Part 23 (1/2)
”Wouldn't you let me paddle with you?” asked Nan. ”I know how--a little.”
”Sure I'll let you,” agreed her brother. ”Oh, I do hope Dad will let us go camping!”
Mr. Bobbsey came in a little later, and he liked the store camp very much.
He said he and his wife had talked of going to a camp in the Summer, and taking the children with them, but it was not all settled as yet.
”There's no better fun than camping out,” said Mr. Whipple. ”I used to do it when I was a boy, and I made up my mind that if ever I kept a store, which I always wanted to do, I'd sell camping things in it. And that's just what I'm doing,” he added with a laugh.
”Doesn't this place make you think of our woods at home?” asked Nan of Bert.
”Yes, it does look like the woods around Lake Metoka,” was his answer.
”And it's just like the place where Uncle Jack has his camp!” cried Freddie.
”Have the children an uncle who is a camper?” asked Mr. Whipple.
”No,” answered Mr. Bobbsey, ”but there is an old woodchopper, who lives in a log cabin near our town of Lakeport. He makes a living by chopping firewood. He lives all alone, and really sort of camps out. Every one calls him Uncle Jack. He was very good to Flossie and Freddie one day when they fell out of Bert's ice-boat.
”Poor Uncle Jack!” went on Mr. Bobbsey, with a sigh. ”I am sorry to say I have bad news about him,” he went on to his wife, but the children heard, though he spoke in a low voice.
”Uncle Jack!” cried Nan. ”I hope he isn't dead!”
”No,” answered her father, ”but he is very ill, and he must go to a hospital, I am told. It's too bad about him.”
CHAPTER XVI
THE BIG ELEPHANT
”What's the matter with Uncle Jack?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, ”and how did you hear about him, Richard?” she asked her husband.
”I had a letter from my bookkeeper,” was the answer. ”Before we came away I left word that the poor old man must be looked after, and I arranged to have news of him sent on to me. To-day I got a letter which says he is much worse than he has been, and really needs to go to a hospital. I think I shall have to raise the money to send him.”
”Who is he?” asked Mr. Whipple. ”I am interested. Who is this Uncle Jack?”
”He's just the nicest man!” cried Flossie. ”He took us in when Freddie upset the ice-boat, and----”
”I didn't upset the ice-boat--it upset _itself!_” Freddie cried.
”Easy now, children! Don't dispute,” said Mrs. Bobbsey gently.
”Uncle Jack is quite a character around Lakeport,” went on Mr. Bobbsey. ”I don't know all his story, but he has lived in the woods for a number of years. Where he was before that I don't know.”
”He don't know hardly anything about his folks, Daddy!” piped up Freddie.
”How do you know?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
”He told us so,” put in Flossie. ”It was that day he took us in his house, after we got spilled from the ice-boat.”