Part 20 (1/2)

”I say!” called one of the men who had been turning the crank of the moving picture camera. ”I say, Mr. Weston, I got the picture of the boy falling in the water on this film. I couldn't help it.”

”That's all right,” said the manager. ”It won't spoil the picture any.

It will only make it look more natural.”

”And it's natural for Freddie to be wet;” said Bert, with a laugh.

”He's always playing with that toy fire engine of his, and getting soaked.”

”But I didn't have the fire engine this time, Bert,” said the chubby little chap. ”I--I fell in!”

”You poor little dear!” exclaimed the actress-schoolteacher, putting her arms around him. ”It was all my fault, too!”

”No, it was mine,” said Freddie, generously. ”I don't mind. I like being wet!”

They all laughed at this. Mrs. Bobbsey said Freddie wanted to be polite.

A few more pictures were made of the village children, the Bobbsey twins, with the exception of Freddie, taking part. Freddie was hurried off by his mother to the farmhouse to be put into dry clothes.

Then, with thanks to those who had helped make the scenes, Mr. Weston, Miss Burns and the camera man went back to the village hotel where they were stopping.

”Wasn't it great, Bert!” exclaimed Harry, as he and his cousin strolled over the fields.

”It certainly was,” agreed Bert.

”If we could only see the pictures when they are finished,” suggested Mabel Herold. ”It must be queer to see yourself in the movies.”

”I think so, too,” said Nan. ”I'm going to find out where this play will be shown, in some theatre, and maybe mamma will take us to it.”

”I hope she does,” Bert said. ”It will be fun to see Freddie falling in.”

”Poor little fellow!” murmured Nan.

”But he was real brave,” Mabel added.

For several days the Bobbsey twins, their cousin and their country friends talked of the moving pictures in which they had had a part.

They went again to the valley, where more scenes were being made, but none were as exciting as the sham-battle.

”Aren't they going to shoot any more guns?” asked Freddie, his eyes big and s.h.i.+ning with the hope of excitement.

”I guess that's all over,” spoke Bert.

”And I'm glad of it,” Nan declared.

”So am I,” exclaimed Flossie, looking around as though she would hear a boom from a cannon.

One day Bert and Harry went alone to the place where the moving picture company had erected tents and log cabins in the valley. They found the men packing things up, taking down the tents and knocking apart the wooden cabins.

”Are you all through?” Bert asked Mr. Weston.

”All through, my lad,” was the answer. ”We are going to another place soon, to get different moving pictures. But we'll be here for a day or two yet, at least some of the camera men will. They have to take pictures of a circus parade.”