hought maybe you _might_ be like Robinson Crusoe,"
said Freddie, "and we were going in a ship to look for you on the
island, only I haven't money enough saved up in my bank."
"Bless your heart!" said Mr. Todd.
"I think this is what we will do," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We will stop at
your mother's house, get her and Tommy, and bring you all to my house."
"Oh, that is too much trouble!" said Mr. Todd.
"No, not at all. I want you to have a happy time, and we shall be happy
with you."
The automobile was stopped at the house by the dumps.
"I will go in first," said Mr. Bobbsey, "and tell your mother and boy
that I have good news for them. If she were to see you too suddenly,
your mother, who has not been well, might be taken ill again. I will
prepare her for the good news."
You can imagine how happy Tommy and his grandmother were when they
learned that Mr. Todd was alive. And when the shipwrecked sailor entered
the house Tommy fairly threw himself into his father's arms, while Mr.
Todd kissed him and kissed his mother in turn. Oh! they were very happy.
"We found him!" cried Freddie. "And he found us! And now everybody found
everybody else and nobody's lost!" Freddie was very much excited.
"Only I'm hungry," said Flossie.
The Todds and Mr. Bobbsey and the twins were soon at the Bobbsey home,
talking over what had happened. Mrs. Bobbsey became worried when Flossie
and Freddie did not come home after the storm started, and she sent Bert
to Mrs. Todd's house after them. But they had already left, and had
become lost.
"Well, now Freddie and I won't have to get a ship and go looking for
you," said Tommy, as he sat close to his father.
"No, indeed. All our troubles are over now."
And so they were. Mr. Todd had plenty of money to look after his mother
and son and a few days later he rented a nice house into which they
moved. He said he was never going to sea again. Then began happy days
for those who had spent so many unhappy ones.
Tommy no longer had to run errands for Mr. Bobbsey, to get money to help
support his grandmother. He often came to play with Bert, Nan, Flossie
and Freddie, and the Bobbsey twins never grew tired of hearing Mr. Todd
tell of how he was shipwrecked.
The Winter wore on. Christmas came. And what a happy one it was for the
Todd family, as well as for the Bobbsey twins!
"We had as much fun at home this Winter as we did in the Summer at
Meadow Brook," said Nan.
Winter or summer,
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