BERT, NAN, AND BOB
While this happy meeting and reunion was taking place on Hemlock Island
and while the smaller Bobbsey twins were thus made happy by finding
their father and mother again, Bert and Nan were very unhappy back at
Meadow Brook Farm. They had safely reached the home of their uncle and
aunt, being taken there in Mr. Blackford's automobile.
"Oh, dear me, what dreadful news!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah, when told about
Flossie and Freddie having been carried away in the balloon. "Shall we
ever see those dear children again?"
"Of course we shall, Mother!" said Uncle Daniel, with a laugh. "Don't
worry, Flossie and Freddie will be all right."
And of course Flossie and Freddie were, in the end, only Bert and Nan
and their uncle, aunt, and cousin did not know that then, so of course
they worried.
The storm which had been only threatening when Bert and his sister had
been sent home from the fair grounds now broke, and it rained hard. At
Meadow Brook, as on most farms, little could be done when it rained, and
the children saw Uncle Daniel and Aunt Sarah sitting around talking in
low tones.
"I just wish I could do something!" gloomily remarked Bert, as he stood
with his face pressed against the window, down which the rain drops were
chasing each other.
"So do I," echoed Nan. "I think they might have let us help them look
for Flossie and Freddie."
"I guess your father and mother knew best," said Harry. "And I think the
balloon will come down soon in all this rain. It sure is pouring!"
And it was. The storm kept up all day, and in the afternoon, when Nan
was on the verge of tears and Bert had almost made up his mind to go
back alone to the fair grounds and see if he could hear any news, there
came a knock at the back door.
"There's some one!" cried Nan, jumping from her chair.
"Maybe it's Flossie and Freddie come back!" added Bert.
"They wouldn't knock at the back door," observed his aunt. "Harry, go
and see who it is. Maybe it's good news."
Harry returned in a few moments to say:
"It's that boy from the merry-go-round, Bob Guess. He wants to see your
father, Bert."
"Well, dad isn't here, and----"
"I told him, and then he said he wants to see some of us--my father I
think he means. He has something to tell."
"Bring him in here," advised Uncle Daniel, who was trying to read the
paper, though half the time he had it upside down, for he was thinking
too much about poor Flossie and Freddie to pay attention to anything
else.
Bob Guess came in, dripping wet, though not as ragged as when Bert and
Nan had first seen him.
"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Daniel in his jolly voice. "Can't you
do any business at the fair on account of the rain?"
"No. And I don't want ever to do any more business at the fair,"
answered Bob, in such strange tones that they all looked at him.
"Don't you like the merry-go-round any more?" Bert asked.
"Oh, it isn't that," said Bob. "It's that man Blipper. I can't stand him
any longer! He blamed me for poor business to-day, and it wasn't my
fault at all. In the first place, all the people went over to see the
balloon go up. Hardly anybody took rides on our machine. Then the
children--I mean your little brother and sister," he said to Nan, "got
carried off, and everybody got scared for fear something would happen to
their children, and they wouldn't even let 'em ride on the
merry-go-round. And then the rain came down, and Blipper seemed to blame
me for that."
"He isn't a very fair sort of man, even if he has his machine at a
county fair," joked Uncle Daniel.
"He's terribly ugly," blurted out Bob Guess. "And I think he's worse
than that!"
"What do you mean?" asked Bert.
"Well, I think he takes things that don't belong to him," went on Bob.
"Your father lost a coat some time ago, didn't he?" the strange boy
asked the older Bobbsey twins.
"Yes, at our Sunday school picnic," answered Nan.
"And a lap robe was taken from our auto about the same time," added
Bert.
"That's what I thought," said Bob. "Well, would you know any of your
father's papers if you saw them?" he asked, as he began to fumble in his
pocket. "I mean would you know his writing on a letter, or something
like that?"
"Of course I know my father's writing!" declared Bert.
"Well, look at this!" said Bob Guess suddenly. He held out an envelope,
torn open at one end as if the letter had been taken out.
"That's father's writing!" exclaimed Bert. "This is a letter he wrote to
Mr. Clarkson who buys lumber from dad. I know, for I've been in the
office when he called. I guess my father must have been in a hurry and
he addressed this letter himself with a pen, and didn't wait for his
typewriter to do it. That's my father's writing!"
"Well," said Bob slowly, "I found that letter in the tent where Mr.
Blipper and I live. We sort of camp out at the different fair grounds
where we set up the merry-go-round," he added. "I have to live with Mr.
Blipper. He claims I'm his adopted son, but I don't like him for an
adopted father. Anyhow, I saw this letter drop out of his coat. He
didn't see it, and I picked it up."
"Was it my father's coat?" asked Nan.
"That I don't know," Bob answered. "I never saw your father wearing his
coat. But Mr. Blipper used to have an old ragged coat, and right after
we had that breakdown at the Sunday school picnic grounds he had a new
coat.
"I asked him where he got it, 'cause I thought maybe he'd get me one, I
was so ragged, and he said it wasn't any of my affair where he got his
coats. Then the next day I noticed he had a new robe as a blanket for
his bed. I asked him about that, too, 'cause I had only a ragged quilt,
and he told me to keep still.
"So when you folks asked me if I had seen your father's coat and the lap
robe I didn't know for sure, and, anyhow, I was afraid to say anything.
But I'm not afraid any more."
"Why not?" asked Uncle Daniel.
"'Cause," answered Bob, "I heard Mr. Blipper and his partner, a man
named Hardy, quarreling to-day. First it started over bad business on
account of the rain and nobody riding on the merry-go-round because the
balloon was going up. Then I heard my name mentioned and the quarrel
grew worse. Mr. Hardy said Mr. Blipper didn't have any right to treat me
as mean as he does. Mr. Blipper said he'd do as he pleased, and then Mr.
Hardy said if he did he'd tell on Mr. Blipper."
"What did he mean--tell on him?" asked Bert.
"I don't know, exactly," answered Bob Guess. "It was all sort of queer.
Maybe Mr. Hardy meant he was going to tell about Mr. Blipper taking your
father's coat and the lap robe."
"I'm sure Mr. Blipper must have daddy's coat," declared Nan. "This
letter dropped from the pocket, and there was money and there were other
papers, too."
"I don't know anything about them," murmured Bob.
"Well, I know something!" cried Bert. "And that is this! What Mr. Hardy
said he was going to tell on Blipper about was you, Bob Guess!"
"Me?" cried the strange boy.
"Yes, you! I don't believe you belong to Mr. Blipper at all!"