CHAPTERV
Mr. Bobbsey got out some railroad time-tables and began looking at them, trying to decide how early he and his wife must leave the next day to get to Uncle Rossiter’s home, which was several hundred miles away.
“Is Uncle Rossiter very sick?” asked Bert of his mother, who was again reading the telegram that had arrived.
“I’m afraid he is,” was the answer. “Poor old man! He is all alone in the world. Your father and I are the only relations he has left, so that’s why he wants to see us.”
“I do wish we could go with you,” sighed Bert.
“You wouldn’t want to quit school, would you?” asked his father, looking up from the time-tables.
“School isn’t so nice when a lot of fellowsin it think you broke a window,” grumbled Bert.
“Nonsense!” laughed Mr. Bobbsey. “You know you didn’t do it. We know you didn’t do it, and so do your friends. The others don’t matter. And in time it will be found out who really smashed the glass.”
“But if you and mother are going away and leave us here all alone, it won’t be any fun,” said Bert.
“Oh, I think it will!” cried Nan. “We can keep house by ourselves. I love to cook and wash the dishes.”
“You won’t be alone,” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “Dinah will be here to cook and look after you. Sam will shovel the snow, if any more falls, and he’ll look after the fires. You’ll be all right with Sam and Dinah.”
Sam Johnson was Dinah’s husband, and though he was not as fat as was she, he was quite as good-natured and jolly.
“Besides,” went on Mrs. Bobbsey, “I will ask a woman to come in to help you keep house, Nan.”
“Who, Mother?”
“I’ll send for Mrs. Pry.”
“Oh, Aunt Sallie!” exclaimed Bert.
“Yes, Aunt Sallie,” his mother answered. “She is a very good housekeeper and will look after you very well. She is a little deaf, it’s true, but if you speak a little louder than usual and quite plainly, she will hear you. Flossie and Freddie aren’t going to mind staying at home and keeping house while daddy and mother are gone, are you?” and she looked at the smaller twins.
“I like to keep house,” said blue-eyed Flossie. “I’ll help Nan wash the dishes.”
“I like Aunt Sallie,” said Freddie. “She makes nice cookies, and maybe she’ll tell us stories.”
“Oh, that’ll be fun!” cried Flossie.
Mrs. Pry was an elderly lady who went about doing housework, and Mrs. Bobbsey had engaged her on other occasions when it was necessary for her to leave home for a time.
“I won’t worry about the children when Aunt Sallie is with them,” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “And now, if we are to leave early in themorning, Dick,” she said to her husband, “we had better begin packing now. You do that and I’ll telephone to the boarding house where Mrs. Pry lives and leave word for her to come early to-morrow.”
Then began a busy time in the Bobbsey house.
“My, what a lot of things have happened since yesterday!” said Nan a little later when she was helping her mother put Flossie and Freddie to bed. “Freddie fell down a drain pipe, it snowed, the church window was broken, and now you’re going away, Mother!”
“Yes, but daddy and I won’t be gone any longer than we need be, my dear. And I know you will help Dinah and Aunt Sallie keep house.”
“Oh, yes, I’ll help—I love to!” answered Nan.
After the first shock of it was over and Bert and Nan had passed the disappointment of not being allowed to make the journey with their father and mother, the older Bobbseytwins rather began to like the idea of keeping house.
“I guess Aunt Sallie will give me all the cookies I want,” thought Freddie, as he went to bed.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey remained up later, to pack in readiness for the early morning start. Word came from Mrs. Pry that she would come as soon as she could.
“Now, doan you all worry, Miz Bobbsey,” said Dinah to the children’s mother when the taxicab came to take the travelers to the railroad station. “Sam an’ me we’ll look after de chilluns jes’ same’s if you all was heah!”
“I know you will, Dinah,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Now, you be good children, won’t you?” she asked, kissing them all again.
“We will,” promised Nan.
“I’m going to make a snow man!” declared Freddie.
“An’ I’m going to make a snow lady,” said Flossie.
“I’ll write you a letter,” promised Bert, “and let you know everything is all right.”
“Yes, Son, do that,” begged his father. “And if it is found out who broke the window, put that in your letter.”
Bert promised he would do this. More good-byes were said, Mrs. Bobbsey kissed the children for the third time all around, and then, trying not to let them see that her eyes were shining with unshed tears, she ran out to the taxicab, followed by her husband.
“Doan you worry now!” were Dinah’s parting words. “Everyt’ing am gwine to be all right!”
But little did Dinah, nor any of the others, know what was going to happen when the Bobbsey twins began keeping house.
So early had breakfast been served that morning, in order that Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey could take the train, that it was not yet time for school. So Bert went out to the garage where Sam Johnson was at work, for Bert wanted to fix something on his sled.
“I believe it’s going to snow more,” Bert said, looking up at the clouded sky, “and I want my clipper in shape for the big hill.”
“Yes,” agreed Sam, “I shouldn’t wonder myse’f but whut we’d hab mo’ snow. Feels mighty like it! Come in, Bert, an’ shut de do’,” he added, for Bert was standing in the garage with the door partly open as he scanned the sky.
“If it’s going to storm,” said the boy, as he got out his sled to mend one of the runners that was loose, “I hope it doesn’t get too bad before dad and mother reach Uncle Rossiter’s.”
“Yes,” agreed Sam. “’Twouldn’t be no fun to hab dem snowed in—fo’ a fac’ it wouldn’t!”
Nan wanted to help Dinah wash the dishes, as she said she had time before school. But the fat, good-natured cook chuckled and said:
“Nebber mind, honey lamb. I got loads ob time. You jes’ see dat mah odder two sweethearts am ready fo’ school, bress dere hearts!” She meant Freddie and Flossie.
So Nan looked after the younger twins and then, as the hands of the clock pointed toward half past eight, the Bobbsey twins—all of them—went to their classes.
“But what about Aunt Sallie Pry?” asked Bert of Nan. “I thought she was coming to keep house for us.”
“I guess she’ll be at the house when we come home to lunch,” Nan said.
That morning, before the assembled classes, Mr. Tarton mentioned Danny Rugg’s lost birthday ring, speaking about the gold initials on top.
“If any of you children find Danny’s ring,” went on the school head, “either give it to him or bring it to my office.”
Danny Rugg raised his hand for permission to speak.
“What is it, Danny?” asked the principal, while the whole school wondered what was coming next. Bert Bobbsey had a wild idea in his head.
“Maybe Danny’s going to confess that he broke the window,” said the Bobbsey boy to himself.
But what Danny said was:
“I’ll give twenty-five cents to whoever finds my lost ring.”
Some of the teachers laughed a little atthis, and even Mr. Tarton smiled, but he said:
“All right, Danny. You have heard the offer of the reward,” he went on to the school. “And now about another matter. Yesterday it was said here that Bert Bobbsey broke the church window. I want to say that there is no proof of this. Bert says he did not do it, and we are bound to believe him.
“I do hope that whoever broke the stained glass will be manly enough to admit it, and pay for the damage to the church. I have heard from Mr. Shull, the sexton, that it will cost about ten dollars to repair the window.”
Several of the children gasped at this. To most of them ten dollars was a great deal of money. And Bert thought Danny looked a trifle pale on hearing this news.
But nothing more was said about the broken window, and the classes marched to their several rooms and the school day went on.
Hurrying home at noon, the Bobbsey twins were rather surprised to find that Aunt Sallie Pry had not yet arrived to help Dinah take charge of the house.
“Maybe she isn’t coming,” suggested Bert.
“Oh, yes, she’s suah to come!” Dinah stated. “Mrs. Pry, she done tellyfoam me dat she’d be ober dis ebenin’.”
“Is anything the matter?” Nan wanted to know.
“She done say she got a li’l touch ob de misery in her back,” Dinah explained.
“What’s misery?” Freddie wanted to know.
“A sort o’ pain,” Dinah told him. “Now eat you lunch, honey lambs, so’s you kin git to de head of de class when you goes back to school.”
“I’m head of the class now, Dinah,” said Freddie. “That is, I’m head of the boys. Flossie is head of the girls’ side.”
“Aw right, honey lamb!” chuckled Dinah. “Den you all had done bettah eat a good lunch so’s you all kin stay at de head!”
Back to school went the Bobbsey twins, and when the classes were out later in the afternoon they hurried home again. As they reached the house a few flakes of snow began to fall.
“Oh, look!” cried Freddie. “More snow! Hurray!”
“Hurray!” cried Flossie. “Oh, won’t we have fun!”
The wind began to blow and the snow fell more thickly.
“It’s going to be quite a storm,” said Bert.
“I wonder if mother and daddy won’t be snowed in on the train?” said Nan. “Trains do get snowed up, don’t they, Bert?”
“Sometimes they do, I guess,” he answered. “But maybe mother and dad are at Uncle Rossiter’s by this time.”
“No, they won’t get there until late to-night,” Nan said. “It’s a long journey.”
“Oh, well, maybe they won’t get snowed in,” said Bert.
“I’m going to play with my sled!” cried Flossie. Then she opened her mouth wide, trying to catch snowflakes on her rosy tongue.
“So’m I!” added Freddie.
“Well, you may play out for a time,” said Nan, acting the part of a “little mother.” Then she told the two smaller twins to go inand get on their rubber boots and old coats, so if they fell down, as they often did when playing, no damage would be done.
After some jolly fun out of doors the Bobbsey twins entered the house by the side door to get ready for the evening meal. As they did so the bell at the front door rang.
“I guess that’s Aunt Sallie,” said Nan. “She telephoned that she’d be here about this time.”
“Is the misery in her back better?” asked Freddie.
“I guess so,” Nan answered as she went to the door, followed by the two smaller twins. And when Nan opened the door, there stood Aunt Sallie, her bag in her hand, and the snowflakes swirling around her.
“Well, my dears, here I am,” she announced.
“We’re glad you came,” said Nan politely.
“How’s your back?” asked Freddie.
“What’s that?” cried the old lady. “You say the train ran off the track? Good gracious! I hope your folks weren’t hurt! Oh, dear!”
“No, no!” exclaimed Nan, trying not to laugh. “Freddie didn’t say anything about the train running off the track. He asked how was your back.”
“Oh, my back! That’s a lot better, thank goodness,” said the old lady, as she entered the hall, shaking off the snowflakes.
Bert came out to greet the visitor, who was to remain several days—until Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey returned—and said:
“It’s going to be quite a storm, isn’t it?”
“What’s that? You say your clothes are torn?” cried the old lady. “Well, don’t worry. I brought needles and thread with me. I’ll soon mend your torn clothes.”
“No,” chuckled Bert, “I said it’s quite a storm!”
“Oh! Storm! Yes, indeed!” murmured Mrs. Pry. “I’m afraid I’m getting a little deaf,” she went on. “You children will need to talk a bit louder.”
“A lot louder, I’ll say,” murmured Bert to himself.