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+Project Gutenberg's The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City, by Laura Lee Hope
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City
+
+Author: Laura Lee Hope
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2005 [EBook #15169]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: An illustration was included in the original text
+that did not belong in the story. It appeared in the first chapter after
+the paragraph ending "But they are pretty good skaters for such small
+children." The omitted text reads [Illustration: AT SEVEN O'CLOCK A SUPPER
+WAS SERVED.--P. 129.]]
+
+
+
+The Bobbsey Twins
+in a Great City
+
+
+BY
+
+LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE BOBBSEY TWINS," "THE BUNNY
+BROWN SERIES," "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS
+SERIES," ETC.
+
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: THE CHILDREN WERE DELIGHTED WITH THE STORE CAMP.
+
+_The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City. Frontispiece_--(_Page_ 165)]
+
+
+
+=BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE=
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, per volume,
+
+
+=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES=
+
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
+
+
+=THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES=
+
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
+
+
+=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=
+
+
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
+THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
+GROSSET & DUNLAP.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                             PAGE
+
+    I. THE ICE-BOAT                    1
+
+   II. BUILDING THE "BIRD"            13
+
+  III. A RUNAWAY                      28
+
+   IV. THE OLD WOODCHOPPER            36
+
+    V. GLORIOUS NEWS.                 46
+
+   VI. ON TO NEW YORK                 59
+
+  VII. ON THE EXPRESS TRAIN           68
+
+ VIII. A LONG RIDE                    80
+
+   IX. IN THE STORE                   90
+
+    X. LOST UNDERGROUND              104
+
+   XI. FREDDIE AND THE TURTLE        116
+
+  XII. IN THE THEATRE                127
+
+ XIII. THE "RESCUE" OF FREDDIE       137
+
+  XIV. THE STORE CAMP                153
+
+   XV. SAD NEWS                      161
+
+  XVI. THE BIG ELEPHANT              170
+
+ XVII. CALLED HOME                   181
+
+XVIII. A QUEER RIDE                  191
+
+  XIX. THE GOAT                      202
+
+   XX. MR. BOBBSEY COMES BACK        214
+
+  XXI. UNCLE JACK'S REAL NAME        225
+
+ XXII. REUNITED                      233
+
+
+
+
+=THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY=
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE ICE-BOAT
+
+
+"Oh, there comes my skate off again! Freddie, have you got any paste in
+your pocket?"
+
+"Paste, Flossie! What good would paste be to fasten on your skate?"
+
+"I don't know, but it might do _some_ good. I can't make the strap hold it
+on any more," and a plump little girl shook back her flaxen, curling hair,
+which had slipped from under her cap and was blowing into her eyes, sat
+down on a log near the shore of the frozen lake and looked sorrowfully at
+the shining skate which had become loosened from her shoe.
+
+"Come on, Flossie!" called the small, plump boy, just about the size of
+his sister, and with her same kind of light hair and blue eyes. "There go
+Bert, Nan and Tommy Todd 'way ahead of us. We'll never catch up to 'em if
+you sit here. Come on!"
+
+"I can't help sitting here, Freddie Bobbsey! How am I going to skate on
+only one skate?" asked the little girl.
+
+"Put on the other, and come along."
+
+"I have put it on, lots of times, but it comes off every time I skate a
+little bit. That's why I want some paste. Maybe I could paste the strap
+fast around my shoe."
+
+"I don't believe you could, Flossie," and this time the small, plump boy
+stopped skating around in a ring--"grinding the bar," as it is called--and
+glided toward his sister seated on the log. "Anyhow, I haven't any paste.
+What made you think I had?"
+
+"Oh, you carry so much stuff in your pockets I thought maybe you'd have
+paste."
+
+"I might if it was summer, Flossie, and I was making kites with Bert. But
+I haven't any paste now."
+
+"Then have you got a postage stamp?"
+
+"A postage stamp? Of course not! What good would a postage stamp be to
+fasten your skate strap?"
+
+"Well, a postage stamp has paste on it, hasn't it? Anyhow, it's sticky,
+'cause I got some on my tongue once, and I just know if I could only
+fasten down the end of this skate strap, to keep it from flopping up, and
+coming out of the buckle, I'd be all right. It's the flopping end that
+comes loose."
+
+"Well, pooh! a postage stamp wouldn't be any good!" cried Freddie. "If you
+did stick it on it wouldn't last more than three strokes. A postage stamp
+wouldn't go far at all!"
+
+"Some postage stamps do!" exclaimed Flossie. "Mother got one on a letter
+the other day and it had stuck itself on half-way round the world--she
+told me so. And if a stamp sticks half-way around the world I should think
+it would stick while I skated down to the end of the lake."
+
+"Huh! That's different!" half grunted Freddie, for, just then, he was
+stooping over tightening one of his straps. "Anyhow, I haven't got a
+stamp."
+
+"Well, maybe you could fix my skate so it wouldn't come off," suggested
+Flossie. "I've tried and tried, but I can't, and I don't want to stay here
+all alone."
+
+"Why Flossie Bobbsey! I'm with you!"
+
+"I know, but Nan and Bert are away down at the other end, with Tommy Todd,
+and Bert is going to buy hot chocolates. I know he is, 'cause he said so.
+I don't want to miss them."
+
+"Me neither! Wait and I'll see if I can't fix your skate, Flossie."
+
+Freddie was small--he and Flossie were the smaller pair of Bobbsey
+twins--but he was a sturdy little chap, and living out of doors, and
+playing games with his older brother Bert had taught Freddie how to do
+many things. He put Flossie's skate on her shoe, tightened the strap, and
+then made it still tighter by putting some pieces of wood under the
+leather loop.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, as he stood up, having been kneeling in the snow on
+the edge of the lake. "I guess that will hold, Flossie. Now come on, and
+we'll see how fast we can skate."
+
+Together the brother and sister started off. This time Flossie's skate
+seemed to be all right, needing neither paste nor a postage stamp to hold
+it on, and in a little while the smaller twins had caught up to Bert and
+Nan, their brother and sister, who, with a boy neighbor, named Tommy Todd,
+had slowed up to wait for them.
+
+"What kept you?" asked Nan. "Did you try to do some fancy skating,
+Flossie?"
+
+"I guess Freddie stopped to see if there wasn't a crack in the ice where
+he could get some water to play fireman," remarked Bert with a smile, for
+his small brother was very fond of this game, and his best-liked toy was a
+small fire engine, which, when a spring was wound, could squirt real
+water.
+
+"No, I didn't stop at any cracks!" exclaimed Freddie earnestly. "Cracks in
+the ice is dangerous--Daddy said so. It was Flossie's skate."
+
+"That's right--it kept coming off," explained the blue-eyed girl. "But
+Freddie fixed it, and he didn't have to use a postage stamp, either. Did
+you, Freddie?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Well, I guess they know what it means, but we don't!" laughed Nan, taking
+her small sister's hand. "Come on, now, you little twins. I We waited for
+you, so we could all have hot chocolate together. You didn't get cold, I
+hope, stopping to fix your skate, Flossie?"
+
+"Nope! I'm as warm as butter!"
+
+"What does she mean by that?" asked Tommy Todd. "I often hear my
+grandmother say she's as warm as toast, but _butter_----"
+
+"Well, when it's Winter, like it is now, you have to warm your butter so
+you can spread it on your bread," explained Flossie. "So I'm as warm as
+butter now."
+
+"I wish I was!" cried Bert. "I'm getting a chill standing here waiting for
+you two! Come on, now. Skate lively, and we'll soon be there," and he
+pointed to a little candy and soda-water stand near the lower end of Lake
+Metoka, on the frozen surface of which the children were skating.
+
+In the little cabin, which in Winter was built over the stand to make a
+warm place for skaters, hot chocolate and other drinks could be had, and
+Bert had promised to treat his brother and sisters, as well as Tommy
+Todd.
+
+"Don't skate too fast," begged Flossie. "My skate _might_ come off again,
+though Freddie fixed it pretty good."
+
+"If it comes off again I'll skate and carry you on my back the rest of the
+way!" cried Bert. "I want something hot to drink. But mind you!" he cried,
+as he saw a mischievous look on his little sister's face, "don't dare make
+your skate come off on purpose! I don't want to carry you unless I have
+to."
+
+"All right, Bert. I'll skate as fast as I can," promised Flossie.
+
+The five started off, Tommy Todd skating beside Flossie to help her if she
+should need it. Tommy was a sort of chum of both pairs of twins, sometimes
+going with the older ones, Nan and Bert, and again with Flossie and
+Freddie. In fact, he played with these latter more often than with Nan and
+her twin, for Flossie and Freddie had played a large part in helping Tommy
+at one time, as I'll explain a little later.
+
+It was a fine Winter's day, not too cold, and the sun was shining from a
+clear sky, but not warmly enough to melt the ice. The steel skates of the
+five children rang out a merry tune as they clicked over the frozen
+surface of the lake.
+
+"Hurrah! Here we are!" cried Bert at last, as he skated on ahead and sat
+down on a bench in front of the "Chocolate Cabin," as they called the
+place. He began taking off his skates.
+
+"Come on!" he called to the others. "I'll order the chocolate for you and
+have it cooling," for there was more trouble with Flossie's skate and Nan
+had stopped to help her fix it.
+
+"Don't order chocolate for me, Bert!" called Nan. "I want malted milk. The
+chocolate is too sweet."
+
+"Guess you're afraid of your complexion, Sis!" laughed Bert, as he went
+inside the little wooden house.
+
+"Oh, Flossie, take both your skates off and walk the rest of the way,"
+advised Nan, after she had tried, without much success, to fix the
+troublesome strap. "We'll get there sooner."
+
+"All right," agreed Flossie. "It's a bother--this skate. I'm going to get
+a new pair."
+
+"Maybe a new strap is all you need," said Tommy. "You can get one in
+there," and he nodded toward the little cabin.
+
+A little later the five children were seated on stools in front of the
+counter, sipping the warm drinks which made their cheeks glow with
+brighter color and caused a deeper sparkle in their eyes.
+
+"This is great!" cried Tommy Todd.
+
+"That's what!" murmured Freddie, his nose deep in his cup.
+
+"Don't forget about my strap," came from Flossie.
+
+"Oh, yes," agreed Bert. "We don't want to have to drag you all the way
+home." The man who sold the chocolate and candy in the cabin also had
+skate straps for sale and one was soon found that would do for Flossie.
+
+"Now my skate won't come off!" she cried, as once more they were on the
+ice. "I can skate as good as you, Freddie Bobbsey!"
+
+"Let's have a race!" proposed Freddie. "Bert and Nan can give Flossie and
+me a head start, 'cause they're bigger than us. Will you?" he asked his
+brother.
+
+"Yes, I guess so. A race will get us home quicker, and we're a little
+late."
+
+"We'll let Flossie and Freddie start ahead of me," suggested Tommy, who,
+being a little elder than the two smaller twins, was a little better
+skater.
+
+"All right," agreed Bert. "Any way you like. Go ahead, Floss and Fred.
+Skate on until I tell you to wait. Then I'll give Tommy a starting place
+and, when we're all ready, I'll give the word to begin."
+
+Flossie and Freddie, hand in hand, skated ahead a little way. But
+Freddie's skate went over a little piece of wood on the ice and he tripped
+and fell, pulling Flossie down with him. The two plump twins were in a
+heap on the ice.
+
+"Hurt yourself?" asked Bert, as he started toward them, to help them up.
+
+"No--no--I--I guess not," answered Flossie, who was the first to get up.
+
+"We're all right," replied Freddie. "The ice was soft right there."
+
+"I guess it's because they're so fat, that they're soft, like a feather
+pillow," laughed Tommy. "They're getting fatter every day."
+
+"That's what they are," agreed Nan with a smile. "But they are pretty good
+skaters for such small children."
+
+"Everybody ready?" asked Bert, when the two small twins had taken their
+places, and Tommy Todd was between them and Bert and Nan.
+
+"All right," answered Freddie.
+
+"I am, too," came from Tommy.
+
+"Then go!" cried Bert, suddenly.
+
+The skating race was started. Merrily clicked the runners on the hard ice,
+leaving long white streaks where the children passed over. Flossie and
+Freddie were skating as fast and as hard as they could.
+
+"They are very anxious to win," said Nan, who was skating beside her
+brother.
+
+"Yes, but they can't keep going as fast as that all the way home."
+
+"You're going to let them win, aren't you?" asked Nan.
+
+"Sure I am! But they're so sharp we don't dare lag much behind. We must
+make a spurt toward the end, and pretend we did our best to beat them.
+Tommy Todd may come in ahead of them, though."
+
+"We can skate up to him and tell him not to," suggested Nan.
+
+"Good idea!" declared Bert. "We'll do it."
+
+The older twins skated a little faster to overtake Tommy, who was some
+distance behind Flossie and Freddie, when suddenly Nan gave a cry and
+clutched Bert by the arm.
+
+"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing with her hand.
+
+"An ice-boat," remarked Bert. "And going fast, too!"
+
+"Yes, but see! It's coming right toward Flossie and Freddie, and they're
+skating with their heads down, and don't see it! Oh, Bert! Yell at them!
+Tell them to look out! Yell at the man in the ice-boat!"
+
+It did indeed seem a time of danger, for a swift ice-boat--one with big
+white sails and runners, like large skates under it, was skimming over the
+frozen lake straight for the smaller twins.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BUILDING THE "BIRD"
+
+
+Flossie and Freddie, anxious to win the skating race, were bending over
+with heads down, as all skaters do who wish to go fast and keep the wind
+from blowing on them too hard. So they did not see the ice-boat coming
+toward them, for the craft, blown by the wind, made hardly any noise, and
+what little it did make was taken up by the clicking of the skates of the
+smaller twins.
+
+"Oh, Bert! Do something!" cried Nan.
+
+"Yes, yes! I will--of course!"
+
+Bert shook off Nan's hand, for it was still on his arm, and started to
+skate toward the twins as fast as he could. He hoped to reach them in time
+to stop them from skating right into the path of the oncoming ice-boat.
+
+But he soon saw that he was not going to be able to do this. The ice-boat
+was coming toward the small twins faster than Bert could ever hope to
+skate and reach them.
+
+"Yell at them!" shouted Nan. "That's the only way to stop them! Yell and
+tell them to look out!"
+
+Bert himself had decided this was the best thing to do. He stopped skating
+and, making a sort of funnel, or megaphone, of his hands, he cried out:
+
+"Flossie! Freddie! Look out! Danger--the ice-boat!"
+
+Just at this moment, whether it was because of Bert's shouts or because
+they were tired of going so fast and wanted a rest, the two children
+leading the skating race stood up straight and looked back. They saw Bert
+pointing toward them and then they glanced at the ice-boat. It was very
+close, and Flossie screamed.
+
+At the same time the man who was steering the boat saw the children. With
+a shout that echoed the one given by Bert, and the screams of Nan and
+Flossie, the man steered his boat to one side. But he made such a sudden
+change that, though he steered out of the way of Flossie and Freddie, he
+nearly ran into Tommy Todd. That small boy, however, was a good skater
+and stopped just in time, for he had seen the ice-boat coming.
+
+Then with a whizz and a clink of ice, as the runners of the boat scraped
+big chips from the frozen lake, the skimming boat shot past Nan and Bert,
+not doing a bit of harm, but scaring all five children very much.
+
+"Sorry! Didn't see you! Next time----"
+
+This was what the man in the ice-boat shouted as he whizzed by. His last
+words seemed whipped away by the wind and the children did not know what
+he meant.
+
+"Maybe he meant next time he'd be sure to run into us," said Tommy Todd.
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't do _that!_" declared Bert "That was Mr. Watson. He buys
+lumber from my father. I guess he meant that next time he'd give us a
+ride."
+
+"Oh, my!" exclaimed Nan. "Would you ride in one of those dangerous things,
+Bert Bobbsey?"
+
+"Would I? Well, just give me the chance! How about you, Tommy?"
+
+"I should say so! They're great!"
+
+"Oh, I can't bear them!" went on Nan. "Please let's stop and rest. My
+heart is beating so fast I can't skate for a while."
+
+"All right--we'll call the race off," agreed Bert. Flossie and Freddie
+were a little startled by the closeness of the ice-boat, and they skated
+back to join their brother and sister.
+
+And while they are taking a little rest on the ice I shall have a chance
+to let my new readers know something of the past history of the children
+about whom I am writing.
+
+There were two pairs of Bobbsey twins. They were the children of Mr.
+Richard Bobbsey and his wife Mary, and the family lived in an Eastern city
+called Lakeport, which was at the head of Lake Metoka. Mr. Bobbsey was in
+the lumber business, having a yard and docks on the shore of the lake
+about a quarter of a mile from his house.
+
+The older Bobbsey twins were Nan and Bert. They had dark hair and eyes,
+and were rather tall and slim. Flossie and Freddie, the younger twins,
+were short and fat, with light hair and blue eyes. So it would have been
+easy to tell the twins apart, even if one pair had not been older than
+the other. Besides the children and their parents there were in the
+"family" two other persons--Dinah Johnson, the fat, good-natured colored
+cook, and Sam, her husband, who looked after the furnace in the Winter and
+cut the grass in Summer.
+
+Then there was Snoop, and Snap. The first was a fine black cat and the
+second a big dog, both great pets of the children. Those of you who have
+read the first book of this series, entitled "The Bobbsey Twins," do not
+need to read this explanation here, but others may care to. In the second
+volume I told you of the fun the twins had in the country. After that they
+went to the seashore, and this subject has a book all to itself, telling
+of the adventures there.
+
+Later on the Bobbseys went back to school, where they had plenty of fun,
+and when they were at Snow Lodge there were some strange happenings, as
+there were also on the houseboat _Bluebird_. There was a stowaway boy--but
+there! I had better let you read the book for yourself.
+
+The Bobbsey twins spent some time at Meadow Brook, but there was always a
+question whether they had better times there or "At Home," which is the
+name of the book just before this one.
+
+You, who have read that book, will remember that Flossie and Freddie
+found, in a big snow storm, the lost father of Tommy Todd, a boy who lived
+with his grandmother in a poor section of Lakeport. And it was still that
+same Winter, after Tommy's father had come home, that we find the Bobbsey
+twins skating on the ice, having just missed being run into by the
+ice-boat.
+
+"My! but that was a narrow escape!" exclaimed Nan, as she skated slowly
+about. "My heart is beating fast yet."
+
+"So's mine," added Flossie. "Did he do it on purpose?"
+
+"No, indeed!" exclaimed Bert. "I guess Mr. Watson wouldn't do a thing like
+_that!_ He was looking after the ropes of the sail, or doing something to
+the steering rudder, and that's why he didn't see you and Freddie."
+
+"What makes an ice-boat go?" asked Freddie.
+
+"The wind blows it, just as the wind blows a sailboat," explained Bert,
+looking down the lake after the ice-boat.
+
+"But it hasn't any cabin to it like a real boat," went on Freddie. "And it
+doesn't go in the water. Where do the people sit?"
+
+"An ice-boat is like this," said Bert, and with the sharp heel end of his
+skate he drew a picture on the ice. "You take two long pieces of wood, and
+fasten them together like a cross--almost the same as when you start to
+make a kite," he went on. "On each end of the short cross there are double
+runners, like skates, only bigger. And at the end of the long stick, at
+the back, is another runner, and this moves, and has a handle to it like
+the rudder on a boat. They steer the ice-boat with this handle.
+
+"And where the two big sticks cross they put up the tall mast and make the
+sail fast to that. Then when the wind blows it sends the ice-boat over the
+ice as fast as anything."
+
+"It sure does go fast," said Tommy Todd. "Look! He's almost at the end of
+the lake now."
+
+"Yes, an ice-boat goes almost as fast as the wind," said Bert. "Maybe some
+day----"
+
+"Oh, come on!" cried Flossie. "I want to go home! I'm cold standing here."
+
+"Yes, we had better go on," said Nan. "I'm all right now."
+
+As the five children skated off, no longer thinking of the race, Nan asked
+Bert:
+
+"What are you going to do some day?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know. I haven't got it all thought out yet. I'll tell you
+after a bit."
+
+"Is it a secret?" asked Nan, eagerly.
+
+"Sort of."
+
+"Oh, please tell me!"
+
+"Not now. Come on, skate faster!"
+
+Bert and Nan skated on ahead, knowing that Flossie and Freddie would try
+to keep up with them, and so would get home more quickly. But they did not
+leave the smaller twins too far behind.
+
+A little later the Bobbseys were safe at home. Tommy Todd went to his
+grandmother's house, and Flossie and Freddie took turns giving their
+mother an account of their escape from the ice-boat.
+
+"Was there really any danger?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of Bert.
+
+"Well, maybe, just a little. But I guess Mr. Watson would have stopped in
+time. He's a good ice-boat sailor."
+
+"But don't let Flossie and Freddie get so far away from you another time.
+They might have been hurt."
+
+Bert promised to look well after his little sister and brother, and then,
+having asked his mother if she wanted anything from the store, he said he
+was going down to his father's lumberyard.
+
+"What for?" asked Nan, as she saw him leaving. "Is it about the secret?"
+
+"Partly," answered Bert with a laugh.
+
+Two or three days later the Bobbseys were again out skating on the ice,
+Nan and Bert keeping close to Freddie and Flossie. They had not been long
+gliding about when Freddie suddenly called:
+
+"Oh, here comes that ice-boat again!"
+
+"Surely enough, it is!" added Nan. "Oh, we must skate toward shore! Come
+on!"
+
+"No need to do that," replied Bert. "It isn't coming fast, and Mr. Watson
+sees us."
+
+"He's waving his hand at us!" cried Flossie. "I guess he wants to give us
+a ride. Come on, Freddie!"
+
+"Here! Wait a minute!" called Bert "Don't get into any more danger. But I
+believe he _is_ going to stop," he went on, as the ice-boat came slowly up
+to them. Then, as it swung up into the wind, with the sail loosely
+flapping, Mr. Watson called:
+
+"Come on, children, don't you want to go for a ride?"
+
+"Oh, let's!" cried Flossie, clapping her hands.
+
+"And I want to steer!" added Freddie.
+
+"No, you can't do that!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, Bert, do you think it would
+be all right for us to go?" she asked her older brother.
+
+"I don't see why not," said Bert. "The wind doesn't blow hard, and Mr.
+Watson knows all about ice-boats. I say let's go!"
+
+"Oh, what fun!" cried Flossie and Freddie.
+
+They took off their skates and walked toward the ice-boat. Mr. Watson
+smiled at them.
+
+"I'm so sorry I nearly ran into you the other day," he said. "I did not
+see you until almost the last minute. So I made up my mind the next time I
+saw you on the lake I'd give you a ride. Come on, now, get aboard!"
+
+"He talks just as if it was a real boat!" laughed Flossie, for, living
+near the lake as they did, and often seeing boats at their father's lumber
+dock, the Bobbsey twins knew something about water craft.
+
+"Well, of course, this isn't as big as some boats," said Mr. Watson, "but
+it will hold all of us, I think."
+
+The children saw where there was a sort of platform, with raised sides,
+built on the center of the crossed sticks, and on this platform were
+spread some fur rugs and blankets.
+
+Mr. Watson saw to it that the little children, especially, were well
+wrapped, and then, telling them all to hold on, he let out the sail and
+away flew the ice-boat down the frozen lake, fairly whizzing along.
+
+"My! how fa-fa-fast we go!" gasped Nan, for really the wind seemed to take
+away her breath.
+
+"This sure _is_ sailing!" cried Bert, and then Nan noticed that her
+brother was looking at different parts of the ice-boat, as if to find out
+how it was made.
+
+Flossie and Freddie were having lots of fun holding on to one another, and
+also to the sides of the ice-boat, for the craft slid this way and that so
+quickly, sometimes seeming to rise up in the air, that it was like being
+on the back of a horse.
+
+But the Bobbseys liked it, and the ride in the ice-boat came to an end all
+too soon. With sparkling eyes, and red, glowing cheeks, the twins got out
+close to their father's lumber dock, calling their thanks to Mr. Watson.
+
+"I'll take you again, some time," he answered, as he sailed off down the
+lake.
+
+"Ah, ha! And so my little fat fireman had a ride in an ice-boat, did he?"
+cried Mr. Bobbsey that night, when he came home from the office and heard
+the story. "And how did my little fat fairy like it?" And he lifted up
+first Freddie and then Flossie to kiss them. "Fat fireman" and "fat fairy"
+were Mr. Bobbsey's pet names for the smaller twins. Bert and Nan had had
+pet names when they were small, but they were too large for them now,
+growing out of them as they grew out of their clothes.
+
+"Oh, it was glorious!" cried Nan. "Sailing in an ice-boat must be like the
+way it feels to be in an airship."
+
+"I'm going up in an airship when I get big!" cried Freddie, making a dive
+after Snoop, the cat, who was hiding under the table.
+
+"Have you heard yet whether you are to go?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, of her
+husband, when the noisy greetings to the children were over.
+
+"No, not yet," he answered, and he made a motion with his head, as if to
+tell his wife not to speak of a certain matter before the children.
+
+"Oh, I saw you wink!" cried Nan, clapping her hands. "What does it mean?
+Is it a secret, Momsey?"
+
+"Well, yes, Nan. You shall be told in plenty of time, if anything comes of
+it."
+
+"Oh, that's two secrets!" cried Nan. "Bert has one and now there's one
+here."
+
+"What is Bert's secret?" asked Nan's mother.
+
+"I don't know yet; he won't tell me."
+
+"Yes, I'll tell you to-morrow," said her brother. "But what's this about
+Father going away, Mother? Are we going too?"
+
+"Supper am ready, chilluns!" exclaimed the voice of Dinah, the cook, and
+that ended the talk about secrets for the time being.
+
+"But when are you going to tell me _yours?_" Nan managed to whisper to her
+brother when the dessert was being served.
+
+"Come down to the lumberyard to-morrow afternoon," he whispered. "It's
+almost done."
+
+Without telling Flossie or Freddie anything about it, Nan slipped off by
+herself the next afternoon, and from the watchman in her father's
+lumberyard learned that Bert and another boy were in one of the sheds. As
+Nan came closer she could hear the noise of hammering and sawing.
+
+"Oh, Bert, what are you making?" cried Nan, as she saw her brother and
+Tommy Todd busy with sticks, boards, hammer and nails.
+
+"This is the _Bird!_" cried Bert, waving a hammer at something that, so
+far, did not look like much of anything.
+
+"A bird?" cried Nan. "It looks more like a scare-crow!"
+
+"Just wait until it's finished!" said Tommy Todd. "When we get the sail
+on----"
+
+"Oh, Bert! is it a _boat?_" cried Nan eagerly.
+
+"Yes, it's going to be an ice-boat, and I've called it the _Bird_," was
+the answer. "I got the idea of building it after I'd seen Mr. Watson's.
+Father said I might, and he gave me the lumber, and let me have a
+carpenter to help, for Tommy and I couldn't do it all. But now the
+ice-boat is almost done and in a few days I'll sail it."
+
+"And may I have a ride?" asked Nan.
+
+"Of course. I'll take the whole family," said Bert. "Just you wait," and
+then he and Tommy went on hammering and sawing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A RUNAWAY
+
+
+"All aboard!"
+
+"Don't forget your baggage!"
+
+"This way for your tickets!"
+
+"The ice-boat _Bird_ makes no stops this side of the lake! All aboard!"
+
+Bert Bobbsey and Tommy Todd thus were calling at the end of one of the
+lumberyard docks one day about a week after Nan had seen her brother
+building the ice-boat. Coming down the dock were Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey,
+with Nan, Flossie and Freddie. Snap, the big dog, was bounding on ahead
+through the snow, barking joyously. He enjoyed fun as much as any one.
+
+"All aboard! Please hurry up!" cried Bert.
+
+"Why, I thought this was a _special_ trip you were giving us, and we
+didn't have to hurry," laughed his mother.
+
+"It is," Bert said. "But you see you can't sail an ice-boat if you haven't
+any wind, and I want you to have a ride before the wind dies away, as it
+might. So come on, get on board!"
+
+"I want to steer!" cried Freddie.
+
+"No, you must not," said Nan.
+
+"Yes, I must. I know how to steer a motor boat, and I can steer an
+ice-boat, I guess," and Freddie was very sure about it.
+
+"After a while, maybe," agreed Bert. "But an ice-boat is different to
+steer from a motor boat. I'll show you how, though."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey got on the little platform which Bert had built as a
+sort of open cabin. It had old carpets and rugs on it, and there were
+blankets and robes to keep the passengers warm. After some failures Bert
+and Tommy had finally managed to finish the ice-boat. It was not as easy
+to build as they had expected, but Mr. Bobbsey's carpenter had helped
+them.
+
+The boat had been tried out on the ice, and had sailed well. Mr. Bobbsey
+had Mr. Watson look at it, and that gentleman had said it was safe to ride
+in. Then Bert had finally gotten his father and mother to promise to take
+a trip in the boat, bringing Nan, Flossie and Freddie with them. Mr.
+Bobbsey had, before this, been given a ride with Bert and Tommy, so he
+knew the two boys could manage the boat fairly well. Tommy and Bert had
+had several rides by themselves. Now they had company.
+
+"Are you all ready?" asked Bert, after he had seen his father and mother,
+his sisters and brother, get on board the _Bird_.
+
+"All ready," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "Don't go too fast at first, and take
+your mother's breath away."
+
+"I won't!" promised Bert. "Are those two little ones covered up all
+right?" he asked, nodding toward Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"Yep! We're as warm as--as popcorn!" cried Flossie.
+
+"With butter on!" added Freddie.
+
+"Well, you certainly ought to be good and warm," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey, as
+she tucked the robes closer around the two smaller twins.
+
+"All aboard!" called Bert, and then, moving slowly at first, the ice-boat
+glided away from the lumber wharf, skimming over the lake with the entire
+Bobbsey family, not counting, of course, fat Dinah and her husband, who
+stayed at home. Nor was Snoop, the black cat, along. Snap, the dog, ran a
+little way, but when he found the ice-boat was going too fast for him, and
+when he noticed that he was slipping too much, he gave a sort of good-bye
+howl and went slowly back to shore.
+
+"Isn't this great?" cried Bert, as he steered the ice-boat out into the
+middle of the lake.
+
+"Wonderful!" cried Nan, her hair flying in the wind and her cheeks almost
+as red as roses. "I don't see how you made it, Bert."
+
+"Well, it wasn't easy. How do you like it, Freddie?"
+
+"All right. When can I steer?"
+
+"Oh, maybe after a while," said Bert, with a laugh. "Say, we're going
+fast, all right."
+
+"Yes," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "I think the wind is getting stronger instead
+of dying out, Bert."
+
+"It does seem so. Well, all the better. We won't have to walk back if it
+keeps on this way. We can sail to the end of the lake and ride back."
+
+"Are you sure you can manage the boat yourself?" asked Bert's father, "She
+seems pretty big."
+
+"Oh, Tommy and I sailed her in a stronger wind than this. And we have a
+heavier load on now, which makes it all the safer."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey himself knew how to sail an ice-boat, but he wanted to let
+Bert do as much alone as he could, for this is a good way for a boy to
+learn, if there is not too much danger.
+
+"And the worst that can happen," said Mr. Bobbsey, in a whisper to his
+wife, "is that we may upset and spill out."
+
+"Oh! But do you really think there is any danger of _that?_"
+
+"Well, there may be. Ice-boats often upset, but we can't fall very far,"
+and he looked down at the ice, which was only a few inches below them.
+"And we have so many robes and blankets that falling would be like
+tumbling into bed. There is no danger."
+
+The wind was blowing harder and harder. It was sweeping right across the
+lake and forcing the boat down. The steel runners clinked on the ice, now
+and then scraping up a shower of icy splinters that sparkled in the sun.
+On the other side of the lake were other ice-boats, and Bert wished he
+could have a race with some of them. But he knew his mother would not like
+that now.
+
+"Can't you make it go a little slower?" asked Flossie, after a bit. "Every
+time I open my mouth it gets filled with cold air, and it makes me want to
+sneeze."
+
+"I can't go any slower than the wind blows," answered Bert. "Turn your
+back to the bow, or front end of the boat, and you can open your mouth
+easier then."
+
+Flossie did as she was told and felt better. Meanwhile the _Bird_ was
+living up to her name, and skimming along swiftly. Bert held to the
+steering handle, now and then tightening or loosening the rope that was
+fast to the sail.
+
+"Want any help?" asked his father.
+
+"No, thank you, Dad. I want to manage it all by myself as long as I can."
+
+"Isn't it my turn to steer?" asked Freddie, when they were half-way down
+the lake, toward the end farthest from the town, where there were deep
+woods on either side.
+
+"No, not yet!" exclaimed Bert "Don't touch anything, Freddie!" he went on,
+for his little brother was reaching out toward the sail. "I'll have to
+wait until the wind doesn't blow so strong before I can let your steer,
+Freddie."
+
+"But I want to steer when we're going _fast!_" cried the little fellow. "I
+know how to do it. You just----"
+
+Freddie never finished what he was saying. Whether he touched anything, or
+whether Bert was afraid he would, and so pulled on the wrong rope to keep
+it out of Freddie's way, was never known.
+
+Suddenly the ice-boat gave a quick whirl to one side, like a boy or a girl
+on roller skates going around a corner. It went around so quickly that it
+tipped half-way over. Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan screamed. Mr. Bobbsey called to
+Bert to be careful, but it was too late. Bert had lost his hold of the
+rudder and the sail rope.
+
+The next second Bert shot out of the ice-boat, and slid along on his back.
+A moment later his father and mother were also spilled out, followed by
+Nan. Then the ice-boat, not having such a heavy load aboard, settled down
+on the ice again, and started to run away, or, rather, blow away.
+
+Right before the wind it flew, and Flossie and Freddie, being well tucked
+in among the robes and blankets were not spilled out. They stayed on
+board; and Mr. Bobbsey, sitting up after he had slid some distance across
+the ice, saw the _Bird_ scooting down the lake, carrying his two smaller
+twins with it.
+
+"Oh, the ice-boat is running away with Flossie and Freddie!" cried Nan, as
+she, too, saw what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE OLD WOODCHOPPER
+
+
+While Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, Bert and Nan picked themselves up from where
+they had fallen and slid along the ice, the ice-boat, with Flossie and
+Freddie snugly tucked in among the blankets and robes, was skimming down
+the lake, blown by a strong wind.
+
+At first the two small twins hardly knew what had happened. They had felt
+the ice-boat tilt to one side, they remembered that they had nearly fallen
+out, and then they had sailed on again. It was not until Flossie opened
+her eyes (she always shut them when anything surprising was happening)
+that she saw she and Freddie were alone in the _Bird_.
+
+"Why! Why!" she exclaimed. "Where are Daddy and Mother?"
+
+"Yes, and Bert and Nan?" added Freddie. "Where is everybody?"
+
+Then the two small twins looked back over the icy lake and far behind them
+saw their father and mother, with Bert and Nan, standing on the ice and
+waving their hands.
+
+"Oh, they've jumped off and left us to sail the boat alone!" cried
+Freddie. "Now I can steer! Isn't that good?"
+
+Flossie was not quite sure that this was "good," but, for a few seconds,
+she believed what Freddie had said--that the others had jumped off the
+ice-boat. She did not know that they had been spilled out, as Bert said
+afterward.
+
+"Now watch me steer!" cried Freddie, crawling back toward the tiller,
+which was the last thing Bert had let go of, as he shot from the boat.
+
+"Oh, can you?" asked Flossie. "Do you think you can steer?"
+
+"Of course I can," was the answer. "You just watch me. I'll make this boat
+go faster!"
+
+"But you want to be awfully careful, Freddie."
+
+"Oh, I'm always careful, ain't I?"
+
+"Well, I s'pose you are--most times," answered Flossie, somewhat slowly.
+She did not wish to hurt her twin's feelings.
+
+"Oh, I know what I'm doing," was Freddie's confident reply. "You just
+watch me! I'll make this boat go just as fast as anything!"
+
+As it had happened, a rope had become caught around the tiller, or handle,
+of the rudder, thus holding it so that the ice-boat sailed straight before
+the wind. Otherwise it would have darted from side to side, and perhaps
+Flossie and Freddie would have been tossed out as the others had been. But
+it so happened that they sailed along nicely, no one being at the helm.
+
+Straight down the lake sailed the _Bird_ with the two little twins aboard.
+They had been a bit frightened at first, but now Freddie was thinking only
+of how he could steer the craft, and Flossie was waiting to see what her
+brother would do.
+
+"I wonder what they're waving to us for?" asked Flossie, as she looked
+back and saw the frantic signals of her father and mother, Bert and Nan.
+"And they're running after us, too!" she added.
+
+"Maybe they want us to come back," suggested Freddie. But as the ice-boat
+was too far away for the older Bobbseys to make their voices heard by
+Flossie and Freddie, Mr. Bobbsey and the others could only wave their
+hands.
+
+"We must catch that boat!" cried Bert. "No telling what it will do to them
+if it upsets. Come on! Run, everybody!"
+
+He set off as fast as he could go, his father with him, while Mrs. Bobbsey
+and Nan came along more slowly.
+
+"I guess they want us to come back and get them," said Freddie. "They must
+be tired. Well, I'll steer the boat back and we'll give them a ride. Won't
+it be fun, Flossie?"
+
+"Ye-yes, maybe. If you can do it."
+
+"Do what?"
+
+"Steer the ice-boat back."
+
+"Of course I can do it!" cried Freddie. "I can squirt water from my fire
+engine, can't I? And that isn't any harder than this."
+
+Freddie did not know so much about ice-boats as he thought he did, and
+when he had crawled back to the tiller, still held fast in a loop of the
+rope, the small boy found it harder to move than he had expected. Flossie
+stayed among the rugs and robes.
+
+Freddie knew enough about boats to be sure that to steer one the tiller
+ought to move from side to side. So, finding that the rope, which was fast
+to the sail, was keeping the rudder handle from moving, he began to loosen
+the coils.
+
+As soon as he did that the rudder moved from side to side, and this, of
+course, made the ice-boat do the same thing.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Flossie, "don't jiggle it so, Freddie!"
+
+"I--I can't--help it!" chattered Freddie, his words coming jerkily, for he
+was being "jiggled" himself, as the rudder shook from side to side in his
+hand. "This--this is the way to--to steer an ice-boat."
+
+"Well, I don't like it," Flossie announced, "It makes me homesick!"
+
+"Do you mean--_seasick?_" asked Freddie, trying his best to hold the
+tiller still.
+
+"No, I mean homesick! I want to go home!"
+
+"But we're having a nice ride, Flossie."
+
+"I don't care! I want papa and mamma! I can't see them now!"
+
+The ice-boat, sailing down the lake, had turned around a point of land,
+and this hid from view the rest of the Bobbsey family.
+
+"I'll turn around and go back and get them," Freddie said. By this time he
+had taken the rope from the tiller, so the rudder handle moved freely from
+side to side. And then, all of a sudden, the _Bird_ shot ahead more
+swiftly than before.
+
+The wind was blowing more strongly, and when Freddie moved the rudder he
+steered the ice-boat so that the wind sent it straight ahead instead of a
+little to one side.
+
+"Oh! oh!" cried Flossie, "this is too fast! How can we stop the ice-boat,
+Freddie?"
+
+"I--I don't know," answered the little boy. "Don't you like to go fast,
+Flossie?"
+
+"Not so fast as this. I can't make my nose work--I can't get any air!"
+
+Indeed they were sailing even more swiftly than when Bert was steering,
+and Flossie was frightened. So was Freddie, but he was not so quick to say
+so.
+
+"Please stop the boat!" cried Flossie again.
+
+"Well, I'll try," promised Freddie. "I guess this is the rope you pull
+on," and he took hold of the one fast to the end of the sail--the rope
+that kept the big piece of white canvas from blowing away.
+
+Freddie pulled on this, but it could not have been the right rope, or else
+he pulled it the wrong way, for, in an instant, the ice-boat seemed to
+"stand on its ear," as Bert spoke of it afterward. Flossie and Freddie
+were almost tossed out.
+
+"Oh, don't do that!" cried the little girl.
+
+"I--I didn't mean to," Freddie told her. "I guess I pulled on the wrong
+rope. Here's another. I'll try that."
+
+By this time the ice-boat was more than two miles down the lake, for the
+wind was blowing hard and the _Bird_ sailed swiftly. The children could
+not see their father, mother, Bert or Nan now. They would soon be at the
+end of the lake, and before them Flossie and Freddie could see big drifts
+of snow near the edge of the frozen lake and between it and the forest
+beyond.
+
+"I--I guess we'd better stop pretty soon," faltered Freddie. "If we don't
+we'll run ashore."
+
+With all his strength, he pulled on another rope, at the same time shoving
+the tiller over as far from him as it would go. The result was a surprise
+to him and to Flossie. The ice-boat turned quickly, and then, like a
+frightened horse, it darted toward shore.
+
+Over the ice it skimmed. Then it turned up on one side, buried the bow, or
+front part, deep in a big snow drift and with another motion sent Flossie
+and Freddie, together with the robes and blankets, flying into a pile of
+soft snow. Down came the Bobbsey twins with a soft thud, not being in the
+least hurt.
+
+For a moment neither of the children spoke. Then Flossie, brushing the
+snow from her face, looked around, and seeing Freddie near her, doing the
+same thing, she asked:
+
+"What--what happened?"
+
+"I guess I steered right up on shore instead of away from it," replied
+Freddie. "I must have turned the handle the wrong way. Are you hurt,
+Flossie?"
+
+"Nope. Are you?"
+
+"Nope. I hope the ice-boat isn't broken. Bert wouldn't like that. Let's go
+and look."
+
+As the children floundered out of the snow, which had been left from a
+storm that had swept over the country before the lake had frozen, they
+heard a voice calling to them. Looking in the direction of the woods, they
+saw coming toward them an old man, wearing a big, ragged overcoat, a fur
+cap and mittens, while over his shoulder was an axe.
+
+"Oh! oh!" said Flossie in a low voice. "Who--who's that, Freddie?"
+
+"Oh, I know him. That's Uncle Jack, the woodchopper. He'll help us get the
+boat on the ice again, and I can sail it back home."
+
+"Nope!" cried Flossie, shaking her flaxen curly head. "I'm never going to
+ride in an ice-boat with you any more. Never! You go too fast, and stop
+too quick. I'm going to _walk_ home!"
+
+"What's the matter, children?" asked Uncle Jack, and he came plowing his
+way through the snow. "Ah, your ice-boat is upset, I see! Well, you two
+are pretty small potatoes to be out sailing alone. 'Most froze, too, I'll
+warrant ye! Come on to my cabin. It's warm there, whatever else it is!"
+and he helped Flossie and Freddie from the snowdrift.
+
+"Thank you," said Flossie. "But we're not potatoes, Uncle Jack."
+
+"Well, little peaches, then. Anyhow, your cheeks look like red apples,"
+said the man, laughing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GLORIOUS NEWS
+
+
+"How did it all happen?" asked Uncle Jack, a little later, as he led
+Flossie and Freddie along a path through the snow to his cabin in the
+woods. "Why are you two out ice-boating alone?"
+
+"The rest of 'em spilled out," answered Freddie; "and I upset Flossie and
+me when I pulled on the wrong rope. But we're not hurt a bit. It was fun.
+Wasn't it, Flossie?"
+
+"Ye--yes, I--I guess so."
+
+"Hum! You're part of the Bobbsey twins, aren't you?" asked the old
+woodchopper, who made a living by cutting firewood and kindling wood in
+the forest, where he lived by himself in a lonely cabin all the year
+around.
+
+"Yes, we're the littlest ones," answered Flossie. "Bert and Nan are
+bigger, but they fell off, too."
+
+"So falling from an ice-boat doesn't go by sizes," laughed the old man.
+
+Then, taking turns, Flossie and Freddie told the story of the runaway
+ice-boat, and of having left the rest of their family several miles away
+on the ice.
+
+"We tried to stop, but we couldn't," said Flossie. "And, oh, dear! I
+wonder where Daddy and Mother are now." Flossie spoke as though it would
+not take much to make her cry.
+
+"Don't worry," said Uncle Jack, as every one around Lakeport called him.
+"If your father and mother don't come for you I'll take you home."
+
+"It--it's a long way to walk," said Freddie with a sigh. "And I guess
+Flossie is hungry. Aren't you?" he asked of his little sister.
+
+"Well--a little," admitted the blue-eyed girl twin.
+
+"How about you, little man?" asked Uncle Jack.
+
+"I--I guess I am, too," Freddie admitted. "Have you got anything to eat?"
+
+"Well, maybe we can find something in my cabin," said the old man. He had
+left his axe sticking in a tree near where the ice-boat had run into the
+snow bank, and was leading the children along by either hand. Flossie and
+Freddie looked up into his kindly, wrinkled face, the cheeks glowing red
+like two rosy apples, and they knew they would be well taken care of.
+Uncle Jack was a fine, honest man, and he was always kind to children,
+who, often in the Summer, would gather flowers near his lonely log cabin.
+
+In a little while Flossie and Freddie were seated in front of a stove, in
+which crackled a hot fire, eating bread and milk, which was the best the
+woodchopper could offer them. But they were so hungry that, as Freddie
+said afterward, it tasted better than chicken and ice-cream.
+
+"Haven't you got any little girl?" asked Flossie after a while.
+
+"No, I haven't a chick or a child, I'm sorry to say."
+
+"My father would give you a chicken if you wanted it," said Freddie. "And
+some days _we_ could come and stay with you."
+
+"That last part would be all right," said the old man with a smile; "but I
+haven't any place to keep a chicken. It would get lonesome, I'm afraid,
+while I'm off in the forest chopping wood. But I thank you just the same."
+
+"Didn't you ever have any children?" asked Flossie, taking a second glass
+of milk which the kindly old man gave her.
+
+"Never a one. Though when I was a boy I lived in a place where there were
+two children, I think. But it's all kind of hazy."
+
+"Where was that?" asked Freddie, brushing up the last of the bread crumbs
+from his plate.
+
+"I don't remember much about my folks. Most of my life has been spent
+working on farmers' land, until I got so old I could not plow or cut hay.
+Then the man who owns this forest said I might come here and chop
+firewood, and I did. I built this cabin myself, and I've lived all alone
+in it for many years."
+
+This was so, for Jack had been in the woods from the time when Bert and
+Nan were babies, so Flossie and Freddie had often heard their older
+brother and sister say.
+
+"Haven't you any folks?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Well, I seem to remember that once I had a brother and a sister. But I
+lost track of them, and they lost me, I guess; so where they are now, if
+they're anywhere, I don't know. I'm all alone, I guess," and the
+woodchopper's face was sad.
+
+"Never mind! We'll come to see you," said Flossie, with a smile. "But now
+maybe we'd better start home, Freddie. Papa and Mamma may be worried about
+us."
+
+"I'll take you home, if you've had enough to eat," said Uncle Jack.
+
+"Oh, we've had plenty, thank you," said Freddie. "But it's a long way to
+go home. If I could sail the ice-boat back----"
+
+"I don't like that boat!" cried Flossie.
+
+"How would you like to ride on a sled?" asked the woodchopper. "In a sled
+drawn by a horse with jingling bells?"
+
+"That would be _fine!_" cried Freddie, clapping his hands. "But where is
+he--the horse, I mean?"
+
+"Oh, out in my little stable. I built a small stable, as well as this
+cabin, for I have to haul my wood into town to sell it. I'll get my
+bobsled ready and tuck you in among the blankets that spilled from your
+ice-boat. Then I'll drive you home."
+
+Flossie and Freddie liked this plan, and were soon snugly tucked in among
+their own robes, for the ice-boat had upset not far from the woodchopper's
+cabin.
+
+"Your folks will likely be worried about you," said Uncle Jack, "so I'll
+get you home as fast as I can, though my horse isn't very speedy. He's
+getting old, like myself."
+
+"You don't _look_ old," said Flossie kindly.
+
+"Well, I am. I'm old and full of pains and aches."
+
+"Have you got a stomachache?" asked Flossie. "If you have my mother could
+give you some peppermint."
+
+"My pain is in my bones and back; peppermint isn't much good for that. I
+guess I need to go to a hospital. But never mind me, I must look after you
+children now."
+
+Along through the snow jogged the woodcutter's horse, his bells jingling
+as he hauled the sled over the road that led along the shore of the lake.
+
+"What'll we do about Bert's ice-boat?" asked Flossie.
+
+"I'll look after it until he comes for it," said Uncle Jack. "It isn't
+damaged any, and it will be all right. Few folks come down to this end of
+the lake in Winter. I have it all to myself."
+
+"You must be lonesome," remarked Freddie.
+
+"I am, sometimes. Often I wish I had folks, like other men. But it isn't
+to be, I reckon. G'lang there, Bucksaw."
+
+"Is that the name of your horse?"
+
+"Yes. Bucksaw is his name. Pretty good for a woodchopper's horse, I
+guess," and the old man smiled.
+
+While Flossie and Freddie were being driven home by the woodchopper, Mr.
+and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Bert and Nan, left far behind on the ice when the
+_Bird_ upset, were much worried and excited.
+
+"What can we do?" cried Bert.
+
+"We must go after those children!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"That's what I'm going to do," Mr. Bobbsey remarked.
+
+"If I could borrow one of those ice-boats over there," put in Bert,
+pointing toward some on the other side of the lake, "I could sail down and
+get them."
+
+"No more ice-boats to-day!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, I do hope nothing
+happens to Flossie and Freddie!"
+
+"I don't believe they'll be hurt," said their father. "Even if they fall
+out they can't get much of a bump on the ice, and if they run ashore, as
+they're likely to do, they'll only fall in the snow. Don't worry."
+
+"But we _must_ go after them!" cried his wife.
+
+"Just what I am going to do. Bert and I will go to shore, hire a team and
+drive down the lake after them. The road runs right along the lake shore
+and we'll be sure to see them, or hear something of them. They'll be all
+right."
+
+It did not take Mr. Bobbsey and Bert long to get started on the search for
+the missing ones, for Flossie and Freddie in the ice-boat had sailed
+around the point of land, as I told you, and were out of sight of their
+folks.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan were taken home by some friends who happened to pass
+the lake in their automobile, and half-way to the woodcutter's cabin,
+though he had no idea the children had been there, Mr. Bobbsey and Bert
+met them being driven to Lakeport by Uncle Jack.
+
+"Oh, there's Daddy!" cried Freddie.
+
+"And Bert!" added Flossie, as she saw her brother. "Your ice-boat's all
+right," she added. "We just fell out of it."
+
+"Are _you_ all right?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, stopping his horses.
+
+"Fine!" cried Freddie. "And we had bread and milk."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I'm much obliged to you, Uncle Jack," said the children's
+father. "It was very kind of you."
+
+Then Flossie and Freddie told their story, and the woodchopper told of
+having seen them tossed into the snow and of how he helped them out, and
+then Mr. Bobbsey told what had happened to him, the children's mother,
+Bert and Nan.
+
+"I just pulled on the wrong rope, that's all, and I guess I steered the
+boat crooked," said Freddie with a laugh.
+
+"You're lucky it was no worse," remarked Bert, laughing also. "But as long
+as you two are all right, and the _Bird_ isn't damaged, I'm glad."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey was also, and then he took the children into his sleigh,
+driving home with them while Uncle Jack turned back.
+
+"I like him," said Flossie, speaking of the old woodchopper to her father.
+"He hasn't a chick or a child and he lives all alone in the woods."
+
+"Yes, poor Uncle Jack doesn't have a very happy life," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"I must see what we can do to help him."
+
+Little was talked of in the Bobbsey home that afternoon and evening but
+the adventure with the ice-boat, and what had happened to Flossie and
+Freddie when it ran away with them.
+
+The next day Bert and Tommy Todd got the _Bird_ back and had fine times
+sailing in it. Flossie and Freddie, as well as some of their friends, were
+also given rides, but Bert cut the sail smaller so his boat would not go
+so fast, making it safer.
+
+When the Bobbsey twins were not ice-boating they were skating, or building
+snow forts or snow men. Once Flossie and Freddie built a little snow house
+and got inside it with Snoop, the black cat, and Snap, the dog.
+
+Everything was very nice, but the house was so small that, when they were
+all in it, there was not room for Snap to wag his tail. And as there never
+was a dog yet, with a tail, who did not want to wag it, you can easily
+guess what happened.
+
+Either Snap wagged his tail in the faces of Flossie and Freddie or he
+whacked Snoop with it, and as the cat did not like that she ran out of the
+snow house.
+
+But Snap kept on wagging his tail, and as Flossie and Freddie made him get
+to one side when he did it the only other place he had to wag it was
+against the sides of the snow house.
+
+Now these snow sides were not very thick or strong--they were not made to
+be wagged against by a big dog's tail, and, all of a sudden, Snap wagged
+his tail right through the snow house.
+
+Then, with a swish and a swush, down the snow house toppled right on the
+heads of Flossie, Freddie and Snap. Snap gave a howl and dug his way out.
+But the two small twins were laughing so hard that it took them a little
+longer to dig their way out.
+
+They were not hurt in the least, however, and they thought it great fun to
+have the snow house fall on them when Snap's tail wagged too hard.
+
+It was about a week after the funny ice-boat ride that Mr. Bobbsey came
+home from his office a little earlier than usual. He was smiling, and when
+his wife saw him she asked:
+
+"Did it come?"
+
+"Did what come?" asked Nan. "Are we going to have a new automobile,
+Mother?"
+
+"Not yet, Nan."
+
+"Then what came?"
+
+"Glorious news!" cried her father, catching her up and kissing her.
+"Glorious news came in a letter. We are all going to a great city!"
+
+"To live?"
+
+"No, just on a visit," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, it is good news! I have
+been wanting to go for a long while. Come in, Bert--and you too, Flossie
+and Freddie--and hear the good news!" she called to the other twins.
+"Daddy has glorious news for us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ON TO NEW YORK
+
+
+"Are we going?" cried Flossie, when she heard that the family was about to
+make some sort of a journey.
+
+"And can we take the ice-boat?" Freddie asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes, of course you're going," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"But no ice-boat," added Bert. "There's no chance to sail one in New York
+City--and if there was we wouldn't have time."
+
+"Oh, are we going to New York?" cried Flossie.
+
+"Yes," her father nodded.
+
+"Then I'm going to take my fire engine!" cried Freddie. "They have fires
+in New York, don't they, Daddy?"
+
+"Plenty of them, I think. And they have big engines there to put them
+out--larger ones than we have in Lakeport. But now let's get quiet so I
+can tell Mother and you the news."
+
+Then, with the smaller twins cuddled up on his lap and Bert and Nan seated
+near their mother, Mr. Bobbsey told the news. He was going to start a new
+business, from which he hoped to make a great deal of money, and he had to
+go to New York to see about it. The trip would take the best part of a day
+from Lakeport, and Mr. Bobbsey would have to stay in the big city several
+weeks.
+
+He had long promised his wife that when the time came to go to New York he
+would take her and the whole family with him, and that time had now come.
+
+"When can we start?" Flossie inquired.
+
+"To-night?" asked Freddie eagerly.
+
+"Oh, indeed not!" laughed his mother. "It will take at least a week to get
+ready, and perhaps longer. You children have to have some new clothes, and
+Daddy has to look after his business here. I think we will close this
+house, and Dinah and Sam can visit their friends."
+
+"What about Snap and Snoop?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Oh, let's take them!" begged Freddie.
+
+"It would be no fun going to New York with pet cats and dogs," said Bert.
+"They'd only be in the way or get lost."
+
+"I wouldn't want either one of 'em to get lost," put in Flossie.
+
+"Then we'll leave them with Dinah," said Mother Bobbsey, glad that that
+part was over. Every time they went away it was always hard to get the
+younger twins to consent to leave Snoop and Snap at Home.
+
+"It will be great, going to New York!" cried Bert. "I want to see some of
+the flying machines I've read about."
+
+"And I want to see some of the lovely stylish dresses the girls wear as
+they ride on Fifth Avenue," declared Nan. "Mother, do you think I could
+have a _real_ dress from New York?" she asked in a whisper. "Not one
+that's _too_ stylish, of course, but so I could say it came from New
+York."
+
+"I guess so," and Mrs. Bobbsey smiled. "But let's hear what Flossie and
+Freddie most want to see in New York," and she looked at the two small
+twins.
+
+Flossie and Freddie thought for a moment, and then the blue-eyed boy,
+shaking his flaxen curls, cried:
+
+"I want to see a big fire, and watch the firemen put it out. But I hope
+nobody gets hurt!"
+
+"That last part is good, anyhow," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And how about my
+little fat fairy?" and he playfully pinched Flossie's plump leg. "What do
+you want to see?"
+
+Flossie did not answer at once, but when she did she cried:
+
+"A monkey!"
+
+"A monkey?" repeated her father.
+
+"Yes, the monkeys in the park. I read about them, and how they do such
+funny tricks their cages. That's what I want to see--the monkeys in the
+park."
+
+"Oh, so do I!" cried Freddie. "Can I see the monkeys and a fire too?"
+
+"Well, I guess so," answered his father. "But we will hope no big fires
+will occur while we are in New York. As for monkeys, I guess there will be
+plenty of them in the park."
+
+The children were so excited, thinking about the trip to the great city
+of New York, they could hardly sleep that night, even though they stayed
+up later than usual.
+
+And the next day a busy time began. Mrs. Bobbsey had to see to getting
+ready the clothes for herself and the children. At this Nan helped some,
+but Flossie and Freddie could not, for they were too small. Bert ran on a
+number of errands for his father, before and after school, for the
+children had their lessons to do even while getting ready for the trip.
+
+Of course they could not go to school in New York very well, but Mr.
+Bobbsey arranged with the teachers in Lakeport that the twins could make
+up, when they came back, any lessons they should miss. And as Nan and Bert
+were ahead of their class, and as Flossie and Freddie were only in the
+"baby" grade, where they did not have hard lessons, as yet, staying from
+school would do not great harm to any of them.
+
+But at last all was ready for the start. The trunks and valises had been
+packed, the children had said good-bye to their many friends and
+playmates, Dinah and Sam had gone away and the dog and cat had been sent
+to board near the cook's home until the Bobbseys should come back.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey had left his business with his partner to look after, and Bert
+had said Tommy Todd could sail the ice-boat as much as he pleased while
+Bert was in New York.
+
+"Well, I guess we're ready to start," said Mr. Bobbsey, when the house had
+been locked and the big automobile that was to take them to the station
+was puffing out in front. "All aboard!"
+
+"This isn't the train, Daddy!" laughed Nan.
+
+"No, but we'll soon be there," her father answered, "Come along."
+
+Into the automobile they piled, parents, twins, baggage and all, and off
+they started. On the way to the depot Flossie cried:
+
+"Oh, there's Uncle Jack!" and the sled of the woodchopper was seen moving
+slowly down the village street, with a load of logs piled high on it.
+
+"Poor old man," murmured Mrs. Bobbsey, "Did you see if you could help him
+in any way?" she asked her husband.
+
+"Yes, I have arranged it so that Uncle Jack will have plenty of food this
+Winter. He can keep warm, for he has a stove and can cut all the wood he
+wants. I sent our doctor to see him. But Dr. Haydon thinks Uncle Jack
+should go to a hospital."
+
+"Then why don't you send him? He was so good to the children----"
+
+"I know he was, but he won't go to the hospital. He says he knows it costs
+money and he won't let me spend any on him. But when I come back from New
+York I'll see what I can do. I think he'll be all right for a while, poor
+old man."
+
+Uncle Jack, sitting on top of his load of wood, saw the children in the
+automobile and waved to them. The Bobbsey twins waved back.
+
+"We must bring him something from New York," said Freddie.
+
+"We could get him a little toy chick, and then he wouldn't be lonesome.
+Maybe he'd like that," added Flossie.
+
+Little did the two small Bobbsey twins think what they would help to bring
+back from New York for the poor, old woodchopper.
+
+The train for New York was on time, and soon the twins, each pair in one
+seat, with Father and Mother Bobbsey behind them, were looking out of the
+car windows, happy and joyous as they started on their journey.
+
+They were on their way to the great city of New York.
+
+I shall not tell you all that happened on the trip. It was not really
+much, for by this time the twins had traveled so often that a railroad
+train was an old story to them. But they never tired of looking out of the
+windows.
+
+On and on clicked the train, rushing through the snow-covered country, now
+passing some small village, and again hurrying through a city.
+
+Now and then the car would rattle through some big piece of woods, and
+then Flossie and Freddie would remember how they were tossed out of the
+ice-boat, and how they had been so kindly cared for by Uncle Jack in his
+lonely log cabin.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when, after a change of cars, the Bobbsey
+family got aboard a Pennsylvania railroad train that took them over the
+New Jersey meadows. They crossed two rivers and then Flossie and Freddie,
+who were eagerly looking out of the windows, suddenly found themselves in
+darkness.
+
+"Oh, another tunnel!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Is it, Daddy?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Yes, it's a big tunnel under the Hudson River. In a little while you will
+be in New York."
+
+And not long afterward the train came to a stop. The children found
+themselves down in a sort of big hole in the ground, for the Pennsylvania
+trains come into the great Thirty-third Street station far below the
+street.
+
+Up the steps walked the Bobbsey family, red-capped porters carrying their
+hand-baggage, and, a little later, Flossie, Freddie and the others stood
+under the roof of the great station in New York. They were in the big
+city, and many things were to happen to them before they saw Lakeport
+again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ON THE EXPRESS TRAIN
+
+
+Mr. Bobbsey wished to ask one of the railroad men in the big station some
+questions about the trunks, and he also had to send a telegram, so, while
+he was doing these things, he told his wife and children to sit down and
+wait for him. Mrs. Bobbsey led Nan and Bert and Flossie and Freddie to one
+of the many long benches in the large depot, but the two smaller twins
+were so excited at being in such an immense place that they had not been
+seated more than a few seconds before they jumped up to gaze all about
+them. Bert and Nan, too, though older than their brother and sister, were
+much astonished at what they saw.
+
+"Why--why!" gasped Freddie, "it's bigger than our armory at home!" for in
+Lakeport there was a big hall where the soldiers drilled.
+
+"It's three times as big," said Flossie.
+
+"Four!" declared Freddie. "Come on!" he called to his sister, "let's see
+how long it takes to walk around it."
+
+"Don't go too far away," said Mrs. Bobbsey, who, for the moment, did not
+realize how really large the station was. "Don't get lost!" she went on.
+
+"No'm, we won't!" promised Flossie and Freddie.
+
+They started off to walk around the large depot, which, as you who have
+seen it know, takes up a whole New York City block, or "square," as you
+will say if you live near Philadelphia.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey's business took him a little longer than he expected, but as
+Bert and Nan begged to be allowed to buy a little candy at the newspaper
+stand near them, and as Mrs. Bobbsey wanted a magazine, the getting of
+these things took a little time, so the three did not notice how long Mr.
+Bobbsey was away from them.
+
+When he came back, having sent his message and found out what he wanted to
+know, the twins' father asked:
+
+"Where are Flossie and Freddie?"
+
+"They're walking around, just seeing how big the station is," said Nan.
+
+"Trying to find out how much larger it is than our armory at home," added
+Bert with a laugh.
+
+"Well, I hope they don't get lost," said Mr. Bobbsey, "This place is a
+good deal larger than our armory. I'd better go to look for them," he went
+on as a glance around, near the news stand, did not show the two little
+ones anywhere in sight.
+
+"I'll come with you," offered Bert.
+
+"No, you'd better stay here with your mother," said his father. "I don't
+want you getting lost, too." And he smiled at his son. "Stay right here.
+I'll not be long."
+
+But if Mr. Bobbsey thought he was going to find Flossie and Freddie soon
+he was disappointed. He wandered about under the big glass roof, which at
+first the two younger twins had taken for the sky; but he did not see
+Flossie or Freddie.
+
+"Has yo'all done lost suffin, boss?" inquired one of the colored porters.
+
+"I'm looking for my two little children," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "They
+wandered away from their mother."
+
+"Oh, don't yo'all worry 'bout _dat_, boss! Chilluns gits lost heah ebery
+day, an' we all easy find 'em ag'in."
+
+"Oh, I'm not worried," answered Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "But it is time
+for us to go, and I want them. Did you see them--two little ones--about so
+high," and he held his hand a short distance above the stone floor. "They
+have light hair and blue eyes."
+
+The porter thought for a moment. Then he said:
+
+"Well, to tell yo' de truff, boss, we has about seben hundred blue-eyed
+an' light-haired chilluns in heah ebery day, and we has de same number ob
+dark ones, so it's mighty hard t' 'member 'em all."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. Well, I'll walk about I dare say I shall find them."
+
+"I'll tell some ob de udder men," offered the porter. "We often has t'
+pick up lost little ones an' take 'em to de waitin' room. Ef yo' doan't
+find yo' tots yo'se'f, stop in dere."
+
+"I will," said Mr. Bobbsey, and he was about to walk on when the porter
+called to him:
+
+"Heah comes a light-haired, blue-eyed gal now, an' she's runnin' like
+she's in a hurry. Maybe she's yo'rs."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey looked up in time to see Flossie running toward him from the
+front part of the station. She seemed much excited, and when she neared
+her father she called:
+
+"Oh, Daddy! guess what happened!"
+
+"I'm afraid I haven't time," said Mr. Bobbsey quickly, "We must hurry
+away. Where is Freddie?"
+
+"That's what I mean! Guess what happened to him," went on Flossie, who was
+rather out of breath.
+
+"I can't," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Tell me quickly, Flossie. Is he hurt?"
+
+"Oh, no; he's all right. But he's gone off down the street, and he went
+into a store where there was a lot of bugs in the window, and he says he's
+going to buy some. I want some bugs, too!"
+
+"What in the world is she talking about?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, who from
+where she sat had seen her husband and little girl and had hurried on to
+join them.
+
+"She says Freddie went down the street," explained Mr. Bobbsey, "and that
+he----"
+
+"Yep! He went in a store with a lot of bugs in the window!" said Flossie
+again. "They're great big bugs and they walk around and around and
+around!" and she shook her flaxen head as hard as she could, as she often
+did when excited.
+
+"What in the world do you mean?" asked Nan, who, with Bert, now joined
+their father.
+
+"Freddie must have gone outside the depot to go down a street," said Bert.
+"Maybe she means he went into an animal store, where they sell monkeys and
+parrots."
+
+"No, they weren't any monkeys--nor parrots, either," said Flossie. "But
+some of the big bugs were green like a parrot. And we didn't go outdoors,
+either."
+
+"Then show us where you did go," ordered Mr. Bobbsey quickly. "I think we
+can find Freddie that way. Did you go into the store with him?" he asked
+his little girl.
+
+"Nope. I ran back to get the money to buy the bugs that crawl around and
+around and around, and go in a little door all by theirselves!" said
+Flossie, who was not breathing so fast now.
+
+"What is it all about?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "We seem to have found a queer
+part of New York as soon as we arrive."
+
+"It's over this way," and Flossie, taking her father's hand, pulled him in
+the direction from which she had come. Up a flight of broad stone steps
+she led him, the others following, until, as they approached the main
+entrance of the station, Flossie pointed and said:
+
+"There's the street with all the stores on it. Freddie went down there,
+and we stopped in front of a window where the bugs are, that go around and
+around and----"
+
+"Yes, dear, we know all about how they go around," said her mother, with a
+smile. "But show us where Freddie is."
+
+"Just down the street," said Flossie. "Come on."
+
+"Oh, I see what she means!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "It's the arcade. This
+is part of the depot--the vestibule, so to speak," he went on. "It's the
+entrance, and it is so big that there is room for stores on either side.
+It does look like a street."
+
+And so it did, except that there were no automobiles or wagons in it--just
+people hurrying along. On either side of the arcade were stores, where
+fruit, candy, toys, flowers and other things were sold. You can imagine
+that a station which has room in it for many trains, automobiles and
+thousands of people easily has room for stores also.
+
+"Come on--right down this way!" called Flossie, hurrying ahead of the
+others, "I'll show you where the bugs are."
+
+"The bugs that go around and around and around," laughed Bert, in a low
+tone to Nan.
+
+"Oh, I do hope Freddie hasn't gotten into any trouble," sighed Nan, who,
+though she was only ten years old, felt much more grown up than either
+Flossie or Freddie.
+
+"Here are the bugs!" cried Flossie, a little later, and she stopped in
+front of a station toy store, in the window of which a young man was
+showing how big tin bugs would move along on a spring roller that was
+fastened beneath them. There were green, red, yellow and spotted bugs,
+and they did indeed go "around and around and around," as Flossie had
+said, and some of them steered themselves, when started by the young man,
+into the door of a little pasteboard house, where all the toy tin bugs
+seemed to live.
+
+"There's Freddie now, buying a bug!" cried Flossie, as she saw through the
+store door her brother talking to a clerk. And the clerk was showing
+Freddie how the bug "walked" on the wooden roller which answered for legs.
+
+"I want a bug, too!" Flossie cried, and into the store dashed the little
+girl. "I've brought back Papa and Mamma and Bert and Nan," Flossie
+explained to her brother. "They all want to see the bugs."
+
+"Well!" exclaimed the man in the store. "This is going to be a busy day
+for me, I guess," and he smiled at the Bobbsey family.
+
+"Can I have three of these bugs, Daddy?" asked Freddie, just as if he had
+caused no trouble at all by going off as he had done.
+
+"I want three, too," echoed Flossie.
+
+"Oh, what funny looking things!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as the clerk sent
+the bugs crawling "around and around."
+
+"They are very amusing," said the salesman, "and just the thing for
+children. They can play many games with them and keep out of mischief."
+
+"They'll have to be pretty good to keep _these_ youngsters out of
+mischief," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "Yes, Freddie, you may have
+some bugs, and Flossie also. How about you, Nan and Bert?"
+
+"I'd rather have that small aeroplane," said Bert, pointing to one that
+could be wound up with a rubber band and would fly for some distance.
+
+"And I'd like that work basket," said Nan.
+
+"Well, we'll get you all something, and then we must start for our hotel,"
+said Mr. Bobbsey. "Come, Freddie, pick out the bugs you want, and don't
+run away again. You might get lost, even if you are only in the railroad
+station."
+
+"I couldn't get lost--Flossie knew where I was," said Freddie. "I sent her
+back to bring you, so you could pay for my bugs."
+
+Then the two younger Bobbseys looked over about all the toy tin bugs in
+the station store, and finally picked out those they wanted, though it
+took some little time. Bert's and Nan's gifts were wrapped up long before
+Freddie could make up his mind whether to take a blue bug, striped with
+green, or a purple one, spotted with yellow, finally making up his mind
+that the last was best.
+
+Then, after all the baggage had been collected, the family was ready to
+start for the hotel where they were to stay while in New York. Mr. Bobbsey
+wanted to get a taxicab, but Flossie and Freddie had heard of the elevated
+trains, which ran "in the air," and they wanted to go in one of them,
+saying it would be such fun. So, as it was almost as near one way as it
+was the other, Mr. Bobbsey consented, and they set off for the elevated
+railroad.
+
+"Oh, there goes a train!" cried Flossie, as they came in sight of the
+station, which was high above the street, set on iron pillars, some of
+which also held up the elevated track. "Just think, Freddie, we're going
+to ride on a high train!" Flossie was quite excited.
+
+"I hope it doesn't fall," said Nan.
+
+"They're made strong on purpose, so they won't fall," said Bert.
+
+Flossie and Freddie ran on ahead up the elevated stairs, and just as their
+father was buying the tickets, to drop in the little box where the
+"chopper" stood, working up and down a long handle, a train rumbled into
+the station.
+
+The iron gates of the car platforms were pulled back, several persons
+hurried off and others hurried on. Flossie and Freddie, thinking this was
+the train their parents, Bert and Nan, were going to take, and, being
+anxious to get seats near the window where they could look out, rushed
+past the ticket chopper, darted through the open gates and into one of the
+cars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A LONG RIDE
+
+
+Flossie and Freddie, scurrying through the gates of the elevated car just
+as the guard was about to close them, saw inside two rows of seats on
+either side, there being very few passengers in that coach. Thinking their
+father and mother, with Bert and Nan, were right behind them, the two
+little twins felt no fear, but rushed in, each one anxious to get a seat.
+
+"I'm going to sit by a window!" cried Freddie.
+
+"So'm I!" added Flossie, and both were soon kneeling on the rattan seats,
+with their noses fairly flattened against the glass of the window. The few
+passengers in the train smiled, for they knew the children must be from
+somewhere outside of New York, as the little folk of that city are not so
+eager to see the sights amid which they live.
+
+It was not until the train had started, and had gone several blocks, that
+Flossie and Freddie thought of their father and mother. They were greatly
+interested in looking out of the windows, and watching the train rush past
+at the level of the upper stories of the houses and stores along the
+streets. It did seem so queer to them to be riding in a train high up in
+the air, instead of on the ground.
+
+"It's lots better than a tunnel, and I used to think they were lots of
+fun!" said Flossie, fairly bubbling over with joy.
+
+"It's great!" cried Freddie, and he flattened his nose out more than ever
+against the glass, trying to look around a corner. For he had seen in one
+window of a house a boy dropping from the window of his home a basket on a
+string, and Freddie wanted to see why he was doing this.
+
+It is no unusual sight in New York, to see children, not much larger than
+the small Bobbsey twins, traveling about alone, so the other passengers
+and the trainmen, after the first few smiles, paid no attention to Flossie
+and Freddie. But the two themselves, after their first wonder at the
+sights they saw, began to think of their father and mother, as well as of
+Bert and Nan.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Flossie, after a bit, as she turned around and sat
+down in her seat.
+
+"Didn't they--didn't they come in after us?" asked Freddie, his chubby
+face taking on a worried look.
+
+"I--I didn't see them," returned Flossie. "Maybe they're in another car.
+Let's go to look!"
+
+To say a thing was generally to do it, with the smaller Bobbsey twins, at
+least, and no sooner did Flossie say this than Freddie was ready to go
+with her on a hunt for the others. The children slipped from their seats
+and started for the door while the train was moving swiftly, but a guard,
+who is a sort of brake-man, stopped them.
+
+"Where are you youngsters going?" he asked good-naturedly.
+
+"We want our father and mother," explained Freddie. "They must be in
+another car. We hurried on ahead."
+
+"Well, it wouldn't be the first time that has happened," said the guard,
+with a laugh. "But I guess you're a little too small to go navigating
+around from car to car when the train's moving. What's your father's name?
+I'll have him called out for in the other cars."
+
+"He's Mr. Richard Bobbsey, of Lakeport," said Flossie, "and my mother and
+sister and brother are with him. My sister is Nan and my brother is Bert.
+This is my brother, Freddie."
+
+"Well, now I guess I know the whole family," laughed the guard, the other
+passengers joining in a smile. "I'll see if I can find your folks for you,
+though it's queer they haven't been looking for you themselves. You stay
+here."
+
+The guard started to go through the other cars of the elevated train, and
+Freddie called after him:
+
+"If you find my father, please tell him to open the box and take out the
+yellow bug."
+
+"The yellow bug?" repeated the guard in some surprise. "Is your father an
+animal trainer?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Flossie, seriously. "Freddie means one of the tin bugs
+that go around and around and around. And, if you please, I want a green
+one."
+
+"Say, I wonder what kind of children these are, anyhow," murmured the
+guard. "Guess they must belong to a theatre or a circus."
+
+"They look nice," said a man sitting near the door.
+
+"Oh, they're all _right_, that's sure. Well, I'll see if I can find their
+folks for 'em."
+
+Elevated railroad men in New York get used to doing queer things, and
+seeing strange sights, so it did not cause much excitement when the guard
+went into the different cars calling for Mr. Bobbsey. He had to come back
+to his own car once to call out "Forty-second Street," and to open the
+gates to let passengers off and others on. Then he closed the gates and
+called out: "Fiftieth Street next," After that he went again into the cars
+he had not been in before and called for Mr. Bobbsey, But of course that
+gentleman did not answer, being a station or two behind by this time.
+
+[Illustration: "WHERE ARE YOU YOUNGSTERS GOING?"
+
+_The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City. Page_ 82]
+
+The guard, not being able to find Mr. or Mrs. Bobbsey, or Nan and Bert,
+came back to where Flossie and Freddie were now rather anxiously
+waiting.
+
+"Did you find him?" asked the children eagerly.
+
+"No, I'm sorry to say your father isn't on this train. But don't worry.
+I'll look out for you, and your father is sure to come for you sooner or
+later."
+
+"Did you find any of the bugs?" asked Freddie.
+
+"That go around and around and around," added Flossie.
+
+"No," said the guard, laughing, "I didn't. What about them?"
+
+Freddie explained what he meant, and asked if the train could not be
+stopped while he went into the nearest toy store to buy some more of the
+tin, crawling toys. But the guard said this could not be done.
+
+"I don't just know what to do with you," he said, scratching his head. "If
+your father thought, he could telephone to any of the stations where our
+train will stop--this is an express train and does not make many stops
+after Sixty-sixth Street till the end of the line. He could have the
+agent there take you off and keep you until he could come. Or, I might
+take you to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, which is the end of the
+line, and have the agent there take charge of you. I don't know what to
+do."
+
+Just then Flossie thought of something:
+
+"Oh, Freddie!" she cried. "We haven't any tickets or any money, unless you
+have some, and the conductor will put us off!"
+
+"I've got five cents," said Freddie, taking it out of his small pocket.
+
+"That's only enough for a street-car ride, and this is the elevated
+railroad," replied his blue-eyed sister. "Oh, what shall we do?" And there
+was just a little tear in each eye as she looked at the guard.
+
+"What's the matter now?" he asked kindly. "Do you want a bug?"
+
+"No--I mean yes, but not now. We haven't any tickets and the
+conductor----"
+
+"Didn't you drop your tickets in the chopper's box at the station where
+you got on?"
+
+"No. We ran on ahead," explained Freddie.
+
+"Ho! I see! You were so small that the ticket chopper didn't see you.
+Well, don't worry--it will be all right. The road won't lose much by
+carrying you two."
+
+"You could send the bill to my father," said Flossie. "That's what mother
+says when she goes to buy things at the store."
+
+"That will be all right," the guard said. "I'll see that you're not put
+off until the proper time comes. And you save your five cents," he added
+to Freddie, who was holding up the nickel. "You might want to buy some
+peanuts."
+
+"Oh, that's so--for the monkeys in the park!" cried Freddie. "I forgot we
+were going to see them!"
+
+By this time some of the other passengers were interested in the children,
+asking them many questions and learning the story of their coming to New
+York on a visit.
+
+"They don't seem worried," said one woman. "And they're quite lost in this
+big city."
+
+"Oh, we've been lost before," said Flossie easily. "Lots of times!"
+
+"In the woods, too," added Freddie. "And we heard funny noises. But we
+weren't scared. Were we, Flossie?"
+
+"Nope. We'll just keep on riding now until Daddy comes for us. It's fun, I
+think."
+
+"And we don't have to pay for it, either," said Freddie, with
+satisfaction, as he put away his only piece of money. "I'm going to save
+this for peanuts for the monkeys."
+
+"Will you save some for me?" asked Flossie. "I'm getting hungry."
+
+"Maybe we'll eat these peanuts all ourselves," said Freddie, after
+thinking about it for a moment. "We can get some for the monkeys later
+afterward. I'm hungry, too."
+
+"Well, you've got quite a long trip ahead of you," said the guard in whose
+car they were. "It's quite a ride to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street.
+I'll ask the gateman at the next stop if your father has telephoned about
+you. Just sit still."
+
+And so Flossie and Freddie, in the elevated express train, were having a
+long ride all by themselves. They were not frightened now, for they were
+sure their father or mother would come for them soon, as he had done the
+day they were spilled out of the ice-boat and were taken in by Uncle Jack.
+
+"I wonder what that nice woodchopper man is doing now?" asked Flossie.
+"Uncle Jack, I mean."
+
+"I hope his pain is better," said Freddie. "Maybe we could get him work
+here on the elevated railroad, chopping tickets at the station." When
+people drop their tickets into the glass boxes at the elevated or subway
+stations they are "chopped" into fine pieces by the men who pump the
+handles up and down. "Uncle Jack chops wood," went on Freddie, "and he
+could easy chop tickets."
+
+So Flossie and Freddie kept on with their long ride, talking and looking
+out of the train windows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+IN THE STORE
+
+
+Mr. Bobbsey bought his tickets, put his change in his pocket, and turned
+to gather his little party together to take them through the gate, past
+the ticket chopper.
+
+"Why, where are Freddie and Flossie?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey, Nan, Bert, none of them, had seen the little twins rush past
+the ticket chopper and on to the train. All began to turn here and there
+excitedly, looking about for the blue-eyed boy and girl.
+
+"Now, now," said Mr. Bobbsey, "don't worry. You, Bert, and your mother and
+Nan will wait here at the head of the stairs, while I go down to the
+street and see if the children went down there again. I'll not be gone
+long. If they are not close at hand, I'll come back to you before making
+further search. Now, as I said, don't worry. In a city children are
+always quickly found."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey did as he said, but, of course, saw nothing of Freddie and
+Flossie, who were now having a very nice ride and a very good time indeed
+on the elevated express train.
+
+By this time the ticket chopper, the agent who sold tickets, the station
+porter and several persons who were waiting to take a train, had heard
+from Nan and Bert what had happened. These people offered all sorts of
+advice, but Mr. Bobbsey thought it best to listen to that of the ticket
+agent, who, of course, would know more about the elevated trains than
+persons who only rode on them two or three times a day.
+
+The ticket chopper had seen the children rush by him and on to the train,
+but they had gone by so quickly that he had not been able to stop them,
+and, as there were a good many people on the platform, he did not know to
+whom they belonged. So he told the ticket seller and Mr. Bobbsey that
+Flossie and Freddie had taken the last express train that had passed the
+station.
+
+"It would have been easy enough to stop them if you'd only known it at
+first," said the ticket seller; "but they've got the start of you now, and
+after Sixty-sixth Street these express trains make only a few stops before
+they reach the end of the line. But I can telephone to one of the ticket
+sellers at one of the uptown stations and have him meet the train and take
+the children off."
+
+"What will he do with them?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Oh, he'll keep 'em safe till you folks get there. The trains run pretty
+close together at this hour of the day. Your husband can get uptown after
+'em so quick that they won't have to wait long."
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Bert.
+
+"We will all go on together," answered his father. "I wish we had taken an
+automobile to go to the hotel, and then this would not have happened. But
+Flossie and Freddie would have been disappointed if they had not had the
+first ride in an elevated train. However, I'm sure it will all come out
+right."
+
+The ticket agent went into his little office to telephone on ahead, and
+have Flossie and Freddie taken from the train and held until their parents
+could claim them. Meanwhile Mr. Bobbsey and the others waited until this
+was done before getting on the train that was to take them far uptown in
+New York.
+
+Something was the matter with the telephone in the first station which the
+ticket seller called up. He could not get the agent there to talk to him
+over the wire until the train in which Flossie and Freddie were riding,
+had whizzed on, after making a short stop.
+
+"Well, I'll catch them at the next station where the train stops," the
+agent said. This time he managed to get in touch with the agent there, but
+when the latter understood, and ran out to hail the train, it was already
+in motion and could not be stopped.
+
+"Well, the third time is always lucky," said the ticket seller who had
+offered to do what he could to help Mr. Bobbsey. "I'll be sure to catch
+them now."
+
+He talked over the telephone to another agent and this one answered back
+that the train was just then pulling out of his station.
+
+"But I'll yell at one of the guards," this agent called into the telephone
+instrument, "and tell him to put the children off at the next stop. I'll
+do that," and he rushed out to try to call to one of the trainmen.
+
+"That will be One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street," said the first agent,
+as he came out of his little office. "That's the best I can do. Your two
+little children will be put off the train when it makes the stop there,
+and the ticket agent will look after them until you get there. You can
+wait for the next express, or you can take a local train here and change
+to the express at Sixty-sixth Street."
+
+When the next train came along, they got on, eager and anxious to catch up
+to the missing children. In order not to be bothered with the
+hand-baggage, Mr. Bobbsey had called a taxicab and had had the chauffeur
+take it to the hotel were they were to stop, which was an uptown hotel,
+near enough to Central Park for Flossie and Freddie to walk over to see
+the monkeys as often as they wished.
+
+Meanwhile the two runaway children--who really did not mean to run
+away--were in the express train speeding along. After their first
+surprise at finding themselves alone, they were not frightened, but
+continued to look out of the windows and to wonder at the many sights they
+saw.
+
+"Well, we'll be at the end of this run some time," said the guard, who had
+been talking with Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"What will you do with us then?" the little boy asked.
+
+"Turn you over to the agent, unless we have some other word about you,"
+the trainman answered. "Wait, we're going to stop here, and there may be a
+message." He hurried out on the platform.
+
+As the train was leaving that station Flossie and Freddie saw the ticket
+agent run out, waving his hand, and they heard him shout something to
+their guard. When the latter came into their car again he said to Flossie
+and Freddie:
+
+"That message was about you two. The agent said two lost children were on
+this train and that they were to be put off at the next station and left
+until their father came for them. You're the only lost children I know
+of."
+
+"And we're not lost so _very_ much," said Flossie slowly. "'Cause _we_ are
+here. It's Daddy and the rest who are lost."
+
+"Well, they'll soon be along--coming on the next train," said the guard.
+"I'll turn you over to the agent at One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street
+and you'll be all right."
+
+This was done. The train came to a stop; many passengers got off and a
+kind woman took Flossie and Freddie in charge and saw that they got inside
+the elevated station, where the agent, who had been telephoned to, knew
+about them and was expecting them.
+
+"Now, just sit right down here and be comfortable," the agent said to the
+Bobbsey twins. "You'll be all right, and your folks will soon come for
+you. I have to sit in the office and sell tickets."
+
+The kind woman called a good-bye to the children and went away; so Flossie
+and Freddie were left by themselves in the elevated railroad station at
+One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street.
+
+For a while they sat quietly, watching the people come in to buy tickets
+or get off trains. The agent did not pay much attention to them, being
+very busy, for it was toward the close of day when the rush was like the
+morning, greater than at other times.
+
+"Say! What's that?" suddenly asked Flossie, holding up her chubby hand to
+tell Freddie to stop whistling, which he was trying to do.
+
+"What's what?" he asked, looking at his sister.
+
+"I hear music," went on Flossie.
+
+"So do I!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+They both listened, and from somewhere outside they heard the sound again.
+
+"It's a hand organ!" cried Flossie.
+
+"No, it's a hand _piano!_" said Freddie. "Hear how jiggily the tune is."
+
+"Well, it's the same thing," Flossie insisted, "I wonder if there's a
+monkey with it."
+
+"Let's go downstairs and see," proposed Freddie.
+
+Once Flossie or Freddie made up their minds to do a thing it was almost as
+good as done--that is, if it were not too hard. This time It seemed easy
+to do. They looked toward the little office in which the ticket seller had
+shut himself. He was busy selling tickets.
+
+"He'll not see us," whispered Freddie. "Besides, we're coming right back
+as soon as we see the monkey."
+
+"And we'll give him some peanuts," added Flossie. "You can buy some with
+your five cents, Freddie. And we won't give them _all_ to the monkey. I
+want some."
+
+"So do I. Come on, we'll go down."
+
+The agent seemed to have forgotten them. At any rate his door was closed
+and he could not see them. None of the passengers, hurrying in to buy
+tickets, paid any attention to the Bobbsey twins. So, hand in hand,
+Flossie and Freddie went out of the station, and down the long stairs to
+where they could hear the music of the hand piano.
+
+It was being played by an Italian man in the street, almost under the
+elevated station, and, as Flossie leaned over the stair railing to look
+down, she cried out:
+
+"Oh, there is a monkey, Freddie! The man has it on a string!"
+
+"That's good. Do you see peanuts anywhere?"
+
+"Yes, there are some at that stand near the bottom of the stairs. Don't
+lose your five cents!"
+
+"I won't!"
+
+Freddie hurried down with Flossie. He bought a bag of peanuts, and the
+children hastened across the street to where a little crowd of boys and
+girls stood in front of the hurdy-gurdy, or hand piano, listening to the
+music and watching the monkey. This will draw a crowd, even in New York,
+where there are many more and stranger sights to be seen.
+
+"Oh, isn't he cute!" cried Flossie, tapping her feet on the sidewalk in
+time to the music.
+
+"He's coming over this way," said Freddie. "I'm going to give him a
+peanut."
+
+"But don't let him get the whole bag."
+
+"I won't. Here, Jacko! Have a peanut!" and Freddie held out one to the
+hurdy-gurdy monkey.
+
+The long-tailed animal lost no time in making a grab for it, and soon he
+was chewing it hungrily. The man grinding out the music shook the cord
+which was fast to a collar around the monkey's neck. What the street piano
+man wanted was pennies and five-cent pieces put in the monkey's red cap.
+Peanuts were good for Jacko, but money was better for his master.
+
+The monkey well knew what the jerks meant on the cord around his neck.
+They meant that he must scramble around in the crowd and hold out his cap
+for pennies. The monkey would much rather have eaten peanuts, but even
+monkeys can not do as they like in this world.
+
+So, with a chattering sound, and with another look at Freddie, who tossed
+him a peanut, the monkey, catching the dainty in one paw, started to try
+to collect some money.
+
+But he must have been a hungry little monkey, for, when he looked at
+Flossie, and saw on her hat what he thought were red cherries, that monkey
+made up his mind to get some of them if he could. Though the cherries were
+made of celluloid, they looked very real, and they might have fooled even
+a boy or a girl, to say nothing of a monkey.
+
+So with a quick bound Jacko--which seems to be the name of all those
+long-tailed chaps--was perched on Flossie's shoulder, tearing at her hat
+with two paws, trying to pull off what he thought were ripe, red cherries.
+
+"Oh! Oh!" screamed Flossie. "Oh, stop!"
+
+"Wait till I get hold of him!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Come away! Come away froma de littlea gal!" yelled the piano Italian.
+Some in the crowd laughed and others screamed.
+
+The monkey kept pulling and tearing at Flossie's hat until he had pulled
+it from her head and then, jumping down off her shoulder to the ground,
+the animal crouched under the piano and began pulling off the red
+cherries. But one bite told him they were not real, and then, perhaps
+frightened at what he had done and fearing he would be punished, the
+monkey tried to run away.
+
+But he was held by the string on his collar, and the Italian, perhaps
+afraid that he would be made to pay for Flossie's hat, which his monkey
+had torn to pieces, pulled Jacko to him, perched him on his shoulder and
+hurried away, wheeling the street piano.
+
+"Oh, Freddie! Freddie! What shall I do?" cried Flossie, as she looked at
+her sadly torn hat.
+
+"It's a shame," said a woman in the crowd.
+
+"You'll need a new hat, little girl," said another woman.
+
+That gave Freddie an idea. If his sister needed a new hat he was the one
+to help her get it. He looked up and down the street. Across the way was a
+large drygoods store, in one of the windows of which were many hats and
+other things for girls and ladies to wear.
+
+"Come on, Flossie!" cried Freddie, clasping her hand. "I'll take you
+there."
+
+"Where?" she asked. Tears had come into her eyes when the monkey tore her
+nice, new hat. But she did not really cry. "Where are you going to take
+me, Freddie?" she asked.
+
+"Over to that big store; and we'll buy a new hat for you," said the little
+fellow. "Then we'll go back to the station and wait for Daddy and the
+rest. Come on. I'll get you a new hat."
+
+Flossie wondered how Freddie was going to do it, but she did not ask.
+Leaving the torn hat in the street, she went with her brother. He led the
+way into the big store, which, though it was not one of the large ones of
+New York, was much bigger than any in Lakeport.
+
+"Well, little ones, what can I do for you?" asked one of the tall men in
+the store, as Flossie and Freddie strolled in. "Are you with your
+parents?"
+
+"No, sir, we're all alone," spoke up Freddie. "We were lost on an express
+train, but we're waiting for my father and mother and Bert and Nan. But a
+monkey chewed up Flossie's hat and I want a new one for her. You sell
+hats, don't you?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+LOST UNDERGROUND
+
+
+Flossie and Freddie looked up at the tall man, who smiled kindly down at
+them. He seemed to be laughing at something, though whether it was
+Flossie's flaxen hair, now rather tangled because the monkey had pulled
+off her hat, or because Freddie looked so funny asking his question, the
+children could not tell.
+
+"So you want a hat for the little girl?" asked the floorwalker, as the man
+was called. He walked up and down in the store to see that the clerks
+waited properly on the customers, and he told strangers where to go.
+
+"Flossie wants a hat," went on Freddie. "The monkey ate the cherries off
+hers."
+
+"No; he didn't really _eat_ them," Flossie explained, anxious to have
+everything just right. "He _tried_ to chew 'em, but he didn't like 'em.
+Anyhow, my hat's gone!"
+
+"What kind of a hat did you want?" asked the store man, not quite sure how
+to treat the children.
+
+"One with feathers on," suggested Freddie.
+
+"No, I want one with flowers on!" insisted Flossie.
+
+"How much did you want to pay?" asked the man, shaking his head in a
+puzzled way.
+
+"My father will pay," replied Freddie, "You just send the bill to him--Mr.
+Richard Bobbsey, of Lakeport. He has a lumber mill and----"
+
+"What seems to be the trouble?" broke in a new voice, and the two
+children, as well as the floorwalker, turned to see standing near them a
+stout man, with gray hair, who was smiling kindly at them.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Whipple!" exclaimed the tall man, glad to have some one else to
+help him. "I don't know what to do about these children. They want a hat
+for the little girl, and----"
+
+"It's because a monkey ate Flossie's hat!" broke in Freddie. "We're lost.
+We were on an express train, but we got off and we heard music and please
+charge it to our father--charge the hat, I mean, not the music, for we
+didn't pay anything for that. Did we Flossie?"
+
+"No; but I'm not going to have a hat with feathers on. I want one with
+flowers on, and I wish mamma was here--or Nan--to help pick it out."
+
+"I'll help you," offered Freddie kindly.
+
+"I guess you had better come with me," said the stout man, who, as the
+children learned afterward was Mr. Daniel Whipple, owner of the big store
+into which Flossie and Freddie had wandered. "I'll take you up to my
+office," Mr. Whipple went on, "and you can tell me about yourselves. I'll
+try to find your folks for you."
+
+"And can I get a hat?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Yes, I think so," the store owner answered. "Send one of the clerks from
+the children's hat department to my office with some hats that will do for
+this little girl," he went on, and the floorwalker said he would.
+
+"We'll be all right now, Flossie," said Freddie, as they followed their
+new friend. In a little while Flossie was fitted with just the hat she
+wanted, and Mr. Whipple was listening to the story told in turn by the two
+children.
+
+"Your father is probably on his way up to get you now," said Mr. Whipple.
+"He'll expect to find you in the elevated station, but you will not be
+there. I'll send one of my clerks over to tell the agent you are here, and
+to send your father over when he comes. But I think I'll keep you two tots
+here, because----"
+
+"We might get lost again--we get lost lots of times," said Freddie with a
+smile. "It's nice here. I like it!" and, very much at home, he looked
+around the office of the store owner. It was almost closing time, and Mr.
+Whipple was wondering whether in case the children's father did not come
+it would not be better to take them to his own home, when the clerk came
+back from the elevated station with Mr. Bobbsey himself.
+
+"Oh, Daddy!" cried Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"Well, you two certainly gave me a fine chase!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey,
+with a smile, hugging his "little fat fireman" and his "fat fairy," one
+after the other. "Where in the world have you been?"
+
+"Oh, we heard a hand organ and we went to look at the monkey and it chewed
+Flossie's hat and we're here!" gasped Freddie, all in one breath.
+
+"And I got a new hat, and you'll please pay for it, Daddy," added Flossie.
+"And did you bring my bugs--the ones that go around and around and
+around?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, Flossie, I have them. But what's all this about a hat?"
+
+"I bought her a new one," explained Freddie, "but I didn't have any money
+to pay for it, so we charged it."
+
+"The little girl seemed to need one, Mr. Bobbsey," said the store owner.
+
+"Oh, that will be all right, I'm glad to pay for it, Mr.--er----"
+
+"Whipple is my name," said the store man. "Daniel Whipple."
+
+"Whipple!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, and a thoughtful look came over his
+face. "Daniel Whipple," and he seemed to be trying to think of something
+he had heard a long while before.
+
+"Yes; you may have seen it in my advertisements. I advertise in the
+papers every day."
+
+"Ah, yes, I presume so," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Thank you very much, Mr.
+Whipple, for looking after the children for me. I reached the One Hundred
+and Twenty-fifth Street elevated station a little while ago, and the
+ticket agent there was very much excited because the children had slipped
+out while he was in his office.
+
+"We were just trying to think where they could have gone, when your clerk
+came up to say they were here. Now I'll take them to their mother, who is
+quite anxious about them."
+
+"I can well believe she is," said Mr. Whipple. "Come and see me again," he
+invited Flossie and Freddie, who, after their father had paid for the new
+hat, went away with him.
+
+A little later they were safe in the hotel where the Bobbsey family was to
+live while in New York. Mrs. Bobbsey, Bert and Nan were already there, and
+quite glad to see the two runaways, you may be sure.
+
+"What a lot of adventures you must have had!" cried Nan, when Flossie and
+Freddie had told her a few of the things that had happened.
+
+"We did!" laughed Freddie. "You ought to have seen that monkey's face when
+he bit on those make-believe cherries on Flossie's hat!" and Freddie
+laughed loudly.
+
+"Anyhow I got a new hat!"
+
+"That Mr. Whipple was a fine man," said Freddie.
+
+"Indeed he must be," agreed Mrs. Bobbsey, and then, seeing a strange look
+on her husband's face, she asked:
+
+"What is the matter? Are you worried?"
+
+"No, but I am trying to remember where I have heard that name before. But
+so much has happened to-day that I can't recall it."
+
+It had been indeed, a full day since the Bobbsey twins had left their home
+in Lakeport that morning, and Mrs. Bobbsey insisted on Flossie and
+Freddie, at least, going to bed early. This the small twins were glad
+enough to do, after they had told Nan and Bert the different things that
+had happened after they got on the express train.
+
+"It was an awful splendid store," said Flossie, in speaking about Mr.
+Whipple's establishment.
+
+"Bigger'n any store in Lakeport," added her twin.
+
+"And the nicest clerks that ever was," went on Flossie. "Why, one of 'em
+had a whole counter full of cologne, and she squirted some on me when I
+went past, and it smelled awful good!"
+
+After breakfast the next morning, when Mr. Bobbsey had finished sending
+some telegrams and telephone messages, he asked the children what they
+first wanted to see in New York.
+
+"The monkeys!" cried Flossie and Freddie.
+
+"I want to go on Fifth avenue and see the lovely shops and stores," said
+Nan.
+
+"And I want to go to the history museum and see the stuffed animals and
+the model of a whale," said Bert, who had been reading of this.
+
+"Well, how would you like to go and see some live fish?" asked Mr.
+Bobbsey. "That ought to satisfy all of you, and Nan can see some stores on
+the way to the Aquarium. I have to go downtown in New York," he said to
+his wife, "and I can take the children to the Aquarium at the Battery as
+well as not."
+
+"All right," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you'll do that I'll stay here and
+rest. Afternoon will do for me to go out. Now mind, Flossie and Freddie,
+don't get lost again!"
+
+The small twins promised they would not and soon all four were on their
+way downtown with their father. This time they went in the subway, or
+underground road, which, as Freddie said, was like one big, long tunnel.
+
+"We'll get out at the Brooklyn Bridge or City Hall Park," said Mr.
+Bobbsey. "I have to see a man in the City Hall, and from there we can walk
+to the Battery, as it is a nice day. Or we can ride, if you get too
+tired."
+
+The children were sure they would not get too tired, and a little later
+they all got out at the subway station at Brooklyn Bridge.
+
+There were many persons hurrying to and fro, trains coming in and going
+out, and lights all over, making the children think it was night, though
+it was in the morning.
+
+"Wait here just a minute," said Mr. Bobbsey, showing the twins a less
+crowded place where they could stay. "I want to get a magazine over at the
+news-stand," he added.
+
+The magazine he wanted had been put away under a pile of papers, and as
+the boy was getting it out Flossie caught sight, down the platform, of a
+man pasting up on the advertising boards in the underground station, some
+new posters.
+
+"Oh, maybe it's signs about a circus, Freddie!" cried the little girl
+"Come on and watch!"
+
+Freddie was always ready to go, and he had darted off after his sister
+down the long platform before Bert and Nan saw them. When the two older
+children missed the younger twins they looked hurriedly about for them.
+
+"There they are--watching that bill-poster," said Bert. For the
+underground subway stations are much used by advertisers, gaily colored
+sheets of paper being pasted on boards put there for that purpose.
+
+"You mustn't run away like that!" said Nan to Flossie, as she came up to
+her sister, to lead her back.
+
+"We wanted to see if it was a circus poster, but it isn't," returned
+Freddie.
+
+"Well, come on back. Daddy will miss us," declared Bert. He started
+back--at least he thought he did--for the place where their father had
+told them to wait for him. But the subway station under the New York
+sidewalks was so large and rambling, there were so many stairways leading
+here and there, up and down, and there were so many platforms that it is
+no wonder Bert went astray.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Nan at last.
+
+"Well, I was trying to find the place father told us to wait," Bert
+answered.
+
+"It's over this way," said Nan, pointing just the other direction from the
+one in which Bert was walking.
+
+"All right, we'll try that, but it seems wrong," he stated.
+
+They walked a little way in that direction. They saw nothing of their
+father, however, and there were fewer people on the platform where they
+now were.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Flossie, "I'm thirsty! I want a drink!"
+
+"So do I!" added Freddie.
+
+Nan and Bert looked about them. They were still in the underground
+station, and they could see trains coming in and going out, and crowds of
+people hurrying to and fro. But they could not see their father nor the
+place where he had told them to wait. At last Nan said:
+
+"Bert, I don't know where we are! We're lost!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FREDDIE AND THE TURTLE
+
+
+Bert Bobbsey looked all around the big underground subway station before
+he answered Nan. Then he took off his cap to scratch his head, as he often
+did while thinking. Next he looked down at Flossie and Freddie.
+
+If he thought he was going to find the two little twins in a fright at
+what Nan had said about being lost, Bert was mistaken. The two
+flaxen-haired tots were looking down the long platform, into the gloom of
+the long tunnel of the subway.
+
+"Aren't they funny, Freddie?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Yep, awfully funny," was Freddie's answer.
+
+"What's funny?" asked Bert, wishing he could see something at which to
+laugh.
+
+"Those red and green lights down the track," explained Freddie. "They
+blink so funny and come up and go out----"
+
+"Just like winking at you," said Flossie. "I like it down here. It isn't
+like the dark tunnels we went in on the steam cars."
+
+"Well, I'm glad _somebody_ likes it," said Bert to Nan. "But say, how do
+we get out of here?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," she said. "When I ran after Flossie I didn't look
+which way I was going."
+
+"I didn't, either. Queer how we could get lost in a place like this," and
+Bert seemed worried and spoke more loudly than he intended. Freddie heard
+what his brother said and looked up quickly.
+
+"Are we _really_ lost?" he asked.
+
+"It seems so," answered Nan. "I ran after you two, and we have walked
+about so many platforms and up and down so many stairs that I can't see or
+remember the place where Father told us to wait for him."
+
+"Well, there's no danger, that's sure," said Bert. "It's a queer place to
+be lost in--a subway station. I was never in one before, but if we stay
+here long enough Dad is sure to find us. Here comes somebody now, looking
+for us, I guess."
+
+A man in a blue suit, carrying a red lantern, and with white numbers on
+either side of his cap, walked toward the four twins.
+
+"Is your name Bobbsey?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; but how did you know?" was Bert's question.
+
+"Your father sent me to look for you. He guessed you must have wandered
+away, and he thought it best to stay where he told you to wait, and let
+one of us find you. A lot of men are hunting up and down the different
+platforms for you."
+
+"Well, I'm glad you found us!" sighed Nan. "We didn't know what to do."
+
+"Just come with me," said the subway guard. "I'll take you to your
+father," and he did, leading the children down a long platform and over a
+sort of bridge, then down a flight of steps. Though they did not know it,
+the twins had wandered quite a distance from the place Mr. Bobbsey had
+left them.
+
+The subway station was a rambling place, with several doors to go in by
+and come out of, a number of platforms and stairways, and wiser persons
+than four small children could easily become confused there.
+
+When Mr. Bobbsey came back, after buying his magazine, and could not find
+his children, he guessed what had happened, and wisely asked a guard to
+make a search, instead of doing it himself.
+
+"For I don't come to New York often enough to be sure of finding my way
+around in all the odd nooks and corners," said the lumber merchant.
+
+"And it wasn't a circus poster at all!" said Freddie, after Flossie had
+told what had caused her to wander away. "It was only about chewing gum."
+
+Speaking of chewing gum made Flossie remember she was thirsty, and after
+Mr. Bobbsey had thanked the man with the red lantern, and had explained to
+Freddie that it was used to stop trains in case of an accident, the
+Bobbsey party went up out of the underground station and into a candy
+store.
+
+"I know what I'm going to have!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"So do I!" cried Flossie.
+
+"Chocolate soda!"
+
+"Yes! And I want plenty of cream on top!"
+
+"Suppose they haven't got any chocolate soda?" remarked Mr. Bobbsey, with
+a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Oh, I know they've got chocolate soda," remonstrated his little son.
+"They always have chocolate soda at soda fountains! Don't they, Flossie?"
+
+"Of course they do! I don't think it would be a real soda fountain if they
+didn't have chocolate soda," replied the little girl.
+
+"I think I'm going to have an orange phosphate," said Bert.
+
+"And that is just what I am going to have too," added Nan.
+
+"Phosphate!" cried Freddie in wonder. "I wouldn't drink any phosphate!
+That's what they make matches of."
+
+"Oh, just hear that!" cried Bert, laughing. "Freddie thinks they make
+matches of phosphate."
+
+"They do, too!" answered the little boy.
+
+"You are thinking of phosphorus, Freddie," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "That is
+different, and it is poisonous." Then the drinks were ordered and quickly
+served.
+
+"And now I want to go to see the big fish!" said Freddie, sipping the last
+drops of his sweet drink. "Are there any animals in the 'quarium, Daddy?"
+
+"Well, there aren't any lions or tigers," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "We'll go
+to see them later in Bronx Park. But, of course, fish are animals. It
+won't take me long to run into City Hall and see my friend. Then we'll go
+to the Aquarium."
+
+Left on the top steps of the City Hall building, this time the Bobbsey
+twins were found safely there when their father came out, and a little
+later they were on their way to Battery Park in a Broadway street car,
+that ran on the ground.
+
+"We've ridden under the ground in the subway, over the ground in the
+elevated and now we're riding _on_ the ground," said Nan. "New York is a
+funny place!"
+
+The Aquarium, as those of you know who have seen it, is in the round,
+brown stone building, on a point of land almost the very end of the island
+of Manhattan. It is where the North and East rivers come together to form
+New York Bay, and, years ago, this building was where the immigrants, or
+people who came to the United States from other countries, were kept for a
+while until they could be sent out West, or down South, or wherever they
+wanted to go.
+
+Now it is a place where many fish, big, little, ugly and beautiful, are
+shown in tanks of water so the boys and girls can see what strange things
+are in the ocean, rivers and lakes of this world.
+
+Led by Mr. Bobbsey, Bert and Nan, with Flossie and Freddie trailing on
+behind, walked around the big building, looking in the glass tanks wherein
+swam the fish.
+
+"What's over there?" asked Freddie, pointing to where a crowd of people
+were standing near some pools in the middle of the floor.
+
+"Oh, different big fish--a sea lion, alligators and turtles," said Mr.
+Bobbsey.
+
+"Let's look at the sea lion!" called Flossie.
+
+"I want to see a swimming turtle," said Freddie. "I had a mud turtle once,
+but he went away."
+
+"You shall see everything," promised Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+They went over to the pool, where a number of large alligators, and one
+crocodile, were lying in or out of the water. Some were lazily swimming
+about, and the crocodile was asleep out on the stone ledge, with his big
+mouth wide open.
+
+"He's waiting for some one to come along and feed him," said Bert.
+
+"I guess he'd eat a lot," laughed Freddie, looking at the rows of big
+teeth in the crocodile's mouth.
+
+They passed on to the pool of the sea lion. That sleek, brown animal was
+swimming about like a big fish, now and then stopping under one of the
+pipes where the water ran into his pool, and holding his mouth under the
+little stream as though taking a drink. Now and then he barked like a dog.
+
+Around the stone ledge, or wall of the pool, was a wire grating, and near
+the floor was a sort of pipe running all around, so the smaller children
+could step up on this to look in--something which the big folk did not
+have to do.
+
+"Be careful!" cried Nan, as Flossie leaned well over the edge to get a
+better look at the sea lion. "You might fall in."
+
+"She could get a ride on his back if she did," said Freddie.
+
+"Well, I'm not going to!" exclaimed Flossie, drawing back, a little
+frightened, as the seal splashed the water right under her, some drops
+going in her face.
+
+They watched the seal for a while, went over to the other tanks, where
+some sturgeon and other big fish swam about, and then Freddie called:
+
+"I want to see the big turtles! Where are they?"
+
+"Over here," said Mr. Bobbsey, leading the way toward the south end of the
+building near the tank, where the green moray--a sort of big eel--was
+lying half in and half out of a piece of sewer pipe put in his tank to
+make him feel more at home. "There are the big turtles," and Mr.
+Bobbsey lifted Flossie up over the rail so she could look down more
+easily.
+
+There were some very large turtles in the tank, swimming by moving their
+broad flippers. Sometimes they would swim about close to the white tiled
+bottom of the tank, but the water was clear, so they could be seen easily.
+Again the turtles would rise to the top, so that their big, hard shells
+were out of water, like a raft which the boys build to play with when the
+city's vacant lots or country meadows are flooded in the Spring.
+
+In one end of the tank was a big turtle--the largest of all--swimming by
+himself, and overhead, hung by a wire from the room, was a stuffed one,
+larger yet. This, so a sign near it said, was a "leather-back turtle," and
+when alive had weighed eight hundred and fifty pounds.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Bert, looking at the big, stuffed fellow. "He could swim
+around with two or three boys on _his_ back."
+
+"I'd like to have had a ride on him," cried Freddie. "But this one is
+pretty big, too!" and he pointed down at the large swimming turtle, which,
+just then, stuck his head up out of the water. He seemed to be nearly a
+yard long and almost as broad.
+
+"Oh!" screamed Flossie, as she saw the big turtle so close to her. "Can he
+get out of the water, Daddy?"
+
+"No, indeed," laughed Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"I can't see him very good," said Freddie, and he gave a little jump up
+from the foot-rail on which he was standing.
+
+Freddie must have jumped up harder and farther than he had any idea of,
+for before Bert, who was standing near his little brother, could put out a
+hand to hold him, the flaxen-haired twin had fairly dived over the rail,
+and down into the tank he fell with a great splash.
+
+No, not such a great splash, either, for Freddie did not fall directly
+into the water. Instead, only his two fat legs and feet went in, for the
+small boy landed, sitting right up on the broad back of the big turtle!
+Right down on the turtle's back fell Freddie Bobbsey!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+IN THE THEATRE
+
+
+There was a scream from Nan, another from Flossie, and a sort of grunt of
+surprise from Bert, as they saw Freddie disappear over the railing of the
+tank, and come into view a second later on the back of the turtle, which
+was as much surprised as, probably, the little boy himself.
+
+"Here, Freddie! What are you doing down there?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, before
+he thought what he was saying. He and his wife had so often to ask what
+Flossie or Freddie were doing, as the smaller twins were so often in
+mischief, that the father did it this time.
+
+"Oh, the turtle will eat him up! The turtle will eat Freddie up!" cried
+Flossie.
+
+Freddie, too, after the first shock of surprise, was frightened, and as he
+clung with both hands to the edges of the turtle's shell he looked over
+his shoulder, toward his father and the others, and cried:
+
+"Oh, get me out, Daddy! Get me out!"
+
+The cries of the children, and the call of Mr. Bobbsey, had drawn a crowd
+around the turtle pool, and among the throng were some of the attendants
+on duty in the Aquarium.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked one, elbowing his way through the crowd to the
+side of Mr. Bobbsey, who was trying to climb over the rail to go to the
+rescue of his little boy.
+
+[Illustration: "FREDDIE FELL IN!" "HE'S ON THE BACK OF A BIG TURTLE." _The
+Bobbsey Twins in a Great City. Page_ 128]
+
+"Freddie fell in," explained Bert. "He's on the back of the big turtle!"
+
+"Good land!" cried the man. "What will happen here next? Come back, sir,"
+he went on to Mr. Bobbsey, "I'll get him out for you."
+
+"Then please be quick. He may fall off and the turtle may bite him or
+drown him," said Freddie's father.
+
+"Well, the turtle _could_ give him a bad bite," returned the Aquarium man.
+"But if he holds on a little longer I'll get your boy."
+
+The man jumped up on the ledge of the pool and made his way to the piece
+of wood that held up the heavy wire screen which divided the turtle pool
+into two parts, keeping the one big turtle away from the others. All this
+while Freddie sat on the shell of the big turtle, his chubby legs dangling
+in the water, and his hands grasping the edges of the shell behind the
+front flippers. The turtle's neck was so short that it could not turn its
+head to bite Freddie, nor could the big flippers reach him. As they had no
+claws on the ends, they would have done no harm, anyhow, if they had
+brushed him.
+
+The greatest danger was that the turtle might suddenly sink down to the
+bottom of the pool, and, though it was not very deep, it was deep enough
+to have let Freddie drown.
+
+Even though the small boy could swim, the turtle might attack him, or
+knock his head under water, which would have been a great danger to
+Flossie's brother. But, so far, the turtle did not show any wish to sink
+below the water. It was frightened, that was certain, for it splashed
+about in the pool and swam as fast as it could, carrying Freddie with it.
+Freddie was such a small chap, and the turtle was so large, that it did
+not mind the weight on its back. But there was no telling when it would
+sink down.
+
+"Take me off! Take me off!" cried Freddie again.
+
+"That's all right," said the Aquarium man. "Don't be afraid, little boy.
+The turtle won't hurt you, and we'll soon have you off his back. He won't
+bite you, and you're having a fine ride!"
+
+Freddie, it seemed, had not thought of that before.
+
+"That's so!" he exclaimed, and his face did not show much fright now. "I
+am having a ride, ain't I?"
+
+Flossie heard this, and then, instead of being afraid her brother would be
+hurt, she cried out:
+
+"Oh, I want a turtle ride, too!"
+
+"No!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, who was not so worried, now that he saw the
+Aquarium man on his way to get Freddie. "One turtle ride is enough for the
+family. Hold fast, Freddie!" he called, as the turtle came around on the
+side of the pool near to where the Bobbseys stood.
+
+By this time the man was out on the middle of the wooden piece that held
+the heavy wire netting, and as the turtle swam near that the man leaned
+over and quickly lifted Freddie from the swimming creature's back.
+
+"There you are, my boy!" cried the man, as he held Freddie out to another
+attendant who had come to help. "Now you're all right except for wet feet,
+and we can dry them for you in the engine room."
+
+"We have to keep the boilers going in Winter to warm the water for the
+tropical fish," said the man to Mr. Bobbsey. "Take your little boy there
+and we'll dry his shoes and stockings."
+
+"Thank you," said Mr. Bobbsey. By this time Freddie was safely out of the
+turtle pool, and the big creature, relieved of that strange thing on his
+back, had sunk down to the bottom of the pool, as though to hide away. It
+was lucky he had kept himself afloat as long as he had, or Freddie might
+have been wet all over.
+
+"Well, you do seem to have the queerest things happen to you, Freddie,"
+said his father with a smile. "What will you do next?"
+
+"I--I couldn't help this, Daddy," said the little fellow. "I--I just
+slipped!"
+
+"Well, don't do it again," said the Aquarium man, with a smile. "If you
+had fallen in the other pool, where there are half a dozen turtles, though
+none as large as the one you rode on, you might have been bitten. But
+you're all right. Now come along and we'll dry you out."
+
+It was an easy matter to dry Freddie's feet and legs in front of the warm
+furnaces in the boiler room, but his shoes and stockings did not get rid
+of their wetness so soon. And, as Mr. Bobbsey did not want to wait, he
+sent one of the attendants out to buy new shoes and stockings for his son.
+With these on, and carrying the damp ones in a bundle, Freddie was soon
+ready to go home.
+
+"I guess I've had enough of the 'quarium," he said. "Anyhow I had a funny
+ride."
+
+"I should say you did!" agreed Bert. "I wish we had a picture of you
+riding around on the back of that turtle."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey was at first alarmed, and then she laughed, when told of what
+had happened. She made Freddie drink some hot milk, so he would not get
+cold, but he told her the water of the turtle pool was warm, as it always
+is in Winter, and he said: "I don't think I'll even have the snuffles,"
+which he did not, as the next day proved.
+
+For two or three days Mr. Bobbsey was busy attending to his business in
+New York, but he found time to take the children to see the many sights.
+
+"I want to go on a ferryboat and across the Brooklyn Bridge," said
+Flossie, one day.
+
+"Oh, I want to go on a ferryboat too. And I want to see what makes the
+ferryboat go!" cried Freddie eagerly.
+
+"All right; I'll take you out to-day," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "And I'll
+show you as much of the ferryboat as I can," he added.
+
+Then they went across the Brooklyn Bridge on a car, and later on they took
+quite a trip on the ferryboat to St. George, Staten Island, and back, and
+Freddy even got a glimpse into the engine-room of the boat and went home
+satisfied.
+
+"There is so much to see!" exclaimed Nan, after a day spent in the Bronx
+Park, where there are many animals. "_I_ don't believe we could see it
+_all_ in a year."
+
+"That's right," agreed Bert. "But we're going to see something good this
+afternoon."
+
+"What?" asked Flossie. "Are we going to another 'quarium?"
+
+"No, to a matinee in the theatre," said her larger brother. "It's an awful
+funny play--anyhow, the billboard pictures are."
+
+"Are we all going?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "We are all going."
+
+Much excited over the joys before them, for in Lakeport there was only one
+theatre, and plays did not show there often, the Bobbsey twins made ready
+to go to the matinee. Flossie and Nan wore new frocks, and Bert and
+Freddie had new suits, so they were quite dressed-up, they felt.
+
+The play was a very amusing one, and the children laughed so hard that
+Freddie at last rolled off his seat and had to be picked up by his father.
+
+But this only made all the more fun, and the people around the Bobbsey
+family joined in the laughter when an usher helped Mr. Bobbsey place
+Freddie in his proper place again.
+
+Then the curtain went down on the first act, and as the lights were turned
+up the children looked about them. Freddie found himself seated next to a
+boy about his own age, who, with an elderly lady, had come in after the
+performance began. This was why Freddie had not noticed his little
+neighbor before.
+
+"Isn't this a dandy show!" cried Freddie.
+
+"The best I ever saw," answered the boy. "What's your name?"
+
+"Freddie Bobbsey. What's yours?"
+
+"Laddie Dickerson. Where do you live?"
+
+"We live away up in Lakeport, but we're staying at the Parkview Hotel."
+
+"Why--why, that's where _we_ live, my mother and my uncle and my aunt. My
+father is dead. We live at the hotel, except in the Summer, when we go to
+the seashore. What floor are you on?"
+
+"The tenth. I know 'cause I holler it out when we come up in the
+elevator."
+
+"Why, _we_ live on the tenth floor, too," said Laddie Dickerson. "It's
+funny I never saw you."
+
+"And it's funny I never saw you," replied Freddie. "Say, come and play
+with me, will you?"
+
+"Sure I will! Well have lots of fun. I've got a train of cars."
+
+"I've got a fire engine!" said Freddie, his eyes big with delight. "Oh,
+what fun we'll have!"
+
+"Hush, Freddie dear," said his mother, for the little boy was talking
+rather loudly. "The curtain is going up again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE "RESCUE" OF FREDDIE
+
+
+During the rest of the play the attention of Freddie and Flossie, who sat
+near him, was divided between Laddie, the new boy, and the things
+happening on the stage. Both were so jolly--the funny things the actors
+did and the chance of having a new playmate--that the two smaller Bobbsey
+twins did not know which was best.
+
+"Don't you like this show?" asked Freddie of Laddie, when the curtain went
+down again.
+
+"Yes. It's great! But I'm glad you're comin' to play with me," Laddie
+answered.
+
+"So'm I," answered Freddie. "You're glad too, aren't you, Flossie?"
+
+"Of course I am," said the little girl.
+
+"Does _she_--_she_ play with you?" asked Laddie, nodding his head toward
+Freddie's little sister, as if in surprise.
+
+"Of course she does. We have lots of fun. Why?"
+
+"But she's a _girl!_"
+
+"Of _course_ she's a girl," agreed Freddie. "She couldn't be my sister if
+she wasn't a _girl_. I've got another sister, too, but she's bigger. She's
+sitting on the end of the row. She plays with Bert and Flossie plays with
+me. We're two sets of twins. Don't you like girls?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Laddie slowly. "I never played with 'em much.
+I--I like your sister, though. She can play with us. Do you ever play
+store?"
+
+"Lots of times," said Freddie. "We take some dirt for sugar, some little
+stones for eggs, some big stones for loaves of bread, clam shells and
+pieces of tin for dishes--we have lots of fun like that. But we haven't
+had any fun that way since we came to New York. I fell on a turtle's back
+in the 'quarium, though, and had a ride."
+
+"You did!" cried Laddie, so loudly that many persons in near-by seats
+turned to smile at him.
+
+"Sure I did," answered Freddie. "I'll tell you about it. I was scared at
+first, but----"
+
+"Laddie, dear, the curtain is going up and you had better keep quiet,"
+said the elderly lady who was with the new boy.
+
+"Is she your mother?" Freddie asked.
+
+"No, she's my aunt. My mother is out in California, but she's comin' home
+soon, and I'm glad of it, though my aunt is awful nice."
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, thinking it was Freddie talking, for now
+the last act had started. So the two little boys quieted down, each one
+resolved to start talking again as soon as he could.
+
+The last act of the show proved to be uproariously funny, and Freddie
+laughed and laughed until he was in danger of rolling on the floor again.
+But he was held fast in his seat, and so that danger was averted.
+
+"Say, Freddie, wouldn't you like to be an actor man?" questioned Flossie,
+during a brief interval in the play.
+
+"Sure, I'm going to be an actor man when I grow up," responded her brother
+quickly.
+
+"But you're going to be a fireman too, ain't you?" queried his sister.
+
+"Of course! I'm going to be an actor man and a fireman too," replied
+Freddie. "I can act in a theatre when there aren't any fires to be put
+out."
+
+"But what would you do if you were all dressed up as an actor man when you
+had to go out to ?" asked his sister.
+
+"Oh, I'd just tell the people that I couldn't act any more, and then I'd
+run right out and get my engine," answered Freddie simply.
+
+"I guess I'd like to be an actor man too," put in Laddie. "I heard a big
+boy tell once that they earn bushels and bushels of money."
+
+"Sure, they do," answered Freddie. "They make a thousand dollars a minute,
+I guess."
+
+The play ended in a jolly lot of fun and music, and everybody was laughing
+when the final curtain went down. Fathers and mothers, who had come to
+bring their children, talked with one another, though they were strangers,
+and it was because of this that Mrs. Bobbsey, when Freddie and Laddie
+started to talk together again about the turtle ride, nodded and smiled at
+the elderly lady with whom Laddie had come to the theatre.
+
+"My little boy seems to have taken quite a fancy to yours," said the
+twins' mother.
+
+"Oh, he isn't my boy, though I love him as though he were," said this
+lady. "Laddie is my sister-in-law's boy, but she is in California. My
+husband and I are taking care of Laddie."
+
+"And Freddie is coming to play store and steam cars and automobile and
+steam engine, with me, and--and----"
+
+Laddie paused, trying to think of something else.
+
+"Fireman," said Freddie. "We're going to play fireman."
+
+"Oh, yes," agreed Laddie. "I forgot about that. We're going to play
+fireman."
+
+"And I'm going to play with 'em," added Flossie.
+
+"Yes, she can come," said Laddie to his aunt. "I guess I'll like her,
+though I don't know much about playin' with girls," he added.
+
+"Well, you seem to have it all settled," laughed his aunt. The Bobbseys
+and their new friends were standing in the theatre aisle, waiting for the
+crowds ahead of them to pass out.
+
+"We're strangers in New York," added Mrs. Bobbsey. "We are staying at the
+Parkview Hotel----"
+
+"Why, that's where my husband and I have been living for a number of
+years," said Freddie's aunt. "My husband has a department store in Harlem,
+but he likes to live in this section. I like the hotel very much. Won't
+you let me call to see you?"
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey said she would be very glad to, and so the two ladies, having
+thus met, became friends, which Laddie and Freddie had done a little while
+before. Laddie's aunt, whose name was Mrs. Whipple, said she would be glad
+to have Freddie and Flossie, as well as Nan and Bert, come in to play with
+Laddie.
+
+"Though I am afraid your two larger twins are rather old for our small
+boy," said Mrs. Whipple, who had no children of her own.
+
+"Yes, Nan and Bert are getting a little older," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But
+Freddie and Flossie will be delighted to have a new play-fellow."
+
+So it was arranged that the next day the two small twins were to go to the
+Whipple apartment to play with Laddie, and Flossie and Freddie could
+hardly wait for that time to come.
+
+"Oh, I think New York is just the _nicest_ place!" said Flossie, as she
+talked with Freddie about whether or not she might bring one doll with her
+when she went to Laddie's hotel home.
+
+"It's dandy!" said Freddie. "Don't you wish you were coming with us,
+Bert?"
+
+"Pooh! Dad is going to take _me_ to see the airships go up down at
+Governor's Island. They go up even in Winter, for the airmen want to get
+used to the cold, I guess," Bert said.
+
+"Oh, I want to see the airships!" cried Freddie. "Can't Daddy take me,
+too?" he asked his mother.
+
+"Well, not this time, Freddie," said Mr. Bobbsey. "You and Flossie are
+going to have some fun with Laddie. I'll take you later."
+
+And with this the small twins had to be satisfied. So, while Nan and Bert
+were taken downtown, to get a glimpse of the airships flying over New York
+bay, which the bird-like craft did, in charge of army officers, who
+wished to learn to fly, even when there was snow on the ground, the small
+twins, taking some of their toys with them, went to the hotel rooms where
+Laddie Dickerson lived with his aunt.
+
+"Did you bring the bugs that go around and around and around?" asked
+Flossie, as their mother knocked at Mrs. Whipple's door.
+
+"Yep," answered Freddie, "And I brought my toy fire engine, too. I wonder
+if she'll let us squirt real water?" and he nodded toward the door that
+was not yet opened by Laddie's aunt.
+
+"You mustn't do that unless you are told you may," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "If
+you squirt water you may spoil the wall paper."
+
+"We'll be careful," promised Freddie, and then Mrs. Whipple's maid opened
+the door, and the twins went in to have a good time.
+
+Laddie was very glad to see them, and he was much amused at the
+"go-around" bugs. He had a number of toys of his own, and when the
+children were tired of playing with them, and with those the Bobbsey twins
+had brought, they began to have a make-believe store.
+
+"I've got some real store boxes and things," said Laddie, as he brought
+them out from his play-room.
+
+"Oh, they _are_ real!" cried Flossie, as she saw them. "Isn't they grand!
+Where'd you get 'em?"
+
+"My Uncle Dan gave them to me," said Laddie. "He keeps a real store, and
+he sells hats and dresses and lots of things."
+
+"What's the name of his store?" asked Freddie.
+
+"He's Daniel Whipple," answered Laddie. "He is my mother's brother--her
+name was Whipple, too, before she was married to my father. And my middle
+name is Whipple. I go to my Uncle Dan's store lots of times; it's an awful
+big one."
+
+"I know it is!" cried Freddie. "I've been in it!"
+
+"You have?" cried Laddie in surprise.
+
+"When?" asked Flossie. "When were we in Laddie's uncle's store?"
+
+"Don't you 'member?" went on Freddie. "It was the time the monkey chewed
+your hat, Flossie. We went into a store to buy a new one, and Daddy came
+there and found us and the man's name was Whipple."
+
+"That's right--it was," agreed Flossie. "Oh, isn't that _funny!_ And now
+we're playing with _you_, Laddie."
+
+"It is queer, I'm going to tell my aunt."
+
+And when Laddie did, Mrs. Whipple remembered having heard her husband tell
+about the two little lost children who came into his department store
+after a street-piano monkey had spoiled a little girl's hat.
+
+"And to think _you_ two are those same children!" cried Mrs. Whipple. "It
+is quite remarkable, and New York such a big place as it is. I must tell
+my husband. He's Laddie's uncle, you know."
+
+"I've got another uncle, too, but we don't know where he is," went on
+Laddie.
+
+"Is he lost at sea?" asked Freddie. "If he is, I know how to find him.
+Just ask Tommy Todd's father. He was shipwrecked, and me and Flossie found
+him in a snow storm."
+
+"You must tell me about that some time," said Mrs. Whipple. "But Laddie's
+other uncle isn't lost at sea, so far as we know. It's too sad a story to
+tell to children. But Mr. Whipple has a brother, who is also a brother to
+Laddie's mother, but this brother has long been lost."
+
+"How'd he get lost?" asked Freddie. "Did he go to the store and couldn't
+find his way back?"
+
+"No, my child. It was different from that. I'll tell you, perhaps, another
+time. Go on with your play now."
+
+So Laddie, Freddie and Flossie went back to their "store," and had lots of
+fun. Then they played other games, using Freddie's fire engine and
+Laddie's train of cars, and even Flossie's doll, who rode as a passenger.
+
+"Well, what'll we do next?" asked Freddie, when he and Laddie had taken
+turns squirting water from the fire engine in the bath room.
+
+"Let's play automobile," said Laddie. "I can get----"
+
+He stopped talking and seemed to be listening.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Flossie, as Laddie hurried to a window that
+looked down into a side street.
+
+"It's a fire!" cried Laddie. "I can hear the puffers! Come on! It's right
+down this side street!"
+
+Flossie and Freddie looked out of the window long enough to see a crowd of
+people in front of a store not far from the hotel, which was on a corner.
+And in the street, which was a side one, as Laddie had said, were a number
+of fire engines.
+
+"Let's go down!" cried Freddie, all excited at what he saw.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't!" gasped Flossie.
+
+"Course we can," declared Laddie. "My aunt always lets me look at a fire
+when it's near here, and this is awful close. Maybe this hotel will burn
+down."
+
+"Oh-o-o-o!" cried Flossie. "Where's my doll?" And she ran to get her pet.
+
+"Come on, we'll go!" said Freddie to Laddie. "Girls don't like fires, but
+we boys do."
+
+"Sure," said Laddie. "We'll go, all right. My aunt's looking out the front
+window, and we can go out the side door and down the elevator," he went
+on. "I know all the elevator men, 'cause I've lived in this hotel a whole
+year. My aunt won't care 'cause she won't see us, so she won't be
+worried. I don't like her to worry."
+
+"Me either," said Freddie. So the two little boys, making sure Mrs.
+Whipple was still looking from the front windows of her apartment, to see
+what all the excitement was about, stole out of a door into the side hall
+and so reached the elevators.
+
+"Down, George!" called Laddie to the colored elevator man.
+
+"Down it am, Master Laddie," was the good-natured answer. "Where is yo'all
+gwine?"
+
+"To see the fire," was the answer. "Don't he talk funny?" asked Laddie of
+Freddie, as they left the elevator at the ground floor.
+
+"He talks just like our colored cook, Dinah," said Freddie. "Did you ever
+see her?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"You ought to eat some of her pancakes," went on Freddie. "I'll write,
+when I have a chance, and ask her to send you some."
+
+"Oh, hear the engines whistlin'!" cried Laddie. "Hurry up, or maybe
+they'll be gone before we get there."
+
+The fire was not near enough to the hotel to cause any danger, though many
+of the hotel guests were excited, and so no attention was paid to the
+small boys, Freddie and Laddie, as they hurried out to see all that was
+going on. There was a crowd in the side street and more engines and hook
+and ladder trucks were dashing up to help put out the fire.
+
+From the blazing store great clouds of black smoke were pouring out, and
+firemen were rushing here and there. Laddie looked for a while at the
+exciting scene and then he called to Freddie:
+
+"I'm going back and get my aunt. She likes to look at fires."
+
+"All right; I'll wait for you here," Freddie said. They had been standing
+not far away from the side entrance to the hotel, and as Laddie turned to
+go back after his aunt, Freddie walked down the street a little way,
+nearer the fire.
+
+"I can see Laddie and his aunt when they come," thought the small boy.
+
+But just then a bigger crowd, anxious to watch the fire, came around the
+corner, and, rushing down the narrow side street, fairly pushed Freddie
+ahead of them.
+
+"Here! Wait a minute! I don't want to go so fast!" cried the little
+fellow. "I want to wait for Laddie!"
+
+No one paid any attention to him, and he was swept along, half carried off
+his feet by the rush, until at last he found himself standing alone,
+almost in front of the burning store.
+
+"Oh, I can see fine here!" thought Freddie. "I wish Laddie and his aunt
+would hurry and come here. Wow! This is great!"
+
+Freddie was so excited watching the puffing engines, seeing the big black
+clouds of smoke, and the leaping, darting tongues of lire from the windows
+of the burning building, also watching the firemen squirt big streams of
+Water on the blaze, that he did not think of himself, and the first he
+realized was when some one shouted at him:
+
+"Stand back there, youngster!"
+
+Freddie did not know he was the "youngster" meant, and stood where he was.
+
+"Get back there!" cried the voice again. "You may be hurt!"
+
+But Freddie was busy watching the fire. He wished he had brought his own
+little engine with him.
+
+"I could squirt water on some of the little sparks, anyhow," he said to
+himself. "I guess I'll go back and get it, and find Laddie and his aunt."
+
+Freddie was about to turn when suddenly he saw a fireman in a white rubber
+coat, which showed he was one of the chiefs, or head men, rushing toward
+him.
+
+"Get back! Get back!" cried this fireman. "Don't you know you're inside
+the fire lines!"
+
+Then for the first time Freddie noticed that back of him was stretched a
+rope, behind which stood the crowd of men and boys. Freddie was so small
+that he had slipped under the rope, not knowing it. He had either slipped
+under himself or been pushed by the throng.
+
+"Get back! Get back!" cried the fireman.
+
+The next instant there was a loud noise, as if a gun had been fired, and
+Freddie felt himself being lifted up and carried along quickly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE STORE CAMP
+
+
+The noise like a gun which Freddie heard was made when something exploded,
+or blew up, in the burning store, and at first Freddie thought he had been
+blown up with it and was flying through the air.
+
+Then, as he opened his eyes (for he had closed them when the strange thing
+began to happen) he saw that he was in the arms of the fireman with the
+white rubber coat, and the fireman was smiling down at him.
+
+"Am I--am I hurted?" Freddie asked.
+
+"Bless your little heart! Of course not!" was the answer. "But you might
+have been if you had stayed where you were--not so much hurt by the fire,
+for that's almost out--as by the crowd. How did you get past the fire
+lines?"
+
+"I--I didn't see 'em," said Freddie. "Back in Lakeport, where I live, we
+don't have fire lines, though I've got a fish line."
+
+"Humph! You're from the country, all right. Where do you live, and how
+comes it your father let you out in the streets during a fire?"
+
+"I live in the Parkview Hotel and my father didn't let me out. He's gone
+to see the airships with Nan and Bert, and Laddie and I came out to see
+the fire ourselves. Flossie stayed with her doll. Laddie went back to get
+his aunt, 'cause she likes fires--I mean to see 'em--and I waited for him,
+and--and----"
+
+"Yes, I guess you don't know _what_ happened next," laughed the fireman.
+"But as I want to telephone to headquarters about one of the engines that
+is broken, I'll use the hotel 'phone, and, at the same time, take you back
+where you belong. You're too little to get inside the ropes at a New York
+fire."
+
+"I'm going to be a fireman when I grow up," said Freddie, as the assistant
+chief carried him into the corridor of the hotel.
+
+"Well, that won't be for some time yet, and while you're waiting to grow
+up don't go too near fires--they're dangerous. There you are, and I think
+some one is looking for you," the fireman went on, as he saw a lady
+rushing toward him when he set Freddie down.
+
+"That's my mother," said Freddie.
+
+
+"Oh, Freddie! Where have you been?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, for when she heard
+of a fire she went in search of the two small twins, and could not find
+them in Mrs. Whipple's rooms.
+
+"I've been to the fire, and I was rescued," answered Freddie. "He did it,"
+and he pointed to the white-coated fireman.
+
+"Oh, he really wasn't in any real danger," the assistant chief said,
+taking off his heavy helmet and bowing to Mrs. Bobbsey. "He was inside the
+fire lines and I carried him here."
+
+"Oh, I can't thank you enough!" cried Freddie's mother. "I never knew him
+to do such a thing as that before. But he is simply wild about fires!"
+
+"Yes, most boys are."
+
+Then the fireman telephoned about the broken engine. Freddie told his
+mother how he and Laddie came to go down to watch the "puffers" (part of
+which story Flossie had already told Mrs. Bobbsey), and then along came
+Laddie and his aunt. Mrs. Whipple was almost as much worried as was Mrs.
+Bobbsey.
+
+But everything came out all right; no one was hurt, and the fire, though
+it badly burned the store in which it started, did not get near the hotel
+or any other buildings.
+
+But Freddie could not forget about his "rescue," as he called it, and when
+his father, with Nan and Bert, came home that evening the story had all to
+be told over again.
+
+"But you and Laddie did wrong to go down to the fire without telling
+Laddie's aunt," said Mr. Bobbsey to his small son. "You must never do it
+again!"
+
+"I never will," promised Freddie. "But I was rescued all right, wasn't I?"
+
+"I guess so," and Mr. Bobbsey had to turn his head away so Freddie would
+not see his smile.
+
+Laddie, Flossie and Freddie soon became fast friends, and when the smaller
+Bobbsey twins were not being taken about New York, to see what to them
+were very wonderful sights, they were either playing in the rooms of Mrs.
+Whipple or in their own at the hotel.
+
+Bert and Nan were a little too old for this kind of fun, but they met, in
+the same hotel, a brother and sister of about their own age--Frank and
+Helen Porter--with whom they had good times.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey had to spend many days looking after the business that had
+brought him to New York, but Mrs. Bobbsey was free to go about with the
+children. She took Nan and Bert shopping with her sometimes, leaving
+Flossie and Freddie with Mrs. Whipple. This suited the small twins, for
+Laddie and they were great friends and played well together.
+
+Other times Bert and Nan would go to the park, or somewhere with the
+Porter brother and sister, and Mrs. Bobbsey would take Flossie and Freddie
+to a matinee or the moving pictures.
+
+"Oh, I think New York is just the nicest place in the world," said Nan one
+afternoon, after a trip she and Bert had had on top of a Fifth avenue
+automobile stage, Frank and Helen Porter having gone with them.
+
+"Yes, it is nice," agreed Bert "But it's nice in Lakeport, too. You can't
+have fun riding down hill here, and the skating isn't as good as on our
+Lake Metoka. And I haven't seen an ice-boat since we came here, except in
+moving pictures. I wonder how Tommy Todd is making out with mine."
+
+"Hasn't he written to you?" asked Nan.
+
+"No; but he promised he would. Guess I'll write him a postal now and ask
+him how the _Bird_ is sailing."
+
+"And I'll write to some of the girls in Lakeport," said Nan.
+
+I had forgotten to tell you that some time before this, Mr. Whipple, the
+man who owned the store where Flossie's hat was bought the day the monkey
+chewed up hers, had met the two smaller twins in his wife's rooms one day,
+when Flossie and Freddie had come to play with Laddie.
+
+"Why, those are the two little children who were on the elevated express,"
+said the store owner, in surprise.
+
+"That's so, you do know them, don't you?" returned Mrs. Whipple.
+
+"I should say I did!" cried her husband, and he told all that had
+happened, while Mrs. Whipple related how Laddie, Flossie and Freddie had
+come to know one another in the theatre.
+
+Mr. Whipple, at another time, once more met Mr. Bobbsey, whom he had seen
+that day in the store, and the two families became very good friends,
+though Mr. Whipple was so busy he did not have much time for calling.
+
+One evening, however, Mr. Whipple came home from the store rather earlier
+than usual, and, finding Flossie and Freddie in his apartments playing
+with Laddie, the store-owner asked:
+
+"How would you youngsters like to come and see a woodland camp--a camp
+with tents, a real fire, where a man is cooking his dinner and all that?
+How would you like it?"
+
+"Oh, please take us!" begged Laddie.
+
+"Where is it?" Freddie asked, ready to go at once.
+
+"In my store," said Mr. Whipple.
+
+"A store is a funny place for a camp in the woods," said Freddie. He and
+Flossie had often pretended to camp out in a tent made from a blanket or
+quilt, and they knew what it meant.
+
+"Well, you just come and see it," laughed Mr. Whipple. "If your folks say
+it's all right, I'll take you all to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, we'll come!" cried Freddie. "I love a camp!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SAD NEWS
+
+
+Bert and Nan Bobbsey were so interested when they heard that Freddie and
+Flossie were going to see some sort of a camping scene at Mr. Whipple's
+store that they, too, begged to be allowed to join the party.
+
+"Come right along!" exclaimed the merchant. "The more the merrier. I hope
+you'll like it."
+
+"Is it a real camp, with trees and all?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Well, there are some real bushes, and make-believe trees," said Mr.
+Whipple. "I couldn't grow real big woodland trees in my store, you know.
+But the tent is real, so is the fire, and the men who are camping out eat
+real food."
+
+"I'd like that part," said Flossie.
+
+"Well, come along, then," invited Mr. Whipple.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey, as well as Mrs. Whipple, were to go with the five children,
+and they made up a merry party as they set out for the uptown department
+store.
+
+"Oh, we're going in an automobile!" cried Freddie, as they came out of the
+Parkview Hotel and saw a big car standing at the curb. The chauffeur got
+down off his seat and opened the door as he saw Mr. and Mrs. Whipple.
+
+"Yes, this is our machine," said the merchant. "I don't care much for
+riding around New York, though in the Summer I take long trips in the car.
+But as we have so many children with us to-day," and he looked at Nan,
+Bert, Flossie, Freddie and Laddie, "it will be better to go in the
+machine."
+
+On the way up, through the streets of the great city, the Bobbsey twins,
+as did Laddie, looked out of the windows at the many sights. Once Freddie
+saw a fire engine speeding on its way to some blaze.
+
+"Oh, let's get out and watch!" he begged.
+
+"Of course we can't do that!" said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"But maybe the fireman who rescued me will be there," went on Freddie.
+"I'd like to see him again."
+
+"I'll take you around to his fire house some time," promised Mr. Whipple.
+"Won't that do as well?"
+
+Freddie thought it would, and then he noticed a street piano, on top of
+which perched a monkey.
+
+"Maybe that's the one who tore your hat, Flossie," he said.
+
+"No, this is a bigger one," returned the little girl. "Besides, if he is
+the same one I don't want to see him. I feel sorry about the nice cherries
+on my hat."
+
+"Don't you like the one you and your brother bought in my store?" asked
+Mr. Whipple, with a laugh.
+
+"Oh, yes, it's awful nice," said Flossie. "But it hasn't any _cherries_ on
+it. But I like it just as well," she went on quickly, thinking, I suppose,
+that it might not be polite to say she did not.
+
+"And now for the woodland camp!" cried Mr. Whipple, as they got out of his
+automobile in front of his store. "You see," he explained to Mrs.
+Bobbsey, "I sell a good many things that campers use--tents, pots, pans,
+fishing rods and lines, lanterns, axes, cook stoves, boats, canoes, guns
+and so on. Every year I set up, on the top floor of the store, a sort of
+woodland scene--a camp. I get real bushes from the woods and some logs.
+Then my men fix up a place to make it look as nearly like the real woods
+as we can. We have real moss and dirt on the ground, and a little spring
+of water. There is a real tent--two of them, in fact--and in one there are
+cots for sleeping, while in the other the meals are cooked.
+
+"I hire some real campers to stay in my store camp, and they live almost
+as they would if they were actually camping out. This is to show the
+people how to use the camping things I sell. It is a new kind of
+advertisement, you see."
+
+"And a very good one, I should think," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"It sounds great!" cried Bert. "I wish we could go camping! Do you think
+we ever could, Mother?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered Mrs. Bobbsey slowly. "I did hear your
+father say something about going to camp this Summer, but warm weather is
+a long way from us yet. We'll see."
+
+"Oh, I believe we can go camping!" cried Nan to Bert in an excited
+whisper, as they entered the store elevator. "Won't it be wonderful?"
+
+"Great!" said Bert "I wouldn't want anything better than to camp on an
+island in some lake."
+
+By this time they were up on the top floor of the big department store
+owned by Mr. Whipple, and at one end the twins and Laddie could see a
+number of persons.
+
+"That's the camp," said Mr. Whipple. "I don't believe you've seen it this
+year, have you, Laddie?"
+
+"No, Uncle Dan. Is it different from last year?" for the store-owner had
+the camp set up each Winter.
+
+"Yes, it's a little different. There is a new kind of tent, and the men
+are different."
+
+Mr. Whipple found a good place for the children to look in on the store
+camp. As he had said, there were the two tents, and, on some earth and
+moss between them, a real camp fire was burning, while a man, dressed just
+as you have seen campers in pictures, was cooking something in a pot over
+the blaze.
+
+In one tent a table was set for a meal, and while the Bobbsey twins and
+the others looked on, the two men and a boy, who made up the store camping
+party, put their food on the table and began to eat.
+
+They acted as though they were in a real camp, and as though they were not
+being watched by hundreds of eyes. They talked among themselves, washed
+their dishes after the dinner and then shot at a target with a small
+rifle, which sent out real bullets.
+
+The boys--Bert, Freddie and Laddie--liked this part very much.
+
+"It certainly looks like the real thing," was Bert's remark. "And the best
+part of it is, everything is so new and clean."
+
+"It makes me feel hungry to look at 'em eat," was Laddie's comment.
+
+"Oh, look at them shoot at that target!" cried Freddie excitedly. "I'd
+like to do that."
+
+"You'd have to be careful, so that you didn't shoot yourself," replied his
+brother.
+
+All about the tents in the store camp were things Mr. Whipple sold for
+those who wanted to take them to a real camp.
+
+"There are some things here I'd like when I go camping," said Bert. "I'm
+going to ask my father to get them," he told Mr. Whipple.
+
+"That will be nice. I asked your father to meet us here and have lunch,"
+said the store owner, for there was a restaurant in his building. "I
+thought perhaps he'd like to see the camp himself."
+
+"I'm sure he would," said Bert. "I hope he comes."
+
+Then the Bobbseys and others looked at the camp some more, Bert being very
+much interested in a small canoe, which, he said, would be just right for
+him and Tommy Todd to paddle.
+
+"Wouldn't you let me paddle with you?" asked Nan. "I know how--a little."
+
+"Sure I'll let you," agreed her brother. "Oh, I do hope Dad will let us go
+camping!"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came in a little later, and he liked the store camp very much.
+He said he and his wife had talked of going to a camp in the Summer, and
+taking the children with them, but it was not all settled as yet.
+
+"There's no better fun than camping out," said Mr. Whipple. "I used to do
+it when I was a boy, and I made up my mind that if ever I kept a store,
+which I always wanted to do, I'd sell camping things in it. And that's
+just what I'm doing," he added with a laugh.
+
+"Doesn't this place make you think of our woods at home?" asked Nan of
+Bert.
+
+"Yes, it does look like the woods around Lake Metoka," was his answer.
+
+"And it's just like the place where Uncle Jack has his camp!" cried
+Freddie.
+
+"Have the children an uncle who is a camper?" asked Mr. Whipple.
+
+"No," answered Mr. Bobbsey, "but there is an old woodchopper, who lives in
+a log cabin near our town of Lakeport. He makes a living by chopping
+firewood. He lives all alone, and really sort of camps out. Every one
+calls him Uncle Jack. He was very good to Flossie and Freddie one day when
+they fell out of Bert's ice-boat.
+
+"Poor Uncle Jack!" went on Mr. Bobbsey, with a sigh. "I am sorry to say I
+have bad news about him," he went on to his wife, but the children heard,
+though he spoke in a low voice.
+
+"Uncle Jack!" cried Nan. "I hope he isn't dead!"
+
+"No," answered her father, "but he is very ill, and he must go to a
+hospital, I am told. It's too bad about him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE BIG ELEPHANT
+
+
+"What's the matter with Uncle Jack?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, "and how did you
+hear about him, Richard?" she asked her husband.
+
+"I had a letter from my bookkeeper," was the answer. "Before we came away
+I left word that the poor old man must be looked after, and I arranged to
+have news of him sent on to me. To-day I got a letter which says he is
+much worse than he has been, and really needs to go to a hospital. I think
+I shall have to raise the money to send him."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Mr. Whipple. "I am interested. Who is this Uncle Jack?"
+
+"He's just the nicest man!" cried Flossie. "He took us in when Freddie
+upset the ice-boat, and----"
+
+"I didn't upset the ice-boat--it upset _itself!_" Freddie cried.
+
+"Easy now, children! Don't dispute," said Mrs. Bobbsey gently.
+
+"Uncle Jack is quite a character around Lakeport," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "I
+don't know all his story, but he has lived in the woods for a number of
+years. Where he was before that I don't know."
+
+"He don't know hardly anything about his folks, Daddy!" piped up Freddie.
+
+"How do you know?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"He told us so," put in Flossie. "It was that day he took us in his house,
+after we got spilled from the ice-boat."
+
+"Well, perhaps that is right," said Mr. Bobbsey, when the two small twins
+had told what Uncle Jack had related to them. "They really know more about
+him than I do. All I know is that he is a good, faithful old man. He sells
+us wood and many of my friends buy of him. We help him all we can.
+
+"I suppose he must have had _some_ folks once upon a time, but, as he
+says, he has lost track of them. The bad news I have about him is that he
+needs to go to the hospital. I think he will not get well if he does not
+have a good doctor. He was so good to my children that I want to help
+him, and I am going to tell my bookkeeper to arrange for sending Uncle
+Jack where he can be taken care of. I'll pay the bill. He wouldn't take
+the money from me, but he won't know about this."
+
+"Just a minute," said Mr. Whipple, as he led the way down to the
+restaurant in his store. "You say this old man lives in the woods?"
+
+"Yes, he is a regular woodsman. He was a hunter and trapper once, I
+believe, though he has spent most of his life working for farmers. He
+loves now to live by himself in a sort of camp."
+
+"I love camping myself," said Mr. Whipple, "and that is why I am so
+interested in selling things for campers. I love anybody who loves the
+woods, and, while I do not know this Uncle Jack, I'd like to help look
+after him."
+
+"I shall be very glad to have you join me," said Mr. Bobbsey; and the
+twins, listening to this talk, though they did not understand all of it,
+knew that their old woodsman friend was going to be cured if it were found
+to be possible.
+
+"We'll join each other in looking after him," went on Mr. Whipple. "You
+must let me pay half." And to this the children's father agreed. He said
+he would write back at once to his office, and tell some one there to look
+after the old woodchopper.
+
+"Is there any other news from Lakeport?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked her husband at
+the restaurant dinner table, while the children were busy talking among
+themselves.
+
+"No, not much. Everything is all right, I believe. I have some news for
+you, though, Bert," he went on, as his older son glanced across the table.
+
+"What is it?" Bert questioned. "Did Tommy Todd go through the ice in the
+_Bird?_"
+
+"No, but it has to do with the ice-boat. He went in a race in her on Lake
+Metoka, and, what is better, he won."
+
+"Hurray for Tommy Todd!" cried Bert, so loudly that persons at other
+tables in the store dining room looked over and smiled, at which Bert's
+ears became very red.
+
+"Did you hear anything of my friends?" asked Nan.
+
+"No, my dear," answered her father. "And the reason I happened to have
+news for Bert was because Tommy's father wrote to me about some business
+matters, and Tommy slipped in a little note himself. Here it is, Bert."
+
+It was just a little letter telling about the ice-boat, and Tommy
+expressed the wish that Bert would soon come home to help sail it in other
+races.
+
+"I'd like to be back in Lakeport," said Bert, "but we're having such a
+good time here in New York I don't want to leave. Guess I'll write and
+tell Tommy so."
+
+After dinner Mr. Whipple showed the Bobbseys and Laddie about the big
+store, and each of the children was allowed to pick out a simple gift to
+take away. Nan took a pretty ribbon; Bert a book he had long wanted;
+Flossie a piece of silk to make a dress for her doll, and Freddie saw in
+the toy department a little hose cart which, he said, was just what he
+wanted to go with his engine. Mr. Whipple gave it to Freddie, who was very
+much pleased. For his present from his uncle, Laddie picked out a little
+gun, which shot a cork.
+
+"I can't break any of the hotel  windows with this," he said to his aunt.
+
+"Did you ever break any windows?" asked Flossie, rather surprised.
+
+"Once. I had a little wooden cannon that shot wooden balls. I shot one
+right through the window of our parlor, and the next ball hit George, the
+elevator boy, who was coming in with a telegram."
+
+"And after that I had to take the cannon away from him," said Mrs.
+Whipple, with a smile. "But I think the cork pop-gun will be all right."
+
+Never had the Bobbsey twins had as much fun as they did the day of their
+visit to Mr. Whipple's store. They were sorry when the late afternoon gave
+the signal for starting back home.
+
+"But we'll have fun to-morrow," said Bert to Nan, as they reached their
+hotel.
+
+"How do you know?" she asked.
+
+"'Cause I heard Daddy tell Mother he was going to take us to Bronx Park to
+see the animals."
+
+"Oh, will we see the monkeys?" cried Flossie, who heard what her older
+brother had said.
+
+"Well, there are plenty of them there, so I've read," went on Bert, "Big
+ones, too."
+
+"I like little monkeys best, even if one did pull my hat to pieces," went
+on Flossie. "Oh, I wish to-morrow would hurry up and come."
+
+To-morrow finally did come, after the Bobbsey twins had gone to bed,
+though when it came it was to-day instead of to-morrow. But that's the way
+it always happens, doesn't it?
+
+"All aboard for the Bronx!" cried Bert as, with his sisters and brother he
+followed Mr. Bobbsey into the subway train that would take them to the big
+animal park.
+
+If ever you are in New York, I hope you will go to see this place. There
+are many strange animals in it, and it has beautiful birds and gardens
+also. Of course, when the Bobbsey twins went it was in Winter, and most of
+the animals had to be kept shut up in their cages in the warm houses.
+Some, however, like the deer, buffalo and other cattle, could stay out of
+doors even in cold weather.
+
+There were so many things to see, even though it was Winter, when the park
+is not at its prettiest, that the Bobbsey twins hardly knew where to look
+first. Flossie and Freddie were anxious to get to the house where the
+monkeys were.
+
+Some of the larger ones were uglier than they were funny, and in front of
+the cages were many persons who never seemed to tire of looking at the
+queer tricks the "four-handed" animals played on each other. You might say
+a monkey had five hands, for those that have tails certainly use them as
+much as they do their paws.
+
+"Oh, look at that one big monkey, chewing a straw just like some of the
+men in front of the hotel at home chew toothpicks," said Nan, pointing to
+a chimpanzee crouched in a corner of his cage. He did, indeed, look like a
+little old man thoughtfully chewing on a toothpick. And he was so natural,
+and so much in earnest about it, that the Bobbsey twins, all four of them,
+burst out laughing.
+
+This seemed to surprise the chimpanzee. He darted toward the front bars of
+his cage, shook them, as if in anger, and then ran into a corner, turning
+his back on the people.
+
+"Just like a spoiled child," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Well, where shall we go next?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, for whenever he and his
+wife took the children on a little pleasure trip, the parents allowed the
+twins to choose their own places to go, and what to see, as long as it was
+all right.
+
+"Let's go to see the elephants," cried Freddie. "I haven't seen any since
+we went to the circus."
+
+"I want to see 'em too, and feed 'em peanuts!" added Flossie.
+
+"No one is allowed to feed the animals in the park," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It
+isn't good for them to be eating all the while, and I suppose an elephant
+would keep on eating peanuts as long as you'd feed them to him. So we
+can't offer the big animals anything. They get all that is really good for
+them."
+
+As it was cold, the elephants were all inside the big elephant house, with
+its several cages, in the front of which were heavy iron bars, set wide
+apart.
+
+"They are close enough together to keep the elephants in," said Mr.
+Bobbsey, when his wife pointed out these bars, "though I suppose some
+animals might get out between them."
+
+"Whew! they _are_ big!" cried Freddie, when he stood close in front of one
+of the cages, or dens, and saw the elephant swaying to and fro back of the
+iron bars. "I wouldn't like one like him to step on me."
+
+"I should say not!" laughed Bert. "Even a baby elephant would be too
+heavy. Look at this one stretch out his trunk to us. He wants something to
+eat, I guess!"
+
+The big elephant, in front of whose barred cage the Bobbsey twins stood,
+did seem to be begging for something to eat.
+
+Flossie had carried from the hotel a rosy-cheeked apple, which the waiter
+had given her at breakfast. Not wanting to eat it, she carried it with her
+to the park, and had it in her hand.
+
+Now, for some reason or other, probably without thinking, she held it out
+to the elephant. The big animal saw what she was doing and turned toward
+Flossie.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't feed the elephant!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's against the
+rules."
+
+"I'm not feeding him, Mother," Flossie answered. "I'm just lettin' him
+_smell_ it. It smells awful good!"
+
+And just then the apple slipped from Flossie's hand and rolled or bounced
+straight into the elephant's cage, between the iron bars.
+
+"Oh, my nice apple!" cried the little girl, and before any one could stop
+her she had crawled under the front rail, and had run in between the bars.
+Right into the cage of the big elephant ran Flossie after her apple.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CALLED HOME
+
+
+For a moment Mr. Bobbsey, as well as his wife, was so surprised at what
+Flossie had done that neither could say or do anything. They just stood
+and looked at the little girl who was walking toward the apple, which lay
+in the straw just in front of the big elephant. Nan and Bert, however,
+together gave a cry of fear and Bert made a jump as though he intended to
+go into the elephant's cage, also.
+
+His father, however, stepped in front of him, and said quietly:
+
+"One child in there is enough at a time. I'll get Flossie!"
+
+And Flossie, not at all thinking of danger, if danger there was, kept
+going on to get her apple.
+
+The elephant, as it happened, was chained by one leg to a heavy iron ring
+in the side of his cage, and he could move only a short distance. But he
+was so anxious to get the apple that he stretched his legs as far as he
+could, pulling hard on the chain, and then he stretched out his trunk.
+
+And truly it seemed made of rubber, that elephant's trunk did, from the
+way he stuck it out. But, stretch as he did, the elephant could not quite
+reach the apple, which he wanted very much.
+
+"No, you mustn't take it!" Flossie was saying. "You can't have my apple! I
+was only going to let you smell it, Mr. Elephant. It isn't good for you to
+eat it, my mother says. I'll take it back and maybe some day I'll bring
+you another."
+
+By this time Flossie was almost within reach of her red-cheeked apple,
+but, what was worse, she was also almost within reach of that trunk,
+which, however soft and gentle it might seem when picking up a peanut, was
+very strong, and could squeeze a big man or a little girl very hard
+indeed--that is, if the elephant was a bad one and wanted to do such a
+thing.
+
+"Oh, Flossie! Come back! Come back!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, who had been so
+frightened at first that she could not say a word.
+
+"I want to get my apple," answered the little girl. "The elephant can't
+have it! I only wanted to let him smell how good it would taste if he
+could eat it."
+
+She was stooping over now, to pick up the fruit, and the tip of the long
+trunk was brushing the fluffy hair on Flossie's head. Nan covered her face
+with her hands, and Bert looked eagerly about, as though for something to
+throw at the big animal.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey was climbing over the rail that was in front of the elephant's
+cage, and the people around were calling and shouting.
+
+The elephant really did have the end of one of Flossie's curls on the tip
+of his trunk, when along came one of the keepers, or animal trainers.
+Somebody had sent him word, that a little girl was in one of the animal
+cages. The keeper knew right away what to do.
+
+"Back, Ganges!" he cried to the big elephant. "Get back there! Back!
+Back!"
+
+The elephant raised his trunk high in the air, and made a funny trumpeting
+noise through it, as though half a dozen big men had all blown their
+noses at once. Then, as the keeper himself went in between the bars, the
+elephant slowly backed to the far end, his chain clanking as he did so.
+
+"There! I got my apple!" cried Flossie, as she picked it up from where it
+had rolled in the straw. And then, before she knew what was happening, the
+keeper picked her up and carried her to the outside rail, where he placed
+her in Mr. Bobbsey's arms.
+
+"Oh, Flossie! Flossie!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, with tears in her eyes. "Why
+did you do it?"
+
+"Why, I had to get my apple," answered the little girl. "Did you think the
+elephant would bite me?"
+
+"He might," said Mr. Bobbsey, who was a little pale. "You must never do
+such a thing again, Flossie, no matter how many apples roll into
+elephants' cages."
+
+"Oh, Ganges wouldn't have hurt her," said the keeper. "At least I don't
+believe he would, though he might have pinched her with his trunk if he
+had gotten the apple and she had tried to take it away from him. He's a
+very gentle elephant, and in the Summer many children ride on his back
+about the park."
+
+"Oh, could I have a ride on his back?" asked Freddie, who had been
+anxiously watching to see what happened to Flossie.
+
+"Not now, little man," answered the keeper. "It is too cold for the
+elephants to go out of doors now. If you're here in the Summer you and
+your sister may have lots of rides."
+
+"Then I'm coming in the Summer!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Oh, I don't believe I'd ever let you go near an elephant!" said Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "I was so frightened when I saw Flossie."
+
+"There really wasn't any danger!" said the keeper again. "Here, I'll show
+you how gentle Ganges is."
+
+The man went in the cage and the elephant, whose name was Ganges, seemed
+very glad to see his keeper. When the man called out an order the elephant
+lowered his trunk, made a sort of loop at one end, and when the keeper
+stepped in this the elephant raised him high in the air.
+
+"I have taught him two or three tricks," said the man, coming back to the
+railing, outside of which stood the Bobbsey twins, their father and mother
+and a crowd of others who had heard what had happened. "He is a good
+elephant."
+
+"Couldn't he have my apple?" asked Flossie. "I'm not so very hungry for
+it, and if I want one Daddy will get me another. Won't you, Daddy?" she
+asked, kissing her father, who was still holding her.
+
+"I will if you promise never to go inside an elephant's cage again," he
+answered.
+
+"Oh, I never will," said Flossie. "Here, you give him the apple," she
+said, holding it out to the keeper. "I guess he wants it."
+
+"Oh, he _wants_ it, all right!" laughed the man. "And, though it is not
+exactly according to the rules, I guess it will be all right this time.
+Here you are, Ganges!" he called. "Catch!"
+
+The big elephant raised his trunk, making a sort of curling twist in it,
+and when the keeper threw the apple Ganges caught it as well as a baseball
+player could have done.
+
+The next moment Flossie's apple was thrust into the elephant's mouth, and,
+as he chewed it, his little eyes seemed to twinkle in delight.
+
+"He likes an apple just as much as I do," said Freddie. "Elephants is
+queer!"
+
+"Don't try to go in there to feed this one peanuts!" said Bert, fearing
+that the little twin boy might try to do as his sister had done. Generally
+Flossie and Freddie wanted to do the same things.
+
+"No, I won't go in," Freddie said.
+
+Having swallowed the apple, the elephant held out his trunk toward the
+Bobbseys again. He was asking for "more," as plainly as though he had
+spoken.
+
+"No more!" called the keeper, and this the elephant seemed to understand,
+for he lowered his trunk, and backed into his corner, throwing hay dust
+over his back as he did in the Summer to keep the flies from tickling him.
+
+"Well, I guess we've seen enough of elephants for one day," said Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "I thought I should faint when I saw Flossie go into that cage. I
+wish I could get a cup of tea."
+
+"We'll go and have lunch," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It's about noon, I think."
+
+They went to a restaurant near a great round stone, which was perched on
+the top of a big ledge of rock, and when Freddie wanted to know what it
+was his father told him.
+
+"That's a rocking stone," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It stands there on a sort of
+little knob, and it is so nicely balanced that a man, or two or three
+boys, can easily push it and rock it to and fro."
+
+"Do you mean one man can move that big rock?" asked Bert.
+
+"Yes, he can make it rock, but he can not make it move off the rock on
+which it rests. Come and try."
+
+Bert and his father pushed their backs against the stone, and, surely
+enough, they could make it rock an inch or two back and forth. Freddie
+helped, or at least he thought he did, which is the same thing. But the
+stone really did rock, and the children thought it was quite a wonderful
+thing. Sometimes your heavy piano, if it stands on an uneven place in the
+floor, may be rocked back and forth a little. That's the way it was with
+the rocking stone. The restaurant where the Bobbseys ate was named
+"Rocking Stone," because it was within sight of the queer rock.
+
+I have not time to tell you all that the Bobbsey twins saw and did in
+Bronx Park that day. But they had a fine time, and Flossie and Freddie, at
+least, wanted to come back the next day.
+
+"There're lots of things that we didn't see," remarked Flossie.
+
+"Yes. And I want to rock that big stone again," added Freddie. "Why, it
+rocked back and forth just as easy as a cradle!"
+
+"Oh, Freddie Bobbsey! The idea! To make out that big rock was like a
+cradle!" cried Flossie.
+
+"I didn't say _it_ was like a cradle. I said it _wobbled_ just like a
+cradle," replied Freddie. "Daddy, can we go back again to-morrow?"
+
+"I planned to take you to the Natural History Museum to-morrow," said Mr.
+Bobbsey. "There you can see all sorts of stuffed animals--walruses almost
+as big as a small house, a model of a whale and many other queer things."
+
+"Oh, do let's go!" begged Bert.
+
+"We will," promised Mr. Bobbsey, but when the next day came the plan of
+the Bobbseys had to be changed.
+
+In Mr. Bobbsey's mail that morning was a letter from his bookkeeper at the
+lumberyard, which, when Mr. Bobbsey had read it, made him thoughtful.
+
+"I hope there isn't bad news," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"No, not exactly _bad_ news," was her husband's answer. "But I think I
+shall have to go back home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A QUEER RIDE
+
+
+Nan and Bert, who were in the room with their mother and father when the
+letter was read, looked quickly at Mr. Bobbsey. Flossie and Freddie had
+gone to the next apartment to play with Laddie.
+
+"Does that mean we've got to go back?" asked Bert.
+
+"We haven't seen half enough of New York," added Nan.
+
+"Oh, no, you won't have to come back with me," said Mr. Bobbsey. "You'll
+stay here at the hotel, and I'll return in a few days."
+
+"What's it all about?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Uncle Jack," answered her husband.
+
+"You mean the woodchopper who was so kind to Flossie and Freddie?"
+
+"Yes, and because he was so kind I can't refuse to do what he wants me
+to."
+
+"What is it he wants you to do?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "Did he write to
+you?"
+
+"No, he got some one to do it for him, and my bookkeeper sent the letter
+on to me."
+
+"But I thought Uncle Jack was going to the hospital," Bert said.
+
+"So he is, Son. In fact, he is in the hospital now, but he is so ill that
+they fear he will not get better, even if the doctors do all they can for
+him. He is afraid he might die and he wants to see me before then. He says
+he has something he wants to tell me."
+
+"What do you suppose it can be?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"I haven't the least idea. Perhaps it's about his folks. He may have found
+some of them, or know where they are. If he has any relations they ought
+to know about him, and not leave him among strangers. Of course I'll do
+all I can for him. Mr. Whipple has given me some money to spend on Uncle
+Jack, so I think the poor old woodchopper will be all right, if he can
+only get well."
+
+"Then you're going to see him?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, I think I had better," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "He did me a great
+favor, caring for Flossie and Freddie, and I must do what I can for him.
+He says it will make his mind easier if he can talk to me before the
+doctors try to make him well in the hospital."
+
+"Then we can't go to the Natural History Museum to-day!" exclaimed Nan.
+
+"Oh, yes; your mother can take you."
+
+"I fear I can't tell you, as well as Daddy can, about the different
+things," said Mrs. Bobbsey, smiling; "but I'll do the best I can."
+
+"Oh, Momsey! Of course we love to have you!" cried Nan, kissing her
+mother.
+
+"I know, but you want Daddy, too! I don't blame you. But we must give him
+up for a little while, if it is to help Uncle Jack."
+
+"Oh, of course we will!" cried Nan, and Bert nodded his head to show that
+he agreed.
+
+"I'll just about have time to catch a train for Lakeport," said Mr.
+Bobbsey, looking at his watch. "Where are Flossie and Freddie? I want to
+say good-bye to them."
+
+"They are playing with Laddie," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'll get them."
+
+The two younger Bobbsey twins felt sorry that their father had to go away,
+but they were told he would soon be back again. But as Flossie and Freddie
+were having such fun playing with Laddie, they did not really think much
+about Mr. Bobbsey going away, except for five minutes or so.
+
+"Give our love to Uncle Jack," said Freddie, as he kissed his father, and
+started back for the Whipple rooms, where he and Laddie were building a
+bridge of books for the toy train of cars to cross a river, which was made
+of a piece of broken looking glass.
+
+"And here's an extra kiss I'll give you for him," said Flossie, as she
+hugged her father in bidding him good-bye. "I love Uncle Jack."
+
+So Mr. Bobbsey went back to Lakeport, and Mrs. Bobbsey got ready to take
+Nan and Bert to the Natural History Museum. At first it had been planned
+to take Flossie and Freddie, but, as they said they did not care much
+about stuffed animals, and as they were having such fun with Laddie, Mrs.
+Whipple told Mrs. Bobbsey she would look after the smaller twins and give
+them their lunch.
+
+"Then I'll leave them with you," said the mother of Flossie and Freddie.
+"I hope they will be no trouble."
+
+"I'm sure they'll be all right," said Laddie's aunt. "Don't worry about
+them."
+
+So Flossie, Freddie and Laddie built the bridge of books, and on it safely
+ran the toy locomotive and cars over the river of shiny looking glass.
+
+When they grew tired of this game they played automobile. To do that
+Laddie had to turn an old rocker upside down and stick on one leg a broken
+drum he had left from his Christmas toys. The drum was the steering wheel,
+and it made enough noise, when pounded on with a stick, to pretend it was
+an automobile horn.
+
+Flossie and Freddie rode in the back part of the overturned chair, and
+Laddie sat in front of them and made believe he was a chauffeur of a
+taxicab, running about the streets of New York.
+
+As Laddie knew the names of many places where the real taxicabs stop, he
+could call them out from time to time. So that Flossie and Freddie went
+to the Grand Central Terminal, to Central Park, to the Public Library and
+many other places (make-believe, of course) in the queer pretend
+automobile.
+
+"Oh, I'm going to stop off at the Public Liberry!" called out Flossie,
+while the play was going on.
+
+"What you going to stop off at the Public Liberry for?" asked Freddie.
+
+"I'm going to get a great big picture book," returned the little girl.
+
+"'Bout Cinderella?" questioned her brother.
+
+"No. I'm going to get a picture book with all kinds of stories in it."
+
+"We can't stop now!" yelled out Laddie. "We're three blocks past the
+liberry already."
+
+"Well, then I won't bother," answered Flossie.
+
+After that they played steamboat, a tin horn being the whistle, which was
+tooted every time the boat stopped or started. This game was great fun,
+and the children played it for some time until down in the street Laddie
+heard the tooting of fire engines and the clanging of bells.
+
+"Oh, there's another fire!" he cried. "Let's go down to see it."
+
+"No, indeed!" cried Mrs. Whipple, with a laugh, coming into the room just
+then. "No more fires for you boys. You can look out the window, but that's
+all."
+
+And so they had to be content with that. The fire did not seem to be a
+large one, though it was somewhere near the hotel.
+
+Down in the street were a number of engines and hose carts, and also two
+police automobile wagons, which had brought the officers who were to keep
+the crowd from coming so close as to get in the way of the fireman.
+
+But there is not much amusement in looking out of a window at a fire which
+cannot be seen, and Flossie, Freddie and Laddie soon tired of this fun--if
+fun it was. Mrs. Whipple had left the room, to see a lady who called, when
+Freddie, taking a last look from the window to the street below, said:
+
+"I know how we could have some fun!"
+
+"How?" asked Laddie.
+
+"Get in one of the police wagons and have a ride," went on the small
+Bobbsey boy.
+
+"Oh, let's do it!" cried Flossie, always ready for anything that Freddie
+proposed. "How you going to do it?" she asked her brother.
+
+"Why, we can go down in the elevator," Freddie said. "There's nobody in
+the police wagon now, for all the policemans are at the fire, but we can't
+see them or it. And the driver on the front seat of the wagon won't see us
+if we crawl in the back."
+
+"Oh, so he won't!" cried Flossie. "'Member how we crawled in the empty
+ice-wagon once?" she asked Freddie.
+
+"Yep. I tore my pants that day. But we had a nice ride. We'll have a nice
+ride now," he went on. "We can get in when they don't see us."
+
+"But when the policemans comes back from the fire they'll see us and maybe
+arrest us," said Laddie in a whisper.
+
+"They won't if we hide under the seats," returned Freddie. "See, there are
+long side seats in the police automobile wagon, and we can lie down under
+'em and make believe we're in a boat."
+
+"Oh, if it's a make-believe game, I'll do it," said Laddie. "I guess my
+aunt won't care, as long as it isn't goin' to a fire."
+
+"Then come on," answered Freddie.
+
+One of the police patrol wagons, or, to be more correct, automobiles,
+stood near the curb not far from the front entrance to the hotel. It had
+brought several policemen to the scene of the fire, and was waiting to
+take them back.
+
+As Freddie had said, the chauffeur on the front seat could not see what
+went on in the back of the wagon, for there was a high board against which
+he leaned. And there were two long seats, one on each side of the auto
+patrol, under which three children could easily hide if the police were
+not too particular in looking inside their wagon as they rode back to the
+station house.
+
+The three children hurried out into the hall and got in the elevator,
+which Laddie called to the floor by pressing the electric signal button.
+
+"Am yo' all gwine far?" asked George, the colored elevator boy, as he shot
+up to the tenth floor and opened the door.
+
+"I guess not very far," answered Freddie. None of them knew how long a ride
+they would get.
+
+Out the front entrance of the hotel went the three tots. Because of the
+fire no one paid much attention to them, and the hotel help were used to
+seeing the children come and go, and perhaps thought Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey,
+or Mrs. Whipple, were not far away.
+
+So Flossie, Freddie and Laddie had no trouble in getting out, and then
+they walked quietly down to the automobile patrol. No one was near it, for
+automobiles--even police ones--are too common to look at in New York,
+especially when there is a fire around the corner, even if the blaze is a
+small one.
+
+So, as it was, no one noticed the children climb into the patrol, and the
+driver, half dozing, did not hear them.
+
+As Freddie had said, there was plenty of room for such small tots as these
+three to crawl under the long seats. And when they were stowing themselves
+away, Freddie found some blankets, which covered himself, his sister and
+Laddie.
+
+"Now they can't see us!" said Freddie. "But we must keep still!"
+
+"Hush!" cautioned Flossie. "Somebody's coming!"
+
+And somebody was coming. It was the policemen coming back to take their
+places in the patrol, for the fire was out. Laughing and talking, they
+took their places on the long seat, never noticing the children hidden
+below.
+
+And, a few seconds later, away started the automobile, taking the two
+Bobbsey twins and Laddie on a queer ride.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE GOAT
+
+
+Everything would have been all right if Flossie had not sneezed. At least
+that's what Freddie said afterward, and Freddie ought to have known, for
+he was right there. Laddie Dickerson did not say it was Flossie's fault,
+but then it is only brothers who say such things to their sisters. And
+Freddie did not really intend to make Flossie feel bad.
+
+"But we might have had a bigger ride if you hadn't sneezed," said Freddie,
+after it was all over.
+
+"Well, I couldn't help it," was what Flossie said. "And I guess you'd have
+sneezed, too, if that fuzzy blanket kept tickling your nose; so there!"
+
+It was in the police patrol automobile that Flossie sneezed. With Freddie
+and Laddie, she was having a ride, you remember, the three children
+having hidden themselves under the seats, wrapped up in blankets, when the
+machine stood in front of the hotel while the policemen were at the fire.
+
+For a time the two small Bobbsey twins and Laddie rode along in silence,
+the policemen not knowing the children were at their very feet. And after
+they had ridden about ten blocks, Flossie sneezed.
+
+"A-ker-choo!" she cried, when a piece of the fuzzy blanket tickled her
+nose. "A-ker-choo!"
+
+"Hello! What's that?" asked one of the policemen in the automobile.
+
+"Sounded like a sneeze," said another.
+
+"Sure it was a sneeze," came from a third.
+
+"Maybe it was Mike, the chauffeur," suggested the first officer.
+
+"It didn't sound like him," ventured a policeman, close to where the
+driver sat behind his wooden back-rest. "I say, Mike!" called the
+policeman, "did you sneeze?"
+
+"Nope! Haven't time for sneezes now," answered the chauffeur.
+
+"Then it was back here in this automobile," went on the first policeman,
+who was quite fat.
+
+"Maybe it was a cat," suggested some one.
+
+"Or a dog," added another.
+
+Just then Freddie laughed--snickered would be more like what he did, I
+suppose--and once more Flossie sneezed. And Laddie snickered, too. They
+really could not help it any more than Flossie could help sneezing. For
+the two boys thought it very funny to listen to what the policemen were
+saying about Flossie's sneezes. And when the little girl's nose was
+tickled the second time by the fuzzy blanket, and she sneezed again, and
+the boys laughed or snickered--the policemen knew where the noises came
+from.
+
+"It's in here--right in our automobile!" said the fat policeman again.
+
+"And it sounded right at my feet," added another.
+
+Then all the policemen in the automobile leaned over and looked down. Even
+Flossie was laughing now, for it all seemed so funny, and she was
+wondering what her father and mother would say.
+
+The laughter of the children made the blankets, under which they were
+hiding, shake as though the wind was blowing them, and seeing this one of
+the officers pulled loose one corner of the robe and there he saw Flossie,
+Freddie and Laddie.
+
+"Well, I do declare!" cried a policeman with a red mustache. "It's
+children!"
+
+"Three of 'em!" cried another.
+
+The the two Bobbsey twins crawled from under the seat, and Laddie came
+with them, to stand up in the swaying automobile between the two rows of
+policemen.
+
+"Where in the world did you come from?" asked one officer.
+
+"Under there," answered Freddie, and he pointed to the place where the
+blankets were still rolled up.
+
+"And how did you get there?"
+
+"We crawled in to get a ride," said Flossie, "and I couldn't help
+sneezing. That fuzzy blanket tickled my nose so!"
+
+The policemen laughed at this.
+
+"But who are you and where do you belong?" asked one of the officers who,
+having some stripes on his sleeve and some gold lace on his cap, seemed to
+be the leader.
+
+"We're part of the Bobbsey twins," said Freddie. "The other half of
+us--that's Nan and Bert--have gone to see a stuffed whale."
+
+"No, the whale isn't stuffed--it's the sea lion, or wallyrus--I forget
+which," put in Flossie. "The whale's only made out of plaster and wood."
+
+"Well, anyhow, Nan and Bert are there," said Freddie.
+
+"And you're here," said the red-mustached policeman, "That's easy to see,
+though what he means about being half of the Bobbsey twins is more than I
+can guess. How many is twins, anyhow?"
+
+"Two," some one said.
+
+"We're four--that is, two sets," explained Flossie painstakingly. "Bert
+and Nan are older than us."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the policeman whom the other officers called Captain, or
+"Cap." for short. "Well, where did you come from and where are you going?"
+
+"We live at the Parkview Hotel," said Freddie, "and we got in here to have
+a ride. We didn't think you'd find us so soon."
+
+"It _is_ too bad," said the captain, with a laugh. "And I'm afraid I can't
+give you a ride any farther than to the station house. I suppose you know
+who you are and where you live," he went on, with a smile; "but, as we
+have to do things by rule in the police department, I'll have to make
+sure. So I'll take you to my office and telephone to the hotel. If I find
+you belong there I'll take you back."
+
+"Then we'll have another ride!" said Flossie. "That will be nice, won't
+it, Freddie?"
+
+"Um, I guess so. Only I'd like to sit out in front with the driver as long
+as you sneezed and told 'em we were here."
+
+"I didn't sneeze any more than you giggled!" cried Flossie. "And, anyhow,
+I couldn't help it. That fuzzy blanket----"
+
+"Of course, that was it!" laughed the captain. "Never mind. No harm has
+been done, and you shall have a ride back home. Though I think, for the
+sake of your folks, I'll send you back in a taxicab, instead of in this
+patrol auto, and with an officer in plain clothes, instead of one wearing
+a uniform. It will look better at the hotel," he explained to his men.
+
+"Sure," was their answer.
+
+And so the two little Bobbsey twins and Laddie were given a ride to the
+precinct station house in the big automobile patrol, and they sat on the
+laps of the kindly policemen.
+
+Quite a crowd of children gathered around the doors of the police station
+as Flossie, Freddie and Laddie were lifted out of the automobile, and
+there were all sorts of stories told about them. Some believed the
+children had been rescued from the fire; others that they had been taken
+from a robbers' cave, and still others that these were the children, who,
+playing with matches, had caused the fire.
+
+But all these guesses were wrong, as we know, Flossie, Freddie and Laddie
+had just gone for a ride, and they had one, though it did not turn out
+exactly as they expected. However, they had a good time.
+
+It did not take the police captain long to find out that what Freddie had
+said was true--that the three youngsters lived at the Parkview Hotel.
+
+"Your aunt has been looking all over for you," said the captain to Laddie,
+after telephoning. "I sent word that I'd soon have you safely back, and
+you mustn't run away again."
+
+"I asked him to," said Freddie, telling the truth like a little man. "I
+asked him and Flossie to come."
+
+"Well, next time you'd better ask before you crawl into a police
+automobile," said the captain, with a laugh. "You can't always tell where
+it is going. However, no harm is done this time. Come and see me again,"
+he added.
+
+Then the captain called a taxicab and sent the children to the hotel in
+charge of one of his policemen, who did not wear a uniform. This was done
+so no crowd would gather in front of the hotel to stare at Freddie,
+Flossie and Laddie, as would have happened if a policeman in uniform, with
+his bright brass buttons, had gone with them.
+
+"Oh, Laddie! how could you do it and worry me so?" cried Mrs. Whipple,
+when her little nephew had come back to the hotel with the Bobbsey twins.
+
+"I asked him," said Freddie, willing to take all the blame. "We wanted a
+ride and we just crawled in and hid. I'm awful sorry."
+
+"And I'm sorry I sneezed," said Flossie. "If I hadn't maybe we'd have had
+a longer ride."
+
+"No, we wouldn't," declared Freddie, shaking his head. "We got to the
+station house, anyhow, and that's where the automobile lives when it isn't
+workin'. Anyhow, we had fun!"
+
+"Yes, we did," said Laddie; "and I liked it."
+
+"But you mustn't go away again without telling me," said his aunt.
+
+"I won't," he promised.
+
+"Next time we'll take you with us," said Flossie. "You'll like it, only I
+hope a fuzzy blanket doesn't make you sneeze."
+
+So the Bobbsey twins, with their little friend, had a ride away and a ride
+back again, and when Mrs. Bobbsey came home that afternoon from the
+Natural History Museum with Bert and Nan, and heard what had happened, she
+was so surprised she did not know what to say.
+
+Of course she made Flossie and Freddie promise never to do it again, and
+of course they said they never would.
+
+"I never saw such little tykes as Flossie and Freddie have gotten to be
+lately," said Mrs. Bobbsey to Nan that night.
+
+"This being in a big city seems just to suit them, though," returned Nan.
+
+"Yes. But I wish your father would come back. I feel rather lost without
+him in this big hotel."
+
+"I'm here," said Bert, with a smile.
+
+"Yes, you'll have to be my little man, now. And do, please, keep watch of
+Flossie and Freddie while your father is away. There's no telling what
+they'll do next."
+
+And really there was not. For instance, who would have supposed that a
+goat--
+
+But there, I'd better start at the beginning of this part of my story.
+
+It was a few days after the ride in the automobile patrol that Mrs.
+Bobbsey received word that a friend whom she had known when they were both
+small children was living in New York. This lady asked Mrs. Bobbsey to
+call and see her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We do not live in a nice part of New York," wrote the lady--who was a
+Mrs. Robinson--in her letter, "for we can't pay much rent. But our
+apartment house is not hard to reach from your hotel, and I would very
+much like to see you. Come and bring the children. They can watch the
+other children playing in the streets. I know the streets are not a very
+nice place to play in, but that's all we have in New York."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So Mrs. Bobbsey decided to call on her old friend, whom she had not seen
+for many years. She said she would take Flossie and Freddie with her. Nan
+and Bert were going to a moving picture show with another boy and girl and
+the latter's mother.
+
+Mrs. Robinson lived on the east side of New York, in what is called an
+apartment house. Some called them tenements, and in them many families are
+crowded together, for room is very valuable in the big city of New York.
+
+After Mrs. Bobbsey had talked for a while with her former girlhood friend,
+Flossie and Freddie, who had been sitting still in the parlor, asked if
+they could not go out in the street and watch the other children at play.
+
+"Yes, but don't go off the steps," said their mother.
+
+The two Bobbsey twins promised, but something happened that made them
+forget. This was the sight of a red-haired, snub-nosed boy, driving a
+goat, hitched to a small wagon, up and down the street.
+
+"Oh, look at that!" cried the excited Freddie. "Isn't that great!"
+
+"It's cute," said Flossie. "I wonder if he'd give us a ride?"
+
+"Let's ask him," said Freddie. "I've got ten cents. Maybe he'd ride us for
+that. Come on!"
+
+And so, forgetting all about their promise not to go off the steps of the
+apartment house where their mother's friend lived, the two small Bobbsey
+twins hurried down to look at the goat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+MR. BOBBSEY COMES BACK
+
+
+"Hey, Jimmie! Give us a goat ride, will you?" called a boy in the street.
+
+"I will for two cents," answered the red-haired lad driving the goat and
+wagon.
+
+"Aw, go on. Give us a ride for a cent!"
+
+"Nope. Two cents!"
+
+"Oh, did you hear that?" asked Flossie of Freddie. "He gives rides for two
+cents."
+
+"Then we'll have some," said Freddie. "How many rides can you get for ten
+cents?"
+
+"A lot, I guess," said Flossie, who forgot all about the number-work she
+had studied for a little while in school.
+
+"Hey!" called Freddie to the boy with the goat. "We've got two cents--we
+want a ride."
+
+The boy, who was sitting in an old goat wagon, pulled on the reins and
+guided his animal over toward the curb.
+
+"Does you really want a ride?" he asked, "No foolin'?"
+
+"No foolin'," answered Freddie. "Sure we want a ride. I've got five
+cents." He showed only half of the money he had in his pocket, keeping the
+other nickel back.
+
+"I'll give you an' your sister a ride for dat!" cried the goat boy, not
+speaking the way Freddie and Flossie had been taught to do. "Hop in!"
+
+"Can I drive?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Nope. I'm afraid to let youse," was the answer. "Billy's a good goat, but
+you see he don't just know you. Course I could introduce youse to him, an'
+then he'd know you. But first along you'd better not drive him. I'll steer
+him were you want to go. I gives a ride up an' down de block fer two
+cents," he went on. "Course two of you is four cents."
+
+"I've got a nickel," said Freddie quickly.
+
+"Sure, dat's right. I forgot. Well, I'll give you both a ride up and down
+de block and half way back again for de nickel."
+
+"Here it is," said Freddie, handing it over, as he and Flossie took their
+seats in the goat wagon. There was plenty of room for them and the
+red-haired driver. Other children on the block crowded to the curbstone
+and looked on with eager eyes as the Bobbsey twins started on their ride.
+Mrs. Bobbsey, talking with her friend in the darkened parlor, knew nothing
+of what was going on.
+
+"Say, he is a good goat," said Freddie, when they were half-way down the
+block.
+
+"Sure he's a good goat!" agreed the boy, whose name was Mike. "There ain't
+none better."
+
+"It's lots of fun," said Flossie.
+
+It was a fine day, even if it was Winter. The sun was shining brightly, so
+it was not cold. What snow there was in New York, before the Bobbseys came
+on their visit, had either melted or been cleaned off the streets so one
+would hardly know there had been a storm.
+
+"I wish we had a goat," said Freddie, when the ride was almost over.
+
+[Illustration: "I WISH WE HAD A GOAT," SAID FREDDY.
+
+_The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City. Page_ 216]
+
+"So do I," agreed Flossie. "Let's ask Daddy to buy one," she suggested.
+
+"We will," said Freddie.
+
+"I'm goin' to sell dis goat," put in Mike.
+
+"You are? Why?" cried the Bobbsey twins.
+
+"'Cause I'm going to work. You see I won't have time to look after him. I
+bought him off a feller what moved away, an' I keeps de goat in Sullivan's
+livery stable. But I have to pay a dollar a month, an' so I began givin'
+de boys an' girls around here rides for two cents to pay for Billy's keep.
+But I can't do dat when I goes to work, so me mudder says I must sell 'im.
+I don't want to, but I has to."
+
+Flossie looked at Freddie and Freddie looked at Flossie on hearing this.
+Neither of them said a word, but any one who knew them could easily have
+told that they were thinking of the same thing--the goat.
+
+"Well, I'll ride you back to where youse got in me wagon," said Mike, "and
+then your nickel's about used up."
+
+"Oh, I've got another!" cried Freddie eagerly. "We want more ride. Don't
+we, Flossie?"
+
+"Sure we do! Oh, it's such fun!"
+
+So they rode up and down the block again, and when that was over Flossie
+and Freddie spent some time talking to Mike.
+
+By this time Mrs. Bobbsey had ended her visit and had come out to look for
+her children.
+
+"I thought I told you not to go off the steps," she said. They were down
+the street looking at the goat.
+
+"Well, we didn't mean to," admitted Freddie. "But we did so much want a
+goat ride."
+
+"And we had ten cents' worth!" laughed Flossie.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey smiled. It was very hard to be cross with these small twins.
+They never meant to do wrong, and, I suppose, taking a ride up and down
+the block was not so very bad.
+
+"Good-bye!" called Freddie to Mike, the goat boy, as Mrs. Bobbsey led her
+children away.
+
+"Good-bye!" added Flossie, waving her hand.
+
+"Good-bye," echoed Mike.
+
+"And don't forget!" said Freddie.
+
+"No, I won't."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey might have asked what it was Mike was not to forget, only she
+was in a hurry to get back to the hotel, and so did not question Freddie.
+
+When they reached their rooms they found a letter from Mr. Bobbsey, saying
+he would have to stay in Lakeport a day longer than he expected. But he
+would soon be in New York again, he wrote.
+
+Bert and Nan came home from the moving pictures, saying they had had a
+delightful time.
+
+"So did we--in a goat wagon," cried Freddie.
+
+"And Freddie and me are goin' to----" began Flossie, but Freddie quickly
+cried:
+
+"Come on and play fire engine, Flossie!" so his little sister did not
+finish what she had started to say.
+
+It was the next day, soon after breakfast, that one of the hotel
+messengers--a small colored boy--knocked on the door of the suite of
+apartments occupied by the Bobbsey family, and when Mrs. Bobbsey answered,
+the colored boy said:
+
+"He am downstairs, Ma'am. He am in de lobby."
+
+"Who is?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"De boy what wants to see yo' little boy, Ma'am."
+
+"Some one to see Freddie? Who is it?"
+
+"I don't know, Ma'am. He didn't gib no name."
+
+"Oh, perhaps it is Laddie," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Bert, please go down and
+see, will you? If it's Laddie, who wants Freddie to play with him, I don't
+see why he didn't come here. But go and see."
+
+"Oh, I know who it is," said Freddie, "You don't need to go, Bert. Just
+give me five dollars, Mother, and I'll buy him."
+
+"Buy him? Buy what?" asked the surprised Mrs. Bobbsey. "What in the world
+are you talking about, Freddie?"
+
+"Mike, the goat boy. He's brought Billy here, I guess, and Flossie and I
+are going to buy him. Can't we, please?"
+
+"What? Buy a goat when we're stopping at this hotel?" cried his mother.
+"Bert, do go and see what mischief those children have gotten into now. A
+goat! Oh, dear!"
+
+"I'll go with him, 'cause Mike don't know Bert," offered Freddie.
+
+"And I want to come!" said Flossie. "I want to see our goat."
+
+"Your goat!" cried Nan.
+
+"Yes, we're going to buy him. Mike brought him to sell to us."
+
+And that is what had happened. When Mrs. Bobbsey followed Bert and Freddie
+down to the hotel lobby, leaving Nan to look after Flossie in the rooms,
+this is what she saw:
+
+Out at the side entrance to the hotel was the goat and the rickety express
+wagon, in charge of a red-haired, snub-nosed boy, Mike's small brother.
+Mike himself, rather ragged, but clean and neat enough, was in the lobby,
+sitting at his ease on one of the big leather chairs, waiting.
+
+"I've brought de goat," he said to Freddie, as soon as he saw that small
+Bobbsey with Bert.
+
+"What does it all mean?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, while a crowd of the hotel
+guests and help gathered about.
+
+"Why, your little boy, Ma'am, what I rode in me goat wagon up and down our
+block, said you'd buy Billy when I was ready to sell him. I'm ready now,
+'cause I'm goin' to work. So I brought de goat an' wagon here to de hotel,
+just as your little boy made me promise to do. It'll be five dollars for
+de goat."
+
+For a moment Mrs. Bobbsey did not know what to say. Then she turned to
+Freddie and asked:
+
+"Did you really tell him you'd buy his goat, Freddie?"
+
+"I said you'd buy it for Flossie and me. Won't you? We can have such fun
+with it!"
+
+"A goat in a New York hotel!" cried Bert, laughing, "Oh, dear!"
+
+"Hush, Bert," said his mother. "Freddie did not know any better. Of course
+we can't keep it," she said to Mike, "and I'm sorry you had the trouble of
+bringing him here. My little boy didn't stop to think, I'm afraid. He
+should have told me. But here is a dollar for your trouble, and I think
+you can easily sell your goat somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, yes, I can easy sell him," said Mike. "But your little boy made me
+promise to bring Billy to dis hotel to-day and here I am, 'cordin' to
+promise."
+
+"Yes, I see you kept your word," and Mrs. Bobbsey could not help smiling.
+"But really we have no place to keep a goat here, and we could hardly take
+it to Lakeport with us. So I'm afraid Freddie will have to do without it."
+
+"All right," said Mike good-naturedly, as he took the dollar.
+
+Of course Freddie and Flossie were disappointed at not having the goat and
+wagon, but they soon forgot that when their mother promised to take them
+to see another play that afternoon.
+
+"It's a wonder Flossie or Freddie didn't try to bring the goat up to our
+rooms in the elevator," said Bert, when they were in their apartment
+again.
+
+"Well, he was a good goat!" declared Freddie.
+
+"And he could go fast," added Flossie.
+
+"I was going to play fireman with him when we got back to Lakeport," went
+on Freddie. "Now I can't."
+
+"I think you'll have just as much fun some other way," said his mother,
+laughing.
+
+Three days after that, when Mrs. Bobbsey came in from shopping with the
+two sets of twins, she heard some one moving about in their apartment as
+she entered.
+
+"Oh, it's Daddy!" cried Flossie, as some one caught her up in his arms.
+"Daddy's come back!"
+
+"I'm so glad!" called Freddie, running to get a hug and kiss from his
+father. "And we almost had a goat!" he added.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+UNCLE JACK'S REAL NAME
+
+
+"Well! Well!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey, when he heard what Freddie said.
+"That's great! Almost had a goat, did you? I must hear about that!"
+
+"But first tell us about Uncle Jack," begged Nan. "Is he going to get
+better?"
+
+"Oh, I hope he is going to get better!" broke in Freddie. "It isn't a bit
+nice to be sick. You have to stay in bed, and sometimes you have to have
+your head all bound up, and sometimes you have to take the awfullest kind
+of medicine ever was."
+
+"You don't always have to stay in bed when you're sick," put in Flossie.
+"And sometimes the medicine isn't bad a bit. It's sweet and nice."
+
+"But tell us about Uncle Jack," begged Nan again. "He'll get better, won't
+he?"
+
+"That is something the doctors can't tell," answered her father. "I saw
+him in the hospital."
+
+"Was he glad to see you?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Well, to tell you the truth he didn't know me. He was very ill and was
+out of his head with fever. I did what I could for him, and saw that he
+would be well taken care of, and then went to Mr. Todd's house to stay all
+night. I said I'd go back to the hospital in the morning, but Uncle Jack
+was no better, and, after waiting two or three days, I decided to come
+back here."
+
+"Didn't he know you at all?" asked Nan.
+
+"No, he was out of his head with fever all the while. Before I came, he
+had told some of the doctors that he had something very important to tell
+me--something that had to do with his friends or relations, they said. He
+would tell no one else but me, but when I got to his bedside he could not
+talk so that I could understand him. So really I don't know any more about
+him than before. I don't even know what his real name is.
+
+"Sometimes he used to call himself Jackson, and again it would be some
+other name. I think he may not have known who he really was. But if he
+does, it will be some time before he can tell me, or any one else. He was
+still out of his head when I came away."
+
+"Are you going back?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Not until they send for me, which will be when he takes a turn for the
+better or worse. I want to do all I can for the poor old man, for he was
+so good to Flossie and Freddie. But now tell me about the goat."
+
+Freddie and Flossie took turns doing that, and a very funny story they
+made of it, too. Mr. Bobbsey laughed, and laughed again. Then he had to
+hear about everything else that had happened while he was in Lakeport.
+
+"And now tell us what happened there--I mean besides about Uncle Jack,"
+said Nan. "Did you see any of my friends?"
+
+"And did you see Bessie Benton?" Flossie asked, naming a little girl with
+whom she often played.
+
+"Yes, I saw Bessie," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and she sent you her love."
+
+"Did you see Tommy Todd?" Freddie queried.
+
+"Yes; I stayed at his house."
+
+"How is the ice-boat?" asked Bert.
+
+"Well, there has been a thaw, as you know, and there isn't enough ice in
+Lake Metoka on which to sail the _Bird_. I guess Tommy'll have to wait
+until you get back there, Bert. We'll have more cold weather yet."
+
+"Oh, are we going to leave New York?" asked Nan sorrowfully.
+
+"We can't _live_ here," said her mother. "We've stayed longer now than I
+thought we would. Have you much more business to look after?" she asked
+her husband.
+
+"It will take about two weeks more, and then I think we'll go back to
+Lakeport. But you children can have plenty of good times in two weeks, I
+should think."
+
+"Of course we can!" cried Bert. "And when we get back home----"
+
+"Are we going camping?" interrupted Freddie. "Flossie and I want to go
+camping in the woods."
+
+"On an island in a lake," added the little girl. "And we can take the
+bugs that go around and around and around and--and----"
+
+"And the bugs that go around and around will catch all the mosquitoes that
+fly up and down, up and down, and bite us!" laughed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Yes, we
+certainly shall have to take the 'go around' bugs to camp with us,
+children."
+
+"Do you really think we can go camping?" asked Bert of his father.
+
+"Well, I don't know. We'll see."
+
+The Bobbsey twins, both sets of them, did indeed have many more good times
+in New York. I wish I had room to tell you about them, but I have not
+space. They went to see many sights, paid another visit to Central Park
+and Bronx Park and saw many nice plays and moving picture shows.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Whipple and Laddie often went with the Bobbseys on little
+excursions about the great city. Laddie and the children became better
+friends than before, and Mrs. Whipple said her little nephew had never had
+such good times in all his life.
+
+"He missed his mother greatly before your children came to this hotel,"
+said Mrs. Whipple to Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"When is Mrs. Dickerson coming back from California?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"When it is warm here. She can not stand cold weather. But she did not go
+out to California altogether on account of the climate."
+
+"Didn't she?"
+
+"No. You have heard my husband speak of a long-lost brother--also a
+brother of Mrs. Dickerson's, who was a Whipple before her marriage."
+
+"Yes, I heard something about that."
+
+"Well, for a number of years my husband and Mrs. Dickerson have been
+trying to find this lost brother. And there was a rumor that he had gone
+to California when a boy and had grown up among the miners near San
+Francisco. It was to find out, if possible, whether or not this was so,
+that Mrs. Dickerson went out West. Though, to be sure, the Winters here
+are hard for her to endure."
+
+"Did she have any success in finding her brother?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"No," answered Mrs. Whipple, "she did not, I'm sorry to say. She and my
+husband feel bad about it. But he may be found some day. He has been
+missing many years."
+
+It was two or three days after this talk that, one evening, Mr. and Mrs.
+Whipple and Laddie were in the hotel rooms of the Bobbseys, paying a
+visit, when a telegram was brought up for Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"It's from Lakeport," he said, as he opened it and saw the date and the
+name of the place from which it had come.
+
+"From Lakeport?" asked Mr. Whipple, as Mr. Bobbsey was reading the
+message. "That's where the old woodsman lives, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "And, though he is very ill, he is being
+well looked after, thanks to the money you gave for him."
+
+"Oh, I didn't give much. It was your husband who did the most. I was glad
+to help, for I always have a soft spot in my heart for those who camp in
+the woods. How is Uncle Jack, by the way? I believe that's his name?"
+
+"Yes, that _was_ his name," said Mr. Bobbsey in a queer voice, as he held
+the telegram out to Mr. Whipple.
+
+"It was his name--what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that he has come to his senses now. The doctors have operated on
+him and he will get better. There was an injury to his head that made him
+forget much of his early life. But now he is all right and he remembers
+his real name."
+
+"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, while the others breathlessly waited for
+an answer. "What is his real name?"
+
+"John Whipple," was the answer. "That's what this telegram is about.
+Though everybody called the woodchopper Uncle Jack, his real name is John
+Whipple!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+REUNITED
+
+
+The Bobbsey twins were not as much surprised at what their father said,
+after reading the telegram, as was Mr. Whipple. He fairly jumped up from
+his chair, on hearing what Mr. Bobbsey answered, and reached out his hand
+for the message.
+
+"His name is Whipple!" cried the department store owner. "Are you sure his
+name is John Whipple?"
+
+"That's what the telegram says," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "You may read it. It
+seems he asked to have it sent to me as soon as he knew he was getting
+better, and when he remembered who he was. He says he remembers he had a
+brother and a sister."
+
+Mr. Whipple seemed very much excited. Even Flossie and Freddie, young as
+they were, could tell that. He took the telegram from Mr. Bobbsey, but he
+did not read it. Instead he looked at the children's father and asked:
+
+"Do you know this old woodchopper very well?"
+
+"I have seen him a number of times," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and he often comes
+to my house with loads of wood. The children know him, too. I have told
+you how he helped Freddie and Flossie out of the snow bank and took them
+to his cabin."
+
+"What sort of looking man is he?" the store owner questioned eagerly.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey described Uncle Jack's looks, and also told of his having come
+to Lakeport a number of years before, from where, no one knew. He made
+friends and lived in the woods. That was all that was known about him.
+Few, if any, had known his name until now.
+
+"And so he is John Whipple," said Mr. Bobbsey, rather talking to himself
+than to any one else. "Strange that he should have forgotten it all these
+years, I wonder if I can find his folks. Why, your name is Whipple!" he
+said to Laddie's uncle. "Do you know who Uncle Jack might be?"
+
+"I think I do," said Mr. Whipple slowly, and his voice trembled. "I think
+he is my long-lost brother, and the brother of my sister--he is Laddie's
+other uncle! Oh, if it only turns out that way!"
+
+"Is Uncle John found?" asked Laddie, who, with his playmates, Flossie and
+Freddie, began to understand a little of what was going on. "Is Uncle John
+found?"
+
+"We hope so, my dear," said his aunt gently. "How can we make sure?" she
+asked her husband.
+
+"There is only one way," he said.
+
+"You mean to go to Lakeport?"
+
+"That's it. Where can I find him?" asked Mr. Whipple of Mr. Bobbsey.
+"Uncle Jack, I will call him, until I make sure he is my long-lost
+brother," he added.
+
+"He was taken to a private hospital, not far out of town. I'll be very
+glad if you and your wife, and Laddie, as well, will come back to Lakeport
+with us. Then you can see Uncle Jack and make sure whether or not he is
+your brother."
+
+"I'll be glad to do that. But I thought you were going to stay in New
+York for some time yet."
+
+"We can go back to-morrow if need be," said Mr. Bobbsey. "My business is
+now in good shape, and I can come back here if there is any call for me."
+
+"Oh, let's all go back to Lakeport!" cried Freddie. "Maybe then we can
+have a goat, Flossie."
+
+"Oh, may we, Mother?" the little girl demanded.
+
+"I'll buy 'em a goat--two goats--if this news proves true," said Mr.
+Whipple. "Oh, I do hope I have found my brother!"
+
+"How did he get lost?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"It happened when my sister and I were very little children. John was
+somewhat older. Our parents died, and distant relatives, living far away
+from our home, took charge of my sister and me. John, who was a half-grown
+boy, stayed with the family of a neighboring farmer, who had been friends
+of our parents, and the relatives took my sister and me away with them.
+
+"Shortly after this the farmer lost his money, his farm, everything, and
+soon after moved away, taking John with them. News of this did not come
+for some time to our relatives, and when it did and they began a search
+for John, all trace of him was lost. They learned that the farmer had died
+in a public hospital in a strange city, and all trace of his widow and
+John was lost right there.
+
+"When I became old enough, I started to look for John, but could not find
+him. My sister could not, either, though lately she heard he was in
+California, but it was not true. And so, for many years, we have been
+trying to find John Whipple. And at last I know where he is!"
+
+"Let us hope Uncle Jack is your brother," said Mr. Bobbsey gently.
+
+"We will soon know," said Mrs. Whipple.
+
+The stay of the Bobbseys in the great city of New York came to a sudden
+end, but they had had a good time, and might come again some time.
+Besides, Mr. and Mrs. Whipple were going back with them, to see if the old
+woodchopper were really the long-lost man, and Flossie and Freddie
+thought that almost as good as if they had stayed in the city.
+
+"And Laddie is coming, too!" cried Freddie. "We'll have heaps of good
+times."
+
+"And maybe we'll get a goat," said Flossie. "If we do, I'm going to drive
+him sometimes."
+
+"Yes, you can," agreed Freddie.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey closed up most of his New York business matters, and Mr.
+Whipple, with his wife and Laddie, got ready to go to Lakeport with the
+Bobbseys. Word was sent to Dinah, the fat cook, and her husband, Sam, to
+get the Lakeport house ready for the family and for the Whipples, who
+would stay with them for a short time.
+
+Another telegram came from the hospital about Uncle Jack. It said he was
+doing well, and that his mind was clear. He was certain he was John
+Whipple, and that he had relations somewhere. But, for fear there might be
+a disappointment, after all, no word was sent him about Mr. Daniel
+Whipple's coming on. Nor was Laddie's mother, in California, told. They
+wanted to make sure there would be no mistake.
+
+Once more the Bobbsey twins were in the big Pennsylvania station, and
+Freddie almost made the whole party miss the train by stopping in the
+arcade to show Laddie where the bugs, that went "around and around and
+around," had been bought.
+
+"See what beautiful colors they are!" exclaimed Freddie. "Green and blue
+and red and brown and pink and yellow and--and--oh, every kind!"
+
+"And you ought to see how fast some of 'em go around!" exclaimed Flossie.
+"They just keep on going around and around and around till sometimes you
+can't most see 'em go!"
+
+"And you wind 'em just like this----" explained Freddie, making a queer
+little movement with his chubby hand.
+
+"Oh, I know just how they go," said Laddie. "Didn't I see yours run?"
+
+"Come, children, we'll have to hurry," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We don't want to
+miss the train."
+
+"I want some of those bugs," said Laddie wistfully.
+
+"We can get some later," replied his aunt.
+
+"But they may be all gone when we come back!"
+
+"I don't think so," his aunt replied. "See! They have a whole store full
+of them." And then the crowd hurried off to catch the train.
+
+In due time they arrived in Lakeport, and when Flossie and Freddie rushed
+into the house, almost knocking down dear old fat Dinah, they found
+Splash, the big dog, waiting for them. And Splash did really knock Flossie
+down, he was so glad to see her. But she was so fat that, really, falling
+just to the floor did not hurt her at all. And, anyhow, she sat down on
+the tail of Splash, so it was like a cushion, only, of course, he could
+not wag it until Flossie got up.
+
+"Oh, chilluns! how glad I is t' see yo' all!" cried Dinah, trying to hug
+all four of them at once.
+
+"And here's Laddie," said Flossie. "Aren't you glad to see him?"
+
+"Co'se I is, chile! I lubs yo' all!" and she hugged Laddie, too.
+
+Leaving his wife at the Bobbsey home, Mr. Whipple went with Mr. Bobbsey
+to the hospital where Uncle Jack (as they still called him) had been
+taken.
+
+The old woodchopper was much better, though still weak and ill. One of the
+doctors had told him some one was coming to see him, and had said it might
+prove to be some one who knew about his brother and sister. Poor Uncle
+Jack's eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Oh, I only hope it is true," he said.
+
+Mr. Whipple walked softly into the hospital room. After a short talk with
+the old woodchopper, Mr. Daniel Whipple cried:
+
+"It is true! I am your brother! Oh, John, I have found you at last!"
+
+There was no doubt of it. After further talking it over between them, Mr.
+Daniel Whipple and Mr. John Whipple made sure they were brothers. And when
+Uncle Jack (as many still kept on calling him) got better, every one could
+see that he and Mr. Whipple, the department store owner, looked very much
+alike, except that the woodchopper was older.
+
+But I must not call him a woodchopper, for he was that no longer.
+
+"You are coming to live with me," said his brother Dan. "I have enough to
+look after you. No more hard work for you!"
+
+"I am very happy," said Uncle Jack. "Bless the dear children; they helped
+you to find me as much as any one did."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Dan, as the Bobbsey twins called Laddie's uncle, "if
+Flossie and Freddie hadn't fallen off the ice-boat I might still be
+looking for you, John."
+
+And so, as you have read, everything came out all right. Uncle Jack, in a
+few weeks, was able to leave the hospital, quite well again, though he was
+very weak, and he was old. He grew stronger in time, but of course no
+younger, though he lived for a number of happy years with his brother.
+
+Laddie stayed in Lakeport over two weeks, and he had many good times with
+the Bobbsey twins. His mother, as soon as the weather became warm, came on
+from California and said she had never seen Laddie play with two children
+he liked more than he did Flossie and Freddie. Bert and Tommy Todd sailed
+the ice-boat, and it did not upset again, though once it came very near
+it. Flossie and Freddie were given the cart and goat they so much wanted,
+but I shall have no room here to tell about the fun they had with them.
+
+"Well, it certainly was a dandy Winter," remarked Bert one day, when the
+air felt like Spring.
+
+The Whipples, taking Uncle Jack with them, had gone back to New York, and
+the Bobbseys were alone.
+
+"It will soon be Summer," said Nan. "I wonder what we shall do then. Where
+are we going to spend our vacation, Mother?"
+
+"Oh, I think Daddy has some nice place picked out."
+
+"Let's try to guess!" said Nan to Bert.
+
+But they did not easily do that, and as I do not want to keep you
+guessing, I will say that the children did have a fine time that Summer.
+
+Where they went, and what they did while there, you may find out by
+reading the next book of this series, to be called, "The Bobbsey Twins on
+Blueberry Island." There they went camping, and----But I will let you read
+it for yourselves.
+
+"Freddie! oh, Freddie!" called Flossie, coming into the house one day
+about a month after they had come back from New York. "Where are you,
+Freddie?"
+
+"I'm out in the kitchen gettin' some bread an' jam," he answered. "What
+d'you want?"
+
+"Lucy Turner is with me," went on Flossie. "She says we haven't got any
+bugs that go around and around and around, and I want to show her. We have
+got 'em, haven't we, Freddie?"
+
+"Course we have. I've got one now going around and around and around my
+plate that had bread and jam on it--but there isn't any on it now, 'cause
+I ate it all up!"
+
+"Oh, come on and we'll get some, too!" cried Flossie, and she and her
+little girl playmate were soon having fun with Freddie. And there we will
+take leave of them.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL
+HIGH SERIES
+
+By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON
+
+=12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=
+
+Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-day. The
+girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we follow them with
+interest in school and out. There are many contested matches on track and
+field, and on the water, as well as doings in the classroom and on the
+school stage. There is plenty of fun and excitement, all clean, pure and
+wholesome.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH
+  Or Rivals for all Honors.
+
+A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a touch of mystery
+and a strange initiation.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA
+  Or The Crew That Won.
+
+Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times in camp.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL
+  Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.
+
+Here we have a number of thrilling contests at basketball and in addition,
+the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high school authorities
+for a long while.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE
+  Or The Play That Took the Prize.
+
+How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them wrote a play
+which afterward was made over for the professional stage and brought in
+some much-needed money.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD
+  Or The Girl Champions of the School League.
+
+This story takes in high school athletics in their most approved and
+up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement.
+
+THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP
+  Or The Old Professor's Secret.
+
+The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful time at
+boating, swimming and picnic parties.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE TOM SWIFT SERIES
+
+By VICTOR APPLETON
+
+=12mo. CLOTH. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. COLORED WRAPPERS.=
+
+These spirited tales convey in a realistic way the wonderful advances in
+land and sea locomotion. Stories like these are impressed upon the memory
+and their reading is productive only of good.
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE
+  Or Fun and Adventure on the Road
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT
+  Or The Rivals of Lake Carlopa
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
+  Or The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
+  Or Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT
+  Or The Speediest Car on the Road
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
+  Or The Castaways of Earthquake Island
+
+TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS
+  Or The Secret of Phantom Mountain
+
+TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE
+  Or The Wreck of the Airship
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
+  Or The Quickest Flight on Record
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE
+  Or Daring Adventures in Elephant Land
+
+TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD
+  Or Marvellous Adventures Underground
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER
+  Or Seeking the Platinum Treasure
+
+TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY
+  Or A Daring Escape by Airship
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA
+  Or The Perils of Moving Picture Taking
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
+  Or On the Border for Uncle Sam
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON
+  Or The Longest Shots on Record
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE
+  Or The Picture that Saved a Fortune
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
+  Or The Naval Terror of the Seas
+
+TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL
+Or The Hidden City of the Andes
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
+SERIES
+
+By LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+Author of "The Bobbsey Twins Series."
+
+=12mo, BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=
+
+The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, a widower, is an
+actor who has taken up work for the "movies." Both girls wish to aid him
+in his work and visit various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
+Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas.
+
+  Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movies and
+the girls follow. Tells how many "parlor dramas" are filmed.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
+Or Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays.
+
+  Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film plays, and
+giving an account of two unusual discoveries.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
+Or The Proof on the Film.
+
+  A tale of winter adventures in the wilderness, showing how the photo-play
+actors sometimes suffer.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
+Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida.
+
+  How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas before the
+camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
+Or Great Days Among the Cowboys.
+
+  All who have ever seen moving pictures of the great West will want to know
+just how they are made. This volume gives every detail and is full of
+clean fun and excitement.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA
+Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real.
+
+  A thrilling account of the girls' experiences on the water.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
+Or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm.
+
+  The girls play important parts in big battle scenes and have plenty of
+hard work along with considerable fun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS
+
+For Little Men and Women
+
+By LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+Author of "The Bunny Brown" Series, Etc.
+
+=12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=
+
+Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere. Books that
+charm the hearts of the little ones, and of which they never tire. Many of
+the adventures are comical in the extreme, and all the accidents that
+ordinarily happen to youthful personages happened to these many-sided
+little mortals. Their haps and mishaps make decidedly entertaining
+reading.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
+
+  Telling how they go home from the seashore; went to school and were
+promoted, and of their many trials and tribulations.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
+
+  Telling of the winter holidays, and of the many fine times and adventures
+the twins had at a winter lodge in the big woods.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
+
+  Mr. Bobbsey obtains a houseboat, and the whole family go off on a tour.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
+
+  The young folks visit the farm again and have plenty of good times and
+several adventures.
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
+
+  The twins get into all sorts of trouble--and out again--also bring aid to
+a poor family.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
+
+By LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+Author of the Popular "Bobbsey Twins" Books
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wrapper and text illustrations drawn by
+
+FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=
+
+This new series by the author of the "Bobbsey Twins" Books will be eagerly
+welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten years of age. Their
+eyes will fairly dance with delight at the lively doings of inquisitive
+little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue.
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
+
+  Bunny was a lively little boy, very inquisitive. When he did anything, Sue
+followed his leadership. They had many adventures, some comical in the
+extreme.
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
+
+  How the youngsters journeyed to the farm in an auto, and what good times
+followed, is realistically told.
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
+
+  First the children gave a little affair, but when they obtained an old
+army tent the show was truly grand.
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
+
+  The family go into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake, and Bunny and his
+sister have more good times and some adventures.
+
+BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
+
+  The city proved a wonderful place to the little folks. They took in all
+the sights and helped a colored girl who had run away from home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH SERIES
+
+By GRAHAM B. FORBES
+
+Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy than Frank Allen, the
+hero of this series of boys' tales, and never was there a better crowd of
+lads to associate with than the students of the School. All boys will read
+these stories with deep interest. The rivalry between the towns along the
+river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to win the champions,
+at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at track athletics, and at ice
+hockey, were without number. Any lad reading one volume of this series
+will surely want the others.
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH
+Or The All Around Rivals of the School
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE DIAMOND
+Or Winning Out by Pluck
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE RIVER
+Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE GRIDIRON
+Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE ICE
+Or Out for the Hockey Championship
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN TRACK ATHLETICS
+Or A Long Run that Won
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN WINTER SPORTS
+Or Stirring Doings on Skates and Iceboats
+
+=12mo. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in cloth, with cover design and
+wrappers in colors.=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS SERIES
+
+By CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN
+
+The outdoor chums are four wide-awake lads, sons of wealthy men of a small
+city located on a lake. The boys love outdoor life, and are greatly
+interested in hunting, fishing, and picture taking. They have motor
+cycles, motor boats, canoes, etc., and during their vacations go
+everywhere and have all sorts of thrilling adventures. The stories give
+full directions for camping out, how to fish, how to hunt wild animals and
+prepare the skins for stuffing, how to manage a canoe, how to swim, etc.
+Full of the spirit of outdoor life.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS
+Or The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE
+Or Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST
+Or Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF
+Or Rescuing the Lost Balloonists.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME
+Or Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON A HOUSEBOAT
+Or The Rivals of the Mississippi.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE BIG WOODS
+Or The Rival Hunters at Lumber Run.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AT CABIN POINT
+Or The Golden Cup Mystery.
+
+=12mo. Averaging 240 pages. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in Cloth.=
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES
+
+By VICTOR APPLETON
+
+=12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.=
+
+Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this
+line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films are
+made--the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures to
+satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in the
+Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along the
+seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among savage beasts,
+and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of earthquakes.
+The volumes teem with adventures and will be found interesting from first
+chapter to last.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
+Or Perils of a Great City Depicted.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST
+Or Taking Scenes Among the Cowboys and Indians.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST
+Or Showing the Perils of the Deep.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
+Or Stirring Times Among the Wild Animals.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND
+Or Working Amid Many Perils.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD
+Or Perilous Days on the Mississippi.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA
+Or Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA
+Or The Treasure of the Lost Ship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City
+by Laura Lee Hope
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY ***
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