The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore | Page 4

opposite,
so we will screen off half of the car, then when he comes this way we
can readily bag him."

Will was somewhat older than Bert, and had been used to hunting, so
that the present emergency was sport to him.
The boys now brought the netting straight across the car like a big
white screen, for each held his hands up high, besides standing on the
arm of the car seats.
"Now drive him this way," called Bert to his father and the men who
were helping him.
"Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!" yelled everybody, throwing hats, books, and
newspapers at the poor lost duck.
"Shoo!" again called a little old lady, actually letting her black silk bag
fly at the lamp.
Of course poor Downy had to shoo, right into the net!
Bert and Will brought up the four ends of the trap and Downy flopped.
"That's the time we bagged our game," laughed Will, while everybody
shouted and clapped, for it does not take much to afford real
amusement to passengers, who are traveling and can see little but the
other people, the conductor, and newspapers.
"We've got him at last," cried Freddie in real glee, for he loved the little
duck and feared losing his companionship.
"And he will have to have his meals served in his room for the rest of
his trip," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey, as the tired little Downy was once
more put in his perforated box, along the side of the tin dipper of water,
which surely the poor duck needed by this time.
CHAPTER II
A TRAVELING MENAGERIE
It took some time for the people to get settled down again, for all had

enjoyed the fun with the duck. The boys wanted Freddie to let him out
of the box, on the quiet, but Bert overheard the plot and put a stop to it.
Then, when the strange youngsters got better acquainted, and learned
that the other box contained a little black kitten, they insisted on seeing
it.
"We'll hold him tight," declared the boy from the back seat, "and
nothing will happen to him."
'`But you don't know Snoop," insisted Bert. "We nearly lost him
coming up in the train, and he's the biggest member of Freddie's
menagerie, so we have to take good care of him."
Mr. Bobbsey, too, insisted that the cat should not be taken out of the
box; so the boys reluctantly gave in.
"Now let us look around a little," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey, when quiet
had come again, and only the rolling of the train and an occasional
shrill whistle broke in on the continuous rumble of the day's journey.
"Yes, Dinah can watch the things and we can look through the other
cars," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "We might find someone we know going
down to the shore."
"Be awful careful of Snoop and Downy," cautioned Freddie, as Dinah
took up her picket duty. "Look out the boys don't get 'em," with a wise
look at the youngsters, who were spoiling for more sport of some kind.
"Dis yeah circus won't move 'way from Dinah," she laughed. "When I
goes on de police fo'ce I takes good care ob my beat, and you needn't
be a-worryin', Freddie, de Snoopy kitty cat and de Downy duck will be
heah when you comes back," and she nodded her wooly head in real
earnest.
It was an easy matter to go from one car to the other as they were
vestibuled, so that the Bobbsey family made a tour of the entire train,
the boys with their father even going through the smoker into the
baggage car, and having a chance to see what their own trunk looked

like with a couple of railroad men sitting on it.
"Don't you want a job?" the baggagemaster asked Freddie. "We need a
man about your size to lift trunks off the cars for us."
Of course the man was only joking, but Freddie always felt like a real
man and he answered promptly:
"Nope, I'm goin' to be a fireman. I've put lots of fires out already,
besides gettin' awful hurted on the ropes with 'Frisky.'"
"Frisky, who is he?" inquired the men.
"Why, our cow out in Meadow Brook. Don't you know Frisky?" and
Freddie looked very much surprised that two grown-up people had
never met the cow that had given him so much trouble.
"Why didn't you bring him along?" the men asked further.
"Have you got a cow car?" Freddie asked in turn.
"Yes, we have. Would you like to see one?" went on one of the
railroaders. "If your papa will bring you out on the platform at the next
stop, I'll show you how our cows travel."
Mr. Bobbsey promised to do this, and the party moved back to