oon up?" he anxiously asked his father.

Mr. Bobbsey looked at the sky.

"To my mind," he said, "I think there is going to be a storm. I'm afraid
the wind will keep on blowing harder all day. Of course I don't know how
strong a wind it takes to keep a balloon man from going up, but I should
say there would be danger in going up to-day."

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bert. "I wanted to see the man go up in the
balloon!"

"So did I!" added Harry. "But maybe the wind will die out."

However, it did not, and it was still blowing rather hard when the fair
grounds were reached.

"Never mind," said Mrs. Bobbsey, when she saw how disappointed Harry
and Bert seemed to feel. "If the balloon doesn't go up to-day it will
to-morrow, and we can come again. There are plenty of other things to
look at besides balloons."

"I'd like to go to see some of the big vegetables and the fruits, and
look at the patchwork quilts and the lace," said Nan.

"Very well," agreed her father. "We'll go there first, and maybe by that
time the wind will have died down. But I hardly think so."

Truth to tell Bert and Harry did not care much for the big pumpkins,
squashes, and other vegetables. And they hardly looked at the fancy work
in which Nan and her mother took an interest.

"Oh, wouldn't this make a dandy jack-o'-lantern!" cried Freddie, as he
crawled under a railing around a platform, on which were many large
vegetables. "Look what a big pumpkin!"

"Freddie, you mustn't go in there," called his mother. "Come out. Don't
touch that big pumpkin."

But it was too late! Freddie was already on the wooden platform, and he
was rolling the pumpkin. It was almost perfectly round, and the little
fellow could easily move it.

"Come away!" called Mr. Bobbsey, adding his voice to that of his wife.

"I want to see if I can lift this pumpkin!" exclaimed Freddie.

And then, suddenly, the big pumpkin rolled off the platform, toward the
back of the tent.

"Get it, Freddie! Get it!" cried Bert, for he knew the pumpkin was on
exhibition in order to take a prize, if possible. It would be too bad if
anything happened to it.

Freddie made a dive for the big, yellow vegetable, but, as it happened,
the tent stood on the top of a hill. And as the pumpkin rolled off the
platform it slipped under the tent and began going down the grassy hill
outside.

"Whoa! Whoa!" called Freddie, as he had called to the race horse that
had walked out on the track with him. "Who