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diff --git a/5952.txt b/5952.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5afb9fd --- /dev/null +++ b/5952.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6158 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOBBSEY TWINS IN GREAT WEST *** + +***** This file should be named 5952.txt or 5952.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/9/5/5952/ + +Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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