“He’s Mr. Richard Bobbsey, of Lakeport,” said Flossie, “and my mother and sister and brother are with him.  My sister is Nan and my brother is Bert.  This is my brother, Freddie.”

“Well, now I guess I know the whole family,” laughed the guard, the other passengers joining in a smile.  “I’ll see if I can find your folks for you, though it’s queer they haven’t been looking for you themselves.  You stay here.”

The guard started to go through the other cars of the elevated train, and Freddie called after him: 

“If you find my father, please tell him to open the box and take out the yellow bug.”

“The yellow bug?” repeated the guard in some surprise.  “Is your father an animal trainer?”

“Oh, no,” said Flossie, seriously.  “Freddie means one of the tin bugs that go around and around and around.  And, if you please, I want a green one.”

“Say, I wonder what kind of children these are, anyhow,” murmured the guard.  “Guess they must belong to a theatre or a circus.”

“They look nice,” said a man sitting near the door.

“Oh, they’re all right, that’s sure.  Well, I’ll see if I can find their folks for ’em.”

Elevated railroad men in New York get used to doing queer things, and seeing strange sights, so it did not cause much excitement when the guard went into the different cars calling for Mr. Bobbsey.  He had to come back to his own car once to call out “Forty-second Street,” and to open the gates to let passengers off and others on.  Then he closed the gates and called out:  “Fiftieth Street next,” After that he went again into the cars he had not been in before and called for Mr. Bobbsey, But of course that gentleman did not answer, being a station or two behind by this time.

[Illustration:  “WHERE ARE YOU YOUNGSTERS GOING?”

The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City.  Page 82]

The guard, not being able to find Mr. or Mrs. Bobbsey, or Nan and Bert, came back to where Flossie and Freddie were now rather anxiously waiting.

“Did you find him?” asked the children eagerly.

“No, I’m sorry to say your father isn’t on this train.  But don’t worry.  I’ll look out for you, and your father is sure to come for you sooner or later.”

“Did you find any of the bugs?” asked Freddie.

“That go around and around and around,” added Flossie.

“No,” said the guard, laughing, “I didn’t.  What about them?”

Freddie explained what he meant, and asked if the train could not be stopped while he went into the nearest toy store to buy some more of the tin, crawling toys.  But the guard said this could not be done.

“I don’t just know what to do with you,” he said, scratching his head.  “If your father thought, he could telephone to any of the stations where our train will stop—­this is an express train and does not make many stops after Sixty-sixth Street till the end of the line.  He could have the agent there take you off and keep you until he could come.  Or, I might take you to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, which is the end of the line, and have the agent there take charge of you.  I don’t know what to do.”