“Well, we’ll take the corn up to the house,” announced Nan.  “Come, Flossie and Freddie,” she called.  Freddie came up, carrying the basket of shelled corn, but Flossie was not with him.

“Where’s your sister?” asked Harry.

“Who, Flossie?  Oh, she went away.  She said she was going home,” Freddie answered.  “She went home a good while ago!”

“Went home!” echoed Nan, with a gasping breath.  “Why, she never could find the way all by herself.  Oh, maybe she’s lost!”

CHAPTER XIV

FREDDIE AND THE PUMPKIN

The cornfield where the Bobbsey twins and Harry had gone to work and play was a long distance from the farmhouse.  Nan knew this, and that is why she was frightened when Freddie said that Flossie had “gone home.”

“Maybe she could find her way,” said Bert.

“She’s a smart little girl,” added Harry.  “I wish I had a sister like her.”

“How long ago did she leave you, Freddie?” asked Nan.

“Oh, ’bout maybe three four hours,” answered the little boy.

“We haven’t been here an hour!” exclaimed Bert.

“Well, maybe it was minutes, then,” admitted Freddie.  He did not have a very good idea of time, you see.

“If it was only a little while ago she can’t have gone very far,” said Nan.  “Flossie!  Flossie!” she called.  “Where are you?”

But there was no answer.  Bert and Harry then took up the call, as they had louder voices than had Nan, and even Freddie added his shout, but it was of no use.  Flossie did not answer.

“I guess she’s too far away,” Harry stated.

“We’d better hurry after her!” said Bert.

“Oh, come on!” cried Nan, half sobbing.  “Mother told me to keep good watch over her, and I didn’t!  I shouldn’t have played hide and go seek!”

“It wasn’t your fault!” her brother consoled her.  “It was as much mine as yours.  But we’ll find Flossie all right.  I guess she’s home by this time.”

But when they had hurried to the farmhouse there was no sign of the little girl.  Mrs. Bobbsey became much frightened when told what had happened.

“Is there any water she could fall into?” she asked Aunt Sarah.

“No, not even a duck pond near the cornfield.  She’s all right, I’m sure,” said the other Mrs. Bobbsey.  “We’ll go back to the cornfield and find her hiding, I feel certain.”

“But she wasn’t playing hide and go seek,” declared Nan.  “She wouldn’t hide from us.”

“You can’t tell,” said Aunt Sarah, so cheerfully that the others took heart.  Back they hurried to the field where the big shocks of dried cornstalks stood.  The two Mr. Bobbseys also went along to help in the search.

“Now show us where you and Flossie were playing at shell the corn,” said the mother of the twins.

“Right here,” Freddie stated, and he pointed to some of the yellow kernels on the ground.