And while the rescue of Freddie and Flossie is being arranged for, I will take this chance to tell my new readers something of the four children, about whom I am going to write in this book.

There are other books ahead of this one, and the first is named after the children.  It is called “The Bobbsey Twins,” and relates some of the early adventures of Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie.  Those are the names of the twins, as you have already learned.

The Bobbsey family lived in an eastern city called Lakeport, at the head of Lake Metoka.  Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business and had an office near his lumberyard, which was “down town” as the children called it.

Now I’ll tell you just a little about the four children, their friends and something about the other books, and then I’ll get on with the story, which I hope you will wish to read.

There were two sets of twins, you see.  Bert and Nan were the older.  They each had dark brown hair, brown eyes and were rather tall for their age, and not so very fat; though, of late, with all the good times they had had in the country at Blueberry Island and on the deep, blue sea, the older twins were getting stouter.  “Fatter,” Freddie called it.

Flossie and Freddie were just the opposite of Bert and Nan.  The smaller pair of twins were short and stout, and each had light hair, and blue eyes that looked at you, sometimes, in the funniest way you can imagine.

Besides Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey there was Dinah, the fat, good-natured colored cook, who knew how to make more kinds of cake than you could eat in one day.  And then there was Sam Johnson, her husband.  Sam worked about the Bobbsey house and barn, looked after the horse and sometimes drove the automobile, though he said he liked a horse better.  But the Bobbsey family liked the automobile, so the horse was used down in the lumberyard more often than to take Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie for a ride.

The Bobbsey twins had many friends and relations, but I will not take up your time, now, telling you about them.  I must not forget, however, to mention Snoop and Snap.  Snoop was a fine, big cat, and he was named “Snoop” because he always seemed to be “snooping” into everything, as Dinah said.  Snoop didn’t do that to be bad, he just wanted to find out about things.  Once he wanted to find out what was inside an empty tin can, and so he stuck his head in and he couldn’t get it out until Bert helped him.

Snap was the Bobbsey dog, and he wasn’t called “Snap” because he would snap at you.  No indeed!  It was because, when Bert put a cracker on his dog’s nose, the animal would “snap” it off with a jerk of his head and eat it—­eat the cracker I mean.  That was one reason he was called “Snap.”  But there were other reasons, too.

And so the Bobbsey twins lived in a fine house in a pleasant city and they had lots of fun.  Those of you who have read the other books know that.  They went to the country and to the seashore, to visit Uncle William at the latter place, and Uncle Daniel Bobbsey in the former.