Then it was time for lunch, and what a good time all the children had, sitting at tables in the little rustic houses, or on the ground, eating from boxes and baskets.  The Bobbsey twins, with a group of their friends, sat in a little pavilion by themselves.

Besides the lunch which each child or group of children brought, there was to be ice cream and cake, given by the Sunday school.  The big freezers had been arranged in a sort of shed, and the cake and cream treat was to be given after the picnic lunches had been eaten.  Just before the time for this part of the program, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey arrived at the grounds, driving over in the auto, as they had promised to do.

“Well, children, having fun?” asked the father of the Bobbsey twins.

“A dandy time!” exclaimed Bert.  “My team won the ball game.”

“And I ’most fell out of a boat!” boasted Freddie.

“Pooh!  That’s nothing!  I ’most saw a snake!” exclaimed Flossie.

“A snake!” cried her mother.

“It wasn’t real,” Nan hastened to add, and Mrs. Bobbsey seemed to breathe easier.

“Well, you have had some excitement as well as fun,” observed Mr. Bobbsey.

“Excitement!” cried Bert.  “Say, Daddy, you ought to have been there when the truck almost smashed through the bridge!”

“Oh, did that happen?” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.

“No, but almost,” Bert went on.

“Well, it seems to me that everything ‘almost’ happened,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “Flossie almost saw a snake, Freddie almost fell overboard and the truck almost broke the bridge.”

“Oh, the bridge really is broken,” Nan said.  And she told about that accident.  Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had come to the picnic grounds by another road, and so had not seen the bridge that sagged in the middle.

“Well, all’s well that ends well, so they say,” remarked Mr. Bobbsey, “and we’re glad you are having a good time.  Yes, Mr. Blake, what is it?” he asked, for Mr. Blake, had come to where Mr. Bobbsey was talking to the children, and had called aloud.

“Do you want to help the ladies dish out the ice cream?” asked Mr. Blake.

“Surely!” answered the twins’ father.  “Wait until I take off my coat.  Dishing out ice cream is rather messy work.”

He removed his coat, hanging it on the limb of a tree near the shed where the ice cream freezers had been placed.  Mrs. Bobbsey also offered to help, and when it became known that it was time for the ice cream and cake treat the picnic children began gathering at the rustic shed.

Before the dainties could be served, however, there came from down the road, in the opposite direction from the broken bridge, a low, rumbling sound.

“I hope it isn’t going to rain,” said Mrs. Morris, as she held a plate of ice cream in one hand.

“What makes you think it is?” Mrs. Bobbsey asked.

“Didn’t you hear that thunder?  I can’t see the sky, on account of the trees, but I’m afraid it’s clouding over.”