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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"Thank you, very much," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And tell your uncle and aunt
what has happened, Bert. Tell them we expect to be home before night
with Flossie and Freddie."
"Oh, if we only can be!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"We'll find the little ones all right--never fear!" said Mr. Trench. "If
you're ready now, we'll start."
So while Nan, Bert and Harry remained behind in charge of Mr. Blackford,
who had offered to take them home in his automobile, Mr. and Mrs.
Bobbsey, with some men who had charge of the balloon, started off to go
to the lake, there to hire a boat and search for Flossie and Freddie.
"They're out of sight. How far away they must be!" sighed Mrs. Bobbsey,
as she entered the automobile. She looked up, but could not see the
balloon, so fast had it been blown away.
"They aren't so far as it seems," declared Mr. Trench. "It's getting
foggy, and it's going to rain hard soon."
As Bert, Nan, and Harry were getting in Mr. Blackford's automobile to go
to Meadow Brook Farm, Bob Guess came hurrying up through the rain. The
merry-go-round, as well as other amusements at the fair, had shut down
on account of the storm.
"Where's your father?" asked Bob of Bert. "I've something to tell him.
Where is he?"
"He's gone off after the balloon. Flossie and Freddie are in it," Nan
answered.
"Whew! Those little children taking a balloon ride!" cried Bob. "How did
they dare?"
"It was an accident," Harry explained. "They didn't mean to."
"Well, tell your father I want to see him when he gets back," said Bob,
as he hurried back to the merry-go-round. "I have something to tell him
about Mr. Blipper."
However, Bert and Nan had other things to think about then than about
Mr. Blipper. They were worried over what might happen to Flossie and
Freddie.
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were hastening toward the lake. Mr.
Bobbsey drove his car as fast as he dared through the storm. It was now
raining hard.
"How long would the balloon stay up in the air?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of
Mr. Trench.
"It all depends. On a hot day, when the sun warms the gas, it would stay
up a long time. But when it is cool, like this, and rains, it will not
stay up so long. It will come down gently, and I am sure the children
will not be hurt."
As they drove along they stopped now and then to ask people if they had
seen the runaway balloon. Many had, and all said it was sailing toward
the lake.
When the lake was reached and a motor-boat had been found which would
take them out on the water, several men said they had seen the big gas
bag beginning to go down near Hemlock Island, the largest island in the
lake.
"If they have only landed there they may be all right," Mrs. Bobbsey
said. "Oh, hurry and get there, Dick!"
"We'll hurry all we can," her husband told her, as they got into the
boat to continue the search. "But this is a bad storm. We must be
careful."
CHAPTER XVIII
ON THE ROCKS
The whole world seemed a very dreary and unhappy place to Mr. and Mrs.
Bobbsey as they started off in the motor-boat to look for Flossie and
Freddie. In the first place, if one of the little Bobbsey twins had just
been lost--plain lost--as Flossie was in the cornfield, it would have
been sad enough. But when both tots were missing, and when the last seen
of them had been a sight of them shooting away in a balloon through a
gathering storm, well, it was enough to make any father and mother feel
very unhappy.
Besides this, there was the rain, and as the motor-boat, in charge of
Captain Craig, swung out into the lake, the big, pelting drops came down
harder than ever.
"Oh, what a sad, sad day!" sighed Mrs. Bobbsey. "And it started off so
happily, too!"
"Perhaps it will end happily," said Mr. Bobbsey, hopefully. "It will not
be night for several hours yet, and before then we may find Flossie and
Freddie. In fact I'm sure we shall!"
"I think so, too," declared Mr. Trench, the owner of the balloon. "That
craft of mine wasn't filled with enough gas to go far, and it had to
come down soon."
"But where would it come down? That's the point!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
"If it came down in the lake----"
"It's on Hemlock Island, take my word for it!" growled out Captain
Craig, in whose motor-boat the searching party was riding. It was not
because he was cross that his voice had a growling sound. It was just
naturally hoarse. He was out on the water so much, often in the cold and
rain, that he seemed to have an everlasting cold. "We'll find the
balloon and the children, too, on Hemlock Island," he went on. "Half a
dozen men I talked to, just before you came, said they saw something big
and black, like an airship, swooping down on the island. We'll find 'em
there, never fear!"
"How far are we from Hemlock Island?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Captain
Craig, when they had been in the motor-boat about fifteen minutes.
"Oh, a few miles--just a few miles," was the answer.
"And how long will it take to get there?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked.
"Well, that's hard to say," was the answer. "It might take us a long
while, and again it might not take us so long."
"Why is that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering whether Bert and Nan would
be all right, left to themselves as they were. But then they would have
their uncle, aunt, and cousin to look after them.
"Well," went on Captain Craig, as he steered the boat to one side, "you
see it's getting thicker and thicker--I mean the weather. The rain is
coming down harder and it's getting foggy, too. I can't very well see
where to steer, and I have to run at slow speed. So it will take me
longer to get to Hemlock Island than if it was a clear day and I could
run as fast as my boat would go."
"Well, get there as soon as you can," begged Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm sure if
Flossie and Freddie are on the island in all this rain they will be
terribly frightened!"
"Well, they may be--a little," admitted Mr. Bobbsey. "But Flossie and
Freddie are brave children. They'll make the best of things I'm sure!"
The motor-boat went chug-chugging its way across the big lake, not
running as fast as it could have done on a fair day. The rain poured
down, making a hissing sound in the water. Those in the boat wore rubber
coats, for Captain Craig had supplied them at his boathouse before
starting out. He owned a boat dock, and also a fishing pier, and
supplied pleasure parties with nearly everything they needed for fair
weather or stormy.
Suddenly Mrs. Bobbsey, who was straining her eyes to peer through the
mist and rain, uttered a cry.
"There's something!" she called out.
"Where?" asked her husband, and Captain Craig leaned forward, his hands
gripping the spokes of the steering wheel.
"Right straight ahead," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Something black is
looming up in the fog. Maybe it's the balloon!"
"We can't be anywhere near the island yet," said the captain. "That is
unless I'm away off my course. But we'll soon find out what it is."
They could all see the black object now, though it looked dim and
uncertain, for a fog was settling down over the lake and the mist and
vapor, together with the rain, made it hard to see more than a few feet
ahead.
"It's a boat!" suddenly cried Mr. Bobbsey. "A large boat."
And that is what it was.
"Ahoy there!" called Captain Craig in his deep voice. "Ahoy there!"
"Ahoy!" answered the men in the boat.
"Have you seen anything of a runaway balloon?" asked Mr. Trench. "Mine
got away from the Bolton County Fair, and it had two little children in
the balloon basket. Have you seen them?"
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and all in the motor boat waited anxiously for the
answer. Captain Craig had shut off his engine so its noise would not
drown the words of those in the other boat.
"We saw something big and black sailing through the air over our heads
about an hour ago," was the answer. "We thought it was the aeroplane
from the fair grounds."
"That was my balloon!" declared Mr. Trench.
"Did you see anything of my children?" Mrs. Bobbsey begged to know.
"No. But we couldn't see very well on account of the fog and because the
balloon--if that's what it was--kept up pretty high," came the answer.
"Which way was she heading?" Captain Craig wanted to know, this being
his sailor way of asking which way the balloon was going.
"Due north," answered one of the men in the other boat, which was a
craft containing a number of fishermen.
"Towards Hemlock Island," stated another.
"Well, we're going in the right direction," went on Captain Craig. "Much
obliged," he called to the fishermen, as the motor-boat again started
off through the fog.
Soon the vessel that had been hailed was lost to sight in the mist, and
again all eyes, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, were strained
in looking for a first sight of Hemlock Island.
"Are you warm enough?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife, wrapping the
rubber coat more closely about her.
"Oh, yes. I'm not thinking of myself," she answered, with a sigh. "I am
worried about my darlings!"
"I think they'll come out of it all right," said her husband. "Flossie
and Freddie, as well as Bert and Nan, have been in many a scrape, but
the Bobbsey luck seems to hold good. They always get out all right."
"Yes. And I hope they will this time," answered Mrs. Bobbsey, trying to
appear more cheerful.
For a while they ran along in silence, every one peering out into the
rain and the mist striving to catch sight, if not of the balloon, at
least of the shore of Hemlock Island.
"My, but this fog is getting thicker and thicker!" exclaimed Captain
Craig. "I'll have to go a bit slower yet."
He cut down the speed of the engine until the boat was moving at less
than half speed. But even this did not save her from an accident which
came a short time later.
Suddenly, as they were cruising along, every eye on the lookout for a
sight of the island, there came a violent crash. All in the boat were
thrown forward.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, as she struggled to regain her seat.
"What have we struck?" Mr. Bobbsey asked.
"We've struck Hemlock Island," said Captain Craig grimly. "We've fairly
bumped into it. I ought to have known I was somewhere near it. We've
fairly rammed it, and we're on the rocks!"
"'On the rocks!'" repeated Mrs. Bobbsey. "Are we in danger?"
"That's what I'm going to find out," said the captain. "At least we
can't sink, for we're right on shore," and as he spoke the fog blew away
for a moment, showing a bleak shore of rocks with hemlock trees a little
way up from the beach. "Yes, sir, we ran plumb on the rocks!" muttered
Captain Craig, as he stood up and tried to peer through the fog that was
now closing in again.
CHAPTER XIX
TWO LITTLE SAILORS
Now it is time for us to inquire what was happening to Freddie and
Flossie, the two smaller Bobbsey twins. They had fallen out of the
balloon basket when the big gas bag was blown down on Hemlock Island in
the storm. But Flossie and Freddie had toppled out on piles of soft,
dried leaves, so they were not hurt. But, as Flossie had said, she was
soaking wet.
"We ought to have umbrellas," said Freddie, as he felt the drops of rain
pelting down. "If we had umbrellas this would be fun, 'cause we aren't
hurt from our balloon ride."
"No, we aren't hurt," agreed Flossie, "'ceptin' I'm jiggled up a lot."
"So'm I," Freddie stated. "I'm jiggled, too!"
"And we hasn't got any umbrella, and I'm gettin' wetter'n wetter!" half
sobbed Flossie.
Indeed it was raining harder, and as the fog was closing in on the
children they could not see very far on any side of them.
It was not the first time the small Bobbsey twins had been lost
together, nor the first time they had been in trouble. And, as he had
done more than once, Freddie began to think of some way by which he
could comfort Flossie.
The little boy was hungry, and he felt that if he could get something to
eat it would make him feel better. And surely what made him feel better
ought to make Flossie happier if she had some of the same.
"Are you hungry, Flossie?" he asked.
"Yes, I am," answered the little girl.
"Well, let's eat some more of the things that were in the balloon
basket," proposed her brother. "They tumbled out when we did. I can see
some of 'em mixed up with the blankets and other things."
When the bumping of the balloon basket had spilled out Flossie and
Freddie it had also toppled out the supply of food and the tools and
instruments the balloon men had intended using on their sail through the
air.
"Let's get 'em before the rain soaks 'em all up," suggested Flossie, for
the rain was now pouring down on everything.
"I guess that balloon won't be any good any more," said Freddie, as he
looked at the big gas bag, now almost empty and tangled in the trees and
bushes.
"No, I guess we won't ever get another ride in it," agreed Flossie.
That part was true enough; but, later, the balloon men took the bag from
the island, mended the holes in it, and went up in many a flight from
other fair grounds.
Gathering up some of the spilled food gave Flossie and Freddie something
to do, and, for a time, they forgot about the rain pouring down. But it
was the kind of rain one could not easily forget for very long, and
after putting some tin boxes of crackers under an overhanging stump,
to keep the food dry, and after eating some, Flossie exclaimed:
"Oh, I don't like it to be so wet!" Then she wept a little.
Freddie did not like it, either, but he made up his mind he must be
brave and not cry. Not that Flossie could not be brave, too, but she
didn't just then happen to think of it.
"I know what we can do!" Freddie exclaimed. "We can wrap the rubber
blanket around us, and that will be like an umbrella--almost!"
"Oh, yes!" cried Flossie! "That will keep us from getting wet!"
And the rubber blanket turned out to be a fairly good umbrella. It was
large enough for Flossie and Freddie to put over their shoulders and
walk under. And it was while they were thus walking through the woods,
wondering what would happen next and if their father and mother would
ever find them, that Freddie saw something.
"Oh, Flossie! There's a house!" he shouted.
"Where?" demanded the little girl.
"Right over there! Among the trees! Down near the shore!"
Freddie pointed and Flossie, looking, saw dimly through the fog the
outlines of some sort of building.
"Let's go there and they can telephone to daddy that we're here," said
Flossie. "I guess we're all right now. And maybe Bert and Nan will wish
they'd come on a balloon ride with us."
"Maybe," agreed Freddie, as he tramped along with his sister under the
rubber blanket toward the building on the shore of the lake.
But alas for the hopes of the children! When they reached the place they
found that what Freddie had thought was a house was only an old empty
cabin. It had once been used by campers or by fishermen, and at one time
may have been a cosy place. But now the glass in the windows was broken,
the door hung sagging by one hinge, and inside there was a rusty stove
which showed no signs of a warm, cheerful fire.
"There's nobody here," said Flossie sadly, after they had looked inside
and had seen that the shack was deserted.
"Well, but it doesn't rain so hard inside as it does outside," remarked
Freddie. "Let's go in. This blanket makes me tired."
The rubber covering was rather heavy for the little children, and they
were glad to step inside the cabin. Even though the roof leaked in
places, there were spots where it did not. Picking out one of these
spaces, Freddie moved some boxes over to it, and he and his sister sat
down, tired and wet, but feeling better now that they were within some
sort of shelter.
"This isn't a very nice place," Flossie observed, looking around.
"No. But it's better'n being outside," stated Freddie. "And maybe
there's a bed in the next room." The cabin consisted of two rooms, the
door between them being shut. "I'm going to look," Freddie went on.
"No, don't!" begged Flossie, clutching Freddie by the sleeve.
"Why not?" he asked. "Don't you want me to look in that room and see if
there's a bed? 'Cause maybe we'll have to stay all night."
"Don't look!" begged Flossie "Maybe--maybe Mr. Blipper is in there!"
"Mr. Blipper?" echoed Freddie. "What would he be doing here? He's at his
merry-go-round."
"No, he isn't at his merry-go-round," insisted Flossie. "'Cause we was
there and he wasn't there when daddy wanted to ask him about the coat
and the lap robe. Maybe Mr. Blipper's in that room, and I don't like
him--he's so cross!"
"Yes, he's cross," agreed Freddie. "And he was mean to Bob Guess. But
maybe Mr. Blipper isn't in that room. I'm going to look!"
But Freddie never did. He got down off the old box he was using for a
seat, under a part of the roof that didn't leak, when Flossie gave a
cry, and pointed out-of-doors.
"Look!" she exclaimed.
"Is somebody coming?" Freddie wanted to know.
"No, but I see a boat," Flossie went on. "We can get in the boat and row
back on the fair grounds and we'll be all right."
Freddie looked to where she pointed and saw a rowboat drawn up on the
shore.
"If it's got oars in we could row," he said, for both he and his little
sister knew something of handling boats, their father having taught
them.
"Let's go down and look," proposed Flossie. "It isn't raining so hard
now."
The big drops were not, indeed, pelting down quite so fast, but it was
still far from dry.
Getting under the rubber blanket again, the children ran out of the
cabin and toward the boat. They were delighted to find oars in it, and,
seeing that the rowboat was in good shape, Freddie got in.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed as he sat down on a wet seat. "Here, wait a minute
before you sit there, Flossie. I'll put the rubber blanket down to sit
on."
The inside of the rubber blanket was dry, and Freddie put the wet side
down on the wooden seat. This gave the children something more
comfortable to sit on than a wet piece of wood.
"We'll each take an oar and row," proposed Freddie, for he and Flossie
were sitting on the same seat. This was the only way to use the same
rubber blanket.
Loosening the rope by which the boat was made fast to a stump on shore,
Freddie pushed out into the lake. The rain had almost stopped now, and
the children were feeling happier.
"Now we'll row home," announced Freddie.
"Had we better go back and get some of the crackers we left under the
stump?" asked Flossie. "Maybe it's a long way to the fair grounds or to
Meadow Brook Farm, and we might get hungry."
"Oh, I guess we'll soon be home," said Freddie, hopefully. "Come on and
row, Flossie."
Together they rowed the boat out from shore. But they could not make the
heavy craft go very fast. There was water in the bottom, probably from
the rain and perhaps because the boat leaked. But Freddie and Flossie
did not think about this, even though their feet were getting wet. Or,
at least, wetter. Their feet were already wet from having tramped about
in the heavy rain.
"We'll soon be home now," said Freddie again.
They were some little distance out from the shore, two brave but tired
and miserable little sailors, when, all at once, it began to rain again.
"Oh, dear!" cried Flossie, letting go her oar, "I'm getting all soaked
again!"
"Don't you care," advised her brother. "Keep on rowing!"
But Flossie cried, shook her head, and would not pick up the oar.
Freddie could not row the boat alone, and he did not know what to do.
Down pelted the rain, harder than before.
"I want to go back where we were!" sobbed Flossie. "Back to the cabin.
Maybe we can build a fire in the stove and get warm! I'm cold!"
"All right; we'll go back!" agreed Freddie. He was beginning to fear it
was not so easy to row home as he had hoped.
Down came the rain, and with it came a fog. Soon the children were
enveloped in the white mist, and they could see only a little distance
from the boat in which they sat.
"Come on! Row!" called Freddie to his sister. "We'll row back to the
cabin."
"How do you know where it is?" Flossie asked, as she took up the oar
again.
"Oh, I guess I can find it," said her brother. "You hold your oar still
in the water and I'll pull on mine and turn us around." He knew how to
do this quite well, and soon the boat was turned, and the children were
again pulling as hard as they could pull.
It was by good luck and not by any skill of theirs that they soon
reached land again. They might, for all they knew about it, have rowed
out into the middle of the lake.
But soon a bumping sound told them they had reached shore, and Freddie
scrambled out and held the boat while Flossie made her way to land.
"Is it the same place?" she asked, as Freddie reached for the rubber
blanket.
"Yes, I can see the old cabin. We'll go up there and get warm."
Up the little hill, through the rain, trudged the children, getting
what shelter they could under the blanket. Even Freddie was beginning to
lose heart now, for he could see that darkness was coming on, and they
were far from home. The rain, too, was pouring down harder than ever.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" sighed Flossie.
"Don't cry!" begged her brother. "I'll make a fire and we'll eat some
more crackers. I'll go get them from under the stump."
"I'll go with you," declared Flossie, firmly, "I'm not going to stay
alone."
Together they pulled out some of the lunch they had found in the balloon
basket. Back to the shack they went, and Freddie was looking about for
some matches in the old cabin when Flossie suddenly called out:
"Hark! I hear something!"
CHAPTER XX
A HAPPY MEETING
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and the friends who had gone with them in Captain
Craig's motor-boat to search for the runaway balloon, waited anxiously
after they had run on the rocks for what was to happen next.
"Is there any danger?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, lady, there doesn't seem to be--that is, if you mean danger of
sinking," said Captain Craig. "As I remarked at first, we're plumb fast
on the rocks. But maybe if we were to get out and thus lighten the boat,
she would float off the rocks and we could keep on."
"That's a good idea!" declared Mr. Bobbsey. "We must keep on, no matter
what happens, and find those children!"
"I think we'll find them!" declared Mr. Trench, and he seemed so much in
earnest that Mrs. Bobbsey asked:
"When?"
"Very soon now," answered the balloon man. "If my gas bag came down here
on Hemlock Island--that's where we are now--it won't take long to search
all over it and find your Flossie and Freddie. That's what I think."
"But first let me see how badly the boat is damaged," went on the
captain. "I'm afraid it's in bad shape."
"Can't we get away from here?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "That is, I mean,
after we find the children? I wouldn't go until we have found them!" she
exclaimed.
"It all depends on what shape my boat is in," went on the captain. "As
soon as you are all out I'll take a look."
The searching party stood about in the rain on the shore of Hemlock
Island under the dripping trees, the drops splashing on their rubber
coats, while Captain Craig looked over his boat. He took some little
time to do this, and at last he shook his head in gloomy fashion.
"Well?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Not well--bad!" answered the captain. "We can't go on until the boat is
mended. She isn't as badly smashed as I thought, and it doesn't leak
much, which is a good thing. But I can't use the engine to drive her
along until it's fixed. We'll have to stay on the island until I get
help, I guess."
"How are we going to get help in all this rain and fog?" Mr. Bobbsey
wanted to know.
"There used to be some campers' huts here," said the captain. "Maybe
some of those fellows left a rowboat. I could go over to the mainland in
that and get help. Some of you can come with me if you like."
"I'm not going to!" announced Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm going to stay here and
find Flossie and Freddie!"
"So am I, my dear!" added Mr. Bobbsey.
"Well, then, let's look around for a boat. If I find one I'll go for
help in it, and you can stay here," said Captain Craig.
He made his own damaged craft fast close to the shore, and then the
searching party set off through the woods to look for a cabin, a
rowboat, and for the missing children.
"It ought to be easy to see that balloon, it's so big," said Captain
Craig.
"I can spot that balloon of mine as soon as any one, I guess," said Mr.
Trench. "This isn't the first time I've hunted for it. You never can
tell exactly where a balloon will come down."
Through the underbrush, between trees, and in the dripping rain and
swirling fog, the searching party tramped on. Suddenly one of the men
gave a cry.
"I see something!" he shouted.
"Is it my children?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked, her voice trembling with
eagerness.
"No, I think it's the balloon," was the answer.
And the balloon it was. Draped over bushes and trees was the big gas
bag, now almost emptied of the vapor that had lifted it and carried it
away from the fair grounds with Flossie and Freddie in the basket.
"Oh, but where are my little ones--my Bobbsey twins?" cried the mother.
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