CHAPTER IX
DINNER FOR TWO
Freddie Bobbsey, called away from looking at the magazine pictures onthe news stand, came running over when he heard Flossie shout.
"What's the matter?" asked the little boy. "Did something else fall onyou, Flossie, like the sheets flopping over your head?"
"No, nothing falled on me!" exclaimed Flossie. "But look! Look at mybasket! It's wriggling!"
"There's something in it!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, while her husbandquickly hurried away from the man to whom he was talking, and preparedto see what the matter was. "There's something in your basket,Flossie! Did you put anything in?"
"No, Mother!" answered the little girl. "I Just put in the things yougave me. And just before I came away I took off the cover to put insome cookies Dinah handed me."
"I think I can guess what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey. "While thecover was off the basket something jumped in, Flossie."
"Oh, I see what it is! A little black squirrel!" cried Nan.
"Squirrels aren't black!" Bert said. There were some squirrels in thetrees near the Bobbsey house, but all Bert had ever seen were gray orreddish brown.
"It's something furry, anyhow," Nan went on. "I can see it through thecracks in the basket."
And just then, to the surprise of every one looking on, including theBobbsey twins, of course, the cover of the basket was raised bywhatever was wriggling inside, and something larger than a squirrel,but black and furry, looked out.
"Gee!" exclaimed Bert.
"Oh, it's Snoop!" cried Nan.
"It's our cat!" added Freddie.
"In my basket!" exclaimed Flossie. "How did you get there, Snoop?" sheasked, as Bert took the cat up in his arms, while the other passengersat the station laughed.
"Perhaps Snoop felt lonesome when he knew you were going to leavehim," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "And when you took off the cover of yourbasket, Flossie, to put in the cookies Dinah gave you, Snoop must haveseen his chance and crawled in."
"He kept still all the way in the auto, so we wouldn't know he wasthere," added Nan.
"Maybe he thought we'd take him with us," said Bert. "Did you, Snoop?"he asked. But the big black cat, who must have found it rather hardwork to curl up in the basket, snuggled close to Bert, who was alwayskind to animals.
Just then the whistle of the train was heard down the track.
"Dear me! what shall we do?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "We can't possiblytake Snoop with us, and we can't leave him here at the depot."
"Harry will take Snoop back home in the auto," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Yes, give him to me--I'll be careful of him," promised the young manfrom the lumberyard office, and Bert carried his pet over to thewaiting automobile.
Snoop mewed a little as Bert put the big, black cat into Harry's arms.
"Good-bye, Snoop!" Bert said, patting his pet on the head.
"Come, Bert, hurry!" called his father.
Then, as the train pulled into the station, Bert ran back and caughtup his valise. The other Bobbsey twins took up their things, Flossieput back on her basket the cover the cat had knocked off in gettingout, and soon they were all on the train.
"All aboard!" called the conductor, and, as the engine whistled andthe cars began to move, Bert and Nan looked from the windows of theirseats and had a last glimpse of Snoop being held in Harry's arms, ashe sat in the automobile.
Flossie and Freddie forgot all about their cat, dog, and nearlyeverything in Lakeport in their joy at going out West. For they werereally started on their way now, after several little upsets andtroubles, such as the clothes line coming down on Flossie, and the cathiding himself away in the basket.
"Well, now I can sit back and rest," said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a sigh ofrelief. "I know the children are all here, and they can't get lost fora while, at least, and I don't see what mischief they can get intohere."
Now, indeed, the children were all right for a time. Freddie sat withhis father, next to the window, and Flossie was in the seat with hermother pressing her little nose close against the glass, so she wouldnot miss seeing anything, as the train flew along.
Bert and Nan were sitting together, Nan being next to the window. Berthad, very politely, let his sister have that place, though he wantedit himself. However, before the first part of the journey was overthere was a seat vacant on the other side of the car, and Bert tookthat. Then he, too, had a window.
Bert and Nan noticed, as the train passed Mr. Bobbsey's lumberyard,Mr. Hickson standing amid a pile of boards. The old man did not seethe children, of course, for the train was going rather swiftly, butthey saw him.
"I wish we could help him find his two sons," said Nan to Bert.
"Yes, I wish we could," Bert answered. "But it's so long ago maybe Mr.Hickson wouldn't know his boys even if he saw them again."
"He'd know their names, wouldn't he?" Nan asked.
"Yes, I s'pose he would," Bert replied.
Then the older Bobbsey twins forgot about Mr. Hickson in the joys andnovelty of traveling.
The Bobbseys were going to travel in this train only as far as ajunction station. There they would change to a through train forChicago, and in that big western city they would again make a change.On this through train Mr. Bobbsey had had reserved for him a drawingroom. That is part of the sleeping car built off from the rest at oneend.
On arriving at the junction the Bobbseys left the train they had beenon since leaving Lakeport and got on the through train, which drewinto the junction almost as soon as they did. They went into thelittle room at the end of the sleeping coach which Mr. Bobbsey had hadreserved for them. In there the twins had plenty of room to look fromthe windows, as no other passengers were in with them.
"It's just like being in our own big automobile," said Nan, and so itwas. The children liked it very much.
The trip to Chicago would take a day and a night, and Flossie andFreddie, as well as Bert and Nan, were interested in going to sleep ona train in the queer little beds the porter makes up from what areseats in the daytime.
It was not the first time the children had traveled in a sleeping car,but they were always interested. It did seem queer to them to betraveling along in their sleep.
"Almost like a dream," Nan said, and I think she was quite right.
"Where's my basket?" Flossie asked, after they had ridden on for aboutan hour.
"Do you want to see if Snap is in it this time?" her father jokinglyinquired.
"Snap's too big to get in my basket," Flossie answered. "He's a bigdog. But I want to get some of the cookies Dinah gave me. I'm hungry."
"So'm I!" cried Freddie, who had been looking from the window. "I wanta cookie too!"
"Dinah gave me some for you," Flossie said, and, when her basket hadbeen handed down from the brass rack over the seat, she searchedaround in it until she had found what she was looking for--a bag ofmolasses and sugar cookies.
"Oh, Dinah does make such good cookies!" said Flossie, with her mouthhalf full, though, really, to be polite, I suppose, she should nothave talked that way.
"Shall we get any cookies out on the cattle ranch?" asked Nan. "If wedon't, Flossie and Freddie will miss them."
"Oh, they have cooks on ranches, same as they do in lumber camps,"Bert declared. "I saw a picture once of a Chinese cook on a cattleranch."
"Can a Chinaman cook?" asked Nan, in surprise. "I thought they couldonly iron shirts and collars."
"Some Chinese are very good cooks," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "And Bertis right when he says that on some ranches in the West a Chinese mandoes the cooking. I don't know whether we shall find one where we aregoing or not."
"Are we going to the lumber tract first, or to the ranch?" asked Bert.
"To where the big trees grow," answered his father. "The tract yourmother is going to own is near a place called Lumberville. It isseveral hundred miles north and west of Chicago. We will stop offthere, and go on later to the ranch. That is near a place calledCowdon."
"
What funny names," laughed Bert. "Lumberville and Cowdon. You wouldthink they were named after the trees and the cows."
"I think they were," his father said. "Out West they take names thatmean something, and Lumberville and Cowdon just describe the placesthey are named after."
While Flossie and Freddie were looking from the window of the coach inwhich they were riding, while Bert and Nan were telling one anotherwhat good times they would have on the ranch and in the lumber camp,and while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were discussing matters about the trip,there came a knock on the door.
Mr. Bobbsey opened it and a lady came in, saying:
"I am so glad to see you! I am traveling to Chicago all alone, and Isaw you get on as I looked from my window in the next car. I came backto speak to you."
"Why, it's Mrs. Powendon!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey as she saw a ladywhom she had first met at a Red Cross meeting. Mrs. Powendon lived ina village near Lakeport, and often came over to see Mr. and Mrs.Bobbsey and other friends. "I am very glad you saw us and came in tosee us," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Do sit down! So you are going toChicago?"
"Yes. But what takes you away from Lakeport?"
"I don't suppose you heard the news, but an old uncle of mine, whom Ihad not seen for years, died and left me a western lumber tract and acattle ranch. Mr. Bobbsey and I are on our way there now to look aftermatters, and we had to take the children with us."
"And I suppose they were very sorry about that," said Mrs. Powendonwith a smile, as she looked at Nan and Bert.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bert "Indeed we weren't sorry! We're going to havefine times!"
Then Mrs. Powendon sat down and began talking to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey,while Nan and Bert looked at magazines their father had bought forthem from the train boy.
No one paid much attention to Flossie and Freddie, and it was notuntil some little time later that Mrs. Bobbsey, looking around thedrawing room, exclaimed:
"Where are they?"
"Who?" asked her husband.
"Flossie and Freddie. They aren't here!"
That was very evident. There was no place in the little room for themto hide, and yet the children could not be seen.
"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, "can they have fallen off the train?"
"Of course not!" answered her husband "They must just have goneoutside in the car. I'll look."
Mr. Bobbsey was about to open the door when a knock came on it, and,as the door swung back, the face of a colored porter looked in. Theman wore a white jacket.
"'Scuse me, sah," he said, talking just as Sam Johnson did, "but didyou-all only want dinnah for two?"
"Dinner for two? What do you mean?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Why, dey's two li'l children in de dinin' car. Dey says as how deybelongs back yeah, an' dey's done gone an' ordered dinnah fortwo--jest fo' der own selves--jest two! I was wonderin' ef you-allfolks wasn't goin' to eat!"