CHAPTER IV
AT THE HOUSEBOAT
"Did--did I hurt you, Dinah?" asked Bert, after he had gotten hisbreath. "I'm--I'm sorry--but did I hurt you?"
"Hurt me? Hurt me, honey lamb? No indeedy, but I done reckon yo' hashurt yo'se'f, honey! Look at yo' pore haid!" and she pointed her fatfinger at Bert.
"Why, what's the matter with my head?" he asked, putting up his hand.He felt something sticky, and when he looked at his fingers, he sawthat they were covered with white stuff.
"Oh, it's the frosting off the cake!" said Nan with a laugh. "You looksomething like one of the clowns in the circus, Bert, only you haven'tenough of the white stuff on."
"And look at Dinah!" laughed Freddie. "She's turning white!"
"What's dat, honey lamb? Turnin' white?" gasped the big, colored cook."Don't say dat!"
"It's the cake frosting on Dinah, too!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, Bert!why aren't you a little more careful?"
"I'm sorry, mamma," Bert said, as he watched Dinah wipe the frostingoff her face with her apron. "I didn't know she was coming through thedoor then."
"And I shore didn't see yo', honey lamb," went on the cook. "Land obmassy! Look at mah cake!" she cried, as she gazed at the mass in herlap. "All de frostin' am done slid off it!"
"Yes, you're a regular wedding cake yourself, Dinah," said Mr.Bobbsey, who had come in to see what all the noise meant. "Well, thisseems to be a day of excitement. I'm glad it was no worse, though.Better go up stairs and wash, Bert."
"The cake itself isn't spoiled," said Mrs. Bobbsey, lifting it fromDinah's lap, so the colored cook could get up. It was no easy work forher to do this, as she was so fat. But at last, after many groaningsand gruntings, she rose to her feet, and took the cake from Mrs.Bobbsey.
"I'll put some mo' frostin' on it right away, ma'am," she said. "An' Ihopes nobody else runs inter me," she went on with a laugh. "I shuahdid feel skeered dat Bert was hurt bad."
They could all laugh at the happening now, and after Mr. Bobbsey hadtold a little more about the new houseboat, he went back to theoffice.
"Come on, Flossie," suggested Freddie. "Now you've found the bookstraps, we can hitch Snap to the express wagon. Where'd you find 'em?"
"The straps were on our books, under the hall rack," said Flossie.
"That's just where I left 'em!" exclaimed Freddie. "I knew I left 'emsomewhere."
"But next time you must remember," cautioned his mother. "And rememberanother thing--no more bicycle rides--you stay on your velocipede."
"Yes'm," said Freddie. "Come on, Flossie. Where's Snap?"
When the little twins went to look for their big, shaggy pet, whocould do so many circus tricks, they could not find him.
"Have you seen Snap?" asked Freddie of Dinah's husband, Sam Johnson,who was out in the barn.
"Snap?" repeated the colored man. "Why, Freddie, I done jest see Snapparadin' down de road wif dat black dog from Mr. Brown's house."
"Then Snap's gone away again," said Flossie with a sigh. "Never mind,Freddie. Let's play steamboat, and you can be the fireman."
"All right," he agreed, much pleased with this idea. "We'll makebelieve we're in our new houseboat. Come on."
"Steamboat" was a game the smaller twins often played on the longSaturdays, when there was no school. All they needed was an old soapbox for the boat, and some sticks for oars. Then, with some bits ofbread or cake, which Dinah gave them to eat, in case they were"shipwrecked," they had fine times.
Meanwhile, Bert and Nan had asked permission of their mother to goover to where some of their boy and girl friends lived, so they wereprepared to have a good time, too.
"Oh, but what fun we'll have on the houseboat, won't we, Bert?" saidNan.
"That's what we will," he agreed with a laugh.
Monday morning came, after Sunday (as it always does if you wait longenough) and the two sets of Bobbsey twins started for school.
"I wish we didn't have to go," said Bert, as he strapped up his books."I want to go down to our new houseboat."
"But you must go to school," said his mother with a smile. "There willnot be many more days now. June will soon be over, and you know schoolcloses a little earlier than usual this year. So run along, like goodchildren."
Off they hurried and soon they were mingling with their boy and girlfriends, who were also on their way to their classes.
"You can't guess what we're going to have," said Freddie to a boynamed Johnnie Wilson, who was in his room.
"Kittens?" asked Johnnie.
"No."
"Puppies?"
"No."
"I give up--what is it?"
"A houseboat," said Freddie. "It's a house on a boat, and you can livein it on water."
"Huh!" said Johnnie. "There isn't any such thing."
"Yes, there is, too, isn't there, Flossie?" and Freddie appealed tohis small sister.
"'Course there is," she said. "Our papa bought one, and Freddie'sgoing to be the fireman, and I'm going to cook the meals, so there!Haven't we got a houseboat, Nan?"
"Yes, dear," answered the older sister, who was walking with Bert. Atthis, coming from Nan, Johnnie had nothing to say, except that hemurmured, as he walked away:
"Huh! A houseboat's nothing. We've got a baby at our house, and it'sgot hair on its head, and two teeth!"
"A houseboat's better'n a baby," was Freddie's opinion.
"It is not!" cried Johnnie.
"It is so!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Hush!" begged Nan. "Please don't dispute. Houseboats and babies areboth nice. But now it's time to go to school."
The Bobbsey twins could hardly wait for the classes to be out thatday, for their mother had promised to call for them after lessons,and, with their father, they were going to see the Bluebird. Thehouseboat had been brought up the lake by Mr. Marvin, and tied to adock not far from Mr. Bobbsey's lumber office. The boat was now theproperty of Mr. Bobbsey, but that gentleman had not yet fully plannedwhat he would do with her.
Just as the children were trooping out of the school yard, along cameMrs. Bobbsey. Nan and Flossie saw their mother and hastened towardher, while Freddie and Bert came along more slowly.
In a little while all five of them were at Mr. Bobbsey's lumberoffice. He came out of his private room, when one of his clerks toldhim Mrs. Bobbsey and the children were there.
"Ah, what can I do for you to-day?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife,just like Mr. Fitch, the grocery-store-keeper. "Would you like abarrel of sawdust, ma'am; or a bundle of shingles to fry for thechildren's suppers?" and Mr. Bobbsey pretended he was no relation tohis family.
"I think we'll have a houseboat," said his wife with a laugh. "Haveyou time to take us down to it? I can't do a thing with thesechildren, they are so anxious to see the Bluebird." "Well, I hopethey'll like her," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and not pull any feathers out ofher tail."
"Oh, is there a real bird on the boat?" asked Flossie.
"No, papa is only joking," said Nan, with a smile.
Mr. Bobbsey put on his hat, and soon the whole Bobbsey family hadreached the place where the boat was tied. At the first sight of her,with her pretty blue paint and white trimming, Nan cried:
"Oh, how lovely!"
"And how big it is!" exclaimed Freddie his eyes large and round withwonder.
"Let's go aboard--where's the gang-plank?" asked Bert, trying to usesome boat language he had heard from his father's lumbermen.
The Bluebird was indeed a fine, large houseboat, roomy andcomfortable. The children went inside, and, after looking around themain, or living room, and peering into the dining-room, Nan opened thedoor of a smaller compartment. Inside she saw a cunning little bed.
"Oh, may I have this room?" she asked. "Isn't it sweet!"
"Here's another just like it," said Mrs. Bobbsey, opening the nextdoor.
"That will be mine," said Flossie.
"My room's going to be back here, by the engine," spoke Bert, as hepicked out his sleeping place.
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sp; "And I'll come with you," said Freddie. "I'm going to be fireman!"Gleefully the children were running about, clapping their hands, andfinding something new and strange every minute.
"Where is your room, mamma?" asked Nan. "We ought to have let you andpapa have first choice."
"Oh, there are plenty of rooms," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Let's go up ondeck and---"
He stopped suddenly, and seemed to be listening.
"What is it?" asked his wife.
"There seems to be some one on this boat beside ourselves," answeredMr. Bobbsey. "I'll go look."