“Snap! Snap!” he called out loudly. “Come here, I tell you! Where are you hiding?”
Of course, the dog could not answer the question that had been put to him, and neither did he show himself. That is, not at first. But presently, as Mr. Bobbsey looked first in one corner of the toolhouse and then in another, he saw the tip end of Snap’s tail waving slightly from behind a big barrel.
“Ah, so there you are!” he called out, and then pushed the barrel to one side.
There was Snap, and in front of him lay the doll with a short string attached to it. Whatever had been tied to the other end of the string was now missing.
“Snap, you’re getting to be a bad dog!” said Mr. Bobbsey sternly. “Give me that doll this instant!”
The dog made no movement to keep the doll, but simply licked his mouth with his long, red tongue, as if he was still enjoying what he had eaten.
“If you don’t behave yourself after this I’ll have to tie you up, Snap,” warned Mr. Bobbsey.
And then, acting as if he knew he had done wrong, the big dog slunk out of sight.
“Here you are, Helen!” called Flossie’s father, as he came back. “Here’s your doll, all right, and she isn’t hurt a bit. But the cookie is inside of Snap.”
“Did he like it?” Helen wanted to know.
“He seemed to—very much,” answered Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh. “He made about two bites of it, after he got it loose from the string by which you had tied it to the doll.”
Helen dried her tears on the backs of her hands, and took the doll which had been carried away by the dog. There were a few cookie crumbs sticking to her dress, and that was all that was left of the treat she had been taking to a make-believe poor lady.
“Snap, what made you act so to Helen?” asked Bert, shaking his finger at his pet, when the dog came up from the end of the yard, wagging his tail. “Don’t you know you were bad?”
Snap did not seem to know anything of the kind. He kept on wagging his tail, and sniffed around Helen and her doll.
“He’s smelling to see if I’ve any more cookies,” said the little girl.
“I guess he is,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Well, come into the house, Helen, and I’ll give you another cookie if you want it. But you had better not tie it to your doll, and go anywhere near Snap.”
“I will eat it myself,” said the little girl.
“One cookie a day is enough for Snap, anyhow,” said Bert.
The dog himself did not seem to think so, for he followed the children and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey back to the house, as though hoping he would get another cake.
“Heah’s a bone fo’ yo’,” said Dinah to Snap, for she liked the big dog, and he liked her, I think, for he was in the kitchen as often as Dinah would allow him. Or perhaps it was the good things that the fat cook gave him which Snap liked.
“When we heard you crying, out in the yard,” said Mr. Bobbsey to Helen, as they were sitting in the dining-room, “we didn’t know what had happened.”
“We were afraid it was another dog fighting with Snap,” went on Nan.
“Snap didn’t fight me,” Helen said. “But he scared me just like I was scared when the gypsy man took Mollie, my talking doll.”
I have told you about this in the Blueberry Island book, you remember.
“Well, I must get back to the office,” said Mr. Bobbsey, after a while. “From there I’ll write and tell Cousin Jasper that I’ll come to see him, and hear his strange story.”
“And we’ll come too,” added Bert with a laugh. “Don’t forget us, Daddy.”
“I’ll not,” promised Mr. Bobbsey.
The letter was sent to Mr. Dent, who was still in the hospital, and in a few days a letter came back, asking Mr. Bobbsey to come as soon as he could.
“Bring the children, too,” wrote Cousin Jasper. “They’ll like it here, and if you will take a trip on the ocean with me they may like to come, also.”
“Does Cousin Jasper live on the ocean?” asked Flossie, for she called Mr. Dent “cousin” as she heard her father and mother do, though, really, he was her second, or first cousin once removed.
“Well, he doesn’t exactly live on the ocean,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But he lives near it, and he often takes trips in boats, I think. He once told me he had a large motor boat.”
“What’s a motor boat?” Freddie wanted to know.
“It is one that has a motor in it, like a motor in an automobile, instead of a steam engine,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Big boats and ships, except those that sail, are moved by steam engines. But a motor boat has a gasolene motor, or engine, in it.”
“And are we going to ride in one?” asked Flossie.
“Well, we’ll see what Cousin Jasper wants us to do, and hear what his strange news is,” answered her father.
“Are we going from here to Florida in a motor boat?” Freddie demanded.
“Well, not exactly, little fireman,” his father replied with a laugh. “We’ll go from here to New York in a train, and from New York to Florida in a steamboat.
“After that we’ll see what Cousin Jasper wants us to do. Maybe he will have another boat ready to take us on a nice voyage.”
“That’ll be fun!” cried Freddie. “I hope we see a whale.”
“Well, I hope it doesn’t bump into us,” said Flossie. “Whales are awful big, aren’t they, Daddy?”
“Yes, they are quite large. But I hardly think we shall see any between here and Florida, though once in a while whales are sighted along the coast.”
“Are there any sharks?” Bert asked.
“Oh, yes, there are plenty of sharks, some large and some small,” his father answered. “But they can’t hurt us, and the ship will steam right on past them in the ocean,” he added, seeing that Flossie and Freddie looked a bit frightened when Bert spoke of the sharks.
“I wonder what Cousin Jasper really wants of you,” said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband, when the children had gone out to play.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “but we shall hear in a few days. We’ll start for Florida next week.”
And then the Bobbsey twins and their parents got ready for the trip. They were to have many strange adventures before they saw their home again.
CHAPTER V
Off for Florida
There were many matters to be attended to at the Bobbsey home before the start could be made for Florida. Mr. Bobbsey had to leave some one in charge of his lumber business, and Mrs. Bobbsey had to plan for shutting up the house while the family were away. Sam and Dinah would go on a vacation while the others were in Florida, they said, and the pet animals, Snap and Snoop, would be taken care of by kind neighbors.
“What are you doing, Freddie?” his mother asked him one day, when she heard him and Flossie hurrying about in the playroom, while Mrs. Bobbsey was sorting over clothes to take on the trip.
“Oh, we’re getting out some things we want to take,” the little boy answered. “Our playthings, you know.”
“Can I take two of my dolls?” Flossie asked.
“I think one will be enough,” her mother said. “We can’t carry much baggage, and if we go out on the deep blue sea in a motor boat we shall have very little room for any toys. Take only one doll, Flossie, and let that be a small one.”
“All right,” Flossie answered.
Mrs. Bobbsey paid little attention to the small twins for a while as she and Nan were busy packing. Bert had gone down to the lumberyard office on an errand for his father. Pretty soon there arose a cry in the playroom.
“Mother, make Freddie stop!” exclaimed Flossie.
“What are you doing, Freddie?” his mother called.
“I’m not doing anything,” he answered, as he often did when Flossie and he were having some little trouble.
“He is too doing something!” Flossie went on. “He splashed a whole lot of water on my doll.”
“Well, it’s a rubber doll and water won’t hurt,” Freddie answered. “Anyhow
I didn’t mean to.”
“There! He’s doing it again!” cried Flossie. “Make him stop, Mother!”
“Freddie, what are you doing?” demanded Mrs. Bobbsey. “Nan,” she went on in a lower voice, “you go and peep in. Perhaps Flossie is just too fussy.”
Before Nan could reach the playroom, which was down the hall from the room where Mrs. Bobbsey was sorting over the clothes in a large closet, Flossie cried again:
“There! Now you got me all over wet!”
“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, laying aside a pile of garments. “I suppose I’ll have to go and see what they are doing!”
Before she could reach the playroom, however, Nan came back along the hall. She was laughing, but trying to keep quiet about it, so Flossie and Freddie would not hear her.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey. “What are they doing?”
“Freddie is playing with his toy fire engine,” Nan said. “And he must have squirted some water on Flossie, for she is wet.”
“Much?”
“No, only a little.”
“Well, he mustn’t do it,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I guess they are so excited about going to Florida that they really don’t know what they are doing.”
Mrs. Bobbsey peered into the room where the two smaller twins had gone to play. Flossie was trying different dresses on a small rubber doll she had picked out to take with her. On the other side of the room was Freddie with his toy fire engine. It was one that could be wound up, and it had a small pump and a little hose that spurted out real water when a tank on the engine was filled. Freddie was very fond of playing fireman.
“There, he’s doing it again!” cried Flossie, just as her mother came in. “He’s getting me all wet! Mother, make him stop!”
Mrs. Bobbsey was just in time to see Freddie start his toy fire engine, and a little spray of water did shower over his twin sister.
“Freddie, stop it!” cried his mother. “You know you mustn’t do that!”
“I can’t help it,” Freddie said.
“Nonsense! You can’t help it? Of course you can help squirting water on your sister!”
“He can so!” pouted Flossie.
“No, Mother! I can’t, honest,” said Freddie. “The hose of my fire engine leaks, and that makes the water squirt out on Flossie. I didn’t mean to do it. I’m playing there’s a big fire and I have to put it out. And the hose busts—just like it does at real fires—and everybody gets all wet. I didn’t do it on purpose!”
“Oh, I thought you did,” said Flossie. “Well, if it’s just make believe I don’t mind. You can splash me some more, Freddie.”
“Oh, no he mustn’t!” said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to laugh, though she wanted to very much. “It’s all right to make believe you are putting out a fire, Freddie boy, but, after all, the water is really wet and Flossie is damp enough now. If you want to play you must fix your leaky hose.”
“All right, Mother, I will,” promised the little boy.
One corner of the room was his own special place to play with the toy fire engine. A piece of oil cloth had been spread down so water would not harm anything, and here Freddie had many good times.
There really was a hole in the little rubber hose of his engine, and the water did come out where it was not supposed to. That was what made Flossie get wet, but it was not much.
“And, anyhow, it didn’t hurt her rubber doll,” said Freddie.
“No, she likes it,” Flossie said. “And I like it too, Freddie, if it’s only make believe fun.”
“Well, don’t do it any more,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “You’ll soon have water enough all around you, when you sail on the blue sea, and that ought to satisfy you. Mend the hole in your fire engine hose, Freddie dear.”
“All right, Mother,” he answered. “Anyhow, I guess I’ll play something else now. Toot! Toot! The fire’s out!” he called, and Mrs. Bobbsey was glad of it.
Freddie put away his engine, which he and Flossie had to do with all their toys when they were done playing with them, and then ran out to find Snap, the dog with which he wanted to have a race up and down the yard, throwing sticks for his pet to bring back to him.
Flossie took her rubber doll and went over to Helen Porter’s house, while Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey went back to the big closet to sort over the clothes, some of which would be taken on the Florida trip with them.
“I’m going to take my fire engine with me,” Freddie said, when he had come in after having had fun with Snap.
“Do you mean on the ship?” asked Nan.
“Yes; I’m going to take my little engine on the ship with me. But first I’m going to have the hose mended.”
“You won’t need a fire engine on a ship,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Oh, I might,” answered Freddie. “Sometimes ships get on fire, and you’ve got to put the fire out. I’ll take it all right.”
“Well, we’ll hope our ship doesn’t catch fire,” remarked his mother.
When Mr. Bobbsey came home to supper that evening, and heard what had happened, he said there would be no room for Freddie’s toy engine on the ship.
“The trip we are going to take isn’t like going to Meadow Brook, or to Uncle William’s seashore home,” said the father of the Bobbsey twins. “We can’t take all the trunks and bags we would like to, for we shall have to stay in two small cabins, or staterooms, on the ship. And perhaps we shall have even less room when we get on the boat with Cousin Jasper—if we go on a boat. So we can’t take fire engines and things like that.”
“But s‘posin’ the ship gets on fire?” asked Freddie.
“We hope it won’t,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But, if it does, there are pumps and engines already on board. They won’t need yours, Freddie boy, though it is very nice of you to think of taking it.”
“Can’t I take any toys?”
“I think you won’t really need them,” his father said. “Once we get out on the ocean there will be so much to see that you will have enough to do without playing with the toys you use here at home. Leave everything here, I say. If you want toys we can get them in Florida, and perhaps such different ones that you will like them even better than your old ones.”
“Could I take my little rubber doll?” asked Flossie.
“Yes, I think you might do that,” her father said, with a smile at the little girl. “You can squeeze your rubber doll up smaller, if she takes up too much room.”
So it was arranged that way. At first Freddie felt sad about leaving his toy fire engine at home, but his father told him perhaps he might catch a fish at sea, and then Freddie began saving all the string he could find out of which to make a fish line.
Finally the last trunk and valise had been packed. The railroad and steamship tickets had been bought, Sam and Dinah got ready to go and stay with friends, Snap and Snoop were sent away—not without a rather tearful parting on the part of Flossie and Freddie—and then the Bobbsey family was ready to start for Florida.
They were to go to New York by train, and as nothing much happened during that part of the journey I will skip over it. I might say, though, that Freddie took from his pocket a ball of string, which he was going to use for his fishing, and the string fell into the aisle of the car.
Then the conductor came along and his feet got tangled in the cord, dragging the ball boundingly after him halfway down the coach.
“Hello! What’s this?” the conductor cried, in surprise.
“Oh, that’s my fish line!” answered Freddie.
“Well, you’ve caught something before you reached the sea,” said the ticket-taker as he untangled the string from his feet, and all the other passengers laughed.
After a pleasant ride the Bobbsey twins reached New York, and, after spending a night in a hotel, and going to a moving picture show, they went on board the ship the next morning. The ship was to take them down the coast to Florida, where Cousin Jasper was ill in a hospital, though Mr. Bobbsey had had a letter, just before leaving
home, in which Mr. Dent said he was feeling much better.
“All aboard! All aboard!” called an officer on the ship, when the Bobbseys had left their baggage in the stateroom where they were to stay during the trip. “All ashore that’s going ashore!”
“That means every one must get off who isn’t going to Florida,” said Bert, who had been on a ship once before with his father.
Bells jingled, whistles blew, people hurried up and down the gangplank, or bridge from the dock to the boat, and at last the ship began to move.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were waving good-bye to friends on the pier, and Nan and Bert were looking at the big buildings of New York, when Mrs. Bobbsey turned, putting away the handkerchief she had been waving, and asked:
“Where are Flossie and Freddie?”
“Aren’t they here?” asked Mr. Bobbsey quickly.
“No,” answered his wife. “Oh, where are they?”
The two little Bobbsey twins were not in sight.
CHAPTER VI
In a Pipe
There was so much going on with the sailing of the ship—so many passengers hurrying to and fro, calling and waving good-bye, so much noise made by the jingling bells and the tooting whistles—that Mrs. Bobbsey could hardly hear her own voice as she called:
“Flossie! Freddie! Where are you?”
But the little twins did not answer, nor could they be seen on deck near Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey where they stood with Bert and Nan.
“They were here a minute ago,” said Bert. “I saw Flossie holding up her rubber doll to show her the Woolworth Building.” This, as you know, is the highest building in New York, if not in the world.
“But where is Flossie now?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, and there was a worried look on her face.
“Maybe she went downstairs,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
“And where is Freddie?” asked his mother.
“I saw him getting his ball of string ready to go fishing,” laughed Bert. “I told him to put it away until we got out on the ocean. Then I saw a fat man lose his hat and run after it and I didn’t watch Freddie any more.”
“Oh, don’t laugh, Bert! Where can those children be?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “I told them not to go away, but to stay on deck near us, and now they’ve disappeared!”
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 123