you look for them on the floor of the tent, Freddie?"

"No, I didn't."

"Come on, we'll have a look," Bert said. He dropped the shovel with
which he had been digging for worms and ran over to his little brother.
He took the box from Freddie.

"That must have been smashed in the moving," Bert said to his father.

"No, it wasn't smashed," Freddie said, hearing what Bert remarked to Mr.
Bobbsey. "Flossie and I were playing with the bugs yesterday after we
got here, and the box wasn't broken then. It was all right, and so were
the go-around bugs. But now they're gone!"

"Maybe the box fell off a table or something," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and
broke that way. We'll look on the floor of the tent for your bugs, my
little fat fireman."

But no bugs were to be found after a careful search had been made, and
Freddie and Flossie were quite disappointed.

"We can't go fishing if we can't find any bugs for to bait the hooks,"
said Freddie, tears in his blue eyes.

"Never mind," his father answered. "The tin bugs wouldn't have caught
many fish, and if we don't find your toys I'll get you some more when I
go to town. You and Bert had better keep on digging the worms, I guess.
They're better for fish."

"And I'll pick 'em up," offered Flossie. She was a queer little child in
some ways, not afraid of bugs and "crawly things."

It did not take Freddie or Flossie long to forget what had made them
unhappy, and though for a time they were sorry about the loss of the
bugs, they soon became so interested in helping Bert dig for worms that
they were quite jolly again.

"Here's an awful fat one, Flossie!" cried Freddie. "Pick that one up
just terribly careful-like. I'm going to save him for my hook, and maybe
I'll get the biggest fish of all."

"How'll you know where to find this one when you want it, I'd like to
know, Freddie Bobbsey?" returned his sister.

"Tie a blue ribbon on it," suggested Bert.

"Yes, we might," said Flossie slowly. "Maybe Nan has a ribbon. I'll
ask."

Bert laughed and said:

"I was just fooling, little fat fairy. I don't believe you can do that."

"I don't see why," dissented Freddie. "We can try, anyway. Here, I have
a red string in my pocket. That'll do better than a ribbon."

He pulled out the string, and the two smaller children tied it around
the middle of the earthworm, but, much to Flossie's dismay, they tied it
so tightly that it almost cut the worm in two.

"Oh, Freddie Bobbsey! You fix that