"Does he have anything to eat?" Flossie wanted to know.
"Oh, yes," said Nan. "There are things to eat in the basket. See!" And she held Flossie up so she could look over the edge and down into the basket. Of course Freddie had to be lifted up, also.
The basket seemed a cosy place. There were blankets in it, for it is often very cold high up in the air where balloons go, though it may be very warm on the earth. And there were boxes and packages containing food and many strange things at which the Bobbsey twins wondered.
The wind kept blowing harder and harder, and the crowd grew larger as word went around the fair grounds that the balloon was soon to go up.
"What about those ropes?" cried the man who was in charge of the balloon.
"They're coming," another man told him. "Be here right away!"
"Well, those lads want to hurry if this balloon isn't to go sailing off by itself! My, but the wind is blowing hard! I've a good notion to call this off. I'm afraid we're in for a bad storm."
"We can't stop it now," said the second man. "The crowd expects us to go up, and we'll have to go."
"Well, we'll try it. But we must tie the balloon down and put in more gas. It won't go up very far only half filled as it is."
Suddenly some voices cried: