CHAPTER VIII--A NUTTING PARTY
Mrs. Bobbsey was rather alarmed at what had happened to the automobileto cause it to stop. She was also worried, thinking perhaps they allmight have to stay out in the woods all night, if they could not go onto camp. So when Nan asked the cause of the strange noise her mother didnot at first answer.
The sound came again, just as Bert was getting down out of the car to goto his father, who had lifted the hood over the motor to see what waswrong, and the strange sound so startled this Bobbsey twin lad that helet go his hold of the side of the car and slid with a bump to theground.
"Ugh!" grunted Bert, as he fell.
He grunted in such a funny way, and he looked so odd sitting there inthe dusk, as if he did not know what had happened, that Flossie andFreddie laughed. And this laughter seemed to make them less afraid ofthe queer call of the woods.
"Hurt yourself, Bert?" asked his father, looking up from his task ofthrowing the gleams of a flashlight in among the parts of the automobilemotor.
"No, sir," Bert answered. "I just sat down sudden, that's all. But whatwas that noise, Daddy? Is it----"
As if finding fault because the Bobbsey twins had come to Cedar Camp,once more the warning call came.
"There it goes again!" exclaimed Nan.
Flossie and Freddie shrank closer to their mother, and even Nan seemed alittle afraid, but Mr. Bobbsey only laughed.
"That's a hoot owl--or a screech owl, I don't know which," he said."Anyhow, it's only a bird with feathers and big, staring eyes. And, verylikely, it's looking down at us now and wondering what we're doing inhis woods."
"Is the owl looking at us now?" asked Freddie, climbing away from hismother and venturing to the door of the car.
"Very likely," his father said. "But the chances are you can't see it.Owls keep pretty well hidden when there's any daylight left."
"Well, the light is fast fading," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's getting darkvery fast, Dick. And unless we get to camp soon--well, you know what mayhappen," she said to her husband. "Do you think you can get the motor togoing?"
"I think so," he answered. "Bert, please come here and hold the lightfor me."
Glad to be of help to his father, Bert arose from the ground, to whichhe had slipped when the sudden noise of the owl startled him, and wentto hold the flash lamp. As he sent the beam moving about, in order todirect it just where his father wished it, there was a whirr and aflutter in the almost leafless branches of the trees overhead, andFlossie cried:
"There it is!"
"Yes, that's Mr. Owl," laughed her father. "He came up to look at us,but he doesn't like our bright light, because it hurts his eyes. So heflew away. Now come on, Bert, and we'll get the motor to running again.They'll be anxious at Cedar Camp if we don't get there soon."
"Do they expect us?" asked Nan.
"Oh, surely," said her father. "Hold the light steady, Bert."
The Bobbsey twin lad did as requested, and after a little examination,his father exclaimed:
"I see what the trouble is--a loose wire on a spark plug! That's easilyfixed. We'll be traveling on again in a few minutes."
And so they were. Once the wire was fastened in place, the automobilecould go again. Bert and his father got back in, there was a chuggingand throb of the motor, and off they went through the woods, the twoheadlights gleaming along the dark road in the midst of the trees.
"I wish we could have arrived by daylight," said Mr. Bobbsey, as hecarefully steered the car. "Cedar Camp looks ever so much better then."
"I'm glad to get here at all--so we don't have to stay out in the woodsall night," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"It would be fun to be out in the woods all night--if owls didn't biteyou--wouldn't it, Flossie?" asked Freddie.
"Yes, I guess maybe," answered the little girl. "But I'd rather be inour camp an' have something to eat."
"I guess I would, too," agreed Freddie.
"Well, here we are, then. Cedar Camp!" suddenly cried Mr. Bobbsey, and,almost before the twins knew it, the car had turned from the dense woodsand was in a clearing, or place where many trees were chopped down.
Around the clearing were many log cabins, and inside some of them, andoutside others, lanterns were glowing, so the place was quite light,compared to the darkness of the forest.
"Cedar Camp!" cried Bert. "Is this it?"
"Yes," his father answered. "Here we are--a little late, but better latethan never! Now to find our cabin."
He guided the car into the midst of the clearing, and the children couldsee the various cabin doors opening and men and women looking out.
"That you, Mr. Bobbsey?" a voice called.
"Yes, Jim Denton," was the answer. "We're here!"
"Thought maybe you'd given up and wouldn't get here until to-morrow,"the voice went on.
As the car stopped the Bobbsey twins saw a tall, lanky man, wearingrough clothes, but whose face had a kind smile and whose blue eyeslooked laughingly at them. He stood at the side of the car, peering in.
"We did have a little trouble," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And one of your owlsseemed to think we hadn't any right in the woods. But here we are!"
"One of the owls, eh?" laughed Jim Denton, the foreman of the Christmastree and lumber camp. "Well, they sure are queer birds! Make anoutlandish racket, sometimes. But come on in. Your place is all readyfor you, and Mrs. Baxter has had supper ready for some time."
"That's good!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "The children are half starved, Ifancy."
"Run your car over to the shed," said the foreman to Mr. Bobbsey. "It'llbe safe there if it snows."
"Had any snow up here yet?" asked the father of the twins.
"Not yet, but it may come any day. I heard you had a little down yourway."
"But it didn't last very long," Freddie chimed in. "We didn't have muchcoasting at all!"
"You didn't, eh?" laughed Jim, as he lifted out Flossie and Freddie,Bert and Nan being too big for this attention. "Well, when we do getsnow up here we generally get a lot, and it may come any time. But thelonger it holds off the better we can get out lumber and Christmastrees."
"What about my Christmas trees?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "That's what I cameup about."
"It is queer about those trees," said the foreman, as he helped Mrs.Bobbsey out. "We sent a lot off from here, but they must be stucksomewhere on the railroad down below. However, if they're lost we cancut more. There's plenty in the woods."
Mrs. Bobbsey and the children waited until Mr. Bobbsey had put the carunder a shed, and then, when he joined them, the family, led by theforeman, walked toward the largest cabin in the clearing. This was to bethe home of the Bobbseys while they were at Cedar Camp.
"Well, I am glad to see you folks!" exclaimed Mrs. Baxter, who was to dothe cooking and help Mrs. Bobbsey during the stay in camp. "I began tobe afraid that something had happened."
"A wire came loose," said Freddie. "But daddy soon fixed it. And weheard an owl hoot. Do you like owls?"
"Well, not specially," answered Mrs. Baxter, with a laugh.
"I don't, either," said Flossie.
The Bobbsey twins looked about the cabin that was to be their home for atime. It was a large one, and had been used by a former foreman with alarge family. There were several bedrooms and it had many of thecomforts of life, even though it stood in the North Woods.
Mrs. Baxter was the wife of one of the men employed in cutting downtrees, and she had agreed to cook for the Bobbseys during their stay.She and her husband lived in one of the smaller cabins, and her growndaughter would cook for Mr. Baxter while his wife was with the Bobbseys.
"Now get your things off and sit right up to the table," cried Mrs.Baxter. "The supper's sort of spoiled, keeping so long."
"I fancy the twins are hungry enough to eat almost anything," said theirmother. "I know I am!"
In spite of what Mrs. Baxter said, the supper proved to be very goodindeed, and Flossie and Freddie passed their plates back so often to befilled again th
at their father said:
"My goodness! there won't be anything left for breakfast."
"Won't there, Mother?" asked Freddie anxiously, pausing with his forkhalf way to his mouth.
"Oh, yes! Of course! Your father's only joking!" she said, with a laugh."But don't eat too much."
"I want just a little more," begged Flossie.
"Can we go out and look at the camp after supper?" Bert wanted to know.
"You can't see much by lantern light," his father told him. "You'll haveplenty of chances to-morrow and the next few days."
Bert found it too dark out of doors when he took a look after leavingthe table, and decided to wait until morning.
The cabin was warm and cosy, and the Bobbsey twins thought they hadnever come to a more delightful place than Cedar Camp. They sat andtalked a little while after the meal, and then, when Flossie and Freddiebegan to show signs of being sleepy, their mother said it was time forthem to go to bed. Bert and Nan soon followed.
It seemed to be the middle of the night when Flossie, awakened from asound sleep, heard a great noise and loud shouting outside the logcabin.
"Mother! Mother! What's that?" she whispered.
"Only the lumbermen going to work," Mrs. Bobbsey answered.
"Do they go to work in the night?" Flossie wanted to know.
"It's almost morning--the sun will soon be up," her mother told thelittle girl. "Keep quiet and don't awaken Freddie."
Flossie turned over and closed her eyes, thinking it strange that menshould have to get up and go to work in the night. It was dark, and thestars were shining, as she could see by a glimpse through her window.
"I guess maybe they're like Santa Claus," thought Flossie. "They have togo out to cut Christmas trees in the dark, same as St. Nicholas comes toour house in the dark on Christmas Eve."
Content with this thought, the little girl fell asleep, not to awakenagain until it was broad daylight. She found that all were up saveFreddie and herself, but the youngest Bobbsey twins soon joined theothers at the breakfast table.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Freddie, when he understood that Mrs. Baxter wasbaking buckwheat cakes and had maple syrup to pour over them. "That'swhat I like!"
"He can't like 'em all, can he, Mother?" cried Flossie. "I can have somepancakes, can't I?"
"Hush! There'll be plenty for all of you!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "What willMrs. Baxter think?"
"I'll think they're good and hungry; and that is what I like to see whenI'm baking cakes," laughed the good-natured cook. She was almost as niceas Dinah, Freddie whispered to Flossie.
"An' if she has a birthday we--we'll give her something," whisperedFlossie.
"Yes," agreed Freddie, holding out his plate for another cake.
After breakfast Mrs. Bobbsey took the children for a walk in the woodsaround the camp, while Mr. Bobbsey went to talk with some of hislumbermen about the missing Christmas trees.
"Don't go too far away," he called to his wife.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because the woods here are rather wild, and you and the children mightget lost. There aren't many trails, paths, or roads. Keep close tocamp."
"I will," she promised.
It was wonderful and beautiful in the North Woods, even though winterwas at hand. Most of the birds had gone, and about the only trees thathad any leaves on were the oaks. An oak tree holds many of its leavesall winter, the old ones being pushed off in the spring as the new onescome on. But there were so many spruce, pine, hemlock, and cedar treesgrowing all about--trees which remain green from one year to theother--that the woods were not as bare and dreary as are most forests.Cedar Camp was indeed a green Christmas camp, and a most lovely place.
"We'll have lots of fun here!" cried Freddie, running to the edge of alittle hill.
"Lots of fun!" agreed Flossie. "We'll----" and then she stoppedsuddenly, for Freddie did a queer thing--or at least a queer thinghappened to the little fellow. His feet seemed to slide out from underhim, and down the hill he went, almost as though sliding on the ice!
"Oh, look! Look!" cried Flossie. "What made him do that?"
"I slid! I slid! Oh, I had a slide! I'm going to slide it again!" criedFreddie, jumping up and scrambling to the top of the hill again. "Comeon, Flossie!"
"What makes him slide, Mother?" asked Flossie, as she saw her littlebrother go down the hill standing up, just as he and his small sisterhad often done on a snowy, icy slope.
"It's the pine needles," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "The ground is covered withthe long, brown, smooth pine needles, and they make a slippery carpet.You may slide on them. If you fall you won't be hurt."
Soon the two smaller Bobbsey twins were having great fun sliding downthe slippery pine-needle-covered hill, and Bert and Nan also took theirturns.
But after two or three slides Bert found something on the ground thatmade him exclaim in delight and run to his mother to show her.
"Look!" he cried. "A chestnut! Are there chestnuts in these woods?"
"Yes, I did hear your father say something about them," Mrs. Bobbseyreplied.
"Oh, let's hunt for some!" cried Nan.
"We'll help!" added Flossie and Freddie, deserting the pine-needle slidefor the joys of nutting.
But though the twins looked in all directions they found only a fewscattered chestnuts.
"The squirrels have picked up most of them," said Jim Denton, comingalong a little later. "But there's a chestnut grove not far away, upPine Brook, and there ought to be plenty left if you don't wait toolong."
"Oh, Mother! may Nan and I go chestnutting?" asked Bert. "I want to geta lot!"
"Will it be safe for them?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of the foreman.
"Oh, yes," answered Jim. "It isn't more than a mile and the trail isplain. I'll tell 'em how to go and show 'em the way."
And so, the next morning, Bert and Nan started off on a chestnut party,little dreaming of the strange things that were to happen to them andthe other Bobbsey twins.