Creaking and squeaking as it slowly started, the merry-go-round began to go faster and faster until it was whirling rapidly, the music of the organ mingling with the shouts of the delighted children.
Seeing that Flossie and Freddie were all right, being strapped to their wooden lions, and that Nan could look after herself, Mr. Bobbsey took a seat in one of the gilded cars that were provided for older persons who did not like to sit astride a wooden animal. He watched Bob Guess making his way around the carrousel collecting the tickets. The boy seemed bright and very business like.
"He's a good lad," thought Mr. Bobbsey. "I wish a better man than Mr. Blipper had charge of him. I must look into this matter."
At one place on the outside of the merry-go-round was a post with an arm extending down from it. Into this arm, which was hollow, a boy dropped iron rings, with, now and then, a brass one among them. Those whirling about on the carrousel could reach up and pull a ring from the arm, if they were quick and skillful enough.
"Get the brass ring and have a free ride!" sang out the boy dropping the black, iron rings into the hollow arm. There were, a great many iron rings, but only a few brass ones. Of course, every one wanted to get the brass ring, but this went by luck as much as by skill.
Flossie and Freddie were too small to reach over and try for any of the rings. But Nan, like the older boys and girls and some of the grown folks, had no trouble in catching rings.
"Get the brass ring, and have an extra ride!" cried the boy in charge.
"I wish I could!" thought Nan.
Once she almost got it. She saw the brass ring gleaming at the end of the arm. A boy two horses ahead of her made a grab for it and missed. So did the girl directly in front ofNan. When Nan reached for the ring she did not put out her arm far enough, and she, too, missed it. A girl riding on a camel behind Nan got it.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Nan.
"Never mind," said a voice at her side, and she saw Bob Guess. "Here's a brass ring for you. Take it and have the next ride free!"
"Oh, will that be right?" asked Nan.
"Sure it will! I'm in charge of taking the tickets when Blipper is away. Some one grabbed this ring and dropped it. I picked it up. It's good for a ride. Take it. I don't know who dropped it or I'd give it to 'em. You take it!"
And Nan did. It was not to be dreamed of that Flossie and Freddie would be content with one ride. They had to stay on for the second. Mr. Bobbsey got off to buy more tickets.
"I don't need a ticket!" Nan called to him. "I have the brass ring, Daddy!"
"Oh, you were very lucky!"
"Bob gave it to me," she explained, telling how it came about.
"Well, I suppose it is all right to take it,"her father said. "Bob knows what he is doing."
"But I want to get a brass ring my own self," Nan said. And she did, though not on the next trip. Her father had to buy her a ticket for that.
Then came the final ride, for though Flossie and Freddie would have remained and ridden all day, their father knew this was not good for them. And it was on the last ride that Nan got her brass ring.
"Oh, now I can ride again!" she gayly cried.
"Not now," her father told her. "If you ride, Flossie and Freddie will want to, and I'm afraid they'll be ill."
"But what shall I do with the ring?" asked Nan, slipping down off the wooden horse and holding up the brass ring.
"It'll be good to-morrow," said Bob Guess. "You can keep it, or I'll save it here for you."
"I guess you'd better keep it, Bob," said Nan, with a laugh. "I might lose it."
"I'll save it for you," promised Bob. "I'll look for you to-morrow. Get your tickets—your tickets for the merry-go-round!" he cried, as a new crowd surged up to get on.
"May we have some pop corn?" asked Freddie, when told there were to be no more rides that day.
"And ice-cream?" added Flossie.
"Dear me!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey, "I don't know which will be worse for you. Let's look about a bit."
"I'm thirsty!" announced Flossie.
"Well, we'll have some lemonade—that will be good for all of us, I think," suggested Mr. Bobbsey. Bert and Harry, coming back just then from having been to look at the balloon, were taken to the lemonade stand with the others.
If I were to tell you all the things the Bobbsey twins saw at the County Fair and all they did, it would take a larger book than this to hold it all. So I can only tell you a few of the many things that happened.
After drinking the lemonade the children hardly knew at what to look next, there were so many things to see. Presently Mr. Bobbsey said:
"You have been among a lot of wooden animals on the merry-go-round, suppose we go see some real, live animals?"
"Oh, yes!" cried Nan.
"Let's go to see the race horses," suggested Bert.
"And I want to see cows and pigs!" announced Freddie.
"And sheeps! I want to see sheeps!" exclaimed Flossie.
"They're on the way to the racing horse stables," explained Harry. "All the live stock is together."
There was a race track at the fair grounds and some races had been run off before the Bobbseys arrived. More were to take place soon.
Mr. Bobbsey and the other children were so interested in looking at the prize cattle, at great hogs, some weighing nearly a thousand pounds, and at bulls weighing more than this, that they did not notice the absence of Freddie Bobbsey. That little chap, however, had slipped away and, before he knew it, he was in the stable with the race horses.
As many of the stablemen were outside with their animals, some bringing their steeds back from the track and others taking racers over to have a part in the next contest, there were not many persons in the stable when Freddie wandered there.
"Oh, what a nice lot of horses!" he exclaimed, and indeed the racers were among the best of their kind. "I like horses!" went on Freddie.
One beautiful animal leaned out of its stall and rubbed a velvet nose on Freddie's shoulder.
"You like me, don't you, horsie?" asked the little chap. The horse whinnied, which might mean anything, but Freddie took it for "yes."
"I guess maybe you'd like to have me get on your back," he said. "I got on one of Uncle Dan's horses once. I know how to ride."
The horse was in a large box stall, and the door was not hard to open. In walked Freddie, and, by standing up on a keg which was in the stall, he managed to scramble up on the back of the horse. To keep from sliding off,though, Freddie had to clasp his arms around the neck of the animal.
Whether the horse took this for a signal to move along, or whether it just "happened," I don't know. But the horse walked out of the stall, across the grass of the paddock, and, as the big gate happened to be open, he walked right out on the race track with Freddie clinging to his neck.
Just about this time a race was going to be run. There were a number of horses, with jockey lads on their backs, waiting for the signal to begin their fast pace around the track. Up in the booth, where the judges and the starter were standing to give the signal, everything was in readiness. The people around the race track were all excited, for they wanted to see which horse would win.
And then, just as the starter gave the word, and the jockey boys on their horses' backs called to their steeds to run fast, out on the track walked the horse to whose neck Freddie was clinging!
At first the little fellow had been so startled when the animal to whose back he had scrambled walked out of the barn with him that he had not known what to do. He just clung there.
But, finding that the horse was very gentle and did not try to reach back and bite his legs, Freddie began rather to like it.
"Go 'long, nice horsie! Go 'long!" called Freddie, and he clapped his heels against the sides of the animal.
The horse went along all right—fairly out on to the race track, and just as the race was starting!
"Here! Where you going?"
"Come back with that horse!"
"Look out! Stop him, somebody! That boy will be hurt!"
These were only a few of the many cries that rose from the grandstand and the space in front of it when the people saw Freddie right in the path of the rushing horses.
"Ring that bell!" cried one of the judges to the starter.
The starter pulled the cord of the big gong which is rung to bring the horses back if theyhave not made an even start, as very often happens.
Clang! went the gong. The jockeys on the backs of the horses knew what the ringing of the bell meant. Some of them had begun to guide their horses so as not to run into Freddie and his mount, but there were so many racers that one or two of them might have bumped into the little fellow. But when the jockeys heard the ringing of the bell they knew it was a false start and they pulled in their steeds and some turned back.
But now something else happened. While the horse Freddie had climbed up on was kind and gentle, yet he was a race horse. And as soon as he found himself out on the track he must have thought he had been ridden there to take part in a race.
At any rate, before Freddie could stop him, even if the little Bobbsey lad had been able to do this, the horse began to trot around the track. Perhaps he thought the ringing of the bell meant for him to start.
So away he ran, going faster and fasterwith poor Freddie bobbing up and down, but still clinging to the animal's neck. It was all Freddie could do, as there was no saddle horn to grasp.
"Whoa! Whoa!" begged the little chap. "Nice horsie! Whoa now!"
It was not so much fun as Freddie had at first thought to take a ride in this way. At the beginning he had an idea that he might some day be a jockey and wear a gayly colored silk blouse. But he never imagined race horses went so fast.
"Whoa! Whoa!" cried Freddie again. But his horse did not stop. Indeed, it only went faster.
"Somebody get after that boy!" yelled the starter, leaning from the judges' stand. "He'll be hurt if you don't get him!"
"I'll get him!" offered one of the jockeys. He called to his horse and was soon speeding around the track after Freddie. And now the horse on whose back the little Bobbsey boy was seated, hearing another steed coming after him, began to think it was a race in real earnest, and he commenced to go faster. All the"whoa" shouts Freddie uttered were of no use.
"Go on, Tomato! Go on!" cried the jockey to his horse. "Go on, Tomato!" Tomato was the name of his animal.
The shouts and the screams of the crowd attracted the attention of Mr. Bobbsey and the other children as they came from the animal tent. And as Mr. Bobbsey neared the race track he had a glimpse of his little son clinging to a horse and riding very fast, while a jockey on another horse chased him.
"Oh, look! Freddie's in a race!" cried Flossie! "Oh, maybe Freddie will win!"
"My goodness! how did this happen?" cried Mr. Bobbsey.
"Will he be hurt?" gasped Nan.
But just then, to the great relief of the Bobbsey family, the jockey managed to come up alongside of Freddie's galloping horse. The jockey reached over with one hand, caught Freddie by the seat of his little trousers, and fairly lifted him off the back of the now excited horse.
Then, placing Freddie on the saddle in front of him, the jockey turned his horse about androde slowly back to the stand. Some of the stablemen then ran out and caught the other horse.
"Why, Freddie! what in the world were you trying to do?" asked his father, when the little boy was placed in his arms.
"I—I just wanted a ride," Freddie explained. "I got tired of ridin' on wooden lions. I wanted a live horse."
"Well, he picked a lively one all right!" laughed a man in the crowd. "That horse he rode has won every race, so far."
"You must never do such a thing again, Freddie," his father told him, when the excitement had died down and the racing was once more started. "Never again."
"No, I won't," Freddie promised. "But when I grow up I'm goin' to ride horses, I am!"
"That will be a good while yet," laughed Bert.
"I'm glad your mother wasn't here," said Mr. Bobbsey. "She would have almost fainted, I'm sure, if she had seen you out on the race track like a regular jockey."
"Did I look like a jockey?" Freddie asked, eagerly.
"Well, not exactly," Bert said. "You didn't have any silk blouse on."
"I'll get Dinah to make me one when I go home," Freddie declared. "I'll have a red one, I guess, and then if I get tired of ridin' horses I can be a fireman."
"Well, I think we've had excitement enough for one day," remarked Mr. Bobbsey. "We'll have something to eat, look around a little more, and then go home."
"But we can come back again, can't we?" asked Bert. "I haven't seen the balloon go up yet."
"Yes, we want to see that," added Harry.
"I'll bring you to the fair again to-morrow or next day," promised Mr. Bobbsey. "I want to come back myself. I've met a number of men to-day I'd like to talk with further. Then I'd like to have a talk with that Mr. Blipper."
That night, at Meadow Brook Farm, Mr. Bobbsey and his wife, after the children had gone to bed, talked over the strange disappearance of Mr. Bobbsey's coat and the auto lap robe.
"I'm sure that Blipper knows something about them," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Or perhaps that strange Bob Guess—what an odd name."
"It is an odd name," agreed Mr. Bobbsey, "But it fits, for they don't know what his real name is—at least he says he doesn't. But I don't believe Bob had anything to do with the taking of my coat and the robe. I'd like to find out more about the boy. He seems bright, and I feel sorry for him. I must see that man, Blipper, and have a talk with him."
"Wasn't he at his merry-go-round to-day?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, he had gone off somewhere. But I am going to the fair again with the children, and I'll get at Blipper sooner or later."
"Well, if you go to the fair again, please keep an eye on Freddie!" begged the mother of the Bobbsey twins. "He's a little tyke when it comes to slipping away and doing strange things."
"Yes, he is," agreed her husband. But the next day was to prove that Flossie could also "slip away," when there was a chance.
The Bobbsey twins, with Harry, were out in the cornfield gathering ears of corn to feed to the hogs and chickens. The corn had been cut and stacked into piles called "shocks," and it was from the stalks in these shocks that the ears of yellow corn were broken off and placed in baskets to be taken to the house.
"Let's play hide and go seek for a while," suggested Nan to her brother and Harry. "Flossie and Freddie are over there by themselves, shelling corn." The smaller twins had been given a little basket, and they were now busy breaking off kernels of corn from some small ears, and dropping the corn into their basket.
"For the chickies," Flossie had explained.
So while the smaller twins were thus "kept out of mischief," as Nan said, she, with Bert and Harry, began a game of hide and go seek. It was lots of fun, dodging in and out among the tall corn shocks, which rose above the children's heads. The game went on for some time, until even Bert and Harry said they were tired.
"Well, we'll take the corn up to the house," announced Nan. "Come, Flossie and Freddie," she called. Freddie came up, carrying the basket of shelled corn, but Flossie was not with him.
"Where's your sister?" asked Harry.
"Who, Flossie? Oh, she went away. She said she was going home," Freddie answered. "She went home a good while ago!"
"Went home!" echoed Nan, with a gasping breath. "Why, she never could find the way all by herself. Oh, maybe she's lost!"
The cornfield where the Bobbsey twins and Harry had gone to work and play was a long distance from the farmhouse. Nan knew this, and that is why she was frightened when Freddie said that Flossie had "gone home."
"Maybe she could find her way," said Bert.
"She's a smart little girl," added Harry. "I wish I had a sister like her."
"How long ago did she leave you, Freddie?" asked Nan.
"Oh, 'bout maybe three four hours," answered the little boy.
"We haven't been here an hour!" exclaimed Bert.
"Well, maybe it was minutes, then," admitted Freddie. He did not have a very good idea of time, you see.
"If it was only a little while ago she can'thave gone very far," said Nan. "Flossie! Flossie!" she called. "Where are you?"
But there was no answer. Bert and Harry then took up the call, as they had louder voices than had Nan, and even Freddie added his shout, but it was of no use. Flossie did not answer.
"I guess she's too far away," Harry stated.
"We'd better hurry after her!" said Bert.
"Oh, come on!" cried Nan, half sobbing. "Mother told me to keep good watch over her, and I didn't! I shouldn't have played hide and go seek!"
"It wasn't your fault!" her brother consoled her. "It was as much mine as yours. But we'll find Flossie all right. I guess she's home by this time."
But when they had hurried to the farmhouse there was no sign of the little girl. Mrs. Bobbsey became much frightened when told what had happened.
"Is there any water she could fall into?" she asked Aunt Sarah.
"No, not even a duck pond near the cornfield. She's all right, I'm sure," said the otherMrs. Bobbsey. "We'll go back to the cornfield and find her hiding, I feel certain."
"But she wasn't playing hide and go seek," declared Nan. "She wouldn't hide from us."
"You can't tell," said Aunt Sarah, so cheerfully that the others took heart. Back they hurried to the field where the big shocks of dried cornstalks stood. The two Mr. Bobbseys also went along to help in the search.
"Now show us where you and Flossie were playing at shell the corn," said the mother of the twins.
"Right here," Freddie stated, and he pointed to some of the yellow kernels on the ground.
The father of the Bobbsey twins stooped down and looked at the soft earth. He soon found what he was looking for—the tiny footprints of his little girl.
"She went over this way," he said. "Come on, we'll pretend we are hunters on the trail. We'll soon find Flossie."
"Oh, this is fun!" laughed Freddie. But it was not exactly fun for the others. Even Nan and Bert were worried.
The footprints of Flossie wandered offamong the shocks of corn, and in a few moments they stopped at a place where two or three shocks had been piled together, making a large heap.
And then, before any one could say a word, from behind this pile of cornstalks a sleepy voice called, asking:
"Where are you, Freddie?"
"There she is! That's Flossie!" cried Bert.
He and his mother made a dash around the big shock and there, lying with her little cloak wrapped around her, was Flossie, nestled amid the corn husks, curled up and just awakening from a nap.
"Oh, Flossie! why did you run away?" asked her mother, clasping her little daughter in her arms.
"I didn't runned away, I walked!" declared Flossie, rubbing her eyes. "What you all lookin' at me for?" she wanted to know. "Was I a bad girl, Mother?"
"Not exactly bad, but you frightened us," her father said. "However, we're glad we have found you."
Flossie had just wandered away by herself, unnoticed by Bert, Nan, or Harry, and, growing tired and sleepy, had nestled in the corn to take a nap. Freddie had been so busy shelling corn that he did not notice which way his little sister went.
But everything was all right now, and the happy families went back to the farmhouse, the smaller twins being allowed to feed some of their corn to the chickens.
True to his promise, Mr. Richard Bobbsey took his children to the Bolton County Fair the next day, his wife going with him this time. Of course Harry also went along, for it would not have been polite to leave him at home. As for Uncle Daniel and Aunt Sarah, they said they would go to the fair another day.
"Will you ask Mr. Blipper about your coat and the missing robe?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, on the way to the fair grounds.
"Yes. And I'll ask him about Bob Guess, also," her husband answered. "There is something strange about that boy."
The Bobbsey twins and Harry were talking among themselves, while Nan also looked after Flossie and Freddie.
"They're going to put the big balloon up to-day," said Harry.
"They are if the wind doesn't blow too much," Bert agreed. "And I'm afraid it's blowing too hard. Do you think the wind is blowing too much for them to send the big balloon up?" he anxiously asked his father.
Mr. Bobbsey looked at the sky.
"To my mind," he said, "I think there is going to be a storm. I'm afraid the wind will keep on blowing harder all day. Of course I don't know how strong a wind it takes to keep a balloon man from going up, but I should say there would be danger in going up to-day."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bert. "I wanted to see the man go up in the balloon!"
"So did I!" added Harry. "But maybe the wind will die out."
However, it did not, and it was still blowing rather hard when the fair grounds were reached.
"Never mind," said Mrs. Bobbsey, when shesaw how disappointed Harry and Bert seemed to feel. "If the balloon doesn't go up to-day it will to-morrow, and we can come again. There are plenty of other things to look at besides balloons."
"I'd like to go to see some of the big vegetables and the fruits, and look at the patchwork quilts and the lace," said Nan.
"Very well," agreed her father. "We'll go there first, and maybe by that time the wind will have died down. But I hardly think so."
Truth to tell Bert and Harry did not care much for the big pumpkins, squashes, and other vegetables. And they hardly looked at the fancy work in which Nan and her mother took an interest.
"Oh, wouldn't this make a dandy jack-o'-lantern!" cried Freddie, as he crawled under a railing around a platform, on which were many large vegetables. "Look what a big pumpkin!"
"Freddie, you mustn't go in there," called his mother. "Come out. Don't touch that big pumpkin."
But it was too late! Freddie was alreadyon the wooden platform, and he was rolling the pumpkin. It was almost perfectly round, and the little fellow could easily move it.
"Come away!" called Mr. Bobbsey, adding his voice to that of his wife.
"I want to see if I can lift this pumpkin!" exclaimed Freddie.
And then, suddenly, the big pumpkin rolled off the platform, toward the back of the tent.
"Get it, Freddie! Get it!" cried Bert, for he knew the pumpkin was on exhibition in order to take a prize, if possible. It would be too bad if anything happened to it.
Freddie made a dive for the big, yellow vegetable, but, as it happened, the tent stood on the top of a hill. And as the pumpkin rolled off the platform it slipped under the tent and began going down the grassy hill outside.
"Whoa! Whoa!" called Freddie, as he had called to the race horse that had walked out on the track with him. "Whoa, pumpkin!"
But the pumpkin kept on rolling! The little chap made a dive for it, missed it by a fewinches, and then, falling over, he, too, rolled out under the tent and down the hill.
Freddie was not quite so round as a pumpkin, but he managed to get a good start, and rolled over and over. And as his father, mother, and the others hurried out of the tent they saw Freddie and the big yellow vegetable tumbling down the hill together.
"Oh, look! Look!" cried a little girl. "A boy and a pumpkin are having a race! Oh, look! How funny! A boy and a pumpkin are having a race!"
The pumpkin won the race. I suppose you had already guessed that it would. For the pumpkin, being almost perfectly round, could roll down the hill faster than Freddie could.
So the pumpkin was the first to reach the bottom of the little grassy hill on which stood the tent where the prize fruits and vegetables were on exhibition. And Freddie came tumbling after, like Jack and Jill, you know.
And I believe it is a good thing the pumpkin reached the bottom of the hill first, for if Freddie had been first the big, heavy pumpkin would have rolled up against him with a bump, and might have hurt him. But Freddie, bumping into the pumpkin, as he did, was not hurt at all.
"Oh, you funny little boy!" cried the little girl who had laughed, as she ran up to Freddie, who was now sitting on the grass. "The pumpkin beat you in the rolling race down hill. But maybe you'll win next time."
"There isn't going to be any next time," laughed Mother Bobbsey, as she ran to pick Freddie up. "He didn't do that on purpose, little girl."
"Oh, I thought he did. Anyhow, it was funny!" and she laughed again.
"Yes, it was funny," agreed Bert. "And here comes a man after the pumpkin, I guess."
"Be careful that he doesn't take you and put you on exhibition in the tent," said Nan to her little brother.
"Will he, Mother?" asked Flossie.
"No, of course not. Nan is only joking."
"The pumpkin isn't hurt any," said Harry, helping the man lift it up on his shoulder.
"I'm glad of it," the man said. "It has won the prize, and the farmer who owns it wouldn't like it if it should be broken."
"Let's go over to the merry-go-round," suggested Freddie, who did not like so many people looking at him, for quite a crowd had gathered when word of the funny pumpkinrace spread. "I want a ride on the merry-go-round."
"So do I," added Flossie.
"And then it will be time for the balloon to go up," added Bert. "Do you think the wind is too strong?" he asked his father.
"Well, it is blowing pretty hard, and it's getting worse. I think there is going to be a storm. But I see men working around the balloon, and I think they are going to send it up. Perhaps they think they can send it up and let it come down again before the storm."
"Oh, let's hurry and see it!" cried Nan, who was as much interested in the big gas bag as were the boys.
"First we'll give Flossie and Freddie a ride on the merry-go-round, I think," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey. So they all voted to have a ride, as Mr. Bobbsey wanted a chance to speak to Mr. Blipper.
But, just as had happened the other time, Mr. Blipper was not there. Bob Guess was taking tickets, and when he saw Nan he smiled.
"I'll get you the brass ring," he promised, and he did.
The children liked the lively music, and also the whirling ride on the backs of the wooden animals. Even Mrs. Bobbsey took one ride, but she said that was enough. Nan had a special ride, because Bob Guess had saved for her the brass ring, and when the other children learned that Nan was to ride for nothing, of course they wanted an extra ride, for which Mr. Bobbsey had to pay.
"When do you think Mr. Blipper will be here?" Mr. Bobbsey asked of Bob, as the party was leaving. "I want to talk to him."
"I don't know," was the boy's answer. "He doesn't stay at the merry-go-round as much as he used to. He lets me and one of his men run it. He's away a lot."
"Well, you tell him I want to see him," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "I shall be here to-morrow and the next day."
"I'll tell him," promised Bob Guess.
"Now let's go see the balloon," suggested Bert.
"They're getting ready to send it up!" exclaimed Harry, as they neared the place where the big bag, already partly filled with gas, was swaying to and fro. Over the bag was a net work of strong cords, and the cords were fastened to the rim of a large square basket. To the basket were tied ropes, and to the ends of these ropes were bags of sand, thus holding the balloon to the ground.
"What makes it go up?" asked Flossie, as she watched the swaying bag.
"Gas," explained Mr. Bobbsey. "They put in the big bag some gas, sometimes one kind and sometimes another, just like the gas in your toy balloons. This gas is so very light—it's not even so heavy as air—that it wants to go up into the air, all by itself. And when it is inside a bag the gas takes the bag up into the air with it."
"And the basket too? Doesn't it take the basket?" Freddie asked.
"Yes, the basket goes up with the balloon," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Who goes in the basket?" asked Freddie.
"Oh, the man," his father answered.
"Do any children go in the balloon?" called out Flossie. "Any boys or girls?"
"Oh, no!" quickly said Nan, for she did not want her little sister and brother to tease for a ride in a balloon basket.
"I'd like a ride in a balloon," murmured Freddie.
Just then the wind began to blow more strongly, and the big gas bag swayed to one side, toward a crowd of people who ran to get out of the way.
"Get more ropes!" cried one of the balloon men. "Get more ropes and sand bags!"
"That's right!" shouted another man. "There's going to be a storm. I don't know whether we ought to send the balloon up!"
"Oh, let her go!" cried several in the crowd. They did not want to be disappointed. Bert and Harry added their voices to the cries for an ascension.
"Well, we'll have to tie the balloon down until we get more gas in it," said the first man. "Come on now, more ropes and sand bags!"
While these were being brought the Bobbseytwins and their relatives drew as near to the balloon as they could get, closely looking at it. At times the big bag, partly filled with gas, swayed until it swept the ground. The basket, too, pulled and tugged at the ropes that held it down.
"What does the man do when he's in the basket?" Freddie asked.
"Oh, he sits there and rides along up in the clouds," said Bert. "I wish I could go up."
"Does he have anything to eat?" Flossie wanted to know.
"Oh, yes," said Nan. "There are things to eat in the basket. See!" And she held Flossie up so she could look over the edge and down into the basket. Of course Freddie had to be lifted up, also.
The basket seemed a cosy place. There were blankets in it, for it is often very cold high up in the air where balloons go, though it may be very warm on the earth. And there were boxes and packages containing food and many strange things at which the Bobbsey twins wondered.
The wind kept blowing harder and harder,and the crowd grew larger as word went around the fair grounds that the balloon was soon to go up.
"What about those ropes?" cried the man who was in charge of the balloon.
"They're coming," another man told him. "Be here right away!"
"Well, those lads want to hurry if this balloon isn't to go sailing off by itself! My, but the wind is blowing hard! I've a good notion to call this off. I'm afraid we're in for a bad storm."
"We can't stop it now," said the second man. "The crowd expects us to go up, and we'll have to go."
"Well, we'll try it. But we must tie the balloon down and put in more gas. It won't go up very far only half filled as it is."
Suddenly some voices cried:
"One side! One side if you please!"
It was the men coming up with ropes to tie the balloon down.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey tried to gather the children close to them, to get them out of the way of the men. But, in some manner, Flossieand Freddie turned to one side, and before they knew it they were separated from their friends. And then Flossie and Freddie found themselves pushed close up against the balloon basket.
"Oh, let's get in!" cried Freddie.
"We'll just sit down for a minute and then get out," agreed Flossie.
The crowd was so excited, trying to get out of the way of the men with the coils of rope, that no one noticed what the small Bobbsey twins did. And so Freddie and Flossie climbed into the balloon basket and snuggled down in the blankets.
"Quick now with those ropes!" cried the head man. "She's going to tear loose! Feel that wind!"
There came a heavy blow, causing the balloon to sway back and forth.
"Look out!" cried another voice. "There she goes!"
Almost as he spoke there was a further scramble on the part of the crowd, and the balloon tore loose from the holding ropes before the men had time to put on the new ones.
"There she goes!" echoed the crowd. "Up goes the balloon!"
And up it went, taking Flossie and Freddie with it! Up and up it rose, shooting above the heads of the crowd.
"Oh, Freddie!" cried Flossie, "what's going to happen?"
"We're going up in a balloon!" shouted Freddie, and then he laughed. He thought it was fun.
"Oh, I want to get down!" screamed Flossie. She looked over the edge of the basket, as did her brother, and just then Mrs. Bobbsey glanced up.
"Oh, my children! Flossie and Freddie!" she gasped, pointing. "They're in the balloon!"
There was great excitement down on the ground when the cry of Mrs. Bobbsey told her husband, the other children, and the big crowd that Flossie and Freddie had been carried away in the balloon. At first some did not believe it, and even Mr. Bobbsey found it hard to imagine that such a thing could happen.
But one look up at the swaying basket dangling from the runaway balloon showed him the faces of Flossie and Freddie looking down at the earth which seemed to be dropping away from them.
"Oh, my children! My children! Flossie! Freddie!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, tears streaming down her cheeks, as she raised her hands toward the swiftly rising balloon.
"Get them down!"
"We'll catch 'em if they jump!"
"Get a ladder!"
"Have the man in the aeroplane go after them!"
These were some of the cries—foolish cries in some cases—that sounded on all sides as Flossie and Freddie were carried away. For how could any ladder be long enough to reach up to the balloon?
"Oh, can't we do something?" wailed Mrs. Bobbsey, holding to her husband.
"We'll save them! We'll save Flossie and Freddie," said Mr. Bobbsey. Nan was crying also, and Harry and Bert looked at each other with strange faces. They didn't know what to do or say.
Mr. Bobbsey felt the wind blowing stronger and stronger and saw the gathering storm. As he saw how fast the balloon was moving upward and onward, away from the fair grounds, he, too, was much frightened.
"How did those children get in there?" asked one of the balloon men.
"They must have crawled in the basket when we weren't looking," answered Mr. Bobbsey.
"Is there any way of saving my little children?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Now don't you worry," said the balloon man kindly. "They'll be all right if they stay in the basket. The balloon hasn't all its gas in, and it won't blow very far. It will soon come down to the ground."
"But won't they be killed?"
"No, a balloon comes down very gently when the gas gives out." said the man. "It's almost like a parachute. Your children will come down like feathers. We'll get up a searching party and go after them." He knew there was great danger but he did not want to add to Mrs. Bobbsey's fears.
"Oh, yes! Do something!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "We must save them!"
While down below there was all excitement and while a searching party was getting ready to start out to rescue Flossie and Freddie, the two little children themselves were safe enough in the balloon basket. That is they were safe for the time being, for they could not fall unless they climbed over the side of the basket, and they would hardly do this. They werealso safe from banging into anything, for they were now high in the air, well above all trees and buildings, and there were no other balloons or any aeroplanes in sight.
At the fair grounds was an aeroplane, but it had not gone up yet, and could not, for the engine was broken, and the man had to mend it before he could make a flight. So as long as Flossie and Freddie remained in the basket they were safe.
They did not even feel the wind blow, for as they were being carried right along in the gale, being a part of it, so to speak, they did not feel it as they had when standing on the ground.
But, in spite of all this, Flossie's little heart was beating very fast and tears came into her eyes.
"Oh, Freddie!" she half sobbed, "what you s'pose's goin' to happen to us?"
"I don't know," he answered. "But anyhow we're up in a balloon and we're having a fine sail. I like a balloon, don't you, Flossie?"
Flossie thought it over for a moment. Now that the first fright was passed she rather enjoyed the quiet, easy motion. For there were no bumps as in an automobile, and there was no swaying as on the merry-go-round. It was like flying with the birds, and Flossie had always wanted to be a bird.
"It is—yes, I guess it is nice," she said. "Are we high up?"
"Not very," Freddie answered. "Don't look over the edge or you might fall out of the basket," he told his sister, as he saw her getting ready to stand on her tiptoes and peer down. Freddie had looked down once, as had Flossie, when they first felt themselves going up, and it had made him a little dizzy. He did not want Flossie to fall out.
"Let's see if we can find something to eat," suggested the little boy. "I'm hungry."
"So'm I," agreed Flossie. This was something new to think about.
They poked among the things in the balloon basket. There were funny objects, the uses of which they could only guess at, but there were also some crackers and sandwiches, as well as a bottle of milk, and some water.
"Oh, we can have a regular camp-out!"laughed Flossie. "We'll make believe we're on a steamer."
"It'll be lots of fun," agreed Freddie. So they ate and were quite happy, while those they had left behind were very much worried and miserable.
The wind blew harder and harder, but, as I have said, Flossie and Freddie did not notice it. Soon, however, they began to notice something else, and this was some drops of water.
"Oh, the balloon's leaking!" cried Flossie, as she felt a damp spot on her red cheek.
Freddie also felt some wet splashes, but he saw at once what they were.
"It's raining!" he cried. And so it was. The storm had broken.
"Raining!" cried Flossie. "And we hasn't got any umbrella!"
"We don't need one," said the little boy. "The balloon's so big it will be like an umbrella over us."
This was partly true. The bag of the balloon bulged out over the heads of the children, keeping off most of the rain. But some blew in sideways over the top of the basket, and thechildren would have been quite wet had they not wrapped themselves in blankets. These kept them warm and dry, for one of the blankets was of rubber.
Thus the little Bobbsey twins sailed on in a balloon, the first ride of this kind they had ever taken. Their first fright was over, but they began wondering what would happen next.
Suddenly Flossie discovered a hole in the bottom of the basket, through which she could look down to the earth. And as she looked she cried:
"Oh, Freddie, we're going down into a lake!"
Freddie looked and saw what his sister had seen. The balloon was now going down. Probably the gas had leaked out, or there may not have been more than enough to carry the balloon a short distance. At any rate it was now falling, and, as the children saw, straight toward a body of water.
"Shall we fall into the water?" asked Flossie.
"No—no, I don't guess so," Freddie answered. He hoped that was not going to happen. But as he looked down and saw the water seemingly coming nearer and nearer, though of course it was the balloon going down, the little boy did not feel at all sure but they would drop right into the lake.
"We'd better hold on hard to the basket," said Freddie, after thinking over the best thing to do. "When we get in the lake we can hold on to the basket until somebody comes."
This idea made Flossie feel a little better. She was glad she had Freddie with her, and Freddie was glad Flossie was with him.
Down, down the balloon gently dropped. The rain was pouring hard now, splashing into the lake, which was covered in some places with a blanket of fog.
Then, just when it seemed that Flossie and Freddie and the balloon would splash into the water, an island loomed in sight.
"Oh, if we could only land on the island!" cried Freddie.
And that's just what happened! Through the branches of trees the balloon crashed, this helping to stop it more gently. Down to theisland it fell, the basket banging on the ground. The basket tipped over sideways, spilling Flossie and Freddie out, but not hurting them as they fell in a pile of dried leaves. Some of the things in the basket fell out with them.
Once the children were out of the balloon it rose a little, was blown along a short distance by the wind, and then, getting tangled in the tree branches, came to a stop.
"Well, we're all right now," said Freddie, as he arose and brushed the leaves from him.
"But I'm getting all wet!" sobbed Flossie. "I'm soaked!"
And so she was, as well as Freddie, for it was raining hard.
Every one at the fair grounds was anxious to help Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey get back Flossie and Freddie, who had been carried off in the runaway balloon. The men who owned the big gas bag were the first to make the right sort of plans.
"The balloon is being blown over the lake," said Mr. Trench, the owner of the big bag. "We must go in that direction."
"Over the lake!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, if they should fall in!"
"The balloon will float on the water," her husband told her. "The children will be all right, I'm sure."
"Yes, indeed," agreed Mr. Trench. "Don't worry, lady. We'll get your children back. The first thing to do is to go to the lake, and then we can hire a motor-boat there."
"I'm going with you!" declared Mrs. Bobbsey, as she saw the preparations being made for the searching party.
"I think you had better stay with Bert and Nan," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Oh, we'll be all right!" Nan hastened to tell her father.
"Can't Harry and I come on the searching party?" asked Bert.
"No, I would rather not," his father answered. "You stay with your mother and Nan."
"I simply am coming with you, Dick!" said Mrs. Bobbsey, and when she spoke in that tone her husband knew there was no use trying to get her to change her mind.
"Very well," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "We will go to the lake in my auto. Mr. Trench knows where we can hire a motor-boat."
The lake, a large one, came within a few miles of the fair grounds. The balloon man knew in which direction the water lay, and he had seen the wind carrying the big gas bag toward the water.
"Bert, you and Nan and Harry must goback to Meadow Brook Farm," directed Mr. Bobbsey. "I'll see if I can't hire an auto to take you there, as it is going to storm soon. It's sprinkling now."
"We'll take them back," offered a gentleman who had come to the fair with his wife in their auto. "I know where Meadow Brook Farm is. We'll take these children there."
"Thank you, very much," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And tell your uncle and aunt what has happened, Bert. Tell them we expect to be home before night with Flossie and Freddie."
"Oh, if we only can be!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"We'll find the little ones all right—never fear!" said Mr. Trench. "If you're ready now, we'll start."
So while Nan, Bert and Harry remained behind in charge of Mr. Blackford, who had offered to take them home in his automobile, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, with some men who had charge of the balloon, started off to go to the lake, there to hire a boat and search for Flossie and Freddie.
"They're out of sight. How far away theymust be!" sighed Mrs. Bobbsey, as she entered the automobile. She looked up, but could not see the balloon, so fast had it been blown away.
"They aren't so far as it seems," declared Mr. Trench. "It's getting foggy, and it's going to rain hard soon."
As Bert, Nan, and Harry were getting in Mr. Blackford's automobile to go to Meadow Brook Farm, Bob Guess came hurrying up through the rain. The merry-go-round, as well as other amusements at the fair, had shut down on account of the storm.
"Where's your father?" asked Bob of Bert. "I've something to tell him. Where is he?"
"He's gone off after the balloon. Flossie and Freddie are in it," Nan answered.
"Whew! Those little children taking a balloon ride!" cried Bob. "How did they dare?"
"It was an accident," Harry explained. "They didn't mean to."
"Well, tell your father I want to see him when he gets back," said Bob, as he hurried back to the merry-go-round. "I have something to tell him about Mr. Blipper."
However, Bert and Nan had other thingsto think about then than about Mr. Blipper. They were worried over what might happen to Flossie and Freddie.
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were hastening toward the lake. Mr. Bobbsey drove his car as fast as he dared through the storm. It was now raining hard.
"How long would the balloon stay up in the air?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Mr. Trench.
"It all depends. On a hot day, when the sun warms the gas, it would stay up a long time. But when it is cool, like this, and rains, it will not stay up so long. It will come down gently, and I am sure the children will not be hurt."
As they drove along they stopped now and then to ask people if they had seen the runaway balloon. Many had, and all said it was sailing toward the lake.
When the lake was reached and a motor-boat had been found which would take them out on the water, several men said they had seen the big gas bag beginning to go down near Hemlock Island, the largest island in the lake.
"If they have only landed there they may be all right," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "Oh, hurry and get there, Dick!"
"We'll hurry all we can," her husband told her, as they got into the boat to continue the search. "But this is a bad storm. We must be careful."
The whole world seemed a very dreary and unhappy place to Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey as they started off in the motor-boat to look for Flossie and Freddie. In the first place, if one of the little Bobbsey twins had just been lost—plain lost—as Flossie was in the cornfield, it would have been sad enough. But when both tots were missing, and when the last seen of them had been a sight of them shooting away in a balloon through a gathering storm, well, it was enough to make any father and mother feel very unhappy.
Besides this, there was the rain, and as the motor-boat, in charge of Captain Craig, swung out into the lake, the big, pelting drops came down harder than ever.
"Oh, what a sad, sad day!" sighed Mrs.Bobbsey. "And it started off so happily, too!"
"Perhaps it will end happily," said Mr. Bobbsey, hopefully. "It will not be night for several hours yet, and before then we may find Flossie and Freddie. In fact I'm sure we shall!"
"I think so, too," declared Mr. Trench, the owner of the balloon. "That craft of mine wasn't filled with enough gas to go far, and it had to come down soon."
"But where would it come down? That's the point!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "If it came down in the lake——"
"It's on Hemlock Island, take my word for it!" growled out Captain Craig, in whose motor-boat the searching party was riding. It was not because he was cross that his voice had a growling sound. It was just naturally hoarse. He was out on the water so much, often in the cold and rain, that he seemed to have an everlasting cold. "We'll find the balloon and the children, too, on Hemlock Island," he went on. "Half a dozen men I talked to, just before you came, said they saw something big and black, like an airship, swooping downon the island. We'll find 'em there, never fear!"
"How far are we from Hemlock Island?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Captain Craig, when they had been in the motor-boat about fifteen minutes.
"Oh, a few miles—just a few miles," was the answer.
"And how long will it take to get there?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked.
"Well, that's hard to say," was the answer. "It might take us a long while, and again it might not take us so long."
"Why is that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering whether Bert and Nan would be all right, left to themselves as they were. But then they would have their uncle, aunt, and cousin to look after them.
"Well," went on Captain Craig, as he steered the boat to one side, "you see it's getting thicker and thicker—I mean the weather. The rain is coming down harder and it's getting foggy, too. I can't very well see where to steer, and I have to run at slow speed. So it will take me longer to get toHemlock Island than if it was a clear day and I could run as fast as my boat would go."
"Well, get there as soon as you can," begged Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm sure if Flossie and Freddie are on the island in all this rain they will be terribly frightened!"
"Well, they may be—a little," admitted Mr. Bobbsey. "But Flossie and Freddie are brave children. They'll make the best of things I'm sure!"
The motor-boat went chug-chugging its way across the big lake, not running as fast as it could have done on a fair day. The rain poured down, making a hissing sound in the water. Those in the boat wore rubber coats, for Captain Craig had supplied them at his boathouse before starting out. He owned a boat dock, and also a fishing pier, and supplied pleasure parties with nearly everything they needed for fair weather or stormy.
Suddenly Mrs. Bobbsey, who was straining her eyes to peer through the mist and rain, uttered a cry.
"There's something!" she called out.
"Where?" asked her husband, and Captain Craig leaned forward, his hands gripping the spokes of the steering wheel.
"Right straight ahead," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Something black is looming up in the fog. Maybe it's the balloon!"
"We can't be anywhere near the island yet," said the captain. "That is unless I'm away off my course. But we'll soon find out what it is."
They could all see the black object now, though it looked dim and uncertain, for a fog was settling down over the lake and the mist and vapor, together with the rain, made it hard to see more than a few feet ahead.
"It's a boat!" suddenly cried Mr. Bobbsey. "A large boat."
And that is what it was.
"Ahoy there!" called Captain Craig in his deep voice. "Ahoy there!"
"Ahoy!" answered the men in the boat.
"Have you seen anything of a runaway balloon?" asked Mr. Trench. "Mine got awayfrom the Bolton County Fair, and it had two little children in the balloon basket. Have you seen them?"
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and all in the motor boat waited anxiously for the answer. Captain Craig had shut off his engine so its noise would not drown the words of those in the other boat.
"We saw something big and black sailing through the air over our heads about an hour ago," was the answer. "We thought it was the aeroplane from the fair grounds."
"That was my balloon!" declared Mr. Trench.
"Did you see anything of my children?" Mrs. Bobbsey begged to know.
"No. But we couldn't see very well on account of the fog and because the balloon—if that's what it was—kept up pretty high," came the answer.
"Which way was she heading?" Captain Craig wanted to know, this being his sailor way of asking which way the balloon was going.
"Due north," answered one of the men inthe other boat, which was a craft containing a number of fishermen.
"Towards Hemlock Island," stated another.
"Well, we're going in the right direction," went on Captain Craig. "Much obliged," he called to the fishermen, as the motor-boat again started off through the fog.
Soon the vessel that had been hailed was lost to sight in the mist, and again all eyes, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, were strained in looking for a first sight of Hemlock Island.
"Are you warm enough?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife, wrapping the rubber coat more closely about her.
"Oh, yes. I'm not thinking of myself," she answered, with a sigh. "I am worried about my darlings!"
"I think they'll come out of it all right," said her husband. "Flossie and Freddie, as well as Bert and Nan, have been in many a scrape, but the Bobbsey luck seems to hold good. They always get out all right."
"Yes. And I hope they will this time,"answered Mrs. Bobbsey, trying to appear more cheerful.
For a while they ran along in silence, every one peering out into the rain and the mist striving to catch sight, if not of the balloon, at least of the shore of Hemlock Island.
"My, but this fog is getting thicker and thicker!" exclaimed Captain Craig. "I'll have to go a bit slower yet."
He cut down the speed of the engine until the boat was moving at less than half speed. But even this did not save her from an accident which came a short time later.
Suddenly, as they were cruising along, every eye on the lookout for a sight of the island, there came a violent crash. All in the boat were thrown forward.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, as she struggled to regain her seat.
"What have we struck?" Mr. Bobbsey asked.
"We've struck Hemlock Island," said Captain Craig grimly. "We've fairly bumped into it. I ought to have known I was somewhere near it. We've fairly rammed it, and we're on the rocks!"
"'On the rocks!'" repeated Mrs. Bobbsey. "Are we in danger?"
"That's what I'm going to find out," said the captain. "At least we can't sink, for we're right on shore," and as he spoke the fog blew away for a moment, showing a bleak shore of rocks with hemlock trees a little way up from the beach. "Yes, sir, we ran plumb on the rocks!" muttered Captain Craig, as he stood up and tried to peer through the fog that was now closing in again.