The Bobbsey Twins at Meadow Brook | Page 2

not balance himself very well,
and had almost toppled over.
"Here, Snap!" called Bert, who was laughing so hard that he could
hardly stand up, for really it was a funny sight.
"Don't call him, Bert," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you do he'll run out,
and then Sam surely will be knocked over. And there are some fresh
eggs in one of those packages he took from Dinah."
Snap himself did not seem to know what to do. There he was, tightly

held fast, his fat sides between Sam's bow legs. Snap could go neither
forward nor backward just then. He barked and wagged his tail, for he
knew it was all in fun.
"Open your legs wider, Sam, man!" exclaimed his wife. "Den de dorg
kin git out!"
Sam, holding tightly to the packages, did manage to stoop down and so
spread his legs a little farther apart. This released Snap, who, with a
happy bark, and a wild wagging of his tail, bounded up on the stoop
where Nan sat.
A little later the whole Bobbsey family, with the exception of Mr.
Bobbsey, were sitting comfortably in the porch chairs, while Sam was
opening the front shutters, having already unlocked the front door for
the returning family.
"Home again!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, with a little sigh, as she
looked around at the familiar scenes. "My, but how dusty it is after
being on the lovely water."
"Yes'm, dey shuah has been lots ob dust!" exclaimed Sam. "We need
rain mighty bad, an' I've had de garden hose goin' ebery night, too."
"I'll soon sweep off dish yeah porch," said Dinah. "Sam, yo' git me a
broom."
"Oh, don't bother now, Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Make a cup of tea,
first. The dust doesn't matter, and we'll not be here long."
"Won't we?" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, where are we going next?"
"We'll talk about it as soon as your father comes home," said Mrs.
Bobbsey, for her husband had stopped on the way from the houseboat
dock, where the family had lately landed, to go to his lumber office for
a little while.
"Let Snoop out!" begged little Flossie. "Snoop's tired of being shut up

in that box." In order to carry him from the boat to the house Snoop had
been put in a small traveling crate.
"I'll let him out as soon as I get a screwdriver," promised Bert. "My, but
it's hot here!"
"Indeed it is," agreed his mother, who was fanning herself with her
pocket handkerchief as she sat in a rocking-chair. "It isn't much like our
nice houseboat, is it?"
"No, indeed," agreed Nan. "I wish we hadn't come home."
"And summer is only half over," went on Bert. "Here it is only
August."
"Oh, well, there are plenty of good times ahead of you children yet,
before school begins," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Now let's see. Have we
everything?" and she looked at the pile of bundles and valises on the
porch.
"I guess we didn't forget anything, except papa," said Freddie. "And
he's coming," he added, as the others laughed.
"Sam, am de fire made?" demanded Dinah. "I wants t' make a cup ob
tea."
"Fire all made," reported the colored man. "I'll go git a fresh pail ob
water now. I didn't know jest prezackly when yo' was comin'," he said
to Mrs. Bobbsey, "or I'd a' been down to de dock t' meet de houseboat."
"Might a' come anyhow," muttered Dinah. "Yo' all didn't hab nuffin' t'
do heah!"
"Huh! I didn't, eh?" cried Sam. "Nuffin t' do! Why, I cut de grass, an'
fed de chickens, an' watered de lawn, an'--an'--"
"Go 'long wif yo'," ordered his wife with a laugh. "Bring in some mo'
wood for de fire!"

"And get a screw-driver so I can let Snoop out," begged Flossie. "He's
tired of being shut up in the crate!"
"Right away, Missie! Right away!" promised good-natured Sam.
A little later Snoop, the black cat, was stretching himself on the porch,
while Snap, the big dog, rushed up and down the lawn, barking loudly
to let all the neighbors' dogs know he was back home again--at least for
a time.
Meanwhile Bert, as the "little man of the house," had brought in the
packages and satchels from the porch. Nan was helping her mother get
out a cool kimona, while Dinah was down in the kitchen getting ready a
cup of tea for Mrs. Bobbsey.
Flossie and Freddie, as the youngest Bobbsey twins, had nothing in
particular to do, so they ran about, here, there, everywhere, renewing
acquaintance with the familiar objects about the yard--things they had
forgotten during the two months they had been away on a houseboat,
for part of their summer vacation.
"Oh, look! My flower-bed is full of weeds!"