Laura Lee Hope - The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
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"I'm glad of that, too," agreed Nan. "Well, Flossie and I are 'way ahead
of you. We have found two nests!"
"I'm going to find one myself!" declared Freddie, and a little later he
did. This nest had many eggs in it, for it was used by several hens in
turn, so that now the basket was half filled.
Then, by searching about, the children found more nests and eggs until
the basket was quite full. Now arose a dispute between Flossie and
Freddie, for each one wanted to carry the basket. Nan was afraid either
of the little twins might stumble and fall, thereby breaking the eggs.
"I know what we'll do," Nan said, making up a little plan, as she often
had to do to get Freddie and Flossie into a new way of thinking. "We'll
play hide and go seek. I'll go on ahead and hide, and whoever finds me
can carry the basket a little way."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Freddie. "Come on, Flossie! Blind your
eyes."
"Don't come until I get ready!" said Nan.
The children promised they would not. Carefully they closed their eyes,
covering them with their hands. Nan hurried away, walking softly so the
twins could not guess which way she was going. And she picked out a
hiding place close to the house, right at the foot of the steps, in
fact.
"Whichever one finds me won't have very far to carry the eggs, and they
won't be so likely to drop them," thought Nan, as she crouched down
behind the rain-water barrel.
"Coop!" cried Nan, this being a signal that she was hidden.
"Ready or not we're coming!" shouted Freddie. He and his sister opened
their eyes and began running about, eagerly searching. It was some
little time before they found Nan behind the barrel, and Flossie spied
her first.
"I see you! I see you!" laughed the delighted little girl, and she was
so excited over finding Nan that she never realized she had only a few
steps to carry the basket of eggs.
Flossie covered those few steps safely, and the eggs were put away in
the closet by Aunt Sarah, later to be made into puddings and cakes for
the Bobbsey twins.
"When are we going to the Bolton County Fair?" asked Bert that evening
after supper, when he and Harry were resting after their sport in
catching bullfrogs.
"And I'm going to ride on a lion!" declared Freddie.
"We might go over to the fair to-morrow," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you
folks want to go?" he asked his brother and Aunt Sarah.
"I don't believe I'll have time," answered Mr. Bobbsey's brother.
"Nor I," said Aunt Sarah. "I have a lot of cooking to do."
"Then I'm going to stay at home and help you," offered the mother of the
Bobbsey twins.
"Oh, can't we go to the fair?" wailed Flossie and Freddie, almost ready
to cry.
"Of course you may go!" replied Mother Bobbsey. "I was going to say that
daddy could take you children--Harry may go, may he not?" she asked his
mother.
"Oh, yes."
"Hurray!" cried Harry, and Bert and Nan echoed his cry of joy.
So it was arranged that Mr. Bobbsey would take the children to the
Bolton County Fair, there to see the many wonderful things of which they
had dreamed for days and nights.
The Bolton County Fair was one of the largest in that part of the state.
Every year it was held, and farmers from many miles away brought their
largest pumpkins and squashes, and their longest ears of corn, hoping to
win prizes with them. The farmers' wives brought samples of their
needlework, such as bedquilts, lace or embroidery, and samples of their
cooking and preserving. The farm boys and girls made things or raised
something to exhibit at the fair.
Besides this there were new kinds of machinery for the farmers to look
at, such as windmills and plows and electrical appliances to be used on
the farms. Men who raised horses and cattle took their best specimens to
the fair to show them for prizes.
Then there were to be automobile races and horse races, and there were
many amusements from the big merry-go-round to the little tents and
booths where one could throw baseballs at dolls or toss rings over
canes. There were also booths and tents where candy, ice-cream, lemonade
and cider were sold, as well as places to eat.
"Oh, it's wonderful!" cried Nan, as she and her brothers, her sister,
Harry and her father got out of their automobile and walked through the
big gates into the fair grounds. "Don't you like it, Bert?"
"Sure! It's fine!"
"Let's go over and look at the airship," proposed Harry.
"And the balloon," added Bert. "Do you s'pose I could go up in the
balloon?" he asked his father.
"No, I don't suppose you could--I wouldn't like you to," said Mr.
Bobbsey.
"But why, Dad? The balloon is fast to the ground. It can't get away!"
"I'm not so sure about that. I don't want you to go up. You'll have
plenty of other fun."
"I wanted to go up in the balloon," and Bert sighed in disappointment.
"We'll go look at it, anyhow," suggested Harry.
"I want a ride on a lion!" insisted Freddie.
"So do I!" added Flossie.
"All right, I'll take you children to the merry-go-round," said Mr.
Bobbsey. "You come there and meet us after you finish looking at the
balloon and the airship," he said to Bert and Harry.
"I'll stay with you, Daddy," said Nan. "I want a ride on the
merry-go-round, too," and she laughed.
They could hear the music of the "carrousel," as a merry-go-round is
sometimes called.
"Come on!" urged Flossie and Freddie, tugging at their father's hands.
He led them over to the crowd that surrounded the machine on which a
whirling ride could be had for five cents.
"This way! This way for the merry-go-round!" cried a boy's voice. "Only
five cents a ride! Get your tickets and take a ride! On an elephant or a
tiger!"
"I want a lion!" cried Freddie.
"All right! This way for your lions!" cried the voice.
Mr. Bobbsey, pushing his way through the crowd with the children, saw
Bob Guess on the merry-go-round. The boy was helping children to their
seats on the wooden animals, strapping them safely so they would be
ready when the machinery started. The organ kept on playing all the
while.
"Hello, Bob!" called Nan, as she climbed up on a wooden horse, while
Flossie and Freddie, with their father, looked for lions.
The strange boy glanced up in some surprise. But when he saw Nan a smile
came over his rather sad face.
"Oh, hello!" he said. "How did you get here?"
"We came just now in my father's auto. Do you run the merry-go-round?"
"I help when Mr. Blipper isn't here. I take up the tickets after she
starts. Have you got your tickets?"
"Yes, daddy bought them. My little brother and sister want to ride on
lions."
"There's a pair right behind you," said Bob Guess.
Nan turned and saw her father just finishing the strapping up of Flossie
and Freddie each on a big wooden lion. The small twins were smiling with
delight.
"Gid-dap!" called Flossie to her lion.
"You shouldn't say 'gid-dap' to a lion," objected Freddie.
"What should you say?" asked Flossie, turning to look at her brother.
"You ought to say--now--er--'Scat!'"
"That's what you say to a cat!" declared Flossie.
"Well, then say 'Boo!' I guess that's what you say to a lion," went on
Freddie. "Say 'Boo!'"
The little girl looked doubtful.
"All right. Boo!" cried Flossie, after a moment.
It was not quite time, however, for the merry-go-round to start. Mr.
Bobbsey made his way along the platform to Bob, who stood near Nan.
"Where is Mr. Blipper?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "I want to see him."
"He's away to-day, Mr. Bobbsey," was the answer.
"Away! Oh, I am sorry," was the reply of the Bobbsey twins' father.
"This is his day off," went on the lad.
"Will he be here to-morrow?"
"Yes, sir. But look out now, she's going to start!"
CHAPTER XII
ON THE TRACK
Creaking and squeaking as it slowly started, the merry-go-round began to
go faster and faster until it was whirling rapidly, the music of the
organ mingling with the shouts of the delighted children.
Seeing that Flossie and Freddie were all right, being strapped to their
wooden lions, and that Nan could look after herself, Mr. Bobbsey took a
seat in one of the gilded cars that were provided for older persons who
did not like to sit astride a wooden animal. He watched Bob Guess making
his way around the carrousel collecting the tickets. The boy seemed
bright and very business like.
"He's a good lad," thought Mr. Bobbsey. "I wish a better man than Mr.
Blipper had charge of him. I must look into this matter."
At one place on the outside of the merry-go-round was a post with an
arm extending down from it. Into this arm, which was hollow, a boy
dropped iron rings, with, now and then, a brass one among them. Those
whirling about on the carrousel could reach up and pull a ring from the
arm, if they were quick and skillful enough.
"Get the brass ring and have a free ride!" sang out the boy dropping the
black, iron rings into the hollow arm. There were, a great many iron
rings, but only a few brass ones. Of course, every one wanted to get the
brass ring, but this went by luck as much as by skill.
Flossie and Freddie were too small to reach over and try for any of the
rings. But Nan, like the older boys and girls and some of the grown
folks, had no trouble in catching rings.
"Get the brass ring, and have an extra ride!" cried the boy in charge.
"I wish I could!" thought Nan.
Once she almost got it. She saw the brass ring gleaming at the end of
the arm. A boy two horses ahead of her made a grab for it and missed. So
did the girl directly in front of Nan. When Nan reached for the ring
she did not put out her arm far enough, and she, too, missed it. A girl
riding on a camel behind Nan got it.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Nan.
"Never mind," said a voice at her side, and she saw Bob Guess. "Here's a
brass ring for you. Take it and have the next ride free!"
"Oh, will that be right?" asked Nan.
"Sure it will! I'm in charge of taking the tickets when Blipper is away.
Some one grabbed this ring and dropped it. I picked it up. It's good for
a ride. Take it. I don't know who dropped it or I'd give it to 'em. You
take it!"
And Nan did. It was not to be dreamed of that Flossie and Freddie would
be content with one ride. They had to stay on for the second. Mr.
Bobbsey got off to buy more tickets.
"I don't need a ticket!" Nan called to him. "I have the brass ring,
Daddy!"
"Oh, you were very lucky!"
"Bob gave it to me," she explained, telling how it came about.
"Well, I suppose it is all right to take it," her father said. "Bob
knows what he is doing."
"But I want to get a brass ring my own self," Nan said. And she did,
though not on the next trip. Her father had to buy her a ticket for
that.
Then came the final ride, for though Flossie and Freddie would have
remained and ridden all day, their father knew this was not good for
them. And it was on the last ride that Nan got her brass ring.
"Oh, now I can ride again!" she gayly cried.
"Not now," her father told her. "If you ride, Flossie and Freddie will
want to, and I'm afraid they'll be ill."
"But what shall I do with the ring?" asked Nan, slipping down off the
wooden horse and holding up the brass ring.
"It'll be good to-morrow," said Bob Guess. "You can keep it, or I'll
save it here for you."
"I guess you'd better keep it, Bob," said Nan, with a laugh. "I might
lose it."
"I'll save it for you," promised Bob. "I'll look for you to-morrow. Get
your tickets--your tickets for the merry-go-round!" he cried, as a new
crowd surged up to get on.
"May we have some pop corn?" asked Freddie, when told there were to be
no more rides that day.
"And ice-cream?" added Flossie.
"Dear me!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey, "I don't know which will be worse for
you. Let's look about a bit."
"I'm thirsty!" announced Flossie.
"Well, we'll have some lemonade--that will be good for all of us, I
think," suggested Mr. Bobbsey. Bert and Harry, coming back just then
from having been to look at the balloon, were taken to the lemonade
stand with the others.
If I were to tell you all the things the Bobbsey twins saw at the County
Fair and all they did, it would take a larger book than this to hold it
all. So I can only tell you a few of the many things that happened.
After drinking the lemonade the children hardly knew at what to look
next, there were so many things to see. Presently Mr. Bobbsey said:
"You have been among a lot of wooden animals on the merry-go-round,
suppose we go see some real, live animals?"
"Oh, yes!" cried Nan.
"Let's go to see the race horses," suggested Bert.
"And I want to see cows and pigs!" announced Freddie.
"And sheeps! I want to see sheeps!" exclaimed Flossie.
"They're on the way to the racing horse stables," explained Harry. "All
the live stock is together."
There was a race track at the fair grounds and some races had been run
off before the Bobbseys arrived. More were to take place soon.
Mr. Bobbsey and the other children were so interested in looking at the
prize cattle, at great hogs, some weighing nearly a thousand pounds, and
at bulls weighing more than this, that they did not notice the absence
of Freddie Bobbsey. That little chap, however, had slipped away and,
before he knew it, he was in the stable with the race horses.
As many of the stablemen were outside with their animals, some bringing
their steeds back from the track and others taking racers over to have a
part in the next contest, there were not many persons in the stable when
Freddie wandered there.
"Oh, what a nice lot of horses!" he exclaimed, and indeed the racers
were among the best of their kind. "I like horses!" went on Freddie.
One beautiful animal leaned out of its stall and rubbed a velvet nose on
Freddie's shoulder.
"You like me, don't you, horsie?" asked the little chap. The horse
whinnied, which might mean anything, but Freddie took it for "yes."
"I guess maybe you'd like to have me get on your back," he said. "I got
on one of Uncle Dan's horses once. I know how to ride."
The horse was in a large box stall, and the door was not hard to open.
In walked Freddie, and, by standing up on a keg which was in the stall,
he managed to scramble up on the back of the horse. To keep from sliding
off, though, Freddie had to clasp his arms around the neck of the
animal.
Whether the horse took this for a signal to move along, or whether it
just "happened," I don't know. But the horse walked out of the stall,
across the grass of the paddock, and, as the big gate happened to be
open, he walked right out on the race track with Freddie clinging to his
neck.
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE CORNFIELD
Just about this time a race was going to be run. There were a number of
horses, with jockey lads on their backs, waiting for the signal to begin
their fast pace around the track. Up in the booth, where the judges and
the starter were standing to give the signal, everything was in
readiness. The people around the race track were all excited, for they
wanted to see which horse would win.
And then, just as the starter gave the word, and the jockey boys on
their horses' backs called to their steeds to run fast, out on the track
walked the horse to whose neck Freddie was clinging!
At first the little fellow had been so startled when the animal to whose
back he had scrambled walked out of the barn with him that he had not
known what to do. He just clung there.
But, finding that the horse was very gentle and did not try to reach
back and bite his legs, Freddie began rather to like it.
"Go 'long, nice horsie! Go 'long!" called Freddie, and he clapped his
heels against the sides of the animal.
The horse went along all right--fairly out on to the race track, and
just as the race was starting!
"Here! Where you going?"
"Come back with that horse!"
"Look out! Stop him, somebody! That boy will be hurt!"
These were only a few of the many cries that rose from the grandstand
and the space in front of it when the people saw Freddie right in the
path of the rushing horses.
"Ring that bell!" cried one of the judges to the starter.
The starter pulled the cord of the big gong which is rung to bring the
horses back if they have not made an even start, as very often happens.
Clang! went the gong. The jockeys on the backs of the horses knew what
the ringing of the bell meant. Some of them had begun to guide their
horses so as not to run into Freddie and his mount, but there were so
many racers that one or two of them might have bumped into the little
fellow. But when the jockeys heard the ringing of the bell they knew it
was a false start and they pulled in their steeds and some turned back.
But now something else happened. While the horse Freddie had climbed up
on was kind and gentle, yet he was a race horse. And as soon as he found
himself out on the track he must have thought he had been ridden there
to take part in a race.
At any rate, before Freddie could stop him, even if the little Bobbsey
lad had been able to do this, the horse began to trot around the track.
Perhaps he thought the ringing of the bell meant for him to start.
So away he ran, going faster and faster with poor Freddie bobbing up
and down, but still clinging to the animal's neck. It was all Freddie
could do, as there was no saddle horn to grasp.
"Whoa! Whoa!" begged the little chap. "Nice horsie! Whoa now!"
It was not so much fun as Freddie had at first thought to take a ride in
this way. At the beginning he had an idea that he might some day be a
jockey and wear a gayly colored silk blouse. But he never imagined race
horses went so fast.
"Whoa! Whoa!" cried Freddie again. But his horse did not stop. Indeed,
it only went faster.
"Somebody get after that boy!" yelled the starter, leaning from the
judges' stand. "He'll be hurt if you don't get him!"
"I'll get him!" offered one of the jockeys. He called to his horse and
was soon speeding around the track after Freddie. And now the horse on
whose back the little Bobbsey boy was seated, hearing another steed
coming after him, began to think it was a race in real earnest, and he
commenced to go faster. All the "whoa" shouts Freddie uttered were of
no use.
"Go on, Tomato! Go on!" cried the jockey to his horse. "Go on, Tomato!"
Tomato was the name of his animal.
The shouts and the screams of the crowd attracted the attention of Mr.
Bobbsey and the other children as they came from the animal tent. And as
Mr. Bobbsey neared the race track he had a glimpse of his little son
clinging to a horse and riding very fast, while a jockey on another
horse chased him.
"Oh, look! Freddie's in a race!" cried Flossie! "Oh, maybe Freddie will
win!"
"My goodness! how did this happen?" cried Mr. Bobbsey.
"Will he be hurt?" gasped Nan.
But just then, to the great relief of the Bobbsey family, the jockey
managed to come up alongside of Freddie's galloping horse. The jockey
reached over with one hand, caught Freddie by the seat of his little
trousers, and fairly lifted him off the back of the now excited horse.
Then, placing Freddie on the saddle in front of him, the jockey turned
his horse about and rode slowly back to the stand. Some of the
stablemen then ran out and caught the other horse.
"Why, Freddie! what in the world were you trying to do?" asked his
father, when the little boy was placed in his arms.
"I--I just wanted a ride," Freddie explained. "I got tired of ridin' on
wooden lions. I wanted a live horse."
"Well, he picked a lively one all right!" laughed a man in the crowd.
"That horse he rode has won every race, so far."
"You must never do such a thing again, Freddie," his father told him,
when the excitement had died down and the racing was once more started.
"Never again."
"No, I won't," Freddie promised. "But when I grow up I'm goin' to ride
horses, I am!"
"That will be a good while yet," laughed Bert.
"I'm glad your mother wasn't here," said Mr. Bobbsey. "She would have
almost fainted, I'm sure, if she had seen you out on the race track like
a regular jockey."
"Did I look like a jockey?" Freddie asked, eagerly.
"Well, not exactly," Bert said. "You didn't have any silk blouse on."
"I'll get Dinah to make me one when I go home," Freddie declared. "I'll
have a red one, I guess, and then if I get tired of ridin' horses I can
be a fireman."
"Well, I think we've had excitement enough for one day," remarked Mr.
Bobbsey. "We'll have something to eat, look around a little more, and
then go home."
"But we can come back again, can't we?" asked Bert. "I haven't seen the
balloon go up yet."
"Yes, we want to see that," added Harry.
"I'll bring you to the fair again to-morrow or next day," promised Mr.
Bobbsey. "I want to come back myself. I've met a number of men to-day
I'd like to talk with further. Then I'd like to have a talk with that
Mr. Blipper."
That night, at Meadow Brook Farm, Mr. Bobbsey and his wife, after the
children had gone to bed, talked over the strange disappearance of Mr.
Bobbsey's coat and the auto lap robe.
"I'm sure that Blipper knows something about them," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Or perhaps that strange Bob Guess--what an odd name."
"It is an odd name," agreed Mr. Bobbsey, "But it fits, for they don't
know what his real name is--at least he says he doesn't. But I don't
believe Bob had anything to do with the taking of my coat and the robe.
I'd like to find out more about the boy. He seems bright, and I feel
sorry for him. I must see that man, Blipper, and have a talk with him."
"Wasn't he at his merry-go-round to-day?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, he had gone off somewhere. But I am going to the fair again with
the children, and I'll get at Blipper sooner or later."
"Well, if you go to the fair again, please keep an eye on Freddie!"
begged the mother of the Bobbsey twins. "He's a little tyke when it
comes to slipping away and doing strange things."
"Yes, he is," agreed her husband. But the next day was to prove that
Flossie could also "slip away," when there was a chance.
The Bobbsey twins, with Harry, were out in the cornfield gathering ears
of corn to feed to the hogs and chickens. The corn had been cut and
stacked into piles called "shocks," and it was from the stalks in these
shocks that the ears of yellow corn were broken off and placed in
baskets to be taken to the house.
"Let's play hide and go seek for a while," suggested Nan to her brother
and Harry. "Flossie and Freddie are over there by themselves, shelling
corn." The smaller twins had been given a little basket, and they were
now busy breaking off kernels of corn from some small ears, and dropping
the corn into their basket.
"For the chickies," Flossie had explained.
So while the smaller twins were thus "kept out of mischief," as Nan
said, she, with Bert and Harry, began a game of hide and go seek. It was
lots of fun, dodging in and out among the tall corn shocks, which rose
above the children's heads. The game went on for some time, until even
Bert and Harry said they were tired.
"Well, we'll take the corn up to the house," announced Nan. "Come,
Flossie and Freddie," she called. Freddie came up, carrying the basket
of shelled corn, but Flossie was not with him.
"Where's your sister?" asked Harry.
"Who, Flossie? Oh, she went away. She said she was going home," Freddie
answered. "She went home a good while ago!"
"Went home!" echoed Nan, with a gasping breath. "Why, she never could
find the way all by herself. Oh, maybe she's lost!"
CHAPTER XIV
FREDDIE AND THE PUMPKIN
The cornfield where the Bobbsey twins and Harry had gone to work and
play was a long distance from the farmhouse. Nan knew this, and that is
why she was frightened when Freddie said that Flossie had "gone home."
"Maybe she could find her way," said Bert.
"She's a smart little girl," added Harry. "I wish I had a sister like
her."
"How long ago did she leave you, Freddie?" asked Nan.
"Oh, 'bout maybe three four hours," answered the little boy.
"We haven't been here an hour!" exclaimed Bert.
"Well, maybe it was minutes, then," admitted Freddie. He did not have a
very good idea of time, you see.
"If it was only a little while ago she can't have gone very far," said
Nan. "Flossie! Flossie!" she called. "Where are you?"
But there was no answer. Bert and Harry then took up the call, as they
had louder voices than had Nan, and even Freddie added his shout, but it
was of no use. Flossie did not answer.
"I guess she's too far away," Harry stated.
"We'd better hurry after her!" said Bert.
"Oh, come on!" cried Nan, half sobbing. "Mother told me to keep good
watch over her, and I didn't! I shouldn't have played hide and go seek!"
"It wasn't your fault!" her brother consoled her. "It was as much mine
as yours. But we'll find Flossie all right. I guess she's home by this
time."
But when they had hurried to the farmhouse there was no sign of the
little girl. Mrs. Bobbsey became much frightened when told what had
happened.
"Is there any water she could fall into?" she asked Aunt Sarah.
"No, not even a duck pond near the cornfield. She's all right, I'm
sure," said the other Mrs. Bobbsey. "We'll go back to the cornfield and
find her hiding, I feel certain."
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