“Why, this calf has been roaming around the pasture lot,” explained the hired man, “and he’s got a lot of burdock burrs and other stickers all over his head. No wonder he looked like a bear. My, but you are a sight, Sukie!” he said to the calf, to which, he explained later, he had given that odd name. “I’ll have to get a curry comb and brush and clean you up,” he went on, as he began pulling the burrs from the animal’s shaggy head.
“Is that all it was—a calf?” asked Flossie.
“That’s all,” said Zeek.
“It looked like a bear,” Freddie remarked. Both children, but especially Freddie, felt a little disappointed, now their fright was over, to find that their “bear” was only a calf.
“I haven’t the least doubt of that,” chuckled Zeek, in answer to Freddie’s remark. “He’s got a head almost as big as a buffalo’s.”
This was true. Sukie had rambled into one briar and burr patch after another. Then he had found his way down near a lower part of the barn connected with the fodder tunnel. The calf had gotten into this tunnel, which was used as a passage way from one part of the building to another. And, pushing along, the calf, with his head looking like a “bear” as Flossie thought, had confronted the little girl.
When she and Freddie ran back into the main barn, the calf followed them, and, hoping to get something to eat, possibly, had pushed the door open.
“It will be a week before you look like yourself again,” said Zeek to the calf. “But I suppose you didn’t know any better. Well, I’ll turn you out where you belong,” and he led the calf to a side door, and a little later the children saw the hired man using a curry comb on the creature.
Never was there such a jolly place to have fun as Cloverbank. Not only was there the big farmhouse with its attic containing many wonderful things, but there were barns, an ice-house, a smokehouse, and many other buildings where all sorts of games could be played. The attic alone would keep the children busy two or three rainy days at least, Mrs. Watson said.
But, as yet, the Bobbsey twins had done no more than peer into the delightful attic. While the sun shone they wanted to be out of doors, and for the first week of their visit to the farm the weather was fine. It was just what was needed to allow the peach crop to be gathered.