Laura Lee Hope - The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair

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The Bobbsey Twins at
the County Fair

BY
LAURA LEE HOPE

AUTHOR OF "THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES,"

=This book, while produced under wartime conditions, in full
compliance with government regulations for the conservation
of paper and other essential materials, is COMPLETE AND
UNABRIDGED=

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP

_The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair_

[Illustration: "OH, LOOK! FREDDIE'S IN A RACE!" CRIED FLOSSIE.

_The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair_

_Frontispiece_ (_Page 133_)]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE BROKEN BRIDGE 1

II. "THERE'S A SNAKE!" 14

III. THE MERRY-GO-ROUND 25

IV. A MISSING COAT 34

V. SAM IS WORRIED 48

VI. HAPPY DAYS COMING 57

VII. THE CRYING BOY 68

VIII. ANGRY MR. BLIPPER 79

IX. THE BIG SWING 89

X. DOWN A BIG HOLE 99

XI. THE COUNTY FAIR 108

XII. ON THE TRACK 121

XIII. IN THE CORNFIELD 129

XIV. FREDDIE AND THE PUMPKIN 139

XV. UP IN A BALLOON 148

XVI. ON THE ISLAND 158

XVII. THE SEARCHING PARTY 167

XVIII. ON THE ROCKS 173

XIX. TWO LITTLE SAILORS 182

XX. A HAPPY MEETING 194

XXI. BERT, NAN AND BOB 199

XXII. JOYOUS TIMES 207

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR

CHAPTER I

THE BROKEN BRIDGE

"Aren't you glad, Nan? Aren't you terrible glad?"

"Why, of course I am, Flossie!"

"And aren't you glad, too, Bert?" Flossie Bobbsey, who had first asked
this question of her sister, now paused in front of her older brother.
She looked up at him smiling as he cut away with his knife at a soft
piece of wood he was shaping into a boat for Freddie. "Aren't you
terrible glad, Bert?"

"I sure am, Flossie!" Bert answered, with a laugh. "What makes you ask
such funny questions?"

"Well, if you're glad why doesn't you wiggle like I do?" asked Flossie,
without answering Bert. "I feel just like wigglin' and squigglin' inside
and outside!" she added.

"Well, wiggle as much as you please, dear, but don't get your dress
dirty, whatever you do," advised Nan, with the air of a little mother,
for she felt that she must look after her smaller sister, since Mrs.
Bobbsey was not there to do it.

"Oh, I won't get my dress dirty!" laughed Flossie. "'Cause if I do----"

"'Cause if you do you can't go to the picnic!" finished Freddie, who was
so interested in watching brother Bert make the little wooden ship that
he forgot all about talking.

"I'm just goin' to wiggle standin' up," Flossie said, and she did so,
squirming about in delight at the fun which was soon to come.

"Don't forget your 'g' letters!" called Nan, shaking her finger at her
sister. "You must say 'going' and 'standing' not 'goin',' my dear, or
'standin',' you know."

"Yes, I know. But when you feel like wigglin'--I mean wigglING," and
Flossie said the last syllable very loudly, "why, then you don't think
about 'g' letters; do you, Freddie?"

"I don't guess so," he answered, not taking his eyes off the knife that
was flashing in Bert's hand, making the white slivers of wood scatter
over the green grass.

"Oh, I just can hardly wait till the auto truck comes; can you, Nan?"
asked Flossie, dancing over the lawn like a fairy in a play. "Oh, I'm so
glad it doesn't rain!" and she looked anxiously up at the sky as if some
cloud might float across the wonderful blue and spoil the day of
pleasure.

"Yes, the weather is lovely," agreed Nan. "And if you don't think so
much about it, Flossie, the truck will get here all the sooner."

"But I _like_ to think about it!" cried Flossie. "It's the same as
Christmas! The more you think about it the more fun it is! Oh, I'm going
to look down the road and see if the truck is coming!"

Down toward the front gate she skipped, the big bow of ribbon on her
hair flapping up and down like the wings of some great blue butterfly.

"Be careful about climbing on the gate!" warned Nan. "If you get rusty
spots on your white dress they won't come out!"

"I'll be careful," Flossie promised, calling back over her shoulder,
and, as she tripped along she sang: "We're going to a picnic! We're
going to a picnic!"

"I think I'd better watch her so she won't soil her clothes," said Nan,
getting up from a bench, where she had been sitting beside the boxes and
baskets of lunch. "It would be too bad if she should get her dress dirty
and couldn't go."

"I'm not going to get my clothes dirty, am I, Nan?" asked Freddie, as he
looked at his white blouse.

"I hope not," Nan answered.

Suddenly there was an exclamation from Bert, as Nan started down the
path toward Flossie.

"Ouch!" cried Bert.

"What's the matter?" Nan asked quickly.

"Cut myself!"

"Oh! Oh, dear!" screamed Freddie, who did not like the sight of the red
blood which oozed from the end of his brother's finger.

"Oh, don't get any on my clean blouse, else I can't go to the picnic!"

Bert, who had popped the cut finger into his mouth as soon as he felt
the hurt, now took it out to laugh.

"That's all you care about me, Freddie!" he joked. "I cut my finger,
while making you a little boat, and all you care about is that I mustn't
dirty your white blouse! I'll make you a lot more ships--I guess not!"

"Oh, but I am sorry for you!" Freddie declared. "Only I do so want to go
to the picnic!"

"Yes, I know," Bert went on, seeing that Freddie was taking his talk too
seriously. "I won't get any blood on you!"

"Is it much of a cut?" asked Nan "Do you want me to get the iodine?"
Their Mother had taught the Bobbsey twins not to neglect hurts of this
kind, and iodine, they knew, was good to "kill the germs," whatever that
meant. Iodine smarted when put into a cut, but it was better to stand a
little smart at first than a big pain afterward, so Daddy Bobbsey had
said.

"Oh, it isn't much of a cut," Bert said. "I guess I don't need any
iodine. You'd better go look after Flossie. The trucks may be along any
time now, and we don't want to keep them waiting."

"All right. But you'd better not whittle any more on that boat or you
may cut yourself so bad you can't go to the picnic."

"Let the boat go!" advised Freddie. "It's good enough, anyhow, and I
want you to go to the picnic, Bert."

"All right. The little ship is almost finished, anyhow. I just have to
make about three more cuts and then I'm done."

His finger had stopped bleeding--indeed the cut was a very small
one--and Bert was soon putting the last touches to the tiny craft which
Freddie wanted to sail in the little lake at the picnic grounds.

Just as Bert handed the homemade toy to his brother, and when Nan
reached Flossie, in time to stop her from climbing on the gate, a noise
of honking horns was heard down the street.

"Oh, here they come! Here come the trucks!" cried Flossie, dancing up
and down.

"Get the lunch!" called Freddie, to make sure they would not go hungry
on the picnic.

"I'll go in and tell mother we're going," called Nan to Bert, who shut
up his knife, brushed the whittlings off his clothes, and began to
gather up the boxes and baskets of lunch. "Watch Flossie!" Nan added,
for there was no telling what the excitable little "fairy" might do at
the last moment.

"All right," Bert answered. "Here, Freddie!" he called. "Don't run with
that sharp-pointed boat in your hand. If you fall on it you'll get
hurt."

"But I'm not going to fall!" said Freddie.

"You can't tell what you're going to do! Go easy!" Bert advised, and
Freddie walked as slowly as he could to the gate where Flossie was
eagerly gazing down the road.

The noise of the auto horns sounded more loudly, and soon two big
trucks, filled with children and gay with flags, came into view. Boxes
had been placed in the trucks for seats, and on these boxes, laughing,
shouting, waving their hands and flags, were scores of happy, smiling
boys and girls.

One of the trucks drew up at the gate of the house where lived the
Bobbsey twins, the other auto keeping on, as it was well filled. But
room had been saved in this one for Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.

"Come on, Nan! Come on!" cried Flossie, still jumping up and down.

"Tell Nan to hurry!" added Freddie to his brother.

"She's coming," Bert said, as he walked down to the gate with the
packages of lunch.

"Hello, Bert!" called Charlie Mason, from the truck. "Got enough to
eat?"

"I guess so," Bert answered his chum, holding up the boxes and baskets.
"Enough for two picnics I should say!"

"You can eat a lot when you're off in the woods," added Dannie Rugg.
"It's like camping out."

"Here comes Nan!" exclaimed Grace Lavine, a particular chum of the older
Bobbsey girl.

Nan, having hurried in to tell her mother the trucks had arrived, now
hastened down the path, her hair flying in the wind.

"Have you everything? Take good care of Flossie and Freddie! Have a good
time, and don't fall into the water!" Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she waved
good-by to her twins while they clambered up into the truck.

"We will!" they answered.

"Good-by, Mother! Good-by!"

"Good-by, children!"

"Honk! Honk!" tooted the auto horn.

"All aboard!" called Nellie Parks. "All aboard!"

"I want to sit on the end!" declared Freddie, struggling to get in this
position.

"You might fall out going up hill," said Bert. "I'll sit there, Freddie,
and you can sit next me." The little fellow had to be content with this.

With children laughing, children singing, children shouting and children
smiling, with flags flying and the horn tooting, the big auto started
off, having taken aboard the Bobbsey twins; and soon the two trucks were
out of sight around a turn in the road, bound for Pine Grove, on the
outskirts of the town of Lakeport. It was the yearly picnic of one of
the Lakeport Sunday schools.

"Isn't it a wonderful day?" asked Grace of Nan. The two friends and
Nellie were sitting together.

"Yes, beautiful. We nearly always have a good day for the picnic."

"Did you bring any olives in your lunch. Nan?"

"Yes, and some dill pickles, too!"

"Oh, I just love dill pickles!" exclaimed Grace, "and we didn't have one
in the house."

"I'll give you some of mine," offered Nan.

Flossie and Freddie were too excited, looking at sights along the road,
to talk much, but they were as happy as if they had been chattering away
like the others.

"Did your dog Snap bite your finger, Bert?" asked Dannie Rugg.

"No, my knife slipped when I was making Freddie a boat. Say, Freddie,"
he asked the little fellow, "did you lose your boat?"

"Nope, I have it here," and he held it up.

"Oh, all right."

On rumbled the trucks, raising clouds of dust. On each big auto were
several grown folks, officers of the Sunday school, who were looking
after the children. Some were fathers and mothers of the boys and girls.

Pine Grove was several miles outside the town of Lakeport, on the shores
of a little lake. It was there the yearly picnics of the Sunday schools
were always held, and the Bobbsey twins, as well as the other young
people of the town, looked forward with pleasure to the outings.

"What you say we get up a ball game?" asked Dannie of Bert, when they
were all settled in their places.

"Sure we will," Bert agreed. "Have we got enough fellows?"

"If you haven't, some of us girls will play," offered Nan.

"Pooh! Girls can't play ball!" sneered Charlie Mason.

"I can! I can bat a ball as far as you!" declared Nellie Parks.

"Maybe you can--if you can hit it!" admitted Charlie.

"I want to play ball!" chimed in Freddie. "I know how!"

"I guess if you sail your boat it will be all you want to do," said
Bert, looking at his cut finger to see if it would hinder him from
taking part in a game. He decided that it would not.

"We'll have lots of fun," said Dannie. "If we haven't enough for two
nines we'll play a scrub game."

"Sure!" agreed Bert.

They were well out in the country now, and almost at the Grove. To reach
it the trucks had to cross a bridge over a creek that flowed into Pine
Lake, as the body of water was called.

The first truck passed over this bridge with a rumble like thunder. As
it reached the other side Bert saw the driver of it lean from his seat,
look back, and shout something to the driver of the truck on which the
Bobbsey twins rode. What the man said Bert could not hear, and as he
was wondering about it the second truck started over the bridge.

Suddenly there was a cracking of wood, a splintering, breaking sound,
and the heavy truck, loaded with children, the Bobbsey twins among them,
seemed to be sinking down.

"Oh, the bridge is breaking!" screamed Grace.

"We'll fall in the creek!" added Nellie.

There was a thundering sound as the auto driver turned on full power,
and then, with another loud cracking noise, the truck came to a stop,
and seemed to be sinking down through the breaking bridge!

CHAPTER II

"THERE'S A SNAKE!"

With the first cries of alarm, Bert Bobbsey had jumped to his feet, one
arm had gone out toward his sister Nan, and the other toward Flossie and
Freddie. But no boy has arms long enough to reach for three relatives at
once, especially when two of them, as Flossie and Freddie happened to
be, were some distance away.

Bert did, however, manage to put one arm around Nan, and he pulled her
toward him, though just why he hardly knew. As he did so there was a
frightened movement on the part of all the other children aboard the
truck, for they seemed to be sliding down toward the front of it.

"Oh, Bert! what has happened?" cried Nan. "Get hold of Flossie and
Freddie, can't you?"

"I'm trying to," he answered.

"What's the matter?" Flossie called to Nan and Bert. "We're all slipping
down!"

And this was just what was happening. The bridge over the stream seemed
to have broken in the middle, just as the heavy truck got to that spot,
and the auto's front wheels being lower than the rear ones, had slid the
load of picnic merrymakers into a heap.

"Oh! Oh!" screamed Grace Lavine. "What is going to happen?"

"You'll be all right if you just keep quiet!" called the driver of the
auto in a loud voice. "The bridge has only sagged a little! It isn't
going to fall!"

This was good news provided it was true.

"All of you get off, and do it quietly," advised the driver. "You'll be
all right."

"Are you sure?" asked Mrs. Simpson, one of the ladies in charge of the
children.

"Oh, yes, ma'am. There's no danger," declared the man. He had jumped
from his seat and was looking at the floor of the bridge under the front
wheels of the truck.

"Keep quiet, every one!" ordered Mr. Blake, one of the gentlemen who had
agreed to help the ladies look after the children. "Don't scream or
cry, and move as quietly as you can. The easier you move the less danger
there will be. The bridge hasn't quite broken in two yet."

But it was in grave danger of doing that, as Mr. Blake saw, and he was
fearful that a bad accident would soon happen.

However, the thing to do now was to get all the children off the truck,
over the bridge, and safe on solid ground. After that it might be
possible to get the truck over and keep on to the picnic.

One by one the children, including the Bobbsey twins, started to get off
the truck. They moved as carefully as they could, for they felt that
they were like skaters on thin ice. The least quick movement might break
something.

The truck that had gotten safely over the bridge had come to a stop, and
children and grown folks were piling off it to see what they could do to
save those in danger on the broken bridge.

And while the work of rescue is going on I will take a moment or two to
tell my new readers something about the Bobbsey twins. Those of you who
have read the other books in this series do not need to be introduced to
Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.

Those were the names of the four children. Bert and Nan were the older
twins, and Flossie and Freddie the younger. You are first told about
them in the book called "The Bobbsey Twins," and in that you learn that
the Bobbsey family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bobbsey and their
four children, lived in Lakeport, an eastern city on the shore of Lake
Metoka, where Mr. Bobbsey had a lumber business.

In the family, though not exactly members of it, were Dinah, the jolly,
fat, colored cook, and Sam Johnson, her husband. Then we must not forget
Snap, the dog, and Snoop, the big cat.

Following the first book are a number of volumes telling of the
adventures of the Bobbsey twins. They went to the country to visit Uncle
Daniel, and at the seashore they had fun at the home of Uncle William.
After that the Bobbseys enjoyed a trip in a houseboat, they journeyed
to a great city, camped on Blueberry Island, saw the sights of
Washington and even sailed to sea.

As if this was not enough Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey took their children on a
western trip among the cowboys, and just before the present story opens
Bert and Nan, with Flossie and Freddie, had come back from Cedar Camp,
where they had had some exciting adventures.

Now it was summer again, and one of the first delights of that season
was the Sunday school picnic which had started off so well but which
seemed likely now to end in an accident.

It was too bad that one truck should have gotten safely over the bridge,
and that the other had to break through. The second truck was heavier
than the first. The first may have cracked the bridge beams and the
second one broken them.

"Careful now, children, careful!" warned Mr. Blake. "Don't jump down!
Come to the end of the truck and I'll lift you down!"

"And as soon as you are down walk to the other side of the bridge;
don't run--walk!" ordered the driver.

Bert remembered that it said this on the programs of the moving picture
theaters, and he decided it was good advice.

One by one the children made their way up the sloping floor of the truck
to the tailboard, and there Mr. Blake, Mrs. Simpson, and other men and
women helped the little ones down.

"Oh, I feel like fainting!" sighed Grace.

"Don't be silly!" exclaimed Nan. "Nothing is going to happen!"

It was a good thing Nan felt this way, though, as a matter of fact,
something dreadful might happen at any moment. If the cracked beams of
the bridge should break all the way through, the auto would slide down
into the water. And, though the creek was not very deep, still many
would be hurt in the crash.

The Bobbsey twins, being nearest the rear of the auto, were among the
first off. They did what the driver told them--walked quietly off the
bridge.

At the farther end they joined the picnic party that had gotten off the
first truck. And there, almost breathless, they watched the work of
rescue going on.

One by one little boys and girls were lifted down off the truck, and
then, when the last had reached safely the far shore, Mr. Blake, Mrs.
Simpson, and the other men and women made their way carefully to land.

"Aren't you coming?" asked Mr. Blake of the truck driver, for the man
was still close to his big car, looking at it and the sagging floor of
the bridge.

"I want to see if I can get this truck off," he answered. "The machine
isn't damaged any--it's only the bridge. I guess the load was too heavy
for it."

"I heard it cracking as I went over," called the driver of the first
truck. "I shouted a warning to you, but it was too late."

"Yes, it was too late to save the bridge, but maybe I can get my truck
off," the other driver went on. "Anyhow, none of the children is hurt."

And this was so--something for which the Sunday school officers were
very glad, indeed.

"If we had some pieces of wood to put under the bridge, to brace it up,
maybe you could get the truck over," said the driver of the big auto
that was safe on the far shore.

"Why don't you take fence rails?" asked Bert, who felt better, now that
his sisters and brother were all right.

"Yes, we could do that," agreed the driver of the second auto. "Come
on--give me a hand!" he called to his companion.

The two men worked away for a time, and braced up the bridge so that the
auto could be driven carefully over it, though it was not easy to get it
up the hill made when the bridge had sunk into the shape of the letter
V.

But finally the empty second truck was safe on the other side of the
stream, near the first one, and rails were put across the road to warn
other vehicles not to try to cross the bridge. It was safe enough for a
person to walk across, but it would not hold up an auto or a horse and
wagon.

"We may as well go on to the picnic grounds," said Mr. Blake, when the
smaller, frightened children had gotten over their crying.

"How we going to get home again if we can't cross the bridge?" asked
Flossie, looking at the sagging structure.

"Oh, there's another bridge over the creek, about two miles down," the
driver of the second truck said. "That will be all right."

Soon the children and grown folks were on the autos again, and moving
toward the picnic grounds. This time there was not so much merry
laughter and singing, for all felt that there had been a narrow escape
from a terrible accident.

But gloom does not long remain with a party of jolly boys and girls, and
by the time they alighted at Pine Grove each one was in high spirits
again.

There were plenty of amusements at the picnic grounds. Little rustic
pavilions here and there formed places where one could sit in the shade
and eat lunch. There were swings for those who liked them, and boats for
the older ones.

A green meadow, not far away, made a fine baseball field, and Bert,
Charlie, and Dannie, with some of the older boys, at once made a rush
for the field to start a baseball game.

"You take care of the lunch, Nan," Bert begged his older sister. "I'll
come back when it's time to eat."

"Oh, I know that all right!" laughed Nan.

"Can't I play ball?" Freddie called, starting to follow Bert.

"You stay and sail your boat," Bert advised. "I made it for you to sail
on the lake."

"That means I'll have to stay and watch him so he doesn't fall in,"
sighed Nan. "Well, you can't sail it all day, Freddie. I want to have
some fun, too."

"You can sail it when I get tired," Freddie offered.

"I want to go in a big boat--a rowboat!" declared Flossie.

"I'll take you all for a row after the ball game," Bert promised, and
Nan held this pleasure out to them to get them to do what she wanted.

The fun was now in full sway at the picnic grounds. Over in the meadow
the boys were playing ball and shouting, and out on the little lake
were many rowboats containing jolly parties. Some of the picnic folks
had already started to eat their lunches.

"I'm hungry!" declared Freddie, seeing some children with sandwiches.

"So'm I!" added Flossie.

"Well, we can eat a little," decided Nan. She opened one of the smaller
boxes, and took out a few sandwiches. "Let's go over under that tree and
eat," she suggested, and soon they were sitting beneath a big pine tree,
where the ground was covered with the smooth, brown needles.

Flossie had taken only a few bites of her sandwich when she suddenly
jumped up and ran to Nan.

"Oh!" cried the little girl. "There's a snake! A snake!"

CHAPTER III

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

Nan, though several years older than Flossie, was at first as much
frightened by the cry of "a snake!" as was her little sister. Though
Bert had often said only harmless snakes were in the woods around
Lakeport, Nan could not help jumping up with a scream and pulling
Flossie toward her.

"What's the matter?" asked Freddie, who had taken his sandwich a little
distance away to eat.

"A snake! I saw a big snake!" cried Flossie again.

"Where is it?" asked Nan, for, as yet, she had caught no sight of any
serpent.

"I--I almost sat on it," explained Flossie, clinging to Nan, and looking
down over her shoulder.

Nan glanced toward where her sister had been sitting just before the
alarm. She saw no wiggling snake crawling over the ground.

"Are you sure, Flossie?" Nan asked. "Are you sure you saw a snake?"

"Course I did. He almost put his head in my lap."

"Maybe he was hungry and wanted your sandwich," suggested Freddie. As he
spoke he stepped forward to look at the place Flossie had pointed to as
being the spot where she had seen the snake. And no sooner did Freddie
take a step than Flossie cried:

"There it is again! Oh, the snake! The snake! Don't let him get me,
Nan!"

Nan, too, saw something round and black moving near the place where
Flossie had been sitting, and, fearing for the safety of her sister, the
older Bobbsey girl lifted Flossie in her arms.

But no snake glided across the brown pine needles, and there was no
hissing sound nor any forked tongue playing rapidly in and out, as Nan
had once seen in a little snake Bert and Charlie Mason had caught.

"I don't believe there is a snake," Nan said, as Flossie slipped to the
ground. "If there was one it has gone away."

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