CHAPTER XXII
HOME AGAIN
Poor Flossie Bobbsey seemed to be covered from head to foot with the dough she had mixed to make peach tarts as she had seen Nan doing. Of course there may have been a few spots on the little girl that were not covered with the mixture of flour and water, but there were not many. Flossie had made her dough “very sloppy,” as Bert said, and it splattered all about. There was much on the floor, some on the chair, but most of it was on Flossie.
“Oh, you poor child! What in the world were you trying to do?” cried Nan, as she ran across the room to pick up her little sister.
“I was—now—I was makin’ tarts!” sobbed Flossie. “Did I break Mrs. Watson’s mixing bowl, Nan?” For her eyes were so filled with flour that she could not see out of them now.
“No, the bowl isn’t broken,” answered Nan kindly. “And I’ll help you clean up, Flossie. Oh, but it is a terrible mess!” she sighed.
Mrs. Bobbsey and Mrs. Watson, hearing the crash of Flossie’s fall, had run to the kitchen. They could tell at once what had happened, but Flossie thought it best to explain.
“I was making peach tarts,” she said. “But I didn’t finish.”
“Never mind,” soothed her mother, for Flossie had been punished enough, Mrs. Bobbsey thought. “You may have some of Nan’s tarts.”
And when Flossie had been washed and a clean dress put on her, she was given one of the first of the tarts from the oven. For Nan’s baking turned out wonderfully well.
“You’re getting to be quite a cook,” complimented Mr. Watson at the table a little later, when Nan’s tarts were served.
“You can put the story of Flossie and her tarts in your composition, Nan,” suggested Bert.
“Yes, I guess I will,” was his sister’s answer. “I hope some more things happen around here before we go home,” Nan went on. “The more things I have in my composition the better it will be, and maybe I can win the prize.”
“I’d give some one a good prize if he or she could find my lost glasses,” sighed Mrs. Martin. She was still without her spectacles, though she gave up a large part of each day to looking for them.
“I guess you’ll have to wait until your doctor gets back, and then have him write you a prescription for a new pair,” suggested Mr. Watson, as he got on the floor to “play horse” with Baby Jenny.
“I think some one must have taken them, either by mistake or on purpose,” said the old lady. “I remember perfectly well that I had them the day the cattle ran away. Then I laid them down and some one must have come in and picked them up.”
“Who would do such a thing as that?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Well, some of those cattle men might,” Mrs. Martin answered. “Those were rough fellows and they might take a notion to my glasses. The frames were of solid gold.”
“But all the men who drove the cattle were young fellows,” said Mr. Watson. “None of them wore glasses.”
“Well, I don’t know,” sighed Mrs. Watson’s cousin. “I wish I had my glasses, that’s all I can say.”
The happy days at Cloverbank were drawing to a close. Mr. Bobbsey planned to take his family back home in about a week, so the children could resume their studies at school.
“But first I must get some more things to put in my composition,” Nan said. “Are you going to work on yours, Bert?” she asked her brother, as she saw him wandering about the house as if searching for something. “Are you looking for a pencil and paper?”
“I’m looking for my pole,” he said. “I’m going fishing with Sam. I have lots of time to write a composition after I get back to Lakeport.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Nan. “I’m going to write my composition after I get home, but I want some things to happen here so I’ll have plenty of incidents, as Miss Skell calls them.”
In the days that followed the Bobbsey twins had much fun. They went on picnics to the woods and to Buttermilk Glen, but Bert kept away from the pirate’s cave.
The children played in the barns, they helped feed the chickens and gathered the eggs. Old Speck came off her nest beneath the barn with a brood of ten little chickens and was put in a coop near the house. Flossie and Freddie devoted themselves to this little family, feeding them and giving them water every day.
When another crop of hay was gathered, the twins were allowed to ride on top of the loads as they were brought in from the field, though Nan did not again try to operate the trolley fork. Twice Bert and Sam went fishing, and once they took Freddie who, to his great delight, caught a good-sized chub. But it dropped off the hook when close to the bank and flapped its way back toward the creek.
“I’ll get you! I’ll get you!” shouted the little fellow, and he threw himself on the fish so vigorously that he slipped and went into the water himself. But Bert and Sam soon pulled him out.
The late crop of peaches was being picked when it was time for the Bobbsey family to return home. Mr. Bobbsey had gone to Lakeport to attend to some business, but was coming back to drive his family home in the automobile.
“Only one day more,” sighed Nan, one afternoon, when word came in a letter that Mr. Bobbsey would arrive the following morning and that the twins must be ready to leave. “Oh, it’s so wonderful here I could stay forever!”
“So could I,” Bert said. “But at the same time I’ll be glad to get back home and see the fellows. We’re going to have a football eleven this season, and maybe I’ll be captain.”
“And I suppose I’ll be glad to get home after I arrive,” said Nan. “Anyhow, I want to see if I can win the composition prize. And that reminds me, I want to gather some yellow flowers I saw the other day and didn’t know what they were. Miss Skell said we should put in something about the trees and the flowers we saw.”
So Nan, taking Flossie and Freddie with her, went to gather the blossoms, so she could find out their name, while Bert went on a last fishing trip with Sam.
Bert came back from his trip with a fine string of fish which were cooked for the evening meal. Mr. Watson said he would miss this treat, as he was so busy he seldom had time to go to the creek with hook and line.
Early the next morning all was in readiness for the trip back to Lakeport. The Bobbsey twins, brown as berries from their life out of doors, once again put on their “good clothes,” valises were packed, and the auto was brought to the door.
“Have you got room for these?” asked Mr. Watson, pointing to three baskets of choice peaches on the porch. “I sorted these out especially for you. They’ll stand the journey, if you don’t jounce them too much over the rough roads, and when you get them home, Nan, you can make some more tarts.”
“Indeed we’ll make room for the peaches!” said Mr. Bobbsey. “And very glad we are to have them.”
“If we could take some bees home, we could have some honey, too,” remarked Freddie.
They all laughed at this, and the farmer said:
“I’m afraid it would be dangerous to carry bees. But in the fall I’ll send you some honey.”
“Well, good-bye, folks!” called Zeek. “I’ve got to go back to the peach orchard. We’re getting in the last load now and I don’t want anything to happen to it.”
The children and their parents said farewell to the kind hired man, and Mrs. Martin called after him:
“If you find my lost glasses anywhere, Zeek, bring them back with you.”
“I will,” he promised, though of course as she had lost them around the house, he would hardly find them in the orchard.
“Good-bye! Good-bye! Good-bye!” was called over and over again, Baby Jenny waving her little hand to the travelers. Then, with a jolly tooting of the auto horn, the Bobbseys began their homeward journey.
There was no delay and no such experiences as had befallen them on their trip to Cloverbank, although there was one detour that made, for a short time, a little rough going, and that evening they reached their home in Lakeport. Dinah and Sam were at the house, waiting to greet them.
“How’s all mah honey lambs?” asked the fat cook, as she took some of the baggage Mrs. Bobbsey handed out.
“We’re all well, thank you, Dinah,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Did you and Sam have a good vacation?”
“Jes’ fine!” answered Sam.
“But Ah suah did miss de chilluns!” murmured Dinah. “Whut all am dis?” she asked as she saw the baskets in the car.
“Those are some peaches Mr. Watson gave us,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“I’m going to make peach tarts,” added Nan.
“I think those peaches had better be sorted,” observed Mr. Bobbsey. “We went over a bit of rough road in making that detour, and some fruit may be bruised.”
“That’s right,” agreed his wife. “And as Mr. Watson told us, a few bruised peaches in a basket may spoil the whole lot. We’ll turn them out on the table and sort them.” This work was begun as soon as the Bobbseys had rested a little while.
As the last peaches from one of the baskets rolled out on the table, Nan, looking in the bottom of the container, uttered a cry, darted out her hand, and said:
“Look! I’ve found Mrs. Martin’s glasses!”
“Mrs. Martin’s glasses!” exclaimed her mother. “Where were they?”
“In the bottom of that basket, covered with the peaches,” said Nan. “Look!” She held out the spectacle case which, when it was opened, proved to contain the old lady’s glasses, not in the least harmed.
“How did they get there?” asked Bert.
No one knew, of course, but it was thought that the empty peach basket must have been on the porch at the time of the cattle scare. Mrs. Martin must either have dropped or, in her excitement, have put the glasses in the basket. Later it was set out in the shed, no one looking to see if it contained anything. The glasses must have remained in the basket all the while, and even when the peaches were put in to be given to Mr. Bobbsey, no one saw the spectacle case. The case was about the color of the basket, and, of course, a spectacle case is not large.
“But here they are, safe, and how glad Mrs. Martin will be,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I’ll mail them right back to her.”
This was done, and a grateful letter of thanks came in reply a few days later.
“Baby Jenny misses the children,” Mrs. Watson had added in a postscript to her cousin’s missive.
“And we miss her,” said Nan. “But I’ve got something more to put in my composition—I’m going to write about the lost glasses and how they were found in the peaches.”
School opened about a week later, and after the first few sessions Miss Skell brought up the subject of the vacation compositions. She gave the children three days in which to write and hand in their essays, and Nan worked hard. Bert also wrote one, but he spent so little time over it that his mother said he would not stand much chance of winning the prize.
At last the day came when the decision was to be made. There were some anxious hearts among the boys and girls in Miss Skell’s class as the teacher faced them ready to tell who had won the prize.
“Most of you did very well,” said their instructor. “Much better than I expected. There were some excellent compositions handed in—and some very poor and short ones.” As she said this she seemed to look at Bert Bobbsey. “But the best of all was Nan Bobbsey’s,” went on Miss Skell. “So I award her the prize and I am going to ask her to come up here and read her composition to you. I think you will all enjoy it. The name of it is ‘A Vacation in the Country.’ Come, Nan.”
Nan blushed, but, proud and happy, she read her story and the boys and girls all said it was most interesting. Nan told in an entertaining way about many of the incidents that had taken place at Cloverbank, and on the way there and back, just as they have been told to you here.
“Now what books do you want for a prize?” asked Miss Skell, when Nan had finished.
“A set of nice story books for girls, if you please,” was the answer.
And that is what Nan received a little later. She still has those books, and thinks them the best in her little library.
“Well, we certainly had fun at Cloverbank,” said Bert to his brother and sisters that afternoon on their way home from school, Nan hurrying to tell the good news about winning the prize.
“Lots of fun,” she agreed.
“Wasn’t it funny when Freddie and I saw the bear that turned into a calf?” laughed Flossie.
“And wasn’t it fun that day when we played outdoors in the rain?” asked Freddie. “I wonder if we’ll ever have fun like that again?”
“Oh, I guess so,” said Bert.
Whether the Bobbsey twins did or not remains to be seen.
THE END
This Isn’t All!
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in this book?
Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?
On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store where you got this book.
Don’t throw away the Wrapper
Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete catalog.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS
For Little Men and Women
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of “The Bunny Brown Series,” Etc.
Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itself.
These books for boys and girls between the ages of three and ten stands among children and their parents of this generation where the books of Louisa May Alcott stood in former days. The haps and mishaps of this inimitable pair of twins, their many adventures and experiences are a source of keen delight to imaginative children everywhere.
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 THE GREAT WEST
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR
THE BOBBSEY TWINS CAMPING OUT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND BABY MAY
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of the Popular “Bobbsey Twins” Books, Etc.
Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itself.
These stories are eagerly welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten years of age. Their eyes fairly dance with delight at the lively doings of inquisitive little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue.
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 CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU’S CITY HOME
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
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE KEEPING STORE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR TRICK DOG
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT A SUGAR CAMP
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON THE ROLLING OCEAN
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON JACK FROST ISLAND
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of The Bobbsey Twins Books, The Bunny
Brown Series, The Blythe Girls Books, Etc.
Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itself.
Delightful stories for little boys and girls which sprung into immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunkers is to take them at once to your heart, they are so intensely human, so full of fun and cute sayings. Each story has a little plot of its own—one that can be easily followed—and all are written in Miss Hope’s most entertaining manner. Clean, wholesome volumes which ought to be on the bookshelf of every child in the land.
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
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MAMMY JUNE’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT FARMER JOEL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MILLER NED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT INDIAN JOHN’S
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS
By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE
Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations Drawn by
WALTER S. ROGERS
Honey Bunch is a dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to your heart at once.
Little girls everywhere will want to discover what interesting experiences she is having wherever she goes.
HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST AUTO TOUR
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP ON THE OCEAN
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP WEST
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST SUMMER ON AN ISLAND
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
THE BLYTHE GIRLS BOOKS
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations by
THELMA GOOCH
Every Volume Complete in Itself
The Blythe girls, three in number, were left alone in New York City. Helen, who went in for art and music, kept the little flat uptown, while Margy, just out of a business school, obtained a position as a private secretary and Rose, plain-spoken and businesslike, took what she called a “job” in a department store.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: HELEN, MARGY AND ROSE
A fascinating tale of real happenings in the great metropolis.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: MARGY’S QUEER INHERITANCE
The Girls had a peculiar old aunt and when she died she left an unusual inheritance.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: ROSE’S GREAT PROBLEM
Rose, still at work in the big department store, is one day faced with the greatest problem of her life.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: HELEN’S STRANGE BOARDER
Helen goes to the assistance of a strange girl, whose real identity is a puzzle. Who the girl really was comes as a tremendous surprise.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: THREE ON A VACATION
The girls go to the country for two weeks—and fall in with all sorts of curious and exciting happenings.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: MARGY’S SECRET MISSION
Of course we cannot divulge the big secret, but nevertheless the girls as usual have many exciting experiences.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: ROSE’S ODD DISCOVERY
A very interesting story, telling how Rose aided an old man in the almost hopeless search for his daughter.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HELEN
Helen calls on the art dealer on business and finds the old fellow has made a wonderful discovery.
THE BLYTHE GIRLS: SNOWBOUND IN CAMP
An absorbing tale of winter happenings, full of excitement.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
Transcriber’s note
Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. The titles of the books on the ad pages were standardized. The following Printer errors have been changed.
| =CHANGED= | =FROM= | =TO= |
| Page [18]: | “But this proveh” | “But this proved” |
| Page [34]: | “get up a basball nine” | “get up a baseball nine” |
| Page [89]: | “when it was t me to arise” | “when it was time to arise” |
| Page [108]: | “Get aboard, Zeek.” | “Get a board, Zeek.” |
| Page [149]: | “but Jed the way” | “but led the way” |
| Page [198]: | “gave me the perscription” | “gave me the prescription” |
| Page [221]: | “head was nodning” | “head was nodding” |