The children suddenly lost interest in the game of hide-and-go-to-seek.  Freddie thought no more of spying Flossie or Helen.  Flossie no longer cared about hiding down between the two logs, and Helen did not care about anything but the white dress she was holding up as she scrambled out of the hollow stump.

“It’s my doll’s dress!” she said over and over again.  “It’s my lost doll’s dress!”

“Are you sure?” asked Flossie, as she shook the leaves from her dress and hair, and came over to her friend.

“Course I’m sure!” answered Helen.  “Look, here’s a place where I mended the dress after Mollie tore it when she was playing with Grace Lavine’s dollie one day.”

Mollie hadn’t really torn her dress.  Helen had done it herself lifting her pet out of the doll carriage, but she liked to pretend the doll had done it.

“Let’s see the torn place,” said Flossie, and Helen showed where a hole had been sewed together.

“I ’member it,” Helen went on, “’cause I sewed it crooked.  I can sew better now.  It’s my doll’s dress all right.”

“It’s all wet,” said Freddie, who, though a boy, was not too old to be interested in dolls, though he did not play with them.  “Maybe the gypsies live around here,” he went on, “and they washed your doll’s dress and hung it on the stump to dry.”

“Maybe!” agreed Helen, who was ready to believe anything, now that she had found something belonging to her doll.

“No gypsies live around here,” said Flossie, “’cause we haven’t seen any.  But maybe they live in the cave.”

“The cave’s far off,” said Freddie.  “But it’s funny about that dress.”

“I ­I found it when I hid in the stump,” explained the little visiting girl.  “First I thought it was a piece of paper, but as soon as I touched it I knew it wasn’t.  Oh, now if I could only find Mollie!”

“Maybe she’s in the stump, too,” Freddie said.  “If the gypsies washed her dress they’d have to cover her up with leaves or bark so she wouldn’t get cold while her dress was drying.”

“The gypsies didn’t wash her dress,” said Helen.

“How do you know?” asked Flossie.

“‘Cause nobody washes dresses an’ makes ’em all up in a heap an’ puts ’em in a hollow stump,” Helen went on.  “You’ve got to hang a dress straight on a line to make it dry.”

“That’s so,” added Flossie.  “You only roll a dress up the way this one was rolled when you sprinkle it to iron, don’t you, Helen?”

“Yep.  Oh, I do wish I could find my Mollie!”

“Well, she must be somewhere around here if she isn’t in the stump,” insisted Freddie.  “If the gypsies took off her dress they must have dropped the doll.  Let’s look!”

This was what the two little girls wanted to do, so with Freddie to help they began poking about with sticks in the leaves that were piled around the stump.  They searched for some time, but could find no trace of the lost doll.

“We’d better go and tell my mamma and your mamma,” said Flossie.  “Maybe they’ll get a policeman and he’ll find the gypsies and your dollie, Helen.”

“All right ­come on!”

Out of breath, the children ran to the tents where Mrs. Porter was just thinking about going in search of her little girl, as it was nearly time for the steamboat to come back for them.

“Oh, I found Mollie’s dress!  I found Mollie’s dress!” cried Helen, waving it over her head.

“It was in a stump!” added Freddie.

“And it was all wet from bein’ rained on, I guess,” said Flossie, for indeed the doll’s dress was still damp, and very likely it had been out in the rain.  That stump would hold water for some time, like a big, wooden pitcher.

Mrs. Porter was very much surprised to hear the news, and thought perhaps her little girl was mistaken.  But when she had looked carefully at the dress, she knew it was one she herself had made for Helen when that little girl was a baby.

“But how did it come on this island?” she asked.

“It must have been dropped by the gypsies,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “In spite of what they said to us some one of them must have picked up the doll and carried her away for some little gypsy girl.  And the gypsies must have been on this island.  Some of the blueberry pickers said they saw them, but when I looked I could not find them.  By that time they must have gone away.”

“And did they take my doll with them?” asked Helen.

“Well, I’m afraid they did,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “If they wanted your pet badly enough to take her away so boldly, as they did from the yard, they’d probably keep her, once they had her safe.  It isn’t every day they can get a talking doll, you know.”

“I wish there was some way of getting Helen’s doll back,” said Mrs. Porter.  “She does nothing but wish for her every day.  She has other dolls ­”

“But I liked Mollie best,” Helen said.  “I want her.  If she only knew I had her dress she might come to me,” she added wistfully.

“She might, if she were a fairy doll,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she patted Helen on the head.  “But we’ll look as carefully as we can for your little girl’s pet, Mrs. Porter.  If Mollie is on this island we’ll find her.”

“And I’ll leave this dress here,” said Helen, “so you can put it on her when you do find her.  Then she won’t take cold.”

“I’ll wash the dress and have Dinah iron it for you,” promised Flossie.  “I can’t iron very well.”

“Thank you,” said Helen.  “Oh, I’m so glad I came here, for I found part of Mollie, anyhow.”

Helen and her mother left Blueberry Island, promising to come again some day, and Flossie and Freddie said they would, in the meanwhile, look as well as they could for the lost doll.

The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island. Page 175]

That night, in front of the tents, there was a marshmallow roast.  The Bobbsey children, with long sticks, toasted the soft candies over the blaze, until the marshmallows puffed out like balloons and were colored a pretty brown.  Then they ate them.

Flossie and Freddie dropped about as many candies in the fire as they toasted, but Bert and Nan at last showed the small twins how to do it, and then Freddie toasted a marshmallow for his father and Flossie made one nice and brown for her mother.

“I dropped mine in the dirt, after I cooked it,” said Freddie to his father, as he came running up with the hot candy, “but I guess you can eat it.”

“I’ll try,” laughed Mr. Bobbsey, and he brushed off all the dirt he could, but had to chew the rest, for Freddie stood right in front of his father, to make sure the marshmallow was eaten.

“Is it good?” asked the little boy.

“Fine!” cried Mr. Bobbsey.  “But I can’t eat any more,” he said quickly, “because I might get indigestion.”

“Then I’ll eat ’em,” said Freddie.  “I’m not afraid of id-idis-idisgestion.”

It was jolly fun toasting candies at the campfire, but as everything must come to an end some time, this did also, and the children went to bed and the camp was quiet, except that now and then Whisker gave a gentle “Baa-a-a-a!” from his resting place under a tree, and Snoop, the black cat, purred in his sleep.

The next day it rained, so the twins could not go to look for the doll, as they wanted to.  They had to stay around the tents, though when the shower slackened they were allowed to go out with their rubber coats and boots on.

Toward night the sun came out, and they all went down to the dock to meet the steamboat, for Mr. Bobbsey had gone over to the mainland after dinner, to attend to some business at the lumber office, and was coming back on the last boat.

It was after supper that Dinah, coming into the dining tent to clear away the dishes, caused some excitement when she asked: 

“Has any ob you all seen Snoop?”

“What?  Is our cat gone?” asked Bert.

“Well, I hasn’t seen ‘im since Flossie an’ Freddie was playin’ hitch him up like a hoss to a cigar box wagon,” went on Dinah.  “He come out to me an’ I gib ‘im some milk, an’ now, when I called ‘im t’ come an’ git his supper, he ain’t heah!”

Flossie and Freddie looked at each other.  So did Nan and Bert.  Even Mr. Bobbsey seemed surprised.  But he said: 

“Oh, I guess he just went off in the woods for a rest after Flossie and Freddie mauled him when they were playing with him.  Go call him, Bert.”

So Bert went out in front of the tent and called:  “Snoop!  Snoop!  Hi, Snoop, where are you?”

But no Snoop answered.  Then Flossie and Freddie called, and so did Nan, while Sam went farther into the woods among the trees.  But the big black cat, that the children loved so dearly, was missing.  Snoop did not come to his supper that night.