18 - Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp by Laura Lee Hope

Caught in a blizzard and swept into unexpected adventures, the Bobbsey Twins face cold weather and warm-hearted lessons at Cedar Camp. Discover hundreds of ad-free audiobooks, soothing sounds for sleep and meditation, and more—unwind and learn at www.adfreebooks.com!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please visit Liberfox dot org. The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar
Camp by Laura Lee Hope, Chapter eighteen, A Little Searching Party.
Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey were two of the kindest children
in the world. They were fond of fun, end of
having a good time, but whenever their mother did work

(00:23):
for the church at home, helping poor families, taking food
to people who had but little Freddie and Flossie always
wanted to do their share. So did Burton Nan. But
as the older twins had to spend more time in
school than did Flossie and Freddy, the two latter had
more chances to help their mother. More than once they

(00:43):
had gone with her when she carried a basket of
food or a bundle of clothing to some poor family
in Lakeport and now in Cedar Camp. Having heard their
father say he was going to take food to missus Bimby,
Flossy and Freddie at once had an idea. While mister
and missus bobb siy, you were out of the room
talking over the coming trip through the woods to look

(01:04):
for Burton Nan as well as to take food to
missus Bimby, Freddy said to Flossy let's go too. Daddy
won't let us, Flossy answered, we will tag after him,
said Freddy in a whisper. We could put on our
rubber boots and our coats and mittens, and we could
go behind him. He can't hear us because there's so

(01:26):
much snow. Our boots won't make any noise. That's so,
agreed Flossi, And oh Freddy, I know what we can do.
What we could take missus bimby that bear rope. It'll
keep her warm because it's so nice and soft. So
tis agreed Freddy. We'll take it and selfie to eat too.

(01:48):
We'll not have to do that. Daddy and the other
men are going to take her selfie to eat. I
meant something to eat for us, Freddy said. We gotta
take lunch with us, because maybe we'll get hungry in
the wood. The younger Bobbsey twins had a feeling that
if they were seen packing up a lunch for themselves,
putting on their boots in outdoor garments, and taking the

(02:08):
bear skin, they would be stopped. They felt sure they
would not be allowed to go in search of Nan
and Bert, and they were probably right, so as they
had done more than once before. They said nothing of
their plants, but went about them secretly and quietly. While
their mother and Missus Baxter were packing two large baskets
of food for Old Jim's wife, and while Daddy Bobbsey

(02:31):
was talking to the men about the coming trip through
the snow filled woods, Flossie and Freddy took their boots, coats,
caps and mittens to the back door of the log cabin.
We can slip out and put them on when nobody
is looking, said Freddy. You've got to take the bear
skin out too. Flossie remarked, well, when they tried to

(02:51):
bundle the skin of the bear up so they could
carry it, they found it so heavy and slippery to
lift that they had to give it up. What all
we do asked Flossie, as after several trials she had
to admit that the skin could not be carried. Missus
Binby will be so disappointed. We can tell her it's
here and mister Jim can come and get it, suggested Freddy. Oh,

(03:13):
that'll be nice. His sister agreed, we'll leave the skin.
How to pack up a lunch for themselves was also
a hard matter, but as it happened, Missus Bobbsey was
so busy getting things ready for her husband and the
other men that she did not pay much attention to
what Flossie and Freddy did. She saw them moving about,
now in the pantry, and now in the kitchen, and

(03:35):
again stepping to the back door, but she did not
dream they were getting ready to set off on a
search by themselves. However, this is just what Flossi and
Freddy were going to do, and after a while they
managed to pack into a paste for war box what
they thought would be lunch enough for them until they
came back with Burton Nan. Put in lots of cake,
whispered Freddy to Flossi on one of the little girl's

(03:57):
trips to the pantry. Cake tastes awful good in the woods,
I will, Blossy, whispered back. And I got some pie too.
Oh that's fine, Freddy exclaimed. Now I must slip out
when they don't see us. This the small Bobbsey twins
managed to do while mister Bobbsey, with Old Jim and
Tom Case, was ready to start on a searching expedition

(04:20):
to find and bring back Burton Nan, as well as
to take food to lonely Missus Binby, Flossying and Freddy
slipped quietly to the back door with their queer package
of lunch. They soon donned their boots, coats, and caps,
and with their little hands covered with warm red mittens,
they started off, keeping behind the cabins so they would
not be seen by those in front, who were getting

(04:42):
ready to start on the main searching trip. It was
snowing a little, but not nearly so hard as at first,
and the wind was not so strong or cold. It
will be fun, said Glossy to Freddy. Lots of fun, agreed,
or twin. We'll wait until Daddy and mister Jim and
mister Case getting the woods, and then we'll follow them.
They won't send us back, no, agreed FLOSSI. I don't

(05:06):
guess they will. The plan of the little Bobbsey twins
was to follow their father on the search. They did
not want to go through the woods alone, even though
it was now daylight, though the sun did not shine
because of the snow clouds, and so a little while
after mister Bobbsey and the two men started away from
the log cabin, Flossie and Freddy set out on their

(05:27):
own little searching party. Missus Bobbsey and Missus Baxter were
so busy clinging up after the men left that they
gave no thought to the children for a time. There
they go, whispered Flossi to Freddy, as hiding behind a woodpile,
they saw their father, mister Binby and Tom Case start off.
Wait a little and then we'll go after them, advice Freddie.

(05:49):
As soon as the main party had marched off along
the trail that led through the woods toward the chestnut
grove that Burton Nan had set out to visit two
days before, the small Bobbsey twins set forth. They went
around behind a clump of trees so that they would
not be seen from the cabin. Flossie and Freddy expected
to soon catch up to their father, but the snow

(06:10):
was so deep and the men traveled so fast that,
after trudging along for half an hour, Freddy and his
sister had not yet come within the sight of the others.
Do you suppose they ran away from us, asked Flossie,
as she stopped a moment to rest. Of course not,
I answered Freddie. They don't even know we're coming after him.

(06:31):
That's so, FLOSSI said, Well, anyhow, I hope we don't
get lost. I do too, agreed Freddy. But we have
something to eat anyhow, and he patted the box of
punch she carried. The children looked around them. They were
in a lonely part of the woods, a place they
had never been before, but they felt sure they would
soon catch up to their father. They had been following

(06:54):
the tracks in the snow left by the men who
had gone to find Burton Nan and take food to
missus Bimby. Suddenly, however, there came a harder flurry of snow,
and for a time Flossy and Freddy could not see
very well. And when the little squall, as sudden storms
are called, had passed, the two Bopsy twins found they
had wandered off to one side of the trail. No

(07:17):
longer could they see the footprints of their father and
the others in the snow, They had nothing to guide them.
Freddy look cried Flossie, where's the path she called her
father's snow track of path? Why it it's gone, Freddy
had to admit. And then, as the two little children
stood in the lonely snow filled woods, they heard near

(07:39):
a bush a noise that made them suddenly afraid it
was a growl that they heard. End of Chapter eighteen.