“Dorothy, do you know where I can get a ship to go sailing on the ocean?”

“Go sailing on the ocean!” cried Dorothy.  “What for, Freddie?”

“To find Tommy Todd’s shipwrecked father.  He wants to find him awful bad, and I promised to help.  I was going to save up to buy a ship, but Daddy says it takes a long time.  And I thought maybe as you lived near the ocean you could get a ship for us.

“It needn’t be very large, ’cause only Tommy and Flossie and Dinah, our cook, and I will go in it.  But we’d like to go soon, for Tommy’s grandmother is poor, and if we could find his father he might bring her some money.”

“Oh, you funny little boy!” cried Dorothy.  “To think of going off in a ship!  I never heard of such a thing!”

“Well, we’re going!” said Freddie.  “So if you hear of a ship we can get you tell me; will you, Dorothy?”

“Yes, my dear, I will.  Is that what you’ve been trying to ask me ever since we got here?”

“Yes.  I didn’t want Nan and Bert to hear.  You won’t tell them; will you?”

“No, Freddie.  I’ll keep your secret.”

But of course Dorothy knew there was no ship which so little a boy as Freddie could get in order to go sailing across the sea.  But she did not want him to feel disappointed, and she knew better than to laugh at him.  Freddie was very much in earnest.

Dorothy Minturn spent two happy weeks with the Bobbsey twins.  She and they had many good times, and more than once Freddie asked the seashore cousin if she had yet found a ship for him and Tommy.

At last Dorothy thought it best to tell Freddie that there were no ships which she could get for him.

“Well, that’s too bad,” said Freddie, after thinking about it for several seconds.  “If I can’t buy a ship, and if you can’t get one for me, Dorothy, I know what I can do.”

“What?” she asked.

“I can make one.  My papa has lots of boards in his lumber yard.  I’ll go down there and make a ship for Tommy and me.”

The next day Freddie asked his mother if he might not go down to his father’s yard.  As the way was safe, and as he had often gone before, Mrs. Bobbsey said he might go this time.  Off trudged Freddie, with some nails in one pocket and pieces of string in another.

“I can use a stone for a hammer,” he said, “and nail some boards together to make a ship.  That’s what I’ll do.”

Freddie first went to his father’s office, which he always did, so Mr. Bobbsey would know his son was at the yard.  This time it happened that Mr. Bobbsey was very busy.  He looked at Freddie for a moment, and then said: 

“Now Freddie, do you see where James is sitting by that pile of shingles?” and he pointed across the yard.

“Yes, I see,” Freddie answered.  He knew James very well.  He was the day watchman in the lumber yard, and he walked around here and there, seeing that everything was all right.