CHAPTER III
WORRIED TWINS
"Oh, Helen! how glad I am to have you back!" cried Mrs. Porter. "How didyou get away from the gypsies? Or did they really have you?"
The little girl stopped crying, and all about her the men, women andchildren waited anxiously to hear what she would say.
"Did the gypsies take you away?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"No, the gypsies didn't get me," said Helen, her voice now and thenbroken by sobs. "But they took Mollie!"
"Took Mollie!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you mean to say they really didtake a little girl away?"
"They--they took Mollie!" half-sobbed Helen, "and I--I tried to get herback, but I couldn't run fast enough and--and----"
"Well, if they really have Mollie," went on Mr. Bobbsey, "we must getright after them and----"
"Mollie is the name of Helen's big doll--almost as large as she is,"explained Mrs. Porter, who was now smiling through her tears. "Mollieisn't a little girl, though probably there are several in Lakeport namedthat. But the Mollie whom Helen means is a doll."
"Oh, I see," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But did the gypsies really take yourdoll, Helen?"
"Yes, they did," answered the little girl. "A bad gypsy man took heraway. I was playing with Mollie in Grace Lavine's yard, and Grace andMary went into the house to get some cookies. I stayed out in the yardwith my doll, 'cause I wanted her to get tanned nice and brown. I laidher down in a sunny place, and I went over under a tree to set the teatable, and when I looked around I saw the gypsy man."
"Where was he?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"He was just getting out of one of the red wagons. And there was alittle gypsy girl in the wagon. She was pointing to my doll, and thenthe man jumped down off the wagon steps, ran into the yard, picked up mydoll, and then he jumped into the wagon again and rode away. And he'sgot my nice doll Mollie, and I want her back, and--oh, dear!" and Helenbegan to cry again.
"Never mind," said Mr. Bobbsey quietly. "I'll try to get your doll backagain. How large was it?"
"Nearly as large as Helen herself," said Mrs. Porter. "I didn't want herto play with it to-day but she took it."
"Yes, but now the gypsy man with rings in his ears--he took it,"explained Helen. "He carried my doll off in his arms."
"Then it must have been the doll which Johnnie saw the gypsy mancarrying, and not Helen!" exclaimed Bert. "Did it look like a doll,Johnnie?"
"Well, it might have been. It had light hair like Helen's, though."
"Helen's doll had light hair," said Mrs. Porter. "And probably if agypsy put the doll under his arm, and ran past any one it would look asthough he were carrying off a little girl. Especially as the dollreally had on a dress Helen used to wear when she was a baby."
"That is probably what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey. "The gypsy man'slittle girl saw, from the wagon, the doll lying in the Lavine yard.Gypsies are not as careful about taking what does not belong to them asthey might be. They often steal things, I'm afraid. And, seeing the bigdoll lying under the tree----"
"Where I put her so she'd get tanned nice and brown," interrupted Helen.
"Just so," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "Seeing the doll under the tree, with noone near, the gypsy man made up his mind to take her for his littlegirl. This he did, and when he ran off with Mollie, Johnnie saw whathappened and thought Helen was being kidnapped.
"But I'm glad that wasn't so, though it's too bad Mollie has been takenaway. However, we'll try to get her back for you, Helen. Maybe thegypsies took other things. If they did we'll send the police after them.Now don't cry any more and I'll see what I can do."
"And will you get Mollie back?"
"I'll do my best," promised the Bobbsey twins' father.
There being nothing more he could do just then at the Porter home, Mr.Bobbsey went back to his own family, and told his wife, Flossie, Freddieand Nan what had happened.
"Oh, I'm so glad Helen is all right," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"But it's too bad about her doll," sighed Nan. She had a doll of herown--a fine one--and she knew how she would feel if that had been taken.
"Helen's doll could talk," said Flossie. "I know, 'cause she let me makeit talk one day. You wind up a winder thing in her back, and then youpush on a shoe button thing in her front and she says 'Mamma' and 'Papa'and other things."
"Yes, that's right," said Nan. "Mollie is a talking doll. I guess shehas a little phonograph inside her. Maybe that's the noise Johnnie heardwhen the gypsy man carried the doll past him, and Johnnie thought it wasHelen crying."
"I guess that was it," agreed Mr. Bobbsey.
"Well, it's too bad to lose a big talking doll. I must see what I can doto help get it back. I'll call up the chief of police."
"It would be worse to lose your toy fire engine," declared Freddie.
"Why, Freddie Bobbsey!" exclaimed his little sister, "nothing could beworse than to lose your very best doll--your very own child!"
Mr. Bobbsey, being one of the most prominent business men in the town,had considerable business at times with the police and the firedepartments, and the officers would do almost anything to help him orhis friends.
So, after supper--at which Dinah had served the pudding with theshaved-up maple sugar over the top, Flossie and Freddie each having hadtwo helpings--Mr. Bobbsey called up the police station and asked ifanything more had been heard of the gypsies.
"Well, yes, we did hear something of them," answered Chief Branford,over the telephone wire. "They've gone into camp, where they always do,on the western shore of the lake, and as I've had several reports ofsmall things having been stolen around town, I'm going to send onofficer out there to the gypsy camp, and have him see what he can find.You say they took your little girl's doll?"
"No, not my little girl's," answered Mr. Bobbsey, "but the talking dollbelonging to a friend of hers."
"Her name is Molly, Daddy," said Flossie, who, with the other Bobbseytwins, was listening to her father talk over the telephone. "I mean thedoll's name is Mollie, not Helen's name."
"I understand," said Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh, and he told the chief thename of the doll and also the name of the little girl who owned it.
"Well, what is to be done?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as her husband hung upthe receiver.
"I think I'll go with the policeman and see what I can find out aboutthe gypsies," said Mr. Bobbsey. "If they are going to take things thatdo not belong to them they may pay a visit to my lumberyard, if theyhave not done so already. I think I'll go out to the gypsy camp."
"Oh, let me come!" begged Bert, always ready for an adventure.
"I wouldn't go--not at night, anyhow," remarked Nan.
"Nor I," added Freddie, while Flossie crept up into her mother's lap.
"Oh, I'm not going until morning," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Then I'll takeyou, Bert, if you'd like to go. We'll see if we can find Helen's big,talking doll."
"She must feel bad at losing it," said Nan.
"She does," said Bert. "Though how any one can get to like a doll, withsuch stupid eyes as they have, I can't see."
"They're as good as nasty old knives that cut you, and kite strings thatare always getting tangled," said Nan with a laugh.
"Yes, I guess we like different things," agreed her brother. "Well, I'mglad it wasn't Flossie or Freddie the gypsies took away with them."
"I wouldn't go!" declared Freddie. "And if they took Flossie, I'd get myfire engine and squirt water on those men with rings in their ears tillthey let my sister go!"
"That's my little fat fireman!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "But now I thinkyou're getting sleepy. Your row on the lake made the sandman comearound earlier than usual I guess. Off to bed with you."
Flossie and Freddie went to bed earlier than Nan and Bert, who wereallowed to sit up a little later. There was much talk about the gypsies,and what they might have taken, and Nan and Bert were getting ready forbed when a pattering of bare feet was heard on the stairs, and a voicecalled:
"Where's Snoop?"
"Why, it's Flossie and Freddie!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, as she saw the twosmall twins. "Why are you out of bed?" she asked.
"Freddie thought maybe the gypsies would take our cat Snoop," explainedFlossie, "so we got up to tell you to bring him in."
"And bring in Snap, our dog," added Freddie. "The gypsies might takehim, 'cause he does tricks and was once in a circus."
"Oh, don't worry about that!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "Get back to bedbefore you take cold."
"But you won't let the gypsies take them, will you?" asked Flossieanxiously.
"No, indeed!" promised her mother. "Snoop is safely curled up in hisbasket, and I guess Snap wouldn't let a gypsy come near him."
But Flossie and Freddie were not satisfied until they had looked and hadseen the big black cat cosily asleep, and had heard Snap bark outsidewhen Bert called to him from a window.
"The gypsies won't take your pets," their father told the small twins,and then, hand in hand, they went upstairs again to bed.