CHAPTER VI
IN A PIPE
There was so much going on with the sailing of the ship--so manypassengers hurrying to and fro, calling and waving good-bye, so muchnoise made by the jingling bells and the tooting whistles--that Mrs.Bobbsey could hardly hear her own voice as she called:
"Flossie! Freddie! Where are you?"
But the little twins did not answer, nor could they be seen on deck nearMr. and Mrs. Bobbsey where they stood with Bert and Nan.
"They were here a minute ago," said Bert. "I saw Flossie holding up herrubber doll to show her the Woolworth Building." This, as you know, isthe highest building in New York, if not in the world.
"But where is Flossie now?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, and there was a worriedlook on her face.
"Maybe she went downstairs," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"And where is Freddie?" asked his mother.
"I saw him getting his ball of string ready to go fishing," laughedBert. "I told him to put it away until we got out on the ocean. Then Isaw a fat man lose his hat and run after it and I didn't watch Freddieany more."
"Oh, don't laugh, Bert! Where can those children be?" cried Mrs.Bobbsey. "I told them not to go away, but to stay on deck near us, andnow they've disappeared!"
"Did they go ashore?" asked Nan. "Oh, Mother! if they did we'll have tostop the ship and go back after them!"
"They didn't go ashore," said Bert. "They couldn't get there, becausethe gangplank was pulled in while Freddie was standing here by me,getting out his ball of string."
"Then they're all right," Mr. Bobbsey said. "They are on board, andwe'll soon find them. I'll ask some of the officers or the crew. Thetwins can't be lost."
"Oh, but if they have fallen overboard!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Don't worry," said her husband. "We'd have heard of it before this ifanything like that had happened. They're all right."
And so it proved. A little later Flossie and Freddie came walking alongthe deck hand in hand. Flossie was carrying her rubber doll, and Freddiehad his ball of string, all ready to begin fishing as soon as the shipshould get out of New York Harbor.
"Where have you been?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "You children have given ussuch a fright! Where were you?"
"We went to look at a poodle dog," explained Flossie.
"A lady had him in a basket," added Freddie.
"What do you mean--a poodle dog in a basket?" asked Bert.
Then Freddie explained, while Mr. Bobbsey went to tell the steward, orone of the officers of the ship, that the lost children had come safelyback.
The smaller twins had seen one of the passengers with a pet dog in ablue silk-lined basket, and they had followed her around the deck to theother side of the ship, away from their parents, to get a better look atthe poodle. It was a pretty and friendly little animal, and the childrenhad been allowed to pat it. So they forgot what their mother had said tothem about not going away.
"Well, don't do it again," warned Mr. Bobbsey, and Flossie and Freddiesaid they would not.
By this time the big ship was well on her way down New York Bay towardthe Statue of Liberty, which the children looked at with wondering eyes.They took their last view of the tall buildings which cluster in thelower end of the island of Manhattan, and then they felt that they werereally well started on their voyage.
"Oh, I hope we have lots of fun in Florida!" said Nan. "I've alwayswanted to go there, _always_!"
"So have I," Bert said. "But maybe we won't stay in Florida long."
"Why not?" his sister asked.
"Because didn't father say Cousin Jasper wanted us to take a trip withhim?"
"So he did," replied Nan. "I wonder where he is going."
"That's part of the strange news he's going to tell," said Bert. "Anyhowwe'll have a good time."
"And maybe we'll get shipwrecked!" exclaimed Freddie, who, with hislittle sister Flossie, was listening to what the older Bobbsey twinswere saying.
"Shipwrecked!" cried Bert. "You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Maybe. If we could live on an island like Robinson Crusoe," Freddieanswered, "that would be lots of fun."
"Yes, but if we had to live on an island without anything to eat and nowater to drink, that wouldn't be so much fun," said Nan.
"If it was an island there'd be a lot of water all around it--that'swhat an island is," Flossie said. "I learned it in geogogafy at school.An island has water all around it, my geogogafy says."
"Yes, but at sea the water is salty and you can't drink it," Bert said."I don't want to be shipwrecked."
"Well, maybe I don't want to, either," said Freddie, after thinkingabout it a little. "Anyhow we'll have some fun!"
"Yes," agreed Bert, "I guess I will."
"Now I'm going to fish," remarked Freddie.
"You won't catch anything," Bert said.
"Why not?" Freddie wanted to know, as he again took the ball of stringfrom his pocket.
"'Cause we're not out at sea yet," Bert replied. "This is only the bay,and fish don't come up here on account of too many ships that scare 'emaway. You'll have to wait until we get out where the water is coloredblue."
"Do fish like blue water?" asked Flossie.
"I guess so," answered Bert. "Anyhow, I don't s'pose you can catch anyfish here, Freddie."
However, the little Bobbsey twin boy had his own idea about that. He hadbeen planning to catch some fish ever since he had heard about the tripto Florida. Freddie had been to the seashore several times, on visits toOcean Cliff, where Uncle William Minturn lived. But this was the firsttime the small chap had been on a big ship. He knew that fish werecaught in the sea, for he had seen the men come in with boatloads ofthem at Ocean Cliff. And he had caught fish himself at Blueberry Island.But that, he remembered, was not in the sea.
"Come on, Flossie," said Freddie, when Bert and Nan had walked away downthe deck. "Come on, I'm going to do it."
"Do what, Freddie?"
"I'm going to catch some fish. I've got my string all untangled now."
"You haven't any fishhook," observed the little girl; "and you can'tcatch any fish lessen you have a hook."
"I can make one out of a pin, and I've got a pin," answered Freddie. "Idassen't ever have a real hook, anyhow, all alone by myself, till I getbigger. But I can catch a fish on a pin-hook."
He did have a pin fastened to his coat, and this pin he now bent intothe shape of a hook and stuck it through a knot in the end of the long,dangling string.
"Where are you going to fish?" asked Flossie. She and her brother wereon the deck not far from the two staterooms of the Bobbsey family. Mrs.Bobbsey was sitting in a steamer chair near the door of her room, whereshe could watch the children.
"I'm going to fish right here," Freddie said, pointing to the rail atthe side of the ship. "I'm going to throw my line over here, with thehook on it, just like I fish off the bridge at home."
"And I'll watch you," said Flossie.
Over the railing Freddie tossed his bent-pin hook and line. He thoughtit would reach down to the water, but he did not know how large the boatwas on which he was sailing to Florida.
His little ball of string unwound as the end of it dropped over therail, but the hook did not reach the water. Even if it had, Freddiecould have caught nothing. In the first place a bent pin is not theright kind of hook, and, in the second place, Freddie had no bait on thehook. Bait is something that covers a hook and makes the fish want tobite on it. Then they are caught. But Freddie did not think of this justnow, and his hook had nothing on it. Neither did it reach down to thewater, and Freddie didn't know that.
But, as his string was dangling over the side of the ship there came asudden tug on it, and the little boy pulled up as hard as he could.
"Oh, I've caught a fish! I've caught a fish!" he cried. "Flossie, look,I've caught a fish!"
Of course Flossie could not see what was on the end of her brother'sline, but it was something! She could easily tell that by the wayFreddie was hauling in on t
he string.
"Oh, what have you got?" cried the little girl.
"I've got a big fish!" said Freddie. "I said I'd catch a fish, and Idid!"
From somewhere down below came shouts and cries.
"What's that?" asked Flossie.
"Them's the people hollering 'cause I caught such a big fish," answeredFreddie. "Look, there it is!"
Something large and black appeared above the edge of the rail.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Flossie.
Mrs. Bobbsey, from where she was sitting in her chair, heard the criesand came running over to the children.
"What are you doing, Freddie?" she asked.
"Catching a fish!" he answered. "I got one and----"
The black thing on the end of his line was pulled over the rail andflapped to the deck. Flossie and Freddie stared at it with wide-openeyes. Then Flossie said:
"Oh, what a funny fish!"
And so it was, for it wasn't a fish at all, but a woman's big black hat,with feathers on it. Freddie's bent-pin hook had caught in the hat whichwas being worn by a woman standing near the rail on the deck below wherethe Bobbsey family had their rooms. And Freddie had pulled the hat rightoff the woman's head.
"No wonder the lady yelled!" laughed Bert when he came to see what washappening to his smaller brother and sister. "You're a great fisherman,Freddie."
"Well, next time I'll catch a real fish," declared the little boy.
Bert carried the woman's hat down to her, and said Freddie was sorry forhaving caught it in mistake for a fish. The woman laughed heartily andsaid no harm had been done.
"But I couldn't imagine what was pulling my hat off my head," she toldher friends. "First I thought it was one of the seagulls."
Freddie wound up his string, and said he would not fish any more untilhe could see where his hook went to, and his father told him he hadbetter wait until they got to St. Augustine, where he could fish fromthe shore and see what he was catching.
From the time they came on board until it was the hour to eat, theBobbsey twins looked about the ship, seeing something new and wonderfulon every side. They hardly wanted to go to bed when night came, buttheir mother said they must, as they would be about two days on thewater, and they would have plenty of time to see everything.
Bert, Freddie and their father had one stateroom and Mrs. Bobbsey andthe two girls slept in the other, "next door," as you might say.
The night passed quietly, the ship steaming along over the ocean, anddown the coast to Florida. The next day the four children were up earlyto see everything there was to see.
They found the ship now well out to sea, and out of sight of land. Theywere really on the deep ocean at last, and they liked it very much. Bertand Nan found some older children with whom to play, and Flossie andFreddie wandered off by themselves, promising not to go too far fromMrs. Bobbsey, who was on deck in her easy chair, reading.
After a while Flossie came running back to her mother in greatexcitement.
"Oh, Mother! Oh, Mother!" gasped the little girl. "He's gone!"
"Who's gone?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, dropping her book as she quickly stoodup.
"Freddie's gone! We were playing hide-and-go-seek, and he went down abig pipe, and now I can't see him! He's gone!"