CHAPTER XVI
THE TRAIN CRASH
"Well, Mr. Dayton," said Mr. Bobbsey, after a moment's pause, "as Isaid before, I do not know how to thank you for what you did to saveFlossie and Freddie. I hope, some day, I may be able to do you asgreat a service as you did me."
And the time was nearer than Mr. Bobbsey supposed when he could do akindness to the lumber foreman.
They all walked back to the log cabin near the other buildings, all ofwhich made what was called the "lumber camp." The story was told ofthe falling tree, and how nearly Flossie and Freddie had been caughtunder it.
"That foreman of ours sure is quick on his feet!" said Harvey Hallock,the driver who had brought the Bobbseys from the station. Mr. Hallockwas speaking to Mr. Bobbsey, outside the log cabin. "Yes, Bill Daytonis sure a quick man," went on the driver.
"Has he been foreman here long?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"No, not very long," was the answer. "He came here when your wife'suncle owned the tract, just before the uncle died. But we don't knowmuch about Bill Dayton. He's a quiet man, and he doesn't talk much."
"I thought there was something queer about him," said Mr. Bobbsey."But I shall always be his friend, for he saved my two children."
The Bobbsey twins thought they never had eaten such a jolly meal asthe one served a little later in the log cabin. Even though it was inthe midst of a great forest and in a lumber camp, the food was verygood. The little bald-headed cook seemed to know almost as much as didblack Dinah about making things taste good.
"The children have good appetites up here," said Mr. Bobbsey, as hefilled Bert's plate for the second time.
"I want some, too!" called Freddie. "I'm hungry like a bear!"
"But you mustn't eat like a bear!" said his mother, laughing. "Youmust wait your turn," and she served Flossie first, for that little"fairy" was as hungry as the others.
"What funny little beds!" exclaimed Nan, when she saw where they wereto sleep in the log cabin.
"They're almost like the berths in the sleeping car," said Bert.
"They are called 'bunks,'" his father told him. "Lumbermen move aboutso, from camp to camp, that they could not take regular beds withthem. So they build bunks against the wall, spreading their blanketsover pine or, hemlock boughs, as the driver did in the wagon we rodeover in from the station."
But the bunks in the log cabin had mattresses stuffed with straw, andthough they were not like the beds in the Pullman car, nor like thosein the Bobbsey home, all the children slept well.
They did not awaken all night, nor did Freddie fall out of bed, assometimes happened.
"I never slept so well in all my life!" exclaimed Mother Bobbsey, whenshe was getting ready for breakfast the next morning. "The sweet airof the lumber camp seems to agree with all of us."
Bert and Nan, as well as Flossie and Freddie, also felt fine, and theywere ready for a day of fun. They had it, too, for there were so manythings to do in the big tract of trees their mother now owned that thechildren did not know what to start first.
Of course Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had business to look after--thebusiness of taking over the lumber camp, since Mrs. Bobbsey was nowthe owner. But she made no changes. She said she wanted Bill Daytonstill to act as foreman, and she wished to keep the same men he hadhired from the first, as he said they were all good workers.
But while their father and mother were in the office of the lumbercamp, looking over books and papers, Bert and Nan and Flossie andFreddie roamed about. They did not go alone, as that would not havebeen safe. Harvey Hallock, the good-natured driver of the wagon, wentwith them, and foreman Bill Dayton told him to be especially carefulnot to let Flossie and Freddie stray away.
"I guess he thinks I'll get lost," said Freddie, when the little"fireman" heard this order given to the driver.
"Do you often get lost?" asked Harvey Hallock.
"Oh, lots of times!" exclaimed Freddie. "I can get lost as easy asanything! But I always get found again!"
"Well, that's good!" laughed the driver.
He took the children to the sawmill, and, at a safe distance from thebig saw, they watched to see how logs were turned into boards, planks,and beams.
They saw the rumbling wagons drive up, loaded with logs that werefastened on with chains so they would not roll off. The men, with bighooks fastened on handles of wood; turned the logs over, and slid themthis way and that until they could be shoved up to the saw.
The logs were put on what was called a "carriage," to be sawed. Thiscarriage moved slowly along on a little track, and the Bobbsey twinswere allowed to ride on the end of the log farthest from the saw. Whenthe end came too close to the big, whirring teeth that ripped throughthe hard knots with such a screeching sound, Bert and Nan and Flossieand Freddie were lifted off by the driver.
The children saw the place where the jolly, bald-headed cook made themeals ready for the hungry men. There was a big stove, and on it a potof soup was cooking, and when Jed Prenty opened the oven door a mostdelicious smell came out.
"What's that?" asked Bert.
"Baked beans," the cook answered. "They're 'most done, too! Wantsome?"
"Oh, I do!" cried Freddie. "And I want a fried cake, too!"
"So do I!" echoed Flossie.
"Well, you shall have some," answered the good-natured cook. So hegave the children a little lunch on one end of the big, long tablewhere the lumbermen would soon crowd in to dinner.
The Bobbsey twins had no fear of "spoiling their appetites" by eatingthus before their regular lunch was ready. Walking about in the woodsseemed to make them hungry all the while.
As the days passed Mrs. Bobbsey found she would have to stay inLumberville longer than she had at first thought. There was muchbusiness to be done in taking over the property her uncle had lefther.
"The longer we stay the better I like it!" said Nan to Bert. "Thereare so many birds here, and squirrels and chipmunks. And the squirrelsare so tame that they come right up to me."
"Yes, they are nice," said Bert. "But I want to get out West on theranch, and see the cowboys and the Indians."
"I want to be an Indian, too!" exclaimed Freddie, who did not quitecatch what Bert said.
"What else do you want to be?" laughed the older brother. "Firstyou're going to be a fireman, and now you want to be an Indian!"
"Couldn't I be both?" Freddie wanted to know.
"Hardly," said Nan, with a laugh. "You'd better just stay what youare--Freddie Bobbsey!"
Day after day the twins were taken around the woods by the driver orsome of the lumbermen who were not busy. They saw big trees cut down,but were careful not to get in the way of the great, swaying trunks.They played in the piles of sawdust, jumping off powdery wood.
"This is as nice as Blueberry Island!" cried Nan one day, when theywere all playing on the sawdust heap.
"Yes, and we're having as much fun as we did in Washington, where wefound Miss Pompret's china," added Bert. "I wonder if we'll discoverany mystery on this trip."
"I don't believe so," returned Nan.
However, the Bobbsey twins were to help in solving something which youwill read about before this book is finished.
But all things have an end, even the happy days in the lumber camp,and one morning, after the little bald-headed cook had servedbreakfast in the log cabin, Mr. Bobbsey said to the children:
"Well, we are going to travel on."
"Where are we going?" asked Bert.
"To Cowdon; to the cattle ranch," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "I havesettled all the business here, and now we must go farther out West."
"I'll be sorry to see you go," said the foreman, Bill Dayton, whentold that the Bobbseys were going to leave. "I've enjoyed the childrenvery much."
"Did you ever have any of your own?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"No--never did," was the answer. "I'm not much of a family man. Usedto be, when I was a boy and lived at home," he went on, "But that's agood many years ago."
"Haven't you an
y family--any relatives?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, for shethought the foreman spoke as if he were very lonesome.
"Well, yes, I've got some folks," answered Bill Dayton slowly. "I'vegot a brother somewhere out West. He's a cowboy, I believe. Haven'tseen him for some years."
"Are your father and mother dead?" asked Mr. Bobbsey gently.
"My mother is," was the answer. "She died when my brother and I wereboys. As for my father--well, I don't talk much about him," and theforeman turned away as if that ended it.
"Why doesn't he want to talk about his father?" asked Bert of Mr.Bobbsey a little later, when they were packing the valises.
"I don't know," was the answer. "Perhaps he and his father quarreled,or something like that. We had better not ask too many questions. BillDayton is a queer man."
Bert thought so himself, but he did as his father had suggested, anddid not ask the foreman any more questions.
The packing was soon finished, and then the Bobbsey twins saidgood-bye to their friends in the lumber camp. The bald-headed cook gavethem a bag of "fried cakes" to take with them. They were to ride tothe station in the same lumber wagon that had brought them to thecamp, and Harvey Hallock was to drive them.
"Good-bye!" said Bill Dayton to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, after he hadtalked to the Bobbsey twins. "If you stop off here on your way homefrom your ranch, we'll all be glad to see you."
"Perhaps we may stop off," Mrs. Bobbsey answered. "Now that I own alumber tract I must look after it, though I am going to leave themanagement of it to you."
"I'll do my best with it," promised the foreman. "And if you shouldhappen to meet my brother out among the cowboys tell him I was askingfor him. I don't s'pose you will meet him, but you might."
And then the Bobbsey twins started off on another part of their tripto the great West. They did not have long to wait for the train in theLumberville station, and, as they got aboard and began their travelsonce more, they could see Harvey Hallock waving to them from hiswagon.
"And one of the horses shook his head good-bye to me!" exclaimedFlossie, who pressed her chubby nose against the window to catch thelast view of the lumber team.
"I hope we have as good a time on the cattle ranch as we had in thelumber camp," said Nan, as she and the other children settled down forthe long ride.
"We'll have more fun!" declared Bert. "We can ride ponies out on theranch!"
"Oh, may we?" asked Nan with shining eyes, turning to her mother.
"I guess so," was the answer.
"I want a pony, too!" cried Freddie. "If Bert and Nan ride pony-backFlossie and I want to ride, too."
"We'll ride you in a little cart," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh."That will be safer--you won't fall so easily."
They were to ride all that day, all night, and part of the next daybefore they would reach the cattle ranch which Mrs. Bobbsey's unclehad left her. The railroad trip was enjoyed by the Bobbseys, but thechildren were eager to get to the new place they were going to visit.Bert wanted to see the cowboys and the Indians, Nan wanted to ride apony and get an Indian doll, and as for Flossie and Freddie, they justwanted to have a good time in any way possible.
Supper was served on the train, and then came the making up of theberths in the sleeping car. This was nothing new to the Bobbseys now,and soon they were all in bed.
It was dark and about the middle of the night when all in the sleepingcar were suddenly awakened by a loud crash. The train stopped with ajerk, there was a shrieking of whistles, and then loud shouts.
"What is it?" called Mrs. Bobbsey from her berth.
"Probably there has been a wreck," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he quickly gotout of his berth and into the aisle. "But no one here seems to behurt, though I think the car is off the track."
Flossie and Freddie and Bert and Nan stuck their heads out between thecurtains hanging in front of their berths. They wondered what hadhappened.