and from there visit the fair.
Would you like that?" he asked his wife.

"I think it would be lovely!"

"So do I!" echoed the Bobbsey twins.

"Well, then, we'll think about it," promised their father. "You will
have some happy days to think about until it is time to go. And now I
think it is time for my little Fairy and my brave Fireman to go to bed."
Daddy Bobbsey sometimes called the small twins by these pet names. "Come
on! Up to bed!" he called. "We'll talk more about the Bolton County Fair
another day!"

As he was carrying the smaller children up to bed, a style of travel the
little twins loved, there came a ring at the front door bell. Dinah, who
answered, came back to say:

"Dere's a p'liceman outside whut wants to see yo', Mr. Bobbsey."

"A policeman?"

"Yas, sah!"

"A policeman for me?"

"Yas, sah!"

"Dear me!" Mr. Bobbsey murmured. "What can be the matter now!"

"Oh, Daddy!" squealed Flossie, at once filled with excitement.

"What do you suppose----" began Bert, and then stopped in the midst of
his speech.

"Maybe he has found your lost coat," suggested Nan, as her father put
Flossie and Freddie down in an easy chair.

CHAPTER VII

THE CRYING BOY

There had been so much excitement over the strange "animal" which Snoop
had under the table that, for a time, the Bobbsey twins had forgotten
about their father's coat having been taken at the picnic. Nor had they
remembered about the missing lap robe. But now, as Nan said this, every
one--except perhaps the smaller twins--thought about the things that
were gone.

"Oh, that's so!" exclaimed Bert, following what his sister said. "Maybe
the policeman has come to bring back your lost coat, Daddy!"

"I hope he has," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Not only do I not want to lose the
coat, for a suit of clothes isn't of much use without a coat, but I
don't like to lose the money and papers."

"No, sah, Mr. Bobbsey, de p'liceman didn't hab no coat," said Dinah.

"He didn't?" remarked Mr. Bobbsey.

"No, sah. He didn't."

"Well then, I can't imagine what he wants," went on the father of the
Bobbsey twins. "Ask him to come in, Dinah."

In came the policeman. He was one the children knew, from having often
seen him pass the house.

"Good evening, Mr. Bobbsey," said the officer, the light flashing on his
brass buttons. "I came up to see about a lap robe stolen from your
auto."

"Did you find it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm so glad! And did you find
M