," offered Bert to his father. "Maybe you would want me
to go on an errand."

"Yes, take Bert with you," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'll look after Nan,
Flossie and Freddie. And be sure to tell Mrs. Porter that if I can do
anything for her I will."

"I'll tell her," and then Mr. Bobbsey, with Bert, walked to the Porter
house next door.

The crowd in the street grew larger, and there was much talk about the
gypsies. Some said that several little boys and girls had been carried
off, but, of course, this was not so.

As Flossie and Freddie tore on toward the house in front of fat Dinah,
they continued to chatter about the gypsies.

"If gypsies take little girls we don't want to be them--the gypsies, I
mean--Freddie."

"Humph-umph; that's so. Well, I guess we'll be in a circus anyhow.
That'll be more fun. You can ride a horse in the ring, and sometimes I
can ride with you and sometimes I can be a clown. When I'm a clown I can
squirt water from my fire engine over the other clowns. That'll make the
folks holler and laugh."

When Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey reached the house each of the little twins was
munching on a piece of maple sugar, given them by Dinah to keep them
from nibbling at the pudding before the time to serve it came.

"My, Momsie! aren't you glad the gypsies came and got Helen Porter? It
gives us something to think about," remarked Freddie coolly.

"Freddie Bobbsey!" gasped his mother. "No, I am not glad the gypsies got
Helen--if they did. And you and Flossie find enough to think about, as
it is. And give the rest of us enough to think about, what is more."

"There go daddy and Bert into Mrs. Porter's house now," said Nan.

"Now tell me just what happened, and I'll do all I can to help you,"
said Mr. Bobbsey to Mrs. Porter, when he got to her house and found her
half crying in the sitting-room where there were a number of other
women.

"Oh, Helen is gone, I'm sure she is!" cried the mother. "The gypsies
have taken her! I'll never see her again!"

"Oh, yes you will," said Mr. Bobbsey in mild tones. "I'm sure it's all a
mistake. The gypsies haven't taken her at all. What makes you think
so?"

"Johnnie Marsh saw them carry her away."

"Then let's have Johnnie in here where we can talk to him. Bert, suppose
you do one of those errands you spoke of," said his father with a smile,
"and bring Johnnie in out of the crowd where I can talk to him quietly."

John, or Johnnie, as he was often called, was very ready