The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island | Page 7

before Mr. Bobbsey could say what he thought there was the sound
of shouts in the street, and when those in the Porter home rushed to the
windows and doors they were surprised to see, coming up the front

walk, the missing little girl herself!
There was Helen Porter, not carried off by the gypsies at all, but safe at
home; though something had happened, that was sure, for she was
crying.
"Here she is! Here she is!" cried several in the crowd, and Mrs. Porter
rushed out to hug her little girl close in her arms.
CHAPTER III
WORRIED TWINS
"Oh, Helen! how glad I am to have you back!" cried Mrs. Porter. "How
did you get away from the gypsies? Or did they really have you?"
The little girl stopped crying, and all about her the men, women and
children waited anxiously to hear what she would say.
"Did the gypsies take you away?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"No, the gypsies didn't get me," said Helen, her voice now and then
broken by sobs. "But they took Mollie!"
"Took Mollie!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you mean to say they really
did take a little girl away?"
"They--they took Mollie!" half-sobbed Helen, "and I--I tried to get her
back, but I couldn't run fast enough and--and----"
"Well, if they really have Mollie," went on Mr. Bobbsey, "we must get
right after them and----"
"Mollie is the name of Helen's big doll--almost as large as she is,"
explained Mrs. Porter, who was now smiling through her tears. "Mollie
isn't a little girl, though probably there are several in Lakeport named
that. But the Mollie whom Helen means is a doll."
"Oh, I see," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But did the gypsies really take your

doll, Helen?"
"Yes, they did," answered the little girl. "A bad gypsy man took her
away. I was playing with Mollie in Grace Lavine's yard, and Grace and
Mary went into the house to get some cookies. I stayed out in the yard
with my doll, 'cause I wanted her to get tanned nice and brown. I laid
her down in a sunny place, and I went over under a tree to set the tea
table, and when I looked around I saw the gypsy man."
"Where was he?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"He was just getting out of one of the red wagons. And there was a
little gypsy girl in the wagon. She was pointing to my doll, and then the
man jumped down off the wagon steps, ran into the yard, picked up my
doll, and then he jumped into the wagon again and rode away. And he's
got my nice doll Mollie, and I want her back, and--oh, dear!" and Helen
began to cry again.
"Never mind," said Mr. Bobbsey quietly. "I'll try to get your doll back
again. How large was it?"
"Nearly as large as Helen herself," said Mrs. Porter. "I didn't want her
to play with it to-day but she took it."
"Yes, but now the gypsy man with rings in his ears--he took it,"
explained Helen. "He carried my doll off in his arms."
"Then it must have been the doll which Johnnie saw the gypsy man
carrying, and not Helen!" exclaimed Bert. "Did it look like a doll,
Johnnie?"
"Well, it might have been. It had light hair like Helen's, though."
"Helen's doll had light hair," said Mrs. Porter. "And probably if a gypsy
put the doll under his arm, and ran past any one it would look as though
he were carrying off a little girl. Especially as the doll really had on a
dress Helen used to wear when she was a baby."

"That is probably what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey. "The gypsy
man's little girl saw, from the wagon, the doll lying in the Lavine yard.
Gypsies are not as careful about taking what does not belong to them as
they might be. They often steal things, I'm afraid. And, seeing the big
doll lying under the tree----"
"Where I put her so she'd get tanned nice and brown," interrupted
Helen.
"Just so," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "Seeing the doll under the tree, with no
one near, the gypsy man made up his mind to take her for his little girl.
This he did, and when he ran off with Mollie, Johnnie saw what
happened and thought Helen was being kidnapped.
"But I'm glad that wasn't so, though it's too bad Mollie has been taken
away. However, we'll try to get her back for you, Helen. Maybe the
gypsies took other things. If they did we'll send the police after them.
Now don't cry any more and I'll see what I can do."
"And will you get Mollie back?"
"I'll do my best," promised the Bobbsey twins' father.
There being nothing