The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island
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"You can't tell," declared Freddie.
"Maybe there'll be one or two, an' I don't want them to take my doll the
way they did Helen's," added Flossie.
"Didn't Helen get her doll back?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, coming out of the
house in time to hear what the children were saying.
"No'm, and she feels awful sad," replied Flossie. "And now the gypsies
has took Snap."
"The gypsies have _taken_ Snap--really, Flossie, you must speak more
correctly," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But what do you mean about Snap's being
taken?"
"He seems to be gone," reported Bert.
"We've looked everywhere for him, and now we're going to ask down the
street," added Nan.
"But we've got Snoop," said Flossie, and so it was. "We"--that is, she
and Freddie both--had the big black cat, one twin carrying the head and
the other twin the hind legs. But Snoop was often carried that way and
he did not mind.
"Snap not here? That is odd," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Have you whistled and
called to him?"
"Every way we know," replied Bert. "Listen!" and, putting his fingers in
his mouth, he gave such a shrill whistle that his mother and Nan had to
cover their ears, while fat Dinah, waddling to her kitchen window,
cried:
"Good land ob massy! What am dat--a fire whistle?"
"I can whistle like that!" shouted Freddie, dropping his end of the
black cat. As it happened to be the head end he was carrying, this left
the hind legs to Flossie and poor Snoop was thus dangling head down.
"Miaou!" he cried sadly, and then he gave a wriggle, and another one,
and got loose.
Freddie made a sort of hissing sound on his fingers--not at all a nice,
loud whistle as Bert had done--but it was pretty good for a little
fellow.
"He ought to hear that," Bert said, when he was done blowing his call,
and his mother and sister had uncovered their ears. "But he doesn't
come."
"Did you ask Dinah about him?" Mrs. Bobbsey questioned.
"Yes, and she said----Oh, she said something about a peddler!" cried
Nan. "We forgot to ask her what she meant."
"Did Snap chase after a peddler?" asked Bert, for the colored cook was
still at the window.
"No, I didn't see you all's dog chase after de peddler, honey lamb,"
replied Dinah. "But jest a little while ago a woman wif a red dress on,
all trimmed wif yaller, real fancy like, comed to de back do' sellin'
lace work. Snap was heah den, eatin' some scraps I put out fo' him, an'
de woman patted him an' talked to him in a queer like way."
"She did!" cried Bert excitedly. "What'd she say?"
"Lan' goodness! You all don't s'pose I knows all de queer languages in
de United States, does yo'?" asked Dinah, shaking her kinky head. "But
de woman talked queer t' Snap, an' he wagged his tail, which he don't
often does t' strangers."
"No," put in Flossie, shaking her head vigorously, "Snap don't often
talk to strangers. He's awful dig-dignified with 'em. Isn't he,
Freddie?"
"Well, he doesn't like tramps, and they're strangers," replied her
brother. "Are peddlers tramps, Bert?"
"No, I guess not. But some of 'em look like tramps--pretty near, maybe."
"What happened to the woman peddler?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh, I soon got rid ob her," said Dinah. "I tole her we was gwine t' lib
in de woods an' we didn't want no fancy lace 'cause it would git all
ripped on de trees an' bushes. So she went off."
"And what happened to Snap?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh, he was eatin' his scraps de last I seen ob him," answered Dinah.
"An' he wagged his tail ag'in at de woman in de gay dress what looked
like she was gwine on a picnic."
"A dress of red and yellow," said Nan. "Isn't that the color the gypsies
wear?"
"Was the woman a gypsy?" asked Bert quickly.
"She mought o' been," answered the cook. "She had gold rings in her
ears, an' she was dark. Not as dark as me or Sam, but like some of them
Eytalian men. I didn't pay much 'tention to her, 'cause I was makin' a
cake. But maybe Snap done followed her to see to it she didn't take
nuffin. 'Cause ef she was a gypsy she mought take things."
"Yes, and she's taken Snap--that's what she's done!" cried Bert. "That's
what's happened to our dog. The gypsies have him! I'm going to tell
daddy, and have him get a policeman."
"Now don't be too sure," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "Perhaps that peddler may
have been a gypsy, and she may have made friends with Snap--those people
have a strange way with them about dogs and horses--but it isn't fair to
say she took your pet. He may have followed her just to be friendly. You
had better ask at some of the houses down the street first."
"Come on!" cried Bert to Nan. "We'll go and ask."
"And I'm coming, too!" added Freddie. "I can call Snap and you can
whistle for him, Bert."
"And I'll take Snoop, and Snoop can miaou for him," said Flossie.
"No, you two little ones stay here," directed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I want to
wash and dress you for dinner. Let Bert and Nan hunt for Snap."
"Then can't we go in the goat cart?" Freddie asked.
"We'll all have a ride when we come back," promised Bert. "We first want
to find Snap, if we can, to see if he'll hitch up with Whisker," the boy
told his mother.
So while Flossie and Freddie went into the house to get freshened up
after their play, Nan and Bert went from house to house asking about
Snap. But though the big, trick dog sometimes went to play with the
neighbors' children, this time there was no sign of him. One after
another of the families on the block said they had not seen Snap.
Several servants had noticed the gypsy woman "peddler," as they called
her, for she had made a number of calls on the block, trying to sell her
lace, but no one had seen Snap with her.
"Oh, I guess Snap just ran away for a change, as Flossie and Freddie
sometimes do," said Mr. Bobbsey when he came home that evening and had
been told what had happened. "He'll come back all right, I'm sure."
But Nan and Bert were not so sure of this. They knew Snap too well. He
had never gone away like this before. Flossie and Freddie, being
younger, did not worry so much. Besides, they had Snoop, and the cat was
more their pet than was the dog, who was Bert's favorite, though, of
course, every one in the Bobbsey family loved him.
Several times that evening Bert went outside to whistle and call for his
pet, but there was no answering bark, and when bedtime came Bert was so
worried that Mr. Bobbsey agreed to call the police and ask the officers
who were on night duty to keep a lookout for the missing animal. This
would be done, the chief said, since nearly all the officers in Lakeport
knew Snap, who often visited at the police station.
Morning came, but no Snap was at the door waiting to be let in, though
Bert was up early to look. Snoop, the big black cat, was in his usual
place, getting up to stretch and rub against Bert's legs.
"But where's Snap?" asked the boy.
"Miaou," was all Snoop answered. Perhaps he knew, but could not tell.
"Well, I'm afraid your dog is lost," said Mr. Bobbsey, when at the
breakfast table Bert reported that Snap was still away. "We'll put an
advertisement in the paper and offer a reward if he is brought back."
"Maybe he's gone to camp on Blueberry Island and is waiting over there
for us," said Flossie.
"Maybe, my little fat fairy!" agreed her father, catching her up for a
good-bye kiss. "Let's hope so. And now you must soon begin to get ready
to go camping."
The children heard this news with delight, and, for a time, even lost
Snap was forgotten. He had often visited the neighbors before, and had
always come back, so Bert hoped the same thing would happen this time.
There was much to do to get ready to go to Blueberry Island. There were
clothes to pack and food to be bought, for though it was not many miles
from the island back to the mainland where there were stores, still
Mrs. Bobbsey did not want to have to send in too often for what was
needed.
The goat wagon was very useful for going on errands during the days that
it took them to get ready to go off to live in the woods. Bert and Nan,
sometimes with Flossie and Freddie, rode here and there about town, and
Whisker was as good as a pony, being strong and gentle.
Everywhere they went Nan and her brother looked for Snap and asked
about him. But, though many in Lakeport knew the dog, and had seen
him on the day he was last noticed, no one could tell where he was.
No one could be found who had seen him with the gypsy woman--if he had
gone with her--though a number said they had noticed the gaudy,
red-and-yellow-dressed peddler strolling about with her lace.
"Our dog's gone and Helen's doll is gone," said Nan the night before
they were to go to camp. "I wonder what will be taken next."
"I hope they don't get our Snoop," said Flossie, as she went to look at
the big black cat who was sleeping in the box, with a handle, in which
he was to be taken to the island.
"And I hope they let Whisker alone," said Freddie.
"Whisker can take care of himself, with his horns," observed Bert. "I'm
not afraid of a gypsy trying to get our goat."
The tents had been sent to the island, and a man would set them up.
Plenty of good things to eat were packed in boxes and baskets. Dinah and
Sam had made ready to go to camp, for they were included in the family.
Dinah was to do the cooking and her husband was to look after the boats
and firewood.
"And, oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Flossie the next morning, when the
sun rose warm and bright and they started for Blueberry Island.
"It would be better if we had Snap," said Bert. "You don't know how I
miss that dog!"
"We all do," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Perhaps we'll find him when we come
back, Bert. Your father will come back from the island once or twice a
week, and he'll come to the house to see if Snap has come back."
"He'll never come back," said Bert, with a sad face. "I'm sure the
gypsies took him, and they'll keep him when they find out he can do
circus tricks."
"Well, maybe we'll find the gypsies and, if they have Snap, we can make
them give him up," said Nan.
"I hope so," murmured Bert.
There was a small steamer that made trips across the lake, and in this
the Bobbseys were to go to Blueberry Island, as they had so many things
to take with them that a small boat would never have held them all.
CHAPTER IX
A NIGHT SCARE
"Well, are you all ready?" asked Daddy Bobbsey, as he came out and
locked the front door. On the steps in front of him, or else down the
front walk, were his wife, Nan, Bert, Flossie, Freddie, Sam, Dinah,
Snoop, in his traveling crate, Whisker, the goat, hitched to his wagon,
and a pile of trunks, boxes and other things.
"If we're not ready we never will be," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a sigh and
a laugh, as she looked over everything. "We aren't going so far, but
what we can send for anything we forget, which is a good thing. But I
guess we're all ready, Daddy."
"Good! Here comes the expressman for our trunks, and behind him is the
automobile we're going to take down to the steamer dock. Now have you
children everything you want?" and he looked at Flossie and Freddie
particularly.
"I've got my best doll, and Snoop's in his cage," said Flossie. "And my
other dolls are in the trunk and so are the toys I want. Is your fire
engine packed, Freddie? 'Cause you might want it if the woods got on
fire."
"Yep; my fire engine is all right," answered the little fellow. "An'
I've got everything I want, I guess--except--maybe----" he was thinking
then. "Oh, I forgot 'em! I forgot 'em!" he quickly cried. "Open the
door, Daddy! I forgot 'em!"
"Forgot what?" his father asked with a smile.
"The tin bugs that go around and around and around," answered Freddie.
"You know, the ones I buyed in New York. I want 'em."
"Well, it's a good thing you thought of them before we got away, for I
wouldn't have wanted to come back just to get the tin bugs."
"But they go around and around and around!" cried Flossie, who liked the
queer toys as much as did her brother. "They're lots of fun."
"Well, as long as we're going to camp on Blueberry Island for fun as
much as for anything else," said Mr. Bobbsey, "I suppose we'll have to
get the bugs. Come on, Freddie."
The little twin had wrapped his tin bugs in a paper and left them on a
chair in the front hall, so it was little trouble to get them. Then the
trunks, bags and bundles were piled in the wagon and taken to the
steamboat dock, while the Bobbsey family, all except Bert, took their
places in the automobile. Bert was to drive Whisker to the wharf, as it
was found easier to ship the goat and wagon this way than by crating or
boxing the animal and his cart.
"I'd rather ride with Bert and Whisker than in the auto," said Freddie
wistfully, as he saw his brother about to drive off.
"So would I!" added Flossie, who always chimed in with anything her twin
brother did.
"But you can't," said Mrs. Bobbsey decidedly. "If you two small twins
went with Bert in the goat wagon something would be sure to happen.
You'd stop to give some one a ride or you'd have a race with a dog or a
cat, and then we'd miss the boat. You must come with us, Flossie and
Freddie, and, Bert, don't lose any time. The boat won't wait for you and
Whisker."
"I'll be there before you," promised Bert, and he was, for he took a
short cut. He said on the way he had stopped at the police station to
ask if there was any news about the missing Snap, but the trick dog had
not been seen, and so the Bobbseys went to camp without him.
If there had not been so much to see and to do, they would have been
more lonesome for Snap than they were. As it was, they missed him very
much, but Bert held out a little hope by saying perhaps they might find
their pet on Blueberry Island, though why he said it he hardly knew.
"All aboard!" called the steamboat men as the Bobbseys settled
themselves in comfort, their goods having been put in place. The goat
wagon was left on the lower deck where stood the horses and wagons that
were to be taken across the lake, for the steamer was a sort of
ferryboat. "All aboard!" called the deck hands.
There was a tooting of whistles, a clanging and ringing of bells, and
the boat slowly moved away from the dock.
"Oh, it's just lovely to go camping!" sighed Nan.
"We haven't really begun yet," said Bert. "Wait until we get to the
woods and have to go hunting for what we want to eat, and cook it over
an open fire--that's the way to live!"
"I guess there won't be much hunting on Blueberry Island," said Mr.
Bobbsey, with a laugh.
"Well, we can make-believe, can't we?" asked Freddie.
"Oh, yes, you can make-believe," said his mother. "And that, sometimes,
is more fun than having real things."
I will not tell you all the things that happened on the steamboat, for
so much more happened on Blueberry Island that I will have to hurry on
to that. Besides, the trip to the middle of the lake did not take more
than an hour, and not much can take place in an hour.
I say not much, and yet sometimes lots of things can. But not a great
deal did to the Bobbseys this time, though, to be sure, a strange dog
tried to get hold of Snoop in his crate, and Freddie nearly fell
overboard reaching after his hat, which blew off.
"But I could swim even if I did fall in," he said, for Mr. Bobbsey had
taught all four twins how to keep afloat in water.
"Well, we don't want you falling in," his mother answered. "Now you sit
by me."
This Freddie did for a short time. Then he got tired of sitting still
and jumped down from his chair, at the same time calling to his little
sister:
"Say, Flossie, let's go and watch the engine."
"All right," answered the little girl, ready, as always, to do anything
her brother suggested.
As Flossie jumped from her chair to join her brother, she accidently
kicked an umbrella belonging to a man who was sitting near by, and the
umbrella fell to the floor and slipped out under the railing right into
the water.
"Oh--oh--oh!" gasped Flossie.
But Freddie turned and ran as fast as he could to the stairs that led to
the lower deck.
"Here! where are you going?" cried his father, and started after his
son.
"Goin' after that umbrella!"
"I think not!" and Mr. Bobbsey caught up with Freddie and picked him up
in his arms.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bobbsey told the man how sorry she was, and said that
they would replace the umbrella. But the man returned that he would not
allow that.
"No one needs an umbrella on such a lovely day, anyway," he said.
But a deckhand who was cleaning some mops in the water had already
rescued the umbrella.
"Blueberry Island!" called a man on the steamer, after the boat had made
one or two other stops. "All off for Blueberry Island!"
"Oh, let us off! Let us off!" cried Flossie, getting up in such a hurry
from her deck chair that she dropped her doll. "We're going camping
there."
"I guess the passengers know it by this time, without your telling
them," laughed her father. "But come on--don't forget anything."
Such a scrambling as there was! Such a gathering together of
packages--umbrellas--fishing rods--hats, caps, gloves and the crate
with black Snoop in it. Sam and Dinah helped all they could, and between
them and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and the children the family managed to get
ashore at last.
A gangplank had been run from the boat to the dock, and over this Bert
drove Whisker and the goat cart. The goat seemed glad to get off the
steamboat.
"Oh, wouldn't Snap just love it here!" cried Nan, as they went on shore
and looked at the island. "Isn't it too bad he isn't with us?"
"I'm going to find him!" declared Bert. "Those old gypsies sha'n't have
our trick dog!"
Blueberry Island was, indeed, a fine place for a camp. In the winter no
one lived on it, but in the summer it was often visited by picnic
parties and by those who liked to gather the blueberries which grew so
plentifully, giving the island its name.
In fact, so many people came to one end of the island in the berry
season that a man had set up a little stand near the shore, where he
sold sandwiches, coffee, candy, and ice-cream, since many of the
berry-pickers, and others who came, grew hungry after tramping through
the woods.
But where Mr. Bobbsey was going to camp with his family, the
berry-pickers and picnic parties seldom came, as it was on the far end
of the island, so our friends would be rather by themselves, which was
what they wanted.
Mr. Dalton, the man who kept the little refreshment stand, had his horse
and wagon on the island, and he had agreed to haul the Bobbsey's trunks
and other things to where their tents, already put up, awaited them.
"And can't we ride there in the goat wagon?" asked Freddie of his
mother, as he saw Bert get up behind Whisker in the little cart.
"Yes, I think you and Flossie may ride now that we are on the island,"
said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Do you want to go, Nan?"
"No, I'll walk with you and daddy. I'll get enough goat rides later."
"Oh, how nice it is!" cried Mother Bobbsey when she and Nan came in
sight of the tents of the camp. "I know we shall like it here!"
"I hope you will," said her husband. "And now we must see about
something to eat. I suppose the children are hungry."
"Dey's always dat way!" laughed fat Dinah. "I neber seen 'em when dey
wasn't hungry. But jest show me whar's de cook-stove an' suffin' t'
cook, an' dey won't be hungry long, mah honey lambs!"
Dinah was as good as her word, and she soon had a fine meal on the table
in the dining tent, for the men Mr. Bobbsey had hired to set up the
canvas houses had everything in readiness to go right to "housekeeping,"
as Nan said.
There were several tents for the Bobbsey family. One large one was for
the family to sleep in, while a smaller one, near the kitchen tent, was
for Dinah and her husband. Then there was a tent that served as a
dining-room, and another where the trunks and food could be stored. In
this tent was an ice box, for a boat stopped at the island every day and
left a supply of ice.
The children helped to unpack and settle camp, though, if the truth were
told, perhaps they did more to unsettle it than otherwise. But Mr. and
Mrs. Bobbsey were used to this, and knew how to manage.
So the meal was eaten, Whisker was put in his little stable, made under
a pile of brush-wood, and the children went out rowing in a boat. They
had lots of fun that afternoon, and Bert even did a little hunting for
Snap, thinking that, by some chance, the trick dog might be on the
island. But Snap was not to be found.
"Though, of course, we didn't half look," Bert said. "We'll look again
to-morrow."
And now it was evening in "Twin Camp," as the Bobbseys had decided to
call their place on Blueberry Island. There had been quite a talk as to
what to name the camp, but when Dinah suggested "Twin," every one agreed
that it was best. So "Twin Camp" it was called, and Daddy Bobbsey said
he would have a wooden sign made with that on it, and a flag to hoist
over it on a pole.
Beds were made up in the sleeping tent, and soon even Nan and Bert
declared that they were ready to go to Slumberland by the quickest
train or steamboat which was headed for that place. They had been up
early and had been very busy. Flossie and Freddie dropped off to sleep
as soon as they put their heads on the pillows.
Freddie did not know what time it was when he awakened. It was in the
night, he was sure of that, for it was dark in the tent except where the
little oil light was aglow. What had awakened him was something bumping
against him. His cot was near one of the walls of the sleeping tent and
he awoke with a start.
"Hi!" he called, as he felt something strike against him. "Who's doin'
that? Stop it! Stop it, I say!"
"Freddie, are you talking in your sleep?" asked his mother, who had not
slept very soundly.
"No, I'm not asleep," Freddie answered. "But something bumped me. It's
outside the tent."
"Maybe it's Whisker feeling of you with his horns," said Flossie, who
slept near her brother, and who had been awakened when he called out so
loudly.
"It--it didn't feel like Whisker. It was softer than his horns," Freddie
said. "Momsie, I want to come into your bed."
"No, Freddie, you must stay where you are. I guess it was only the wind
blowing on you."
"No, it wasn't!" said Freddie. "It was a bump that hit me. I'm afraid
over here!"
CHAPTER X
THE "GO-AROUND" BUGS
Without waiting for his mother to tell him that he might, Freddie
slipped off his cot and went scurrying over the board floor of the tent
toward Mrs. Bobbsey's bed.
"I'm coming, too!" said Flossie, who generally went everywhere her small
brother did.
"Did something hit you, too?" asked Freddie, turning to his sister.
"No, but it might. If you are afraid I'm afraid, too."
"Oh, you children!" said Mrs. Bobbsey with sigh. "I believe you only
dreamed it, Freddie."
"No, Momsie, I didn't! Really I didn't! Somethin' bumped me from outside
the tent. It hit me in the back--not hard, but sort of soft like,
an'--an' I woked up. I want to sleep with you!"
"What's it all about?" asked Daddy Bobbsey. Then Freddie had to explain
again, and Flossie also talked until Nan and Bert were awakened.
"It might have been Whisker," said Bert. "If he got loose and brushed
against the tent and Freddie had rolled with his back close against the
side it would be like that."
Just then there sounded in the night the "Baa-a-a-a-a!" of the white
goat.
"There he is!" cried Bert.
"But it sounds as though he were still safely tied up," said Mr.
Bobbsey. "I'll have a look outside. Too bad we haven't Snap with us.
He'd give the alarm in a minute if anything were wrong."
The goat bleated again, but the sound did not seem near the tent, as it
would have done if Whisker has been loose. Putting on his bath robe and
slippers, Mr. Bobbsey took a lantern and went outside. Bert wanted to
come with his father, but Mrs. Bobbsey would not hear of it.
"We want a little man in here to look after us," she said, smiling.
"Ain't I almost a man? I can make my fire engine go," Freddie said,
forgetting his fright, now that the "big folks" were up, and the light
in the tent was turned higher.
They could hear Mr. Bobbsey walking around outside, and they heard him
speaking to the goat who bleated again. Mr. Bobbsey was as fond of
animals as were his children, and Whisker was almost like a dog, he was
so tame and gentle.
"Was the goat loose, Daddy?" asked Nan, when her father came back into
the tent.
"No, he was tied all right in his little stable. It wasn't Whisker who
brushed against Freddie, if, indeed, anything did."
"Something _did_!" declared the small boy. "Didn't I wake up?"
"Well, you might have dreamed it," said Nan. "You often talk in your
sleep, I know."
"I did feel something bump me," declared Freddie, and nothing the others
could say would make him change his idea.
"Did you see anything?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey in a low voice of her husband
when the twins were in their beds again. Flossie's and Freddie's cots
were moved over nearer to those of their parents', and they had dropped
off to slumber again, after getting drinks of water.
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