THE STORE CAMP
The noise like a gun which Freddie heard was made when something exploded,
or blew up, in the burning store, and at first Freddie thought he had been
blown up with it and was flying through the air.
Then, as he opened his eyes (for he had closed them when the strange thing
began to happen) he saw that he was in the arms of the fireman with the
white rubber coat, and the fireman was smiling down at him.
"Am I--am I hurted?" Freddie asked.
"Bless your little heart! Of course not!" was the answer. "But you might
have been if you had stayed where you were--not so much hurt by the fire,
for that's almost out--as by the crowd. How did you get past the fire
lines?"
"I--I didn't see 'em," said Freddie. "Back in Lakeport, where I live, we
don't have fire lines, though I've got a fish line."
"Humph! You're from the country, all right. Where do you live, and how
comes it your father let you out in the streets during a fire?"
"I live in the Parkview Hotel and my father didn't let me out. He's gone
to see the airships with Nan and Bert, and Laddie and I came out to see
the fire ourselves. Flossie stayed with her doll. Laddie went back to get
his aunt, 'cause she likes fires--I mean to see 'em--and I waited for him,
and--and----"
"Yes, I guess you don't know _what_ happened next," laughed the fireman.
"But as I want to telephone to headquarters about one of the engines that
is broken, I'll use the hotel 'phone, and, at the same time, take you back
where you belong. You're too little to get inside the ropes at a New York
fire."
"I'm going to be a fireman when I grow up," said Freddie, as the assistant
chief carried him into the corridor of the hotel.
"Well, that won't be for some time yet, and while you're waiting to grow
up don't go too near fires--they're dangerous. There you are, and I think
some one is looking for you," the fireman went on, as he saw a lady
rushing toward him when he set Freddie down.
"That's my mother," said Freddie.
"Oh, Freddie! Where have you been?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, for when she heard
of a fire she went in search of the two small twins, and could not find
them in Mrs. Whipple's rooms.
"I've been to the fire, and I was rescued," answered Freddie. "He did it,"
and he pointed to the white-coated fireman.
"Oh, he really wasn't in any real danger," the assistant chief said,
taking off his heavy helmet and bowing to Mrs. Bobbsey. "He was inside the
fire lines and I carried him here."
"Oh, I can't thank you enough!" cried Freddie's mother. "I never knew him
to do such a thing as that before. But he is simply wild about fires!"
"Yes, most boys are."
Then the fireman telephoned about the broken engine. Freddie told his
mother how he and Laddie came to go down to watch the "puffers" (part of
which story Flossie had already told Mrs. Bobbsey), and then along came
Laddie and his aunt. Mrs. Whipple was almost as much worried as was Mrs.
Bobbsey.
But everything came out all right; no one was hurt, and the fire, though
it badly burned the store in which it started, did not get near the hotel
or any other buildings.
But Freddie could not forget about his "rescue," as he called it, and when
his father, with Nan and Bert, came home that evening the story had all to
be told over again.
"But you and Laddie did wrong to go down to the fire without telling
Laddie's aunt," said Mr. Bobbsey to his small son. "You must never do it
again!"
"I never will," promised Freddie. "But I was rescued all right, wasn't I?"
"I guess so," and Mr. Bobbsey had to turn his head away so Freddie would
not see his smile.
Laddie, Flossie and Freddie soon became fast friends, and when the smaller
Bobbsey twins were not being taken about New York, to see what to them
were very wonderful sights, they were either playing in the rooms of Mrs.
Whipple or in their own at the hotel.
Bert and Nan were a little too old for this kind of fun, but they met, in
the same hotel, a brother and sister of about their own age--Frank and
Helen Porter--with whom they had good times.
Mr. Bobbsey had to spend many days looking after the business that had
brought him to New York, but Mrs. Bobbsey was free to go about with the
children. She took Nan and Bert shopping with her sometimes, leaving
Flossie and Freddie with Mrs. Whipple. This suited the small twins, for
Laddie and they were great friends and played well together.
Other times Bert and Nan would go to the park, or somewhere with the
Porter brother and sister, and Mrs. Bobbsey would take Flossie and Freddie
to a matinée or the moving pictures.
"Oh, I think New York is just the nicest place in the world," said Nan one
afternoon, after a trip she and Bert had had on top of a Fifth avenue
automobile stage, Frank and Helen Porter having gone with them.
"Yes, it is nice," agreed Bert "But it's nice in Lakeport, too. You can't
have fun riding down hill here, and the skating isn't as good as on our
Lake Metoka. And I haven't seen an ice-boat since we came here, except in
moving pictures. I wonder how Tommy Todd is making out with mine."
"Hasn't he written to you?" asked Nan.
"No; but he promised he would. Guess I'll write him a postal now and ask
him how the _Bird_ is sailing."
"And I'll write to some of the girls in Lakeport," said Nan.
I had forgotten to tell you that some time before this, Mr. Whipple, the
man who owned the store where Flossie's hat was bought the day the monkey
chewed up hers, had met the two smaller twins in his wife's rooms one day,
when Flossie and Freddie had come to play with Laddie.
"Why, those are the two little children who were on the elevated express,"
said the store owner, in surprise.
"That's so, you do know them, don't you?" returned Mrs. Whipple.
"I should say I did!" cried her husband, and he told all that had
happened, while Mrs. Whipple related how Laddie, Flossie and Freddie had
come to know one another in the theatre.
Mr. Whipple, at another time, once more met Mr. Bobbsey, whom he had seen
that day in the store, and the two families became very good friends,
though Mr. Whipple was so busy he did not have much time for calling.
One evening, however, Mr. Whipple came home from the store rather earlier
than usual, and, finding Flossie and Freddie in his apartments playing
with Laddie, the store-owner asked:
"How would you youngsters like to come and see a woodland camp--a camp
with tents, a real fire, where a man is cooking his dinner and all that?
How would you like it?"
"Oh, please take us!" begged Laddie.
"Where is it?" Freddie asked, ready to go at once.
"In my store," said Mr. Whipple.
"A store is a funny place for a camp in the woods," said Freddie. He and
Flossie had often pretended to camp out in a tent made from a blanket or
quilt, and they knew what it meant.
"Well, you just come and see it," laughed Mr. Whipple. "If your folks say
it's all right, I'll take you all to-morrow."
"Oh, we'll come!" cried Freddie. "I love a camp!"