some of the houses down the street," said Nan. "Sometimes
the children coax him in to play with them, and he forgets to come home
because they make such a fuss over him."

"Here's Snoop, anyhow!" cried Freddie, coming out of the barn with the
big black cat in his arms. "He can go to camp with us."

"But we want Snap, too!" added Flossie. "We need a dog to keep the
gypsies away."

"There won't be any gypsies on Blueberry Island!" Bert reminded them.

"You can't tell," declared Freddie.

"Maybe there'll be one or two, an' I don't want them to take my doll the
way they did Helen's," added Flossie.

"Didn't Helen get her doll back?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, coming out of the
house in time to hear what the children were saying.

"No'm, and she feels awful sad," replied Flossie. "And now the gypsies
has took Snap."

"The gypsies have _taken_ Snap--really, Flossie, you must speak more
correctly," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But what do you mean about Snap's being
taken?"

"He seems to be gone," reported Bert.

"We've looked everywhere for him, and now we're going to ask down the
street," added Nan.

"But we've got Snoop," said Flossie, and so it was. "We"--that is, she
and Freddie both--had the big black cat, one twin carrying the head and
the other twin the hind legs. But Snoop was often carried that way and
he did not mind.

"Snap not here? That is odd," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Have you whistled and
called to him?"

"Every way we know," replied Bert. "Listen!" and, putting his fingers in
his mouth, he gave such a shrill whistle that his mother and Nan had to
cover their ears, while fat Dinah, waddling to her kitchen window,
cried:

"Good land ob massy! What am dat--a fire whistle?"

"I can whistle like that!" shouted Freddie, dropping his end of the
black cat. As it happened to be the head end he was carrying, this left
the hind legs to Flossie and poor Snoop was thus dangling head down.

"Miaou!" he cried sadly, and then he gave a wriggle, and another one,
and got loose.

Freddie made a sort of hissing sound on his fingers--not at all a nice,
loud whistle as Bert had done--but it was pretty good for a little
fellow.

"He ought to hear that," Bert said, when he was done blowing his call,
and his mother and sister had uncovered their ears. "But he doesn't
come."

"Did you ask Dinah about him?" Mrs. Bobbsey questioned.

"Yes, and she said----Oh, she said something about a peddler!" cried
Nan. "We forgot to ask her w