CHAPTER IV
GETTING READY
"Oh, dear!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, "I wonder what has happened now!"
"Maybe Snap is barking at a tramp," suggested Bert. "I'll go and see."
"It can't be a tramp!" Nan spoke with scorn. "That sounded like a littlegirl crying."
"It surely did," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "Wait a minute, Bert. Don't go outjust yet."
"But I want to see what it is, Mother!" and Bert paused, half way to thedoor, out of which Mr. Bobbsey had hurried a few seconds before.
"Your father will do whatever needs to be done," said Bert's mother."Perhaps it may be a strange dog, fighting with Snap, and you might getbitten."
"Snap wouldn't bite me."
"Nor me!" put in Nan.
"No, but the strange dog might. Wait a minute."
Flossie and Freddie had also started to leave the room to go out intothe yard and see what was going on, but when they heard their motherspeak about a strange dog they went back to their chairs by the table.
Then, from the yard, came cries of:
"Make him give her back to me, Mr. Bobbsey! Please make Snap give herback to me!"
"Oh, that's Helen Porter!" cried Nan, as she heard the voice of a child."It's Helen, and Snap must have taken something she had."
"I see!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, looking out the door. "It's Helen'sdoll. Snap has it in his mouth and he's running with it down to the endof the yard."
"Has Snap really got Helen's doll?" asked Flossie.
"Yes," answered her mother. "Though why he took it I don't know."
"Well, if it's only Snap, and no other dog is there, can't I go out andsee?" asked Bert. "Snap won't hurt me."
"No, I don't believe he will," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Yes, you may all goout. I hope Snap hasn't hurt Helen."
Helen Porter was a little girl who lived next door to the Bobbsey twins,and those of you who have the book about camping on Blueberry Islandwill remember her as the child who, at first, was thought to have beentaken away by the Gypsies.
"Oh, Helen! What is the matter, my dear?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as shehurried out into the yard, followed by Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.
"Did Snap bite you?" asked Nan, looking toward her father, who wasrunning after the dog that was carrying the little girl's doll in hismouth.
"No, Snap didn't bite me! But he bit my doll!" Helen answered.
"It doesn't hurt dolls to bite 'em," said Bert, with a laugh.
"It does so!" cried Helen, turning her tear-filled eyes on him. "Itmakes all their sawdust come out!"
"So it does, my dear," said Mrs. Bobbsey kindly. "But we'll hope thatSnap won't bite your doll as hard as that. If he does I'll sew up theholes to keep the sawdust in. But how did he come to do it?"
"I--I guess maybe he liked the cookie my doll had," explained Helen, whowas about as old as Flossie.
"Did your doll have a cookie?" asked Nan.
"Yes. I was playing she was a rich lady doll," went on the little girlfrom next door, "and she was taking a basket of cookies to a poor dolllady. Course I didn't have a whole basket of cookies," explained Helen."I had only one, but I made believe it was a whole basket full."
"How did you give it to your doll to carry?" asked Nan, for she hadoften played games this way herself, making believe different things."How did your doll carry the cookie, Helen?"
"She didn't carry it," was the answer. "I tied it to her with a piece ofstring so she wouldn't lose it. The cookie was tied fast around herwaist."
"Oh, then I see what happened," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Snap came up to you,and he smelled the cookie on your doll; didn't he?"
"Yes'm," answered Helen.
"And he must have thought you meant the cookie for him," went on Nan'smother. "And he tried to take it in his mouth; didn't he?"
"Yes'm," Helen answered again.
"And when he couldn't get the cookie loose, because you had it tied fastto your doll, he took the cookie, doll and all. That's how it was," saidMrs. Bobbsey. "Never mind, Helen. Don't cry. Here comes Mr. Bobbsey now,with your doll."
"But I guess Snap has the cookie," said Bert with a laugh.
"I'll get you another one from Dinah," promised Nan to Helen.
In the meantime Mr. Bobbsey had run down to the lower end of the yardafter Snap, the big dog.
"Come here, Snap, you rascal!" he cried. "Come here this minute!"
But for once Snap did not mind. He was rather hungry, and perhaps thataccounted for his disobedience. Instead of coming up he ran out of sightbehind the little toolhouse. Mr. Bobbsey went after him, but by the timehe reached the spot Snap was nowhere to be seen.
"Snap! Snap!" he called out loudly. "Come here, I tell you! Where areyou hiding?"
Of course, the dog could not answer the question that had been put tohim, and neither did he show himself. That is, not at first. Butpresently, as Mr. Bobbsey looked first in one corner of the toolhouseand then in another, he saw the tip end of Snap's tail waving slightlyfrom behind a big barrel.
"Ah, so there you are!" he called out, and then pushed the barrel to oneside.
There was Snap, and in front of him lay the doll with a short stringattached to it. Whatever had been tied to the other end of the stringwas now missing.
"Snap, you're getting to be a bad dog!" said Mr. Bobbsey sternly. "Giveme that doll this instant!"
The dog made no movement to keep the doll, but simply licked his mouthwith his long, red tongue, as if he was still enjoying what he hadeaten.
"If you don't behave yourself after this I'll have to tie you up, Snap,"warned Mr. Bobbsey.
And then, acting as if he knew he had done wrong, the big dog slunk outof sight.
"Here you are, Helen!" called Flossie's father, as he came back. "Here'syour doll, all right, and she isn't hurt a bit. But the cookie is insideof Snap."
"Did he like it?" Helen wanted to know.
"He seemed to--very much," answered Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh. "He madeabout two bites of it, after he got it loose from the string by whichyou had tied it to the doll."
Helen dried her tears on the backs of her hands, and took the doll whichhad been carried away by the dog. There were a few cookie crumbssticking to her dress, and that was all that was left of the treat shehad been taking to a make-believe poor lady.
"Snap, what made you act so to Helen?" asked Bert, shaking his finger athis pet, when the dog came up from the end of the yard, wagging histail. "Don't you know you were bad?"
Snap did not seem to know anything of the kind. He kept on wagging histail, and sniffed around Helen and her doll.
"He's smelling to see if I've any more cookies," said the little girl.
"I guess he is," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Well, come into the house, Helen,and I'll give you another cookie if you want it. But you had better nottie it to your doll, and go anywhere near Snap."
"I will eat it myself," said the little girl.
"One cookie a day is enough for Snap, anyhow," said Bert.
The dog himself did not seem to think so, for he followed the childrenand Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey back to the house, as though hoping he wouldget another cake.
"Heah's a bone fo' yo'," said Dinah to Snap, for she liked the big dog,and he liked her, I think, for he was in the kitchen as often as Dinahwould allow him. Or perhaps it was the good things that the fat cookgave him which Snap liked.
"When we heard you crying, out in the yard," said Mr. Bobbsey to Helen,as they were sitting in the dining-room, "we didn't know what hadhappened."
"We were afraid it was another dog fighting with Snap," went on Nan.
"Snap didn't fight me," Helen said. "But he scared me just like I wasscared when the gypsy man took Mollie, my talking doll."
I have told you about this in the Blueberry Island book, you remember.
"Well, I must get back to the office," said Mr. Bobbsey, after a while."From there I'll write and tell Cousin Jasper that I'll come to see him,and hear his strange story."
"A
nd we'll come too," added Bert with a laugh. "Don't forget us, Daddy."
"I'll not," promised Mr. Bobbsey.
The letter was sent to Mr. Dent, who was still in the hospital, and in afew days a letter came back, asking Mr. Bobbsey to come as soon as hecould.
"Bring the children, too," wrote Cousin Jasper. "They'll like it here,and if you will take a trip on the ocean with me they may like to come,also."
"Does Cousin Jasper live on the ocean?" asked Flossie, for she calledMr. Dent "cousin" as she heard her father and mother do, though, really,he was her second, or first cousin once removed.
"Well, he doesn't exactly live on the ocean," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But helives near it, and he often takes trips in boats, I think. He once toldme he had a large motor boat."
"What's a motor boat?" Freddie wanted to know.
"It is one that has a motor in it, like a motor in an automobile,instead of a steam engine," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Big boats and ships,except those that sail, are moved by steam engines. But a motor boat hasa gasolene motor, or engine, in it."
"And are we going to ride in one?" asked Flossie.
"Well, we'll see what Cousin Jasper wants us to do, and hear what hisstrange news is," answered her father.
"Are we going from here to Florida in a motor boat?" Freddie demanded.
"Well, not exactly, little fireman," his father replied with a laugh."We'll go from here to New York in a train, and from New York to Floridain a steamboat.
"After that we'll see what Cousin Jasper wants us to do. Maybe he willhave another boat ready to take us on a nice voyage."
"That'll be fun!" cried Freddie. "I hope we see a whale."
"Well, I hope it doesn't bump into us," said Flossie. "Whales are awfulbig, aren't they, Daddy?"
"Yes, they are quite large. But I hardly think we shall see any betweenhere and Florida, though once in a while whales are sighted along thecoast."
"Are there any sharks?" Bert asked.
"Oh, yes, there are plenty of sharks, some large and some small," hisfather answered. "But they can't hurt us, and the ship will steam righton past them in the ocean," he added, seeing that Flossie and Freddielooked a bit frightened when Bert spoke of the sharks.
"I wonder what Cousin Jasper really wants of you," said Mrs. Bobbsey toher husband, when the children had gone out to play.
"I don't know," he answered, "but we shall hear in a few days. We'llstart for Florida next week."
And then the Bobbsey twins and their parents got ready for the trip.They were to have many strange adventures before they saw their homeagain.