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The Bobbsey Twins at
the County Fair
BY
LAURA 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 YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
COPYRIGHT, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
_The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair_
[Illustration: "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 asked
this 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 soft
piece of wood he was shaping into a boat for Freddie. "Aren't you
terrible glad, Bert?"
"I sure am, Flossie!" Bert answered, with a laugh. "What makes you ask
such 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' inside
and outside!" she added.
"Well, wiggle as much as you please, dear, but don't get your dress
dirty, 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 was
so interested in watching brother Bert make the little wooden ship that
he 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 her
sister. "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," and
Flossie said the last syllable very loudly, "why, then you don't think
about 'g' letters; do you, Freddie?"
"I don't guess so," he answered, not taking his eyes off the knife that
was flashing in Bert's hand, making the white slivers of wood scatter
over 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 so
glad it doesn't rain!" and she looked anxiously up at the sky as if some
cloud might float across the wonderful blue and spoil the day of
pleasure.
"Yes, the weather is lovely," agreed Nan. "And if you don't think so
much about it, Flossie, the truck will get here all the sooner."
"But I _like_ to think about it!" cried Flossie. "It's the same as
Christmas! The more you think about it the more fun it is! Oh, I'm going
to look down the road and see if the truck is coming!"
Down toward the front gate she skipped, the big bow of ribbon on her
hair flapping up and down like the wings of some great blue butterfly.
"Be careful about climbing on the gate!" warned Nan. "If you get rusty
spots 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're
going 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 and
baskets of lunch. "It would be too bad if she should get her dress dirty
and couldn't go."
"I'm not going to get my clothes dirty, am I, Nan?" asked Freddie, as he
looked at his white blouse.
"I hope not," Nan answered.
Suddenly there was an exclamation from Bert, as Nan started down the
path 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 red
blood 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 felt
the 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't
dirty 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 go
to the picnic!"
"Yes, I know," Bert went on, seeing that Freddie was taking his talk too
seriously. "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 this
kind, and iodine, they knew, was good to "kill the germs," whatever that
meant. Iodine smarted when put into a cut, but it was better to stand a
little smart at first than a big pain afterward, so Daddy Bobbsey had
said.
"Oh, it isn't much of a cut," Bert said. "I guess I don't need any
iodine. You'd better go look after Flossie. The trucks may be along any
time now, and we don't want to keep them waiting."
"All right. But you'd better not whittle any more on that boat or you
may cut yourself so bad you can't go to the picnic."
"Let the boat go!" advised Freddie. "It's good enough, anyhow, and I
want you to go to the picnic, Bert."
"All right. The little ship is almost finished, anyhow. I just have to
make about three more cuts and then I'm done."
His finger had stopped bleeding--indeed the cut was a very small
one--and Bert was soon putting the last touches to the tiny craft which
Freddie wanted to sail in the little lake at the picnic grounds.
Just as Bert handed the homemade toy to his brother, and when Nan
reached Flossie, in time to stop her from climbing on the gate, a noise
of honking horns was heard down the street.
"Oh, here they come! Here come the trucks!" cried Flossie, dancing up
and down.
"Get the lunch!" called Freddie, to make sure they would not go hungry
on the picnic.
"I'll go in and tell mother we're going," called Nan to Bert, who shut
up his knife, brushed the whittlings off his clothes, and began to
gather up the boxes and baskets of lunch. "Watch Flossie!" Nan added,
for there was no telling what the excitable little "fairy" might do at
the last moment.
"All right," Bert answered. "Here, Freddie!" he called. "Don't run with
that sharp-pointed boat in your hand. If you fall on it you'll get
hurt."
"But I'm not going to fall!" said Freddie.
"You can't tell what you're going to do! Go easy!" Bert advised, and
Freddie walked as slowly as he could to the gate where Flossie was
eagerly gazing down the road.
The noise of the auto horns sounded more loudly, and soon two big
trucks, filled with children and gay with flags, came into view. Boxes
had been placed in the trucks for seats, and on these boxes, laughing,
shouting, waving their hands and flags, were scores of happy, smiling
boys and girls.
One of the trucks drew up at the gate of the house where lived the
Bobbsey twins, the other auto keeping on, as it was well filled. But
room 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 the
packages of lunch.
"Hello, Bert!" called Charlie Mason, from the truck. "Got enough to
eat?"
"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 older
Bobbsey girl.
Nan, having hurried in to tell her mother the trucks had arrived, now
hastened down the path, her hair flying in the wind.
"Have you everything? Take good care of Flossie and Freddie! Have a good
time, and don't fall into the water!" Mrs. Bobbsey said, as she waved
good-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 this
position.
"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 children
smiling, with flags flying and the horn tooting, the big auto started
off, having taken aboard the Bobbsey twins; and soon the two trucks were
out of sight around a turn in the road, bound for Pine Grove, on the
outskirts of the town of Lakeport. It was the yearly picnic of one of
the Lakeport Sunday schools.
"Isn't it a wonderful day?" asked Grace of Nan. The two friends and
Nellie 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 one
in 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 away
like 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 were
several grown folks, officers of the Sunday school, who were looking
after the children. Some were fathers and mothers of the boys and girls.
Pine Grove was several miles outside the town of Lakeport, on the shores
of a little lake. It was there the yearly picnics of the Sunday schools
were always held, and the Bobbsey twins, as well as the other young
people of the town, looked forward with pleasure to the outings.
"What you say we get up a ball game?" asked Dannie of Bert, when they
were 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," said
Bert, looking at his cut finger to see if it would hinder him from
taking part in a game. He decided that it would not.
"We'll have lots of fun," said Dannie. "If we haven't enough for two
nines we'll play a scrub game."
"Sure!" agreed Bert.
They were well out in the country now, and almost at the Grove. To reach
it the trucks had to cross a bridge over a creek that flowed into Pine
Lake, as the body of water was called.
The first truck passed over this bridge with a rumble like thunder. As
it 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 the
Bobbsey twins rode. What the man said Bert could not hear, and as he
was 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!