“Oh, dear!  I wish we weren’t going home!”

“So do I!  Can’t we stay out a little while longer?”

“Why, Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey!” cried Nan, the older sister of the two small twins who had spoken.  “A few minutes ago you were in a hurry to get home.”

“Yes; they said they were so hungry they couldn’t wait to see what Dinah was going to have for supper,” said Bert Bobbsey.  “How about that, Freddie?”

“Well, I’m hungry yet,” said the little boy, who was sitting beside his sister Flossie in a boat that was being rowed over the blue waters of Lake Metoka.  “I am hungry, and I want some of Dinah’s pie, but I’d like to stay out longer.”

“So would I,” added Flossie.  “It’s so nice on the lake, and maybe to-morrow it will rain.”

“Well, what if it does?” asked Nan.  “You didn’t expect to come out on the lake again to-morrow, did you?”

“Maybe,” answered Flossie, as she smoothed out the dress of a doll she was holding in her lap.

“I’d like to come out on the lake and have a picnic every day,” said Freddie, leaning over the edge of the boat to see if a small ship, to which he had fastened a string, was being pulled safely along.

“Don’t do that!” cried Nan quickly.  “Do you want to fall in?”

“No,” answered Freddie slowly, as though he had been thinking that perhaps a wetting in the lake might not be so bad after all.  “No, I don’t want to fall in now, ’cause whenever I go in swimming I get terrible hungry, and I don’t want to be any hungrier than I am now.”

“Oh, so that’s the only reason, is it?” asked Bert with a laugh.  “Well, just keep inside the boat until we get on shore, and then you can fall out if you want to.”

“How am I going to fall out when the boat’s on shore?” asked Freddie.  “Boats can’t go on land anyhow, Bert Bobbsey!”

“That will be something for you to think about, and then maybe you won’t lean over and scare Nan,” said Bert, smiling.

“Do you want I should land you at your father’s lumber dock, or shall I row on down near the house, Bert?” asked a man who was pulling at the oars of the boat.  “It won’t make any difference to me.  I’ve got lots of time.”

“Then, Jack, row us down near the house, if you don’t mind,” begged Nan.  “I want to get these two fat twins ashore as soon as I can; Freddie especially, if he’s going to almost fall overboard when I’m not looking.”

“I’m not going to fall overboard!” cried the little fat fellow.  “Can’t I row, Jack?”

“Not now, Freddie.  I’m in a hurry,” answered the man, one of the workers from Mr. Bobbsey’s lumberyard.

“But you told Bert, just now, that you had lots of time,” insisted Freddie.

“Well ­er ­ahem ­I haven’t time to let you row, Freddie.  Maybe I will some other day,” and Jack looked at Bert and smiled, while he said to himself:  “You’ve got to get up early in the morning to match a smart chap like him,” meaning Freddie, of course.

A short time before, the Bobbsey twins had returned from the city of New York where they had spent a part of the winter.  Now it was spring and would soon be summer, and, as the day was a fine, warm one, they had gone on a little picnic, taking their lunch with them and pretending to camp on one of the many islands in the lake.  Now they were on their way home.

“Well, here you are, safe on shore!” announced Jack, as the twins called Mr. Henderson, the man whom their father had sent with them to manage the boat.

“Yes, and there goes Freddie ­falling overboard!” cried Bert with a laugh, as his little fat brother stumbled over a coil of rope on the dock and tumbled down.  “It’s a good thing you didn’t do that in the boat, little fat fireman.”

“I didn’t hurt myself, anyhow,” said Freddie, as he got up.  “Come on, Flossie, let’s run home.  I’m terrible hungry.”

“So’m I,” added his sister, who was as fat as he, and just the same size.  The two smaller Bobbsey twins started on ahead, while Bert, after seeing that the boat was well tied, followed on more slowly with his sister Nan.

“It was a nice ride we had,” Nan said, “wasn’t it, Bert?”

“Yes, it’s great out on the lake.  I wonder if we’ll ever go camping as we talked of when we were in New York?”

“Maybe.  Let’s tease mother to let us!”

“All right.  You ask her and I’ll ask father.  There’s one island in the lake where ­”

But Bert did not have a chance to finish what he was going to say, for just then Flossie and Freddie, who had hurried on ahead, came running back, surprise showing on their faces.

“Oh, Bert!” cried Freddie.  “It’s here!  It’s come!”

“Can we go to see it?” added Flossie.  “Oh, I just want to!”

“What’s here?  What do you want to see?  What is it?” asked Bert and Nan together, taking turns at the questions.

“The circus is here!” answered Freddie.

“Circus?” asked Bert in surprise.

“Yep!  We saw the wagons!” went on Flossie.  “They’re all red and yellow, and they’ve got lookin’ glasses all over the sides, and they have rumbly wheels, like thunder, and horses with bells on and ­and ­”

“You’d better save a little of your breath to eat some of the good things you think Dinah is going to cook for you,” said Nan with a laugh, as she put her arms around her small sister.  “Now what is it all about?”

“It’s a circus!” cried Freddie.

“We saw the wagons going along the street where our house is,” added Flossie.  “All red and yellow and ­ Oh, look!” she suddenly cried.  “There they are now!”

She pointed excitedly down the side street, on which the Bobbsey twins then were, toward the main street of Lakeport, where the Bobbsey family lived.  Nan and Bert, as well as Flossie and Freddie, saw three or four big wagons, gaily painted red and yellow, and with glittering pieces of looking glass on their sides.  The prancing horses drawing the wagons had bells around their necks and a merry, tinkling jingle sounded, making music wherever the horses went.

Bert and Nan gave one look at the wagons, and then they both laughed.  Flossie and Freddie glanced up in surprise at their older brother and sister.

“Look what they thought was a circus!” chuckled Bert.

“Isn’t it?” asked Flossie.  “Isn’t that a circus?”

“No, dear,” answered Nan.  “Don’t laugh so much,” she said to Bert, as she saw that the two small twins felt hurt.  “They do look something like circus wagons.”

“They are circus wagons!” declared Freddie.  “And pretty soon the elephants will come past.  I like elephants.”

“You won’t see any elephants to-day,” said Bert.  “That isn’t a circus procession.”

“What is it?” Flossie demanded.

“Those are gypsy wagons,” explained Nan.  “Gypsies, you know, are those queer people, who are dark-skinned.  They wear rings in their ears and live in wagons like those.  They ride all over the country and tell fortunes.  I wanted to have my fortune told by a gypsy once, but mother wouldn’t let me,” she added.

“It’s silly!” declared Bert.  “Just as if a gypsy could tell you what’s going to happen!”

“Well, Lillie Kent had hers told,” went on Nan, “and the gypsy looked at her hand and said she was going to have trouble, and she did.”

“What?” asked Flossie eagerly.

“She lost a nickel a week after that ­a nickel she was going to buy a lead pencil with.”

“Pooh!” laughed Bert, “she’d have lost the nickel anyhow.  But say, there are lots of gypsies in this band!  I’ve counted five wagons so far.”

“Maybe they’re going to have a circus,” insisted Freddie, who did not like to give up the idea of seeing a show.

“Course they’re going to have a circus,” said Flossie.  “Look at all the horses,” for behind the last two wagons were trotting a number of horses, being led along by men seated in the ends of the bright-colored wagons.  The men had straps which were fastened to the heads of the animals.

“No; gypsies don’t give shows.  They buy and sell horses,” said Bert.  “I’ve seen ’em here in Lakeport before, but not so many as this.  I guess they’re going to make a camp somewhere on Lake Metoka.”

“Maybe we’ll see ’em when we go camping,” said Freddie.

“It isn’t yet sure that we’re going,” returned Nan.  “But, come on.  There are no more gypsy wagons to see, and we must get home.”

Flossie and Freddie, somewhat disappointed that, after all, it was not a circus procession they had seen, started off again.  They wished they could have seen more of the gypsies, but the gay wagons rumbled on out of sight, though this was not the last the Bobbsey twins were to see of them.  In fact, they were to meet the gypsies again, and to have quite an adventure with them before the summer was over.

“Well, we had a good time, anyhow,” said Freddie to Flossie.  “And we almost saw a circus, didn’t we?”

“Yep,” answered his sister.  “I’m going to be a gypsy when I grow up.”

“Why?” asked Freddie.

“’Cause they’ve got so many looking glasses on their wagons.”

“I’m going to be a gypsy, too,” decided Freddie, after thinking it over a bit. “’Cause they’ve got so many horses.  I’m going to ride horseback, and you can ride in one of the wagons, Flossie.”

“No.  I’m going to ride horseback, too,” declared the little girl.  “I’m going to have a spangly thing in my hair and wear a dress all glittery and stand on the horse’s back and ride ­”

“Gypsies don’t do that,” protested Bert.  “It’s the people in circuses that ride standing up.”

“Gypsies do too,” declared Freddie, not knowing a thing about it but feeling he must back up anything Flossie said.

“No, they don’t, either.”

“Well, maybe they have gypsies in a circus.  They have Indians, you know.”

“I don’t believe they do,” put in Nan.  “Gypsies wouldn’t like to be in a tent and work every afternoon and every evening.  They want to live in their wagons and be more out of doors.”

“Well, maybe we’ll be gypsies and maybe we’ll be in a circus,” said Freddie.  “We’ll see, won’t we, Flossie?”

“Yep.”

By this time the Bobbsey twins had reached their house, or rather, they had turned the corner of the street leading out from the lake, and were in sight of their home.  What they saw caused Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie to set out on a run.  In front of their house was a crowd of people.  There were men, women and children, and among them the twins could see their mother, fat Dinah, the cook, and Sam Johnson, her husband, who attended to the Bobbsey furnace in winter and the lawn in summer.

“What’s the matter?” asked Nan.

“Something has happened!” cried Bert.

“The house is on fire!” shouted Freddie.  “I must get my fire engine that squirts real water!” and he raced on ahead.

“Wait a minute!” called Bert.

The Bobbsey twins saw their mother coming quickly toward them.  She held out her arms and cried: 

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe!”

“Why, what’s the matter?” asked Flossie.

“I can’t just say,” answered her mother; “but Helen Porter can’t be found.  Her mother has looked everywhere for her, but can’t find her.”

“She’s been carried off by the gypsies!” exclaimed John Marsh, an excited boy about Bert’s age.  “The gypsies took her!  I saw ’em!”

“You did?” asked Bert.

“Sure I did!  A man!  Dark, with a red sash on, and gold rings in his ears!  He picked Helen up in his arms and went off with her!  She’s in one of the gypsy wagons now!”

When John told this Flossie and Freddie huddled closer to their mother.