The Bobbsey Twins on the Deep Blue Sea Part 4

"Bert is eating like a regular steam engine," came from Flossie.

At this Nan burst out laughing.

"Flossie, did you ever see an engine eat?" she asked.

"Well, I don't care! You know what I mean," returned the little girl.

"Course engines eat!" cried Freddie. "Don't they eat piles of coal?" he went on triumphantly.

"Well, not an auto engine," said Nan.

"Yes, that eats up gasolene," said Bert.

But they were all in a hurry to listen to what their father might have to say, and so wasted no further time in argument. And when the rice pudding was brought in Nan said:

"Dinner is over now, Daddy, for this is the dessert, and when you're in a hurry to go back to the office you don't wait for that. So can't we hear the strange news now?"

"Yes, I guess so," answered her father, and he drew from his pocket a letter. "This came this morning," he said, "and I thought it best to come right home and tell you about it," he said to his wife.

"The letter is from my Cousin Jasper. When we were boys we lived in the same town. Jasper was always fond of the ocean, and often said, when he grew up, he would make a long voyage."

"Freddie and I were having a voyage on a raft to-day," said Flossie.

"And we had fun until Bert fell in."

"I didn't fall in--I jumped in and I got stuck in the mud," put in Bert.

"Don't interrupt, dears, if you want to hear Daddy's news," said Mrs.

Bobbsey, and her husband, after looking at the letter, as if to make sure about what he was talking, went on.

"Cousin Jasper Dent did become a sailor, when he grew up. But he sailed more on steamboats than on s.h.i.+ps with sails that have to be blown by the wind. Many things happened to him, so he has told me in letters that he has written, for I have not seen him very often, of late years. And now the strangest of all has happened, so he tells me here."

"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Well, he has been s.h.i.+pwrecked, for one thing."

"And was he cast away on a desert island, like Robinson Crusoe?" asked Bert, who was old enough to read that wonderful book.

"Well, that's what I don't know," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "Cousin Jasper does not write all that happened to him. He says he has been s.h.i.+pwrecked and has had many adventures, and he wants me to come to him so that he may tell me more."

"Where is he?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

"In a hospital in St. Augustine, Florida," was the answer.

"Oh, Florida!" exclaimed Flossie. "That's where the cocoanuts grow; isn't it, Daddy?"

"Well, maybe a few grow there, but I guess you are thinking of oranges,"

her father answered with a smile. "Lots of oranges grow in Florida."

"And are we going there?" asked Bert.

"That's what I want to talk to your mother about," went on Mr. Bobbsey.

"Cousin Jasper doesn't say just what happened to him, nor why he is so anxious to see me. But he wants me to come down to Florida to see him."

"It would be a nice trip if we could go, and take the children," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Though, I suppose, this is hardly the time of year to go to such a place."

"Oh, it is always nice in Florida," her husband said, "though of course when it is winter here it seems nicer there because it is so warm, and the flowers are in blossom."

"And do the oranges grow then?" asked Freddie.

"I guess so," his father said. "At any rate it is now early spring here, and even in Florida, where it is warmer than it is up North where we live, I think it will not be too hot for us. Besides, I don't believe Cousin Jasper intends to stay in Florida, or have us stay there."

"Why not?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked.

"Well, in his letter he says, after he has told me the strange news, he hopes I will go on a voyage with him to search for some one who is lost."

"Some one lost!" replied Nan. "What does he mean, Daddy?"

"That's what I don't know. I guess Cousin Jasper was too ill to write all he wanted to, and he would rather see me and tell me. So I came to ask if you would like to go to Florida," and Mr. Bobbsey looked at his wife and smiled.

"Oh, yes! Let's go!" begged Bert.

"And pick oranges!" added Flossie.

"Please say you'll go, Mother!" cried Nan. "Please do!"

"I want to go in big steamboat!" fairly shouted Freddie. "And I'll take my fire engine with me and put out the fire!"

"Oh, children dear, do be quiet one little minute and let me think,"

begged Mrs. Bobbsey. "Let me see the letter, dear," she said to her husband.

Mr. Bobbsey handed his wife the sheets of paper, and she read them carefully.

"Well, they don't tell very much," she said as she folded them and handed them back. "Still your cousin does say something strange happened when he was s.h.i.+pwrecked, wherever that was. I think you had better go and see him, if you can leave the lumberyard, d.i.c.k."

"Oh, yes, the lumber business will be all right," said Mr. Bobbsey, whom his wife called d.i.c.k. "And would you like to go with me?" he asked his wife.

"And take the children?"

"Yes, we could take them. A sail on the ocean would do them good, I think. They have been shut up pretty much all winter."

"Will we go on a sailboat?" asked Bert.

"No, I hardly think so. They are too slow. If we go we will, very likely, go on a steamer," Mr. Bobbsey said.

"Oh, goody!" cried Freddie, while Mrs. Bobbsey smiled her consent.

"Well, then, I'll call it settled," went on the twins' father, "and I'll write Cousin Jasper that we're coming to hear his strange news, though why he couldn't put it in his letter I can't see. But maybe he had a good reason. Now I'll go back to the office and see about getting ready for a trip on the deep, blue sea. And I wonder----"

Just then, out in the yard, a loud noise sounded.