"Now suppose you tell me about it," suggested Mr. Carter mildly.
So Bobby told about the drive of the previous afternoon and of how his father had landed the car in the bushes; he told about his scheme to prove that he could steer, and of how Palmer had asked to try, too.
"But he didn"t make the hole wide enough," complained the battered Palmer. "First try I hit the side. I think it"s an awful silly thing to do, anyway."
"Well, I went through without hitting anything!" said a voice unexpectedly. "You"re always ready to make a fuss when you spoil a good game, Palmer."
It was Meg. She had found it impossible to desert Bobby in trouble, and had come back in time to hear Palmer"s grievance.
Mr. Carter tried not to smile.
"Aside from hurting Palmer, Bobby," said the princ.i.p.al seriously, "you"ve damaged the school property. What do you suppose Mr.
Hornbeck would say if he saw that fence?" Mr. Hornbeck was one of the school committeemen.
This was something Bobby had not considered.
"I"ll mend it," he promised hastily. "Honestly, I never thought about hurting the fence."
"I know you didn"t," Mr. Carter said promptly. "Still, that really doesn"t alter the fact that you"ve damaged property that doesn"t belong to you. I think to help you remember another time, we"ll say you must mend the fence this morning and make up the time after school. I"ll take Palmer in and patch him up now. Meg, you should be in your cla.s.sroom."
"I want to help Bobby," a.s.serted Meg firmly. "I"ll stay after school with him, too. It"s just as much my fault--I knew he shouldn"t pull off pickets, only I never told him."
Mr. Carter looked at the little girl oddly.
"All right, only you"ll have to make up the time with Miss Mason,"
he said. "I think Bobby is a lucky boy to have such a loyal little sister."
Meg and Bobby managed to put the pickets back and Mr. Carter found a piece of new wood with which to patch the old cross piece. They learned that it is easier to destroy things than to mend them, and after they had stayed till half past four that night and Mother Blossom had heard the reason and forbidden them ever to take the tin automobile to school again, both children decided that a game with such a sorry ending wasn"t worth planning.
The twins had spent the day grubbing in the garden. "Hunting gra.s.shoppers," Twaddles said, as Mother Blossom b.u.t.toned him into a clean blouse for supper.
"Why, it"s months too early for gra.s.shoppers," said Meg scornfully. "They never come till it"s hot in the summertime. How can you be so silly, Twaddles?"
"Huh!" was the best response Twaddles could make to this remark, but when he was ready to go downstairs he slipped into Meg"s room.
Her blue serge skirt and a fresh middy blouse lay over a chair and Twaddles knew she would wear them to school the next day. With a quick glance toward the door he slipped something into the pocket of the blouse, which was st.i.tched into the turned up hem.
"Twaddles!" called Dot. "Twaddles! Hurry up. Mother says she wants to tell us something. Come on down."
Mother Blossom was smiling as though something pleased her very much.
"Come into the living-room, children," she said, as the four little Blossoms came running downstairs. "Daddy has telephoned that he won"t be home to supper and we may take a few minutes to hear my news. Do you think you would like to go to Apple Tree Island?"
"Apple Tree Island?" repeated Twaddles, who never could keep still. "Is it a place, Mother?"
"A beautiful place, darling," she a.s.sured him. "It has green gra.s.s and gray rocks and crooked old apple trees and is set down in the center of the prettiest lake you ever saw."
"Who lives there, Mother?" asked Meg. "Are we going visiting?"
"Not exactly visiting," explained Mother Blossom. "You know Daddy"s friend, Mr. Winthrop? He owns a bungalow on Apple Tree Island, and this summer he and his family are going to England. He has told Daddy that we may have the use of this house if we care to go up to the lake."
"Let"s go!" cried Dot instantly. "Won"t it be fun to live on an island like Robinson Crusoe? When are we going, Mother?"
Mother Blossom laughed.
"That is for Daddy to say," she answered. "I"m not sure that we are really going."
CHAPTER IV
TWADDLES" GRa.s.sHOPPER
Apple Tree Island was the main topic of conversation at the table that night. The four little Blossoms were wildly excited at the prospect of going on an island to live, and Twaddles had a secret idea that one swam out to it from the mainland.
"I haven"t told you the very nicest part of the plan," said Mother Blossom, as she served the pudding. "If we go, and mind you, children, nothing is definitely settled yet, Daddy will drive us in the new car and we"ll stop at Brookside to see Aunt Polly!"
They were all in bed long before Father Blossom came home, and the next morning Meg and Bobby hurried off to school, leaving the twins to talk about the proposed trip.
"I"ll tell you the story of Apple Tree Island to-night," Father Blossom had promised them at breakfast. "I think I can safely say that we will go in a week or so, or as soon as Mother can get you ready and make her plans. I have to get some equipment for the car, too."
So there was a story connected with this island which had such a pretty name! No wonder the four little Blossoms thought it must be a wonderful place. They were so anxious to be off that it seemed to them they simply could not be patient for two long weeks.
"But school doesn"t close--not until the middle of May!" Meg voiced this distressing thought when she and Bobby were at the Oak Hill school door. "Oh, Bobby, wouldn"t it be awful if every one went to Apple Tree Island except us!"
Bobby insisted that such a dreadful thing wasn"t to be thought of, but the idea troubled him all through the morning session. At noon, for he and Meg went home to lunch, he asked Mother Blossom whether she thought he and Meg would be left out of the island plan because of the fact that school would still be in session when the Blossoms started.
"Why, my dear little son, what a notion!" cried Mother Blossom, kissing him warmly. "As if we could be happy two seconds without you and Meg! Daddy and I talked it over, and we decided, before I told you children of the plan, that if we had to go before school closed it wouldn"t be such a serious matter, because you both have had excellent reports and the last school month is given over to review work. If you and Meg have been attentive throughout the term, and Miss Mason says you have, you can afford to miss a few weeks."
Bobby was immensely relieved and looked over at Meg to see if she did not share his pleasure. Meg, however, was scowling at Twaddles, who seemed decidedly uncomfortable.
"Mother!" Meg had been waiting for her mother"s attention.
"Mother, you ought to see what Twaddles did to me this morning."
Bobby suddenly snickered.
"Oh, Mother," he giggled, "it was the funniest thing you ever saw!
It hopped right across Bertrand Ashe"s foot and Meg went to pick it up and it went, plop! into Palmer Davis"s inkwell. Miss Mason thought Meg did it on purpose."
"What hopped?" asked Mother Blossom, mystified. "And Meg, why are you frowning so at poor Twaddles?"
"He knows, all right," declared Meg wrathfully. "He put that jumping gra.s.shopper Aunt Polly sent him in my middy blouse pocket.
And it mortified me very much, Mother."
"I don"t doubt it, Daughter," said Mother Blossom sympathetically.
"Twaddles, I think that was rather a mean trick."
"Paid her up for calling me silly," muttered Twaddles, his face scarlet.