"I'm not afraid!" boasted Freddie. "Maybe there won't be any," suggested Nan. "Well, I'm going to take my doll, anyhow," said Flossie. "What's this all about?" asked Bert. "Are you going somewhere?" "Picnic!" exclaimed Flossie. "We're going to have a picnic!" "I'm going!" added Freddie, as though he was afraid of being left. "We all are," added Nan. "First I heard about it," Harry said, with a laugh. "We planned it while you and Bert were off fishing," spoke his mother. "The children are going to take their lunch to the woods in a day or two, as soon as the weather clears." A few days later the sun came out from behind the clouds, the rain ceased falling and with joyous shouts and laughter the Bobbsey twins, cousin Harry, and some country boys and girls, who had been invited, went off on a woodland picnic. CHAPTER VIII LOST IN THE HAY "Oh, isn't it just lovely in the woods," sighed Nan, as she sat down on a green mossy seat beneath a great oak tree. "I could live here forever!" "So could I!" exclaimed Mabel Herold. "There is no place so lovely as the woods." "You--you wouldn't stay here all night, would you?" asked Freddie, as he set down the basket of sandwiches he had been carrying, and looked at a dark hole under some bushes. "I wouldn't mind," sighed Nan again. "It is so lovely here." "I used to think I liked the seashore best," said Mabel, "but now I think the country is prettiest." "Well, I'm not going to stay here all night," decided Freddie. "There--there's bugs--and--and--things!" "I thought you weren't afraid of them," spoke Nan with a smile. "I--I meant in daytime--I'm not afraid then," declared Freddie. "But at night, why--why, I'd rather be home in bed." "And I guess we all would," exclaimed Nan, hugging the little fat fellow. "Oh, there goes a rabbit!" cried Bert to Harry. "Let's see if we can catch him!" "Come on!" agreed the country boy. "I'm with you!" shouted Tom Mason. "Oh, will they hurt the little bunny?" asked Flossie, with quivering lips, for she dearly loved all animals. "I guess there isn't much danger of them catching the rabbit," said Mr. Bobbsey, sitting down beside his wife in a shady green spot. "A bunny can hop very fast." And so it proved. The three boys raced about through the woods until they were quite tired, and very much heated up. But the rabbit got safely away. "Ah, well, we didn't want him anyhow," said Harry, fanning himself with his cap, after the chase. "No," agreed Bert, "we just wanted to see if we could get him." "My! It's warm!" exclaimed Tom, looking at the basket in which the lemonade was packed in bottles. "I'm very thirsty," he said. "You must not drink when you are too warm," advised Mr. Bobbsey. "Wait until you cool off a bit. If you take cold water, or icy lemonade, into your stomach after you are all heated up from running, you may be made ill. Rest a while before you drink, is good advice."