The man on the black horse continued to ride toward the two boys, Uncle Daniel and Mr. Bobbsey. Behind him more men on horses rushed forward, but they were going toward some soldiers on foot, who were firing their rifles at the "cavalry," as Harry called them, that being the name for horse-soldiers.
"Oh, look, some of the men are falling off their horses!" cried Bert
"Maybe they are hurt," Harry said.
"No, I guess it's only making believe, if this is a sham battle," went on Bert.
By this time the man on the black horse was near Mr. Bobbsey.
"You had better stand farther back, if you don't mind," he said.
"Why, are we in danger here?" asked Uncle Daniel.
"Well, not exactly danger, for we are using only blank cartridges. But you are too near the camera. You'll have your pictures taken if you don't look out," and he smiled, while his horse pawed the ground, making the soldier's sword rattle against his spurs.
"Camera!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "Is someone taking pictures of this sham battle?"
"Yes, we are taking moving pictures," replied the soldier. "The man with the camera is right over there," and he pointed to a little hill, on top of which stood a man with what looked like a little box on three legs. The man was turning a crank.
"Moving pictures!" repeated Uncle Daniel, looking in the direction indicated.
"That's what this sham battle is for," went on the soldier who sat astride the black horse. "We are pretending to have a hard battle, to make an exciting picture. Soon the camera will be pointed over this way, and as it wouldn't look well to have you gentlemen and boys in the picture, I'll be obliged to you if you'll move back a little."
"Of course we will," agreed Mr. Bobbsey.
"Especially as it looks as though the soldiers were coming our way."
"Yes, part of the sham battle will soon take place here," the cavalryman went on.
"Come on back, boys!" cried Uncle Daniel, "We can watch just as well behind those trees, and we won't be in the way, and have our pictures taken without knowing it."
"Yes, and we won't be in any danger of having some of the paper wadding from a blank cartridge blown into our eyes," added Mr. Bobbsey.
"Say, this is great!" cried Harry. "I'm glad we came."
"So am I," said Bert
The boys looked on eagerly while the battle kept up. They saw the soldiers charge back and forth. The cannon shot out puffs of white smoke, but no cannon balls, of course, for no one wanted to be hurt. Back and forth rushed the soldiers on horses, and others on foot, firing with their rifles.
Of course they were not real soldiers, but were dressed in soldiers' uniforms to make the picture seem real. I suppose you have often seen in moving picture theatres pictures of a battle.
It was well that Mr. Bobbsey and the others had gotten out of the way, for shortly afterward the men rushed right across the spot where Bert and Harry had been standing.
"If we were there, then we'd have been walked on," said Bert.
"Yes, and we'd have had our pictures taken, too," said Harry, pointing to the man with the camera who had taken a new position.
"I wouldn't mind that, would you?" asked Bert.
"No, I don't know as I would," replied the country cousin. "It would be fun to see yourself in moving pictures, I think. Oh, look! That horse went down, and the soldier shot right over his head."
A horse had stumbled and fallen, bringing down the rider with him. But whether this was an accident, or whether it was done on purpose, to make the moving picture look more natural, the boys could not tell.
The firing was now louder than ever. A number of cannon were being used, horses drawing them up with loud rumblings, while the men wheeled the guns into place, loaded and fired them.
On all sides men were falling down, pretending to be shot, for those who took the moving pictures wanted them to seem as nearly like real war as possible.
"Oh, here they are!" suddenly exclaimed a voice back of Mr. Bobbsey and the others.
Turning, Bert saw his mother, with Aunt Sarah, Flossie, Freddie and Nan. They had come up the hill to look down into the valley and see what all the excitement was about.
"Yes, here we are!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Isn't this great? It's a sham battle."
"What for?" asked his wife, and she had to speak loudly to be heard above the rattle and bang of the guns.
"For moving pictures," answered Mr. Bobbsey, pointing to the men with the cameras, for now three or four of them were at work, taking views of the "fight" from different places.
"Mercy! What a racket!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah.
"Oh, I don't like it!" cried Flossie, covering her ears with her chubby hands. "Take me away, mamma; I'm afraid of the guns!"
"Pooh! There's nothing to be scared of!" exclaimed Freddie. "I'm going to be a soldier when I grow up, and shoot a gun."
"You can't play with me if you do," declared Flossie, when the bang of the cannon stopped for a moment, leaving the air quiet.
"I don't want to play with girls—I'm going to be a fighting soldier!" declared Freddie. "Hi! Hark to the guns! Boom! Boom!" and he jumped up and down as the cannon thundered again.
"Oh, I don't like it! I want to go home and play with my doll!" half-sobbed Flossie. "I don't like fighting."
"And I don't, either," said Nan, though she was not afraid. It was the noise for which she did not care.
"Hi! That was a fine one!" cried Freddie, as one of the largest cannon fired a blank shot at a group of horse soldiers.
"Please take me home!" sobbed Flossie, and there were tears in her blue eyes now.
"Yes, we'll go home," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"You can play you are a nurse, Flossie, and take care of your doll.We'll leave the battle to the boys and men."
"I can stay, can't I?" asked Freddie, who was delighted at the lively scene down below, and he jumped about in delight as cannon after cannon went off.
"Yes, you may stay," said his father.
"We'll look after him," he added to his wife.
Freddie crowded up to where Bert and Harry were eagerly watching the sham battle, and stood between his brother and cousin.
"Boom! Boom!" he cried. "I like this!"
But little Flossie covered her ears with her hands and went on down the hill, toward the farmhouse, with her mother and aunt. Nan went with them also, as she said the firing made her head ache.
"Well, I guess the battle is over now," said Bert, after a while. The cannon had stopped firing, and the "soldiers" no longer "shot" at each other with their rifles.
"See, the men on horses have captured the other men," spoke Harry. And he pointed to where the cavalry had surrounded a number of the foot soldiers, or infantry, as they are called, and were driving them over the fields toward some log cabins.
"They must have built those log houses on purposes for the moving picture play," said Uncle Daniel. "For they weren't here the other day, when I was over in this valley."
"Very likely they did," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "It takes a great deal of work to make a moving picture play now-a-days, and often a company will build a whole house, only to set fire to it, or tear it down to make a good picture."
"If they set a house on fire," broke in Freddie, "I could put it out with my fire engine, and I'd be in the movies then."
"Oh, you and your fire engine!" laughed Bert, ruffling up his little brother's hair. "You think you can do anything with it."
"Well, I stopped the turkey gobbler from eating up Snoop," Freddie cried. "Didn't I?"
"So you did!" exclaimed Harry. "You and your fire engine are all right, Freddie."
The soldiers who had fallen off their horses, or who had toppled over in the grass, to pretend that they were shot in battle, now got up—"coming to life," Bert called it.
The battle scene was over, but the men were not yet done using the cameras, for they took them farther down the valley toward the log cabins. The soldiers were now grouped around these buildings, and Bert and Harry could see several ladies, in brightly colored dresses, mingled with the soldiers in uniform.
"I wonder what they are doing now?" asked Bert.
"Oh, taking a more peaceful scene for the movies," answered his father. "They have had enough of war, I guess."
"That would suit Flossie," remarked Uncle Daniel with a laugh.
The valley was now quiet, but over it hung a cloud of smoke from the cannon. The wind was, however, blowing the smoke away.
"Can we go up to the log cabins and watch them make more pictures, father?" asked Bert.
"Well, yes, I guess so; if you don't get in the way of the cameras. Do you want to come?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Uncle Daniel. "You don't often get a chance to see moving pictures out here, I guess. Better come."
"No, not now, thank you," was the answer, "I must get back and look after my tomatoes. They need to be picked. But you can go on with the boys."
So Mr. Bobbsey took Bert and Harry up to where other moving pictures were being made. The boys did not understand all that was being done, but they watched eagerly just the same.
They saw men and soldiers talking to the ladies, who were members of the moving picture company. Then they saw soldiers, who pretended to have been hurt in the sham-battle, being put on cots, and bandaged up.
"This is a make-believe hospital," Mr. Bobbsey explained to the boys."They want it to look as natural as possible, you see."
The boys watched while "doctors" went among the "wounded," giving them "medicine," all make-believe, of course. Then one of the ladies, dressed as a nurse, came through the rows of cots which were placed in the open air, under some trees.
"How do you like it?" asked one of the moving picture men of Mr. Bobbsey, coming over to where Bert's father was standing. The man had been turning the crank of one of the cameras, but, just then, he had nothing to do.
"It is very interesting," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We heard your firing and came over to look on. Are you going to be here long?"
"Only a few days. But there will be no more battle pictures. They cost too much money to make. The rest of the scenes will be more peaceful."
"That would suit my little girl," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. "She didn't like the cannon and guns."
"Oh, have you a little girl?" asked the moving picture man, who seemed to be one of those in charge of the actors and actresses.
"Yes, I have a little girl," Mr. Bobbsey replied.
"And these two boys?" asked the camera man.
"No, only one of the boys is mine," and Bert's father nodded at his son. "The other is my nephew."
"Do you live around here?" the man went on. "Excuse my asking you so many questions," he continued. "My name is Weston, and I have charge of making these moving pictures. We need some children to take small parts in one of the scenes, and, as we have no little ones in our company, I was wondering whether we could not get some country boys and girls to pose for us, or, rather, act for us, for we want them to move, not to just stand still. And I thought if you lived around here," he said to Mr. Bobbsey, "you might know where we could borrow a dozen children for an hour or so."
"I don't live here," Mr. Bobbsey replied, "but I am staying on my brother's farm. What sort of acting do you want the children to do for the moving pictures?"
"Oh, something very simple. You see, one of the ladies in our company is supposed to be a school teacher before the war breaks out. We have taken the war scenes already—that sham battle you looked at was all we need of that.
"The school teacher goes to the front as a nurse, but before she goes, we want a scene showing her in front of the school surrounded by her pupils."
"I see," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Now we have the schoolhouse," said Mr. Weston, "or, rather, there is an old schoolhouse down the road that will do very nicely to photograph. We have permission to use it, as this is vacation time. We also have the lady who will act as the teacher, and, later as the Red Cross nurse. But we need children to act as school pupils.
"I thought perhaps you might know of some children who would like to act for the movies," the man went on. "It will take only a little time, and it will not be at all unpleasant. They will just have to act naturally, as any school children would do."
"Well, I have four children of my own," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he thought of his two sets of twins, "and my brother has a boy. There are also several children in the village. Perhaps it could be arranged to have their pictures taken."
"I hope it can!" exclaimed Mr. Weston. "I'll talk to you about it in a few minutes. I must go see about this hospital scene now."
He hurried away, while Bert and Harry looked at one another.
"Do you want to be in the movies?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"I don't mind," spoke Harry, smiling.
"Neither do I," added Bert. "Freddie would like it, too, but Flossie wouldn't come if they shot any guns."
"They wouldn't shoot guns where children were," said Mr. Bobbsey."I'll see what your mother, and Uncle Daniel and Aunt Sarah say."
Later that day the moving picture man explained just what was wanted, and as Mrs.
Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah had no objections, it was decided to let theBobbsey twins, as well as Harry, take part in the moving pictures. TomMason, Mabel Herold and some others of the country village were alsoto be in the scene.
It was taken, or "filmed," as the moving picture people say, the next morning. Down to the old schoolhouse, on the country road, went the children, laughing and talking, a little bit shy, some of them.
But the actress who was to pretend to be a school teacher was so nice that she soon made the little children feel at ease. Flossie and Freddie loved her from the first, and each insisted upon walking along with her, hand in hand.
"That will make a pretty picture," said the moving picture man. "Just walk along the road, Miss Burns," he said to the actress, "with Flossie on one side, and Freddie on the other. I'll take your pictures as if you were going to school."
This was done. Flossie and Freddie soon forgot that they were really "acting" for the movies, and were as natural as could be wished.
"I—I've got a fire engine!" said Freddie, as he trudged along with the actress-teacher.
"Have you, indeed?" she asked pleasantly. "Don't look at the camera," she cautioned Flossie. "Just pretend it isn't there."
"And I've got a doll!" Flossie said, not to let Freddie get the best of her.
"And my fire engine pumps real water," Freddie went on, "and I squirted it on our cat and on the old turkey gobbler."
"Oh, but why did you do that?" asked the actress. "Wasn't that unkind?"
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Freddie, his eyes big and round. "The gobbler was pinching our cat's tail, and Snoop was scratching the turkey. I had to squirt water on them to make them stop."
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Miss Burns with a jolly laugh.
"Well, anyhow, my doll can open and shut her eyes," said Flossie. "SoI don't care!"
"That's enough of that scene," said Mr. Weston. "Now all you children crowd up around the school steps, as if you were going in after the last bell had rung. Pretend you are going into school."
The village children were a little bashful at first, but Bert, Nan and Harry, taking the lead, showed them what to do, and after one trial everything went off well.
The children grouped themselves about the actress-teacher, who clasped her arms about the shoulders of as many as she could reach. It made a pretty scene in front of the old school-house, with the green trees for a background. The use of the school had been allowed the moving picture company for the day.
"Now play about, as if it were recess," directed Mr. Weston, after the first scene had been taken. "Be as natural as you can. And you grown folks please keep back out of the way," he asked, for Mrs. Bobbsey and a number of the fathers and mothers had come to see their children pose for the moving picture camera.
By this time the children had lost their bashfulness, and were acting as naturally as though they really were at school. They played tag and other simple games, while the camera clicked their images on the celluloid film. Miss Burns, as the teacher, took part in some of the girls' games.
"Now I want a larger boy and girl to walk down the road together, the boy carrying the girl's books," said Mr. Weston. "You'll do," he went on to Nan, "and you," to Harry. Soon the two cousins were strolling along, having their pictures taken.
"I want to go with Nan!" cried Freddie "I want my picture taken some more."
"Not now, dear," said Miss Burns, who was not in the scene with Nan and Harry. "Wait a little."
"No, I want to go with Nan now," insisted Freddie, and he broke from the hand of the actress and rushed after his sister.
"Oh, he'll spoil the picture!" cried Bert, solicitously. "Come back,Freddie; that's a good boy!"
But Freddie did not intend to come back.
"Nan, Nan! Wait for me!" begged Freddie.
Nan did not know what to do. She had been told to walk down the road, pretending to talk to Harry, and to take half an apple which he would hand her, in view of the camera.
"That's all right—let the little fellow get into the picture," directed Mr. Weston. "It will make it all the prettier."
So Freddie had his wish, to walk beside his sister. But he had not gone far before he saw, on the edge of a little brook, a bright red flower.
"I'm going to get it!" he cried. "I can hold it in my hand. It will look nice in the picture."
"No, no!" cried Nan. "Stay with me, Freddie."
"Going to get the flower!" he shouted, as he ran on ahead.
And, just as he reached the edge of the brook, his foot slipped, and down he went with a great splash, into the water.
"Oh, Freddie's fallen in! Freddie's fallen in!" cried Nan, rushing forward.
"I'll pull him out!" cried the man grinding away at the crank of the camera.
"No, you stay there and get the moving picture," said Mr. Watson. "It will make a funny scene, and Freddie is in no danger. The water isn't deep! I'll get him out!"
"That's the second time Freddie's fallen in," said Bert, as he ran toward the brook.
"Help me out! Help me out!" sobbed Freddie, splashing about in the water.
"There you are, my little man! Not hurt a bit! Up again! Out again!" and Mr. Weston picked little Freddie out of the brook, and set him on his feet. "All right, aren't you?" asked the moving picture man.
"Ye—yes, I—I guess so," stammered the "little fat fireman," as he looked down at his dripping knickerbockers. "But I—I'm terrible wet! I'm awful wet—ma—mamma!" he stammered.
"Never mind, Freddie," Mrs. Bobbsey answered with a smile. "You'll dry."
"I say!" called one of the men who had been turning the crank of the moving picture camera. "I say, Mr. Weston, I got the picture of the boy falling in the water on this film. I couldn't help it."
"That's all right," said the manager. "It won't spoil the picture any.It will only make it look more natural."
"And it's natural for Freddie to be wet;" said Bert, with a laugh. "He's always playing with that toy fire engine of his, and getting soaked."
"But I didn't have the fire engine this time, Bert," said the chubby little chap. "I—I fell in!"
"You poor little dear!" exclaimed the actress-schoolteacher, putting her arms around him. "It was all my fault, too!"
"No, it was mine," said Freddie, generously. "I don't mind. I like being wet!"
They all laughed at this. Mrs. Bobbsey said Freddie wanted to be polite.
A few more pictures were made of the village children, the Bobbsey twins, with the exception of Freddie, taking part. Freddie was hurried off by his mother to the farmhouse to be put into dry clothes.
Then, with thanks to those who had helped make the scenes, Mr. Weston, Miss Burns and the camera man went back to the village hotel where they were stopping.
"Wasn't it great, Bert!" exclaimed Harry, as he and his cousin strolled over the fields.
"It certainly was," agreed Bert.
"If we could only see the pictures when they are finished," suggestedMabel Herold. "It must be queer to see yourself in the movies."
"I think so, too," said Nan. "I'm going to find out where this play will be shown, in some theatre, and maybe mamma will take us to it."
"I hope she does," Bert said. "It will be fun to see Freddie falling in."
"Poor little fellow!" murmured Nan.
"But he was real brave," Mabel added.
For several days the Bobbsey twins, their cousin and their country friends talked of the moving pictures in which they had had a part. They went again to the valley, where more scenes were being made, but none were as exciting as the sham-battle.
"Aren't they going to shoot any more guns?" asked Freddie, his eyes big and shining with the hope of excitement.
"I guess that's all over," spoke Bert.
"And I'm glad of it," Nan declared.
"So am I," exclaimed Flossie, looking around as though she would hear a boom from a cannon.
One day Bert and Harry went alone to the place where the moving picture company had erected tents and log cabins in the valley. They found the men packing things up, taking down the tents and knocking apart the wooden cabins.
"Are you all through?" Bert asked Mr. Weston.
"All through, my lad," was the answer. "We are going to another place soon, to get different moving pictures. But we'll be here for a day or two yet, at least some of the camera men will. They have to take pictures of a circus parade."
"Circus parade!" exclaimed Harry. "Is a circus coming here?"
"Well, not exactly here," replied Mr. Weston. "But it is coming to Rosedale—that's the next town—and I am going to have some moving pictures made of it."
"The circus coming to Rosedale!" cried Bert, looking at Harry. The same thought came to both of them.
"Let's go!" exclaimed Harry, eagerly.
"If our folks will let us," added Bert.
"Oh, I guess mine will," spoke the country boy. "Circuses don't come around here very often, and when they do, we generally go. I do hope they'll let you come, Bert."
"It's going to be a large circus," said Mr. Weston. "They have a good collection of wild animals."
"I don't believe they can beat our combination of a wild cat, Snoop, and a crazy turkey gobbler," said Bert to Harry with a laugh, when the two boys were on their way back to the farmhouse.
Passing along a country road Bert saw something that caused him to cry out:
"Look, there it is, Harry!"
"What?"
"The circus! See it!" and Bert pointed to a barn.
"Oh, you mean the circus posters," went on Harry, for Bert had pointed to the bright-colored pictures advertising the performance. There were shown men jumping through paper hoops or hanging from dizzy heights on trapeze bars, ladies riding galloping horses, and all sorts of wild animals, from the long-necked giraffe to the hippopotamus, who appeared to have no neck at all, and from the big elephant to the little monkey.
"Oh, I do hope we can see it!" cried Bert, as he and his cousin stood before the gay pictures.
"I'm going to do my best to go!" declared Harry.
The two boys hurried home, talking on the way of the circus posters they had seen, and wondering if there really would be shown all the wild animals pictured on the side of the barn.
Bert saw his father and mother sitting out in the side yard under a shady tree, and, running up to them he asked:
"Oh, can't we go? We want to so much! Nan, you ask, too!" he cried.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey looked at him rather surprised.
"What's it all about?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile.
"And what am I to ask?"
"For a circus—wild animals—moving pictures—the parade—an elephant—lions, tigers—everything!" cried Bert, stopping because he ran out of breath.
"Ask for all that?" exclaimed Nan, wonderingly.
"No, Bert means the circus is coming," explained Harry, with a laugh. "The moving picture people are going to get views of the parade. The posters are up on the barns and fences. It's coming to Rosedale, the circus is, and—"
"Oh, do let us go!" broke in Bert. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey looked at one another, questioningly.
"Oh, wouldn't it be just grand!" sighed Nan.
"What is it?" demanded Freddie, toddling up just then. "Is there going to be a fire? Can I squirt with my engine?"
"Always thinking of that, little fat fireman!" laughed his father."No, it isn't a fire, Freddie."
"It's a circus coming!" cried Bert "Can't you take us, father?"
"I'm afraid not, son," he said. "I have just had a letter calling me back to Lakeport on business."
"Oh!" cried Nan and Bert in a chorus.
"Do we have to go back to the city, too?" asked Bert, after a pause.
"No, I am going to let you and mamma stay here," said Mr. Bobbsey, "but I have to go. I'll come back, of course, but not in time to take you to the circus, I'm afraid."
"Mamma can take us," said Freddie.
"Hardly," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a smile. "I want papa along when I have four children to take to a circus."
"My father will take us," said Harry. "He always goes to a circus when one comes around here."
"Oh, fine!" cried Bert. "Uncle Daniel will take us! Uncle Daniel will take us!" and he caught Nan around the waist and went dancing over the lawn with her.
"Now may we go, papa?" asked Nan, when Bert let her go.
"Well, I guess so," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "Uncle Daniel can look after you as well as I could."
"If Uncle Daniel goes, it will be all right," Mrs. Bobbsey said.
"And will you go, too, mamma?" asked Bert, slipping up to her, and giving her a kiss.
"Oh, yes, I suppose I'll have to help feed the elephant peanuts," she laughed.
"Hurray! Hurrah!" cried Bert, swinging his cap in the air. "We're going to the circus! We're going to the circus!"
The children were delighted with the pleasure in store for them. They talked of little else, and when they found that Tom Mason and Mabel Herold were also going to the show, they were more than delighted.
"Oh, what fun we'll have!" cried Nan.
"I—I hope none of the wild animals get loose," said Flossie, with rather a serious face.
"Nonsense! Of course they won't!" cried Bert.
"If they do, I—I'll squirt my fire engine on them!" cried Freddie."Lions and tigers are afraid of water."
"But elephants aren't, are they, mamma?" asked Flossie. "I saw a picture of an elephant squirting water through his nose-trunk just like your fire engine, Freddie. Elephants aren't afraid of water."
"Well, elephants won't hurt you, anyhow," spoke the little fat fellow."And if a lion or tiger gets loose, I'll play the hose on him, just asI did at The Five-Pin Show."
Mr. Bobbsey was obliged to go back to the city next day, but he said he would return to Meadow Brook as soon as he could.
"And if you see that poor boy, bring him back with you, and we'll take him to the circus with us," said Freddie.
"What poor boy?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"You know, the one who had the no-good money, and who ran away when we were out with you in the auto that time, and the two girls in the boat—don't you remember?" asked Freddie, ending somewhat breathlessly, for that was rather a long sentence for him.
"Oh, you mean Frank Kennedy, who worked for Mr. Mason," said the lumber merchant.
"Yes, that's the boy," went on Freddie. "If you see him, tell him to run this way, and we'll take him to the circus with us."
"Poor boy," sighed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I wonder what has become of him?"
"I don't know," answered her husband. "I'll ask Mr. Mason, if I see him. He said Frank was sure to come back. It is a hard life for a boy to lead. Well, take care of yourselves, children, and I'll come back as soon as I can. Have a good time at the circus."
"We will, papa!" chorused the Bobbsey twins.
Uncle Daniel readily promised to take the whole family to the circus. Rosedale, where the show would be held, in the big tents, was not far from Meadow Brook.
"I'll just hitch up the team to the big wagon," said the farmer, "put plenty of soft straw in the bottom, and we'll go over in style. We'll take our lunch with us, and have a good time."
"Is Dinah going?" asked Flossie.
"Yes, I think we'll take her and Martha, too," said Mrs. Bobbsey, but when Flossie went to tell the colored cook the treat in store for her, Dinah cried:
"'Deed an' I ain't gwine t' no circus. I doan't want t' be et up by no ragin' lion who goeth about seekin' what he may devour, laik it says in de Good Book. Dere's enough wild animiles right yeah on dish year farm—wild bulls, wild rams an' turkey gobblers, what pulls cats by dere tails. No, sah! honey lamb—I ain't gwine t' no circus!"
Flossie came back from her talk with Dinah, looking very disappointed.
"What is the matter, dear?" asked her mother, noting the sorrowful look on the little girl's face.
"Dinah isn't going to the circus," said Flossie, almost ready to cry, for she was very fond of the faithful and loving colored woman.
"Oh, I guess she'll go with us," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Why doesn't she want to come?"
"She's afraid of the wild animals," answered Flossie.
"Pooh! I'm not afraid!" boasted Freddie. "You tell her, Flossie, that I'll take my fire engine along an' scare 'em. Wait, I'll tell her myself."
Out Freddie ran to the kitchen, where Dinah was helping Martha with the baking.
"Don't you be afraid, Dinah!" he cried. "I won't let any of the wild animals get you!"
"Bress yo' heart, honey lamb!" exclaimed the colored cook with a laugh that made her shake "like a bowl full of jelly."
"I—I'll scare 'em off with my fire engine," Freddie went on.
"Will yo', honey lamb? So yo' won't let ole black Dinah get hurted, eh? Well, honey, lamb, I'd gib yo' all a hug but mah hands am all flour," and Dinah held them up for Freddie to see.
"Never mind, you can hug me some other time—you can hug me twice to make up for this," said Freddie. "Now you'll come to the circus, won't you?"
"I—I'll see, honey lamb," Dinah half-promised.
Later Mrs. Bobbsey told the colored cook there would be no danger, and when Dinah learned that Uncle Daniel was going, as well as one of his hired men, she made no more objections.
The day of the circus came, bright and sunny. Everyone was up early in the farm-house, for Uncle Daniel said they wanted to be in time to see the morning parade. Then they would eat their dinner, which they would take with them, as though it were a picnic, and go to the show in the afternoon.
"Oh, I wish papa were here!" sighed Nan, as she and Bert left the breakfast table.
"Why, you're not afraid, are you?" he asked.
"No, only I'd like him to see the show," she said. Nan was always thoughtful for her father.
"Yes, it would be nicer if he could come with us," agreed Bert. And then he forgot all about it, because he and Harry had a discussion as to whether an elephant or a hippopotamus could eat the most hay.
Work on the farm was almost forgotten that circus day. Uncle Daniel and the hired man did what had to be done, and then the horses were hitched to the big wagon, which was filled with straw.
Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah were busy dressing Flossie and Freddie.Bert, Harry and Nan could look out for themselves. Dinah andMartha were busy in the kitchen putting up the lunch.
"Here comes Tom Mason!" called Bert to his cousin, as he saw the country boy, dressed in his best, coming up the walk.
"Oh, I do hope Mabel isn't late," exclaimed Flossie. Mabel and Tom were to go to the circus with Uncle Daniel, as the guests of the Bobbsey twins.
"There she comes—down the road," announced Harry, after greeting Tom."Here comes Mabel!"
The children gathered out on the lawn to wait for the older folks. Finally everything was in readiness, the wagon, drawn by the prancing horses, rattled up, and into it piled the children, sitting down in the soft, clean straw.
"Where's Dinah?" called Flossie.
"Heah I is, honey lamb," answered the colored cook, as she came out with a big basket of good things to eat.
"Oh, I'm going to sit next to Dinah!" cried Bert with a laugh. "I always did like you, didn't I, Dinah?" he demanded.
"Go 'long wif you, honey!" she exclaimed.
"Yo' all doan't git none ob de stuff in dish yeah basket 'till lunch time—no, suh! No mattah how lubbin' yo' is!"
Off they started, with laughter and shouts, Uncle Daniel and his hired man sitting on the front seat, taking turns driving the horses. Freddie wanted to hold the reins, but his uncle said the animals were too frisky that morning for such little hands.
"When they come back they will be tired, and won't be so anxious to run away," the farmer said. "Then you may drive, Freddie."
All along the road were circus posters, and at each new one which they saw the children would shout and laugh in delight. They saw many other farm wagons going along, also filled with family parties, who, like themselves, were going to the circus.
"Hurrah for the big show!" Bert or Nan would call out.
"Hurray! Hurray!" the children in other wagons would answer back."Isn't it jolly?"
And indeed it was a jolly time for everyone. Even Dinah forgot her fear of the wild animals when from a distance she caught sight of the white circus tents with the gaily colored flags streaming from them.
Uncle Bobbsey found a shed, near the circus grounds, where he could leave the horses and wagon, for he did not want to take the team into town, for fear the sight of the circus animals, and the music of the band, and the steam piano, or Calliope, might scare them, and make them run away.
"We'll watch the parade," Uncle Daniel said. "Then we'll come back here, eat our lunch, and go to the show in the afternoon."
This plan was carried out, and a little later the children and the old folks were standing in line in the big crowd, waiting for the circus parade to come past. Every once in a while someone would step out into the middle of the street, and look up and down.
"Is it coming? Is it coming?" others in the crowd would ask.
"Not yet," would be the answer.
"Oh, look!" suddenly exclaimed Bert, pointing to the window of an office building near which they were standing. "There's Mr. Westen taking moving pictures!"
"Oh, so he is!" cried Nan. And there indeed, with his camera pointed out of the window, was their old friend.
He saw the children and waved to them.
"Here it comes! Here it comes!" was the sudden cry, and from the distance came the sound of music.
"The parade has started! The parade has started!" was the cry that ran through the crowd.
"Oh, isn't this great!" cried Nan, clasping her chum Mabel by the arm.
"It's just lovely!" the country girl said, "and so nice of your mother and uncle and aunt to ask me."
"Oh, we were only too glad to have you," said Nan, politely, but she meant it.
Freddie snuggled close up to fat Dinah.
"Don't you be afraid," he said to the black cook. "I—I won't let any wild animals get you!"
"Dat's a good boy, honey lamb!" she murmured, as she took hold of his hand.
Louder played the music. The children in the crowd began dancing up and down, so excited were they.
"Here it comes! Here it comes!" they cried over and over again.
Then swept past the horses, gay with plumes, and covered with blankets of gold and silver, of purple and red. On the backs of the horses rode men and women with scarlet cloaks, carrying spears tipped with glittering silver.
Then came a herd of elephants, swinging themselves along, now and then sucking up dust from the street and blowing it on their big backs to keep off the flies. Men rode on top of the elephants' heads.
"Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid, Dinah!" said Freddie over and over again.
Ponies, camels, donkeys, more horses, more elephants and other animals went past in the parade.
Then came the gilded wagons, filled with gaily dressed men and women who nodded, smiled and waved their hands at the crowds in the streets.
Bert looked up at the window where Mr. Weston was perched with his camera, and saw him taking moving pictures.
"Oh, look! There's a lion in a cage!" cried Freddie, suddenly.
Just then the big beast sent out a roar that seemed to shake the very ground, and he threw himself against the bars of his cage.
"Oh, he's going to get out! He's going to get out!" came the cry and the people rushed back away from the street.
"No danger! No danger!" shouted the circus men.
"Hold on to me, Dinah!" cried Freddie. "Hold on to me. I won't let him bite you!"
More cages of wild animals rumbled past, but most of the beasts slept peacefully. Only the lion seemed to want to get out, and far down the street his roar could be heard.
"He's a new lion," said someone in the crowd. "He isn't used to being shut up, and he is trying to get out."
"Well, I hope he done stays shut up," murmured Dinah.
The parade came to an end at last, with the steam piano bringing up in the rear of the procession. The man played puffy little tunes, with a tooting chorus that made one want to dance.
[Illustration: THEN CAME A HERD OF ELEPHANTS.]
"Now for lunch, and then to see the big show," said Uncle Daniel, as he led the way back to where the wagon had been left.
And what a jolly party it was, to sit in the straw and eat nice sandwiches, pies, cookies and cakes Martha and Dinah had put into the baskets. There was lemonade, too, and if it was not pink, like the kind the circus men sold, it was much better and sweeter.
"But when are we going into the circus?" Freddie wanted to know.
"Soon now," said Uncle Daniel.
A little later they made their way to the big tents. First they went in the one where the wild animals, in cages, were drawn up in a circle inside. There were lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, rhinocerosi, hippopotami, and elephants, to say nothing of the cute monkeys.
"Are dem cages good an' strong, mistah?" asked Dinah of one of the circus attendants.
"Oh, yes," he answered, as he passed a carrot in to one of the monkeys.
"Well, dat's good," she said. "'Cause I doan't want none ob dem bears or lions t' come after me when I'se watchin' de circus performers."
"I'll see that none of them get loose," promised the circus man with a laugh at Dinah's fears.
Then the Bobbsey party went on in to the main tent. I wish I could tell you all they saw, but I have not the room in this book. There was a parade around the ring to start with, and then in came rushing the comical clowns, the men and women who rode on horses and who jumped from one trapeze to another.
Jugglers they were, men with trained horses, trick ponies, trained dogs and trained elephants. Some elephants played a ball game, others turned somersaults. Clowns jumped over their backs, and through paper hoops.
"Look here!" Nan would exclaim.
"No, see over there!" Bert would cry.
"Oh, mamma, a man jumped from the top of the tent right into a big fish net!" exclaimed Freddie.
"Look at the monkey riding on the dog's back," Flossie shouted.
"And see that man jump off a horse and jump on him again backwards!" called Tom Mason.
"Oh, but look at the cute ponies," sighed Mabel Herold.
There was so much to see and talk about that the children's eyes must have been tired, and their necks aching before the circus was over.
At last it came to an end with the exciting chariot races, and the crowd began to leave the big tent.
"Now keep close together, children," warned Mrs. Bobbsey. "You must not get lost in this crowd."
"Yes, follow me," advised Uncle Daniel.
How it happened they could not tell, but when they reached the outside of the tent, and found a space where the crowd was not so thick, Freddie was missing.
"Where is Freddie?" asked Nan, looking about for him.
"Freddie!" exclaimed her mother! "Isn't he here?"
But Freddie was not with them, and with anxious faces they looked at one another.
"Where can he be?" asked Bert.
"I saw him but a moment ago," said Aunt Sarah.
"An' he jest had hold ob mah hand!" cried Dinah. "Oh, mah honey lamb am done et up by de ragin' lion what goes about seekin' who he kin devouer! Oh landy!"
"Quiet, Dinah, please," said Uncle Daniel. For Dinah had called out so loudly that many in the crowd turned to look at her.
"But I wants Freddie—mah honey lamb!" the loving colored woman went on. "I wants him an' he's losted!"
"We'll find him," said Uncle Daniel. "Now whom was he with when we came out of the tent?"
"He had hold of my hand," said Bert, "but he pulled away and said he wanted to walk with Dinah."
"De lubbin honey lamb!" crooned Dinah.
"Did he come with you, Dinah?" went on Uncle Daniel, trying to find out exactly who had seen Freddie last.
"Yais, sah, he done comed wif me fo' a little while in de crowd, an' den he slid away—he just seem t' melt away laik," explained the cook.
"Which way did he go?" Uncle Daniel wanted to know.
"Which way? I dunno," Dinah answered.
"Oh, perhaps he went back to the animal tent," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey. She was not really frightened as yet. Often before Freddie had been lost, but he had generally been found within a few minutes. But he had never before been lost at a circus. This time he seemed to have melted away in the big crowd.
"Let's go back to the animal tent," suggested Uncle Daniel. "Freddie was so taken with feeding the elephants peanuts that he may have gone back to do that. We'll look."
"Oh, if only dem ugly lions or tigers habn't got him!" sighed Dinah.
"The wild animals couldn't get him, 'cause they're shut up in cages, aren't they?" asked Flossie.
"Yes, dear," Nan said to her, not wanting her little sister to be frightened. "No wild animals could get Freddie."
"We'll soon find him," declared Bert.
"We'll help you look," spoke Tom Mason. "Come on, Harry."
The three boys started to push their way back through the crowd toward the animal tent.
"Now don't you three get lost," said Uncle Daniel.
"We won't!" answered Bert, "but we're going to find Freddie!"
"Oh, where can the darling be?" gasped Aunt Sarah, looking around at the crowd all about her.
"What is it? What's the matter?" asked several ladies.
"A little boy is lost—my nephew," Aunt Sarah explained.
"Oh, isn't that too bad!" cried the sympathetic ladies. "We hope you find him!"
Back into the animal tent the Bobbseys and their relatives and friends pushed their way. It was not easy to work back through the crowd that was anxious to get away, now that the afternoon performance of the circus was over.
"He must be in there," said Uncle Daniel. "We'll find him."
Carefully he looked through the crowd of persons who were still in the animal tent. A number had remained, with their children, to get another look at the elephants, lions and tigers. Men were feeding some of the animals, now that there was a little quiet spell, and this was interesting to the youngsters.
"He doesn't seem to be here," said Aunt Sarah, as she peered through her spectacles.
"Oh, he must be!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "He can't have gone on ahead of us, and if he turned back he would have to come into this tent."
"Oh, isn't it too bad!" exclaimed Nan, looking at her brother Bert, as though he could help. But Bert, Harry and Tom, though they had quickly made a round of the circle of animal cages, had come back to say that they found no trace of Freddie.
"I know what to do, mamma," spoke up Flossie.
"What, dear?" asked her mother, hardly knowing what she was saying.
"We ought to get a policeman," went on Flossie. "Policemans can find losted people. One found me once."
"That isn't a bad idea," spoke Uncle Daniel. "I think perhaps I had better speak to some of the town constables who are on duty here."
"Suppose we look in the big main tent," said Tom Mason. "Freddie may have wandered back in there to try and turn a somersault on one of the trapezes."
"Yes, it wouldn't do any harm to take a look," agreed Uncle Daniel."We'll go in the big tent."
Into that large canvas house they went. Men were busy putting away some of the articles used for the animal tricks, and the balls, hoops knives and things the Japanese jugglers had used.
"Oh, where can he be?" murmured Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Something the matter, ma'am?" asked the ring-master, in his shiny tall hat, as he cracked his long whip. "Is someone lost?"
"Yes, my little boy Freddie, and we are so worried about him!"
"Well, don't worry," said the ring-master kindly. "Boys, and girls too, are lost every day at our circus performances, but they are always found all right. Don't worry. I'll have some of the men hunt for him. And you folks come with me. It's just possible he has been found and taken to the lost tent."
"The lost tent!" exclaimed Uncle Daniel. "Have you lost a tent, too?"
"No, but we have a sort of headquarters tent, or office, where all lost children are taken as soon as the circus men find them. A woman in the tent takes care of the little ones until their folks come for them. Your boy may be there waiting for you."
To the lost tent went the Bobbseys. They found two or three youngsters there, crying for their fathers or mothers, but Freddie was not among them.
"Oh, he isn't here!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, and tears were in her eyes now. "I wish his father were here," she went on. "He would know what to do."
"Now don't you worry, ma'am," said the ring-master again. "We'll surely find him for you. He may have gone in one of the side shows, to see the fat lady, or the strong man. I'll have those places searched for you."
The ring-master did send some of his men to look in the side-show tents, but they came back to say that no one like Freddie had been seen. By this time Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Sarah were almost frantic with fright. Nan was crying, and even Bert, brave as he was, looked worried. A number of persons who had come to the circus offered to help look for Freddie, but, though they searched all over, the little fat fellow could not be found.
"Oh, dear! What shall we do!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Dat ugly ole lion—" began Dinah, when Nan gave a scream.
"Oh, what is it, child?" asked Aunt Sarah.
"Look. There's Freddie!" cried Nan. "There he comes!" and she pointed to her little brother being led toward them by a boy about Bert's age.
They all gazed in the direction in which Nan pointed. The crowd of visitors to the circus was thinning out now, and down toward the edge of a little creek could be seen the missing Freddie walking along, his hand thrust trustingly into that of the strange boy.
"Why—why!" began Bert. "That fellow—that boy—he—" and then he stopped. Bert was not exactly sure of what he was going to say.
"Oh, Freddie!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, running forward. "Where have you been! Such a start as you've given us! Where were you?"
But Freddie himself did not seem as anxious to rush into his mother's arms as she was to clasp him. He plodded along with the strange boy, looking quite content, and as if he wondered what all the fuss was about.
"Dere de honey lamb am!" exclaimed black
Dinah, a grin spreading over her face. "De ole lion didn't cotch him after all. Dere's mah honey lamb!"
"Freddie! Freddie!" cried Flossie, who had been resting in UncleDaniel's arms, "did a lion eat you, Freddie? Did he?"
"A lion eat him? Of course not!" laughed Bert. And Bert was doing some hard thinking as he stared at the strange boy who had Freddie by the hand.
"I thought we should find him," said Uncle Daniel. "I knew he couldn't be lost with all these circus people around. I say!" called Mr. Bobbsey's brother to one of the men who had been helping hunt for the missing boy. "Just tell them that we found him, will you, please? Freddie's found."
"Yes, sir, I'll tell 'em," said the man. "I'm glad he's all right.I'll tell 'em!"
"But where were you, Freddie?" asked his mother, who by this time had him safely in her arms. "Oh, where were you?"
"I found him down by the edge of the creek, watching 'em water the elephants," explained the strange boy, who, Mrs. Bobbsey thought, had a good, kind face. "You see, we water the elephants every afternoon when the show is over," the boy went on, "and it was down there I found him."
"Oh, I can't thank you enough for bringing him back to us," said Mrs.Bobbsey. "You were so good!"
"I didn't know just where he belonged," the strange boy explained. "But he told me his name, and where he lived, and of course I knew I could send word to his folks, though I didn't see, at first, how he got here all the way from Lakeport."
"Oh, we are visiting at his uncle's farm at Meadow Brook," explainedMrs. Bobbsey.
"So he said," went on the boy. "I was bringing him to the lost tent, when he spied you and said you were his folks."
"And I saw 'em water the elephants!" cried Freddie, struggling to get loose from his mother's arms. "The elephant sucked the water up into his nose, ma, and then he squirted it down his throat just like my fire engine squirts water. Only, 'course an elephant squirts lots more water than my engine. But I'm goin' to get a bigger one that squirts as much as a elephant, that's what I goin' to do. And I saw one elephant, ma, he went right out in the water and laid down in it. What do you think of that!"
"The elephants often do that, ma'am," explained the strange boy. "They like to get a bath now and then, but we don't often have time to give it to them."
"You speak as though you belonged to the circus," said Uncle Daniel.
"I do," answered the boy. "That is, I'm with one of the side-shows, and I help around when there's nothing else to do."
"Well, it was very kind of you to bring back my little boy," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. Freddie was busy telling Flossie all the wonderful things he had seen.
"Oh, I didn't do anything, ma'am," the boy said. "I sort of knew this little fellow."
"You knew him?" questioned Uncle Daniel.
"Well, that is I'd seen him before."
"But I can't understand how Freddie became lost," said Mrs. Bobbsey, while Uncle Daniel was wondering where the strange boy had seen Freddie before. "How did you get lost, Freddie?" his mother asked him.
"Lost! I wasn't lost!" he exclaimed. "I knew where I was all the time. I was with the elephants. It was you who got lost, mamma—you and Nan and Flossie and Bert—"
"Well, we called you lost," laughed Uncle Daniel. "But you're all right now, thanks to this boy. Do you live around here?" he asked. "I don't seem to remember you, though I know most of the folks in this section. But if you have seen Freddie before you must live around here."
"Oh, no, sir," was the answer. "I'm with the circus. But I used to live—"
"I know you now!" interrupted Bert. "You're Frank Kennedy, and I was with my father, calling on Mr. Mason, when I saw you. Freddie was with me then. Don't you remember, Freddie?" asked Bert. "This is the boy we saw—the boy we saw getting a—"
And Bert stopped. He did not want to say "shaking," for it was when Frank Kennedy was being severely shaken by Mr. Mason, on account of the bad twenty dollar bill, that the strange boy had last been seen by the Bobbsey lads. And on that occasion Frank had run away.
"Oh, now I know you!" cried Freddie, laughing.
"Yes, I am the boy you saw getting a shaking, for something that wasn't my fault!" exclaimed Frank, and his voice was hard and bitter. "I made up my mind I wouldn't stand Mr. Mason's cruel treatment any longer, so I ran away. I did see you two boys that time I got a shaking," Frank admitted. "You were in an automobile then," he went on, "and Mr. Bobbsey was with you." He looked around as though in search of the twins' father.
"Mr. Bobbsey had to go back to Lakeport on business," explained Mrs.Bobbsey. "We came over from Meadow Brook to the circus here to-day.And I remember Mr. Bobbsey speaking of you. So you ran away?"
"Yes'm, I ran away. I couldn't stand it in that lumber office any longer the way Mr. Mason treated me. It wasn't fair. And I'm never going back again, either. I don't like him, and he doesn't like me. I'll never let him be my guardian again."
"Poor boy!" murmured Mrs. Bobbsey. "You must have had a hard time. Did you come with this circus as soon as you ran away?"
"No'm, I had a pretty bad spell first along. When I ran away I had only the clothes I wore, and only a little money. It was my own!" he said, quickly, lest they think he might have taken it from Mr. Mason's lumber office. But one look at Frank's face showed that he was honest.
"What did you do?" asked Uncle Daniel.
"Well, I walked as far as I could the first night," Frank said, going on with his story. "Then I crawled in a barn to sleep."
"Didn't you have anything to eat?" asked Nan softly. She felt very sorry for the boy.
"Well, I had a couple of crackers I had saved from my lunch that day," he explained. "Then near the barn was a cow, and I milked her. That and the crackers was all I had for supper. But I slept good in the hay."
"I had a good sleep in some hay!" exclaimed Freddie, as he remembered the time they had played hide-and-go-seek in the barn.
"It makes a good bed when you're tired," said Frank.
"What did you have for breakfast?" asked Flossie. "I like an orange and oatmeal for mine."
"Well, I didn't have anything like that for mine," explained Frank with a smile. "I didn't have much of anything the first morning. I tramped on, and finally I found a place where I could chop some wood, and a lady gave me some bread and milk. It tasted very good."
"How did you get with the circus?" asked Bert. That part interested him more than how Frank got something to eat.
"Well, I just happened to come to the town where the circus was giving a show," explained Frank. "I was around when the men were watering the horses and other animals, and I helped carry water. Then one of the men asked me if I didn't want work, and I said I did. I was hungry then, too, and I could smell the things cooking in the circus kitchen tent. So I went to work for this show, and I've been here ever since. It's better than working in a lumber office when you get shook up every now and then," he added with a smile.
"And do you still help water the elephants?" asked Uncle Daniel.
"Oh, no, I help take tickets at one of the side shows," explained Frank. "The one where the fat lady and snakes are. I like it, though sometimes I help water the animals when I have nothing else to do. The circus people are good to me. I've earned enough money to get some clothes, and I'm never hungry any more. I was pretty ragged when I came to the circus, for I had been tramping around sleeping in barns, or wherever I could."
"Wouldn't it have been better to have gone back to Mr. Mason, your guardian?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, for she had heard her husband tell of the time he, Bert and Freddie had seen the boy shaken before he ran away.
"Oh, no'm!" Frank exclaimed. "I'm never going back to that lumber office. Mr. Mason accused me of losing twenty dollars for him. Well perhaps I did, but it wasn't my fault that the man gave me bad money that looked like good. I'm never going back!"
"Well, I don't know as I blame you," said Uncle Daniel softly, "but a circus is no place for a young boy. It's a hard life."
"Are you going to stay with this show?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Until I can get something better to do," answered Frank. "I know it isn't a good business, but I'll stay here until I can save some money, and then I'll look for something better. But I'll have to stay here for a while."
"Maybe you could give him work on the farm," suggested Aunt Sarah to her husband in a whisper. "I don't like him to be with a circus. And he was so good to Freddie that we ought to do something for him."
"He's too young to work on a farm," replied Uncle Daniel. "And he might be in a worse place than this circus. But we must be starting back home. It's getting late."
Freddie was hugged and kissed by his sisters, mother and aunt, and Mrs. Bobbsey insisted on making Frank a little present of money, for his kindness to Freddie. Frank did not want to take it, but finally he did.
"I'll buy some new shoes with it," he said.
"I shall tell my husband how good you were to find Freddie," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "and I am sure he will want to do something for you. I wish you would write to me once in a while. We should like to keep track of you."