Four Little Blossoms and Their Winter Fun Part 21

"Or an automobile?" Twaddles suggested, quite as though people were in the habit of losing their automobiles.

"There's one stuck on the road," said Bobby.

The post-office clerk laughed and said that wasn't a lost car.

"It belongs to Mayor Pace, of Fernwood," he explained. "He couldn't get through last night and he left the car there. His son is going to tow it out this afternoon, I believe."

"About the sled--it isn't mine," said Mr. Mendam. "I think we'd better have that on the lost and found board. Do you want to write the notice?"

"We'd rather you did it," Bobby answered politely. "I can write, but some folks can't read it."

Mr. Mendam wrote busily on a sheet of paper and then read aloud what he had written.

"Found--a sled on the Hill Road," he read. "Finder may have same by describing and making application at the post-office window."

"There--we'll paste that up and the child who is short one sled may see it and get it back," said Mr. Mendam and he pasted the slip of paper on the bulletin board which hung over the desk where he had been writing.

"I'm pretty lucky to get my glove back, eh, Carter?" he said to the clerk. "Would you believe it, I was just going to write out a notice for the board myself, offering a reward for the return of it. And here it is placed in my hand. What do you think the reward should be, Carter?"

"Something pretty handsome, sir," answered the clerk, smiling.

The four little Blossoms looked uncomfortable.

"We don't want any reward, thank you, Mr. Mendam," said Bobby bravely.

"We just found the glove lying in the snow--Twaddles found it."

"But I'd like to do something for you," the stout old gentleman insisted. "If you won't take a real reward--and I had intended offering ten dollars for the return of the glove--tell me something I can do for you."

"There's the fair," whispered Meg, but Mr. Mendam heard her.

"Fair?" he said briskly. "What fair? Where? Do you want me to come and buy things? Tell me where it is and I'll come and bring my daughter."

But when Meg rather shyly said the fair was to be given in Oak Hill and not for a week or two, Mr. Mendam shook his head.

"I'll be away then," he explained. "My daughter and I are going to Montreal for the winter sports. But why don't you let me give you the ten dollars for the fair? That will be just the same as though I had come there and bought that much."

Meg looked uncertainly at Bobby.

"Maybe Mother won't like it," she said.

But Bobby was sure she wouldn't care and when he told Mr. Mendam about Paul Jordan and his mother and that the fair was for them, Mr. Mendam, too, was sure Mother Blossom wouldn't mind.

"You put this in your pocket," he told Bobby, handing him a folded bill. "Mind you don't lose it. And if your mother, for any reason, isn't willing for you to keep it, you may send it back and I will not be offended."

Bobby put the money away carefully, down deep in his pocket, and then Mr. Mendam said he was thirsty and wouldn't they go with him to the drug store and have an ice-cream soda?

"I never saw a day too cold for ice-cream soda--did you?" he added, smiling.

"We promised Sam to stay here till he came for us," Meg explained regretfully, for she was very fond of soda.

"He won't be long, will he?" said Mr. Mendam. "I'll wait with you."

And wait he did, till the sound of jingling sleigh bells announced that Sam was at the door. The sleigh was filled with boxes, tied on to keep them from falling off, and there was just a little s.p.a.ce left for the children.

Sam was surprised to see them come down the steps with a stranger with them, and more surprised to hear that he was the owner of the glove and that the "reward" was to go to Paul Jordan and that the four little Blossoms had been invited to the drug store for a treat.

"Things just seem to happen to you, wherever you are," said Sam. "I wish I could lead as exciting a life as you do."

Mr. Mendam insisted that he must come with them and Sam tied the horse and went. The four little Blossoms had a wonderful time, choosing their favorite sodas and for once no one said the twins were too young to have whatever they chose. Mr. Mendam wandered off before they had all quite finished and when he came back, he had a pile of small boxes under his arm.

"Something to eat on the way home," he said, handing a box to each child.

"Candy!" cried Twaddles blissfully. "It's just like Christmas!"

Sam had tied the sleigh in front of the drug store and when they came out, Mr. Mendam helped him tuck the children in between the boxes and the seat and cover them up carefully.

"I wouldn't have lost that glove for a good deal," he told them, as Sam was ready to start. "I value gifts from my daughter highly. Good-bye and good luck to your fair."

"Oh, wait!" Dot wailed as Sam drove off. "Wait a minute, Sam; I want to ask him something!"

CHAPTER XVIII

AT LAST THE FAIR

"We're late now," said the long-suffering Sam. "What do you want to ask Mr. Mendam, Dot? Hurry up."

Mr. Mendam was still standing on the curb and Dot leaned out of the sleigh to call to him.

"I wish I could know who the sled belongs to," she said earnestly. "If a little girl owns it, will you let me know? Or a little boy--please?"

"I'll write you and tell you," Mr. Mendam promised. "Of course you're interested; I won't forget, Dot."

You see, he knew them quite well by this time--their names and ages and what they did at home and in school. He was another friend, as Meg told her mother when she reached home.

Sam said he hoped they could get home without any more exciting events, and he had his wish. Good old Walter trotted along sedately and the extra load made the sleigh slip along more evenly. They did not go through the cross road, but kept to the good roads all the way and almost before the four little Blossoms knew it, they saw the lights twinkling from their house.

"Did you eat your candy?" asked Sam as he helped them out, before driving on to the foundry with the boxes.

"Meg said to save it for Mother and Daddy and Aunt Polly and Norah, so we did," Bobby explained. "They didn't have any sodas."

You may be sure they had a great deal to tell as soon as they were inside the house and when Bobby pulled out the money Mr. Mendam had given him, they were all surprised. Instead of one ten dollar bill, there were two, and Father Blossom said it would pay almost two months rent for Mrs. Jordan. Mother Blossom was quite willing for them to keep the money--since it was not for themselves--and she promised to write Mr. Mendam a note of thanks. She did the very next morning and it crossed a letter from him to Dot, telling her that the sled had been claimed by a little girl whose farmer father had let it fall out of his wagon on the way home from the creamery and never missed it. The little girl's cousin, who had outgrown the sled, had sent it to her and she was very glad to have it found.

"Isn't supper ready?" asked Bobby hungrily, when they had told everything that had happened to them that afternoon.

"Ready and waiting for you," answered his mother. "But first there is something on the table in the living-room for you to look at. You especially, Meg."