“Come on,” said Bobby, “we have to capture the ducks.” (Page 116)

FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS

AT

BROOKSIDE FARM

BY

MABEL C. HAWLEY

AUTHOR OF “FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS AT OAK HILL SCHOOL,” “FOUR LITTLE
BLOSSOMS AND THEIR WINTER FUN,” ETC.

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING
COMPANY

Akron, Ohio New York

Copyright MCMXX

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY

Four Little Blossoms at Brookside Farm

Made in the United States of America

CONTENTS

7

FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS AT BROOKSIDE FARM

CHAPTER I

THE RESCUE OF PHILIP

“Meg!”

The little girl curled up in the window-seat did not move.

“Meg, you know Mother said we were to go before four o’clock, and it’s half-past three now. You’ll wait till the twins come in, and then they’ll want to go, too.” Bobby Blossom looked anxiously at his sister.

Meg put down her book and untangled her feet from the window cushions.

“I’m coming,” she promised. “I never do get a chapter all read, Bobby. Where’s my hat? I see it. I’ll get it!”

Meg’s hat was on the lawn outside where she had dropped it, and now she raised the screen and tumbled through the window to the ground. 8 It wasn’t far to tumble, and Meg had done it so often she was sure of landing safely.

“Norah says no lady goes out of the house through a window,” giggled Bobby, tumbling after Meg and closing the screen carefully. Bobby was always careful to leave everything as he found it.

Meg giggled, too.

“I don’t care, long as I grow up to be a lady like Mother,” she asserted. “Let’s hurry, Bobby, and perhaps we can stop at the library.”

The children had reached the two stone posts at the foot of the lawn when a loud shriek halted them.

“Meg Blossom, you said I could go! Wait for me!”

Down the slightly sloping lawn hurried a short, thick-set little girl with dark eyes and hair and the reddest cheeks you ever saw. She carried a doll whose blue eyes opened and shut snappily with every jump her small mother took. This was Dot, Meg’s little sister.

“You said I could go,” panted Dot, when she caught up with Meg and Bobby. “Wait for 9 Twaddles, he’s coming. He wants to take the kiddie car.”

“I told you so,” scolded Bobby. “I never went uptown in my life all you children didn’t want to tag along. You’ve got grease on your dress, Dot.”

“Sam was cleaning the car,” said Dot serenely. “I guess I brushed against the grease can. It won’t show when I’m sitting down. There’s Twaddles.”

Bumping its way over the green grass came a kiddie car with a small boy astride it.

“I’m all ready,” he beamed. “Come on, Bobby.”

“You can’t take that kiddie car,” announced Bobby firmly. “Mother said this letter was to go in the four o’clock mail and we’ve got to hurry. If you and Dot want to go, you’ll have to walk fast.”

Twaddles usually minded Bobby. He promptly surrendered the kiddie car and continued to smile pleasantly.

The four Blossoms trudged briskly along. If you had ever lived in Oak Hill you would have 10 known them. The whole town knew Meg and Bobby and Dot and Twaddles, and the children knew nearly every one, having lived in that one place all their short lives.

Bobby was the oldest. He was seven, and was remarkably like his sister Meg in looks. Both had fair hair and blue eyes. Meg’s real name was Margaret Alice Blossom, and she was named for her mother. Bobby’s full name was Robert Hayward Blossom. He was just a year older than Meg.

The twins were the funniest and dearest little couple, four years old and as roly-poly, happy-go-lucky a pair of youngsters as ever tumbled into one scrape after another and out again. They were known as Dot and Twaddles to all their friends, but, of course, they had “real” names like other children. Dot was named for an aunt, Dorothy Anna Blossom, and Twaddles was Arthur Gifford Blossom, if you please. Only no one ever called him that.

The Blossom children lived at the very tip end of the long straggling street that divided Oak Hill into two sections; in fact the Blossoms’ 11 rambling, comfortable old house was almost outside the town limits. Father Blossom owned the big foundry on the other side of the railroad.

“I’ll go in,” said Bobby, when they reached the post-office. “You wait here.”

He disappeared into the yellow wooden building that was the Oak Hill post-office, and the other Blossoms, seeing a stalled car, stopped to watch the troubles of the interurban motorman whose trolley-car was blocked by a dog that apparently wanted to be run over.

The motorman clanged his bell and a boy on the curbstone whistled shrilly, but the dog refused to budge. He only rolled over on his side.

“He’s hurt,” said Meg. “See, his foot drags. I’ll get him off.”

She dashed out into the street and bent over the poor animal. Meg was “just crazy,” her brothers said, about animals, and she was never afraid of any four-footed creature. Now, as she leaned over the little dog, he began to lick her hand with his rough tongue.

“His leg’s broken,” Meg said pityingly to the 12 conductor and the motorman who had joined her. “Oh, the poor doggie! But Doctor Maynard will fix it.”

There was a crowd now gathered on the car tracks, and Bobby, who had come out of the post-office and heard from the twins what was going on, pushed his way through to his sister.

“You hold your dress,” he directed. “I’ll lift him. There!”

The little dog was a heavy armful for Meg, but she held him bravely.

“I’m afraid of strange dogs myself,” declared the conductor, plainly relieved that some one else had tended to the dog. “What are you going to do with him, little girl?”

“Take him to the doctor’s,” announced Meg. “Aren’t we, Bobby?”

“Of course,” affirmed Bobby.

He and Meg, carrying the dog, went back to where Twaddles and Dot were waiting. The twins were used to waiting patiently while the older children investigated sudden alarms and excitements.

“Let me pat him,” begged Dot. “He’s pretty, 13 isn’t he? Is he hurt, Meg? What are you going to do with him?”

“Take him to Doctor Maynard’s,” said Meg briefly. “I guess he’s in, ’cause it’s after four o’clock.”

Kind, jolly Doctor Maynard was in. He was the Blossoms’ family doctor, and knew the children very well. He didn’t seem a bit surprised to have the four of them walk into his consulting room.

“Now, who’s sick?” he demanded, pretending to be anxious. “Don’t tell me Dot needs gingerbread pills? Or has Twaddles been eating too much layer cake? Dear, dear, you can’t all have the whooping cough!”

Meg smiled, a little watery smile. Tears stood in her blue eyes.

“It’s this,” she said, spreading out her dress on the couch so that the doctor could see the dog. “I think his leg is broken.”

Doctor Maynard sat down on the couch and the children crowded around him. The brown eyes of the dog watched him intently as though he knew that help was at hand.

14

“Yes, it’s broken,” said the doctor gently, after feeling of the slim little hind leg that dragged so uselessly. “But we can mend it, Meg. I have splints right here.”

While the others watched, Doctor Maynard tore off long white strips of cloth and selected two wooden splints. These he placed one on each side of the broken leg and then directed Meg to wind the strips firmly around while he held the splints in place. This was to make the leg grow strong and straight again.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” demanded Twaddles curiously.

“Yes, it hurts him,” admitted Doctor Maynard, stroking the head of the little dog. “But animals are splendid patients, and they seldom complain. Now, then, our little friend is about as good as new, except that he will have to go on three legs for a bit.”

The telephone rang just then and it proved to be a call for the doctor.

“I’ll have to run along, chicks,” he said hurriedly. “Going to keep the dog, Meg?”

“If Mother doesn’t care,” answered Meg.

15

“Mother won’t care,” said Bobby, as the children were walking home. He was very fond of his sister and tried to help her get whatever she wanted. “Sam will let him sleep in the garage and perhaps he will be a ratter. Sam likes a dog that is a ratter.” Sam Layton was the man of all work employed by Mr. Blossom.

Meg and Bobby took turns carrying the dog home, and Twaddles mourned the fact that the kiddie car had not been brought along.

“I could have given him a ride,” he explained. “What makes his tongue hang out like that, Meg?”

“He’s hot,” said Meg. “And I think he wants a drink. Let’s take him around to the kitchen and give him some water.”

As they neared the kitchen door some one spoke to them through the screen.

“Meg! Meg! What’s this you do be bringing home with ye? A dog? Most likely it has the mange now, or some disease ye will all be catching. Why can’t ye ever take up with a nice, quiet cat? ’Tis no dog I’ll be having in me clean kitchen, mind that!”

16

Meg put the strange dog down on the gravel path. He swayed unsteadily on three legs.

“Look, Norah,” she said. “His leg is broken. Doctor Maynard set it. And we only want to get him a drink of water. He’s thirsty. He needn’t even come into the house.”

Norah had a sharp tongue, but her heart was generous and sweet.

“The poor beastie!” she said, opening the screen door of her jealously guarded kitchen. “Bring him in, Meg. He do be having fever, I suspect. I’ll get him a cup of water. Dear, dear!”

Making a soft, sympathetic, clucking noise, Norah hurried to get a cup of cool water which the little dog lapped up greedily, standing on his three good legs.

“Bobby said he thought Sam would let him sleep in the garage,” said Meg. “I suppose it is cooler there for him. All right, Norah, I’ll carry him out. But we want to show him to Mother.”

“She went to meet your father––she and Sam with the car,” Norah told them. “And if I don’t 17 get my biscuits in, they’ll be back before there’s a thing cooked to eat.”

The children took the hint and hurried to the garage. Bobby and Twaddles spread an old mat for the dog in a cool, dark corner, and very glad he seemed to be to have a place to lie down.

“We’ll bring you some supper,” Meg promised, patting him kindly. “You take a nap and forget ’bout your troubles.”

“There’s the car round front!” shouted Twaddles. “Bet you I see Daddy first.”

“Bet you don’t!” shrieked Dot.

With wild whoops the children tore round to the front of the house and fell upon Father and Mother Blossom just getting out of the car.

“We brought a dog home,” cried Bobby.

“Come out and see him,” urged Meg, clinging to her Mother’s hand. “He’s a dear little dog, and I love him already.”

18

CHAPTER II

AN INVITATION

The Blossoms all went back to the garage and found Sam bending over the sick dog.

“He’s a cute little fellow, Mr. Blossom,” said Sam. “Just a pup, too. Shouldn’t wonder if he turned out to be a good ratter when his leg gets well.”

That was the highest praise Sam could give a dog, and Meg and Bobby were delighted.

“May we keep him, Mother?” they urged. “He can live in the garage. Please, Mother.”

Mother Blossom looked at Father.

“Well, Ralph?” she said.

“Why, keep him, of course,” counseled Father Blossom, laughter-twinkles in his kind eyes. “Norah is the sole objector in the family, and if you can pacify her there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have as many dogs as we want. Named him yet, Meg?”

“I want to think about a name for him,” replied Meg. “You can’t change names, you know, 19 and I wouldn’t want him to have a silly name.”

“That’s my cautious daughter,” said Father Blossom. “And now it seems to me that some one said we were going to have supper early to-night.”

“We are,” declared Mother Blossom. “Children, you have several things to do before you are ready for the table. Your faces and hands are a sight. Bobby, didn’t you go to the post-office? Was there any mail?”

“I forgot, Mother––there was one letter for you,” answered Bobby, pulling a crumpled envelope from his pocket. “The dog kind of took my attention,” he added.

Mother Blossom went into the house to read her letter, and the four children scampered upstairs to wash their faces and hands. Meg and Dot shared the same room, and Bobby and Twaddles slept in the room adjoining. Each child had a little white bed and a separate bureau.

“I s’pose I’d better put on another dress,” said Dot doubtfully. “Mother didn’t say to, though. Shall I, Meg?”

20

“Well, I would,” advised Meg. “Not a spandy clean one, ’cause you mussed up two yesterday. Put on the green one again, can’t you?”

“I tore that,” objected Dot, who certainly had bad luck with her clothes. “Oh, dear, I don’t see why I wasn’t a bird with a dress all glued on.”

“’Most ready?” asked Mother Blossom, who had come upstairs while the little girls were talking. “Let Mother tie your ribbon, Meg. What’s the matter with Dot?”

Meg bubbled into a gay little laugh.

“She was wishing she was a bird with a dress glued on,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”

“Yes, it would,” agreed Mother Blossom. “But bring me the white piqué, dear, and let me help you into it. Daddy is waiting for us.”

Dot was buttoned into a clean dress in a minute, and then Mother Blossom had to call Twaddles away from the basin in the bathroom where he was playing in the water instead of washing his hands, and she had to find a clean handkerchief for Bobby, and then, at last, they could all go downstairs.

21

Father Blossom was playing the mechanical piano, but he stopped as soon as he saw them.

“Everybody here to-night?” he asked. “Well, that is fine! Come on, Dottie-mine, and Daddy will tie your bib for you.”

The twins did not always have supper with Mother and Father Blossom. Sometimes they had their bread and milk at five o’clock and went to bed at half-past six. It was a treat for them to eat supper with their father.

Mother Blossom smiled at the eager faces.

“We’ve company coming,” she announced. “Some one you love to have visit us.”

“When are they coming?” asked Meg.

“To-morrow,” answered Mother Blossom. “If I hadn’t asked Bobby for the mail, we might have been in a great pickle. She’s coming on the nine-fifty-six to-morrow morning.”

“Aunt Polly!” shouted the four little Blossoms.

“Is it Aunt Polly, Mother?”

“How long will she stay?”

“Can we go to meet her?”

“Will she bring a trunk?”

22

Mother Blossom put her hands over her ears.

“Don’t all talk at once,” she begged. “Yes, Aunt Polly is coming. She can’t stay long, not even a week–––”

“But what do you think?” interrupted Father Blossom. “She wants the four Blossoms to go home with her!”

“Ralph, you’re not a bit better than Bobby,” scolded Mother Blossom. “I didn’t want to tell them to-night. However, there’s no use trying to keep a secret in this family. Aunt Polly has invited you all to spend the summer at Brookside Farm.”

Well, of course, the children could talk of nothing else after that. Aunt Polly Hayward was Mother Blossom’s eldest sister. She was a widow and lived on a fine farm many miles distant from the town of Oak Hill. She came often to visit Mother Blossom, and the children thought there was no one like her. To go to see Aunt Polly was a wonderful treat, and even Bobby, who, as the oldest of the four little Blossoms, had had more experiences than the others, 23 had never been away from home in his life to stay.

They were all up early the next morning, and Sam and the car took Father Blossom to the foundry immediately after breakfast so as to be back in time to meet Aunt Polly.

“Aunt Polly’s coming, Norah,” said Meg, happily, as Norah was clearing the table.

“Sure, and I’ve heard nothing else since last night,” rejoined Norah. “How is the dog, your poor patient, this bright morning?”

Bobby and Twaddles and Dot looked at each other.

“The dog?” repeated Bobby. “My goodness, we forgot him!”

“I didn’t forget him,” Meg said. “At least, I remembered him after I was in bed. I came down to feed him, and Daddy heard me and wouldn’t let me go out in my nightgown. He took him some bread and milk. And this morning I fed him before breakfast.”

“How’s he feel?” asked Twaddles sympathetically.

24

“He’s ever so much better,” Meg informed him. “He can wag his leg some.”

“His tail, you mean,” corrected Bobby. “Dogs don’t wag their legs.”

“They do, too,” argued Meg. “Anyway this one does, so that shows he is better. And I’ve thought up a name for him. I’m going to call him Philip.”

Bobby stared.

“What do you want to call him that for?” he said curiously.

“I read it in a book,” answered Meg. “He looks as if he ought to be named Philip.”

Bobby was too surprised to argue, and just then Mother Blossom called to them that Sam was coming back with the car and they hurried out to see who could go to the station.

“Aunt Polly will like to see us,” declared Dot confidently. “And this dress is just as clean, Mother. There’s only a tiny speck of egg on a tuck––it doesn’t show a bit.”

Mother Blossom sat down on the top step and pulled Dot into her lap.

“It’s a duck of a clean frock,” she assured her 25 small daughter, kissing her. “And do you know there’s just one way to avoid disappointment, and we’ll take it; we’ll all go to meet Aunt Polly. If she has any bundles, she’ll just have to leave them, or Sam can tie them on behind.”

Sam grinned.

When they reached the station Mother Blossom announced that the children were to stay quietly in the car while she went around to the front platform to meet Aunt Polly.

“Do you suppose she’ll bring us anything?” asked Twaddles hopefully, as Mother Blossom disappeared around the corner of the ticket window.

“That isn’t polite,” reproved Meg quickly. “You must be glad to see company whether they bring you things or not.”

“There she is!” Dot stood up in the car and pointed. “Aunt Polly!”

“Aunt Polly!” shouted the three other little Blossoms loudly.

26

CHAPTER III

AUNT POLLY

Aunt Polly was short and stout with merry blue eyes and curly dark hair that, where it showed under her pretty hat brim, was just touched with gray.

“Hello, Blessings!” she greeted the children, as they spilled out of the car to meet her. “Every one of you here? That’s fine. How do you do, Sam? I’ve two bags there on the platform, if you will get them.”

When they were all stowed away in the car, Sam put the bags in the front where he and Bobby sat, and backed the car out of the station driveway.

“Well, have you decided to come home with me?” Aunt Polly put the question to them bluntly.

The four little Blossoms glanced uncertainly at each other.

“Polly Hayward,” said Mother Blossom gayly, “you know perfectly well no one could 27 get four children ready to take a journey in three days. Why, Dot has absolutely nothing to wear!”

“Oh, I’ll lend her something,” smiled Aunt Polly.

The children laughed at the idea of Auntie lending any dress of hers to small Dot.

“We’ll fix it somehow,” declared Aunt Polly comfortably. “I simply have to have those youngsters for a visit at Brookside. We’re all getting so fat and lazy with no one to stir us up. Even the dog and cat need rousing.”

“We have a dog, Aunt Polly,” announced Meg, her eyes shining. “His name is Philip.”

Before she had a chance to describe Philip the car reached the Blossom house and stopped at the side door.

“Here I am again, Norah,” said Aunt Polly, as Norah came out to receive her.

“And ’tis glad I am to see ye, Mrs. Hayward,” responded Norah heartily. “I’ll take the bags, Sam. The guest room’s all ready, ma’am.”

The four children went as far as the guest-room 28 door with Aunt Polly, and then Mother Blossom waved them back.

“Auntie and I have a great deal to talk over,” she said. “You run away and amuse yourselves till lunch time, like good little Blossoms.”

“Wait till I give them what I’ve brought them,” hastily interposed Aunt Polly. “Bobby, you open that black bag and the four parcels on top are for you children.”

Bobby opened the bag and took out four packages neatly wrapped in paper and tied with cord.

“How’ll we know which is which?” he asked.

“That’s for you to find out,” returned his aunt, giving him a kiss.

Mother Blossom sat down on the bed and began talking in a low tone to Aunt Polly and the four children raced downstairs and out to the garage to open their presents. They liked the garage because there was plenty of space to play in, where, indeed, they had four empty rooms above the first floor for their own uses.

This morning they rushed upstairs so fast that they never thought of Philip till, as they reached 29 the top step, Meg looked back and saw the little dog painfully hobbling after them on his three good legs.

“He wants to come, too,” she said. “Here, Philip, come on up, good doggie.”

Philip managed to finish his climb and then lay down on the floor, panting, but satisfied to be where his friends were.

“I’ll give each one a package,” Bobby decided. “Then we’ll open them, one at a time, like Christmas. You first, Meg.”

Meg ripped the string off her parcel with a single motion and pulled off the paper in such a hurry that she tore it in two. Meg always hurried to solve mysteries.

“Why, it’s a game!” she cried, when she had opened the box. “All in pieces. Look!”

Bobby took a look and shrieked with delight.

“It’s an airplane,” he announced instantly. “That’s mine, ’cause Aunt Polly knows I like experiments. What you got, Dot?”

Dot hastily unwrapped her package and discovered a doll’s trunk.

“With clothes in it for Geraldine,” she reported, 30 after turning the tiny key and taking a peep inside. “That’s mine all right. What’s Twaddles got?”

Twaddles unwrapped his parcel slowly and importantly. He was sure it was for him, and he rather enjoyed making the others wait.

“Nothing but a book,” he said disgustedly. “What kind of a book is it, Bobby?”

“That’s for Meg,” Bobby informed him. “‘Black Beauty.’ Aunt Polly knows Meg likes to read and is always fussing with animals. I must have your present, Twaddles.”

The four Blossoms were more interested in Twaddles’ gift than in their own because it was the only one they had not seen. Bobby carefully untied the string and wound it up in a neat ring; then he slowly took off the paper and folded that; finally he opened the flat box.

Twaddles promptly tried to stand on his head, a habit he had when he was pleased. He never did succeed in standing on his head, but he usually turned a very good somersault. He did now.

31

“Give it to me,” he shouted, bobbing right side up again. “See, Dot, it’s a water pistol!”

“Well, I don’t think that’s a good thing to give you,” pronounced Meg decisively. “You’ll be hitting Dot in the eye.”

“Won’t, neither,” retorted Twaddles, feeling unjustly accused. “Aunt Polly asked me what I wanted most last time she was here and I told her; and she said if I’d promise not to shoot at people, she’d get me one. So there!”

Bobby, the peace-maker, proposed that they all go in and show their presents to Norah, and he helped Meg carry Philip downstairs because she was sure the trip would hurt his leg. Bobby was never in too much of a hurry to do what Meg wanted him to do.

In the afternoon, after lunch, all the Blossoms went for a long ride in the car, stopping at the foundry office on the way home to pick up Father Blossom. Still nothing was said about the children going home with Aunt Polly.

“Do you suppose Mother will let us?” asked Dot, as Meg was helping her undress that night. “Maybe she’s afraid I will use up my clean 32 dresses too fast, and Aunt Polly won’t have any to put on me. But you could lend me yours, Meg.”

“No, I don’t believe that’s the reason,” said Meg slowly. “I tell you what I think––I think Mother and Daddy have to plan a lot before they know whether we can go. But you ought to be more careful with your dresses, Dot.”

The next morning Mother Blossom announced that if the children would come out on the porch she had something to tell them. There was a general stampede from the breakfast table––Father Blossom had had an early breakfast and had gone before the others were down––and Aunt Polly in the swing and Mother Blossom in a huge rocking-chair were nearly smothered in a shower of kisses.

“Are we going to Brookside?”

“Are we going home with Aunt Polly?”

“Can I learn to milk a cow?”

“Do you have chickens, Aunt Polly?” Four little voices chorused at once.

“Dear, dear,” chuckled Aunt Polly. “So you’ve been thinking about Brookside all this 33 time, have you? And what makes you think your mother wants to talk about the farm with you?”

Four pairs of eyes fixed their anxious gaze upon Mother Blossom.

“Well, dearies,” said Mother Blossom in answer, “Daddy and Aunt Polly and I have talked this over, and we’ve come to a decision. It is impossible for me to get you ready to go home with Aunt Polly to-morrow.”

“Oh, Mother!” mourned Twaddles.

“Would you want to go and leave Mother?” that dear lady asked in surprise.

“Not––not exactly,” stammered the little boy. “But I want to go somewhere awfully.”

“Couldn’t you go, too, Muddie?” suggested Meg.

“Listen, and I’ll tell you what we’ve planned,” said Mother Blossom. “Aunt Polly has to go back to-morrow. We’ve tried to persuade her to stay, but it seems the summer is a very bad time to be away from a farm. But a week from to-morrow, if you are all very good and help me as much as you can, I will take you to Brookside 34 to visit Aunt Polly for a month, or as long as she can stand four active youngsters in her quiet house.”

“Hurrah!” shouted the four little Blossoms.

“Won’t that be great! Let’s get the trunk down right away, Mother.”

“Well, I wouldn’t, not till Daddy comes home,” said Aunt Polly, fanning herself and smiling. “A week is plenty of time, and I hear that Dot has to have some new frocks made.”

“Is Daddy coming?” Bobby asked suddenly.

“I wanted him to, for I think he needs a rest,” said Aunt Polly soberly. “But the most we could get him to promise was that he might come up with your mother when it is time for you to go home.”

“Mother’s going––she said so,” Meg reminded her aunt.

“Only to take you to Brookside, Daughter,” explained Mother Blossom. “Then I am coming home again to stay with Daddy. You see, I couldn’t leave him alone in this house for a whole month. Think how lonesome he would be.”

35

Twaddles thought this over for a moment.

“Well, I guess it will be a change for him, ’thout any children,” he remarked, with a sunny smile.

Aunt Polly scooped him into her lap and gave him a big hug.

“Now where in the world did you get that idea?” she said.

“I found it,” confided Twaddles cheerfully.

Dot had already disappeared. She thought it time to begin her packing. Presently they heard her in the house tumbling books out of the bookcase on to the polished floor.

“Glory be, whatever are ye doing?” came Norah’s cry. “Haven’t I enough to be doing, without ye upsetting a room as fast as I put it in order?”

36

CHAPTER IV

THE WILLING PACKERS

Meg rushed into the house.

“Dot Blossom, you’re not to touch my books,” she scolded. “The idea! Why don’t you fuss with your own things?”

Dot looked vexed.

“I’m helping you,” she explained. “Don’t you want to take your books to Aunt Polly’s to read rainy days? Well, then, I’ll pack ’em for you.”

Mother Blossom had followed Meg, and now she intervened.

“No one is to pack anything to-day,” she said firmly. “I want Dot to go into town with a message for Miss Florence. And Meg must practice on the piano half an hour at least. This afternoon we’re going to take Aunt Polly driving. After she goes home there will be plenty for all of us to do to get ready.”

Miss Florence Davis was the dressmaker who often came to the house to make clothes for the 37 Blossom children, and Dot set off presently for her house, carrying a note to her. Miss Florence had no telephone. She said she wasn’t home long enough to answer it. But she always left a slip of paper pinned to her door to tell people at whose house she was sewing, and her customers were used to going about the town till they found her.

“She says she can come,” reported Dot when she returned from her errand. “She can give you four days, Mother. Where are the boys?”

Mother Blossom looked at her small daughter and sighed.

“I thought you knew Sam painted the fence last night,” she said mildly.

“I did, but I forgot,” explained Dot, trying to fold over a pleat so that the vivid streaks of green paint would not show. “I guess I kind of brushed up against it, Mother.”

Usually when Aunt Polly went home the four little Blossoms were disconsolate, but the next morning they saw her to the station quite cheerfully. Were they not going to Brookside themselves exactly one week from that day?

38

“Now we must fly around and get ready,” announced Bobby, when they returned to the house. Bobby had a great trick of remembering speeches he had heard older folk make.

“Indeed then and you must,” agreed Norah, who was sweeping the porch. “Your mother wants Dot in the sewing room. Miss Florence is ready to try on. And, Bobby, it’s sorry I am, but we’re out of soap.”

It was rather a long walk to the grocery store, and Bobby didn’t think that going for soap promised one bit of excitement. Neither did Meg want to practice the piano scales that one day were to make her a good musician. Norah knew something of what they were thinking.

“You’ll both be helping your mother to get ready to go,” she said earnestly and kindly. “I’ve got extra washing to do, for all your clothes must be clean. And if Meg’s going to stop learning music every time a new plan comes up, she’ll grow up to be terrible ignorant of lots of things.”

“All right, I’m going,” said Bobby quickly. 39 “An’ you’ll be through by the time I get back, Meg. Then I guess we can pack the toys.”

Twaddles, left alone, wandered up to the sewing room.

“Hello, Twaddles,” said Miss Florence pleasantly. “Have you come up to see what pretty dresses Dot is going to have? And what is this I hear about every one going to Brookside?”

“We’re going to see Aunt Polly,” explained Twaddles. “And, Mother, can we take toys? Bobby’s all ready to pack ’em as soon as he gets back.”

“If you don’t pack something pretty soon, the house won’t hold you,” observed Mother Blossom, smiling. “You see, Twaddles dear, Mother doesn’t believe you will need many toys at Brookside. There will be so many wonderful new out-of-door things for you to play with. Suppose we say that each of you may choose the two things you are fondest of. That won’t make so much to carry.”

So that was settled, and when Bobby came back from town and Meg had finished practicing scales and Dot’s three new dresses had all 40 been tried on, the children went upstairs to their playroom to select the toys they thought they would want to take with them.

“I think we ought to take the things Aunt Polly gave us,” announced Meg. “They’re new, and we haven’t played with them much. She might think we didn’t like ’em if we left them at home.”

“All right, we will,” decided Bobby. “And I’ll take my ball and bat. Guess I won’t break Aunt Polly’s windows. There must be lots of room on a farm.”

“I’m going to take the paper dolls,” said Meg. “I’m pretty sure Aunt Polly will have books to read, so that’s all right. What you going to take, Dot?”

“Geraldine and Tottie-Fay and the trunk,” was the prompt response.

“That’s three,” Meg reminded her. “Mother said we could each have two. I tell you––you don’t need the trunk; just take Geraldine’s new clothes.”

“All right,” acquiesced Dot briefly.

Tottie-Fay was an old dollie, but dearly loved, 41 and, as Father Blossom said when he heard that she was going to Brookside, no one could need a change of air more.

“I’m going to carry my kiddie-car,” declared Twaddles serenely.

The others protested that the kiddie-car wouldn’t go in the trunk; that there would be no pavement on which to ride it; that Twaddles should take a smaller toy.

Twaddles listened politely and set his obstinate little chin firmly. He meant to take the kiddie-car.

“We’ll express it,” said Father Blossom kindly that night. “I’m going to send a porch swing up and a–––Oh, my goodness, I almost told you. And it is a surprise!”

“What is it?” cried the four little Blossoms eagerly. “Tell us, Daddy! Ah, do! Please!”

“It can be a surprise for Aunt Polly,” suggested Meg artfully. “Won’t you tell us, Daddy?”

“No. I like surprises that are surprises,” asserted Father Blossom. “Now, not another 42 word does any one get out of me on this subject. Not a word.”

The next few days were very busy ones; but at last two trunks were brought down and placed in the hall, and Mother Blossom made lists and packed and explained her plans to Meg and Bobby, who, as the oldest, could be expected to remember.

“All the stockings are here, dear, right in this tray,” Mother Blossom would say. “And I’m putting Bobby’s blouses in this trunk. You are sure you will remember so that Aunt Polly needn’t be bothered in case I don’t get both trunks unpacked for you?”

Meg was sure she could remember.

“Where’s Twaddles?” asked Mother Blossom the last afternoon, when she was putting in the very final things. “I haven’t seen him since lunch time. Dot, do you know where he went?”

“I think he’s watching Sam give Philip a bath,” volunteered Bobby. “He likes the smell of that dog soap, Mother.”

“I can’t say I do,” said Mother Blossom 43 frankly. “It is strongly carbolic. Go and call him in, will you, Bobby?”

Bobby found Twaddles blissfully watching the shivering Philip enduring a last rinsing after his bath. Sam liked to keep him clean, and he said that because a dog had a broken leg was no reason why he shouldn’t be washed.

“Mother says for you to come in,” Bobby told his brother. “It’s time to get ready for supper. Gee, that soap does smell, doesn’t it?”

“I like it,” Twaddles affirmed, sniffing luxuriously. “I wish we took baths with that kind.”

Mother Blossom sent him to the bathroom to wash his face and hands and she brushed his hair for him herself.

“What is that I keep smelling?” she asked once or twice, “Oh, the carbolic dog-soap. Twaddles, I do wish you wouldn’t handle it so much.”

“Who’s been to the drug store?” said Father Blossom, when they sat down to supper. “Phew! I smell carbolic, strong.”

“Philip had a bath,” explained Twaddles uneasily. “Perhaps you smell it, Daddy.”

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