The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island

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THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND

by

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Bobbsey Twins," "The Bunny
Brown Series," "The Outdoor Girls
Series," Etc.

Illustrated

New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Made in the United States of America

* * * * *

BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE

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 ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND

[Illustration: FREDDIE CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH.

_The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island._ _Frontispiece_--(_Page 123_)]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE GYPSIES 1
II. A SURPRISE 13
III. WORRIED TWINS 26
IV. THE GOAT 36
V. A BUMPY RIDE 47
VI. JOLLY NEWS 59
VII. "WHERE IS SNAP?" 68
VIII. OFF TO CAMP 78
IX. A NIGHT SCARE 90
X. THE "GO-AROUND" BUGS 103
XI. THE BLUEBERRY BOY 112
XII. THE DRIFTING BOAT 126
XIII. IN THE CAVE 137
XIV. HELEN'S VISIT 147
XV. THE DOLL'S DRESS 161
XVI. SNOOP IS MISSING 170
XVII. FREDDIE IS CAUGHT 179
XVIII. FLOSSIE IS TANGLED 191
XIX. THE TWINS FALL DOWN 202
XX. THE QUEER NOISE 213
XXI. "HERE COMES SNAP!" 221
XXII. HAPPY DAYS 231

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND

CHAPTER I

THE GYPSIES

"Oh, dear! I wish we weren't going home!"

"So do I! Can't we stay out a little while longer?"

"Why, Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey!" cried Nan, the older sister of the
two small twins who had spoken. "A few minutes ago you were in a hurry
to get home."

"Yes; they said they were so hungry they couldn't wait to see what Dinah
was going to have for supper," said Bert Bobbsey. "How about that,
Freddie?"

"Well, I'm hungry yet," said the little boy, who was sitting beside his
sister Flossie in a boat that was being rowed over the blue waters of
Lake Metoka. "I am hungry, and I want some of Dinah's pie, but I'd like
to stay out longer."

"So would I," added Flossie. "It's so nice on the lake, and maybe
to-morrow it will rain."

"Well, what if it does?" asked Nan. "You didn't expect to come out on
the lake again to-morrow, did you?"

"Maybe," answered Flossie, as she smoothed out the dress of a doll she
was holding in her lap.

"I'd like to come out on the lake and have a picnic every day," said
Freddie, leaning over the edge of the boat to see if a small ship, to
which he had fastened a string, was being pulled safely along.

"Don't do that!" cried Nan quickly. "Do you want to fall in?"

"No," answered Freddie slowly, as though he had been thinking that
perhaps a wetting in the lake might not be so bad after all. "No, I
don't want to fall in now, 'cause whenever I go in swimming I get
terrible hungry, and I don't want to be any hungrier than I am now."

"Oh, so that's the only reason, is it?" asked Bert with a laugh. "Well,
just keep inside the boat until we get on shore, and then you can fall
out if you want to."

"How am I going to fall out when the boat's on shore?" asked Freddie.
"Boats can't go on land anyhow, Bert Bobbsey!"

"That will be something for you to think about, and then maybe you won't
lean over and scare Nan," said Bert, smiling.

"Do you want I should land you at your father's lumber dock, or shall I
row on down near the house, Bert?" asked a man who was pulling at the
oars of the boat. "It won't make any difference to me. I've got lots of
time."

"Then, Jack, row us down near the house, if you don't mind," begged Nan.
"I want to get these two fat twins ashore as soon as I can; Freddie
especially, if he's going to almost fall overboard when I'm not
looking."

"I'm not going to fall overboard!" cried the little fat fellow. "Can't I
row, Jack?"

"Not now, Freddie. I'm in a hurry," answered the man, one of the workers
from Mr. Bobbsey's lumberyard.

"But you told Bert, just now, that you had lots of time," insisted
Freddie.

"Well--er--ahem--I haven't time to let you row, Freddie. Maybe I will
some other day," and Jack looked at Bert and smiled, while he said to
himself: "You've got to get up early in the morning to match a smart
chap like him," meaning Freddie, of course.

A short time before, the Bobbsey twins had returned from the city of New
York where they had spent a part of the winter. Now it was spring and
would soon be summer, and, as the day was a fine, warm one, they had
gone on a little picnic, taking their lunch with them and pretending to
camp on one of the many islands in the lake. Now they were on their way
home.

"Well, here you are, safe on shore!" announced Jack, as the twins called
Mr. Henderson, the man whom their father had sent with them to manage
the boat.

"Yes, and there goes Freddie--falling overboard!" cried Bert with a
laugh, as his little fat brother stumbled over a coil of rope on the
dock and tumbled down. "It's a good thing you didn't do that in the
boat, little fat fireman."

"I didn't hurt myself, anyhow," said Freddie, as he got up. "Come on,
Flossie, let's run home. I'm terrible hungry."

"So'm I," added his sister, who was as fat as he, and just the same
size. The two smaller Bobbsey twins started on ahead, while Bert, after
seeing that the boat was well tied, followed on more slowly with his
sister Nan.

"It was a nice ride we had," Nan said, "wasn't it, Bert?"

"Yes, it's great out on the lake. I wonder if we'll ever go camping as
we talked of when we were in New York?"

"Maybe. Let's tease mother to let us!"

"All right. You ask her and I'll ask father. There's one island in the
lake where----"

But Bert did not have a chance to finish what he was going to say, for
just then Flossie and Freddie, who had hurried on ahead, came running
back, surprise showing on their faces.

"Oh, Bert!" cried Freddie. "It's here! It's come!"

"Can we go to see it?" added Flossie. "Oh, I just want to!"

"What's here? What do you want to see? What is it?" asked Bert and Nan
together, taking turns at the questions.

"The circus is here!" answered Freddie.

"Circus?" asked Bert in surprise.

"Yep! We saw the wagons!" went on Flossie. "They're all red and yellow,
and they've got lookin' glasses all over the sides, and they have rumbly
wheels, like thunder, and horses with bells on and--and----"

"You'd better save a little of your breath to eat some of the good
things you think Dinah is going to cook for you," said Nan with a laugh,
as she put her arms around her small sister. "Now what is it all about?"

"It's a circus!" cried Freddie.

"We saw the wagons going along the street where our house is," added
Flossie. "All red and yellow and---- Oh, look!" she suddenly cried.
"There they are now!"

She pointed excitedly down the side street, on which the Bobbsey twins
then were, toward the main street of Lakeport, where the Bobbsey family
lived. Nan and Bert, as well as Flossie and Freddie, saw three or four
big wagons, gaily painted red and yellow, and with glittering pieces of
looking glass on their sides. The prancing horses drawing the wagons had
bells around their necks and a merry, tinkling jingle sounded, making
music wherever the horses went.

Bert and Nan gave one look at the wagons, and then they both laughed.
Flossie and Freddie glanced up in surprise at their older brother and
sister.

"Look what they thought was a circus!" chuckled Bert.

"Isn't it?" asked Flossie. "Isn't that a circus?"

"No, dear," answered Nan. "Don't laugh so much," she said to Bert, as
she saw that the two small twins felt hurt. "They do look something like
circus wagons."

"They _are_ circus wagons!" declared Freddie. "And pretty soon the
elephants will come past. I like elephants."

"You won't see any elephants to-day," said Bert. "That isn't a circus
procession."

"What is it?" Flossie demanded.

"Those are gypsy wagons," explained Nan. "Gypsies, you know, are those
queer people, who are dark-skinned. They wear rings in their ears and
live in wagons like those. They ride all over the country and tell
fortunes. I wanted to have my fortune told by a gypsy once, but mother
wouldn't let me," she added.

"It's silly!" declared Bert. "Just as if a gypsy could tell you what's
going to happen!"

"Well, Lillie Kent had hers told," went on Nan, "and the gypsy looked at
her hand and said she was going to have trouble, and she did."

"What?" asked Flossie eagerly.

"She lost a nickel a week after that--a nickel she was going to buy a
lead pencil with."

"Pooh!" laughed Bert, "she'd have lost the nickel anyhow. But say, there
are lots of gypsies in this band! I've counted five wagons so far."

"Maybe they're going to have a circus," insisted Freddie, who did not
like to give up the idea of seeing a show.

"Course they're going to have a circus," said Flossie. "Look at all the
horses," for behind the last two wagons were trotting a number of
horses, being led along by men seated in the ends of the bright-colored
wagons. The men had straps which were fastened to the heads of the
animals.

"No; gypsies don't give shows. They buy and sell horses," said Bert.
"I've seen 'em here in Lakeport before, but not so many as this. I guess
they're going to make a camp somewhere on Lake Metoka."

"Maybe we'll see 'em when we go camping," said Freddie.

"It isn't yet sure that we're going," returned Nan. "But, come on. There
are no more gypsy wagons to see, and we must get home."

Flossie and Freddie, somewhat disappointed that, after all, it was not a
circus procession they had seen, started off again. They wished they
could have seen more of the gypsies, but the gay wagons rumbled on out
of sight, though this was not the last the Bobbsey twins were to see of
them. In fact, they were to meet the gypsies again, and to have quite an
adventure with them before the summer was over.

"Well, we had a good time, anyhow," said Freddie to Flossie. "And we
_almost_ saw a circus, didn't we?"

"Yep," answered his sister. "I'm going to be a gypsy when I grow up."

"Why?" asked Freddie.

"'Cause they've got so many looking glasses on their wagons."

"I'm going to be a gypsy, too," decided Freddie, after thinking it over
a bit. "'Cause they've got so many horses. I'm going to ride horseback,
and you can ride in one of the wagons, Flossie."

"No. I'm going to ride horseback, too," declared the little girl. "I'm
going to have a spangly thing in my hair and wear a dress all glittery
and stand on the horse's back and ride----"

"Gypsies don't do that," protested Bert. "It's the people in circuses
that ride standing up."

"Gypsies do too," declared Freddie, not knowing a thing about it but
feeling he must back up anything Flossie said.

"No, they don't, either."

"Well, maybe they have gypsies in a circus. They have Indians, you
know."

"I don't believe they do," put in Nan. "Gypsies wouldn't like to be in a
tent and work every afternoon and every evening. They want to live in
their wagons and be more out of doors."

"Well, maybe we'll be gypsies and maybe we'll be in a circus," said
Freddie. "We'll see, won't we, Flossie?"

"Yep."

By this time the Bobbsey twins had reached their house, or rather, they
had turned the corner of the street leading out from the lake, and were
in sight of their home. What they saw caused Bert, Nan, Flossie and
Freddie to set out on a run. In front of their house was a crowd of
people. There were men, women and children, and among them the twins
could see their mother, fat Dinah, the cook, and Sam Johnson, her
husband, who attended to the Bobbsey furnace in winter and the lawn in
summer.

"What's the matter?" asked Nan.

"Something has happened!" cried Bert.

"The house is on fire!" shouted Freddie. "I must get my fire engine that
squirts real water!" and he raced on ahead.

"Wait a minute!" called Bert.

The Bobbsey twins saw their mother coming quickly toward them. She held
out her arms and cried:

"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Why, what's the matter?" asked Flossie.

"I can't just say," answered her mother; "but Helen Porter can't be
found. Her mother has looked everywhere for her, but can't find her."

"She's been carried off by the gypsies!" exclaimed John Marsh, an
excited boy about Bert's age. "The gypsies took her! I saw 'em!"

"You did?" asked Bert.

"Sure I did! A man! Dark, with a red sash on, and gold rings in his
ears! He picked Helen up in his arms and went off with her! She's in one
of the gypsy wagons now!"

When John told this Flossie and Freddie huddled closer to their mother.

CHAPTER II

A SURPRISE

"What's all this? What's the matter?" asked a voice on the outside
fringe of the crowd that had gathered in front of the Bobbsey home, and,
looking up, Bert saw his father coming down the street from the
direction of his lumberyard. "Has anything happened?" asked Mr. Bobbsey,
after a glance had shown him that his own little family was safe and
sound.

"Dere suah has lots done gone an' happened, Mistah Bobbsey," answered
fat Dinah. "Oh, de pore honey lamb! Jest t' think ob it!"

"But who is it? What has happened?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, looking about for
some one to answer him. Flossie and Freddie decided they would do this.

"It's gypsies," said the little "fat fireman," as his father sometimes
called Freddie.

"And they carried off Helen Porter," added the little "fat fairy," which
was Flossie's pet name. "An' I saw the wagons, all lookin' glasses, an'
Freddie an' I are goin' to be gypsies when we grow up." Flossie was so
excited that she dropped a lot of "g" letters from the ends of words
where they belonged.

"You don't mean to say that the gypsies have carried off Helen
Porter--the little girl who lives next door?" asked Mr. Bobbsey in great
surprise.

"Yep! They did! I saw 'em!" exclaimed John Marsh. "She had curly hair,
and when the gypsy man tooked her in his arms she cried, Helen did!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Flossie, Freddie and other children in the crowd.

"There must be some mistake," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Those gypsies would
never take away a child, even in fun, in broad daylight. It must be a
mistake. Let me hear more about it."

And while the father of the Bobbsey twins is trying to find out just
what had happened, I will take a few minutes to let my readers know
something of the twins themselves, for this book is about them.

It may be that some boy or girl is reading this as his or her first
venture into the volumes of the "Bobbsey Twins Series." If so, I will
state that there are a number of books which come before this, though
this story is complete in itself.

To begin with there were four Bobbsey twins, as you have guessed before
this. Nan and Bert were about ten years old, tall and dark, with eyes
and hair to match.

Flossie and Freddie were short and fat, and had light hair and blue
eyes. So, now that you know them you will have no trouble in telling the
twins, one from the other.

With their mother and their father, who owned a large lumberyard, the
twins lived in the eastern city of Lakeport near the head of Lake
Metoka. There were others in the family besides the twins and their
parents. There was dear old, black, fat Dinah, the cook, who made such
good pies, and there was Sam, her husband. And I must not forget Snoop,
the black cat, nor Snap, the big dog, who once did tricks in a circus.
You will hear more about them later.

"The Bobbsey Twins," is the name of the first book, and in that you may
read of many adventures that befell the children. They had more
adventures in the country, and there is a book telling all about that
happy time, and also one about the seashore.

When the Bobbsey twins went to school there was more fun and excitement
"than you could shake a stick at," as Dinah used to say, though why any
one would want to shake a stick at fun I can't tell. Then came jolly
times at "Snow Lodge," and on a houseboat. From there the twins went to
"Meadow Brook," and afterward came home, there to have more fun.

The book just before this one you are reading is called "The Bobbsey
Twins in a Great City." In that you may learn how Bert, Nan, Flossie and
Freddie went to New York where Mr. Bobbsey had some business to look
after. While there the twins helped to solve a mystery about a poor old
man. I think, however, that I had better not tell you any more about it,
but let you read it for yourself.

And now we find the twins back in Lakeport, ready for a good time during
the summer that would soon be at hand. Only the gypsy scare had rather
alarmed every one for the time being.

"But now let me hear what it is all about," said Mr. Bobbsey, who had
come home from the office of his lumberyard to find an excited crowd in
front of his house. "Were there really any gypsies?" he asked his wife.
"And did they take away Helen Porter?"

"I don't know about that last part," said Mrs. Bobbsey; "but a caravan
of gypsies did pass by the house a little while ago. I heard Dinah say
something about the gaily painted wagons, and I looked out in time to
see them rumbling along the street. Then, a little later, I heard Mrs.
Porter calling for Helen, and, on seeing the crowd, I ran out. I was
worried about our children until I saw them coming from the lake, where
they had gone for a row in the boat."

"I can't believe that gypsies took Helen," said Mr. Bobbsey.

"Oh, but she's _gone_!" several neighbors told him. "We can't find her
_anywhere_, and her mother is crying and taking on terribly!"

"Well, it may be that Helen is lost, or has even strayed away after the
gypsies, thinking their wagons were part of a circus, as Nan says
Flossie thought," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But gypsies wouldn't dare take a
little girl away in broad daylight."

As he said this he looked at his own little children and at others in
the crowd, for he did not want them to be frightened.

"Years ago, maybe, gypsies did take little folks," he said, "but they
don't do it any more, I'm sure."

"But where is Helen?" asked John Marsh. "A gypsy man has her, I know,
'cause I saw him take her."

"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, for John was an excitable boy,
sometimes given to imagining things that never happened.

"Course I'm sure," he said. "Cross my heart!" and he did so, while the
other children looked on wonderingly.

"Suppose you go over to Mrs. Porter's house," said Mrs. Bobbsey to the
children's father. "She's worried, I guess, and her husband isn't home
yet. Maybe you can help her. I was just going in when you came along."

"All right, I'll go," said Mr. Bobbsey.

"Can't we come?" asked Freddie, and as he had hold of his little
sister's hand, it was Flossie, of course, whom he included in his
question.

"No, you must go with your mother," said his father, and when the little
fat fireman seemed disappointed Mr. Bobbsey went on: "I guess supper is
almost ready, isn't it, Dinah?"

"Deed it am. An' dere's puddin' wif shaved-up maple sugar scattered ober
de top an'----"

"Oh, I want some of _that_!" cried Flossie. "Come on, Freddie! We can
look for the gypsies after supper."

"And we'll get Helen out of the shiny wagons," added Freddie, as he
hurried toward the Bobbsey home with Flossie, fat Dinah waddling along
after them.

"I'll go with you," offered Bert to his father. "Maybe you would want me
to go on an errand."

"Yes, take Bert with you," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'll look after Nan,
Flossie and Freddie. And be sure to tell Mrs. Porter that if I can do
anything for her I will."

"I'll tell her," and then Mr. Bobbsey, with Bert, walked to the Porter
house next door.

The crowd in the street grew larger, and there was much talk about the
gypsies. Some said that several little boys and girls had been carried
off, but, of course, this was not so.

As Flossie and Freddie tore on toward the house in front of fat Dinah,
they continued to chatter about the gypsies.

"If gypsies take little girls we don't want to be them--the gypsies, I
mean--Freddie."

"Humph-umph; that's so. Well, I guess we'll be in a circus anyhow.
That'll be more fun. You can ride a horse in the ring, and sometimes I
can ride with you and sometimes I can be a clown. When I'm a clown I can
squirt water from my fire engine over the other clowns. That'll make the
folks holler and laugh."

When Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey reached the house each of the little twins was
munching on a piece of maple sugar, given them by Dinah to keep them
from nibbling at the pudding before the time to serve it came.

"My, Momsie! aren't you glad the gypsies came and got Helen Porter? It
gives us something to think about," remarked Freddie coolly.

"Freddie Bobbsey!" gasped his mother. "No, I am not glad the gypsies got
Helen--if they did. And you and Flossie find enough to think about, as
it is. And give the rest of us enough to think about, what is more."

"There go daddy and Bert into Mrs. Porter's house now," said Nan.

"Now tell me just what happened, and I'll do all I can to help you,"
said Mr. Bobbsey to Mrs. Porter, when he got to her house and found her
half crying in the sitting-room where there were a number of other
women.

"Oh, Helen is gone, I'm sure she is!" cried the mother. "The gypsies
have taken her! I'll never see her again!"

"Oh, yes you will," said Mr. Bobbsey in mild tones. "I'm sure it's all a
mistake. The gypsies haven't taken her at all. What makes you think
so?"

"Johnnie Marsh saw them carry her away."

"Then let's have Johnnie in here where we can talk to him. Bert, suppose
you do one of those errands you spoke of," said his father with a smile,
"and bring Johnnie in out of the crowd where I can talk to him quietly."

John, or Johnnie, as he was often called, was very ready to come when
Bert found him outside the Porter house, telling over and over again to
a crowd of boys what he had seen, or what he thought he had seen.

"Now tell us just what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey, when the small boy
was seated in a chair in the Porter parlor.

"Well, I was coming from the store for my mother," said Johnnie, "and I
saw the gypsy wagons. I thought it was a circus."

"That's what Flossie and Freddie thought," said Bert to his father.

"But it wasn't," went on Johnnie. "Then I saw Helen playing in Grace
Lavine's yard down the street when I came past. And a little while after
that, when I had to go to the store for my mother again, 'cause I forgot
a yeast cake, I saw a gypsy man running along the street and he had
Helen in his arms and she was crying."

"What made you think it was Helen?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.

"'Cause I saw her light hair. Helen's got fluffy hair like your
Flossie's."

"Yes, I know she has," said Mr. Bobbsey. "What did you do when you
thought you saw the gypsy man carrying Helen away?" and they all waited
anxiously for Johnnie's answer.

"I ran home," said Johnnie. "I didn't want to be carried off in one of
those looking-glass wagons."

"Quite right," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Then you really didn't see the gypsy
man pick Helen up in his arms?"

"No," slowly answered the little boy, "he only just ran past me. But he
must have picked her up in Grace's yard, for that's where Helen was
playing."

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