The Bobbsey Twins Read online

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS

  OR

  Merry Days Indoors and Out

  by

  LAURA LEE HOPE

  Author of "The Bobbsey Twins in the Country,""The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore," Etc.

  DOWN THE LONG HILL SWEPT THE TWO SLEDS.--P. 45.]

  New YorkGrosset & DunlapPublishersCopyright, 1904, byThe Mershon CompanyAll rights reserved

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME 1

  II. ROPE JUMPING, AND WHAT FOLLOWED 9

  III. THE FIRST SNOW STORM 18

  IV. THE BROKEN WINDOW 27

  V. BERT'S GHOST 36

  VI. COASTING, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 44

  VII. FREDDIE AND FLOSSIE'S SNOW HOUSE 52

  VIII. FUN ON THE ICE 61

  IX. FREDDIE LOSES HIMSELF 70

  X. LOST AND FOUND 79

  XI. THE CRUISE OF THE "ICE BIRD" 88

  XII. TIGE--PLAYING THEATER 97

  XIII. NAN'S FIRST CAKE-BAKING 106

  XIV. CHRISTMAS 115

  XV. THE CHILDREN'S PARTY 124

  XVI. A GRAND SLEIGH RIDE 133

  XVII. THE RACE AND THE RUNAWAY 142

  XVIII. A QUARREL IN THE SCHOOLYARD 151

  XIX. NAN'S PLEA 160

  XX. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 169

  XXI. THE RESCUE OF SNOOP, THE KITTEN 178

  XXII. THE LAST OF THE GHOST--GOOD-NIGHT 187

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS

  CHAPTER I

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME

  The Bobbsey twins were very busy that morning. They were all seatedaround the dining-room table, making houses and furnishing them. Thehouses were being made out of pasteboard shoe boxes, and had squareholes cut in them for doors, and other long holes for windows, and hadpasteboard chairs and tables, and bits of dress goods for carpets andrugs, and bits of tissue paper stuck up to the windows for lacecurtains. Three of the houses were long and low, but Bert had placed hisbox on one end and divided it into five stories, and Flossie said itlooked exactly like a "department" house in New York.

  There were four of the twins. Now that sounds funny, doesn't it? But,you see, there were two sets. Bert and Nan, age eight, and Freddie andFlossie, age four.

  Nan was a tall and slender girl, with a dark face and red cheeks. Hereyes were a deep brown and so were the curls that clustered around herhead.

  Bert was indeed a twin, not only because he was the same age as Nan, butbecause he looked so very much like her. To be sure, he looked like aboy, while she looked like a girl, but he had the same dark complexion,the same brown eyes and hair, and his voice was very much the same, onlystronger.

  Freddie and Flossie were just the opposite of their larger brother andsister. Each was short and stout, with a fair, round face, light-blueeyes and fluffy golden hair. Sometimes Papa Bobbsey called Flossie hislittle Fat Fairy, which always made her laugh. But Freddie didn't wantto be called a fairy, so his papa called him the Fat Fireman, whichpleased him very much, and made him rush around the house shouting:"Fire! fire! Clear the track for Number Two! Play away, boys, playaway!" in a manner that seemed very lifelike. During the past yearFreddie had seen two fires, and the work of the firemen had interestedhim deeply.

  The Bobbsey family lived in the large town of Lakeport, situated at thehead of Lake Metoka, a clear and beautiful sheet of water upon which thetwins loved to go boating. Mr. Richard Bobbsey was a lumber merchant,with a large yard and docks on the lake shore, and a saw and planingmill close by. The house was a quarter of a mile away, on a fashionablestreet and had a small but nice garden around it, and a barn in therear, in which the children loved at times to play.

  "I'm going to cut out a fancy table cover for my parlor table," saidNan. "It's going to be the finest table cover that ever was."

  "Nice as Aunt Emily's?" questioned Bert. "She's got a--a dandy, allworked in roses."

  "This is going to be white, like the lace window curtains," replied Nan.

  While Freddie and Flossie watched her with deep interest, she took asmall square of tissue paper and folded it up several times. Then shecut curious-looking holes in the folded piece with a sharp pair ofscissors. When the paper was unfolded once more a truly beautifulpattern appeared.

  "Oh, how lubby!" screamed Flossie. "Make me one, Nan!"

  "And me, too," put in Freddie. "I want a real red one," and he broughtforth a bit of red pin-wheel paper he had been saving.

  "Oh, Freddie, let me have the red paper for my stairs," cried Bert, whohad had his eyes on the sheet for some time.

  "No, I want a table cover, like Nanny. You take the white paper."

  "Whoever saw white paper on a stairs--I mean white carpet," saidFlossie.

  "I'll give you a marble for the paper, Freddie," continued Bert.

  But Freddie shook his head. "Want a table cover, nice as Aunt Em'ly," heanswered. "Going to set a flower on the table too!" he added, and ranout of the room. When he came back he had a flower-pot in his hand halfthe size of his house, with a duster feather stuck in the dirt, for aflower.

  "Well, I declare!" cried Nan, and burst out laughing. "Oh, Freddie, howwill we ever set that on such a little pasteboard table?"

  "Can set it there!" declared the little fellow, and before Nan couldstop him the flower-pot went up and the pasteboard table came down andwas mashed flat.

  "Hullo! Freddie's breaking up housekeeping!" cried Bert.

  "Oh, Freddie! do take the flower-pot away!" came from Flossie. "It's toobig to go into the house."

  Freddie looked perplexed for a moment. "Going to play garden around thehouse. This is a--a lilac tree!" And he set the flower-pot down close toBert's elbow. Bert was now busy trying to put a pasteboard chimney onhis house, and did not notice. A moment later Bert's elbow hit theflower-pot and down it went on the floor, breaking into several piecesand scattering the dirt over the rug.

  "Oh, Bert! what have you done?" cried Nan, in alarm. "Get the broom andthe dust-pan, before Dinah comes."

  "It was Freddie's fault."

  "Oh, my lilac tree is all gone!" cried the little boy. "And the boilerto my fire engine, too," he added, referring to the flower-pot, which hehad used the day before when playing fireman.

  At that moment, Dinah, the cook, came in from the kitchen.

  "Well, I declar' to gracious!" she exclaimed. "If yo' chillun ain't gonean' mussed up de floah ag'in!"

  "Bert broke my boiler!" said Freddie, and began to cry.

  "Oh, never mind, Freddie, there are plenty of others in the cellar,"declared Nan. "It was an accident, Dinah," she added, to the cook.

  "Eberyt'ing in dis house wot happens is an accident," grumbled the cook,and went off to get the dust-pan and broom. As soon as the muss had beencleared away Nan cut out the red table cover for Freddie, which made himforget the loss of the "lilac tree" and the "boiler."

  "Let us make a row of houses," suggested Flossie. "Bert's big house canbe at the head of the street." And this suggestion was carried out.Fortunately, more pasteboard boxes were to be had, and from these theymade shade trees and some benches, and Bert cut out a pasteboard horseand cart. To be sure, the horse did not look very lifelike, but they allplayed it was a horse and that was enough. When the work was completethey called Dinah in to admire it, which she did standing near thedoorway with her fat hands resting on her hips.

  "I do declar', it looks most tremend'us
real," said the cook. "It's awonder to me yo' chillun can make sech t'ings."

  "We learned it in the kindergarten class at school," answered Nan.

  "Yes, in the kindergarten," put in Flossie.

  "But we don't make fire engines there," came from Freddie.

  At this Dinah began to laugh, shaking from head to foot.

  "Fire enjuns, am it, Freddie? Reckon yo' is gwine to be a fireman whenyo' is a man, hey?"

  "Yes, I'm going to be a real fireman," was the ready answer.

  "An' what am yo' gwine to be, Master Bert?"

  "Oh, I'm going to be a soldier," said Bert.

  "I want to be a soldier, too," put in Freddie. "A soldier and afireman."

  "Oh, dear, I shouldn't want to be a soldier and kill folks," said Nan.

  "Girls can't be soldiers," answered Freddie. "They have to get married,or be dressmakers, or sten'graphers, or something like that."

  "You mean sten_o_graphers, Bert. I'm going to be a sten_o_grapher when Iget big."

  "I don't want to be any sten_o_gerer," put in Flossie. "I'm going tokeep a candy store, and have all the candy I want, and ice cream----"

  "Me too!" burst in Freddie. "I'm going to have a candy store, an' be afireman, an' a soldier, all together!"

  "Dear! dear!" laughed Dinah. "Jess to heah dat now! It's wonderful wotyo' is gwine to be when yo' is big."

  At that moment the front door bell rang, and all rushed to the hallway,to greet their mother, who had been down-town, on a shopping tour.