CHAPTER IX
A NIGHT SCARE
"Well, are you all ready?" asked Daddy Bobbsey, as he came out andlocked the front door. On the steps in front of him, or else down thefront walk, were his wife, Nan, Bert, Flossie, Freddie, Sam, Dinah,Snoop, in his traveling crate, Whisker, the goat, hitched to his wagon,and a pile of trunks, boxes and other things.
"If we're not ready we never will be," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a sigh anda laugh, as she looked over everything. "We aren't going so far, butwhat we can send for anything we forget, which is a good thing. But Iguess we're all ready, Daddy."
"Good! Here comes the expressman for our trunks, and behind him is theautomobile we're going to take down to the steamer dock. Now have youchildren everything you want?" and he looked at Flossie and Freddieparticularly.
"I've got my best doll, and Snoop's in his cage," said Flossie. "And myother dolls are in the trunk and so are the toys I want. Is your fireengine packed, Freddie? 'Cause you might want it if the woods got onfire."
"Yep; my fire engine is all right," answered the little fellow. "An'I've got everything I want, I guess--except--maybe----" he was thinkingthen. "Oh, I forgot 'em! I forgot 'em!" he quickly cried. "Open thedoor, Daddy! I forgot 'em!"
"Forgot what?" his father asked with a smile.
"The tin bugs that go around and around and around," answered Freddie."You know, the ones I buyed in New York. I want 'em."
"Well, it's a good thing you thought of them before we got away, for Iwouldn't have wanted to come back just to get the tin bugs."
"But they go around and around and around!" cried Flossie, who liked thequeer toys as much as did her brother. "They're lots of fun."
"Well, as long as we're going to camp on Blueberry Island for fun asmuch as for anything else," said Mr. Bobbsey, "I suppose we'll have toget the bugs. Come on, Freddie."
The little twin had wrapped his tin bugs in a paper and left them on achair in the front hall, so it was little trouble to get them. Then thetrunks, bags and bundles were piled in the wagon and taken to thesteamboat dock, while the Bobbsey family, all except Bert, took theirplaces in the automobile. Bert was to drive Whisker to the wharf, as itwas found easier to ship the goat and wagon this way than by crating orboxing the animal and his cart.
"I'd rather ride with Bert and Whisker than in the auto," said Freddiewistfully, as he saw his brother about to drive off.
"So would I!" added Flossie, who always chimed in with anything her twinbrother did.
"But you can't," said Mrs. Bobbsey decidedly. "If you two small twinswent with Bert in the goat wagon something would be sure to happen.You'd stop to give some one a ride or you'd have a race with a dog or acat, and then we'd miss the boat. You must come with us, Flossie andFreddie, and, Bert, don't lose any time. The boat won't wait for you andWhisker."
"I'll be there before you," promised Bert, and he was, for he took ashort cut. He said on the way he had stopped at the police station toask if there was any news about the missing Snap, but the trick dog hadnot been seen, and so the Bobbseys went to camp without him.
If there had not been so much to see and to do, they would have beenmore lonesome for Snap than they were. As it was, they missed him verymuch, but Bert held out a little hope by saying perhaps they might findtheir pet on Blueberry Island, though why he said it he hardly knew.
"All aboard!" called the steamboat men as the Bobbseys settledthemselves in comfort, their goods having been put in place. The goatwagon was left on the lower deck where stood the horses and wagons thatwere to be taken across the lake, for the steamer was a sort offerryboat. "All aboard!" called the deck hands.
There was a tooting of whistles, a clanging and ringing of bells, andthe boat slowly moved away from the dock.
"Oh, it's just lovely to go camping!" sighed Nan.
"We haven't really begun yet," said Bert. "Wait until we get to thewoods and have to go hunting for what we want to eat, and cook it overan open fire--that's the way to live!"
"I guess there won't be much hunting on Blueberry Island," said Mr.Bobbsey, with a laugh.
"Well, we can make-believe, can't we?" asked Freddie.
"Oh, yes, you can make-believe," said his mother. "And that, sometimes,is more fun than having real things."
I will not tell you all the things that happened on the steamboat, forso much more happened on Blueberry Island that I will have to hurry onto that. Besides, the trip to the middle of the lake did not take morethan an hour, and not much can take place in an hour.
I say not much, and yet sometimes lots of things can. But not a greatdeal did to the Bobbseys this time, though, to be sure, a strange dogtried to get hold of Snoop in his crate, and Freddie nearly felloverboard reaching after his hat, which blew off.
"But I could swim even if I did fall in," he said, for Mr. Bobbsey hadtaught all four twins how to keep afloat in water.
"Well, we don't want you falling in," his mother answered. "Now you sitby me."
This Freddie did for a short time. Then he got tired of sitting stilland jumped down from his chair, at the same time calling to his littlesister:
"Say, Flossie, let's go and watch the engine."
"All right," answered the little girl, ready, as always, to do anythingher brother suggested.
As Flossie jumped from her chair to join her brother, she accidentlykicked an umbrella belonging to a man who was sitting near by, and theumbrella fell to the floor and slipped out under the railing right intothe water.
"Oh--oh--oh!" gasped Flossie.
But Freddie turned and ran as fast as he could to the stairs that led tothe lower deck.
"Here! where are you going?" cried his father, and started after hisson.
"Goin' after that umbrella!"
"I think not!" and Mr. Bobbsey caught up with Freddie and picked him upin his arms.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bobbsey told the man how sorry she was, and said thatthey would replace the umbrella. But the man returned that he would notallow that.
"No one needs an umbrella on such a lovely day, anyway," he said.
But a deckhand who was cleaning some mops in the water had alreadyrescued the umbrella.
"Blueberry Island!" called a man on the steamer, after the boat had madeone or two other stops. "All off for Blueberry Island!"
"Oh, let us off! Let us off!" cried Flossie, getting up in such a hurryfrom her deck chair that she dropped her doll. "We're going campingthere."
"I guess the passengers know it by this time, without your tellingthem," laughed her father. "But come on--don't forget anything."
Such a scrambling as there was! Such a gathering together ofpackages--umbrellas--fishing rods--hats, caps, gloves and the cratewith black Snoop in it. Sam and Dinah helped all they could, and betweenthem and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and the children the family managed to getashore at last.
A gangplank had been run from the boat to the dock, and over this Bertdrove Whisker and the goat cart. The goat seemed glad to get off thesteamboat.
"Oh, wouldn't Snap just love it here!" cried Nan, as they went on shoreand looked at the island. "Isn't it too bad he isn't with us?"
"I'm going to find him!" declared Bert. "Those old gypsies sha'n't haveour trick dog!"
Blueberry Island was, indeed, a fine place for a camp. In the winter noone lived on it, but in the summer it was often visited by picnicparties and by those who liked to gather the blueberries which grew soplentifully, giving the island its name.
In fact, so many people came to one end of the island in the berryseason that a man had set up a little stand near the shore, where hesold sandwiches, coffee, candy, and ice-cream, since many of theberry-pickers, and others who came, grew hungry after tramping throughthe woods.
But where Mr. Bobbsey was going to camp with his family, theberry-pickers and picnic parties seldom came, as it was on the far endof the island, so our friends would be rather by themselves, which waswhat they wanted.
Mr. Dalton, the man who kept the little refreshm
ent stand, had his horseand wagon on the island, and he had agreed to haul the Bobbsey's trunksand other things to where their tents, already put up, awaited them.
"And can't we ride there in the goat wagon?" asked Freddie of hismother, as he saw Bert get up behind Whisker in the little cart.
"Yes, I think you and Flossie may ride now that we are on the island,"said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Do you want to go, Nan?"
"No, I'll walk with you and daddy. I'll get enough goat rides later."
"Oh, how nice it is!" cried Mother Bobbsey when she and Nan came insight of the tents of the camp. "I know we shall like it here!"
"I hope you will," said her husband. "And now we must see aboutsomething to eat. I suppose the children are hungry."
"Dey's always dat way!" laughed fat Dinah. "I neber seen 'em when deywasn't hungry. But jest show me whar's de cook-stove an' suffin' t'cook, an' dey won't be hungry long, mah honey lambs!"
Dinah was as good as her word, and she soon had a fine meal on the tablein the dining tent, for the men Mr. Bobbsey had hired to set up thecanvas houses had everything in readiness to go right to "housekeeping,"as Nan said.
There were several tents for the Bobbsey family. One large one was forthe family to sleep in, while a smaller one, near the kitchen tent, wasfor Dinah and her husband. Then there was a tent that served as adining-room, and another where the trunks and food could be stored. Inthis tent was an ice box, for a boat stopped at the island every day andleft a supply of ice.
The children helped to unpack and settle camp, though, if the truth weretold, perhaps they did more to unsettle it than otherwise. But Mr. andMrs. Bobbsey were used to this, and knew how to manage.
So the meal was eaten, Whisker was put in his little stable, made undera pile of brush-wood, and the children went out rowing in a boat. Theyhad lots of fun that afternoon, and Bert even did a little hunting forSnap, thinking that, by some chance, the trick dog might be on theisland. But Snap was not to be found.
"Though, of course, we didn't half look," Bert said. "We'll look againto-morrow."
And now it was evening in "Twin Camp," as the Bobbseys had decided tocall their place on Blueberry Island. There had been quite a talk as towhat to name the camp, but when Dinah suggested "Twin," every one agreedthat it was best. So "Twin Camp" it was called, and Daddy Bobbsey saidhe would have a wooden sign made with that on it, and a flag to hoistover it on a pole.
Beds were made up in the sleeping tent, and soon even Nan and Bertdeclared that they were ready to go to Slumberland by the quickesttrain or steamboat which was headed for that place. They had been upearly and had been very busy. Flossie and Freddie dropped off to sleepas soon as they put their heads on the pillows.
Freddie did not know what time it was when he awakened. It was in thenight, he was sure of that, for it was dark in the tent except where thelittle oil light was aglow. What had awakened him was something bumpingagainst him. His cot was near one of the walls of the sleeping tent andhe awoke with a start.
"Hi!" he called, as he felt something strike against him. "Who's doin'that? Stop it! Stop it, I say!"
"Freddie, are you talking in your sleep?" asked his mother, who had notslept very soundly.
"No, I'm not asleep," Freddie answered. "But something bumped me. It'soutside the tent."
"Maybe it's Whisker feeling of you with his horns," said Flossie, whoslept near her brother, and who had been awakened when he called out soloudly.
"It--it didn't feel like Whisker. It was softer than his horns," Freddiesaid. "Momsie, I want to come into your bed."
"No, Freddie, you must stay where you are. I guess it was only the windblowing on you."
"No, it wasn't!" said Freddie. "It was a bump that hit me. I'm afraidover here!"
The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island Page 9