“And now tell us what happened there—­I mean besides about Uncle Jack,” said Nan.  “Did you see any of my friends?”

“And did you see Bessie Benton?” Flossie asked, naming a little girl with whom she often played.

“Yes, I saw Bessie,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “and she sent you her love.”

“Did you see Tommy Todd?” Freddie queried.

“Yes; I stayed at his house.”

“How is the ice-boat?” asked Bert.

“Well, there has been a thaw, as you know, and there isn’t enough ice in Lake Metoka on which to sail the Bird.  I guess Tommy’ll have to wait until you get back there, Bert.  We’ll have more cold weather yet.”

“Oh, are we going to leave New York?” asked Nan sorrowfully.

“We can’t live here,” said her mother.  “We’ve stayed longer now than I thought we would.  Have you much more business to look after?” she asked her husband.

“It will take about two weeks more, and then I think we’ll go back to Lakeport.  But you children can have plenty of good times in two weeks, I should think.”

“Of course we can!” cried Bert.  “And when we get back home——­”

“Are we going camping?” interrupted Freddie.  “Flossie and I want to go camping in the woods.”

“On an island in a lake,” added the little girl.  “And we can take the bugs that go around and around and around and—­and——­”

“And the bugs that go around and around will catch all the mosquitoes that fly up and down, up and down, and bite us!” laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.  “Yes, we certainly shall have to take the ‘go around’ bugs to camp with us, children.”

“Do you really think we can go camping?” asked Bert of his father.

“Well, I don’t know.  We’ll see.”

The Bobbsey twins, both sets of them, did indeed have many more good times in New York.  I wish I had room to tell you about them, but I have not space.  They went to see many sights, paid another visit to Central Park and Bronx Park and saw many nice plays and moving picture shows.

Mr. and Mrs. Whipple and Laddie often went with the Bobbseys on little excursions about the great city.  Laddie and the children became better friends than before, and Mrs. Whipple said her little nephew had never had such good times in all his life.

“He missed his mother greatly before your children came to this hotel,” said Mrs. Whipple to Mrs. Bobbsey.

“When is Mrs. Dickerson coming back from California?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

“When it is warm here.  She can not stand cold weather.  But she did not go out to California altogether on account of the climate.”

“Didn’t she?”

“No.  You have heard my husband speak of a long-lost brother—­also a brother of Mrs. Dickerson’s, who was a Whipple before her marriage.”

“Yes, I heard something about that.”

“Well, for a number of years my husband and Mrs. Dickerson have been trying to find this lost brother.  And there was a rumor that he had gone to California when a boy and had grown up among the miners near San Francisco.  It was to find out, if possible, whether or not this was so, that Mrs. Dickerson went out West.  Though, to be sure, the Winters here are hard for her to endure.”