The children were delighted to talk to a real live man that had been up in a balloon, and the balloonist was indeed very pleasant with the little ones. He took Freddie up in his arms and told him all about how it felt to be up in the sky.
"You"re a truly fireman!" Freddie said, after listening to all the dangers there are so far above ground. "I"m a real fireman too!"
Just then the balloon that had been tossing about in the air came down in the other end of the orchard.
"Well, there!" exclaimed the man. "That"s good luck. Now, whichever one of you boys gets that balloon first will get ten dollars. That"s what we pay for bringing it back!"
With a dash every boy started for the spot where the balloon had landed. There were quite a few others besides the Bobbseys, and they tumbled over each other trying to get there first. Ned Prentice, Nettie"s brother, was one of the best runners, and he cut across the orchard to get a clear way out of the crowd.
"Go it, Bert!" called John.
"Keep it up, Harry!" yelled someone else.
"You"d get it, Tom!" came another voice.
But Ned was not in the regular race, and n.o.body noticed him.
"They"ve got it," called the excited girls.
"It"s Harry!"
"No, it"s Bert!"
""Tisn"t either--it"s Ned!" called John, as the only poor boy in the crowd proudly touched the big empty gas-bag!
"Three cheers for Ned!" called Uncle Daniel, for he and Mr. Bobbsey had joined in the crowd.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted all the boys good-naturedly, for Ned was a favorite companion, besides being one who really needed the money.
"Suppose we drive down," Uncle Daniel suggested. "Then we can bring Ned back with his ten dollars."
This was agreed upon as a good plan, and as quickly as John had hitched up the big wagon ail the boys piled in with the aeronaut and started for the grove.
CHAPTER XI
THE LITTLE GARDENERS
When little Ned Prentice put the ten-dollar bill in his mother"s hand, on that pleasant Fourth of July evening, he felt like a man. His mother could hardly believe the story of Ned"s getting the money just for finding a balloon, but when it was explained how valuable the balloon was, and how it sometimes takes days of searching in the woods to find one after the balloonist lets go and drops down with his parachute, she was finally convinced that the money rightfully belonged to Ned.
"No one needs it more than I do," Mrs. Prentice told Mr. Bobbsey, who had brought Ned home in the wagon, "for since the baby was sick we have hardly been able to meet our bills, it cost so much for medicine."
"We were all glad when Ned got there first,"
Harry said politely, "because we knew he deserved the reward most."
As Ned was a poor boy, and had to work on farms during vacation, his father being dead and only one brother being old enough to go to work, the reward turned out a great blessing, for ten dollars is a good deal of money for a little boy to earn at one time.
"Be sure to come up to our fireworks tonight," Harry called, as they drove away, and Ned promptly accepted the invitation.
"It has certainly been a great Fourth of July!" Uncle Daniel exclaimed, later in the evening when the children fired off their Roman candles and sky rockets and burned the red fire. The little children had beautiful pinwheels and "n.i.g.g.e.r chasers" that they put off on the porch. Then Nan had a big fire balloon that she sent up, and they watched it until it was out of sight, away over the pond and clear out of Meadow Brook.
It was a very tired lot of children that rolled off to sleep that night, for indeed it had been a great day for them all.
For a few days after the Fourth it rained, as it always does, on account of all the noise that goes up in the air to shake the clouds.
"You can play in the coach house," Aunt Sarah told the children, "but be careful not to run in and out and get wet." The children promised to remember, and soon they were all out in the big wagon house playing merrily. Freddie climbed in the wagon and made believe it was a "big fire engine." Bert attached a bell on the side for him, and when he pulled a rope this bell would clang like a chemical apparatus. Nan and Flossie had all their dolls in the pretty new carriage with the soft gray cushions, and in this the little girls made believe driving to New York and doing some wonderful shopping.
"Freddie, you be coachman," coaxed Flossie, "because we are inside and have to have someone drive us."
"But who will put out all the fires?" Freddie asked, as he clanged the bell vigorously.
"Make b"lieve they are all out," Flossie told him.
"But you can"t make b"lieve about fires," argued the little fellow, ""cause they"re really."
"I tell you," Nan suggested. "We will suppose this is a great big high tally-ho party, and the ladies always drive them. I"ll be away up high on the box, but we ought to have someone blow a horn!"
"I"ll blow the horn," Freddie finally gave in, "cause I got that big fire out now."
So Freddie climbed up on the high coach with his sisters, and blew the horn until Nan told them they had reached New York and were going to stop for dinner.
There were so many splendid things to play with in the coach house, tables, chairs, and everything, that the Bobbseys hardly knew it before it was lunch time, the morning pa.s.sed so quickly.
It cleared up in the afternoon and John asked the children if they wanted to help him do some transplanting.
"Oh! we would love to," Nan answered, for she did love gardening.
The ground was just right for transplanting, after the rain, and the tender little lettuce plants were as easy to take up as they were to put down again.
"I say, Nan," John told her, "you can have that little patch over there for your garden. I"ll give you a couple of dozen plants, and we will see what kind of a farmer you will make."
"Oh, thank you, John," Nan answered. "I"ll do just as I have seen you doing," and she began to take the little plants in the pasteboard box from one bed to the other.
"Be careful not to shake the dirt off the roots," said John, "and be sure to put one plant in each place. Put them as far apart here as the length of this little stick, and when you put them in the ground press the earth firmly around the roots."
Flossie was delighted to help her sister, and the two girls made a very nice garden indeed.
"Let"s put little stones around the path," Flossie suggested, and John said they could do this if they would be careful not to let the stones get on the garden.
"I want to be a planter too," called Freddie, running up the path to John. "But I want to plant radishes," he continued, ""cause they"re the reddist."
"Well, you just wait a few minutes, sonny," said John, "and I"ll show you how to plant radishes. I"ll be through with this lettuce in a few minutes."
Freddie waited with some impatience, running first to Nan"s garden then back to John"s. Finally John was ready to put in a late crop of radishes.
"Now, you see, we make a long drill like this," John explained as he took the drill and made a furrow in the soft ground.