get tanned nice and brown. I laid
her down in a sunny place, and I went over under a tree to set the tea
table, and when I looked around I saw the gypsy man."

"Where was he?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.

"He was just getting out of one of the red wagons. And there was a
little gypsy girl in the wagon. She was pointing to my doll, and then
the man jumped down off the wagon steps, ran into the yard, picked up my
doll, and then he jumped into the wagon again and rode away. And he's
got my nice doll Mollie, and I want her back, and--oh, dear!" and Helen
began to cry again.

"Never mind," said Mr. Bobbsey quietly. "I'll try to get your doll back
again. How large was it?"

"Nearly as large as Helen herself," said Mrs. Porter. "I didn't want her
to play with it to-day but she took it."

"Yes, but now the gypsy man with rings in his ears--he took it,"
explained Helen. "He carried my doll off in his arms."

"Then it must have been the doll which Johnnie saw the gypsy man
carrying, and not Helen!" exclaimed Bert. "Did it look like a doll,
Johnnie?"

"Well, it might have been. It had light hair like Helen's, though."

"Helen's doll had light hair," said Mrs. Porter. "And probably if a
gypsy put the doll under his arm, and ran past any one it would look as
though he were carrying off a little girl. Especially as the doll
really had on a dress Helen used to wear when she was a baby."

"That is probably what happened," said Mr. Bobbsey. "The gypsy man's
little girl saw, from the wagon, the doll lying in the Lavine yard.
Gypsies are not as careful about taking what does not belong to them as
they might be. They often steal things, I'm afraid. And, seeing the big
doll lying under the tree----"

"Where I put her so she'd get tanned nice and brown," interrupted Helen.

"Just so," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "Seeing the doll under the tree, with no
one near, the gypsy man made up his mind to take her for his little
girl. This he did, and when he ran off with Mollie, Johnnie saw what
happened and thought Helen was being kidnapped.

"But I'm glad that wasn't so, though it's too bad Mollie has been taken
away. However, we'll try to get her back for you, Helen. Maybe the
gypsies took other things. If they did we'll send the police after them.
Now don't cry any more and I'll see what I can do."

"And will you get Mollie back?"

"I'll do my best," promised the Bobbsey twins' father.

There being nothing more he could do just then at the Porte