CHAPTER XIX
TWO LITTLE SAILORS
Now it is time for us to inquire what was happening to Freddie andFlossie, the two smaller Bobbsey twins. They had fallen out of theballoon basket when the big gas bag was blown down on Hemlock Island inthe storm. But Flossie and Freddie had toppled out on piles of soft,dried leaves, so they were not hurt. But, as Flossie had said, she wassoaking wet.
"We ought to have umbrellas," said Freddie, as he felt the drops of rainpelting down. "If we had umbrellas this would be fun, 'cause we aren'thurt from our balloon ride."
"No, we aren't hurt," agreed Flossie, "'ceptin' I'm jiggled up a lot."
"So'm I," Freddie stated. "I'm jiggled, too!"
"And we hasn't got any umbrella, and I'm gettin' wetter'n wetter!" halfsobbed Flossie.
Indeed it was raining harder, and as the fog was closing in on thechildren they could not see very far on any side of them.
It was not the first time the small Bobbsey twins had been losttogether, nor the first time they had been in trouble. And, as he haddone more than once, Freddie began to think of some way by which hecould comfort Flossie.
The little boy was hungry, and he felt that if he could get something toeat it would make him feel better. And surely what made him feel betterought to make Flossie happier if she had some of the same.
"Are you hungry, Flossie?" he asked.
"Yes, I am," answered the little girl.
"Well, let's eat some more of the things that were in the balloonbasket," proposed her brother. "They tumbled out when we did. I can seesome of 'em mixed up with the blankets and other things."
When the bumping of the balloon basket had spilled out Flossie andFreddie it had also toppled out the supply of food and the tools andinstruments the balloon men had intended using on their sail through theair.
"Let's get 'em before the rain soaks 'em all up," suggested Flossie, forthe rain was now pouring down on everything.
"I guess that balloon won't be any good any more," said Freddie, as helooked at the big gas bag, now almost empty and tangled in the trees andbushes.
"No, I guess we won't ever get another ride in it," agreed Flossie.
That part was true enough; but, later, the balloon men took the bag fromthe island, mended the holes in it, and went up in many a flight fromother fair grounds.
Gathering up some of the spilled food gave Flossie and Freddie somethingto do, and, for a time, they forgot about the rain pouring down. But itwas the kind of rain one could not easily forget for very long, andafter putting some tin boxes of crackers under an overhanging stump,to keep the food dry, and after eating some, Flossie exclaimed:
"Oh, I don't like it to be so wet!" Then she wept a little.
Freddie did not like it, either, but he made up his mind he must bebrave and not cry. Not that Flossie could not be brave, too, but shedidn't just then happen to think of it.
"I know what we can do!" Freddie exclaimed. "We can wrap the rubberblanket around us, and that will be like an umbrella--almost!"
"Oh, yes!" cried Flossie! "That will keep us from getting wet!"
And the rubber blanket turned out to be a fairly good umbrella. It waslarge enough for Flossie and Freddie to put over their shoulders andwalk under. And it was while they were thus walking through the woods,wondering what would happen next and if their father and mother wouldever find them, that Freddie saw something.
"Oh, Flossie! There's a house!" he shouted.
"Where?" demanded the little girl.
"Right over there! Among the trees! Down near the shore!"
Freddie pointed and Flossie, looking, saw dimly through the fog theoutlines of some sort of building.
"Let's go there and they can telephone to daddy that we're here," saidFlossie. "I guess we're all right now. And maybe Bert and Nan will wishthey'd come on a balloon ride with us."
"Maybe," agreed Freddie, as he tramped along with his sister under therubber blanket toward the building on the shore of the lake.
But alas for the hopes of the children! When they reached the place theyfound that what Freddie had thought was a house was only an old emptycabin. It had once been used by campers or by fishermen, and at one timemay have been a cosy place. But now the glass in the windows was broken,the door hung sagging by one hinge, and inside there was a rusty stovewhich showed no signs of a warm, cheerful fire.
"There's nobody here," said Flossie sadly, after they had looked insideand had seen that the shack was deserted.
"Well, but it doesn't rain so hard inside as it does outside," remarkedFreddie. "Let's go in. This blanket makes me tired."
The rubber covering was rather heavy for the little children, and theywere glad to step inside the cabin. Even though the roof leaked inplaces, there were spots where it did not. Picking out one of thesespaces, Freddie moved some boxes over to it, and he and his sister satdown, tired and wet, but feeling better now that they were within somesort of shelter.
"This isn't a very nice place," Flossie observed, looking around.
"No. But it's better'n being outside," stated Freddie. "And maybethere's a bed in the next room." The cabin consisted of two rooms, thedoor between them being shut. "I'm going to look," Freddie went on.
"No, don't!" begged Flossie, clutching Freddie by the sleeve.
"Why not?" he asked. "Don't you want me to look in that room and see ifthere's a bed? 'Cause maybe we'll have to stay all night."
"Don't look!" begged Flossie "Maybe--maybe Mr. Blipper is in there!"
"Mr. Blipper?" echoed Freddie. "What would he be doing here? He's at hismerry-go-round."
"No, he isn't at his merry-go-round," insisted Flossie. "'Cause we wasthere and he wasn't there when daddy wanted to ask him about the coatand the lap robe. Maybe Mr. Blipper's in that room, and I don't likehim--he's so cross!"
"Yes, he's cross," agreed Freddie. "And he was mean to Bob Guess. Butmaybe Mr. Blipper isn't in that room. I'm going to look!"
But Freddie never did. He got down off the old box he was using for aseat, under a part of the roof that didn't leak, when Flossie gave acry, and pointed out-of-doors.
"Look!" she exclaimed.
"Is somebody coming?" Freddie wanted to know.
"No, but I see a boat," Flossie went on. "We can get in the boat and rowback on the fair grounds and we'll be all right."
Freddie looked to where she pointed and saw a rowboat drawn up on theshore.
"If it's got oars in we could row," he said, for both he and his littlesister knew something of handling boats, their father having taughtthem.
"Let's go down and look," proposed Flossie. "It isn't raining so hardnow."
The big drops were not, indeed, pelting down quite so fast, but it wasstill far from dry.
Getting under the rubber blanket again, the children ran out of thecabin and toward the boat. They were delighted to find oars in it, and,seeing that the rowboat was in good shape, Freddie got in.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed as he sat down on a wet seat. "Here, wait a minutebefore you sit there, Flossie. I'll put the rubber blanket down to siton."
The inside of the rubber blanket was dry, and Freddie put the wet sidedown on the wooden seat. This gave the children something morecomfortable to sit on than a wet piece of wood.
"We'll each take an oar and row," proposed Freddie, for he and Flossiewere sitting on the same seat. This was the only way to use the samerubber blanket.
Loosening the rope by which the boat was made fast to a stump on shore,Freddie pushed out into the lake. The rain had almost stopped now, andthe children were feeling happier.
"Now we'll row home," announced Freddie.
"Had we better go back and get some of the crackers we left under thestump?" asked Flossie. "Maybe it's a long way to the fair grounds or toMeadow Brook Farm, and we might get hungry."
"Oh, I guess we'll soon be home," said Freddie, hopefully. "Come on androw, Flossie."
Together they rowed the boat out from shore. But they could not mak
e theheavy craft go very fast. There was water in the bottom, probably fromthe rain and perhaps because the boat leaked. But Freddie and Flossiedid not think about this, even though their feet were getting wet. Or,at least, wetter. Their feet were already wet from having tramped aboutin the heavy rain.
"We'll soon be home now," said Freddie again.
They were some little distance out from the shore, two brave but tiredand miserable little sailors, when, all at once, it began to rain again.
"Oh, dear!" cried Flossie, letting go her oar, "I'm getting all soakedagain!"
"Don't you care," advised her brother. "Keep on rowing!"
But Flossie cried, shook her head, and would not pick up the oar.Freddie could not row the boat alone, and he did not know what to do.Down pelted the rain, harder than before.
"I want to go back where we were!" sobbed Flossie. "Back to the cabin.Maybe we can build a fire in the stove and get warm! I'm cold!"
"All right; we'll go back!" agreed Freddie. He was beginning to fear itwas not so easy to row home as he had hoped.
Down came the rain, and with it came a fog. Soon the children wereenveloped in the white mist, and they could see only a little distancefrom the boat in which they sat.
"Come on! Row!" called Freddie to his sister. "We'll row back to thecabin."
"How do you know where it is?" Flossie asked, as she took up the oaragain.
"Oh, I guess I can find it," said her brother. "You hold your oar stillin the water and I'll pull on mine and turn us around." He knew how todo this quite well, and soon the boat was turned, and the children wereagain pulling as hard as they could pull.
It was by good luck and not by any skill of theirs that they soonreached land again. They might, for all they knew about it, have rowedout into the middle of the lake.
But soon a bumping sound told them they had reached shore, and Freddiescrambled out and held the boat while Flossie made her way to land.
"Is it the same place?" she asked, as Freddie reached for the rubberblanket.
"Yes, I can see the old cabin. We'll go up there and get warm."
Up the little hill, through the rain, trudged the children, gettingwhat shelter they could under the blanket. Even Freddie was beginning tolose heart now, for he could see that darkness was coming on, and theywere far from home. The rain, too, was pouring down harder than ever.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" sighed Flossie.
"Don't cry!" begged her brother. "I'll make a fire and we'll eat somemore crackers. I'll go get them from under the stump."
"I'll go with you," declared Flossie, firmly, "I'm not going to stayalone."
Together they pulled out some of the lunch they had found in the balloonbasket. Back to the shack they went, and Freddie was looking about forsome matches in the old cabin when Flossie suddenly called out:
"Hark! I hear something!"