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Bert's Watch · The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners

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  Chapter sixteen of The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners by Laura Lee Hope. This
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  LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Martha Heaton. Bert's watch,
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  certainly there was a mess in Dinah's kitchen. Pots and pans were strode
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  about the floor. The drawers of the table and dish closet were open,
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  and some cups and saucers had been broken. A loaf of bread seemed to
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  have been crumbled into bits, and the pieces tossed about. And where Dinah
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  had put away a choice pie for supper, now only the empty pan was
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  left. Who did all this? Exclaimed Freddy as he looked in the upset
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  kitchen. Bert and his father came to look in, having heard the exclamations
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  of dismay. It was some boys who did this, declared Dan. It's
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  just the work of some bad boys. It couldn't have been snapped, said
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  missus Bobbs. He was with us all afternoon. It was a boy,
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  all right, insisted Bert. And I think I know which one you mean,
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  Nick asked Nan, that's the fellow. I'm going over where he is,
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  and better go slow, Son, advised mister Bobbsey. There is no
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  way of being certain that Nick Dodge did this, But surely these dishes never
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  got broken by themselves, nor did the pie walk off. I will make
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  some inquiries of other farmers around here and see if they know whether any of
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  their cherry pickers were away at the time when this might have been done.
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  Let me ask some questions before you accuse Nick of having done this. If
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  I lay my hands on to boy who done this, muttered Dinah, I'll
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  smear him with molasses and put him inside a beehive. That's what I'll do.
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  That would be a severe punishment, agreed Missus Bobbsey, But we must
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  first catch the boy. With the help of Missus Bobbsey and Nan and the
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  fat cook soon got the kitchen in order again, while Bert and mister Bobbsey
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  looked about for something that might tell what boy or boys did the mischief.
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  I think it was more than one boy, said the children's father. That
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  Nick has a couple fellows who goes around with remarked Bert, they could easily
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  have done it. But when mister Bobbsey asked mister Winton, for whom Nick
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  worked, if that lad had been away from the cherry orchard, any time
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  during the afternoon, when Dinah's kitchen was upset, the farmer replied, I
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  hardly think he was. You see, I'm rushing my pickers now on account
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  of the fruit ripening faster than I counted on. And I told every one
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  of them that for the next two days I'd give a quarter of a cent
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  more a cord than I've been paying, so every one of them stuck pretty
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  close to work. I don't believe any of the boys here sneaked off to
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  make mischief in your kitchen, but I'll scout around and see if I can
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  find out. Two or three days passed, but there was no further news
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  about Nick or any other boy who might have played the mean trick on Dinah,
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  and Bert had to admit that he could not prove anything against the former
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  truck peddler's boy. If we said he did it, stated mister Bobbsey,
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  he would just tell us he didn't and we'd be no better off than before.
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  In spite of this, however, Bert was sure Nick was to blame
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  not only for the trouble in the kitchen, but for the mud ball that
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  had hit him. I'm going to keep watch on Nick, declared the elder
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  Bobbsey lad. This, however, was easier said than done, for Bert
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  was kept busy picking cherries and so was Nick. Consequently, the two boys
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  saw very little of each other. Once or twice, Bert worked extra hard
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  and picked his usual quantity of fruit by early afternoon. He then slipped away
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  and hid in the bushes near mister Winton's farm. From his hiding place,
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  Bert watched Nick. But though the the other lad had sneaked away from the
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  orchard several times when he was supposed to remain and pick, and though Bert
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  saw Nick playing tricks on other pickers, yet there was nothing that pointed to
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  the lad as the one who had caused the mischief on the Bobbsey farm.
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  But instead of the annoying little tricks coming to an end, they increased in
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  number, and it did not appear that Nick could be blamed for all of
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  them. Once, when Bert was taking a short cut through the woods going
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  to the village store on an errand for his mother, he was struck on
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  the head by a stick that fell out of a tree. It was only
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  a light branch and did not hurt him, but when Bert saw the stick
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  he knew it must have been thrown at him and had not fallen, for
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  it was a newly broken branch. Bert told his father somebody up in the
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  tree twisted it off and threw it down at me. Did you see anyone,
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  asked mister Bobbsey. No Bert replied, but I saw the branches jiggling,
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  just as if some some one were up in them. It is curious,
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  said the lumber merchant, looking at the limb. Bert handed him,
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  as you say, it isn't a dead branch that might have fallen naturally.
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  It was broken off and tossed down. Another time, Nan had taken Flossie
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  and Freddy down to a shady place at the end of the garden to amuse
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  them. Nan took a doll with her, as did Flossi, while Freddy
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  had his toy engine. The little Fireman went to the brook to fill his
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  tank with water and remained there playing, but not far away from his sisters.
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  Nan and Flossi put the dolls to sleep, then walked off a little
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  way to dabble their toes in the water. When the girls returned, the
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  dolls had been roughly pulled from their beds in the grass, and the dress
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  of Flossi's doll was torn off. Oh who did this? Cried Nan when
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  she saw what had happened. Just look at my Clara Belle standing on her
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  head and her dress gone, wailed Flossie. It was Freddy who did this.
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  But Freddie was playing at the brook with his engine, and he was
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  so earnest in saying he had not been near the dolls that his sisters must
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  believe him. Besides, Freddy never played mean tricks like that, and it
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  was mean to tear the dress off the doll. I don't like it here,
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  murmured Flossi, looking nervously around to the bushes. Let's go home.
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  When the children told what had taken place, Missus Bobbsey was more than ever
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  mystified about the strange things that were happening at Cherry Corners. It must be
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  some tricky boys, she declared. I think your father will have to tell
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  the police. When the next thing happened, mister Bobbsey too decided that the
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  police ought to be called in for Bert, going up to his room to
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  dress for supper after a hard day at picking cherries, called down stairs.
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  Has any one seen my silver watch? It was on your bureau a little
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  while ago, answered Nan, I saw it when I went to turn back
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  your covers. Well, my watch is an on my bureau now, exclaimed
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  Bert, it's gone that Nick Dodge must have climbed up the rain water pipe,
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  got in a window and taken my silver watch. Where's Dad? End
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  of chapter sixteen, Read by Martha Heaton, September twenty twenty three,