The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island | Page 5

you may learn how Bert, Nan, Flossie
and Freddie went to New York where Mr. Bobbsey had some business
to look after. While there the twins helped to solve a mystery about a
poor old man. I think, however, that I had better not tell you any more
about it, but let you read it for yourself.
And now we find the twins back in Lakeport, ready for a good time
during the summer that would soon be at hand. Only the gypsy scare
had rather alarmed every one for the time being.
"But now let me hear what it is all about," said Mr. Bobbsey, who had
come home from the office of his lumberyard to find an excited crowd
in front of his house. "Were there really any gypsies?" he asked his
wife. "And did 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