coming quickly toward them. She held
out her arms and cried:

"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Why, what's the matter?" asked Flossie.

"I can't just say," answered her mother; "but Helen Porter can't be
found. Her mother has looked everywhere for her, but can't find her."

"She's been carried off by the gypsies!" exclaimed John Marsh, an
excited boy about Bert's age. "The gypsies took her! I saw 'em!"

"You did?" asked Bert.

"Sure I did! A man! Dark, with a red sash on, and gold rings in his
ears! He picked Helen up in his arms and went off with her! She's in one
of the gypsy wagons now!"

When John told this Flossie and Freddie huddled closer to their mother.

CHAPTER II

A SURPRISE

"What's all this? What's the matter?" asked a voice on the outside
fringe of the crowd that had gathered in front of the Bobbsey home, and,
looking up, Bert saw his father coming down the street from the
direction of his lumberyard. "Has anything happened?" asked Mr. Bobbsey,
after a glance had shown him that his own little family was safe and
sound.

"Dere suah has lots done gone an' happened, Mistah Bobbsey," answered
fat Dinah. "Oh, de pore honey lamb! Jest t' think ob it!"

"But who is it? What has happened?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, looking about for
some one to answer him. Flossie and Freddie decided they would do this.

"It's gypsies," said the little "fat fireman," as his father sometimes
called Freddie.

"And they carried off Helen Porter," added the little "fat fairy," which
was Flossie's pet name. "An' I saw the wagons, all lookin' glasses, an'
Freddie an' I are goin' to be gypsies when we grow up." Flossie was so
excited that she dropped a lot of "g" letters from the ends of words
where they belonged.

"You don't mean to say that the gypsies have carried off Helen
Porter--the little girl who lives next door?" asked Mr. Bobbsey in great
surprise.

"Yep! They did! I saw 'em!" exclaimed John Marsh. "She had curly hair,
and when the gypsy man tooked her in his arms she cried, Helen did!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Flossie, Freddie and other children in the crowd.

"There must be some mistake," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Those gypsies would
never take away a child, even in fun, in broad daylight. It must be a
mistake. Let me hear more about it."

And while the father of the Bobbsey twins is trying to find out just
what had happened, I will take a few minutes to let my readers know
something of the twins themselves, for th