"MabelCHawley-FourLittleBlossomsOnAppleTreeIsland" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawley Mabel C)

Then he put back his head and shouted. He laughed until the tears ran down his
face and Norah came in to see what the matter was.
"Don't laugh," urged Mother Blossom. "Go and bring the poor child in, Ralph."
"In a minute," Father Blossom promised. "I want to get this straight first. Do
you mean to tell me, Bobby, that you left Twaddles outdoors because you were
afraid he would catch fire? How long did you expect him to stay there?"
"Well, we didn't know," admitted Bobby lamely. "I guess it will wear off by
morning."
Father Blossom wiped his eyes and laid down his napkin.
"I'll go and get him," he said, rising. "Mother, I begin to think an island is
the only place for a family such as ours. There's one thing I don't suppose
occurred to you, Bobby."
"What, Daddy?" asked Bobby seriously.
"That Twaddles might have taken off his oil-soaked suit," replied Father
Blossom, going to the rescue of the lonely and hungry little fellow.
Meg and Bobby and Dot looked at each other.
"I never thought of that," confessed Bobby.
CHAPTER VII. BEGINNING THE JOURNEY
There's Tim Roon! Wave to him, Bobby," cried Meg.
"Doesn't Marion Green look funny before she knows you?" commented Dot.
The car with Mother and Father Blossom and the four little Blossoms and their
suitcases and rugs and shawls and long and short coats, had whirled past Marion
Green so rapidly that she had not guessed who the people were until they were
almost around the corner, though she waved to them in answer to their call.
For the time at last had come to start for Apple Tree Island, and this morning
the Blossoms were actually on their way. Norah's sister had come to stay with
her and Annabel Lee, so Mother Blossom had been spared the work and trouble of
closing the house. Meg and Bobby had been promised that they could go into a
higher grade in the fall, because of their good records for the term. Dot's new
dresses were all finished; and Twaddles had wheedled his father into allowing
him to take along an empty bird-cage which took up a great deal of room and was
utterly useless. The Blossoms had no bird, and, as Bobby pointed out to
Twaddles, he would not be able to catch a bird if he tried, and if he did catch
one, said Bobby, it would be against the law for him to keep it. He would have
to let it go as he had the robin. But Twaddles was firm in his resolve to carry
the empty cage.
"Miss Florence's canary bird died," he explained to Father Blossom. "And it
makes her cry to see the cage; so she gave it to me. I think it is very nice and
you never can tell when it will be useful!"
It was over seventy miles to Apple Tree Island from Oak Hill, quite too long a
trip for the children to make without a break. This was partly the reason Father
Blossom planned to stop at Brookside Farm. The real reason, of course, was Aunt
Polly.
"When do we go on the boat?" asked Dot, soon after they had left Oak Hill and
were running smoothly along the State highway which the interurban trolley line
followed for some distance. Dot remembered the trip on the boat to Aunt Polly's,
and she had reason to, as you will recall if you have read of that memorable
visit.
"We don't go on the boat," answered Mother Blossom. "We go as far as Little
Havre, at the lower end of Lake Tobago, where we took the boat, and then we