steam cooled off; which was true, as you
know if you have ever "felt" of the steam coming from a house radiator
on a cold day.

But as Bert stretched out his hand to test the steam as Bob had done,
Mr. Blipper called from where he stood talking to the driver of the last
truck.

"Stop monkeying with that engine, Bob!" yelled the red-faced man. "You
want to get it all out of kilter again!"

"I was only testin' the steam gauge," the boy answered.

"Well, you let it alone, do you hear, and water the horses."

"I have watered 'em!"

"Well, water 'em some more! I'm not going to stop again till I get to
the Bolton County Fair if I can help it."

"He's sort of cross, isn't he?" asked Charlie, as Bob moved off.

"More than that--he's mean!" declared the ragged lad.

Bert and his chums stood looking at the steam engine and listening to
the organ, while Nan and the smaller children danced. Then up came Mr.
Blipper.

"I guess this is a dollar's worth of music," he announced.

"I believe so," agreed Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "The children have
enjoyed it. Thank you!"

"Um!" grunted Mr. Blipper. "Here you, Bob!" he roared. "Come and shut
off this steam. We're going to travel!"

He climbed up on the seat, and Bob, after hanging the water pail on a
hook beneath the truck, shut off the engine. The organ ceased playing,
and the trucks containing the merry-go-round lumbered off.

"Good-by!" called the Bobbsey twins.

"Good-by!" echoed Bob Guess.

"I wonder if we'll ever see him again," murmured Bert.

And he was to see the strange lad again, under queer circumstances.

"Come, children, your ice cream will get cold!" called Mrs. Bobbsey, who
had come from the pavilion to summon the little guests.

"Ice cream get cold! Ha! Ha!" laughed Grace Lavine.

"I like mine cold," chuckled Dannie Rugg.

Back across the fields ran the merry, laughing children. The Sunday
school picnic, in spite of the danger at the bridge, had turned out most
wonderfully.

Soon the caravan of the merry-go-round was but a series of faint specks
down the dusty road. It was taking a route that would not take it across
the broken bridge.

The Bobbsey twins and their friends sat about eating ice cream and cake,
and some of them talked about the strange boy and the organ that was
played by steam.

"I'm going to have an organ like that when I grow up," said Freddie.

"An' I'm goin' to help you play it, an' ride on a lion," added Flossie,
and