“I think you ought to spank Tim Roon,” said Twaddles clearly. “He tripped Morgan three times and he won’t leave us alone.”
“Is that so?” said Stanley. “Well, in that case I think I’ll excuse you, Morgan. But next time you leave fire alone. And Tim, I’ll attend to you if I hear you’ve been bothering children younger than yourself again.”
Tim skated off muttering that “he guessed Stanley Reeves didn’t own the whole pond.” Yet after that the children had their slide in peace. Bobby and Meg called the twins when the whistles blew at twelve o’clock and they went home to lunch.
Mother Blossom said that no one should try to skate all day, so Meg and the twins stayed home in the afternoon. But Bobby was due at the dentist’s at three o’clock. His teeth needed cleaning only and he did not dread the visit to kind Dr. Ward.
“Stop in the grocery, will you, Bobby,” said Norah as he was leaving the house. “And bring me a bottle of vanilla. I find I haven’t a drop in the bottle.”
Bobby promised, and as soon as Dr. Ward had finished with him, he crossed over to the grocery store to get Norah’s vanilla.
“Heard about the tramps?” asked the clerk who waited on him.
Bobby asked what tramps and the clerk glanced at him curiously.
“Thought you’d know all about it,” he said. “Why, the constable’s arrested two tramps he caught hanging around the railroad station. Guess they were waiting for a freight—there’s one goes through at two-thirty. They say one of ’em used to work for Bennett, the carpenter, and the other is a pal of his. Folks say they may know something about the fire at the shop last fall.”
Bobby took the bottle of vanilla the clerk gave him and bolted out of the store without a word. He ran all the way home and burst into the house so breathless that he had to wait a minute before he could speak.