e.
The two smaller twins and their little friends were soon having a good
time in the yard. It was the morning after the family had come home from
Meadow Brook.

"Did you have a good time in the country?" asked Alice of Flossie.

"Oh, didn't we just though! It was--_scrumptious_!"

"And false-face robbers stopped the train coming home," added Freddie.
"Only it was make-believe."

"I wish I'd been there," said Johnnie, after Freddie had told about it.
"We went up to a lake this Summer. Nothing much happened there except I
fell in and most drowned."

"I call _that_ something," said Freddie. "I fell in a brook, but it
wasn't deep."

"The lake's awful deep," went on Johnnie. "It hasn't any bottom."

"It's got to have a bottom, or all the water would drop out, and then it
wouldn't be a lake," said Freddie.

"Well, maybe it has," admitted his friend. "Anyhow, the bottom's awful
far down. I didn't get to it and I was in the water a good while. It's a
awful deep lake."

"It isn't as deep as the ocean," Freddie said, "and I'm going on the
ocean in a ship."

"Are you? When?" asked Johnnie.

"When Tommy Todd and I start to look for his father. His father is lost
at sea on a desert island, like Robinson Crusoe, and we're going to find
him."

"Take me along!" begged Johnnie. "I'm not afraid of the ocean, even if
it's deeper'n the lake. Take me with you."

Freddie thought about it carefully.

"Well, you may come if the ship is big enough," he said. "I promised to
let Flossie come. She's going to cook. Oh, no, Dinah's going to cook. I
forgot about that. We'll have to get a bigger ship, I guess, so's to
make room for Dinah. I guess you may come, Johnnie. I haven't counted
how much money I've saved up, but I will soon."

"Is Tommy Dodd going to help buy the ship?" asked Johnnie.

"His name isn't _Dodd_, it's _Todd_," explained Freddie. "But he can't
put in much money I guess, 'cause he's poor. He's a fresh air boy, but
he's nice. He runs errands for Mr. Fitch, the grocer. We met Tommy on
the train."

"Then if you put in the most money to buy the ship more'n half of it
will be yours," said Johnnie, "and you can take as many as you like."

"No, half of the ship is going to be Tommy's," insisted the little
Bobbsey twin, "'Cause it's his father we're going after, you see."

"That's so," admitted Johnnie. "Well, I'm coming anyhow. I'll put in
some money to buy things to eat."

"That'll be nice," said Freddie. "I fo