eddie said,
forgetting his fright, now that the "big folks" were up, and the light
in the tent was turned higher.

They could hear Mr. Bobbsey walking around outside, and they heard him
speaking to the goat who bleated again. Mr. Bobbsey was as fond of
animals as were his children, and Whisker was almost like a dog, he was
so tame and gentle.

"Was the goat loose, Daddy?" asked Nan, when her father came back into
the tent.

"No, he was tied all right in his little stable. It wasn't Whisker who
brushed against Freddie, if, indeed, anything did."

"Something _did_!" declared the small boy. "Didn't I wake up?"

"Well, you might have dreamed it," said Nan. "You often talk in your
sleep, I know."

"I did feel something bump me," declared Freddie, and nothing the others
could say would make him change his idea.

"Did you see anything?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey in a low voice of her husband
when the twins were in their beds again. Flossie's and Freddie's cots
were moved over nearer to those of their parents', and they had dropped
off to slumber again, after getting drinks of water.

"Well, I rather think I did," answered Mr. Bobbsey in a low voice.

"You did! What?"

"I don't know whether it was a horse or a man, but it was something. It
was so dark I couldn't see well, and the trees and bushes come up around
the tents."

"How could it be a horse?"

"It might have been the one that belongs to Mr. Dalton. If the horse
were walking around, cropping grass wherever he could find it, he might
have brushed past the side of the tent and so have disturbed Freddie."

"Yes, I suppose so," agreed Mrs. Bobbsey. "But couldn't you tell a horse
from a man?"

"No, it was too dark. I only just saw a shadow moving away from the
tents as I stepped out."

"And was Whisker all right?"

"Yes, though I guess he was lonesome. He tried to follow me back here
when I left him."

"I suppose Whisker misses the children," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But do you
think it could be a man who was wandering about our tents?"

"It _could_ be--yes."

"One of the gypsies?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say as to that. In fact, I don't believe the gypsies are
anywhere around here. The children have that notion in their heads, but
I don't believe in it. Perhaps it was a blueberry picker who was lost."

"But if he was lost, and saw our tents, he'd stop and ask to be set on
the right road," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Besides, blueberries won't be
ripe for another week or