The Bobbsey Twins at Home | Page 3

her mother ask.
"No. These are some 'fresh air' children. They have been out in the
country for two weeks, and now we are taking them home. Poor things!
I wish we could have kept them longer out in the green fields and
woods, but there are others waiting for their chance to go.
"You see," she went on, and Flossie and Freddie listened carefully,
"some kind people give us money so that the poor children of the city
may have a little time in the country during the hot weather. We board
them out at different farmers' houses. This company of children has
been on two different farms near Branchville, where we just got on the
train. Some of the little ones are from Sanderville." This was a large
city not far from Lakeport, a smaller city where the Bobbsey twins
lived. "Others are from Lakeport," went on the lady, speaking to Mrs.
Bobbsey.
"Indeed!" exclaimed Freddie's mother. "I did not know there was a
fresh air society in our city."

"It has only just been formed," said the lady, who was a Miss Carter.
"We haven't much money left, I'm sorry to say."
"Then you must let me give you some," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And I will
get some friends of mine to give money also. Our own children enjoy it
so much in the country that I want to see others have a good time, too."
Then he and Mrs. Bobbsey began to talk about ways of helping poor
children, and Flossie and Freddie did not listen any more. Besides, just
then the train was passing along a field in which were many horses,
some of which raced alongside the cars, and that interested the twins.
"Oh, look at 'em run!" cried the fresh air boy who sat in front of the
smaller Bobbsey twins. "Don't they go fast?"
The other fresh air youngsters crowded to their windows to look out,
and some tried to push their companions away so they might see better.
Then a number all wanted a drink of water at the same time, and the
two ladies who were in charge of the children were kept busy making
them settle down.
The quiet, neat boy about whom Flossie had whispered to her brother,
turned around in his seat and, looking at Freddie, asked:
"Were you ever on a farm?"
"Yes," answered Freddie, "we just came from our uncle Dan's farm, at
Meadow Brook. We were there 'most all Summer. Now we're going
back home."
"Where do you live, and what's your name?" asked the strange boy.
"My name's Freddie Bobbsey, and this is my sister Flossie," was the
answer. "We're twins. Up there, in that other seat, are my brother and
sister, Bert and Nan. They're twins too, but they're older'n we are. We
live in Lakeport."
"You do?" cried the boy in surprise. "Why, that's where I live! My

name is Tommy Todd."
"That's a nice name," put in Flossie politely. "I don't know any one of
that name in Lakeport though. Where does your father live?"
Tommy Todd did not answer at once, and Freddie was surprised to see
tears in the eyes of the strange boy.
"I--I guess you folks don't ever come down to our part of Lakeport," he
said. "We live down near the dumps. It isn't very nice there."
Freddie had heard of the "dumps." It was on the farther side of the city,
a long distance from his nice home. Once, when he was very little, he
had wandered away and been lost. A policeman who found him had
said Freddie was near the "dumps."
Freddie remembered that very well. Afterward, he heard that the
"dumps" was a place where the ashes, tin cans, and other things that
people threw away were dumped by the scavengers. So Freddie was
sure it could not be a very nice place.
"I live out near the dumps, with my grandmother," went on Tommy
Todd.
"We've a grandmother too," said Flossie. "We go to see her at
Christmas. We've two grandmas. One is my mother's mother, and the
other is my father's mother. That's my papa and my mother back there,"
and Flossie pointed to where Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were talking to the
fresh air lady.
"Doesn't your father live with you and your grandmother?" asked
Freddie.
"I--I haven't any father," said Tommy, and once more the tears came
into his eyes. "He was lost at sea. He was a captain on a ship, and it was
wrecked."
"Oh, please tell us about it!" begged Freddie. "I just love stories about

the ocean; don't you, Flossie?"
"Yes, I do."
"I'm going to be a sea captain when I grow up," said Freddie. "Tell us
about your father, Tommy."
So while the train