On their way home the Bobbseys had met Mr. Weston with his moving picture camera. He said he had made several fine views of the circus. "What about _our_ pictures?" asked Nan. "The ones you took of us children near the school?" "They will soon be finished," said Mr. Weston. "And when they are ready to be shown, I shall send your father word, so he may bring you, and let you look at yourselves on the white screen in our moving picture theatre. Won't you like that?" "That will be great!" cried Bert. "I never saw myself in moving pictures." "Nor I," said Nan. Back in the pleasant farmhouse that evening all the happenings of the day were gone over again, until Mrs. Bobbsey, noticing that Flossie and Freddie were nodding their heads, and blinking their eyes real often, said: "Come now, little tots, time you were in bed. To-morrow is another day." "I'm going to take my balloon to bed with me," said Freddie. "So am I!" exclaimed Flossie, who wanted to do as many things as did her brother. "Oh, I wouldn't," their mother said. "Leave the balloons here until morning." "And then we'll have a balloon race," proposed Bert. "What's a balloon race?" Freddie wanted to know. "No more talk to-night, little fat fireman!" said his mother. "Off to bed you go!" and he and Flossie were "packed off," the other children coming soon after. Freddie and Flossie were up bright and early next morning, out playing with their balloons before breakfast. They tied long threads to them, and let them float above the trees. "When will we have the balloon race?" asked Freddie. "Whenever you like," Bert answered. "Only to have a race you have to let your balloon sail off, without any string fast to it, and you will not get it back again." At first Freddie would not hear of that, but finally he and Flossie became tired of the toy circus balloons, and came to Bert to beg him to make a race for them. Bert cut the string off both balloons. Freddie's was red and Flossie's blue. "Now we'll let go of both balloons at the same time," Bert explained, "and the balloon that goes up highest will win the race. Now watch, everyone!" They all watched, as Bert let go the toys, one from either hand. Up, up, up, went the red and blue balloons. "Oh, mine's going faster!" cried Freddie. "No, mine is!" exclaimed Flossie. And, for a time first the red balloon would be ahead, and then the blue one. But finally they both were at exactly the same height, and in that way they sailed onward and upward until they were only little specks in the blue sky, so no one could tell which one was ahead in the race. It was while the children were out in the yard in front of the Meadow Brook farmhouse, watching the disappearing balloons, that Bert heard a stranger's voice calling. "I say, do you children know where there is a circus around here?" was the question, and, turning, Nan, Bert and the others saw a man in a carriage, on the road just outside the fence. "A circus?" repeated Bert.