CHAPTERVIII

CHAPTERVIII

Truth to tell, Dinah had worried more on the children’s account than on her own when it was found necessary for Sam to go to his brother, after a telegram had been received calling him to the South.

“I kin git along by myse’f, without any man,” Dinah had said to Mrs. Pry when they had talked it over before the children came home from school. “But wif Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey away, I don’t want mah honey lambs to git frightened.”

“I don’t believe they will,” said the old lady. “The Bobbsey twins—especially the older ones—seem quite able to look after themselves, even if Sam has to go.”

And so it proved. Bert took a manly stand nor did Nan seem much worried, or, if she was, she did not show it.

As for Flossie and Freddie, nothing worried them very much nor for very long at a time. In fact, they did not pay a great deal of attention to the going of Sam Johnson. They had seen him around in the morning, and he was gone when they came home. That was all there was to it. If Dinah had had to leave—well, that would be quite a different thing.

The short early winter afternoon was fading. It would soon be dark. Sam had brought in a lot of wood and had carried up a whole box full of coal before he went away, so Bert did not have this to do.

“But I’ll go out and lock up the garage,” he said to Nan. “Sam always does that the last thing at night, even if none of the cars have been taken out. Now I’ll do it.”

Mr. Bobbsey kept two automobiles, but neither was in use now that he and his wife had gone to Uncle Rossiter’s.

“And be sure the house is locked up well, too, Bert,” warned Mrs. Pry. “Go over every door and window to make sure. Wedon’t want any burglars coming in, with Sam away.”

“Huh! If any of dem burglar men come in, I’ll fix ’em!” declared Dinah.

“What would you do?” asked Bert, looking at Nan.

“Hit ’em wif mah rollin’ pin—dat’s whut I’d do!” cried Dinah, shaking the rolling pin, with which at that moment she was flattening out the dough for a batch of biscuits.

“I guess that would fix ’em!” laughed Bert. “But I’ll lock up everything so the burglars can’t get in.”

That evening when Flossie and Freddie had, as usual, gone to bed early and while Bert and Nan were studying their lessons, a knock sounded on the side door.

“My goodness! what’s that?” cried Mrs. Pry, almost jumping out of the chair in which she was sitting mending stockings. Dinah was out in the kitchen, “setting” the pancakes for the next morning.

“Some one’s at de side do’,” said the colored cook. “I’ll go see who ’tis.”

“What’s that?” cried deaf Mrs. Pry. “Did you say you fell on the floor, Dinah?”

“No’m, Miz Pry. I said I’d go to de do’!”

“I wonder who it is and why they didn’t ring the front door bell?” asked Nan of Bert in a low voice. “Do you suppose it could be a tramp?”

“Supposing it is?” asked Bert. “I’m not afraid. Tramps won’t hurt anybody.”

“No. But he’d be awfully cold and want to come in,” returned Nan.

But it was no tramp. The next-door neighbor, Mr. Flander, having seen Sam leave that day with a valise, guessed that the colored man had been called out of town. And knowing that Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had left, Mr. Flander called to see if the Bobbsey twins needed anything.

“Oh, thank you, we’re all right,” said Bert, when he learned who it was.

“That’s good,” Mr. Flander said. “No, I won’t come in, Mrs. Pry. I just ran over the side garden instead of ringing the bell at the front door. Well, if you want anything just let me or my wife know. Don’t let theBobbsey twins go hungry or cold, you know.”

“I guess there’s no danger of that,” laughed Mrs. Pry.

The kind neighbor took his departure, and soon after that Nan and Bert went to bed.

One of the first things Bert did the next morning when he came downstairs to breakfast, was to put on his cap and run out on the porch.

“Where are you going?” asked Mrs. Pry, who let Dinah do the cooking while she managed the house and saw to it that the twins had plenty to eat.

“I’m just going out to look and see if it’s going to snow any more,” Bert answered.

“Land sakes! do you want more snow?” laughed the old lady.

“Sure we do,” Bert answered. “There isn’t quite enough for good sleigh-riding, and it takes a lot to make snow houses and snow forts.”

When he came back into the house, Nan and the other children having in the meanwhile taken their places at the table, Bert shook his head.

“I don’t believe it will snow to-day,” he said. “We’ll have to go to school.”

“Of course you’ll have to go to school,” said Mrs. Pry. “You don’t stay at home just because it snows, do you?”

“Well, if it was a bad storm we wouldn’t have to go,” explained Bert. “If it snows so hard in the morning that it’s bad for going to school, we must stay home, Mr. Tarton said. The bell will ring five strokes, three times, and we stay home. But I guess it won’t ring that way to-day.”

“I guess it won’t,” agreed Nan. “But maybe the postman will bring us a letter from daddy and mother to-day.”

“Oh, I hope he does!” exclaimed Bert. “It seems as if they’d been away a week, doesn’t it, Nan?”

“Longer than that,” Nan answered.

Just then Flossie began to tap her fork on her plate and exclaim:

“Make him stop! Make Freddie stop!”

“Make him stop what?” Bert wanted to know. “He isn’t doing anything, Flossie.”

“He was looking over at my plate,” wenton the little girl. “Make him stop it! Now you quit, Freddie Bobbsey!”

“Looking at your plate! The idea!” laughed Nan. “As if that did any harm! What’s the matter with you this morning, Flossie? Why don’t you want Freddie to look at your plate?”

“’Cause he looks at it so hungry-like,” Flossie explained. “He’s eaten his own griddle cake all up, and the maple syrup, too, and maybe he’s going to take mine.”

“I am not!” cried Freddie.

“Well, you looked so!” insisted Flossie. “Now you stop looking at my plate!”

“Oh, don’t be so fussy,” said Nan. “Dinah will give Freddie another griddle cake, and you, also, Flossie, if you want one.”

“I want one,” Freddie quickly said. “I was looking at hers,” he admitted; “but I wasn’t going to take it.”

Then Dinah came in with another plate of the smoking, brown cakes and peace was restored between the two small Bobbsey twins. A little later breakfast was over and the four children started for school.

“If a letter comes from mother, please put it where we’ll see it the first thing when we come in, Mrs. Pry,” said Nan to the old lady.

“What’s that? You’ve lost your ring?” exclaimed Aunt Sallie. “Oh, my dear, you must look for it. Lost your ring—that’s too bad!”

“No, I didn’t say anything about a ring!” answered Nan, speaking more loudly. “I said put mother’s letter, if it comes, where we can see it the first thing.”

“Oh, yes, my dear, I’ll do that. I thought you spoke of a ring. I don’t seem to hear so very well this morning. I think it must be going to snow again. My hearing is always worse just before a storm. But I hardly believe your folks would have had time to write yet. They’ll be very busy with your sick uncle. But if a letter does come I’ll take care of it.”

“It’s funny she thought I said ring,” remarked Nan to Bert as they walked along to school. “And that reminds me—did Danny Rugg find his ring?”

“Not that I heard of,” answered Bert. Helooked down at his bundle of books and suddenly exclaimed: “Oh, I forgot and left my arithmetic at home. I’ll run back and get it. You go on with Flossie and Freddie.”

“Don’t be late!” cautioned Nan.

“No, I won’t,” promised her brother, as he sped back toward the house, only a few blocks away. Flossie and Freddie wanted to know where Bert was going, and Nan told them. Then she hastened on with them toward school.

But Bert did not find his book as quickly as he thought he would, not remembering where he had put it the night before, and when it was found, and he was hurrying back on his way to school, Nan and the others were out of sight.

However, Bert still had plenty of time, though he kept to a jog trot which soon brought him within sight of the school. But Nan and the others had taken a short cut, and were already inside the building.

Just as Bert was approaching the church, the stained-glass window of which had been broken by a snowball, the Bobbsey boy sawahead of him Danny Rugg. Danny was alone, and before the trouble Bert would have run up and joined him, for he and Danny were friendly. But that was before the window was broken. Now Bert did not care to be friends with this boy, and so he hung back.

“I’ll wait until he turns into the school yard before I go in,” said Bert to himself.

But there was a surprise in store for him. Instead of keeping on to school, when he got in front of the church, a short distance from the school, Danny gave a quick look around. Just then Bert happened to be behind a tree. From here he could see Danny, but Danny could not see him.

And, as it happened just then, no other boys or girls were near the church. Seeing this, Danny Rugg gave a quick little run and darted inside the church, a side door of which was open.

“Well, what do you know about that!” exclaimed Bert, half aloud. “Why is Danny Rugg going into the church this time of morning? Maybe he’s going to ring the bell for a joke.”

But as he thought of this, Bert did not believe it could be done. The rope of the church bell was high in a belfry and the door was kept locked. Bert knew this because once some boys had gotten in and rung the bell in the middle of the night. Since then the bell rope room had been kept locked.

“But why did Danny go in the church?” asked Bert of himself again.

There was only one way which the question could be answered, and so Bert decided on doing a bold thing. He looked at the clock in the church steeple. It was barely half past eight, and he had plenty of time.

So, waiting until Danny should have had a chance to get well within the church, Bert followed, walking softly to make no noise. And all the while Bert was puzzling over the reason why Danny had entered.

Coming in from out-of-doors, with the ground covered with snow, which dazzled him, Bert could see hardly a thing in the dark church entry. The side door opened into a vestibule in the rear of the church.

Unable to see where he was going, Bertstood still a moment. He knew that his eyes would become accustomed to the gloom in a little while, and he would be able to see better.

He listened, and heard Danny walking about.

“Why, he’s going upstairs—to the balcony!” whispered Bert. “I can hear him going upstairs! I wonder why he’s doing that?”

Bert took a few steps forward and then suddenly felt himself falling.

“Oh! Oh!” he gasped as he realized what had happened. He had stepped into an open trapdoor in the center of the vestibule floor, and was tumbling into the cellar of the church!

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