The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island
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"I think he'd like to get out where he can walk around and have
something to eat and drink," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We must take him out of
his crate."
This was soon done with the help of the express agent, and, when the
last piece of wood was taken off, the goat stepped out of his crate in
which he had traveled from a distant city, and gave a loud,
"Baa-a-a-a-a!"
Then he stamped his forefeet on the platform, and shook his head, on
which were two horns.
"Oh, look out! He'll run away!" cried Freddie, who was afraid of losing
his goat before there was a chance for a ride.
But the goat seemed tame, kind and gentle, and after walking about a
little, stood still beside the crate and let the children pat him, while
Mr. Bobbsey paid the express agent.
There was a piece of paper pasted on the crate in which the goat had
traveled. One end of the paper was flapping loose, and, seeing it, the
white animal nibbled at it, and finally ate it, chewing it up as though
he liked it; as indeed he did, not so much for the paper as for the
dried paste by which it had been stuck on.
"Oh, look!" cried Nan. "The goat's eating the label off his crate so we
can't send him back. He likes us, I guess."
"We like _him_, anyhow," said Freddie, laughing and patting the billy.
"Come on, Bert. Hitch him up and give us a ride."
"Shall I?" asked Bert of his father.
"Why, yes, I guess so. Might as well start now as any time. The man I
bought him from said he was kind and gentle and liked children. Harness
him up, Bert."
A complete harness had come with the goat and wagon, and when the white
animal had been given a drink of water and fed some grass which Flossie
and Freddie pulled for him, Bert, helped by his father and the express
agent, put the harness on.
"What are we going to call him?" asked Nan. "We'll have to have a name
for our goat. We don't want to call him 'it,' or 'Billy.'"
"Name him Whisker," said Bert. "See, he has whiskers just like an old
man."
"Oh, that's a nice, funny name!" laughed Flossie, and Freddie thought so
too. So the goat was named Whisker, and he seemed to like that as well
as any. What he had been called before they got him, the children did
not know.
Whisker did not seem to mind being hitched to the wagon, and when Mr.
Bobbsey had made sure that all the straps were well fastened, Bert took
the front seat, with Nan beside him, while Flossie and Freddie sat in
the back. They set off, Mr. Bobbsey walking beside the goat to make sure
he did not run away.
But Whisker seemed to be a very good goat indeed, and went along nicely,
and so slowly and carefully that Freddie, several times, begged to be
allowed to drive.
"I will let you after a while," promised Bert. "Let me get used to him
first."
When the Bobbsey twins came riding down their street in the goat wagon
you can imagine how surprised all the other children were. They gathered
in front of the house and rushed into the yard when Bert turned Whisker
up the driveway.
"Oh, give us a ride! Give us a ride!" cried the playmates of the Bobbsey
twins.
"Yes, I'll give you all rides," promised Bert good-naturedly.
Then began a jolly time for the Bobbsey twins and their friends. Whisker
did not seem to mind how many children he hauled around the smooth level
yard at the side of the house, and sometimes the wagon was as full as it
could hold. Nor did the goat try to butt any one with his horns, letting
the boys and girls pet him as much as they pleased.
"He's almost as nice as my doll the gypsies took," said Helen Porter,
after she had had a ride. "I like Whisker."
"Did you find your doll?" asked Flossie.
"No. I can't find Mollie anywhere. I just know she's been turned into a
gypsy. Oh, dear!"
"Flossie and I'll help you find her," promised Freddie once again. "Some
day I'm going to drive the goat all alone, and I'll give you and Flossie
a long ride, Helen. Then we'll go off and find your doll."
"That'll be nice," said Helen.
The Bobbsey twins never knew how many friends they had until they got
the goat wagon. For a time Snoop and Snap were forgotten, because there
was so much fun to be had with Whisker. Bert gave many rides to his
little sister and brother and to their playmates, and in a few days
Freddie was allowed to drive the goat, so gentle was the white animal.
One day, soon after Bert had hitched Whisker to the wagon, and was going
to give his two sisters and brother a ride, a telephone message came
from Mr. Bobbsey, asking Bert to come to the lumber office to get
something Mr. Bobbsey had to send home to his wife.
"I'll give you a ride when I come back," promised Bert, hurrying down
the street.
"We'll leave Whisker hitched up," said Nan. "I'll go in and finish
sewing up that hole in my stocking I was mending."
"And I'll stay out here in the goat wagon," said Freddie, while Flossie
nodded her head to say she would do the same thing.
A little later, and before Bert had come back from his father's office,
Helen Porter came walking past the Bobbsey house. Looking in the yard,
she saw Flossie and Freddie seated in the goat wagon.
"Come on in," invited Flossie. "We're having a make-believe ride, and
you can ride too. Can't she, Freddie?"
"Yep. An' I'm going to drive--make-believe. Come on, Helen. When Bert
comes I'll ask him to take us to help find the gypsies and get back your
doll."
Helen hurried in and took her place in the wagon, and the three children
had lots of fun pretending they were going on a long trip. They did not
really go, for the goat was tied to a post.
"I wish Bert would hurry back," said Flossie, after a bit. "I'm tired of
staying in one place so long."
"So'm I," said Freddie. Then he got out of the wagon and began loosening
the strap by which the goat was fastened to the post.
"What're you doing?" Flossie asked.
"I--I just want to see what Whisker'll do," answered the little boy.
"Maybe he's tired of standing still."
Indeed, the goat seemed to be, for no sooner had Freddie got into the
wagon again than off Whisker started, walking slowly toward the back of
the yard, where there was a gate to a rear street which led to the
woods.
"Whoa!" cried Freddie, but he did not say it very loudly. "Whoa,
Whisker! Where you going?"
"Oh, he's runnin' away!" cried Helen. "Let me out! He's runnin' away!"
"No, he's only walking," said Freddie. "It's all right. As long as he
walks, you won't get hurt. I guess I'd better drive him, though."
"Can't you stop him?" asked Flossie. "Bert won't like it to have us take
him away."
"We aren't taking him away; he's taking _us_ away," said Freddie. "I
can't make him stop. Look!" Again he called: "Whoa!" but the goat did
not obey.
On and on went Whisker, slowly at first, then walking a little faster
and pulling after him the wagon with the children in it.
"Oh, he's going to the woods!" cried Flossie, as she saw the goat
heading for the patch of trees at the end of the back street. "Stop him,
Freddie!"
"Maybe he wants to go there," said Freddie. "He won't stop for me."
"But it--it's such a bumpy road," said Helen, the words being fairly
jarred out of her. "It's all--all bu-bu-bumps and hu-hu-humps."
"That's 'cause we're in the woods," said Freddie, for by this time the
goat had drawn the wagon into the shade of the woods, not far from the
Bobbsey home. It was indeed a bumpy place, Whisker pulling the children
over tree roots and bits of broken wood. But the wagon was stout, and
the goat was strong. Then, suddenly, Freddie had an idea.
"Oh, Helen!" he cried, "I guess Whisker is taking us to find your lost
doll!"
CHAPTER VI
JOLLY NEWS
Whisker, the big white goat, seemed to know exactly what he was doing,
whether or not it was taking the two smallest Bobbsey twins and Helen
Porter to the woods to find the lost doll. For the goat stepped briskly
along, pulling after him the wagon in which the children rode. They were
bumped about quite a bit, for the path through the woods was anything
but smooth.
In some places there was no path at all, but this did not seem to worry
Whisker. He went along anyhow, now and then stopping to nibble at some
green leaves, and again turning to one side to crop some grass.
"Do you really think he's taking us to my doll?" asked Helen eagerly.
"I--I hope so," answered Flossie, somewhat doubtfully.
"Maybe he is," said Freddie. "Anyhow, the gypsies that took your doll
Mollie came to the woods, and we're in the woods, and maybe the doll is
here and maybe we'll find her."
That was as much as Freddie could think of at one time, especially as he
had to hold the reins that were fast to the bit in Whisker's mouth. For
the goat was driven just as a horse or pony is driven, and Freddie was
doing the driving this time.
At least the little boy thought he was, and that was very near the same
thing. But Whisker went along by himself pretty much as he pleased,
really not needing much driving by the leather reins. And he never
needed to be whipped--in fact, there was not a whip in the wagon, for
the Bobbsey children never thought of using it. They were kind to their
goat.
"Oh, I'm falling out!" suddenly cried Helen, as the wagon went over a
very rough, bumpy place in the path.
"Hold on tight like me," said Flossie. "Anyhow," she went on, as she
looked out of the wagon, "if you do fall you won't get hurted much,
'cause there's a lot of soft moss and leaves on the ground."
"But I'll get my dress dirty," said Helen.
"Then we'll go down to the lake and wash it off," said Freddie, for the
woods in which they now were led down to the shore of the lake.
"Well, I don't want to fall, anyhow," said Helen. "'Most always when I
fall I bump my nose, an' it hurts."
"It's smoother now, and I guess the wagon won't tip over," observed
Freddie, a little later.
They had come now to a wider path in the woods, where it was not so
bumpy, and the wagon rolled easily over the moss and leaves as Whisker
pulled it along.
"It's nice in here," said Flossie, looking about her.
"Yes, I'm glad Whisker took us for a ride," said Freddie.
"He wouldn't have if you hadn't unhitched his strap," remarked Flossie.
"What'll Bert say?"
"Well, Whisker was tired of standing still," went on her brother. "And,
anyhow, Helen wanted to come for a ride to find her doll; didn't you?"
he asked their little playmate.
"Yep, I did," she answered. "I want my doll Mollie awful much."
"Then we'll look for her," Freddie went on. "Whoa, Whisker!"
Whether the goat really stopped because Freddie said this word, which
always makes horses stop, or whether Whisker was tired and wanted a
rest, I can not say. Anyhow, he stopped in a shady place in the woods,
and the children got out.
"I'll tie the goat to a tree so he can't go off and have a ride by
himself," said Freddie, as he took the strap from the wagon.
But Whisker did not seem to want to go on any farther. He lay down on
some soft moss and seemed to go to sleep.
"We'll leave him here until we come back," said Freddie. "And now we'll
look for Helen's doll."
Perhaps the children had an idea that the gypsies may have left the
talking doll behind in the woods when they were driven away by the
police. For, though they were not near the place where the dark-skinned
men and women had camped, Flossie, Freddie and Helen began looking under
trees and bushes for a trace of the missing Mollie.
"Do you s'pose she can talk and call to tell you where she is?" asked
Flossie, when they had hunted about a bit, not going too far from the
goat and wagon.
"I don't know," Helen answered. "Sometimes, when I wind up the spring in
her back she says 'Mamma' and 'Papa' without my pushing the button. My
father says that's because something is the matter with her."
"Well, if she would only talk now, and holler out, we'd know where to
look for her," added Freddie.
"Let's call to her," suggested Flossie.
"All right," agreed Helen.
[Illustration: "MOLLIE! MOLLIE! WHERE ARE YOU?"
_The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island._ _Page 63_]
So the children called:
"Mollie! Mollie! Where are you?"
Their voices echoed through the trees, but there was no other answer--at
least for a while. Then, when they had walked on a little farther, and
found a spring of water where they had a cool drink, they called again:
"Mollie! Mollie! Where are you?"
Then, all at once, seemingly from a long way off, came an answering
call:
"Wait a minute. I'm coming!"
"Oh, did you hear that?" gasped Flossie.
"It was somebody talking to us," whispered Helen.
"And it wasn't the echo, either," went on Flossie.
"Maybe it was your doll," suggested Freddie. "Did it sound like her
voice?"
"A--a little," said Helen slowly.
"We'll call again," suggested Flossie, and once more the children cried
aloud:
"Mollie! Mollie! Where are you?"
"Wait a minute. Stand still so I can find you! I'm coming!" was the
answer.
The three little ones looked at one another in surprise, and they were,
moreover, a little frightened. Was it possible that the missing, talking
doll was really in the woods and had answered them? That it could talk,
because it had a phonograph inside, they all knew. But would it answer
when spoken to?
"It didn't sound like Mollie," whispered Helen, after a bit. "Her voice
wasn't as loud as that."
"Oh-o-o-o-o!" suddenly gasped Flossie. "Maybe it was--the gypsies!"
That was something the children had not thought of before. Suppose it
should be the same gypsy man who had taken away the doll?
"It couldn't be the gypsies," said Freddie, looking around him. "They
all went away. Daddy said so."
"But maybe there was _one_ left," suggested his sister.
"Pooh! I'm not afraid of _one_ gypsy," declared Freddie. "If he bothers
me I'll sic Whisker on him."
"You can't sic a goat--they can't bite or bark like a dog," retorted
Flossie.
"No, but Whisker can butt with his horns!" cried Freddie. "That's what
I'll do! If it's a gypsy I'll sic Whisker on him!"
Just then the children heard the voice again, calling:
"Where are you? I want to find you!"
Once more they looked at one another rather afraid. And then came a
loud "Baa-a-a-a-a!" from Whisker.
"Come on!" cried Freddie. "Maybe they're trying to take our goat away!"
He started on a run through the woods toward the place where they had
left Whisker and the wagon, now out of sight behind some bushes.
"Wait! Wait for me!" cried Flossie, who was left behind with Helen.
"Don't run off without us, Freddie!"
"Oh, excuse me," he said, politely enough. "But we don't want those
gypsies to take Whisker."
"Whisker'll butt 'em," said Flossie. "Wait for us."
"Yes, I guess our goat won't let anybody take him," went on Freddie,
walking now, instead of running. "Come on, Flossie and Helen! Maybe it's
your doll talking and maybe it isn't. But we'll soon see!"
Together the three children hurried on, soon coming within sight of the
goat. There was Whisker peacefully lying down, still asleep. And running
toward him, along the woodland path, was Bert, who, as he caught sight
of Freddie and the others, called:
"Oh, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you. Didn't you
hear me calling?"
"Was that you?" asked Freddie. "We thought maybe it was a gypsy man."
"Or Helen's doll," added Flossie. "Her doll, Mollie, can talk, you know,
Bert. And Whisker gave us a ride here so we looked for the doll."
"Yes, and then I had to come looking for you," said her brother. "But
never mind. I've found you and I've got jolly news."
"Do you mean jolly news because you found us?" asked Freddie.
"No, it's jolly news about something else," Bert said. "But I've got to
hurry home with you so mother won't worry. Then I'll tell you."
CHAPTER VII
WHERE IS SNAP?
"How did you youngsters come to run away?" asked Bert, when he was
driving the goat wagon back through the woods again, taking a path that
was not quite so bumpy as the first one. "My goodness! I came back from
daddy's office to find mother and Nan looking everywhere for you. How
did you happen to run away?"
"We didn't runned away," said Flossie, who was so excited over what had
happened that she forgot to speak the way her teacher in school had told
her to. "Whisker runned away with us."
"I guess he didn't go without being told, and without some one's taking
off his hitching strap," said Bert, with a smile.
"Anyhow, we didn't run much, Whisker just walked most of the time," said
Freddie.
"Well, it's all the same," returned Bert. "I had to chase after you to
find you. Didn't you hear me calling?"
"Yes, but we thought it was gypsies or Helen's doll," answered Flossie.
"We were looking for Mollie, you know."
"You'll not find her unless you find that band of gypsies," said Bert.
"Anyhow, you mustn't come off to the woods alone, you little children."
"We had Whisker with us," Freddie declared. "And if any of the gypsy men
had come he'd have butted 'em with his horns."
"He might, and he might not," went on Bert. "Anyhow, I guess you had a
nice ride."
"We did," said Flossie. "Only we're sorry we couldn't find Helen's doll.
How did you find us, Bert?"
"Oh, I could see by the wheel and hoof marks in the soft dirt which way
Whisker had taken the wagon, and I just followed."
"But what is the jolly news?" Freddie demanded. "Are we going back to
New York?"
"Better than that!" answered Bert. "We're going camping!"
"Camping?" cried the two little Bobbsey twins in the same breath.
"Where?" asked Freddie. "When?" asked Flossie.
"It isn't all settled yet," answered Bert. "You know daddy and mother
talked about it when we were in the big city. And to-day, when I was
down at the lumberyard I heard daddy speaking to a man in there about
some of the islands in Lake Metoka. Daddy wanted to know which one was
the best to camp on."
"And did the man say which was a good one?" asked Freddie.
"I didn't hear. But I asked daddy afterward if we were going to camp
this summer, and he said he guessed so, if mother wanted to."
"Does mother want to?" asked Flossie eagerly.
"She says she does," answered Bert. "So I guess we'll go to camp this
summer all right. Isn't that jolly news?"
"Um," said Freddie, not opening his mouth, for in one pocket of his
little jacket he had found a sweet cracker he had forgotten, and he was
now chewing on it, after having given his sister and Helen some.
"Oh, I wish we could go now and take Whisker with us!" cried Flossie.
"If we go we'll take the goat cart!" decided Bert.
"And we'll take our dog Snap, and our cat Snoop, too!" announced
Freddie. "They'll like to go camping."
Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan were anxiously waiting for Bert to come back with
the runaways, and when he came in sight, driving the goat cart, the
children's mother hurried down the back road to meet them.
"Oh, my dears! you shouldn't go away like that!" she called.
"Whisker wanted to go," said Freddie. "And we had a nice ride even if it
was bumpy. And we thought we heard Mollie's doll calling, but it was
Bert."
"Well, don't do it again," said Mrs. Bobbsey. She always said that,
whenever either set of twins did things they ought not to do, and each
time they promised to mind. But the trouble was they hardly ever did the
same thing twice. And as there were so many things to do, Mrs. Bobbsey
could not think of them all, so she could not tell Nan and Bert,
Flossie and Freddie not to do them.
"When are we going camping?" asked Freddie, as he got out of the goat
cart.
"And what island are we going on?" asked Flossie.
"Oh, my! I see you have it all settled so soon!" laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Your father and I have yet to talk it over.
"We'll do that to-night," she went on. "And now you children come in and
get washed, and Dinah will give you something to eat. You must be
hungry."
"We are," said Flossie. "And Helen's hungry, too. Aren't you, Helen?"
she asked.
"Um--yes--I guess so."
"Well, we'll soon find out," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I think your mother
won't mind if I give you a little lunch with Flossie and Freddie. Nan
can tell her that you are here and are all right. She doesn't know you
had a runaway ride in the goat wagon."
"It was a bumpy ride, too," explained Flossie. "And we didn't find
Mollie the talking doll."
"Well, maybe you will some day," said Mrs. Bobbsey kindly.
And while Flossie, Freddie and Helen ate the nice little lunch, fat,
black Dinah got ready for them, Bert and Nan went for a ride in the goat
wagon, stopping at Mrs. Porter's house to tell her that Helen was safe
in the Bobbsey home.
"And now let's talk about camping!" cried Bert that night after supper
when the family, twins included, were gathered in the dining-room, the
table having been cleared. "When can we go?"
"I think as soon as school closes," said his father. "Summer seems to
have started in early this year, and I want to get you children and your
mother off to some cool place. An island in the middle of the lake is
the best place I can think of."
"It will be fine!" cried Bert. "Which island are we going to camp on?"
"There are two or three that would do nicely," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "I
talked to some friends who own them, but I think one called Blueberry
Island would suit us best."
"It has a nice name," said Nan. "I like--Blueberry Island! It sounds
just as if it were out of a book."
"Is it a fairy island?" Freddie wanted to know, for he liked to have
fairy stories read to him.
"Well, maybe it will turn out to be a fairy story," said Mr. Bobbsey
with a laugh. "It's the largest island in the lake, and several other
parties are going there camping, so Mr. Ames, the man who owns it, told
me."
"Why do they call it Blueberry Island?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Because there are many blueberries on it," answered her husband. "And
if we go there I shall expect you children to pick plenty of blueberries
so Dinah can make pies. I'm very fond of blueberry pie."
"I like it, too," said Freddie. "We'll take Whisker with us, and he can
haul a whole wagon load of blueberries."
"I wouldn't ask you to pick as many as that," said his father with a
laugh. "Two or three quarts would be enough for a pie, wouldn't they,
Mother?"
"I should hope so! But do you really mean we are to go camping on
Blueberry Island?"
"Surely," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "It will be a nice way to spend the
summer."
"And shall we live in a tent?" asked Freddie, "and cook over a camp
fire? and go fishing? and--and--and----"
"Yes, all of that and more, too," said his father, catching up the
little fat fireman and bouncing him toward the ceiling.
Then followed a happy hour talking over the plans for going camping on
Blueberry Island, until Mother Bobbsey said it was time for Flossie and
Freddie, at least, to go to bed.
Off they went to Slumberland, to dream of living in a big white tent
with a flag on top of it.
"Just like a circus!" as Freddie said the next morning at breakfast.
"Or a gypsy camp," added Flossie. "Are there any gypsies on Blueberry
Island, Daddy?"
"No, not a one."
"'Cause if there was," went on the little girl, "I wouldn't take my doll
with me. I wouldn't want her tooked away like Helen's was."
"We won't let any gypsies come," said Mr. Bobbsey.
One warm summer day came after another until it was nearly time to close
the school, and all the boys and girls in Lakeport were thinking of
vacation. The Bobbseys were getting ready to go to the Blueberry Island
camp. Mr. Bobbsey had bought the tents and other things and they were to
go to the island in a boat.
"And we'll take Whisker, our goat, and Snap and Snoop," said Flossie,
"and my dolls and the bugs that go around and around and around and----"
"You'll have a regular menagerie!" said Nan.
"We'll have some fun, anyhow," cried Freddie. "I wonder if we could
hitch Snap and Whisker up together and make a team?"
"Let's try," suggested Bert. "Come on, Freddie, we'll find our dog."
But when they called Snap he did not come running in from the yard or
barn as he had always done before. Bert and Freddie called, but there
was no answering bark.
"Where is Snap, Dinah?" asked Bert, when a search about the house did
not show the missing dog.
"I done seed him heah about half an hour ago," said the colored cook,
"an' den, all to oncet, I didn't see him ag'in. I wonder if dat ole
peddler could hab took him?" she asked, speaking half to herself.
Bert and Freddie looked at one another in surprise. Where was Snap?
CHAPTER VIII
OFF TO CAMP
"This is queer," said Bert, when a more careful search about the house
and barn failed to find Snap. "If he's run away, it will be about the
first time he has done that since we've had him."
"Let's ask at some of the houses down the street," said Nan. "Sometimes
the children coax him in to play with them, and he forgets to come home
because they make such a fuss over him."
"Here's Snoop, anyhow!" cried Freddie, coming out of the barn with the
big black cat in his arms. "He can go to camp with us."
"But we want Snap, too!" added Flossie. "We need a dog to keep the
gypsies away."
"There won't be any gypsies on Blueberry Island!" Bert reminded them.
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