"Oh, what fun we'll have!" sang Flossie. "What lovely times!" "And I'm going to take my fire engine, and squirt water in it from the brook," declared Freddie. "Well, be careful not to fall in," his father said. "And now I shall have to go back to the office again, to do a little work so as to get ready for going away again. So I'll leave my little fat fireman and fat fairy for a while," and he smiled at Freddie and Flossie, as he called them by their pet names. As the Bobbseys were to leave town soon, they did not unpack very much from the valises they had brought from the houseboat. This boat was tied up at a dock in the lumber yard, which was on the edge of the lake. The children spent the morning playing about in the yard, some of their friends, who had not gone away for the summer, coming to join in their games. After lunch Mr. Bobbsey came up to the house in an automobile, bringing his wife some things she had asked him to get from the store. "Oh, may I have a ride?" begged Freddie, when he saw his father in the machine, which Mr. Bobbsey and some of the other members of his lumber firm used when they were in a hurry. "Yes, jump in!" invited his father. "Want to come, Bert?" he asked of the older Bobbsey boy. "Yes, thank you," was the answer. "Where are you going?" "I have to go up the lake shore, to a place called Tenbly, to see another lumber dealer on some business," Mr. Bobbsey said. "Where are Nan and Flossie?" he asked his wife, who had come out on the porch just then. "I could take them along also. There is plenty of room." "Flossie and Nan have gone over to Mrs. Black's house," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "Run along without them. It's just as well. I'd rather they wouldn't be out in the hot sun, as we have to take a long train journey to-morrow." "All right," agreed Mr. Bobbsey, as he started off in the automobile with Freddie and Bert. "We'll soon be back." Neither Mr. Bobbsey nor the boys knew what was to happen on that ride, nor how it was to affect them afterward. CHAPTER III THE RUNAWAY BOY It was a pleasant trip for Freddie and Bert to ride with their father in the automobile along the shady shores of the lake. The little twin, and the bigger one, sat back on the cushions, now and then bouncing up and down as the machine went over a rough place in the road. Freddie, being lighter than Bert, bounced up and down oftener, but then he was so fat, almost "like a lump of butter," as his mother used to say, that he did not much mind it. "I wish we could take this machine to Meadow Brook Farm with us," said Bert, as they neared the lumber yard of Mr. Mason, with whom Mr. Bobbsey had business that day. "We can ride in one of Uncle Daniel's carriages," said Freddie. "Or maybe I can ride horse-back. That would be fun!" he cried, his bright eyes sparkling. "It's fun--if you don't fall off," Bert said.