But Bobby, while he may not have felt silly, certainly was feeling far from comfortable as he walked home. And when he reached home and saw the car in the garage, which meant that Father Blossom was home earlier than usual, he wished that it was not Saturday. If it had been, say, Tuesday, his father would not have come home to lunch.
“Now, Bobby, I want you to stay in the house this afternoon and play,” said Mother Blossom cheerfully. “You haven’t been in the house hardly an hour since the holiday began. You and Meg think of something you want to do, and if Dot and Twaddles can play it, too, that will be lovely. Your father and I are going over accounts and we want to have a few hours of quiet.”
“Oh, dear, he isn’t even going anywhere,” thought poor Bobby, toiling upstairs after Meg and the noisy twins who were headed for the playroom. He had been hoping, during lunch, that Father Blossom would go for a drive in the car and perhaps take Mother Blossom with him.
“What ails you, Bobby?” asked Meg when they reached the third floor front room, given over to the four little Blossoms as a winter place to play. “I’ve asked you twice what you want to do and you don’t say anything.”
“There’s the doorbell,” said Bobby, running into the hall to look over the banisters. It was only the laundryman and he came back, relieved.
“Mother says it isn’t nice to hang over the railing when the bell rings,” said Meg reprovingly.
“I don’t care, I will if I want to,” was Bobby’s answer to this. “What shall we play?”
“Soap bubbles,” suggested Dot, and this seemed to suit everyone, so Meg brought out the bowls and the pipes and an apron for Dot who was sure to need one.
The bell rang three times while Bobby was blowing soap bubbles and each time his heart gave a fearful thump. He was afraid Mr. Bennett had come to complain about the carpenter shop. But none of the rings brought him, and Bobby was beginning to think the carpenter was not coming that afternoon when suddenly he heard Norah calling him from the second floor hall.
“Bobby!” she called. “Bobby, your father wants you right away.”