The Bobbsey Twins on the Deep Blue Sea

  CHAPTER V

  OFF FOR FLORIDA

  There were many matters to be attended to at the Bobbsey home before thestart could be made for Florida. Mr. Bobbsey had to leave some one incharge of his lumber business, and Mrs. Bobbsey had to plan for shuttingup the house while the family were away. Sam and Dinah would go on avacation while the others were in Florida, they said, and the petanimals, Snap and Snoop, would be taken care of by kind neighbors.

  "What are you doing, Freddie?" his mother asked him one day, when sheheard him and Flossie hurrying about in the playroom, while Mrs. Bobbseywas sorting over clothes to take on the trip.

  "Oh, we're getting out some things we want to take," the little boyanswered. "Our playthings, you know."

  "Can I take two of my dolls?" Flossie asked.

  "I think one will be enough," her mother said. "We can't carry muchbaggage, and if we go out on the deep blue sea in a motor boat we shallhave very little room for any toys. Take only one doll, Flossie, and letthat be a small one."

  "All right," Flossie answered.

  Mrs. Bobbsey paid little attention to the small twins for a while as sheand Nan were busy packing. Bert had gone down to the lumberyard officeon an errand for his father. Pretty soon there arose a cry in theplayroom.

  "Mother, make Freddie stop!" exclaimed Flossie.

  "What are you doing, Freddie?" his mother called.

  "I'm not doing anything," he answered, as he often did when Flossie andhe were having some little trouble.

  "He is too doing something!" Flossie went on. "He splashed a whole lotof water on my doll."

  "Well, it's a rubber doll and water won't hurt," Freddie answered."Anyhow I didn't mean to."

  "There! He's doing it again!" cried Flossie. "Make him stop, Mother!"

  "Freddie, what _are_ you doing?" demanded Mrs. Bobbsey. "Nan," she wenton in a lower voice, "you go and peep in. Perhaps Flossie is just toofussy."

  Before Nan could reach the playroom, which was down the hall from theroom where Mrs. Bobbsey was sorting over the clothes in a large closet,Flossie cried again:

  "There! Now you got me all over wet!"

  "Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, laying aside a pile of garments. "Isuppose I'll have to go and see what they are doing!"

  Before she could reach the playroom, however, Nan came back along thehall. She was laughing, but trying to keep quiet about it, so Flossieand Freddie would not hear her.

  "What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "What are they doing?"

  "Freddie is playing with his toy fire engine," Nan said. "And he musthave squirted some water on Flossie, for she is wet."

  "Much?"

  "No, only a little."

  "Well, he mustn't do it," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I guess they are soexcited about going to Florida that they really don't know what they aredoing."

  Mrs. Bobbsey peered into the room where the two smaller twins had goneto play. Flossie was trying different dresses on a small rubber doll shehad picked out to take with her. On the other side of the room wasFreddie with his toy fire engine. It was one that could be wound up, andit had a small pump and a little hose that spurted out real water when atank on the engine was filled. Freddie was very fond of playing fireman.

  "There, he's doing it again!" cried Flossie, just as her mother came in."He's getting me all wet! Mother, make him stop!"

  Mrs. Bobbsey was just in time to see Freddie start his toy fire engine,and a little spray of water did shower over his twin sister.

  "Freddie, stop it!" cried his mother. "You know you mustn't do that!"

  "I can't help it," Freddie said.

  "Nonsense! You can't help it? Of course you can help squirting water onyour sister!"

  "He can so!" pouted Flossie.

  "No, Mother! I can't, honest," said Freddie. "The hose of my fire engineleaks, and that makes the water squirt out on Flossie. I didn't mean todo it. I'm playing there's a big fire and I have to put it out. And thehose busts--just like it does at real fires--and everybody gets all wet.I didn't do it on purpose!"

  "Oh, I thought you did," said Flossie. "Well, if it's just make believeI don't mind. You can splash me some more, Freddie."

  "Oh, no he mustn't!" said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to laugh, though shewanted to very much. "It's all right to make believe you are putting outa fire, Freddie boy, but, after all, the water is really wet and Flossieis damp enough now. If you want to play you must fix your leaky hose."

  "All right, Mother, I will," promised the little boy.

  One corner of the room was his own special place to play with the toyfire engine. A piece of oil cloth had been spread down so water wouldnot harm anything, and here Freddie had many good times.

  There really was a hole in the little rubber hose of his engine, and thewater did come out where it was not supposed to. That was what madeFlossie get wet, but it was not much.

  "And, anyhow, it didn't hurt her rubber doll," said Freddie.

  "No, she likes it," Flossie said. "And I like it too, Freddie, if it'sonly make believe fun."

  "Well, don't do it any more," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "You'll soon have waterenough all around you, when you sail on the blue sea, and that ought tosatisfy you. Mend the hole in your fire engine hose, Freddie dear."

  "All right, Mother," he answered. "Anyhow, I guess I'll play somethingelse now. Toot! Toot! The fire's out!" he called, and Mrs. Bobbsey wasglad of it.

  Freddie put away his engine, which he and Flossie had to do with alltheir toys when they were done playing with them, and then ran out tofind Snap, the dog with which he wanted to have a race up and down theyard, throwing sticks for his pet to bring back to him.

  Flossie took her rubber doll and went over to Helen Porter's house,while Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey went back to the big closet to sort over theclothes, some of which would be taken on the Florida trip with them.

  "I'm going to take my fire engine with me," Freddie said, when he hadcome in after having had fun with Snap.

  "Do you mean on the ship?" asked Nan.

  "Yes; I'm going to take my little engine on the ship with me. But firstI'm going to have the hose mended."

  "You won't need a fire engine on a ship," said Mrs. Bobbsey.

  "Oh, I might," answered Freddie. "Sometimes ships get on fire, andyou've got to put the fire out. I'll take it all right."

  "Well, we'll hope our ship doesn't catch fire," remarked his mother.

  When Mr. Bobbsey came home to supper that evening, and heard what hadhappened, he said there would be no room for Freddie's toy engine on theship.

  THEY WENT ON BOARD THE SHIP.]

  "The trip we are going to take isn't like going to Meadow Brook, or toUncle William's seashore home," said the father of the Bobbsey twins."We can't take all the trunks and bags we would like to, for we shallhave to stay in two small cabins, or staterooms, on the ship. Andperhaps we shall have even less room when we get on the boat with CousinJasper--if we go on a boat. So we can't take fire engines and thingslike that."

  "But s'posin' the ship gets on fire?" asked Freddie.

  "We hope it won't," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But, if it does, there are pumpsand engines already on board. They won't need yours, Freddie boy, thoughit is very nice of you to think of taking it."

  "Can't I take any toys?"

  "I think you won't really need them," his father said. "Once we get outon the ocean there will be so much to see that you will have enough todo without playing with the toys you use here at home. Leave everythinghere, I say. If you want toys we can get them in Florida, and perhapssuch different ones that you will like them even better than your oldones."

  "Could I take my little rubber doll?" asked Flossie.

  "Yes, I think you might do that," her father said, with a smile at thelittle girl. "You can squeeze your rubber doll up smaller, if she takesup too much room."

  So it was arranged that way. At first Freddie felt sad about leaving histoy fire engine at home, but his father told him perhaps he might catcha fish at sea, and the
n Freddie began saving all the string he couldfind out of which to make a fish line.

  Finally the last trunk and valise had been packed. The railroad andsteamship tickets had been bought, Sam and Dinah got ready to go andstay with friends, Snap and Snoop were sent away--not without a rathertearful parting on the part of Flossie and Freddie--and then the Bobbseyfamily was ready to start for Florida.

  They were to go to New York by train, and as nothing much happenedduring that part of the journey I will skip over it. I might say,though, that Freddie took from his pocket a ball of string, which he wasgoing to use for his fishing, and the string fell into the aisle of thecar.

  Then the conductor came along and his feet got tangled in the cord,dragging the ball boundingly after him halfway down the coach.

  "Hello! What's this?" the conductor cried, in surprise.

  "Oh, that's my fish line!" answered Freddie.

  "Well, you've caught something before you reached the sea," said theticket-taker as he untangled the string from his feet, and all the otherpassengers laughed.

  After a pleasant ride the Bobbsey twins reached New York, and, afterspending a night in a hotel, and going to a moving picture show, theywent on board the ship the next morning. The ship was to take them downthe coast to Florida, where Cousin Jasper was ill in a hospital, thoughMr. Bobbsey had had a letter, just before leaving home, in which Mr.Dent said he was feeling much better.

  "All aboard! All aboard!" called an officer on the ship, when theBobbseys had left their baggage in the stateroom where they were to stayduring the trip. "All ashore that's going ashore!"

  "That means every one must get off who isn't going to Florida," saidBert, who had been on a ship once before with his father.

  Bells jingled, whistles blew, people hurried up and down the gangplank,or bridge from the dock to the boat, and at last the ship began to move.

  Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were waving good-bye to friends on the pier, andNan and Bert were looking at the big buildings of New York, when Mrs.Bobbsey turned, putting away the handkerchief she had been waving, andasked:

  "Where are Flossie and Freddie?"

  "Aren't they here?" asked Mr. Bobbsey quickly.

  "No," answered his wife. "Oh, where are they?"

  The two little Bobbsey twins were not in sight.