“He’s outdoors,” said Bobby desperately.  “I don’t think anything much is the matter with him, Daddy.”

“Outdoors?” echoed Mother Blossom in wonder.  “Why doesn’t he come in?”

“He can’t,” said Dot earnestly.

“Why can’t he?” asked Father and Mother Blossom in chorus.

Bobby and Meg and Dot saw that they could no longer shield Twaddles.

“He can’t come in,” blurted Bobby, “because he sat down where they fill oil cans in the grocery store and the back of him is all kerosene oil and he’ll catch fire and burn up if he stays in the house.”

Mother Blossom looked at Father Blossom, who sat perfectly still for a moment.  Then he put back his head and shouted.  He laughed until the tears ran down his face and Norah came in to see what the matter was.

“Don’t laugh,” urged Mother Blossom.  “Go and bring the poor child in, Ralph.”

“In a minute,” Father Blossom promised.  “I want to get this straight first.  Do you mean to tell me, Bobby, that you left Twaddles outdoors because you were afraid he would catch fire?  How long did you expect him to stay there?”

“Well, we didn’t know,” admitted Bobby lamely.  “I guess it will wear off by morning.”

Father Blossom wiped his eyes and laid down his napkin.

“I’ll go and get him,” he said, rising.  “Mother, I begin to think an island is the only place for a family such as ours.  There’s one thing I don’t suppose occurred to you, Bobby.”

“What, Daddy?” asked Bobby seriously.

“That Twaddles might have taken off his oil-soaked suit,” replied Father Blossom, going to the rescue of the lonely and hungry little fellow.

Meg and Bobby and Dot looked at each other.

“I never thought of that,” confessed Bobby.

CHAPTER VII

BEGINNING THE JOURNEY

“There’s Tim Roon!  Wave to him, Bobby,” cried Meg.

“Doesn’t Marion Green look funny before she knows you?” commented Dot.

The car with Mother and Father Blossom and the four little Blossoms and their suitcases and rugs and shawls and long and short coats, had whirled past Marion Green so rapidly that she had not guessed who the people were until they were almost around the corner, though she waved to them in answer to their call.

For the time at last had come to start for Apple Tree Island, and this morning the Blossoms were actually on their way.  Norah’s sister had come to stay with her and Annabel Lee, so Mother Blossom had been spared the work and trouble of closing the house.  Meg and Bobby had been promised that they could go into a higher grade in the fall, because of their good records for the term.  Dot’s new dresses were all finished; and Twaddles had wheedled his father into allowing him to take along an empty bird-cage which took up a great deal of room and was utterly useless.  The Blossoms had no bird, and, as Bobby pointed out to Twaddles, he would not be able to catch a bird if he tried, and if he did catch one, said Bobby, it would be against the law for him to keep it.  He would have to let it go as he had the robin.  But Twaddles was firm in his resolve to carry the empty cage.