CHAPTER X
COUSIN JASPER'S STORY
Mr. Bobbsey, who had been talking to the clerk of the hotel at the desk,looked toward Mrs. Bobbsey, who was hurrying out the front door.
"Wait a minute!" he called after her. "I'll come with you!"
"No, you stay with the other children," she answered. "I'll findFreddie."
"But you don't know your way about St. Augustine," said Mr. Bobbsey."You've never been here before."
"Neither have you," returned his wife with a laugh, for she was not verymuch alarmed about Freddie--he had slipped away too often before.
"I can find my way about as well as you can, Dick," went on Mrs.Bobbsey. "You stay here and I'll get our little fat fireman."
"Maybe he has gone to see a fire engine," suggested Nan.
"I don't believe so," answered her father. "I didn't hear any alarm, butperhaps they don't sound one here as we do back in Lakeport."
"I guess he's just gone out to look at the things in the streets here,"said Bert. "They're a lot different from at home."
"Indeed they are!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "Well, I'll stay here," hesaid to his wife, "and you go and look for Freddie. But if you don'tsoon find him come back and I'll go out."
"I'll find him," she said, and one of the porters from the hotel offeredto go with her to show Mrs. Bobbsey her way about the strange streets ofSt. Augustine--the little, narrow streets that had not been changed muchin three hundred years.
"Oh, what a lovely place this is," said Nan to Bert, while their fatherwas talking with the hotel clerk. "It's like a palace."
"It looks like some of the places you see in a moving picture," saidBert.
And indeed the beautiful hotel, with the palms and flowers set allabout, did look like some moving picture play. Only it was real, and theBobbsey twins were to stay there until they had seen Cousin Jasper, andfound out what his strange story was about.
Soon after Mr. Bobbsey had finished signing his name and those of themembers of his family in the hotel register book, Mrs. Bobbsey cameback, leading Freddie by the hand.
The little boy seemed to be all right, and he was smiling, while in onehand he held a ripe banana.
"Where've you been, Freddie?" asked Flossie. "I was afraid you had goneback home."
"Nope," Freddie answered, as he started to peel the banana. "I wasseeing how they did it."
"How who did what?" asked his father.
"Carried the big baskets on their heads," Freddie answered, and by thistime he had part of the skin off the yellow fruit, and was breaking offa piece for Flossie. Freddie always shared his good things with hislittle sister, and with Bert and Nan if there was enough.
"What does he mean?" asked Bert of his mother. "Was he trying to carrysomething on his head?"
"No," answered Mrs. Bobbsey with a laugh, "but he was following a bigcolored woman who had a basket of fruit on her head. I caught himhalfway down the street in front of another hotel. He was walking afterthis woman, and he didn't hear me coming. I asked him what he was doing,and he said he was waiting to see it fall off."
"What fall off?" asked Nan, coming up just then.
"I thought maybe the basket would fall off her head," Freddie answeredfor himself. "It was an awful big basket, and it wibbled and wobbledlike anything. I thought maybe it would fall, but it didn't," he addedwith a sigh, as though he had been cheated out of a lot of fun.
"If it did had fallen," he went on, "I was going to pick up her bananasand oranges for her. That's why I kept walking after her."
"Did she drop that banana?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, while several smilingpersons gathered about the Bobbsey twins in the hotel lobby.
"No, I bought this with a penny," Freddie answered. "The colored ladydidn't drop any. But if her basket did had fallen from off her head Icould have picked up the things, and then maybe she'd have given me abanana or an orange."
"And when that didn't happen you had to go buy one yourself; did you?"asked Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh. "Well, that's too bad. But, after this,Freddie, don't go away by yourself. It's all right, at home, to run offand play in the fields or woods, for you know your way about. But hereyou are in a strange city, so you must stay with us."
"Yes, sir," answered Freddie, like a good little boy.
"I will, too," promised Flossie.
The Bobbsey family was together once again, and when Flossie and Freddiehad eaten the banana, and porters had taken charge of their baggage,they all went up to the rooms where they were to stay.
"We don't know just how long we'll be here," said Mr. Bobbsey, as theywere getting ready to go down to supper, as the children called it, or"dinner," as the more fashionable name has it.
"Are we going out on the ocean again?" asked Nan.
"Did you like it?" her father wanted to know.
"Oh, lots!" she answered.
"It was great!" declared Bert.
"I want to see 'em catch some more sharks," Freddie said.
"I like to see the blue water," added Flossie, who had got out a cleandress for her rubber doll.
"Yes, the blue water is very pretty," remarked Mr. Bobbsey. "Well, weshall, very likely, sail on it again. I don't know just what CousinJasper wants to tell me, or what he wants me to do. But I think he isplanning an ocean trip himself. I'll go to see him this evening, afterwe have eaten, and then I can tell you all about it."
"May I come with you?" asked Bert.
"Well, I think not this first trip," answered Mr. Bobbsey slowly. "I amgoing to the hospital where Cousin Jasper is ill, and he may not be ableto see both of us. I'll take you later."
"We can stay and watch the colored people carry things on their heads,"put in Freddie. "That's lots of fun, and maybe some of 'em will dropoff, and we can help pick 'em up, and they might give us an orange."
"I guess I'd rather buy my oranges, and then I'll be sure to have what Iwant," said Bert with a laugh.
"There are plenty of things you can look at while I'm at the hospital,"said Mr. Bobbsey, and after the meal he inquired the way to the placewhere Cousin Jasper was getting well, while Mrs. Bobbsey took thechildren down to the docks, where they could see many motor boats, andfishing and oyster craft, tied up for the night.
It was a beautiful evening, and the soft, balmy air of St. Augustine waswarm, so that only the lightest clothing needed to be worn.
"It's just like being at the seashore in the summer," said Nan.
"Well, this is summer, and we are at the seashore, though it is not likeOcean Cliff," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a smile. She was glad the childrenliked it, and she hoped they would have more good times if they wereagain to go sailing on the deep, blue sea.
When they got back to the hotel Mr. Bobbsey had not yet returned fromthe hospital, but he came before Flossie and Freddie were ready for bed,for they had been allowed to stay up a little later than usual.
"Well, how is Cousin Jasper?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Much better, I am glad to say," answered her husband. "He will be ableto leave the hospital in a few days, and then he wants us to start on atrip with him."
"Start on a trip so soon!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Where does he wantto go, and will he be well enough to travel?"
"He says he will. And as to where he wants to go, that is a strangestory."
"Oh, tell us about it!" begged Bert.
"We're going to hear Cousin Jasper's secret at last!" cried Nan.
"Is it a real story, with 'once upon a time' in it?" Freddie questioned."And has it got a fire engine in it?" he added.
"Well, no, not exactly a fire engine, though it has a boat engine in thestory. And I can make it start with 'once upon a time,' if you want meto."
"Please do," begged Flossie. "And has it got any fairies in it?"
"No, not exactly any fairies," her father said; "though we may find somewhen we get to the island."
"Oh, are we going on an island?" exclaimed Bert.
"There!" cried his father, "I've started at the wrong end.
I had betterbegin at the beginning. And that will be to tell you how I found CousinJasper.
"He has been quite ill, and is better now. Part of the time he was outof his head with fever, even after he wrote to me, and for a time thedoctor feared he would not get well. But now he is all right, except forbeing weak, and he told me a queer story.
"Once upon a time," went on Mr. Bobbsey, telling the tale as his littlerchildren liked to hear it, "Cousin Jasper and a young friend of his, aboy about fifteen years old, set out to take a long trip in a motorboat. That is it had an engine in it that ran by gasolene as does anautomobile. Cousin Jasper is very fond of sailing the deep, blue sea,and he took this boy along with him to help. They were to sail about fora week, visiting the different islands off the coast of Florida.
"Well, everything went all right the first few days. In their big motorboat Cousin Jasper and this boy, who was named Jack Nelson, sailedabout, living on their boat, cooking their meals, and now and thenlanding at the little islands, or keys, as they are called.
"They were having a good time when one day a big storm came up. Theycould not manage their boat and they were blown a long way out to seaand then cast up on the shore of a small island.
"Cousin Jasper was hurt and so was the boy, but they managed to get outof the water and up on land. They found a sort of cave in which theycould get out of the storm, and they stayed on the island for sometime."
"For years?" asked Bert, who, with the other Bobbsey twins, was muchinterested in Cousin Jasper's strange story. "That was just likeRobinson Crusoe!" Bert went on. "Why didn't they stay there always?"
"They did not have enough to eat," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and it was toolonesome for them there. They were the only people on the island, as faras they knew. So they made a smudge of smoke, and on a pole they put upsome pieces of canvas that had washed ashore from their motor boat. Theyhoped these signals would be seen by some ship or small boat that mightcome to take them off."
"Did they get rescued?" asked Bert.
Mr. Bobbsey was about to answer when the telephone, which was in theroom, gave a loud ring.
"Some one for us!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
The Bobbsey Twins on the Deep Blue Sea Page 10