ong it.

The twins had taken their lunch and were to have a sort of picnic in the
woods. They rode under the green trees, stopped to gather flowers, and
Nan made a wreath of ferns which she put over Whisker's horns, making
him look very funny, indeed. Then the twins found a nice grassy spot
near a spring of water, and sat down to eat the good things Dinah had
put up for their lunch.

Freddie had taken one bite of a chicken sandwich when, all of a sudden,
there was a noise in the bushes near him, and a queer face peered out.
Freddie gave one look at it, and, dropping his piece of bread and
chicken, cried:

"Oh, it's a blueberry boy! It's a blueberry boy! Oh, look!"

CHAPTER XII

THE DRIFTING BOAT

At first Nan and Bert did not know whether Freddie was playing some
trick or not. Flossie had gone down to the spring to get a cupful of
water, and so was not near her little brother when he gave the cry of
alarm.

But Bert looked up and had a glimpse of what had startled Freddie.
Certainly there was a queer, blue face staring at the three twins from
over the top of the bushes. And the face did not go away as they looked
at it.

"A blueberry boy! What in the world is a blueberry boy?" asked Nan.

"There he is!" cried Freddie, pointing. "He's been picking blueberries.
That's why I call him a blueberry boy."

"Yes, and he's been eating them, too, I guess," added Bert. "Did you
want anything of us?" he asked of the stranger.

By this time Flossie had come back with the water--that is, what she had
not spilled of it--and she, too, saw the strange boy.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name's Tom," was the answer. "What's yours?"

"Flossie Bobbsey, an' I'm a twin an' we're campin' on this island, and
we had some bugs that went around and around and----"

"Flossie, come here," called Nan. She did not want her little sister to
talk too much to the strange boy. Nan had an idea the boy might belong
to the gypsies.

"I saw him first," put in Freddie. "I saw his face all covered with
blueberries, and I dropped my standwich--I did."

He began looking on the ground for what he had been eating, but finding,
when he picked up the bread and bits of chicken, that ants were crawling
all over the "standwich," he tossed it away again.

"Aw, what'd you do that for?" asked Tom, the blueberry boy. "That was
good to eat! Ain't you hungry?"

"Yes, but I don't like ants," returned Freddie. "'Sides, there's more
to eat in