LOST ON AN ISLAND
The calm that always follows a storm settled down upon the Cliffs the
day after the carnival. The talk of the entire summer settlement was
Nellie and her prize, and naturally, the little girl herself thought
of home and the lonely mother, who was going to receive such a
surprise--fifty dollars!
It was a pleasant morning, and Freddie and Flossie were out watching
Downy trying to get through the fence that the boys had built to keep
him out of the ocean. Freddie had a pretty little boat Uncle William
had brought down from the city. It had sails, that really caught the
wind, and carried the boat along.
Of course Freddie had a long cord tied to it, so it could not get out
of his reach, and while Flossie tried to steer the vessel with a long
whip, Freddie made believe he was a canal man, and walked along the
tow path with the cord in hand.
"I think I would have got a prize in the boat parade if I had this
steamer," said Freddie, feeling his craft was really as fine as any
that had taken part in the carnival.
"Maybe you would," agreed Flossie. "Now let me sail it a little."
"All right," said Freddie, and he offered the cord to his twin sister.
"Oh," she exclaimed, "I dropped it!"
The next minute the little boat made a turn with the breeze, and
before Flossie could get hold of the string it was all in the water!
"Oh, my boat!" cried Freddie. "Get it quick!"
"I can't!" declared Flossie. "It is out too far! Oh, what shall we
do!"
"Now you just get it! You let it go," went on the brother, without
realizing that his sister could not reach the boat, nor the string
either, for that matter.
"Oh, it's going far away!" cried Flossie; almost in tears.
The little boat was certainly making its way out into the lake, and it
sailed along so proudly, it must have been very glad to be free.
"There's Hal Bingham's boat," ventured Flossie. "Maybe I could go out
a little ways in that."
"Of course you can," promptly answered Freddie. "I can row."
"I don't know, we might upset!" Flossie said, hesitating.
"But it isn't deep. Why, Downy walks around out here," went on the
brother.
This assurance gave the little girl courage, and slipping the rope off
the peg that secured the boat to the shore, very carefully she put
Freddie on one seat, while she sat herself on the other.
The oars were so big she did not attempt to handle them, but just
depended on the boat to do its own sailing.
"Isn't this lovely!" declared Freddie, as the boat drifted quietly
along.
"Yes, but how can we get back?" asked Flossie, beginning to realize
their predicament.
"Oh, easy!" replied Freddie, who suddenly seemed to have become a man,
he was so brave. "The tide comes down pretty soon, and then our boat
will go back to shore."
Freddie had heard so much about the tide he felt he understood it
perfectly. Of course, there was no tide on the lake, although the
waters ran lazily toward the ocean at times.
"But we are not getting near my boat," Freddie complained, for indeed
the toy sailboat was drifting just opposite their way.
"Well, I can't help it, I'm sure," cried Flossie. "And I just wish I
could get back. I'm going to call somebody."
"Nobody can hear you," said her brother. "They are all down by the
ocean, and there's so much noise there you can't even hear thunder."
Where the deep woods joined the lake there was a little island. This
was just around the turn, and entirely out of view of either the
Minturn or the Bingham boat landing. Toward this little island the
children's boat was now drifting.
"Oh, we'll be real Robinson Crusoes!" exclaimed Freddie, delighted at
the prospect of such an adventure.
"I don't want to be no Robinson Crusoe!" pouted his sister. "I just
want to get back home," and she began to cry.
"We're going to bunk," announced Freddie, as at that minute the boat
did really bump into the little island. "Come, Flossie, let us get
ashore," said the brother, in that superior way that had come to him
in their distress.
Flossie willingly obeyed.
"Be careful!" she cautioned. "Don't step out till I get hold of your
hand. It is awfully easy to slip getting out of a boat."
Fortunately for the little ones they had been taught to be careful
when around boats, so that they were able to take care of themselves
pretty well, even in their present danger.
Once on land, Flossie's fears left her, and she immediately set about
picking the pretty little water flowers, that grew plentifully among
the ferns and flag lilies.
"I'm going to build a hut," said Freddie, putting pieces of dry sticks
up against a willow tree. Soon the children became so interested they
did not notice their boat drift away, and really leave them all alone
on the island!
In the meantime everybody at the house was looking for the twins.
Their first fear, of course, was the ocean, and down to the beach
Mrs. Bobbsey, Aunt Sarah, and the boys hurried, while Aunt Emily and
the girls made their way to the Gypsy Camp, fearing the fortune
tellers might have stolen the children in order to get money for
bringing them back again.
Dorothy walked boldly up to the tent. An old woman sat outside and
looked very wicked, her face was so dark and her hair so black and
tangled.
"Have you seen a little boy and girl around here?" asked Dorothy,
looking straight into the tent.
"No, nobody round here. Tell your fortune, lady?" This to Aunt Emily,
who waited for Dorothy.
"Not to-day," answered Aunt Emily. "We are looking for two children.
Are you sure you have not seen them?"
"No, lady. Gypsy tell lady's fortune, then lady find them," she
suggested, with that trick her class always uses, trying to impose on
persons in trouble with the suggestion of helping them out of it.
"No, we have not time," insisted Aunt Emily; really quite alarmed now
that there was no trace of the little twins.
"Let me look through your tent?" asked Dorothy, bravely.
"What for?" demanded the old woman.
"To make sure the children are not hiding," and without waiting for a
word from the old woman, Dorothy walked straight into that gypsy tent!
Even Aunt Emily was frightened.
Suppose somebody inside should keep Dorothy?
"Come out of my house!" muttered the woman, starting after Dorothy.
"Come out, Dorothy," called her mother, but the girl was making her
way through the old beds and things inside, to make sure there was no
Freddie or Flossie to be found in the tent.
It was a small place, of course, and it did not take Dorothy very long
to search it.
Presently she appeared again, much to the relief of her mother, Nan,
and Nellie, who waited breathlessly outside.
"They are not around here," said Dorothy. "Now, mother, give the old
woman some change to make up for my trespassing."
Aunt Emily took a coin from her chatelaine.
"Thank the lady! Good lady," exclaimed the old gypsy. "Lady find her
babies; babies play--see!" (And she pretended to look into the future
with some dirty cards.) "Babies play in woods. Natalie sees babies
picking flowers."
Now, how could anybody ever guess that the old gypsy had just come
down from picking dandelions by the lake, where she really had seen
Freddie and Flossie on the island?
And how could anybody know that she was too wicked to tell Aunt Emily
this, but was waiting until night, to bring the children back home
herself, and get a reward for doing so?
She had seen the boat drift away and she knew the little ones were
helpless to return home unless someone found them.
Mrs. Bobbsey and the boys were now coming up from the beach.
What, at first, seemed only a mishap, now looked like a very serious
matter.
"We must go to the woods," insisted Dorothy. "Maybe that old woman
knew they were in the woods."
But as such things always happen, the searchers went to the end of the
woods, far away from the island. Of course they all called loudly,
and the boys gave the familiar yodel, but the noise of the ocean made
it impossible for the call to reach Freddie and Flossie.
"Oh, I'm so afraid they are drowned!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, breaking
down and crying.
"No, mamma," insisted Nan, "I am sure they are not. Flossie is so
afraid of the water, and Freddie always minds Flossie. They must be
playing somewhere. Maybe they are home by this time," and so it was
agreed to go back to the house and if the little ones were not
there--then----
"But they must be there," insisted Nellie, starting on a run over the
swampy grounds toward the Cliffs.
And all this time Freddie and Flossie were quite unconcerned playing
on the island.
"Oh, there's a man!" shouted Freddie, seeing someone in the woods.
"Maybe it's Friday. Say there, Mister!" he shouted. "Say, will you
help us get to land?"
The man heard the child's voice and hurried to the edge of the lake.
"Wall, I declare!" he exclaimed, "if them babies ain't lost out there.
And here comes their boat. Well, I'll just fetch them in before they
try to swim out," he told himself, swinging into the drifting boat,
and with the stout stick he had in his hand, pushing off for the
little island.
The island was quite near to shore on that side, and it was only a few
minutes' work for the man to reach the children.
"What's your name?" he demanded, as soon as he touched land.
"Freddie Bobbsey," spoke up the little fellow, bravely, "and we live
at the Cliffs."
"You do, eh? Then it was your brothers who brought my cow home, so I
can pay them back by taking you home now. I can't row to the far
shore with this stick, so we'll have to tramp it through the woods.
Come along." and carefully he lifted the little ones into the boat,
pushing to the woods, and started off to walk the round-about way,
through the woods, to the bridge, then along the road back to the
Cliffs, where a whole household was in great distress because of the
twins' absence.