The Bobbsey Twins in Washington | Page 8

ticklin' me now.
There's some down my back," and he wiggled and twisted as he stood
in the middle of the barn floor. Snap, the big dog, put his head to one
side, and cocked up his ears, looking at the two smaller twins as if
asking what it was all about, and what the digging in the hay was all
for.
"Well, it's mighty lucky laik dat it wasn't no wuss!" exclaimed fat
Dinah, with a sigh of relief. "I suah was clean skairt out ob mah seben
senses when yo' come runnin' into mah kitchen, Nan, an' says as how
Flossie an' Freddie was buried under de hay!"
"And they were!" said Nan. "I saw the hay go down all over them."
"So did I!" added Bert.
"But we wiggled out and hid so we could fool you!" laughed Freddie.
"Didn't you see us crawl out?"
"No," answered Bert, "I didn't. If I had I wouldn't have dug so hard."
"Ouch! Something tickles me awful!" complained Freddie, twisting
around as though he wanted to work his way out of his clothes. "Maybe
there's a hay-bug down my back!" he went on.
"Good land of massy!" cried Dinah, catching him up in her arms. "Yo'
come right in de house wif me, honey lamb, an' ole Dinah'll undress yo'
an' git at de bug--if dey is one!"
"I guess we've had enough fun in the barn," said Nan. "I don't want to
play here any more."
"I guess we'll have to put back the hay we knocked down," said Bert.

That was one of the Bobbsey rules--to put things back the way they had
been at first, after their play was done.
"Yes, we must put the hay up in the mow again," agreed Nan. "Daddy
wouldn't like to have us leave it on the floor. I'll help you, Bert, 'cause I
helped knock it down."
Dinah led the two younger twins off to the kitchen, with a promise of a
molasses cookie each and a further promise to Freddie that she would
take out of his clothes whatever it was tickling his back--a hay-bug or
some of the dried wisps of grass.
Bert and Nan had not long been working at stacking the hay back in
place before Sam came in. He had heard what had happened from
Dinah, his wife, and he said, most kindly:
"Run along an' play, Bert an' Nan! I'll put back de hay fo' yo' all. 'Tain't
much, an' it won't take me long."
"Thank you, Sam!" said Bert. "It's more fun playing outdoors to-day
than stacking hay in a barn."
"Are you very sure you don't mind doing it, Sam?" asked Nan, for she
wanted to "play fair."
"Oh, I don't mind!" exclaimed the good-natured Sam. "Hop along!"
"Didn't you ever like to play outdoors, Sam?" questioned Bert, as he
and Nan started to leave the barn.
"Suah I did," answered Sam. "When I was a youngster like you I loved
to go fishin' and swimmin' in the ole hole down by the crick."
"Oh, Sam, did you like to swim?" went on the Bobbsey boy quickly.
"I suah did, Bert. Down in our pa'ts I was considered the bestes'
swimmer there."
"Some day I'm going to see you, Sam," declared Bert. "Maybe you

could teach me some new strokes."
"I doan know about that, Bert. You see, I ain't quite so limber as what I
used to be when I was your age or jest a little older. Now you jest hop
along, both of you, and enjoy yourselves."
So Nan and Bert went out to find some other way of having fun. They
wanted to have all the good times they could, as school would soon
begin again.
"But we'll have a vacation at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New
Year's," said Nan, as she and her brother talked it over.
"Thanksgiving's a long way off," said Bert, with a sigh.
The two children were walking along the side path toward the front
yard when suddenly Snap, their dog, gave a savage growl. It was the
kind of growl he never gave unless he happened to be angry, and Bert
knew, right away, something must be wrong.
"What is it, Snap? A tramp?" asked the boy, looking around. Often
Snap would growl this way at tramps who might happen to come into
the yard. Now there may be good tramps, as well as bad ones, but Snap
never stopped to find out which was which. He just growled, and if that
didn't scare away the tramp then Snap ran at him. And no tramp ever
stood after that. He just ran away.
But now neither Bert nor Nan could see any tramp, either in the yard or
in the street in front of