The rain storm was a hard one and, for midsummer, the day was raw and cold. As the Bobbsey twins could not go out, they managed to have fun in one of the barns. Sam Porter, who had gone fishing with Bert the day the bees swarmed, came over and taught the children some new games.
He and Bert decided to give a “circus act,” as they called it. They made trapezes of bits of harness and some old broom handles and swung by their legs and arms.
“Watch me do the giant’s turn!” cried Bert, as he took an especially long swing on the trapeze. But one of the straps broke, the end of the trapeze bar slipped down, and Bert had a fall.
“Oh!” cried the other children, as they saw the boy drop.
But Bert came to no harm, for the trapezes were over big, deep piles of hay, and he fell on one of these piles. Mr. Bobbsey, when he learned what sort of a game the boys were playing, had insisted that the hay be piled under the trapezes, for he was afraid lest they break.
“It’s lucky that hay was there,” Bert said. “I know now why they put nets under the high trapezes in the circus.”
In the afternoon it had not cleared, and Nan, getting tired of playing in the barn, went back to the house. She heard Mrs. Watson saying to Mrs. Bobbsey:
“If I wasn’t so busy I’d make some peach tarts. There are plenty of soft peaches that ought to be used.”
“Oh, could I make the tarts?” begged Nan. “I know how to make biscuits and I guess I could make tarts.”
“I’ll show you how,” offered her mother, after Mrs. Watson had said Nan might use the kitchen.