Four Little Blossoms on Apple Tree Island

one at all, in fact, that if any one had been inclined to scream there was no opportunity. They were all b

t that!" he ejaculated in hi

hen Father Blossom began to ask

im, opening the tonneau door so that Meg and Dot m

n pretty hard on the wheel rim. Well, I'm thankful we didn't turn

carefully, for they were surrounded by clumps of prickly bushes. Moth

ly see, Margaret, how neatly it has slipped in between these three saplings

k. Perhaps this is a good time to tell you who the four

was Robert Hayward Blossom on the school roll; the twins (they were four years old) were Dorothy Anna and Arthu

ed in a comfortable old-fashioned house with Norah, who had been with them for years, and Sam Layton, the good-natured man of all work, to help make things run smoothly. You will remember that Brookside Farm was th

ere was something to be done every minute of the short winter days, but, dear me, when the heavy snowfalls began you should have seen the children! They coasted, and they skated, and Meg lost her beautiful turquoise locket. But she found it, so you need not be sorry

Winter snow. Sam Layton had gone away to Canada to work on a farm soon after the weather grew pleasant, and the four little Blossoms missed him very

r there had really been no need for him to drive; but with Sam away, if Father Blossom wanted to reach

hen he had tried without results to back the car from the mass of bushes and saplings into which it h

other and the girls needed his protection and that of Bobby, he was quite willing

r Blossom disappeared, whistling. "Brush some of these

to see her caught by a bush whose sharp spikes went right t

tly, and he tried to scramble over the

or years. In a moment Twaddles was pinned as tightly as Dot, a narrow, string-like coil of vine wrapping

rescue. "I do want these clothes to last you till it is time to buy Summer ones. Hold stil

r Blossom began the story of what she did when she was a little girl and went away to boarding school for the first time. The childr

he could pull the car from the underbrush. The farmer was a tall, silent man who seemed not to hear the excited questions of the fo

rker, and in less than ten minutes he had rigged up the rope to the car, fastened it to the collars of

l Father Blossom gave him to pay for his time and trouble. "Luck

ng out a little plan that, he privately decided, could best be tried out at school. Bobby's experience had been that Twaddles and Dot always wante

morning?" Bobby asked at the breakfast ta

tricycle but looked exactly like a miniature automobile, even to the

I suppose you may," conceded Mother Blossom. "Is the

" said Bobby eagerly. "And I won't play with it o

him and the twins watched them out of sight enviously. There was nothing in the world the twins desired so ardently as to go to schoo

ning to Meg as he pedaled furiously. "You'll

ost of them had seen his car before-it had been a birthday present in February-

it here," said Tim Roon

everything, and he had very good luck in

insisted Bobby

ned picket fence shut off the playground from a vacant lot that late

to do?" asked Ti

, including Meg. She, too, wondered

bby repeated his

, and, awkwardly, for he was not used to the work, inserted it under the end of a pi

Meg. "What in the wor