The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 11

"Yes, Jim Denton," was the answer. "We're here!"

"Thought maybe you'd given up and wouldn't get here until to-morrow,"

the voice went on.

As the car stopped the Bobbsey twins saw a tall, lanky man, wearing rough clothes, but whose face had a kind smile and whose blue eyes looked laughingly at them. He stood at the side of the car, peering in.

"We did have a little trouble," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And one of your owls seemed to think we hadn't any right in the woods. But here we are!"

"One of the owls, eh?" laughed Jim Denton, the foreman of the Christmas tree and lumber camp. "Well, they sure are queer birds! Make an outlandish racket, sometimes. But come on in. Your place is all ready for you, and Mrs. Baxter has had supper ready for some time."

"That's good!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "The children are half starved, I fancy."

"Run your car over to the shed," said the foreman to Mr. Bobbsey. "It'll be safe there if it snows."

"Had any snow up here yet?" asked the father of the twins.

"Not yet, but it may come any day. I heard you had a little down your way."

"But it didn't last very long," Freddie chimed in. "We didn't have much coasting at all!"

"You didn't, eh?" laughed Jim, as he lifted out Flossie and Freddie, Bert and Nan being too big for this attention. "Well, when we do get snow up here we generally get a lot, and it may come any time. But the longer it holds off the better we can get out lumber and Christmas trees."

"What about my Christmas trees?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "That's what I came up about."

"It is queer about those trees," said the foreman, as he helped Mrs.

Bobbsey out. "We sent a lot off from here, but they must be stuck somewhere on the railroad down below. However, if they're lost we can cut more. There's plenty in the woods."

Mrs. Bobbsey and the children waited until Mr. Bobbsey had put the car under a shed, and then, when he joined them, the family, led by the foreman, walked toward the largest cabin in the clearing. This was to be the home of the Bobbseys while they were at Cedar Camp.

"Well, I am glad to see you folks!" exclaimed Mrs. Baxter, who was to do the cooking and help Mrs. Bobbsey during the stay in camp. "I began to be afraid that something had happened."

"A wire came loose," said Freddie. "But daddy soon fixed it. And we heard an owl hoot. Do you like owls?"

"Well, not specially," answered Mrs. Baxter, with a laugh.

"I don't, either," said Flossie.

The Bobbsey twins looked about the cabin that was to be their home for a time. It was a large one, and had been used by a former foreman with a large family. There were several bedrooms and it had many of the comforts of life, even though it stood in the North Woods.

Mrs. Baxter was the wife of one of the men employed in cutting down trees, and she had agreed to cook for the Bobbseys during their stay.

She and her husband lived in one of the smaller cabins, and her grown daughter would cook for Mr. Baxter while his wife was with the Bobbseys.

"Now get your things off and sit right up to the table," cried Mrs.

Baxter. "The supper's sort of spoiled, keeping so long."

"I fancy the twins are hungry enough to eat almost anything," said their mother. "I know I am!"

In spite of what Mrs. Baxter said, the supper proved to be very good indeed, and Flossie and Freddie pa.s.sed their plates back so often to be filled again that their father said:

"My goodness! there won't be anything left for breakfast."

"Won't there, Mother?" asked Freddie anxiously, pausing with his fork half way to his mouth.

"Oh, yes! Of course! Your father's only joking!" she said, with a laugh.

"But don't eat too much."

"I want just a little more," begged Flossie.

"Can we go out and look at the camp after supper?" Bert wanted to know.

"You can't see much by lantern light," his father told him. "You'll have plenty of chances to-morrow and the next few days."

Bert found it too dark out of doors when he took a look after leaving the table, and decided to wait until morning.

The cabin was warm and cosy, and the Bobbsey twins thought they had never come to a more delightful place than Cedar Camp. They sat and talked a little while after the meal, and then, when Flossie and Freddie began to show signs of being sleepy, their mother said it was time for them to go to bed. Bert and Nan soon followed.

It seemed to be the middle of the night when Flossie, awakened from a sound sleep, heard a great noise and loud shouting outside the log cabin.

"Mother! Mother! What's that?" she whispered.

"Only the lumbermen going to work," Mrs. Bobbsey answered.

"Do they go to work in the night?" Flossie wanted to know.

"It's almost morning--the sun will soon be up," her mother told the little girl. "Keep quiet and don't awaken Freddie."

Flossie turned over and closed her eyes, thinking it strange that men should have to get up and go to work in the night. It was dark, and the stars were s.h.i.+ning, as she could see by a glimpse through her window.

"I guess maybe they're like Santa Claus," thought Flossie. "They have to go out to cut Christmas trees in the dark, same as St. Nicholas comes to our house in the dark on Christmas Eve."

Content with this thought, the little girl fell asleep, not to awaken again until it was broad daylight. She found that all were up save Freddie and herself, but the youngest Bobbsey twins soon joined the others at the breakfast table.

"Oh, goodie!" cried Freddie, when he understood that Mrs. Baxter was baking buckwheat cakes and had maple syrup to pour over them. "That's what I like!"

"He can't like 'em all, can he, Mother?" cried Flossie. "I can have some pancakes, can't I?"

"Hus.h.!.+ There'll be plenty for all of you!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "What will Mrs. Baxter think?"

"I'll think they're good and hungry; and that is what I like to see when I'm baking cakes," laughed the good-natured cook. She was almost as nice as Dinah, Freddie whispered to Flossie.

"An' if she has a birthday we--we'll give her something," whispered Flossie.

"Yes," agreed Freddie, holding out his plate for another cake.

After breakfast Mrs. Bobbsey took the children for a walk in the woods around the camp, while Mr. Bobbsey went to talk with some of his lumbermen about the missing Christmas trees.

"Don't go too far away," he called to his wife.