“Lend me your necktie, Twaddles,” he said suddenly. “Who ever heard of a man without a necktie?”
Twaddles took off his red tie and gave it to Bobby who tied it around the snowman’s neck in a twinkling. And then, before he could get down from the chair, the four little Blossoms heard Aunt Miranda calling. She had come out on the back porch with an apron thrown around her head to keep her from taking cold.
“Meg, Meg,” she called. “Have you seen anything of Uncle Dave’s hat? And his pipe is gone, too. He can’t remember what he did with that.”
Meg looked at Dot and Dot looked at the sky. But before anyone could say a word, Aunt Miranda saw Mr. White and his hat and pipe. How she did laugh! She ran into the house to tell Uncle Dave to come and look, and he came to the door and Norah, too. Uncle Dave had finished his nap and decided to come out and see what the children were doing and that was when he missed his hat and pipe.
“But I wouldn’t think of disturbing a gentleman who needs ’em worse than I do,” he said merrily. “Leave ’em be till tonight, and let your father see how you’ve taken his advice. I don’t want the hat till after supper, anyway.”
Leaving Meg and the twins to admire their snowman, Bobby dashed off to the garage. He felt that he could not wait another moment to hear what the boys wanted to tell him. They were waiting for him with sober faces and Fred looked around as though he feared someone might be listening, as he whispered, “I heard that Mr. Bennett wants to have us all arrested!”
Bobby had not heard a word, but Palmer and Fred had overheard two men talking in the back of a shoemaker’s shop the day before Christmas, as they waited for a pair of shoes to be mended.
“He keeps saying we did it, and he doesn’t mean to wait much longer,” said Palmer. “Do you suppose they’ll put us in prison, Bobby?”
“I—I guess so,” nodded Bobby gloomily. “That is, if they catch us. Say, why don’t we run away?”
This was a new idea, but the other three boys liked it at once. Before they left the garage, their plans were all made to run away that night. There was no use waiting, Bobby said.