The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair

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  The Bobbsey Twins atthe County Fair

  BYLAURA LEE HOPE

  AUTHOR OF "THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES,"

  =This book, while produced under wartime conditions, in full compliance with government regulations for the conservation of paper and other essential materials, is COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED=

  NEW YORKGROSSET & DUNLAPPUBLISHERS

  Made in the United States of America

  COPYRIGHT, 1922, byGROSSET & DUNLAP

  _The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair_

  "OH, LOOK! FREDDIE'S IN A RACE!" CRIED FLOSSIE.

  _The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair_

  _Frontispiece_ (_Page 133_)]

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. THE BROKEN BRIDGE 1

  II. "THERE'S A SNAKE!" 14

  III. THE MERRY-GO-ROUND 25

  IV. A MISSING COAT 34

  V. SAM IS WORRIED 48

  VI. HAPPY DAYS COMING 57

  VII. THE CRYING BOY 68

  VIII. ANGRY MR. BLIPPER 79

  IX. THE BIG SWING 89

  X. DOWN A BIG HOLE 99

  XI. THE COUNTY FAIR 108

  XII. ON THE TRACK 121

  XIII. IN THE CORNFIELD 129

  XIV. FREDDIE AND THE PUMPKIN 139

  XV. UP IN A BALLOON 148

  XVI. ON THE ISLAND 158

  XVII. THE SEARCHING PARTY 167

  XVIII. ON THE ROCKS 173

  XIX. TWO LITTLE SAILORS 182

  XX. A HAPPY MEETING 194

  XXI. BERT, NAN AND BOB 199

  XXII. JOYOUS TIMES 207

  THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR

  CHAPTER I

  THE BROKEN BRIDGE

  "Aren't you glad, Nan? Aren't you terrible glad?"

  "Why, of course I am, Flossie!"

  "And aren't you glad, too, Bert?" Flossie Bobbsey, who had first askedthis question of her sister, now paused in front of her older brother.She looked up at him smiling as he cut away with his knife at a softpiece of wood he was shaping into a boat for Freddie. "Aren't youterrible glad, Bert?"

  "I sure am, Flossie!" Bert answered, with a laugh. "What makes you asksuch funny questions?"

  "Well, if you're glad why doesn't you wiggle like I do?" asked Flossie,without answering Bert. "I feel just like wigglin' and squigglin' insideand outside!" she added.

  "Well, wiggle as much as you please, dear, but don't get your dressdirty, whatever you do," advised Nan, with the air of a little mother,for she felt that she must look after her smaller sister, since Mrs.Bobbsey was not there to do it.

  "Oh, I won't get my dress dirty!" laughed Flossie. "'Cause if I do----"

  "'Cause if you do you can't go to the picnic!" finished Freddie, who wasso interested in watching brother Bert make the little wooden ship thathe forgot all about talking.

  "I'm just goin' to wiggle standin' up," Flossie said, and she did so,squirming about in delight at the fun which was soon to come.

  "Don't forget your 'g' letters!" called Nan, shaking her finger at hersister. "You must say 'going' and 'standing' not 'goin',' my dear, or'standin',' you know."

  "Yes, I know. But when you feel like wigglin'--I mean wigglING," andFlossie said the last syllable very loudly, "why, then you don't thinkabout 'g' letters; do you, Freddie?"

  "I don't guess so," he answered, not taking his eyes off the knife thatwas flashing in Bert's hand, making the white slivers of wood scatterover the green grass.

  "Oh, I just can hardly wait till the auto truck comes; can you, Nan?"asked Flossie, dancing over the lawn like a fairy in a play. "Oh, I'm soglad it doesn't rain!" and she looked anxiously up at the sky as if somecloud might float across the wonderful blue and spoil the day ofpleasure.

  "Yes, the weather is lovely," agreed Nan. "And if you don't think somuch about it, Flossie, the truck will get here all the sooner."

  "But I _like_ to think about it!" cried Flossie. "It's the same asChristmas! The more you think about it the more fun it is! Oh, I'm goingto look down the road and see if the truck is coming!"

  Down toward the front gate she skipped, the big bow of ribbon on herhair flapping up and down like the wings of some great blue butterfly.

  "Be careful about climbing on the gate!" warned Nan. "If you get rustyspots on your white dress they won't come out!"

  "I'll be careful," Flossie promised, calling back over her shoulder,and, as she tripped along she sang: "We're going to a picnic! We'regoing to a picnic!"

  "I think I'd better watch her so she won't soil her clothes," said Nan,getting up from a bench, where she had been sitting beside the boxes andbaskets of lunch. "It would be too bad if she should get her dress dirtyand couldn't go."

  "I'm not going to get my clothes dirty, am I, Nan?" asked Freddie, as helooked at his white blouse.

  "I hope not," Nan answered.

  Suddenly there was an exclamation from Bert, as Nan started down thepath toward Flossie.

  "Ouch!" cried Bert.

  "What's the matter?" Nan asked quickly.

  "Cut myself!"

  "Oh! Oh, dear!" screamed Freddie, who did not like the sight of the redblood which oozed from the end of his brother's finger.

  "Oh, don't get any on my clean blouse, else I can't go to the picnic!"

  Bert, who had popped the cut finger into his mouth as soon as he feltthe hurt, now took it out to laugh.

  "That's all you care about me, Freddie!" he joked. "I cut my finger,while making you a little boat, and all you care about is that I mustn'tdirty your white blouse! I'll make you a lot more ships--I guess not!"

  "Oh, but I am sorry for you!" Freddie declared. "Only I do so want to goto the picnic!"

  "Yes, I know," Bert went on, seeing that Freddie was taking his talk tooseriously. "I won't get any blood on you!"

  "Is it much of a cut?" asked Nan "Do you want me to get the iodine?"Their Mother had taught the Bobbsey twins not to neglect hurts of thiskind, and iodine, they knew, was good to "kill the germs," whatever thatmeant. Iodine smarted when put into a cut, but it was better to stand alittle smart at first than a big pain afterward, so Daddy Bobbsey hadsaid.

  "Oh, it isn't much of a cut," Bert said. "I guess I don't need anyiodine. You'd better go look after Flossie. The trucks may be along anytime now, and we don't want to keep them waiting."

  "All right. But you'd better not whittle any more on that boat or youmay cut yourself so bad you can't go to the picnic."

  "Let the boat go!" advised Freddie. "It's good enough, anyhow, and Iwant you to go to the picnic, Bert."

  "All right. The little ship is almost finished, anyhow. I just have tomake about three more cuts and then I'm done."

  His finger had stopped bleeding--indeed the cut was a very smallone--and Bert was soon putting the last touches to the tiny craft whichFreddie wanted to sail in the little lake at the picnic grounds.

  Just as Bert handed the homemade toy to his brother, and when Nanreached Flossie, in time to stop her from climbing on the gate, a noiseof honking horns was heard down the street.

  "Oh, here they come! Here come the trucks!" cried Flossie, dancing upand down.

  "Get the lunch!" called Freddie, to make sure they would not go hungryon the picnic.

  "I'll go in and tell mother we're going," called Nan to Bert, who shutup his knife, brushed the
whittlings off his clothes, and began togather up the boxes and baskets of lunch. "Watch Flossie!" Nan added,for there was no telling what the excitable little "fairy" might do atthe last moment.

  "All right," Bert answered. "Here, Freddie!" he called. "Don't run withthat sharp-pointed boat in your hand. If you fall on it you'll gethurt."

  "But I'm not going to fall!" said Freddie.

  "You can't tell what you're going to do! Go easy!" Bert advised, andFreddie walked as slowly as he could to the gate where Flossie waseagerly gazing down the road.

  The noise of the auto horns sounded more loudly, and soon two bigtrucks, filled with children and gay with flags, came into view. Boxeshad been placed in the trucks for seats, and on these boxes, laughing,shouting, waving their hands and flags, were scores of happy, smilingboys and girls.

  One of the trucks drew up at the gate of the house where lived theBobbsey twins, the other auto keeping on, as it was well filled. Butroom had been saved in this one for Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.

  "Come on, Nan! Come on!" cried Flossie, still jumping up and down.

  "Tell Nan to hurry!" added Freddie to his brother.

  "She's coming," Bert said, as he walked down to the gate with thepackages of lunch.

  "Hello, Bert!" called Charlie Mason, from the truck. "Got enough toeat?"

  "I guess so," Bert answered his chum, holding up the boxes and baskets."Enough for two picnics I should say!"

  "You can eat a lot when you're off in the woods," added Dannie Rugg."It's like camping out."

  "Here comes Nan!" exclaimed Grace Lavine, a particular chum of the olderBobbsey girl.

  Nan, having hurried in to tell her mother the trucks had arrived, nowhastened down the path, her hair flying in the wind.

  "Have you everything? Take good care of Flossie and Freddie! Have a goodtime, and don't fall into the water!" Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she wavedgood-by to her twins while they clambered up into the truck.

  "We will!" they answered.

  "Good-by, Mother! Good-by!"

  "Good-by, children!"

  "Honk! Honk!" tooted the auto horn.

  "All aboard!" called Nellie Parks. "All aboard!"

  "I want to sit on the end!" declared Freddie, struggling to get in thisposition.

  "You might fall out going up hill," said Bert. "I'll sit there, Freddie,and you can sit next me." The little fellow had to be content with this.

  With children laughing, children singing, children shouting and childrensmiling, with flags flying and the horn tooting, the big auto startedoff, having taken aboard the Bobbsey twins; and soon the two trucks wereout of sight around a turn in the road, bound for Pine Grove, on theoutskirts of the town of Lakeport. It was the yearly picnic of one ofthe Lakeport Sunday schools.

  "Isn't it a wonderful day?" asked Grace of Nan. The two friends andNellie were sitting together.

  "Yes, beautiful. We nearly always have a good day for the picnic."

  "Did you bring any olives in your lunch. Nan?"

  "Yes, and some dill pickles, too!"

  "Oh, I just love dill pickles!" exclaimed Grace, "and we didn't have onein the house."

  "I'll give you some of mine," offered Nan.

  Flossie and Freddie were too excited, looking at sights along the road,to talk much, but they were as happy as if they had been chattering awaylike the others.

  "Did your dog Snap bite your finger, Bert?" asked Dannie Rugg.

  "No, my knife slipped when I was making Freddie a boat. Say, Freddie,"he asked the little fellow, "did you lose your boat?"

  "Nope, I have it here," and he held it up.

  "Oh, all right."

  On rumbled the trucks, raising clouds of dust. On each big auto wereseveral grown folks, officers of the Sunday school, who were lookingafter the children. Some were fathers and mothers of the boys and girls.

  Pine Grove was several miles outside the town of Lakeport, on the shoresof a little lake. It was there the yearly picnics of the Sunday schoolswere always held, and the Bobbsey twins, as well as the other youngpeople of the town, looked forward with pleasure to the outings.

  "What you say we get up a ball game?" asked Dannie of Bert, when theywere all settled in their places.

  "Sure we will," Bert agreed. "Have we got enough fellows?"

  "If you haven't, some of us girls will play," offered Nan.

  "Pooh! Girls can't play ball!" sneered Charlie Mason.

  "I can! I can bat a ball as far as you!" declared Nellie Parks.

  "Maybe you can--if you can hit it!" admitted Charlie.

  "I want to play ball!" chimed in Freddie. "I know how!"

  "I guess if you sail your boat it will be all you want to do," saidBert, looking at his cut finger to see if it would hinder him fromtaking part in a game. He decided that it would not.

  "We'll have lots of fun," said Dannie. "If we haven't enough for twonines we'll play a scrub game."

  "Sure!" agreed Bert.

  They were well out in the country now, and almost at the Grove. To reachit the trucks had to cross a bridge over a creek that flowed into PineLake, as the body of water was called.

  The first truck passed over this bridge with a rumble like thunder. Asit reached the other side Bert saw the driver of it lean from his seat,look back, and shout something to the driver of the truck on which theBobbsey twins rode. What the man said Bert could not hear, and as hewas wondering about it the second truck started over the bridge.

  Suddenly there was a cracking of wood, a splintering, breaking sound,and the heavy truck, loaded with children, the Bobbsey twins among them,seemed to be sinking down.

  "Oh, the bridge is breaking!" screamed Grace.

  "We'll fall in the creek!" added Nellie.

  There was a thundering sound as the auto driver turned on full power,and then, with another loud cracking noise, the truck came to a stop,and seemed to be sinking down through the breaking bridge!