The Bobbsey Twins at Meadow Brook | Page 8

to be hurt, losing money that way," was the answer.
"I--I've a good notion to--"
But the sentence was not finished. Just then, by a sudden motion, the
boy pulled away from the man who was shaking him, and ran down the
road. For a moment it seemed as if the man would run after him, but he
did not. The two stood looking at one another, while Mr. Bobbsey,
having alighted from the automobile, walked up toward the lumber
office.
"You'd better come back here, Frank," called the man who had been
shaking the boy. "You'd better come back."
"I'll never come back!" was the answer. "I--I'm going to run away! I'll
never live with you again! You treat me too mean! It wasn't my fault
about that bad money! I couldn't help it. I'm going to run away, and I'm
never coming back again. I can't stand it here!"
Bursting into tears, the boy raced off down the road in a cloud of dust.
CHAPTER IV
OFF FOR MEADOW BROOK
Little Freddie, who sat beside his older brother, Bert, in Mr. Bobbsey's
automobile, looked on with wonder in his childish eyes, as he saw the
boy Mr. Mason had been shaking run down the road.
"What's the matter with him, Bert?" Freddie asked. "Didn't he like to be
shook?"

"I should say not!" exclaimed Bert "And I wouldn't myself. I don't
think that man did right to shake him so."
"It was too bad," added Freddie. "Say, Bert," he went on eagerly,
"maybe we could catch up to him in the automobile, and we could take
him to Meadow Brook with us. Nobody would shake him there."
"No, I guess they wouldn't," said Bert: slowly, thinking how kind his
uncle and aunt were.
"Then let's go after him!" begged Freddie.
"No, we couldn't do that, Freddie," Bert said with a smile at his little
brother. "The boy maybe wouldn't want to come with us, and besides,
papa wouldn't let me run the auto, though I know which handles to turn,
for I've watched him," Bert went on, with a firm belief that he could
run the big car almost as well as could Mr. Bobbsey.
"Well, when papa comes back I'm going to ask him to go after that boy
and bring him with us," declared Freddie. "I don't like to see boys
shook."
"I don't, either," murmured Bert.
By this time Mr. Bobbsey had come up to where Mr. Mason was
standing.
"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Bobbsey," spoke the other lumber man. "I
didn't expect to see you for some days."
"I did come a little ahead of time," went on the twins' father. "But I am
going to take my family off to the country, so I thought I would come
and see you, and finish up our business before going away."
"I'm always glad to talk business," Mr. Mason said, "but I thought your
folks were out somewhere on a houseboat."
"We were, and just came back to-day. But the summer isn't over, and
we're going to my brother's place, at Meadow Brook Farm. But you

seem to be having some trouble," he went on, nodding down the road in
the direction the sobbing boy had run. "Of course it isn't any affair of
mine, but--"
"Yes, trouble! Lots of it!" interrupted Mr. Mason bitterly. "I have had a
lot of trouble with that boy."
"That's too bad," spoke Mr. Bobbsey. "He seems a bright sort of chap.
He isn't your son, is he?"
"No, I'm his guardian. He's my ward. His father was a friend of mine in
business, and when he died he asked me to look after the boy. His name
is Frank Kennedy."
"Oh, yes, I heard about him," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Heard about him! I guess you didn't hear any good then!" exclaimed
the other lumber man, rather crossly. "What do you mean?"
"Why, we came past your house a little while ago," said Mr. Bobbsey,
"and your wife mentioned a Frank Kennedy who used to take your two
daughters out rowing. If he had been there to-day the girls probably
wouldn't have gone out alone, and drifted away."
"Drifted away! What do you mean?" cried Mr. Mason. "Has anything
happened?"
"It's all right, my papa went out in a boat and got 'em!" cried Freddie in
his shrill, childish voice, for he heard what his father and Mr. Mason
were saying.
"I--I don't understand," said the other lumber dealer, seriously. "Was
there an accident?"
"Oh, it wasn't anything," Mr. Bobbsey said. "When I went past your
house, near the river, I saw the two girls adrift in a boat, not far from
shore. They had floated out while playing. I went after them and your
wife, before she showed