CHAPTER XI
BERT HAS AN UPSET
With a thud Freddie crashed down. But instead of hitting the hard ground, he fell into a box of soft peaches, and it was like falling on a load of hay—almost. In fact, some of the peaches were so soft that Freddie was smeared with the pulp and his face and clothes were stained with the juice.
“Oh, Freddie Bobbsey!” cried his mother, who had come up in time to see her little boy fall.
“I—now—I couldn’t help it, Mother! Really I couldn’t!” protested Freddie, as he tried to climb out of the box of soft peaches.
“I know you couldn’t help it, my dear,” his mother said, as she and Bert helped him to climb over the edge of the box. “But you should never lean too far to one side when you are up on a ladder. Oh, Freddie, you are a sad sight!” she sighed as she looked at his soiled garments. “And Mr. Watson’s peaches! Oh, dear!”
“Freddie looks like a peach short-cake,” remarked Nan.
“More like a long-cake,” declared Bert. “He’s got peach pulp all over him.”
“Well, they’re my old clothes, anyhow,” said Freddie, as if that helped some, which it probably did.
“Did you get any peach in your mouth?” asked Flossie.