ranch, which is
+about ten miles from the railroad."
+
+"Oh, may I ride a pony out to the ranch?" cried Bert.
+
+"I don't believe they'll bring any ponies to meet us," said Mr.
+Bobbsey. "Later on you may ride one."
+
+The train pulled into the little western station. Some time since the
+big stretches of woods and trees had been left behind, and now the
+Bobbseys were in the open prairie country--the land of cattle, cowboys
+and, at least Bert hoped, of Indians also.
+
+"This is really the West, isn't it?" said Bert to his father, as they
+saw the wide, rolling fields on either side of the train.
+
+"Yes, this is the West," was the answer.
+
+"But where are the cowboys and the cows?" Nan asked.
+
+"Oh, they don't come so close to the railroad," her father explained.
+"You'll see them when you get to the ranch."
+
+Then the train reached the small station, as I have said. It seemed to
+be very lonesome. There were no other buildings near it--only a water
+tank, and there was not an Indian in sight. At first Bert thought
+there was not even a cowboy, but when he saw a man sitting on the seat
+of a wagon with some horses hitched in front--horses that had queer,
+rough marks on their flanks--Bert cried:
+
+"Oh, say! I guess he's a cowboy!" and he pointed to the driver.
+
+"He hasn't any cow!" exclaimed Flossie, and she wondered why the man
+in the wagon laughed.
+
+"No, I haven't any cows with me," he said; "but if this is the Bobbsey
+family I can take you to a place where you will see lots of cattle."
+
+"We are the Bobbseys," said the children's father, walking over to the
+man in the wagon, "Are you from Three Star ranch?"
+
+"That's where I'm from. I'm in charge, for the time being, but I can't
+stay much longer. You'll have to get another foreman. I got your
+letter, saying you were coming out, so I stayed to meet you. And now,
+if you're ready, I'll take you all out to Three Star."
+
+"Is Three Star the name of a city?" asked Bert.
+
+"No, it's the name of the ranch your mother owns, my boy," said the
+man, who gave his name as Dick Weston. "All the cattle are marked, or
+branded, with three stars--like the ponies there," and he pointed to
+the rough marks on the flanks of the team.
+
+"As soon as I saw those marks I knew you must be a cowboy," said Bert.
+"You do ride a horse, don't you?"
+
+"That's about all I do," said Foreman Weston, with a smile. "I don't
+often ride in a wagon, but I knew you'd need one to-day to get to the
+ranch. Now, if you're ready, we'll start."
+
+The train had gone on, after leaving the Bobbseys and their baggage.
+Into the wagon the twins were helped. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey took their
+seats, the driver called to the horses and away they trotted.
+
+"Is Cowdon much of a town?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, as they drove along.
+
+"No, not much more than you can see over there," and Dick Weston
+pointed with his whip to a few houses and a store or two on the
+prairie, about a mile from the railroad station. "We don't go through
+it to get to Three Star ranch. We turn off to the north," and he drove
+along the prairie road.
+
+"Oh, look at that snake!" suddenly cried Bert, pointing to one that
+wiggled and twisted across the road.
+
+"Yes, and you want to look out for those snakes," said the driver.
+"That's a rattler, and poisonous. Keep away from 'em!"
+
+"Yes indeed they must!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Are there any other
+dangers out here?"
+
+"Well, not many, no, ma'am. And rattlers aren't to be feared if you
+let 'em alone. Just keep clear of 'em. They'll run away from you
+rather than fight."
+
+Up and down little, rolling hills went the wagon, drawing the Bobbsey
+twins. They dipped down into a hollow, and for a time nothing could be
+seen but green fields.
+
+"Where are the cows?" asked Nan.
+
+"And the cowboys?" Bert wanted to know.
+
+"You'll see 'em soon," was the promise of the driver.
+
+All of a sudden a great noise burst out. There was the shooting of
+pistols and loud shouts.
+
+"Yi! Yi! Yip!" came in shrill cries.
+
+"Woo! Wow!" sounded, as if in answer.
+
+"Bang! Bang!" went the firearms.
+
+"What is that?" cried Nan, holding her hands over her ears.
+
+"Those are the cowboys," answered Dick Weston, with a smile. "That's
+their way of telling you they're glad to see you. Here we are at the
+ranch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A RUNAWAY PONY
+
+
+Suddenly the noise of the shooting and shouting stopped. The children
+looked up toward the top of a little hill, for the sounds seemed to
+have come from the other side of that. As yet they had seen nothing
+that looked like a ranch, nor had they caught a glimpse of any cows or
+cowboys.
+
+But, all at once Flossie cried:
+
+"Oh, there they are! I see 'em!"
+
+"So do I!" echoed Freddie.
+
+And, with that, over the hill came racing about ten laughing, shouting
+and cheering men, each one waving his hat in one hand while the other
+held aloft something black, and from this black thing came spurts of
+smoke and banging noises.
+
+"There are the cowboys! There are the cowboys! I'm going to be one of
+them!" cried Bert.
+
+"Yes, there are the cowboys sure enough!" said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Will they shoot us?" asked Flossie.
+
+"No they won't shoot anybody!" said the driver with a laugh. "They
+only keep their revolvers--guns they call 'em--to drive the wolves
+away from the cattle. This is only their way of having fun. They'll
+soon stop."
+
+"Oh, what fun to be a cowboy and shoot a pistol!" cried Bert, as he
+saw the prancing horses. "I'm going to be one."
+
+"You'll have to grow up a little bigger," said Dick Weston; "though
+you're pretty good-sized now."
+
+The Bobbsey twins and the Bobbsey grown-ups watched the cowboys as
+they rode up on their "ponies", as the horses were called.
+
+"Hi, there!" called the leading cowboy. "Are the Bobbsey twins there
+in that outfit, Dick?"
+
+"That's what!" answered the driver. "The Bobbsey twins are here! I've
+got all four of 'em!"
+
+"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" cheered the cowboys.
+
+"How did they know our names?" asked Nan of her mother, as the cowboys
+on their horses surrounded the wagon.
+
+"Well, I had to write to tell the man in charge of the Three Star
+ranch that we were coming," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "I mentioned that I
+had four little Bobbsey twins, and of course the cowboys remembered.
+They seem glad to see us."
+
+And, indeed, it was a most hearty welcome that was given the Bobbsey
+family on their trip to the great West. Not only the lumbermen, but
+the men at the ranch were glad to see them.
+
+"Are these the cowboys who work for you?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of Dick
+Weston as the men on the ponies put up their pistols, placed their
+broad-brimmed hats on their heads and rode along beside the wagon.
+
+"Well, you might say they work for you now, as you own this Three Star
+ranch," the foreman said. "Of course I hire the men, or rather, I did,
+but after I leave you'll have to get some one else to be foremen and
+hire the men. I only stayed until you got here. I have a big ranch of
+my own that another man and I bought. I'll have to go and look after
+that."
+
+"I shall be sorry to see you go, Mr. Weston," said the children's
+mother. "Do you know where I can get another foreman?"
+
+"Well, I'm sort of sorry to go myself, after I've seen these twins,"
+replied the driver. "We don't very often see children out here. It's
+too lonesome for 'em. But I just have to go. As for another foreman,
+why, I guess you won't have any trouble picking one up. Any of the
+cowboys will act as foreman until you get a regular one."
+
+"I am glad to know that," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Is that the ranch?" asked Bert as the party of cowboys, riding around
+the carriage, suddenly started off down a little hill, and Bert
+pointed to several buildings clustered together at the foot of the
+slope almost like the buildings at the lumber camp.
+
+"Well, all this is Three Star ranch," answered the foreman, and he
+swept his arm in a big circle across the prairie fields. "But those
+are the ranch houses and corrals."
+
+"I don't see any cows," said Nan, and this seemed to puzzle her,
+
+"The cattle are mostly out on the different fields, or 'ranges', as we
+call 'em, feeding," said Mr. Weston. "We drive them from place to
+place as they eat the grass. We don't generally keep many head of
+cattle right around the ranch buildings. We have a cow or two for
+milk, and maybe a calf or so."
+
+"Oh, may I have a little calf?" cried Freddie. "If I'm going to be a
+cowboy I want a little calf."
+
+"I guess we can get you one," said Mr. Weston, with a smile. "Well,
+here we are," he went on, as he drove the wagon up in front of a
+one-story red building, with a low, broad porch. "This is the main ranch
+house where your uncle used to live part of the time, Mrs. Bobbsey,"
+he said. "I think you'll find it big enough for your family. We fixed
+it up as best we could when we heard you were coming."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure you have made it just like a home!" said Mrs. Bobbsey in
+delight, as she went into the house with her husband and the children.
+"Oh, how lovely!"
+
+There were some bright-colored rugs on the floor, and in vases on the
+table and mantel were some prairie flowers. On the walls of the one
+big room, which seemed to take up most of the house, were oddly
+colored cow skins, mounted horns, and the furry pelt of some animal
+that Bert thought was a wolf.
+
+"I'm sure we shall like it here," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I am glad we
+came to Three Star ranch."
+
+"So'm I!" said Bert.
+
+"And can I get an Indian doll?" asked Nan.
+
+"Well, there are a few Indians around here," said the foreman slowly.
+"They come to the ranch now and then to get something to eat, or trade
+a pony. I don't know that I've ever seen any of 'em with a doll,
+though maybe they do have some."
+
+"Will any Indian come soon?" Nan wanted to know.
+
+"I hope they do--real wild ones!" cried Bert.
+
+"We don't have that kind here," said the foreman. "All the Indians
+around here are tame. And I can't say when they will come."
+
+"Well, anyhow, there's cowboys," said Bert hopefully.
+
+The baggage was brought in and then the foreman said to Mr. Bobbsey:
+
+"When do you want to eat?"
+
+"Right now!" exclaimed Bert, before any one else had a chance to
+speak.
+
+"I thought so!" laughed the foreman. "Tell Sing Foo to rustle in the
+grub," he went on to one of the cowboys on the outside porch.
+
+"Oh, do you have a Chinese laundryman for a cook?" asked Nan, as she
+heard the name.
+
+"Well, I guess Sing Foo can wash, bake, iron, mend clothes, or do
+anything around the ranch except ride a cow pony or brand a steer,"
+said Dick Weston. "He draws the line on that. But he surely is a good
+cook with the grub," said the foreman.
+
+"I don't want any grub," put in Freddie anxiously. "I want something
+to eat."
+
+"Excuse me, little man. I guess I oughtn't to use slang before you."
+said the foreman. "When I say 'grub' I mean something to eat And here
+comes Sing Foo with it now!"
+
+As he spoke a smiling Chinese, dressed just as the Bobbsey twins had
+seen them in pictures, with his shirt outside his trousers, came
+shuffling along, carrying big trays from which came delicious
+appetizing odors.
+
+"Dlinna all leddy!" said Sing Foo. "All leddy numbla one top side
+pletty quick."
+
+"He means dinner is all ready and that everything is cooked just right
+and in a hurry," explained the foreman. "He can't say any words well
+that have the letter "r" in 'em," he went on in a whisper.
+
+The Chinese was busy setting the table, and the Bobbseys soon sat down
+to a fine meal, Dick Weston ate with them and explained things about
+the ranch to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey. The twins were too busy looking
+around the room and out of the windows through which now and then they
+could see some of the cowboys, to pay much attention to the talk of
+the grown-ups.
+
+As Mr. Weston had said, he was going to give up being foreman of Three
+Star ranch to take charge of a place he and another man had bought. He
+was only staying until Mrs. Bobbsey could come and take charge of her
+property. But Mr. Weston said she would have no trouble, with her
+husband and the cowboys to help her."
+
+"But I don't know anything about cows or cowboys," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"When it comes to lumber and trees I'm all right. But I'll be of no
+use here, We must get another foreman, my dear," he said to his wife.
+
+"Yes, undoubtedly," she agreed. "Oh, look at the children," she went
+on, pointing out of the window. Bert and Nan and Flossie and Freddie
+had left the table after the meal, and were now out near one of the
+cattle yards, or corrals, standing beside a little cart to which a
+pony was hitched.
+
+"They mustn't get into that pony cart," said Mrs. Bobbsey, for she saw
+Bert lifting Freddie up into the small wagon, while Nan was doing the
+same for Flossie.
+
+"They won't hurt it, ma'am," said the foreman. "I brought that pony
+cart around on purpose, so you could give it to the children. It's
+been here some time, but as there weren't any children it hasn't been
+used much. The boys got the cart out and mended it when they heard the
+Bobbsey twins were coming."
+
+"That is very kind of them, I'm sure," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Is the pony
+safe to drive?"
+
+"Oh, yes, your older boy or girl can manage him all right. Look,
+they're all in now. We can go out and I'll tell them what to do."
+
+But before Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and the foreman could reach the pony
+cart, in which the Bobbsey twins were now seated, something happened.
+There was the report of a shot, and a moment later the pony started
+off at a fast gallop, dragging the cart and the children after him.
+
+"Oh, he's running away!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "Stop the runaway pony!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE WILD STEER
+
+
+Ponies can not run as fast as can horses, not being as large. But the
+pony drawing the small cart into which the Bobbsey twins had climbed
+seemed to go very swiftly indeed. Before Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and Dick
+Weston, the foreman, could hurry outside the ranch house, the pony and
+cart were quite a distance down the road which led over the prairies
+to the distant cattle ranges.
+
+"Oh, the children! What will happen to them?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as
+she saw the twins being carried away.
+
+"Perhaps Bert can get hold of the reins and stop the pony," said Mr.
+Bobbsey, as he hurried along with his wife.
+
+"If he can do that they'll be all right," said the foreman. "The pony
+is a good one, and I never knew him to run away before. That shot must
+have frightened him."
+
+But whatever had caused the pony to run away, the little horse
+certainly was going fast. Sitting in the cart, the Bobbsey twins had
+been too frightened at first to know what was going on. As soon as
+Bert and Nan had followed Flossie and Freddie up into the small cart
+the shot had sounded and away the pony galloped, the reins almost
+slipping over the dashboard.
+
+"Oh, Bert!" cried Nan, grasping Flossie and Freddie around their
+waists so the small twins would not fall out, "what shall we do?"
+
+Bert did not answer just then. For one thing he had to hold on to the
+side of the cart so he would not be jostled out. And another reason he
+did not answer Nan was because he was trying to think what was the
+best thing to do.
+
+He looked ahead down the ranch road, and did not see anything into
+which the pony might crash, and so hurt them all. The road was clear.
+Behind him Bert could hear his mother, his father, and the foreman
+shouting. Bert hoped some of the cowboys might be there also, and that
+they would run after and stop the pony. But when he looked back he did
+not see any of the big, jolly, rough men on their speedy little cow
+ponies.
+
+Bert saw his father and mother, and also Mr. Weston running after the
+pony cart, and Bert wondered why the foreman did not get on his horse
+and gallop down the road. Afterward Bert learned that the foreman had
+loaned his horse to another cowboy, who had ridden on it to a distant
+part of the ranch. And none of the cowboys was near by when the pony
+ran away.
+
+"Oh, Bert! what will happen?" asked Nan, still holding Flossie and
+Freddie to keep them from falling out of the swaying cart. "What are
+we going to do?"
+
+"I'm going to try to stop this pony!" answered Bert. He saw where the
+reins had nearly slipped over the dashboard. The reins were buckled
+together, and the loop had caught on one of the ends of the
+nickle-plated rail on top of the dashboard. Bert leaned forward to get
+hold of the reins, so he might bring the pony to a stop, but the little
+horse gave a sudden jump just then, as a bird flew in front of him.
+The reins slipped down and dragged along the ground. Bert could not
+reach them, and the pony seemed to go faster than ever.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Nan. "We'll all be hurt!"
+
+Flossie and Freddie were very much frightened, and clung closely to
+Sister Nan.
+
+But presently Freddie plucked up courage and then grew excited, and
+after a minute or two he called out:
+
+"We're havin' a fast ride, we are!"
+
+"Too fast!" exclaimed Bert. "But maybe he'll get tired pretty soon and
+stop!"
+
+However, the pony did not seem to be going to stop very soon. On and
+on he ran, with Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and the ranch foreman being left
+farther and farther behind.
+
+Suddenly, along a side path that joined the main road on which the
+pony was running away, appeared the figure of a man on a horse. He was
+trotting along slowly, at first, but as soon as he caught sight of the
+pony cart and the children in it, this man made his horse go much
+faster.
+
+"Sit still! Sit still! I'll stop your pony for you!" called the man.
+
+Bert and Nan heard. They looked up and saw the stranger waving his
+hand to them. He was guiding his galloping horse so as to cut across
+in front of their trotting pony.
+
+In a few moments the man on the big horse was closer. Then began a
+race between the horse and the pony, and because the horse was bigger
+and had longer legs it won. The man galloped up beside the pony cart,
+leaped down from his saddle and caught the pony by the bridle. It was
+easy for the man to halt the little horse, and bring the pony to a
+stop.
+
+"There you are, children!" said the man. "Not hurt, I hope?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Bert. "We're all right."
+
+"Thank you," added Nan, for she noticed that Bert was forgetting this
+very important part.
+
+"Oh, yes. Thank you!" said Bert.
+
+"You are quite welcome," the man said, "But you shouldn't try to make
+your pony go so fast."
+
+"We didn't make him go fast," replied Bert "We'd just got in the cart,
+to see if we would all fit, and somebody shot a gun and the pony ran
+away."
+
+"Did he run far?" asked the man.
+
+"Yes, he gave us a long ride," answered Freddie.
+
+"Oh, it wasn't so very far," added Nan. "Though it seemed like a good
+way because we went so fast."
+
+"We're from Three Star ranch," explained Bert.
+
+"Oh, so you live on a ranch," said the man. "Well, I'm looking for a
+ranch myself."
+
+"We don't exactly live on a ranch," went on Bert. "But it's my
+mother's, and we came out West to see it. Before that we were at a
+lumber camp."
+
+"My! you are doing some traveling," exclaimed the man, who was rubbing
+the velvet nose of the pony. "Are these some of your friends coming?"
+he asked, looking down the road.
+
+The Bobbsey twins turned and looked, and saw their father and mother
+and the foreman hurrying along. When the father and mother saw that
+the pony had been stopped and that the children were safe, they were
+no longer frightened.
+
+"He stopped the pony for us," explained Bert, pointing to the stranger
+who had mounted his horse as Mr. Weston took hold of the pony's
+bridle, so it would not try to run away again.
+
+"You appeared just in time," said Mr. Bobbsey to the strange man. "The
+children might have been hurt, only for you."
+
+"Well, I'm glad I could stop the runaway," was the answer. "They said
+they lived on a ranch around here."
+
+"Yes, the Three Star," said Mr. Weston. "You look like a cattleman
+yourself," he added.
+
+"I am," said the man. "My name is Charles Dayton, and I am looking for
+a place to work. I was foreman at the Bar X ranch until that outfit
+was sold. I've been looking for a place ever since."
+
+"The Bar X!" cried Mr. Weston. "I know some of the cowboys over there.
+And so you are looking for a place as foreman. Why, this is strange.
+Mrs. Bobbsey here, the owner of Three Star, is looking for a foreman.
+I'm going to leave."
+
+"Well, I would be very glad to work for Mrs. Bobbsey at Three Star,"
+said Mr. Dayton.
+
+"Are you any relation to a Bill Dayton?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, while Bert
+and Nan listened for the answer. Flossie and Freddie were out of the
+cart now, gathering prairie flowers, and did not pay much attention to
+the talk.
+
+"Bill Dayton is my brother," answered Charles Dayton. "But I did not
+know he was around here. The last I heard of him he was in the lumber
+business."
+
+"And he is yet!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "He is foreman of a lumber
+tract my uncle left me."
+
+"And if you are as good a cattleman as your brother is a lumberman I
+think we can find a place for you at Three Star," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"I can tell you Mr. Dayton is a good cattleman," said Mr. Weston. "He
+had to be, to act as foreman at Bar X ranch. You won't make any
+mistake in hiring him."
+
+"Will you come to us?" asked Mr. Bobbsey who seemed to have taken as
+much of a liking to the newcomer as had the children.
+
+"Well, I'm looking for a place," was the answer, "and I'll do my best
+to suit you. It's queer, though, that you know my brother Bill."
+
+"He mentioned you," said Mr. Bobbsey, "but he said he had lost track
+of you."
+
+"Yes, we don't write to each other very often. Both of us have been
+traveling around a lot. But now, if I settle down, I'll send Bill a
+letter and tell him where I am."
+
+There was room for Mrs. Bobbsey in the pony cart, and she rode back
+with the children. There seemed to be no danger now, for the little
+horse had quieted down.
+
+"He hadn't been out of the stable for some time, and that's what made
+him so frisky," said the foreman, who was soon going to leave Three
+Star. "He won't run away again."
+
+And Toby, which was the name of the pony, never did. Bert and Nan
+drove him often after that, and there never was a bit of trouble. Even
+Freddie and Flossie were allowed to drive, when Bert or Nan sat on the
+seat near them, in case of accident.
+
+Mr. Charles Dayton soon proved that he was a good cattleman, and he
+was made foreman of Three Star ranch after Dick Weston left. The
+cowboys seemed to like their new foreman.
+
+"And, now that you are one of us here," said Mrs. Bobbsey to her new
+foreman, "don't forget to write and let your brother know where you
+are."
+
+"I'll do that!" promised the cattleman.
+
+Busy and happy days on the ranch followed. While Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey
+looked after the new business of raising and selling cattle, the
+Bobbsey twins had good times. The new foreman and the cowboys were
+very fond of the children, and were with them as much as they could be
+during the day. They took them on little picnics and excursions, and
+two small ponies were trained so Bert and Nan could ride them. As for
+Flossie and Freddie, they had to ride in the cart. Freddie wanted to
+be a cowboy, and straddle a pony as Bert did, but his mother thought
+him too small. But Freddie and Flossie had good times in the cart, so
+they did not miss saddle rides.
+
+Bert and Nan were very fond of their ponies. The little horses soon
+grew very tame and gentle, though Bert and his sister did not go very
+far away from the main buildings unless some of the cowboys were with
+them.
+
+One afternoon, when they had been on the ranch about a month, and were
+liking it more and more every day, Bert and Nan asked their mother if
+they could ride on their ponies across the fields to gather a new kind
+of wild flower a cowboy had told them about.
+
+"Yes, you may go," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "But be careful, and do not ride
+too far. Be home in time for supper."
+
+"We will," promised Bert.
+
+He and Nan set off. It was pleasant riding over the green prairie. Now
+and then the children saw little prairie dogs scurrying in and out of
+their burrows. And once they saw a rattlesnake. But the serpent
+crawled quickly out of the way, and Bert and Nan did not stop to see
+where it went. They hurried on.
+
+They reached the little hollow in the hills where the red flowers
+grew, and, getting out of their saddles, began to pick some.
+
+"They'll make a lovely bouquet for the living room," said Nan.
+
+"Yes, but I guess we have enough," said Bert, "I don't want to stay
+here too long. Mr. Dayton promised to show me how to throw a lasso
+to-day, and I've got to learn; that is, if I'm going to be a cowboy."
+
+"All right," agreed Nan. "We'll get in a minute. I want to get just a
+few more flowers." She was gathering another handful of the red
+blossoms when suddenly she looked up, and something she saw on top of
+a little hill caused her to cry:
+
+"Oh, Bert, look! Look! What's that?"
+
+Bert glanced up. He saw a wild steer looking at him and his sister.
+The big animal was lashing his tail from side to side and pawing the
+earth with one hoof. Suddenly it gave a loud bellow and rushed down
+the slope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE ROUND-UP
+
+
+Bert and Nan were really too frightened to know what to do. If they
+had been more used to the ways of the West, and had known more about
+cattle and ranches, they would have at once run for their ponies and
+have got on the backs of the little animals. Cattle in the West are so
+used to seeing men on horse back that sometimes if they see them on
+foot on the wide prairie, the cattle chase the men, thinking they are
+a strange enemy.
+
+Perhaps it was this way with the wild steer. At any rate, seeing Bert
+and Nan gathering flowers down in the hollow of the hills, the steer,
+with loud bellows, started down toward them. The two ponies were
+eating grass near by, and Bert and Nan could easily have reached their
+pets if they had thought of it.
+
+But they were so frightened that they could not think. As for the
+ponies, those little horses merely looked up. They saw the steer, but,
+as they saw such animals every day, the ponies were not at all
+interested.
+
+"Oh, Bert," cried Nan, "what shall we do?"
+
+She had dropped her flowers and was running toward her brother.
+
+"You get behind me!" cried Bert. "Maybe I can throw a stone at this
+steer!"
+
+He, too, had dropped the red blossoms he had gathered, and was looking
+about for a stone. But he could not see any, and the wild steer was
+coming on down the slope. I do not mean that the steer was wild, like
+a wild lion or tiger, but that he was just excited by seeing two
+children off their ponies. If Bert and Nan had been in the saddles
+perhaps the steer never would have chased them.
+
+But now with tail flapping in the air, and with angry shakes of his
+head, he was running toward them. Nan got behind her brother, and Bert
+stood ready to do what he could. The children did not realize how much
+danger they were in and they might have been hurt but for something
+that happened.
+
+At first neither Bert nor Nan knew what this happening was. One moment
+they saw the wild steer racing toward them, and the next minute they
+saw the big animal, larger than a cow, tumbling down the hill head
+over heels. The steer seemed to have fallen, and a look toward the
+crest of the hill showed what had made him. For up at the top of the
+slope, sitting on his big horse, was the new foreman, Charley Dayton,
+and from his saddle horn a rope stretched out. The other end of the
+rope was around the steer's neck, and it was a pull on this rope that
+had caused the big beast to turn a somersault.
+
+"Oh, he lassoed the steer! He lassoed him!" cried Bert, as he saw what
+had happened.
+
+And that is just what the foreman had done. He had been out riding
+over the ranch, and had seen the lone steer on top of the hill which
+he knew led down into a hollow filled with red flowers.
+
+"At first," said Mr. Dayton to Nan and Bert, telling them the story
+afterward, "I couldn't imagine why the steer was acting so queerly. I
+thought may be he didn't like the red flowers, so I rode up to see
+what the matter was. Then I saw you children down in the hollow and
+saw the steer rushing at you.
+
+"There was only one thing I could do, and I did it. I didn't even stop
+to shout to you Bobbsey twins!" said the foreman. "I just swung my
+lasso and caught the steer before he caught you."
+
+"You made him turn a somersault, didn't you?" said Nan, as she and
+Bert looked at the big beast which was now lying on the ground.
+
+"Well, he sort of made himself do it," answered the foreman, with a
+laugh. "He was going so fast, and the lasso rope on his neck made him
+stop so quickly that he went head over heels. But you had better get
+into your saddles now, and I'll let this fellow up."
+
+Mr. Dayton had twisted some coils of his rope around the steer's legs
+so the animal could not get up until the foreman was ready to let him.
+But as soon as Bert and Nan had gathered the flowers they had dropped,
+and had seated themselves in their saddles, and when the foreman had
+mounted his horse, he shook loose the coils of the rope, or lasso, and
+the steer scrambled to his feet.
+
+"Will he chase us again?" asked Nan.
+
+"No, I guess I taught him a lesson," answered Mr. Dayton.
+
+The steer shook himself and looked at the three figures on the horse
+and ponies. He did not seem to want to chase anybody now, and after a
+shake or two of his head the steer walked away, up over the hill and
+across the prairie, to join the rest of the herd from which he had
+strayed.
+
+"You want to be careful about getting off your ponies when you see a
+lone steer," the foreman told Bert and Nan. "Some animals think a
+person on foot is a new kind of creature and want to give chase right
+away. On a cattle ranch keep in the saddle as much as you can when you
+are among the steers."
+
+Bert and his sister said they would do this, and then they rode home
+with the red flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey thanked the foreman for
+again saving the children from harm.
+
+Mr. Charles Dayton seemed to fit in well at Three Star ranch. He was
+as good a ranchman as his brother Bill was a lumberman. And, true to
+the promise he had given Mrs. Bobbsey, the ranch foreman wrote to
+Bill, giving the address of Three Star.
+
+"I had a letter from Bill to-day, Mrs. Bobbsey," said the ranch
+foreman to the children's mother one afternoon.
+
+"Did you? That's good!" she answered.
+
+"And he says he'd like to see me," went on Mr. Charles Dayton. "He
+says he has something to tell me."
+
+"Did he say what it was about?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, while Bert and Nan
+stood near by. They were waiting for the foreman to saddle the ponies
+for them, as he always wanted to be sure the girths were made tight
+enough before the twins set out for a ride.
+
+"No, Bill didn't say what it was he wanted to tell me," went on
+Charley. "And he writes rather queerly."
+
+"Your brother seemed to me to be a bit odd," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "As if
+he had some sort of a secret."
+
+"Oh, well, I guess he has had his troubles, the same as I have," said
+the ranch foreman.
+
+"We were boys together, and we didn't have a very good time. I suppose
+it was as much our fault as any one's. But you don't think of that at
+the time. Well, I'll be glad to see Bill again, but I don't know when
+we'll get together. Are you waiting for me, Bobbsey twins?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, if you please," answered Nan.
+
+"We'd like our ponies," added Bert, "and you promised to show me some
+more how to lasso."
+
+"And so I will!" promised the foreman. He had already given Bert a few
+lessons in casting the rope. Of course Bert could not use a lasso of
+the regulation size, so one of the cowboys had made him a little one.
+With this Bert did very well. Freddie also had to have one, but his
+was only a toy. Freddie wanted his father to call him "little cowboy"
+now, instead of "little fireman," and, to please Freddie, Mr. Bobbsey
+did so once in a while.
+
+After Bert had been given a few more lessons in casting the lasso, the
+two older Bobbsey twins went for a ride on their ponies, while Mrs.
+Bobbsey took Flossie and Freddie for a ride in the pony cart.
+
+It was about a week after this that the Bobbsey twins were awakened
+one morning by a loud shouting outside the ranch house where they
+slept.
+
+"What's the matter? Have the Indians come?" asked Bert, for some of
+the cowboys had said a few Indians from a neighboring reservation
+usually dropped in for a visit about this time of year.
+
+"No, I don't see any Indians," answered Nan, who had looked out of a
+window, after hurriedly getting dressed. "But I see a lot of the
+cowboys."
+
+"Oh, maybe they're going after the Indians!" exclaimed Bert. "I'm going
+to ask mother if I can go along!"
+
+"I want to go, too, and get an Indian doll!" exclaimed Nan.
+
+But when they went out into the main room, where their father and
+mother were eating breakfast, and when the two Bobbsey twins had
+begged to be allowed to go with the cowboys to see the Indians, Mr.
+Bobbsey said: "This hasn't anything to do with Indians, Bert."
+
+"What's it all about then?" asked the boy.
+
+"It's the round-up," answered his father. "The cowboys are getting
+ready for the half-yearly round-up, and that's what they're so excited
+about."
+
+"Oh, may I see the round-up?" begged Bert,
+
+"What is it?" asked Nan. "What's a round-up?"
+
+Before Mr. Bobbsey could answer Mr. Dayton, the foreman, came hurrying
+into the room. He seemed quite excited.
+
+"Excuse me for disturbing your breakfast," he said to Mr. and Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "But I have some news for you. Some Indians have run off part
+of your cattle!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN THE STORM
+
+
+Bert Bobbsey did not pay much attention to what the foreman said,
+except that one word "Indians."
+
+"Oh, where are they?" cried the boy. "I want to see them!"
+
+"And I'd like to see them myself!" exclaimed the foreman. "If I could
+find them I'd get back the Three Star cattle."
+
+"Did Indians really take some of the steers?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes," answered the foreman, "they did. You know we are getting ready
+for the round-up. That is a time, twice a year, when we count the
+cattle, and sell what we don't want to keep," he explained, for he saw
+that Nan wanted to ask a question.
+
+"Twice a year," went on the foreman, "once in the spring and again in
+the fall, we have what is called a round-up. That is we gather
+together all the cattle on the different parts of the ranch. Some
+herds have been left to themselves for a long time, and it may happen
+that cattle belonging to some other ranch-owner have got in with ours.
+We separate, or 'cut out' as it is called, the strange cattle, give
+them to the cowboys who come for them, and look after our own. That is
+a round-up, and sometimes it lasts for a week or more. The cowboys
+take a 'chuck', or kitchen wagon with them, and they cook their meals
+out on the prairie."
+
+"Oh, that's fun!" cried Bert. "Please, Daddy, mayn't I go on the
+round-up?"
+
+"And have the Indians catch you?" asked his mother.
+
+"Oh, there isn't any real danger from the Indians," said the foreman.
+"They are not the wild kind. Only, now and again, they run off a bunch
+of cattle from some herd that is far off from the main ranch. This is
+what has happened here."
+
+"How did you find out about it?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"A cowboy from another ranch told me," answered the foreman. "Some of
+his cattle were taken and he followed along the trail the Indians
+left. He saw them, but could not catch them. But he saw some of the
+cattle that had strayed away from the band of Indians, and these
+steers were branded with our mark--the three stars."
+
+"Well, maybe the poor Indians were hungry," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "And
+that is why they took some of our steers."
+
+"Yes, I reckon that's what they'd say, anyhow," remarked the foreman.
+"But it won't do to let the redmen take cattle any time they feel like
+it. They have money, and can buy what they want. I wouldn't mind
+giving them a beef or two, but when it comes to taking part of a herd,
+it must be stopped."
+
+"How can it be stopped?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"That's just what I came in to talk to you about," went on Mr. Dayton.
+"Shall I send some of the cowboys after the Indians to see if they can
+catch them, and get back our cattle?"
+
+"I suppose you had better," Mr. Bobbsey answered. "If we let this pass
+the Indians will think we do not care, and will take more steers next
+time. Yes, send the cowboys after the Indians."
+
+"But let the Indians have a steer or two for food, if they need it,"
+begged Mrs. Bobbsey, who had a kind heart even toward an Indian cattle
+thief, or "rustler", as they are called.
+
+"Well, that can be done," agreed Mr. Dayton. "Then I'll send some of
+the cowboys on the round-up, and others after the Indians. They can
+work together, the two bands of cowboys."
+
+"Oh, mayn't I come?" begged Bert. "I can throw a lasso pretty good
+now, and maybe I could rope an Indian."
+
+"And maybe you could get me an Indian doll!" put in Nan.
+
+"Oh, no! We couldn't think of letting you go, Bert," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"The cowboys will be gone several nights, and will sleep out on the
+open prairie. When you get bigger you may go."
+
+Bert looked so disappointed that the foreman said:
+
+"I'll tell you what we can do. Toward the end of the round-up the boys
+drive the cattle into the corrals not far from here. The children can
+go over then and see how the cowboys cut out different steers, and how
+we send some of the cattle over to the railroad to be shipped back
+east. That will be seeing part of the round-up, anyhow."
+
+And with this Bert had to be content. He and Nan, with Flossie and
+Freddie, watched the cowboys riding away on their ponies, shouting,
+laughing, waving their hats and firing their revolvers.
+
+While the round-up was hard work for the cowboys, still they had
+exciting times at it and they always were glad when it came. The ranch
+seemed lonesome after the band of cowboys had ridden away, but Sing
+Foo, the Chinese cook, was left, and one or two of the older men to
+look after things around the buildings. Mr. Dayton also stayed to see
+about matters for Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+It was well on toward fall now, though the weather was still warm. The
+days spent by the Bobbsey twins in the great West had passed so
+quickly that the children could hardly believe it was almost time for
+them to go back to Lakeport.
+
+"Can't we stay here all winter?" asked Bert. "If I'm going to be a
+cowboy I'd better stay on a ranch all winter."
+
+"Oh, the winters here are very cold," his father said. "We had better
+go back to Lakeport for Christmas, anyhow," and he smiled at his wife.
+
+"Maybe Santa Claus doesn't come out here so far," said Freddie.
+
+"Then I don't want to stay," said Flossie. "I want to go where Santa
+Claus is for Christmas."
+
+"I think, then, we'd better plan to go back home," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+It was rather lonesome at the ranch now, with so many of the cowboys
+away, but the children managed to have good times. The two smaller
+twins often went riding in the pony cart, while Bert and Nan liked
+saddle-riding best.
+
+One day as Bert and his sister started off their mother said to them:
+"Don't go too far now. I think there is going to be a storm."
+
+"We won't go far!" Bert promised.
+
+Now the two saddle ponies were feeling pretty frisky that day. They
+seemed to know cold weather was coming, when they would have to trot
+along at a lively pace to keep warm. And perhaps Nan and Bert,
+remembering that they were soon to leave the ranch, rode farther and
+faster than they meant to.
+
+At any rate they went on and on, and pretty soon Nan said:
+
+"We had better go back. We never came so far away before, all alone.
+And I think it's going to rain!"
+
+"Yes, it does look so," admitted Bert. "And I guess we had better go
+back. I thought maybe I could see some of the cowboys coming home from
+the round-up, but I guess I can't."
+
+The children turned their ponies about, and headed them for the ranch
+house. As they did so the rain drops began to fall, and they had not
+ridden a half mile more before the storm suddenly broke.
+
+"Oh, look at the rain!" cried Nan.
+
+"And _feel_ it!" exclaimed Bert. "This is going to be a big
+storm! Let's put on our ponchos."
+
+The children carried ponchos on their saddles. A poncho is a rubber
+blanket with a hole in the middle. To wear it you just put your head
+through the hole, the rubber comes down over your shoulders and you
+are kept quite dry, even in a hard storm.
+
+Bert and Nan quickly put on their ponchos and then started their
+ponies again. The rain was now coming down so hard that the brother
+and sister could scarcely see where they were going.
+
+"Are we headed right for the house?" asked Nan.
+
+"I--I guess so," answered Bert. "But I'm not sure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+NEW NAMES
+
+
+Bert and Nan rode on through the rain which seemed to come down harder
+and harder. Soon it grew so dark, because it was getting to be late
+afternoon and because of the rain clouds, that the children could not
+see in the least where they were going.
+
+"Oh, Bert, maybe we are lost!" said Nan, with almost a sob as she
+guided her pony up beside that of her brother.
+
+"Oh, I don't guess we are exactly _lost_," he said. "The ponies
+know their way back to the ranch houses, even if we don't."
+
+"Do you think so?" Nan asked.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Dayton told me if ever I didn't know which way to go, just
+to let the reins rest loose on the horse's neck, and he'd take me
+home."
+
+"We'll do that!" decided Nan.
+
+But whether the ponies did not know their way, or whether the ranch
+buildings were farther off than either Bert or Nan imagined, the
+children did not know. All they knew was that they were out in the
+rain, and they did not seem to be able to get to any shelter. There
+were no trees on the prairies about Three Star ranch, as there were in
+the woods at Lumberville.
+
+"Oh, Bert, what shall we do?" cried Nan. "It's getting terribly dark
+and I'm afraid!"
+
+Bert was a little afraid also, but he was not going to let his sister
+know that. He meant to be brave and look after her. They rode along a
+little farther, and suddenly Nan cried:
+
+"Oh, Bert! Look! Indians!"
+
+Bert, who was riding along with his head bent low to keep the rain out
+of his face, glanced up through the gathering dusk. He saw, just ahead
+of him and coming toward him and his sister a line of men on horses.
+But Bert either looked more closely than did his sister or else he
+knew more about Indians. For after a second glance he cried:
+
+"They aren't Indians! They're cowboys! Hello, there!" cried the boy.
+"Will you please show us the way to the house on Three Star ranch?"
+
+Some of the leading cowboys pulled up their horses, and stopped on
+hearing this call. They peered through the rain and darkness and saw
+the two children on ponies.
+
+"Who's asking for Three Star ranch?" cried one cowboy.
+
+"We are!" Bert answered. "We're the Bobbsey twins!"
+
+"Oh, ho! I thought so!" came back the answer. "Well, don't worry!
+We'll take you home all right!"
+
+With that some of the cowboys (and they really were that and not
+Indians) rode closer to Nan and Bert. And as soon as Bert caught a
+glimpse of the faces of some of the men he cried:
+
+"Why, you belong to Three Star!"
+
+"Sure!" answered one, named Pete Baldwin. "We're part of the Three
+Star outfit coming back from the round-up. But where are you two
+youngsters going?"
+
+"We came out for a ride," answered Bert "but it started to rain, and
+we want to go home."
+
+"Well, you won't get home the way you are going," said Pete. "You were
+traveling right away from home when we met you. Turn your ponies
+around, and head them the other way. We'll ride back with you."
+
+Bert and Nan were glad enough to do this.
+
+"It's a good thing we met you," said Bert, as he rode beside Pete
+Baldwin. "And did you catch the Indians?"
+
+"Yes, we found them, and got back your mother's cattle--all except one
+or two we gave them."
+
+"And is the round-up all over?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes, except for some cattle a few of the boys will drive in to-morrow
+or next day," the cowboy answered. "You can see 'em then. It's a good
+thing you youngsters had those rubber ponchos, or you'd be soaked
+through."
+
+The cowboys each had on one of these rubber blankets, and they did not
+mind the rain. Some of them even sang as their horses plodded through
+the wet.
+
+Bert and Nan were no longer afraid, and in about half an hour they
+rode with their cowboy friends into the cluster of ranch buildings.
+
+"Oh, my poor, dear children! where have you been?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
+"Daddy and Mr. Dayton were just going to start hunting for you! What
+happened?"
+
+"We got lost in the rain, but the cowboys found us," said Bert.
+
+"And first I thought they were Indians," added Nan, as she shook the
+water from her hair.
+
+"Well, it's a good thing they did find you," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+The two Bobbsey twins were given some warm milk to drink, and soon
+they were telling Flossie and Freddie about their ride in the rain.
+
+"I wish I could see an Indian," sighed Freddie.
+
+"All I want now is an Indian doll," said Nan.
+
+Two days later the cowboys came riding in with a bunch of cattle which
+they had rounded-up and cut out from a larger herd. These steers were
+to be shipped away, but, for a time, were kept in a corral, or
+fenced-in pen, near the ranch buildings. There Bert and the other
+children went to look at the big beasts, and the Bobbsey twins watched
+the cowboys at work.
+
+It was about a week after Bert and Nan had been lost in the rain that
+Mrs. Bobbsey met the foreman, Charles Dayton on the porch of the ranch
+house one day.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Dayton!" called the children's mother, "I have had a letter
+from your brother Bill, who has charge of my lumber tract. He is
+coming on here."
+
+"Bill is coming here?" exclaimed the cattleman in great surprise.
+"Well, I'm right happy to hear that. I'll be glad to see him. Haven't
+seen him for several years. Is he coming here just to see me?"
+
+"No," answered Mrs. Bobbsey, "he is coming here to see Mr. Bobbsey and
+myself about some lumber business. After we left your brother found
+there were some papers I had not signed, so, instead of my going back
+to Lumberville, I asked your brother to come here. I can sign the
+papers here as well as there, and this will give you two brothers a
+chance to meet."
+
+"I am glad of that!" exclaimed the cattleman. "I suppose Bill and I
+are going to be kept pretty busy--he among the trees and I among the
+cattle--so we might not get a chance to meet for a long time, only for
+this."
+
+"That's what I thought," said Mrs. Bobbsey, while Bert and Nan
+listened to the talk, "Well, your brother will be here next week."
+
+"Oh, I'll be glad to see him!" exclaimed Bert.
+
+"So will I!" echoed Nan. "I like our lumberman."
+
+During the week that followed the Bobbsey twins had good times at
+Three Star ranch. The weather was fine, but getting colder, and Mr.
+and Mrs. Bobbsey began to think of packing to go home. They would do
+this, they said, as soon as they had signed the papers Bill Dayton was
+bringing to them.
+
+And one day, when the wagon had been sent to the same station at which
+the Bobbseys left the train some months before, the ranch foreman came
+into the room where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were talking with the
+children and said:
+
+"He's here!"
+
+"Who?" asked Bert's father.
+
+"My brother Bill! He just arrived! My, but he has changed!"
+
+"And I suppose he said the same thing about you," laughed Mrs.
+Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, he did," admitted the ranch foreman. "It's been a good while
+since we were boys together. Much has happened since then."
+
+Bill Dayton came in to see Mrs. Bobbsey. The two brothers looked very
+much alike when they were together, though Bill was younger. They
+appeared very glad to see one another.
+
+Bill Dayton had brought quite a bundle of papers for Mr. and Mrs.
+Bobbsey to sign in connection with the timber business, and it took
+two days to finish the work. During that time the Bobbsey twins had
+fun in a number of ways, from riding on ponies and in the cart, to
+watching the cowboys.
+
+One day when Nan and Bert were putting their ponies in the stable
+after a ride, they saw the two Dayton brothers talking together near
+the barn. Without meaning to listen, the Bobbsey twins could not help
+hearing what was said.
+
+"Don't you think we ought to tell the boss?" asked the ranch foreman
+of his brother, the timber foreman.
+
+"You mean tell Mr. Bobbsey?" asked Bill Dayton.
+
+"Yes, tell Mrs. Bobbsey--she's the boss as far as we are concerned. We
+ought to tell them that our name isn't Dayton--or at least that that
+isn't the only name we have. They've been so good to us that we ought
+to tell them the truth," answered Charles.
+
+"I suppose we ought," agreed Bill. "We'll do it!"
+
+And then they walked away, not having noticed Bert or Nan.
+
+The two Bobbsey twins looked at one another.
+
+"I wonder what they meant?" asked Nan.
+
+"I don't know," answered her brother. "We'd better tell daddy or
+mother."
+
+A little later that day Bert spoke to his father, asking:
+
+"Daddy, can a man have two names?"
+
+"Two names? Yes, of course. His first name and his last name."
+
+"No, I mean can he have two last names?" went on Bert.
+
+"Not generally," Mr. Bobbsey said "I think it would be queer for a man
+to have two last names."
+
+"Well, the two foremen have two last names," said Bert. "Haven't they,
+Nan?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked their father.
+
+Then Bert and Nan told of having overheard Bill and Charles talking
+about the need for telling Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey the truth about their
+name.
+
+"What do you suppose this means?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife.
+
+"I don't know," she replied. "But you remember we did think there was
+something queer about Bill Dayton at the lumber camp."
+
+"I know we did. I think I'll have a talk with the two foremen," Mr.
+Bobbsey went on. "Maybe they would like to tell us something, but feel
+a little nervous over it. I'll just ask them a few questions."
+
+And later, when Mr. Bobbsey did this, speaking of what Nan and Bert
+had overheard, Bill Dayton said:
+
+"Yes, Mr. Bobbsey, we have a secret to tell you. We were going to some
+time ago, but we couldn't make up our minds to it. Now we are glad Nan
+and Bert heard what we said. I'm going to tell you all about it."
+
+"You children had better run into the house," said Mr. Bobbsey to Nan
+and Bert, who stood near by.
+
+"Oh, let them stay," said the ranch foreman. "It isn't anything they
+shouldn't hear, and it may be a lesson to them. To go to the very
+bottom, Mr. Bobbsey, Dayton isn't our name at all."
+
+"What is, then?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Hickson," was the unexpected answer. "We are Bill and Charley
+Hickson. We took the name of Dayton when we ran away from home, as
+that was our mother's name before she was married. And we have been
+called Bill and Charley Dayton ever since. But Hickson is our real
+name."
+
+Bert and Nan looked at one another. They felt that they were on the
+edge of a strange secret.
+
+"Bill and Charley Hickson!" exclaimed Nan.
+
+"Oh, is your father's name Hiram?" Bert asked excitedly.
+
+"Hiram? Of course it is!" cried Bill. "Hiram Hickson is the name of
+our father!"
+
+"Hurray!" shouted Bert.
+
+"Oh, oh!" squealed Nan.
+
+"Then we've found you!" yelled both together.
+
+"Found us?" echoed Bill. "Why, we weren't lost! That is, we--" he
+stopped and looked at his brother.
+
+"There seems to be more of a mystery here," said Charley Hickson to
+give him his right name. "Do you know what it is?" he asked Mr.
+Bobbsey.
+
+"Oh, let me tell him!" cried Bert
+
+"And I want to help!" added Nan.
+
+"We know where your father is!" went on Bert eagerly.
+
+"His name is Hiram Hickson!" broke in Nan.
+
+"And he works in our father's lumberyard," added Bert.
+
+"He said he had two boys who--who went away from home," said Nan, not
+liking to use the words "ran away."
+
+"And the boys names were Charley and Bill," went on Bert. "He said he
+wished he could find you, and we said, when we started away from home,
+that maybe we could help. But I didn't ever think we could."
+
+"I didn't either," said Nan.
+
+"Well, you seem to have found us all right," said Bill Dayton Hickson,
+to give him his complete name. "Of course I'm not sure this Hiram
+Hickson who works in your lumberyard is the same Hiram Hickson who is
+our father," he added to Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"I believe he is," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "Three such names could
+hardly be alike unless the persons were the same. But I'll write to
+him and find out."
+
+"And tell him we are sorry we ran away from home," added Charles. "We
+haven't had very good luck since--at least, not until we met the
+Bobbsey twins," he went on. "We were two foolish boys, and we ran away
+after a quarrel."
+
+"Your father says it was largely his fault," said Mrs. Bobbsey, who
+had come to join in the talk. "I think you had all better forgive each
+other and start all over again," she added.
+
+"That's what we'll do!" exclaimed Bill.
+
+It was not long before a letter came from Mr. Hickson of Lakeport,
+saying he was sure the ranch and lumber foremen were his two missing
+boys. Mr. Bobbsey sent the old man money to come out to the ranch,
+where Bill and his brother were still staying. And on the day when
+Hiram Hickson was to arrive the Bobbsey twins were very much excited
+indeed.
+
+"Maybe, after all, these won't be his boys," said Nan.
+
+"Oh, I guess they will," declared Bert.
+
+And, surely enough, when Hiram Hickson met the two foremen he held out
+his hands to them and cried:
+
+"My two boys! My lost boys! Grown to be men! Oh, I'm so glad I have
+found you again!"
+
+And then the Bobbseys and the cowboys who had witnessed the happy
+reunion went away and left the father and sons together.
+
+So everything turned out as Bert and Nan hoped it would, after they
+had heard the two foremen speaking of their new name. And, in a way,
+the Bobbsey twins had helped bring this happy time about. If they had
+not gone to the railroad accident, if they had not heard Hiram Hickson
+tell about his long-missing sons, and if they had not heard the cowboy
+and the lumberman talking together, perhaps the little family would
+not have been so happily brought together.
+
+Mr. Hickson and his sons told each other their stories. As the old man
+had said, there had been a quarrel at home, and his two sons, then
+boys, had been hot-headed and had run away. They traveled together for
+a time, and then separated. They did not want to go back home.
+
+As the years went on, the two brothers saw each other once in a while,
+and then for many months they would neither see nor hear from each
+other. They kept the name Dayton, which they had taken after leaving
+their father. As for Mr. Hickson, at first he did not try to find his
+sons, but after his anger died away he felt lonely and wanted them
+back. He felt that it was because of his queerness that they had gone
+away.
+
+But, though he searched, he could not find them.
+
+"And I might never have found you if I hadn't been in the train wreck
+and met the Bobbsey twins," said Mr. Hickson. "Coming to Lakeport was
+the best thing I ever did."
+
+"How's everything back in Lakeport?" asked Bert of Mr. Hickson, after
+the first greetings between father and sons were over.
+
+"Oh, just about the same," was the answer, "We haven't had any more
+train wrecks, thank goodness."
+
+"But we were in one!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"So I heard. Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt. But I must begin to
+think of getting back to your lumberyard, I guess, Mr. Bobbsey."
+
+"No, you're going to live with us," declared Charley. "Part of the
+time you can spend on Three Star ranch with me, and the rest of the
+time you can live with Bill in the woods."
+
+"Well, that will suit me all right," said Mr. Hickson, and so it was
+arranged. He was to spend the winter on the ranch, where he would help
+his son with Mrs. Bobbsey's cattle. Bill Hickson went back to the
+lumber camp, and a few days later the Bobbsey twins left for home.
+
+Nan had her wish in getting an Indian doll. One day, just before they
+were to leave the ranch, a traveling band of Indians stopped to buy
+some cattle. The Indian women had papooses, and some of the Indian
+children had queer dolls, made of pieces of wood with clothes of bark
+and skin. Mr. Bobbsey bought four of the dolls, one each for Nan and
+Flossie, and two for Nan's girl friends at home. For Bert and Freddie
+were purchased some bows and arrows and some Indian moccasins, or
+slippers, and head-dresses of feathers. So, after all, the Bobbsey
+twins really saw some Indians.
+
+"Good-bye, Bobbsey twins!" cried all the cowboys, and they fired their
+revolvers in the air. The Bobbseys were seated in the wagon, their
+baggage around them, ready to go to the station at Cowdon to take the
+train for the return to Lakeport. "Come and see us again!" yelled the
+cowboys.
+
+"We will!" shouted Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie. They were
+driven over the prairie to the railroad station, looking back now and
+then to see the shouting, waving cowboys and Charles Hickson and his
+father. The Bobbsey twins left happy hearts behind them.
+
+And now, as they are on their homeward way, back to Dinah and Sam,
+back to Snoop and Snap, we will take leave of the Bobbsey twins.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West, by 
+Laura Lee Hope
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