The Bobbsey Twins In A Great City

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE ICE-BOAT 1

II. BUILDING THE "BIRD" 13

III. A RUNAWAY 28

IV. THE OLD WOODCHOPPER 36

V. GLORIOUS NEWS. 46

VI. ON TO NEW YORK 59

VII. ON THE EXPRESS TRAIN 68

VIII. A LONG RIDE 80

IX. IN THE STORE 90

X. LOST UNDERGROUND 104

XI. FREDDIE AND THE TURTLE 116

XII. IN THE THEATRE 127

XIII. THE "RESCUE" OF FREDDIE 137

XIV. THE STORE CAMP 153

XV. SAD NEWS 161

XVI. THE BIG ELEPHANT 170

XVII. CALLED HOME 181

XVIII. A QUEER RIDE 191

XIX. THE GOAT 202

XX. MR. BOBBSEY COMES BACK 214

XXI. UNCLE JACK'S REAL NAME 225

XXII. REUNITED 233




=THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY=




CHAPTER I

THE ICE-BOAT


"Oh, there comes my skate off again! Freddie, have you got any paste in
your pocket?"

"Paste, Flossie! What good would paste be to fasten on your skate?"

"I don't know, but it might do _some_ good. I can't make the strap hold it
on any more," and a plump little girl shook back her flaxen, curling hair,
which had slipped from under her cap and was blowing into her eyes, sat
down on a log near the shore of the frozen lake and looked sorrowfully at
the shining skate which had become loosened from her shoe.

"Come on, Flossie!" called the small, plump boy, just about the size of
his sister, and with her same kind of light hair and blue eyes. "There go
Bert, Nan and Tommy Todd 'way ahead of us. We'll never catch up to 'em if
you sit here. Come on!"

"I can't help sitting here, Freddie Bobbsey! How am I going to skate on
only one skate?" asked the little girl.

"Put on the other, and come along."

"I have put it on, lots of times, but it comes off every time I skate a
little bit. That's why I want some paste. Maybe I could paste the strap
fast around my shoe."

"I don't believe you could, Flossie," and this time the small, plump boy
stopped skating around in a ring--"grinding the bar," as it is called--and
glided toward his sister seated on the log. "Anyhow, I haven't any paste.
What made you think I had?"

"Oh, you carry so much stuff in your pockets I thought maybe you'd have
paste."

"I might if it was summer, Flossie, and I was making kites with Bert. But
I haven't any paste now."

"Then have you got a postage stamp?"

"A postage stamp? Of course not! What good would a postage stamp be to
fasten your skate strap?"

"Well, a postage stamp has paste on it, hasn't it? Anyhow, it's sticky,
'cause I got some on my tongue once, and I just know if I could only
fasten down the end of this skate strap, to keep it from flopping up, and
coming out of the buckle, I'd be all right. It's the flopping end that
comes loose."

"Well, pooh! a postage stamp wouldn't be any good!" cried Freddie. "If you
did stick it on it wouldn't last more than three strokes. A postage stamp
wouldn't go far at all!"

"Some postage stamps do!" exclaimed Flossie. "Mother got one on a letter
the other day and it had stuck itself on half-way round the world--she
told me so. And if a stamp sticks half-way around the world I should think
it would stick while I skated down to the end of the lake."

"Huh! That's different!" half grunted Freddie, for, just then, he was
stooping over tightening one of his straps. "Anyhow, I haven't got a
stamp."

"Well, maybe you could fix my skate so it wouldn't come off," suggested
Flossie. "I've tried and tried, but I can't, and I don't want to stay here
all alone."

"Why Flossie Bobbsey! I'm with you!"

"I know, but Nan and Bert are away down at the other end, with Tommy Todd,
and Bert is going to buy hot chocolates. I know he is, 'cause he said so.
I don't want to miss them."

"Me neither! Wait and I'll see if I can't fix your skate, Flossie."

Freddie was small--he and Flossie were the smaller pair of Bobbsey
twins--but he was a sturdy little chap, and living out of doors, and
playing games with his older brother Bert had taught Freddie how to do
many things. He put Flossie's skate on her shoe, tightened the strap, and
then made it still tighter by putting some pieces of wood under the
leather loop.