WHEN Mr. Tetlow, a little later, entered his office he found Flossie and Freddie standing by one of the windows, looking out on the other children marching to their classrooms. They had cried a little, but had stopped now.
"I am very sorry to have to punish you two twins," said the principal, "but I had given strict orders that no one was to play with that water. Why did you do it?"
"Because," answered Flossie.
"Danny Rugg told us to," added Freddie. "He said it was a new kind of faucet."
"Now be careful," warned Mr. Tetlow. Often before he had heard pupils say that someone else told them to break certain rules. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.
"Yes! sir," said Freddie, eagerly. "Danny told us to do it."
"But didn't you know it was forbidden?"
"No, sir," answered Flossie.
"Why, I spoke of it in all the rooms."
"We wasn't here yesterday or the day before," said Flossie. "Freddie was sick."
Mr. Tetlow began to understand.
"I will look this up," he said, "and if find—"
He was interrupted by a boy from one of the higher classes coming in with a note from his teacher. She wanted a new box of chalk.
"When you go back, George," said the principal to the boy, as he gave him what the teacher had sent for, "go to Miss Hegan's class, and have her send Danny Rugg to me. Flossie and Freddie say he told them to spray water with one of the new faucets."
"Yes, sir, he did!" exclaimed George. "I heard him, but I didn't think they would do it. He did tell them."
At this unexpected information Mr. Tetlow was much surprised.
"If that is the case, Danny is the one to be punished," he said. "I am sorry, Flossie and Freddie, that I suspected you. You may go back to your class, and I will write your teacher a note, saying you may go out half an hour ahead of the others to make up for coming to my office. But, after this, no matter whether anyone tells you or not, don't spray the water."
"No, sir, we won't!" exclaimed the Bobbsey twins, now happy again.
Danny Rugg was punished by being kept in after school for several days, and Mr. Tetlow sent home a note to his father, explaining what a mean trick the bully had played.
"I wish I had heard Danny telling you that—just to get you in trouble," said Bert, when he was told of what had happened. "I'd have fixed him."
"Oh, don't get into any more fights," begged Nan.
Bert did not come to blows with Danny over this latest trouble, but he did tell the bully, very plainly, what he thought of him, and said if Danny ever did a thing like that again that he would not get off so easily.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of you," sneered Danny.
Lessons and fun made up many school days for the Bobbsey twins. And, as the Fall went on, lessons grew a little harder. Even Freddie and Flossie, young as they were, had little tasks to do that kept them busy. But they liked their school and the teacher, and many were the queer stories they brought home of the happenings in the classroom.
It was now toward the end of October, and the weather was getting cooler, though during the day it was still very warm at times. The twins, as did their friends, looked forward to the coming of Winter and the Christmas holidays.
Thanksgiving, too, would be a time of rejoicing and of good things to eat, and this occasion was to be made more of than usual this time, for some boys and girls the Bobbseys had met in the country and at the seashore were to be invited to spend a few days in Lakeport.
But before this there was another event down on the program. This was to be a party for Flossie and Freddie, the occasion being their joint birthdays.
"And we're going to have candy!" cried Freddie, when the arrangements were talked over.
"And ice cream"—added Flossie—"a whole freezer full; aren't we, mamma?"
"Well, I guess a small freezer full won't be any too much," said Mrs. Bobbsey, smiling. "But I hope none of you eat enough to make yourselves ill."
"We won't," promised Freddie and Flossie.
There were busy times in the home of the twins the next few days, for though Nan and Bert's birthdays were not to be observed, still they were to have their part in the jolly celebration.
Invitations were sent out, on little sheets of note paper, adorned with flowers, and in cute little envelopes. Flossie and Freddie took them to the post-office themselves.
"My! what a lot of mail!" exclaimed the clerk at the stamp window, as he saw the children dropping the invitations into the slot. "Uncle Sam will have to get some extra men to carry that around, I guess. What's it all about?"
"We're going to have a party," said Flossie, proudly.
Just then Danny Rugg came into the post-office.
"A party; eh?" he sneered. "I'm coming to it, I am; and I'm going to have two plates of ice cream."
"You are not!" cried Freddie. "My mamma wouldn't let a boy like you come to our party."
"'Specially not after what you did—telling us to play in the water," added Freddie. "You can't come!"
"Yes, I can," insisted Danny, just to tease the children.
For a moment Flossie and Freddie almost believed him, he seemed so much in earnest about it.
"You can't come you haven't any invitation," said Flossie, suddenly.
"I'll take one of those you put in the box," went on the mean boy.
"He won't dare—will he?" and Freddie appealed to the mail clerk.
"I should say not!" said the man at the stamp window. "If he does Uncle Sam will be after him."
"Well, I'm coming to that party all the same!" insisted Danny, with a grin on his freckled face.
Flossie and Freddie were so worried about him that they told their mother, but she assured them that Danny would not come to spoil their fun.
Finally the afternoon and evening of the party arrived, for the little folks were to come just before supper, play some games, eat, and then stay until about nine o'clock.
Flossie and Freddie had been dressed in their prettiest clothes, and Nan and Bert also attired for the affair. The ice cream had come from the store, all packed in ice and salt, and Dinah had set it out on the back stoop, where it would be cooler.
Dinah was very busy that day. She hurried about here and there, helping Mrs. Bobbsey. Sam, her husband, also had plenty to do.
"I 'clar t' gracious goodness!" Dinah exclaimed, "I suah will get thin ef dish yeah keeps up! I ain't set down a minute dis blessed day. My feet'll drop off soon I 'specs."
"Will they, really, Dinah?" asked Freddie. "And can we watch 'em fall?"
"Bress yo' hearts, honeys!" exclaimed the colored cook, "I didn't mean it jest dat way. But suffin's suah gwine t' happen—I feels it in mah bones!"
And something was to happen, though not exactly what Dinah expected.
Finally all was in readiness for the guests. The good things to eat were in the kitchen, all but the ice cream, which, as I have said, was out on the back porch. Flossie and Freddie had gone to the front door nearly a dozen times to see if any of the guests were in sight. Snap, as a special favor, had been allowed to stay in the house that afternoon, for the twins were going to make him do tricks for their friends.
There came a ring at the door bell.
"Here they come! Here they come!" cried Flossie.
"Let me answer, too," cried Freddie, and they both hurried through the front hall to greet the first guest at their party.
QUICKLY, after the first guests had arrived came the others. Nellie Parks, Grace Lavine friends of Nan, and Willie Porter and his sister Sadie, came first, and Freddie and Flossie let them in, the Porter children being some of their bestliked playmates.
All the children wore their best clothes, and for a time they were a bit stiff and unnatural, standing shyly about in corners, against the walls, or sitting on chairs.
The boys seemed to all crowd together in one part of the room, and the girls in another. Flossie and Freddie, Nan and Bert, were so busy answering the door that they did not notice this at first.
But Aunt Sarah, their mother's sister, who had come over to help Mrs. Bobbsey, looking in the parlor and library, saw what the trouble was.
"My!" she cried, with a goodnatured laugh, as she noticed how "stiff" the children were. "This will never do. You're not that way at school, I don't believe. Come, be lively. Mix up—play games. Pretend this is recess at school, and make as much noise as you like."
For a moment the boys and girls did not know what to think of this invitation. But just then Snap, the circus dog, came in the room, and, with a bark of welcome, he turned a somersault, and then marched around on his hind legs, carrying a broomstick like a gun—pretending he was a soldier. Bert had given it to him.
Then how the children laughed and clapped their hands! And Snap barked so loudly—for he liked applause that there was noise enough for even jolly Aunt Sarah. After that there was no trouble. The boys and girls talked together and soon they were playing games, and having the best kind of fun.
For some of the games simple prizes had been offered and it was quite exciting toward the end to see who would win. Flossie and Freddie thought they had never had such a good time in all their lives. Nan and Bert were enjoying themselves, too, with their friends, who were slightly older than those who had been asked for the younger Bobbsey twins.
"Going to Jerusalem," was one game that created lots of enjoyment. A number of chairs were placed in the centre of the room, and the boys and girls marched around them while Mrs. Bobbsey played the piano. But there was one less chair than there were players, so that when the music would suddenly stop, which was a signal for each one who could, to sit down, someone was sure to be left. Then this one had to stay out of the game.
Then a chair would be taken away, so as always to have one less than the number of players, and the game went on. It was great fun, scrambling to see who would get a seat, and not be left without one, and finally there was but one chair left, while Grace Lavine and John Blake marched about. Mrs. Bobbsey kept playing quite some time, as the two went around and around that one chair. Everyone was laughing, wondering who would get a seat and so win the game, when, all at once, Mrs. Bobbsey stopped the music. She had her back turned so it would be perfectly fair.
Grace and John made a rush for the one chair, but Grace got to it first, and so she won.
"Well, I'm glad you did, anyhow," said John, politely.
Other games were "peanut races" and "potato scrambles." In the first each player had a certain number of peanuts and they had to start at one end of the room, and lay the nuts at equal distances apart across to the other side, coming back each time to their pile of peanuts to get one.
Sometimes a boy would slip, he was in such a hurry, or a girl would drop her peanuts, and this made fun and confusion.
Nan won this race easily.
In the potato scramble several rows of potatoes were made across the room. Each player was given a large spoon, and whoever first took up all his or her potatoes in the spoons one at a time, and piled them up at the far end of the room, won the game. In this Charley Mason was successful, and won the prize—a pretty little pin for his tie.
The afternoon wore on, and, almost before the children realized it the hour for supper had arrived. They were not sorry, either, for they all had good appetites.
"Come into the dining room, children," invited Mrs. Bobbsey.
And Oh! such gasps of pleased surprise as were heard when the children saw what had been prepared for them! For Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, while not going to any great expense, and not making the children's party too fanciful, had made it beautiful and simple.
The long table was set with dishes and pretty glasses. There were flowers in the centre, and at each end, and also blooms in vases about the room. Then, from the centre chandelier to the four corners of the table, were strings of green smilax in which had been entwined carnations of various colors.
The lights were softly glowing on the pretty scene, and there were prettily shaded candles to add to the effect. But what caught the eyes of all the children more than anything else were two large cakes—one at either end of the table.
On each cake burned five candles, and on one cake was the name "Flossie," while the other was marked "Freddie." The names were in pink icing on top of the white frosting that covered the birthday cakes.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" could be heard all about the room. "Isn't that too sweet for anything!"
"I guess they are sweet!" piped up Freddie in his shrill little voice, "'cause Dinah put lots of sugar in 'em; didn't you, Dinah?" and he looked at Dinah, who had thrust her laughing, black, goodnatured face into the dining room door.
"Dat's what I did, honey! Dat's what I did!" she exclaimed. "If anybody's got a toofache he'd better not eat any ob dem cakes, 'cause dey suah am sweet."
How the children laughed at that!
"All ready, now, children, sit down," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Your names are at your plates."
There was a little confusion getting them all seated, as those on one side of the table found that their name cards were on the other side. But Flossie and Freddie, and Nan and Bert, helped the guests to find their proper places and soon everyone was in his or her chair.
"Can't Snap sit with us, too?" asked Freddie, looking about for his pet, who had done all his tricks well that evening.
"No, dear," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Snap is a good dog, but we don't want him in the dining room when we are eating. It gives him bad habits."
"Then can't I send him out some cakes?" asked Flossie, for Snap had almost as large a "sweet tooth" as the children themselves.
"Yes, as it is your birthday, I suppose you can give him some of your good things," said Mamma Bobbsey.
"Here, Dinah!" called Freddie to the cook, as he piled a plate full of cakes. "Please give these to Snap."
"Land sakes goodness me alive!" cried Dinah. "Dat suah am queer. Feedin' a dog jest laik a human at a party. I can't bring mahself to it, nohow."
"I'll take 'em out to him," said her husband.
Then the feast began, and such a feast as it was! Mrs. Bobbsey, knowing how easily the delicate stomachs of children can be upset, had wisely selected the food and sweets, and she saw to it that no one ate too much, though she was gently suggestive about it instead of ordering.
"Don't eat too much," advised Freddie to some of the friends who sat near him. "We've got a lot of ice cream coming. Save room for that."
"That's so—I almost forgot," spoke Jimmie Black.
A little later Mrs. Bobbsey said to Dinah:
"I think you may bring in the cream now, and I will help you serve it."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Oh, goodie!" cried Freddie. "Ice cream's coming!" and he waved his spoon above his head.
"Freddie—Freddie!" said his mother, in gentle reproof.
Dinah went out on the back stoop, looked around and came running back to the dining room, where Mrs. Bobbsey was. Dinah's eyes were big with wonder and surprise.
"Mrs. Bobbsey! Mrs. Bobbsey!" she cried. "Suffin's done gone an' happened!"
"What is it?" asked Mamma Bobbsey, quickly. "Is anyone hurt?"
"No'm, but dat ice cream freezer hate jest gone and walked right off de back stoop, an' it ain't dere at all, nohow! De ice cream is all gone!"
The children looked at one another with pained surprise showing on their faces.
The ice cream was gone!
ASTONISHMENT, surprise and disappointment were so great for a few seconds after the discovery that the best part of the party—the ice cream—was gone, that no one knew, what to say. Then Flossie burst out with:
"Are you sure, Dinah? Maybe it fell off the porch."
"Deed an' it didn't, honey gal. I done looked eberywhar fo' dat freezer, an' it's jest gone complete."
"Maybe Snap took it," suggested Freddie, as a last hope. "Once he took my book and hid it. Snap, did you take the ice cream?"
Snap barked and wagged his tail, looking rather pained at being asked such a question.
"No, indeedy, Snap couldn't take off a big freezer like dat," declared Dinah. "It wasn't Snap."
"Then who could it have been?" asked Nan. Everyone had stopped eating while this talk went on. "Who could have taken our ice cream?"
"Dat's what I don't know, honey," answered the colored cook. "Dat's why I comed in heah to tell yo' mamma. I 'spects, Mrs. Bobbsey, dat we'd better phonograph fo' de police."
"Phonograph—I guess you mean telephone; don't you, Dinah?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile.
"Yes'm, dat's what I done mean. Or else maybe we kin send mah man Sam down to de station house fo' 'em."
"No, I had better telephone, in case it is necessary. But perhaps I had better take a look out there. Perhaps the man from the store may have set the cream off to one side."
"No'm, he didn't do dat. I took p'ticlar notice where he set it. Dere's a wet ringmark on de porch where de freezer was, 'count of de salty water leakin' out. An' dat wet ringmark am all dat's left ob de cream, dar now!" and Dinah, standing with her hands on her hips, looked at the startled children, whose mouths were just ready for the ice cream.
"Well, I'm going to have a look, anyhow," said Bert. "Come on, Charley. Maybe, after all, that Danny Rugg is up to some of his tricks."
"I'm with you, Bert!" cried Charley. "But we ought to have some sort of a light. It's dark out."
"I'll get my little pocket electric light," said Bert. He had one, and it gave a good light. He went to his room for it.
Flossie and Freddie did not know what to do. That their lovely party should be spoiled by the missing ice cream seemed too bad to be true.
"Mamma, if we can't find this ice cream, can't we buy more?" Flossie wanted to know. "The girls just want some—so bad!"
"And the boys, too," added Freddie.
"Oh, I guess we'll manage to get some fo you, if we can't find this," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "We may have to wait a little while for it, though."
"Well, we'll have a look," said Bert, as he came down with his little electric lamp. Some of his own particular chums, including Charley Mason, followed him out to the back porch, Dinah was in her kitchen, looking behind tables, under the sink, in the pantry and all about, hoping that, somehow or other, the freezer might have gotten in there. But it was not to be found.
"Well, here's where it stood," said Bert, as he looked at the round, wet mark on the porch where the freezer had set. He flashed his torch on it, and then cried out:
"And look, boys, here are some spots of water that must have leaked from the wooden tub that holds the tin freezer. See, the water has dripped down on each step! This is the way they carried off our ice cream."
The others could see a trail of water drops leading from the stoop down the steps and along the stone walk at the side of the Bobbsey house.
"Now we can follow and see just where they took our cream!" cried Bert. "This is the way Indians used to trail the white settlers."
"Let me come!" cried Freddie, hearing this. "I want to help hunt whoever took our ice cream."
"No, you'd better stay back there," said Bert.
"Why?" his little brother wanted to know.
"Because it might be—tramps—who have it, and there'd be trouble," said Bert.
"Wait until I get my cap pistol!" cried Freddie. "I can scare a tramp with that."
"No, you go back there, and stay in the house," went on Bert. "If we find tramps have it, we'll get a policeman."
"It might be that a tramp did steal up on the steps, and lift off the freezer," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Bert, be careful," she called to her son, who set off in the darkness with his chums, flashing his electric light from time to time.
"I'll look out!" he called back.
For some distance it was easy to see which way the ice cream freezer had been carried, for there were the marks of the dripping water. Then these stopped about the middle of the sidewalk, and seemed to go over in the grass.
"We can't see 'em now," spoke Charley. "That's too bad."
"Well, we'll keep on this way in a straight line," suggested Bert. "Maybe they took the freezer down back of our berry bushes to eat the cream."
"I hope they left some," said John Anderson, in a mournful sort of voice.
Hurrying on after Bert, the boys looked eagerly about in the darkness for a sign of the missing ice cream. There were not many chances of them finding it, for though Bert's electric torch gave a brilliant light for a short distance, it was not very large.
"What's over there?" asked Charley, pausing and pointing to a patch of blackness.
"An old barn, that we used to use before we had our new one built," answered Bert. "Why?"
"Well, maybe they took the ice cream in there to eat it," went on Charley. "Is it open?"
"Yes, it's never locked. Say, we'll take a look in there, anyhow!" exclaimed Bert. "Come on, fellows!"
He led the way, the others following. As they approached the big, deserted barn Frank Black exclaimed in a whisper:
"I see a light!"
"So do I!" added Will Evans.
"And it's moving around," spoke Charley Mason.
"It's them, all right," decided Bert. "The tramps who took our ice cream are in there, all right!"
"What makes you think they are tramps?" asked Will.
"Well, I'm not sure, of course," admitted Bert. "But we can soon tell. Come on!"
"Are you—are you going up there?" asked Charley.
"Sure! Why not? I think we can scare em away."
The other boys hesitated. Some of them were older than Bert, and when they saw that he was determined to go on, they made up their minds that they would not let him go alone.
"All right—go ahead—we're with you," said Charley.
Bert and the others advanced. As they walked on they could see the light in the barn more plainly. And, as they stopped for a moment they could hear voices talking in low tones.
"More than one," whispered Charley.
"Yes, three or four," said Bert.
They walked ahead again, when suddenly Charley stepped on a stick that broke with a loud snap. In an instant the light in the barn went out, and then could be heard the footsteps of several persons running away.
"There they are!" shouted Bert, dashing forward. "Come on, fellows! We'll get 'em now!"
"That's right!" cried Charley. "Come on, surround 'em!"
Of course this was all said for effect, as the boys had no idea of trying to capture the tramps, or whoever it was that had taken the ice cream. But Bert thought that they could scare the thieves away, for the latter could not tell, in the darkness, how many, nor who were after them.
Flashing his light, Bert dashed ahead, followed by the others. Into the big barn they went, and, just as they entered the main part, they had a glimpse of someone running out of a side door.
"There they go!" cried Charley. "We can catch 'em!"
"No, let 'em go," advised Bert. "Here's our ice cream. Let's see if there's any left. If there is we'll take it back to the party. We might get into trouble if we went after those fellows."
By the gleam of the electric light they could all see the freezer of cream in the middle of the barn floor, near some upturned boxes. A hasty look showed that only a little had been taken out.
"There's plenty left!" said Bert. "We surprised 'em just in time. Now let's get beck to the house."
It was rather a triumphant procession that went back to the home of the Bobbsey twins, carrying the recovered ice cream freezer. And such a shout of delight from Flossie, Freddie and the others as greeted the boys!
"Is there any left?" asked Freddie.
"Plenty," said Bert.
"And did you catch the bad tramps?" Flossie wanted to know.
"They got away," her brother said. "But never mind, we scared them before they had a chance to eat much."
"I 'clar t' goodness sakes alive!" gasped Dinah, when she saw the ice cream freezer carried into her kitchen, "yo' am suttinly a smart boy, Massa Bert—dat's what yo' suah am!"
"Oh, well, the others helped me find it," said Bert, modestly.
As Dinah and Mrs. Bobbsey were dishing out the cream, the colored cook uttered a cry.
"Look out!" she exclaimed. "Dere's suffin black in dere, Mrs. Bobbsey. Maybe it's a stone dem careless tramps put in. Wait 'till I gits it out."
With a longhandled spoon Dinah fished for the black thing, and got it. She put it in a dish, with a small portion of the ice cream, and when the latter had melted, Bert, who was inspecting the object, gave a cry of surprise.
"Why, it's a button—a coat button!" he exclaimed.
"A button? How in the world could that get in there?" asked his mother. "Unless you boys dropped it in when you were carrying the cream."
Bert and the other boys quickly looked at their coats. There were no buttons missing.
"An' it suah wasn't in when de cream come heah," said Dinah. "I knows, fo I took off de kiver an' looked in t' see how hard it were froze. Dat button got in since!"
"Yes, and I think I know how, too!" exclaimed Bert.
"How?" asked Freddie.
"It was dropped in by whoever took the freezer. They must have been eating the cream right out of the can, and maybe they dropped the button in. I'll save it."
"What for?" asked Nan, wonderingly.
"I may be able to find out by it, who took the freezer," went on Bert. "I'm going to look at the coats of all the fellows in school next week, and if I find one with the button like this missing, I'll know what to think."
"Be careful not to accuse anyone wrongly," cautioned his mother.
Bert put the button carefully away, and the party guests were soon eating their ice cream, and discussing the disappearance of the freezer and the finding of it by the boys. Then with the playing of more games, and the singing of songs, the affair came to a close, and goodnights were said.
"We've had a lovely time!" said the boys and girls to Flossie and Freddie, as they left. "Glad you did—come again," invited the small Bobbsey twins.
Even Snap seemed to have enjoyed himself.
And when the house was settling down to quietness for the night, and when Dinah and Mrs. Bobbsey were picking up the dishes, the circus dog marched around like a soldier, with a stick for a gun, and one of the fancy caps, that came in the "surprise" packets, on his head.
When Bert went to bed that night he laid the button found in the ice cream where he would be sure to see it in the morning.
"I'm going to find out whose coat that came off of," he said to himself.
The little Bobbsey twins slept late the next morning, and so did Nan, but Bert was up early.
"I'm going over to the barn, and see if I can tell by looking around it, how many were at our freezer," he said.
But there was nothing there to help him in his search. Some old boxes, placed in a sort of circle, showed where the ones who had taken the ice cream, had rested to eat it.
"They must have had spoons with them," said Bert to himself, as he looked about, "That shows they came all prepared to take our ice cream. So they must have known it was going to be here. Well, I'll see whose coat has a button missing."
It took Bert some days to look carefully at the coats of the various boys in school, who might have been guilty of taking the cream. For a time he had no luck, and then, one afternoon, as he noticed Danny Rugg wearing a coat he seldom had on, Bert walked slowly up to him, clasping the button, with his hand, in his pocket.
His heart beat fast as he noticed that from the middle of Danny's coat a button was gone.
And a glance at the others showed Bert that they were just like the one found in the ice cream freezer.
"I see you've lost a button, Danny," said Bert, slowly.
"Hey?" exclaimed the bully, with a start.
"I see you've lost a button," repeated Bert.
"Yes, I guess it dropped off. Maybe it's home somewhere," said Danny.
"No, it isn't—it's here!" exclaimed Bert, suddenly holding the button out to him.
FOR a moment Danny Rugg just stared at Bert. Then the bully swallowed a sort of lump that came in his throat, and said:
"That isn't my button."
"Isn't it?" asked Bert, politely. "Why, it just matches the others on your coat, and it's got a few threads in the holes, and there are some threads in your coat, just where the button was pulled off. I guess it's your button, all right, Danny."
Danny did not say anything. He looked from the button to Bert, and then at the space on his coat where a button should have been, but where one was missing.
"Well—well," he stammered. "Maybe it is off my coat, but—but how did you get it, Bert Bobbsey?"
"I found it," was the answer. "Don't you want it back?"
He held it out to Danny, who took it slowly.
"Well," went on Bert, with a queer little smile at his enemy, "why don't you ask me where I found it, Danny?"
"Huh! I don't care where you found it. I s'pose you picked it up around the school yard, where I lost it, playing tag with the fellows."
"No, you didn't lose it there," went on Bert, still smiling. "You have another guess coming, Danny."
"Pooh! I don't care where you found it," and Danny was about to turn away.
"Wait a minute," said Bert. "Suppose I say that this button was found in our freezer of ice cream, that you and some other boys took off our stoop the night of Flossie's and Freddie's party, Danny? What about that?"
"It isn't—I didn't—you can't prove anything about me, Bert Bobbsey, and if you go around telling that I took your ice cream, I—"
But Danny did not know what else to say. He was confused and his face was white and red by turns, for he realized that Bert had good proof of what he said.
"Better go slow," advised Bert, calmly. "I don't intend to go around telling what you did. I just want to let you know that I am sure you took our ice cream.
"I—I" began Danny. "You're only trying to fool me!" he exclaimed. "That button wasn't in it at all!"
"Wasn't it?" asked Bert, quietly. "Well, you just ask Charley Mason, or any of the fellows who were at the party, what we found in the freezer, and see what they say."
Danny had nothing to reply to this. Thrusting the button in his pocket he walked off. Bert was sure he had found the boy who had taken the ice cream.
Later, from a boy who had been friends with Danny for some time, but whose father, afterward, decided that his son was getting into bad company, and made him cease playing with the school bully, Bert learned that Danny had planned to take the ice cream freezer off the porch.
He and several boys did this, carrying it to the old barn. They had provided themselves with large spoons, and were having a good time, eating the cream, when they heard the approach of Bert and his friends, and fled, leaving the cream behind.
It was during a dispute as to who should have the right to first dip into the freezer that Danny and a boy named Jake Harkness had a struggle, and in this Danny lost a button which fell into the ice cream without anyone knowing it. The coat Danny wore that night he did not put on again for some time, but when he did Bert saw the missing button.
Danny knew that he had been found out, and for a time he had little to say. But Bert was boy enough not to be able to keep altogether quiet over his discovery. From time to time he would ask Danny:
"Lost any more buttons, lately?"
"You let me alone!" Danny would reply, surlily.
Of course this made talk, the boys wanting to know what it meant, and at last the story came out. This made Danny so angry that he picked several quarrels with Bert. On his part Bert tried to avoid them, but at last he could stand it no longer, and he and Danny came to blows again, Danny striking first.
Bert had been brought up with the idea that fighting, unless it could absolutely be avoided, was not gentlemanly, but in this case he could not get out of it.
He and Danny went at each other with their fists clenched, a crowd of other boys looking on, and urging one or the other to do their best, for both Danny and Bert had friends, though Bert was the best liked.
Danny struck Bert several times, and Bert hit back, once hitting Danny in the eye. Bert's lip was cut, and when the fight was over both boys did not look very nice. But everyone said Bert had the best of it.
"Oh, Bert!" exclaimed his mother, when he came home after the trouble with Danny. "You've been fighting!"
"Yes, mother, I have," he admitted. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it. Danny Rugg hit me first. I couldn't run away, could I?"
It was a hard question for a mother to answer. No mother likes to think her son a coward, and that was what the boys would have called Bert had he not stood up to Danny.
"I—I just had to!" continued Bert. "And I beat him, anyhow, mother."
Mrs. Bobbsey cried a little, and then she made the best of it, and bathed Bert's cut lip and bruised forehead. She told his father about it, too, and Mr. Bobbsey, after hearing the account, asked:
"Who won?"
"Well, Bert says he did?"
"Um. Well, I've no doubt but what he did. He's getting quite strong."
"Oh, Richard!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, in dismay.
"Well, boys will er—have their little troubles," said her husband. "I'm sorry Bert had to fight, but I'm glad he wasn't a coward. But he mustn't fight any more."
Then Mr. Bobbsey sat down to read the evening paper.
The weather was getting cooler. Several nights there had been heavy frosts, and for some time the papers had been saying that it was going to snow, but the white flakes did not sift down from the sky.
Thanksgiving was approaching. It was the end of the Fall term of school, and there were to be examinations to see who would pass into the next higher classes for the Winter season.
Of course in the case of Freddie and Flossie, who were still in the kindergarten, the examinations were not very hard, but they were soon to go into the regular primary class, where they would learn to read. And both the twins were very anxious for this. Bert and Nan had somewhat harder lessons to do, and they had to answer more difficult questions in the examinations.
But I am glad to say that all of the Bobbsey twins were promoted, and Freddie and Flossie came home very proud to tell that when they went back again, after the Thanksgiving holidays, they would be in the primer reading book.
And such preparations as went on for Thanksgiving! Dinah was busy from morning until night, and when the little twins made inquiries about the turkey they were to have Mr. Bobbsey said it would be the biggest he could buy.
"An' I'se gwine t' stuff him wif chestnuts an' oysters," said Dinah. "I tells you what, chilluns, yo' all am suttinly gwine to hab one grand feed."
"I wish everybody was," said Flossie, a bit wistfully. "I hope our cat Snoop, wherever he is, has plenty of milk, and some nice turkey bones."
"I guess he will have," said Mamma Bobbsey, gently.
"I hope all the poor children in our school have enough to eat," said Freddie. "Mr. Tetlow said for us to bring what we could for them."
"And you never told me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Why didn't you? I would have sent something."
Neither Bert nor Nan had thought to mention at home that a collection would be taken at the school for the poor families in the town. But as soon as Mrs. Bobbsey heard what Freddie said she telephoned to her husband. Mr. Bobbsey went to see Mr. Tetlow, and from him learned that there were a number of families who would not have a very happy Thanksgiving.
Then the lumber merchant gave certain orders to his grocer and butcher, and if a number of poor people were not well supplied with food that gladsome season, it was not the fault of Mr. Bobbsey.
But I am getting a little ahead of my story.
A few days before Thanksgiving Mrs. Bobbsey, with a letter in her hand, came to where the four twins were in the sitting room, talking over what they wanted for Christmas.
"Guess who are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us!" cried Mamma Bobbsey, as she waved the letter in the air.
"Uncle Bobbsey!" guessed Nan.
"Uncle Minturn," said Bert.
The little twins guessed other friends and relatives, and finally Mrs. Bobbsey said:
"Yes, your Uncle Bobbsey and Uncle Minturn are coming, and so are your aunts, and Cousin Harry, Cousin Dorothy and also Hal Bingham, whom you met at the seashore."
"Oh, what a jolly Thanksgiving it will be!" cried the Bobbsey twins.