ging to a horse and riding very fast, while a jockey on another
horse chased him.

"Oh, look! Freddie's in a race!" cried Flossie! "Oh, maybe Freddie will
win!"

"My goodness! how did this happen?" cried Mr. Bobbsey.

"Will he be hurt?" gasped Nan.

But just then, to the great relief of the Bobbsey family, the jockey
managed to come up alongside of Freddie's galloping horse. The jockey
reached over with one hand, caught Freddie by the seat of his little
trousers, and fairly lifted him off the back of the now excited horse.

Then, placing Freddie on the saddle in front of him, the jockey turned
his horse about and rode slowly back to the stand. Some of the
stablemen then ran out and caught the other horse.

"Why, Freddie! what in the world were you trying to do?" asked his
father, when the little boy was placed in his arms.

"I--I just wanted a ride," Freddie explained. "I got tired of ridin' on
wooden lions. I wanted a live horse."

"Well, he picked a lively one all right!" laughed a man in the crowd.
"That horse he rode has won every race, so far."

"You must never do such a thing again, Freddie," his father told him,
when the excitement had died down and the racing was once more started.
"Never again."

"No, I won't," Freddie promised. "But when I grow up I'm goin' to ride
horses, I am!"

"That will be a good while yet," laughed Bert.

"I'm glad your mother wasn't here," said Mr. Bobbsey. "She would have
almost fainted, I'm sure, if she had seen you out on the race track like
a regular jockey."

"Did I look like a jockey?" Freddie asked, eagerly.

"Well, not exactly," Bert said. "You didn't have any silk blouse on."

"I'll get Dinah to make me one when I go home," Freddie declared. "I'll
have a red one, I guess, and then if I get tired of ridin' horses I can
be a fireman."

"Well, I think we've had excitement enough for one day," remarked Mr.
Bobbsey. "We'll have something to eat, look around a little more, and
then go home."

"But we can come back again, can't we?" asked Bert. "I haven't seen the
balloon go up yet."

"Yes, we want to see that," added Harry.

"I'll bring you to the fair again to-morrow or next day," promised Mr.
Bobbsey. "I want to come back myself. I've met a number of men to-day
I'd like to talk with further. Then I'd like to have a talk with that
Mr. Blipper."

That night, at Meadow Brook Farm, Mr. Bobbsey and his wife, after the
children had gone to bed, talked over th