The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island

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"My!" gasped Freddie. "I--I guess we'll be gypsies. I don't like to
work--much."

"That is, not very much," agreed Flossie.

"Are there any gypsies here?" asked Bert, for he thought it would be a
good chance to find out what he wanted to know.

"Yes, there are some," was Tom's unexpected answer. "They had a camp on
the lower end of the island last week. I expected to see some of 'em
to-day. They're great blueberry pickers, and that's one reason I came
early. Most always the gypsies get the best of the blueberries 'fore we
white folks have a chance."

"Are there gypsies on this island now?" asked Nan, looking over her
shoulder into the bushes, as though she feared a dark-faced man, with
gold rings in his ears, might step out any moment and make a grab for
Flossie or Freddie.

"Well, I guess they're here now, 'less they've gone," said Tom. "I saw
some of the men and women here day before yesterday. They had been over
to the mainland buyin' things from the store, and they rowed over here.
I'd come to look for blueberries, but there wasn't as many ripe as there
is to-day, though that isn't sayin' much. But the gypsies are here all
right."

"Then we'd better go," said Nan to Bert.

"Why?" Tom asked.

"Because," said Nan slowly, "we don't like gypsies. They might take----"

"They took Helen's talking doll!" exclaimed Flossie. "She cried about
it, too. I would if they'd take my doll, only I got her hid under my
bed. You won't tell the gypsies, will you?"

"No, indeed!" laughed Tom. "You're afraid of them, are you?" he asked
Nan.

"Yes--a little," she said slowly.

"They won't hurt you!" Tom said. "They're not very fond of workin', and
they'll take anything they find lyin' around loose, but they won't hurt
nobody."

"They took Helen's doll," said Freddie, who had finished his two pieces
of cake, "and maybe they got my bugs that go around and around----"

"And around! They go around three times," put in Flossie.

"I was going to say that, only you didn't wait!" cried Freddie. "But
we've got a goat!" he went on, "and he's almost as good as Snap, our
dog, and maybe the gypsies got him."

"My, you don't think of anything but gypsies!" said Tom with a laugh.
"I'm not worried about them. If I see any of 'em on the island I'll ask
'em if they have your dog and bugs."

"And Helen's doll," added Flossie. "She wants Mollie back."

"I'll ask about that," promised Tom. "You've been awful good to me, and
I'd like to do you a favor. I know some of the gypsy boys."

"I guess I'll tell my father they're camping on this island," said Bert.

"Let's go tell him now," suggested Nan. "We've stayed here long enough."

"And I guess I'll row back to the mainland," added Tom. "There's no use
waiting here for the blueberries to get ripe. I'll come next week."

He walked back a little way with the Bobbsey twins to where he had left
his boat. Then he was soon rowing across the lake, waving his hand to
his new friends, his white teeth showing between his berry-stained lips.

"He's a nice boy--that blueberry boy," said Freddie. "I saw him first, I
did!"

Mr. Bobbsey nodded his head thoughtfully when the twins, taking turns,
told him what Tom had told them.

"Gypsies on the island, eh?" remarked Mr. Bobbsey. "Well, I suppose they
think they have a right to camp here. But I'll see about it. Maybe some
of them are all right, but I don't like the idea of staying here if the
place is going to be overrun with them. I must see about it."

For the next few days and nights a close watch was kept about Twin Camp,
but no gypsies were seen. Nor did any more blueberry-pickers come.
Indeed, the fruit was not ripe enough, as the Bobbseys could tell by
looking at some bushes which grew near their tents.

It was about a week after this, when Mr. Bobbsey had gone to Lakeport
one morning on business, that Flossie and Freddie went down to the shore
of the lake not far from their camp.

As they looked across the water they saw drifting toward the island an
empty rowboat. There was no one in it, as they could tell, and the wind
was sending it slowly along.

"It's got loose from some dock," said Freddie, who knew more about boats
than most boys of his age.

"Maybe it'll come here and we can get it," said Flossie. "Let's throw
stones at it."

"No, that would only scare it away," said Freddie. "Wait till it gets
near enough, and then I'll wade out and poke it in with a stick."

So the two little twins waited on shore for the drifting boat to come to
them.

CHAPTER XIII

IN THE CAVE

"Look out, Freddie! Don't you go wadin' too far!" cried Flossie, as she
saw her little brother kick off his low shoes, quickly roll off his
stockings, and start out toward the boat which now a strong puff of wind
had blown quite close to the island shore.

"I'll be careful," he answered. "Mother said I could wade up as far as
the wig-wag cut on my leg, and I'm not there yet."

Freddie had several scars and scratches on his legs, reminders of
accidents he had suffered at different times. One scar was from a cut
which he had got when he had fallen over the lawn mower about a year
before. It was the biggest cut of all, and was near his right knee. He
called it his "wig-wag" cut, because it was a sort of wavy scar, and
when he wanted to go in wading his mother always told him never to go
in water that would come above that cut, else he would get his
knickerbockers wet.

So now he was careful not to go out too far. He watched the water rising
slowly up on his bare legs as he waded along on the sandy bottom of the
lake toward the drifting boat.

"If you took a stick you could reach it now," called Flossie.

"I guess I could," Freddie said.

"I'll hand you a stick," Flossie offered, looking for one along the
shore. There were many dead branches, blown from the trees, and she soon
handed Freddie a long one. With it the little boy was able slowly to
pull the boat toward him, and he had soon shoved the "nose," as he
sometimes called the bow, against the bank of the island.

"Now I can get in!" laughed Flossie. "And I won't have to take off my
shoes and stockings either," and into the boat she scrambled.

"Oh!" exclaimed Freddie. "Are you going to get in the boat?"

"I am in," answered his sister. "Aren't you comin' in, too?"

Freddie looked at the boat, at his sister, at the lake, and at his
shoes and stockings on the shore. Then he said:

"Well, it doesn't belong to us--this boat don't."

"I know," said Flossie. "But you pulled it to shore and we can keep it
till somebody comes for it. And we can make-believe have a ride in it.
Momsie won't care as long as it's fast to the shore. Come on, Freddie!"

It seemed all right to Freddie when Flossie said this, especially as the
boat was close against the shore. He put on his shoes and stockings,
drying his feet in the grass, and then he took his seat in the boat
beside his little sister.

"Now we'll play going on a long voyage," she said. "We'll take a trip to
New York and maybe we'll be shipwrecked."

"Like Tommy Todd's father," added Freddie.

"Yep. Just like him," said Flossie, "only make-believe, of course."

"And I'll be captain of the ship, and you can be a sailor," went on
Freddie. "It'll be lots of fun!"

Bert and Nan had gone riding in the goat wagon to the other end of the
island, Mr. Bobbsey was at his office and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Dinah, was
working about Twin Camp, so there was no one to watch Flossie and
Freddie. Mrs. Bobbsey supposed they were playing safely at the lake
shore, and, as a matter of fact, they were on shore, though in the boat.

"I wonder whose it is?" said Freddie, when they had made a make-believe
voyage safely to New York, after having been shipwrecked at
Philadelphia--a place the little twins remembered, as one of their aunts
lived in that city.

"Maybe it's a gypsy boat," said Freddie.

"Or else it's the one the blueberry boy had," added his sister.

"Oh, yes, maybe it is his!" cried Freddie. "And if it is, didn't we
better ought to take it to him?"

"How?" asked Flossie.

"Why, we can push it along the shore with sticks, 'cause there's no oars
in it, and when we see him picking blueberries we can holler to him to
come an' get his boat."

Flossie thought this over a few seconds. Then she said:

"Let's!"

This meant she would do as Freddie said. The twins did not stop to
consider whether they were doing something they ought not to do. They
planned to keep near shore, and that was as much as they remembered of
what their mother had told them--that they were not to go out on the
lake in any boat without her permission or their father's.

"But paddling along the shore isn't going out," said Freddie. "Anyhow,
mother and father would want us to give back the boat to the blueberry
boy, wouldn't they?"

"Course," said Flossie. "Get another stick, Freddie, and we can poke the
boat along, and we won't have to go far out at all."

In a little while the two twins were shoving the drifted boat along the
shore by pushing the ends of their sticks into the soft bank. The boat
was of good size, and it was flat-bottomed, which meant it would not
easily tip over. Flossie and Freddie each knew how to row, though they
had to have oars made especially for them. But they knew how to keep in
the middle of a boat, and never thought of rocking it or changing seats,
so they were much safer than most children of their age would have been.

Having lived near Lake Metoka all their lives, they knew more about
boats and water than perhaps some of you small boys and girls do; and
they could both swim, though, of course not very far, nor were they
allowed to try it in deep water.

"Oh, this is lots of fun!" cried Flossie, as she and Freddie poled the
boat along. "This is real trav'lin'!"

"But we mustn't go too far," said Freddie, not quite sure whether or not
his mother would think what he and his sister were doing was just right.
"As soon as we see the blueberry boy we must give him his boat and go
back home."

"If he wants to row us back, can't we let him?" asked Flossie.

"Yes, but he can't row, 'cause there are no oars in the boat," said
Freddie.

"Maybe he has 'em with him. I guess that's what happened," went on the
little girl. "You know we take the oars out of our boat and put them up
on shore. And then maybe the blueberry boy forgot to tie his boat."

"And it blew away and we found it," finished Freddie. "Come on, push
hard, Flossie. Let's go fast and make believe we're a steamboat."

That suited Flossie, and they were soon pushing the boat along the shore
quite fast. They went out past a little point on the island, some
distance away from their own camp, the white tents of which they could
see.

"Oh, how nice the wind is blowing!" cried Flossie, after a bit. "I don't
hardly have to push at all, Freddie."

"That's good," he said. "We'll be a sailboat instead of a steamboat. If
we only had a sail now!"

"Maybe you could hold up your coat," suggested his sister. "Don't you
remember that shipwreck story mother read us. The men in the boat held
up a blanket for a sail. We haven't any blanket, but if you held one end
of your coat and I held the other it would be a sail."

"We'll do it!" cried Freddie, as he slipped off his jacket. It was
small, but when he and his sister held it crosswise of the boat, the
wind, which had begun to blow harder, sent the boat along faster than
the children had been pushing it.

"Oh, this is fine!" Freddie cried. "I'm glad we played this game,
Flossie."

"So'm I. But look how far out we are, Freddie!" Flossie suddenly cried.
"We can't reach shore with our sticks."

Freddie looked and saw that this was so.

"I wonder if we can touch bottom out here," he said. "I'm going to try."

He let go of his coat, and as it happened that Flossie did the same
thing, the little jacket was blown into the water.

"Oh!" cried Flossie. "Oh! Oh!"

"I can get it!" excitedly shouted Freddie. "I'll reach it with my
pushing stick."

He managed to do this, taking care not to lean too far over the edge so
the boat would not tip. Then he caught the coat on the end of the stick
and pulled his jacket into the boat.

"Oh, it's all wet!" cried Flossie.

Freddie did not stop to tell her that every time anything fell into the
water it got wet. Instead, he began to search in his pockets.

"What's the matter--did you lose something?" asked Flossie.

"I guess we can eat 'em after they dry out," said Freddie, after a bit,
pulling out some soaked sugar cookies.

Freddie spread them out on one of the boat-seats where the sun would dry
them, and then he wrung from his coat as much water as he could. Next he
spread the jacket out to dry, Flossie helping him.

All this time the children failed to notice where they were going, but
when they had seen that the soaked cookies were getting dry and had
eaten them, Freddie looked about and, pointing to shore, cried:

"Oh, look, Flossie!"

"We're going right toward a big, dark hole!" said the little girl.

"That isn't a hole--it's a cave," Freddie said. "Maybe it's a pirate
cave, and there'll be gold and jewels in it. The wind is blowing us and
our boat right into it!"

And that was what was happening. The wind had changed, and, instead of
blowing the boat away from the island, was blowing it toward it. And
directly in front of Flossie and Freddie was a big hole in the steep
bank of the island shore. As Freddie had said, it was a cave. What was
in it?

CHAPTER XIV

HELEN'S VISIT

While the two children sat in the drifting rowboat, which was being
slowly blown toward the island shore again, Flossie suddenly gave a
little jump, which made the boat shake.

"What's the matter?" asked Freddie. "Did something bite you?" for his
sister had started, just as you might do if a fly or a mosquito suddenly
nipped your leg.

"No, nothing bit me," she answered. "But I felt a splash of rain on my
nose and---- Oh, Freddie! Look! It's going to be a thunder-lightning
storm!"

Freddie, whose eyes had seen nothing but the cave, now looked up at the
sky. The blue had become covered with dark clouds, and in the west there
was a dull rumble.

"I--I guess it is going to rain," said Freddie slowly.

"I know it is!" Flossie answered. "There's 'nother drop!"

"I felt one, too," said her brother. "It went right in my eye, too!" and
he winked and blinked.

"And there's another one on my nose!" cried Flossie. "Oh, Freddie! What
are we going to do? I haven't an umbrella!"

For a moment the little boy did not know what to do. He looked at his
coat, but that was still wet, though it had been spread out on the seat
to dry. He could not wrap that around Flossie, as he thought at first he
might.

The wind, too, was blowing harder now, and there were little waves
splashing against the side of the boat. But the wind did one good thing
for the children--it blew the boat toward shore so much faster, and
shore was where they wanted to be just now. They knew they had drifted
out too far, and they were beginning to be afraid. The shore of the
island looked very safe and comfortable.

"We can get under a tree--that will be an umbrella for us," said
Flossie. "Aren't you glad we're going on shore, Freddie?"

"Yes, but I guess we can get in a better place out of the rain than
under a tree, Flossie."

"Then we'd better get," she said, "'cause it's rainin' hard now. I've
got about ten splashes on my nose."

The big drops were beginning to fall faster. The clouds had quickly
spread over the sky, which was now very dark, and the wind kept on
blowing.

"Where can we go out of the storm?" asked the little girl.

"Huh?"

"Where we goin', Freddie?"

"In there," answered her brother, pointing.

"What! In that dark hole?"

"It isn't a hole--it's a cave. An' maybe we'll find gold and diamonds in
there, like in the book Momsie read to us. Come on. We can go into the
cave, and we won't get wet at all. I'll take care of you."

"I--I'm not afraid," said Flossie slowly. "But I wish Snap was with us;
or Whisker. I guess Whisker would like a cave."

"So would Snap," said Freddie. "But we can't get 'em now, so we've got
to go in ourselves. Come on. And look out, 'cause the boat's goin' to
bump."

And bump the boat did, a second later, against the shore of the island,
close to the open mouth of the black cave. It was raining hard now, and
Freddie helped Flossie out of the boat, and then, holding each other by
the hand, the children ran toward the cavern. No matter what was in it,
there they would be sheltered from the rain they thought.

The cave, as Freddie and Flossie saw, could be entered from either the
land or the water. At one side it was so low that a boat could be rowed
into it for a little way. On the other one could walk into it by a
little path that led through the trees. The water of the lake splashed
into the cave a short distance, and then came to an end, making a sort
of little bay, or cove, large enough for two or three boats. And the
cave, as the children could see when their eyes became used to the
darkness, was quite a large one.

"I wonder if anybody lives here," whispered Flossie, as she kept close
to her brother.

"We live here now," he said. "Anyhow, we're going to stay here till the
rain stops."

"Maybe a bear lives here," said Flossie in a whisper.

"Pooh!" laughed Freddie. "There are no bears on Blueberry Island, or
daddy would have brought a gun. And he said I didn't even need my
popgun, 'cause there wasn't a thing here to shoot. But I did bring my
popgun."

"You haven't got it here now, though," said Flossie.

"I know I haven't. I left it in the tent by the go-around bugs. I mean
before the go-around bugs got away. But my popgun is there. I saw it.
Only I haven't it now, so I can't shoot anything. But there's nothing to
shoot, anyhow." Freddie added the last for fear his sister might be
frightened in the dark cave.

It was very dark, especially back in the end, where Flossie and Freddie
could see nothing. But by looking toward the place where they had come
in, they could see daylight and the lake, which was now quite rough on
account of the wind. They could also see the rain falling and
splashing.

"I'm glad we're in here," said Flossie. "It's better than an umbrella."

"Lots better," agreed Freddie. "If we had some cookies to eat we could
stay here a long time, and live here."

"We couldn't sleep, 'cause we haven't any beds," declared Flossie.

"We could make beds of dried grass the way Bert told us to do if we went
camping."

"But have you any more cookies?" asked Flossie, going back to what her
brother had first spoken of. "I'm hungry!"

"Only some crumbs," Freddie said, as he put his hand in the pockets of
his coat, "and they're all soft and wet. We can't eat 'em."

"Well, we can go home when it stops raining," said Flossie, "an'
Dinah'll give us lots to eat."

The two children were not frightened now. They stood in the cave, and
looked out at the storm. It was raining harder than ever, and the
thunder seemed to shake the big hole in the ground, while the lightning
flashes lighted up the cave so Freddie and Flossie could look farther
back into it.

But they could not see much, and if there was any one or anything in the
cave besides themselves, they did not know it. They saw the boat blown
inside the cave, and it came to rest in the little cove, which was a
sort of harbor.

Then, almost as quickly as it had started, the storm stopped. The wind
ceased blowing, the rain no longer fell, the thunder rumbled no more and
the lightning died out. For a few minutes longer Flossie and Freddie
stayed in the cave, and then, as they were about to go out, the little
girl grasped her brother by the arm and cried:

"Hark! Did you hear that?"

"What?" asked Freddie.

"A noise, like something growling!"

Freddie looked back over his shoulder into the dark part of the cave.
Then, speaking as boldly as possible, he answered:

"I didn't hear it. Anyhow, I guess it was the wind. Come on, we'll go
home!"

"Are we going back in the boat?" Flossie asked.

"I guess not," Freddie replied. "It'll be rough out on the lake--it
always is after a storm. We can walk down the path to our camp. Besides,
this isn't our boat. Maybe it belongs here and we'd better leave it."

"Then you'd better tie it," said Flossie. She and her brother had been
told something of the care of boats, and one rule their father had given
them was always to tie a boat when they got out of it. In the excitement
of the storm the children had forgotten this at first, but now Flossie
remembered it.

"Yes, I'll tie the boat," Freddie said, "and then whoever owns it can
come and get it."

It did not take him long to scramble around to the edge of the little
cove. Once there, he tied the rope of the boat fast to a large stone
that was half buried in the ground. Making sure it would not slip off,
Freddie came back to where Flossie waited for him.

She was quite ready to leave the cave, and soon the two children were
outside under the trees that still were dripping with rain.

The sun was now shining. Flossie and Freddie had had an adventure, they
thought, and that was fun for them.

"Which way is home--I mean where our camp is?" asked Flossie, as she and
Freddie walked along together.

"Down this way," he said. "See the path?"

Certainly there was a path leading away from the cave, but Freddie did
not stop to think it might lead somewhere else than to Twin Camp. It was
a nice, smooth path, though, and he and Flossie set out along it not at
all worried.

"I'm hungry," said the little girl, "and I want to get home as soon as I
can."

"I'm hungry, too," Freddie said. "We'll soon be home."

But the children might not have reached the camp soon, only that a
little later they heard their names called in the wood, and, answering,
they found Nan and Bert looking for them in the goat wagon drawn by
Whisker.

"Where in the world have you been?" asked Bert of his little brother and
sister.

"Oh," answered Freddie, "we've been out in a boat and in a cave and we
only had cookies to eat and they were wet and----"

"We heard a noise in the cave. Maybe it's a bear, an' if it is Freddie
can take his popgun the next time we go there. Can't you, Freddie?"

"Dear me!" laughed Nan. "What's it all about?"

Then the two small twins told more slowly what had happened to them, and
Nan and Bert told their small brother and sister that, coming back from
their little trip, they had found Mrs. Bobbsey much worried because she
could not find Flossie and Freddie.

"Then it began to rain," said Nan, "and we were all as worried as could
be. We looked at our boats, and when we found they were tied at the dock
we didn't think you were out on the water. Then when it stopped raining
Bert and I started out to find you and so did Sam, though he went a
different way."

"And we called and called to you," said Bert. "Didn't you hear us
shouting?"

"Maybe that was the noise we heard in the cave," said Freddie to his
sister.

"What about this cave?" asked Bert. "Tell us where it is."

Then, riding back to camp in the goat wagon, the two small twins told
again of the big hole in which they had taken refuge from the storm.

"I'd like to see that," Bert said. "We'll go there to-morrow."

"We can walk there, or Whisker can take us," said Freddie. "And then we
can come home in the boat, but you'll have to take some oars, Bert."

"That's so--there _is_ a boat!" exclaimed the older Bobbsey boy. "I
wonder whose it can be?"

But they did not learn at once, for the next day, when they all went to
the cave--including Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey--the boat was not there.

"Somebody untied it and took it away," said Freddie, as he pointed out
the rock to which he had made fast the rope.

"Are you sure you tied it tightly?" asked his father.

"Yep. I made the same kind of knot you showed me," and Freddie told how
he had done it. Flossie, too, was sure her brother had fastened the boat
properly.

"Well, then somebody's been here in the cave," said Bert. "Say, it's a
big place, Daddy! Can't we get a lantern and see where it goes to back
there," and he motioned to the dark part.

"Some time, maybe, but not now," said Mr. Bobbsey, who, with his wife,
had walked along the island path to the cave while the children rode in
the goat wagon. "I didn't know there was a cave on Blueberry Island. I
don't believe many persons know it is here. But the boat might belong to
some of the berry pickers, and they hunted for it until they found it."

"Did the blueberry pickers make the funny noise in the cave?" asked
Flossie.

"I don't know," replied her father. "I don't hear any noise now. I
presume it was only the wind."

Mr. Bobbsey and Bert, lighting matches, went a short way back into the
cave, but they could see very little, and the children's father said
they would look again some other day.

"But, Flossie and Freddie, you mustn't come here alone again," said Mr.
Bobbsey.

"If it rains and we're near here can't we come in if we haven't an
umbrella?" asked Freddie.

"Well, yes, perhaps if it rains. But you mustn't go out in a drifting
boat again, rain or no rain," ordered Mr. Bobbsey.

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