The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners

Contents

THE Tuirp Act.

Motuer’s News DinaAn’s APPLE CART .

SCATTERED BERRIES AN ANGRY PEDDLER OFF TO CHERRY CORNERS THe Bumpity Bump THE Fire ALARM CHERRIES EVERYWHERE Nick IN A TREE Bert’s Mup BaTH .

Chapter II Mother’s News

‘“Wuat’s happening?” screamed some of the children in the audience.

“The garage is coming down!” exclaimed Danny Rugg, always an excitable chap.

“Let me get out!” begged Grace Lavine.

“There’s no danger! No danger at all!” yelled Bert. “Nobody will get hurt!”

But Snap, the dog, was barking, and Snoop, his tail as big as a bologna sausage, was scrambling off the “raft.” Flossie and Freddie did not know what to make of the strange racket and the sudden fall of the curtain.

“It’s all right. No danger at all!” cried John Marsh, who was one of Bert’s particular chums.

“What happened?” asked Helen Porter.

“A lot of baskets of potatoes fell down off that place,’ and John pointed to the loft over the stage. “That’s all it is—a lot of potatoes falling down.”

By this time the audience and the players could see that it was this that had happened. Potatoes were rolling all about the floor and across what had been the stage.

“Did you do that, Sammie Todd?” demanded Nan Bobbsey, for, be it known, Sam was a mischievous lad, always up to some trick.

“1 did not! I wasn’t out of my seat!” he replied.

“That’s right. Sammie was sitting next to me,” chimed in Danny Rugg, but some of the girls were heard to murmur that it would be “just like’ those two boys to do something like this.

“Well, the play’s over,’ remarked Bert somewhat sadly, for the curtain had collapsed, the fastenings having pulled away. It would take some time to put it in place again. Moreover, some of those who had been on the pirate raft were gone. Snoop and Snap had run out of the garage.

Potatoes were scattered about everywhere,

MOTHER’S NEWS 17 amid the overturned chairs, boxes, benches, and planks on which the audience had been

seated. The scenery of the stage was all disarranged. ‘The play was ruined—wrecked —spoiled!

“Never mind—it was almost over, anyhow,” said Nan to Bert.

“Yes, it was almost over. But look at the mess we'll have to clean up now,” and he sighed. “JI wonder how it happened,” went on, musingly.

While Bert is wondering and while the excitement is calming down, I will take just a moment to tell new readers something about the Bobbsey twins and their friends.

There were two sets of them, as you have seen. Flossie and Freddie were the younger twins.. They had light hair and blue eyes. Bert and Nan, who were some years older than the others, had brown hair and brown eyes.

In the book, “The Bobbsey Twins,” these four children were first introduced. They lived with their father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bobbsey, in the eastern city of - Lakeport, on Lake Metoka, on the shore of which Mr. Bobbsey owned a lumberyard.

With the family also lived Sam Johnson, a colored man of all work, and his wife Dinah, who was the cook. Ina way, Snap, the dog, and Snoop, the cat, were also members of the family, for the children liked their pets very rouch.

Bert and Nan, as well as Flossie and Freddie, had wonderfully good times at their home, in the country on grandpa’s farm, at school, and going about to different places when the summer vacation closed their classes. Their adventures you will find set down in various books.

Just before the opening of this story the children had taken part in some queer happenings, as related in the volume entitled “The Bobbsey Twins at Cloverbank.” They had returned from there to their home, and now, with summer coming on again, Bert and his sisters and brother were ready for more fun. It had been Bert’s idea to get up the play in the garage.

“But I never thought it would end this way,” he said a bit ruefully, as he looked at the scattered things on the garage floor.

MOTHER'S NEWS 19

“We'll help you clean up,”’ offered Charlie Mason. y “Sure!” echoed Danny Rugg. “It was a good show until the curtain smashed down on that third act.”

“And ‘then it wasn’t so very bad!” chuckled the fun-loving Sammie. ‘I thought it was all part of the play when I saw those potatoes tumbling dowr like a queer kind of rain.” L

“I wonder what made them fall!” said Bert again. “I’m going to have a look.”

“Didn’t you know they were up there?” asked Charlie.

“No, I didn’t. -1 saw a lot of baskets up there, but I didn’t know they had potatoes ih “em.”

But that is what the baskets held, and it turned out that Sam.Johnson had stored the potatoes in the garage loft. Bert had not fastened the heavy curtain very securely, and it was found that, unknowingly, he had tied some of the supporting ropes around the potato baskets.

The raising and lowering of the curtain had shifted these baskets, until some toppled over.

knocking others down, and then had come the grand crash.

No one was hurt. Snoop and Snap were the ones most frightened, and they scampered away. A few of the girls had run outside, but they soon came back, and while some helped Nan pick up the scattered clothes that had served as costumes in the play others assisted the boys to gather the potatoes.

“T didn’t know there were this many potatoes in the world!’ exclaimed Charlie Mason.

“Pooh! You ought to see how many my grandfather digs on his farm!” said Bert.

But if the audience and actors in the pirate play were soon over their excitement caused by the fall of the potatoes and the curtain, Dinah, the fat, good-natured colored cook, did not share this freedom from worry.

She had paused in the midst of baking a cake long enough to ask her husband, Sam, who was cutting the lawn:

“Whar am de chilluns?”’

““Dem’s all in de garage play-actin’,” Sam had replied, and Dinah had assumed that Bert and the others were all right. She heard

MOTHER’S NEWS 21 laughter and applause coming from the “theater,” and smiled and chuckled as she murmured: |

Then had sounded the wild shouts and cries, the crash, and many bumping noises.

“Good lan’ ob massy!” yelled Dinah, dropping on the table the cake she had just taken from the oven. “Dey mus’ be some conglomeration out dere! Oh, I hope de chillums ain’t hurted!”

She rushed from the house just as Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, who had been out riding in the automobile, turned into the drive. Mrs. Bobbsey, seeing Dinah running frantically, at once guessed that something was wrong. Dinah was like a watchdog with the children.

“What is it?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as her husband stopped the car.

“Sumpin done happened!” gasped Dinah. “De honey lambs am out in de garage, but dey’s a conglomeration out dere, I guess! Heah ’em!”’

Indeed, the two parents could not very well help hearing the commotion. For a moment Mr. Bobbsey, as did his wife, feared something dreadful had happened, and they hurried toward the “theater.”” They soon heard laughter replacing the cries of alarm and saw such of the audience as had run out going back in, so they felt relieved. |

“T guess it’s only part of the play,” chuckled Mr. Bobbsey as he turned about to go back and shut off the motor of the car, ' which had been left going.

But Mrs. Bobbsey wanted to make sure, so she continued on to the garage, entering it in time to see the children picking up the. potatoes. :

“Ts dey all killed?” gasped Dinah, who was afraid to look.

“Nonsense! They’re all right!” laughed Mrs. Bobbsey. “What happened, Bert?” she asked. ;

“Curtain fell down and pulled with it a lot of potatoes Sam had stored in the loft,” was the boy’s explanation.

“Oh, Mother! We had a fine play until that happened!” said Flossie. “I was on a pirate raft.”

MOTHER’S NEWS 23

“And | was a cowboy-fireman,’” added Freddie.

_ “Too bad your play had to be spoiled,” said the children’s mother.

“Oh, it wasn’t exactly spoiled,” admitted Bert. “It didn’t happen until near the end of the third act, and that was the last: But it sure did make a racket!”

“T was frightened!” admitted Nan.

“Well, don’t worry about it,’”’ advised Mrs. Bobbsey. “You were only going to give one performance, anyhow. And now there is something else to look forward to.”

“Oh, what, Mother?” cried Nan, impressed by something in her mother’s voice and by a light shining in Mrs. Bobbsey’s eyes. ‘“‘Is it a secretr”’

“No, not exactly a secret,’’ was the laughing answer. “As soon as you finish cleaning up, come into the house, twins, and I'll tell you the news!”

“Oh, hurray! We’re going somewhere, I’m almost sure!’ shouted Bert, as he tossed the scattered potatoes into a basket.

CHAPTER Iil DINAH’S APPLE CART

With the work of cleaning up the mess well under way, Mrs. Bobbsey turned back toward the house, to observe Dinah standing a little distance from the garage.

“Am dey—am dey much hurtedP”’ asked the faithful old cook.

“Nonsense, Dinah! No one is hurt at all!” answered the children’s mother. “It was just a small accident—some potatoes were spilled and the curtain crashed down. No one was hurt.”

“Dat’s good!” sighed Dinah. “But dat dere dog an’ cat—dey was scairt, I reckon! Yo’ should ’a’ seen ’em run out!” and she chuckled.

“Yes, I suppose Snap and Snoop were a bit frightened,” agreed Mrs. Bobbsey. “But they’ll soon get over it.”

DINAH’S APPLE CART 25

Not all the boys and girls that had made up the audience at the pirate play remained to help clean up things. Most of them drifted off after a few half-hearted efforts to assist to find other fun. But Charlie Mason and John Marsh, two of Bert’s particular chums, remained to help with the potatoes.

“Are you folks going away?” asked John, who had overheard some of the talk between Bert and his mother.

“T guess so,” was the answer. ‘“‘We go away every summer vacation. But up to now nothing has been said about where we are going.”

“IT hope we go to the seashore!”’ exclaimed Freddie. “‘There’s lots of water for my fire engine!” ’

“Oh, you and your fire engine!’’ laughed Nan, giving him a little hug as she held out a basket so he could put in it some potatoes he had picked up.

_ “Vd rather go to the mountains,” chimed in Flossie. “It’s better air up there for my dolls, and my best one is sick.”

“Yes, the mountains are nice,’ agreed Nan.

“I'd like to go to a farm,” Bert said.

“That’s the best place of all!” agreed Charlie. We're going on a farm this summer.’

“We're going to the seashore,” ‘said John, “It’s the first time, and I hope I’ll like it.”

“You'll be sure to,” said Bert, and then they began talking of the different kinds of fun to be had during the long vacation.

But through it all Bert was wondering what his mother had to tell him and the other twins. He knew she and his father had ridden off to a distant city on business. It was because the automobile was to be out of the garage that the play had been planned for this day.

“T wonder what Mother will tell us?”’ murmured Nan to Bert, when most of -the potatoes had been picked up.

“We'll find out in a little while! he answered. “Do you think our play was all right, NanP”

“Tt was fine—all but the last curtain!’ and she laughed merrily. as did Charlie and John.

““Maybe we'll have another some day—

DINAH’S APPLE CART. ‘a7 when we get back in the fall,” Bert half promised, as his chums drifted off to the streets; :

“Well, children,’ began Mrs. Bobbsey when, a little later, the four twins went up to where she was sitting on a side porch, “are you all right?” Y

“All right, Mother,” answered Bert. “But what’s the news?”’ ;

“Tell us where we are going this seranen ty begged Nan.

“Did I say we were going anywhere?” teased Mrs. Bobbsey. “How would it be if we stayed at home this summer?”

“Oh, Mother!’ came in disappointed tones from all four, and Freddie and Flossie looked so distressed that their father, who had come up the steps, laughed and said:

“I guess we'd better tell them and have it over with, Mother!”

“All right!’ agreed his wife. ‘Then, children, this is what we are going to do. In a week we are going to Cherry Corners!”

“Cherry Corners?” echoed Nan and Bert.

“Where is Cherry -Corners?” Flossie wanted to know.

“Ts there any water there for my fire engine?’’ demanded Freddie.

“Plenty!” chuckled his father. ‘But you are getting to be a poor shot with that hose of yours, my little fireman.”’

“A poor shot?” repeated Freddie, in wonderment.

“Yes,” and his father laughed harder than ever. “I hear that when you tried to put out the pirate’s fire you squirted water in Bert’s ear!”

“That’s what he did!” chuckled Bert. ‘I had all I could do not to yell out and spoil the scene. You ought to feel that water tickle!”

“I—I—now—couldn’t help it!” stammered Freddie. “But I squirted only a little on Bert.”

“Who told you about it, Daddy?” asked Nan. .

“Charlie Mason,” answered Mr. Bobbsey. “| was just talking to him out in the street. Oh, well, what matter? You had a good time,” and the Bobbsey twins agreed that they certainly had.

“But what about Cherry Comers?” asked Nan. “What is it and where is it?”’

DINAH’S APPLE CART 29

“Ys xt on a farm?”’ Bert wanted to know.

“Yes, it’s on four farms,” his father yeplied. “Or rather, there are four farms at Cherry Corners. Four farms meet at the crossroads, and on each farm are a number of cherry trees. Cherries will soon be ripe and——””

“Are we going up there in time to pick

_ cherries?” asked Flossie eagerly.

“T love cherries!’’ chimed in Freddie. “And ‘cherry pie,’ added Bert. “Oh, boy!”

“What about it, Mother?” asked Nan, for the vital question had not yet been answered. “Yes, we are planning to take you to Cherry Corners this summer,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Your father will tell you about it. I must go in to tell Dinah about dinner.” As Mrs. Bobbsey entered the house, the four twins turned to their father with eager faces. | “This is how it happened,” went on Mr. Bobbsey, who liked to explain matters to his children so they would understand just how — things came about. ‘Cherry Corners is the name of a country town about seventy-five miles from here. The place is named after four farms containing many cherry trees.

“Now, it so came about that a certain man who owned one of these farms bought a lot of lumber from me to build some houses in another town. He thought he could make more money building houses than he could working on his farm and selling cherries. So I let him have the lumber and he promised either to pay me later or give me his farm if he could not pay in money. |

“Well, things did not turn out so well in his building work, and now he wants me to take the farm in payment for the lumber I gave him. That is only fair.”

“Are you going to take the farm, Daddy?” asked Bert.

“Yes, it seems the only thing to do. I don’t exactly want a farm, for | have little time to work on it. But since I had to take it, | thought you and your mother might as well have anice vacation onit. This farm is the best of the four, and has the most cherry trees on it.”

“But are there cherries on the trees, Daddy?”’ asked Flossie. |

DINAH’S APPLE CART 31

“Lots of them!” laughed her father. “In fact, your mother and I just now got back from having visited this farm, which is called Red Gate, because the entrance has a big red gate. The cherries will soon be ripe— I should say in another week or two.”

“May we pick as many as we liker”’ asked Freddie.

“Yes,” his father answered, and then he shook his finger warningly at not only the little “fireman” twin, but at the other three as well.

“What is it, Daddy?” asked Nan.

“You may pick as many cherries as you like,’ said Mr. Bobbsey a bit solemnly, ‘but you may not eat as many as you like. | don’t mean that ail the fruit has to be sold,” he went on. “But you must not eat so many cherries as to make youselves ill. Be careful and wise—that is what you must do if you go to Cherry Corners.”

“We will!’”’. promised Bert for the others. “Are there cows and horses and pigs and chickens and all things like that on the farm?”’

“Some of these things are on Red Gate, and some on the other farms around there,” Mr. Bobbsey explained. “It’s a regular country place, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s what I mean,’ said Bert. ‘Oh, what fun we'll have!”

“What fun! What fun!” echoed the other twins.

Freddie jumped off the porch and began to run around, joyfully singing, and- Flossie was just going to join him when Freddie took it into his head to run down the path and up .he back steps, calling to Flossie:

“You can’t catch me!”

Just as he started up the back steps Dinah started down with a bowl of custard in her hands, intending to set it outside to cool a bit. before putting it in the refrigerator. A’ ‘moment later Freddie crashed full tilt into the black cook, scattering the custard al! over. Dinah caught her breath, then cried:

“Good lan’ ob massy! He’s done upsot mah apple cart!”

Chapter IV Scattered Berries

DinaH did not have an apple cart, of course. She just called her jolly, fat body - that in fun. But Freddie, in his excited running race to celebrate the news about going to Cherry Corners, had certainly knocked Dinah down and ee spilled the bowl of custard.

“Oh! Oh!” gasped F ike as, with horrified eyes, she saw what her brother had -done. “Oh, Freddie Bobbsey!”’

Dinah, who had sat down, and rather hard, too, if the truth is to be told, said nothing after her first cry. One reason for this was that there was a lot of custard in her mouth and on her face and on her dress.

There was also custard on Freddie’s face, and so much around his mouth that the little fellow could only exclaim:

“Glub! Wob! Ulp!”

Then, with a quick motion of his hand, he wiped some of the egg, milk, and sugar off his face and managed to gasp:

““{_[—I didn’t mean to do it, Dinah!”

“Bress yo’ h’a’t, honey lamb, I known yo’ didn’t!’ declared Dinah, and then her fat body began to shake like a bowl of jelly, for she was laughing.

“Freddie!” called his mother in shocked surprise, “what did you do a thing like that for?”’

‘“‘{|—] didn’t mean to,” said the little fellow again.

“Are you hurt, Dinah?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, as he hastened forward to pick up the cook.

“Oh, no, sah, I isn’t hurt!” she answered. “T’s jest shook up a bit, but dat’s all. De custard is done spoiled, dough.”

“There isn’t any of it left,”’ observed Bert, trying not tolaugh. ‘We might scrape some off Dinah and Freddie, though.”.

No one seemed to think this idea a very

SCATTERED BERRIES gigas good one, and while Dinah got up off the ground and found the bowl, which luckily was not broken, Freddie was picked up by his_, mother and carried into the house to be _ washed and have clean clothes laid out for him. |

“IT guess I’ll have to change mah dress,” murmured Dinah. “An’ dere ain’t time fo’ no mo’ custard makin’ J reckon.” ~ “Don’t think of it, Dinah,” advised Mrs. Bobbsey. ‘‘We’ll have something else for dessert. How did you happen to run inta Dinah, Freddie?”

“Oh, I just did it—that’s all,” was his answer. :

“He was excited about Cherry Corners,” declared Nan.

“Mustn’t get too excited,’ warned Mr. Bobbsey. “You might fall out of cherry trees while you’re gathering the fruit./ Now calm down. This has been rather an exciting pday’

So it had been, starting with the play, the accident when the curtain came down, spilling the potatoes, and now the upsetting of Dinah and the bowl of custard.

But that brought the mishaps to an end, and in the evening after dinner the children sat about and talked quietly of what they would do when they got to Cherry Corners.

“Are we going by train, Daddy?” asked Flossie, who dearly loved to travel this way.

But this time the Bobbsey twins were not to go by train, as their father soon informed them. In answer to Flossie’s question he stated:

““We will go to Red Gate Farm, at Cherry Corners, in our auto. It will be a trip of only about three hours.”

“Can I take my fire engine in the auto?” Freddie asked.

“And my dolls?”’ added Flossie.

“If we all go in the auto, and those twins take all the toys they want, there won’t be any room for trunks,” said Bert, who was a practical boy.

“The trunks will go by express, on the train,” said his father.

“Then there’ll be plenty of room,” ob-. served Nan, for the Bobbsey auto was a large touring car.

SCATTERED BERRIES ——-3

The next day the four twins told some of their playmates about the good times in store for them, and more than one boy or girl who lived near the Bobbsey home murmured:

“T wish I were going to Cherry Corners!’

As a matter of fact, most of them were going to different, jolly vacation places, and they all counted on having good times. But none of them thought he or she was going to such a wonderful spot as Cherry Corners seemed to be.

“T hope it’s as nice as Daddy and Mother say it is,’ said Nan to Bert, when they were talking it over later in the day.

“Oh, I guess it will be,” the boy answered. “There’s a small river up at Red Gate Dad said, and I’m going fishing.”

A voice at the gate called to Nan, and she saw Helen Porter coming up the walk.

“Don’t you want to come with me?” asked Helen, who had a basket on her arm.

“Where are you going?” asked Nan.

“To take some things to Mrs. Clockford. Mother always sends her a basket of food each week.”

“Oh, isn’t that lovely!” exclaimed Nan,

| 38 BOBBSEY TWINS AIT CHERRY CORNERS who knew about the poor widow who lived at the other end of the street on which stood the Bobbsey and Porter homes. “Wait, Ill ask Dinah if I can take her some. Mother isn’t at home, but it will be all nght if Dinah gives me a basket.”

When the colored cook heard of the girls’ errand of mercy, she filled a basket for Nan, so that the two children started off, well laden, to call on Mrs. Clockford.

“Oh, wait a minute!” exclaimed Nan, when she was at the gate. “I forgot something.”

“You have your hat,’”’ Helen reminded her playmate.

“Oh, it isn’t that,” laughed Nan. “It’s about Flossie and Freddie. Mother has gone down town shopping, and she told me to watch them. If I go away, those twins are sure to get Into mischief.”

“There’s Bert,” said Helen, pointing to Nan’s other brother, who was oiling his bicycle in the front yard.

“He won’t be around here long,’ Nan replied. “He’s going off on his‘wheel. Let me see—what canI do? Wecan’t take them

SCATTERED BERRIES 39 with us, and Dinah is too busy to watch them. Bert won’t be here and——’”’

Just then Flossie and Freddie came running around the corner of the house with Henry and Mary Blackburn, two neighboring children about their own age.

“Oh, Nan!” called Flossie, ‘‘may Freddie and I go over to Mary’s house to play?”

“Did your mother say it would be all right, Mary?” Nan asked the visitor.

“Oh, yes,” was the ready answer. “Henry and I came over to get Flossie and Freddie. Mother sent us, and she said she’d watch to see that nothing happened.”

“Then it will be all right,” decided Nan, with a sigh of relief. “I can go with you, Helen”;

“T’m so glad!’”? murmured the other girl. “Poor Mrs. Clockford doesn’t have much to eat. She likes company, too. I always stay and talk with her a little while.”

“Then I will, too,’’ agreed Nan.

She heard the laughter of Flossie and Freddie as they scurried across the yards toward the home of their playmates.

“I’m going, Bert,’’ Nan called to the elder:

Bobbsey lad. “Tell Mother, when she comes back, that I won’t be very long.”

“All right—I will if I’m here!” sang out Bert. “But I’m going for a bike ride and I don’t know when I’m coming home. I’m going to get my wheel in shape to take to Cherry Corners.”

“Bert’s a good rider, isn’t he? ” asked Helen as she and Nan started off down the street, carrying the baskets of food.

“He thinks he is!”” laughed Nan. “But ‘he fell off once, though when I remind him of it he says he did it on purpose.”

“T guess he can ride all right,” decided Helen. ‘But tell me about Cherry Corners. It sounds like a beautiful place.”

“IT guess it is; but I’ve never been there,” answered Nan. “I’li send you a picture postcard of it if I can find one after we get there.”

Talking of many things and promising to . write to each other during their vacation, Nan and Helen went on their way. Meanwhile Bert, having finished oiling his wheel, prepared to set out on it to visit John Marsh, his chum who lived several blocks away.

“ SCATTERED BERRIES 41

John had two fishing rods and outfits, and had said he might trade one to Bert for a pair of roller skates that Bert no longer cared about.

“My fish pole is getting old,” Bert decided. “Tf I could get that extra one of John’s for my old roller skates, it would be just the. thing.”

He hung the skates by their straps over his handle bars, and then trundled his wheel out the front gate and was soon on his way. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and altogether the weather was just what it should be when school had closed for the long vacation.

Bert rode along several streets, keeping close to the curb of the different highways so as to be out of the path of automobiles as he had been told to do. He was whistling merrily, for there seemed happy times in prospect. ;

Just before he reached the street on which John lived, Bert saw a wagon, drawn by a bony horse, moving slowly along ahead of him. On one side of the wagon was a man who was shouting loudly:

; i 42 BOBBSEY TWINS AT CHERRY CORNERS

“Berries! Berries! Here y’are! Nice, fresh blackberries!”

On the other side of the wagon was a boy about Bert’s age, but a bit Jarger and heavier. He, too, carried several boxes of berries and was shouting like the man. .

Bert decided to go to the left, which was the rule of the road in passing another vehicle going in the same direction as himself, and he thought he would thus be in no danger should the bony horse suddenly turn in toward the

‘curb, as might happen if some woman called _to the man that she wanted berries.

Just as Bert came opposite the boy, the ~ latter, who was walking forward, suddenly began to walk backward. Why he did this Bert could not guess, unless he was too lazy to turn around. But the fact remains that the strange boy, carrying perhaps ten boxes of blackberries on a sort of wooden tray, was going backward. Bert was not going fast, but he was pedaling along a bit too speedily to make a sudden stop. So when he was close to the backward-walking boy and saw what was likely to happen, the Bobbsey lad shouted :

x SCATTERED BERRIES 43

“Hey! Look out!”

But just then the boy was trying to shout as loudly as the man did, and yelled:

“Berries! Berries! Here y’are! Nice blackberries!”

Bert back-pedaled and thus put on his brake, but not in time. He yelled again, but it was too late.

A moment later he ran full tilt into the boy’s back and sent him sprawling into the street, scattering the boxes of berries all about. At the same time Bert toppled off his wheel, which clattered to the asphalt, and he fell close beside the boy, sitting down hard on one of the boxes of blackberries.

Chapter V An Angry Peddler

Bert BopsseY was as much surprised at what had happened as was the peddler’s boy. Up to almost the last moment Bert had hoped he might avoid the accident by steering to one side. But the other boy had backed quickly, his two legs had fairly straddled the front wheel of the bicycle, and then had followed the upset.