The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island | Page 5

they take away Helen Porter?"
"I don't know about that last part," said Mrs. Bobbsey; "but a caravan of gypsies did pass by the house a little while ago. I heard Dinah say something about the gaily painted wagons, and I looked out in time to see them rumbling along the street. Then, a little later, I heard Mrs. Porter calling for Helen, and, on seeing the crowd, I ran out. I was worried about our children until I saw them coming from the lake, where they had gone for a row in the boat."
"I can't believe that gypsies took Helen," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Oh, but she's gone!" several neighbors told him. "We can't find her anywhere, and her mother is crying and taking on terribly!"
"Well, it may be that Helen is lost, or has even strayed away after the gypsies, thinking their wagons were part of a circus, as Nan says Flossie thought," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But gypsies wouldn't dare take a little girl away in broad daylight."
As he said this he looked at his own little children and at others in the crowd, for he did not want them to be frightened.
"Years ago, maybe, gypsies did take little folks," he said, "but they don't do it any more, I'm sure."
"But where is Helen?" asked John Marsh. "A gypsy man has her, I know, 'cause I saw him take her."
"Are you sure?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, for John was an excitable boy, sometimes given to imagining things that never happened.
"Course I'm sure," he said. "Cross my heart!" and he did so, while the other children looked on wonderingly.
"Suppose you go over to Mrs. Porter's house," said Mrs. Bobbsey to the children's father. "She's worried, I guess, and her husband isn't home yet. Maybe you can help her. I was just going in when you came along."
"All right, I'll go," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Can't we come?" asked Freddie, and as he had hold of his little sister's hand, it was Flossie, of course, whom he included in his question.
"No, you must go with your mother," said his father, and when the little fat fireman seemed disappointed Mr. Bobbsey went on: "I guess supper is almost ready, isn't it, Dinah?"
"Deed it am. An' dere's puddin' wif shaved-up maple sugar scattered ober de top an'----"
"Oh, I want some of that!" cried Flossie. "Come on, Freddie! We can look for the gypsies after supper."
"And we'll get Helen out of the shiny wagons," added Freddie, as he hurried toward the Bobbsey home with Flossie, fat Dinah waddling along after them.
"I'll go with you," offered Bert to his father. "Maybe you would want me to go on an errand."
"Yes, take Bert with you," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'll look after Nan, Flossie and Freddie. And be sure to tell Mrs. Porter that if I can do anything for her I will."
"I'll tell her," and then Mr. Bobbsey, with Bert, walked to the Porter house next door.
The crowd in the street grew larger, and there was much talk about the gypsies. Some said that several little boys and girls had been carried off, but, of course, this was not so.
As Flossie and Freddie tore on toward the house in front of fat Dinah, they continued to chatter about the gypsies.
"If gypsies take little girls we don't want to be them--the gypsies, I mean--Freddie."
"Humph-umph; that's so. Well, I guess we'll be in a circus anyhow. That'll be more fun. You can ride a horse in the ring, and sometimes I can ride with you and sometimes I can be a clown. When I'm a clown I can squirt water from my fire engine over the other clowns. That'll make the folks holler and laugh."
When Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey reached the house each of the little twins was munching on a piece of maple sugar, given them by Dinah to keep them from nibbling at the pudding before the time to serve it came.
"My, Momsie! aren't you glad the gypsies came and got Helen Porter? It gives us something to think about," remarked Freddie coolly.
"Freddie Bobbsey!" gasped his mother. "No, I am not glad the gypsies got Helen--if they did. And you and Flossie find enough to think about, as it is. And give the rest of us enough to think about, what is more."
"There go daddy and Bert into Mrs. Porter's house now," said Nan.
"Now tell me just what happened, and I'll do all I can to help you," said Mr. Bobbsey to Mrs. Porter, when he got to her house and found her half crying in the sitting-room where there were a number of other women.
"Oh, Helen is gone, I'm sure she is!" cried the mother. "The gypsies have taken her! I'll never see her again!"
"Oh, yes you will," said Mr. Bobbsey in mild tones. "I'm sure it's all a mistake.