"Well, dad isn't here, and——"
"I told him, and then he said he wants to see some of us—my father I think he means. He has something to tell."
"Bring him in here," advised Uncle Daniel, who was trying to read the paper, though half the time he had it upside down, for he was thinking too much about poor Flossie and Freddie to pay attention to anything else.
Bob Guess came in, dripping wet, though not as ragged as when Bert and Nan had first seen him.
"What's the matter?" asked Uncle Daniel in his jolly voice. "Can't you do any business at the fair on account of the rain?"
"No. And I don't want ever to do any more business at the fair," answered Bob, in such strange tones that they all looked at him.
"Don't you like the merry-go-round any more?" Bert asked.
"Oh, it isn't that," said Bob. "It's that man Blipper. I can't stand him any longer! He blamed me for poor business to-day, and it wasn't my fault at all. In the first place, all the people went over to see the balloon go up. Hardly anybody took rides on our machine. Then the children—I mean your little brother and sister," he said to Nan, "got carried off, and everybody got scared for fear something would happen to their children, and they wouldn't even let 'em ride on the merry-go-round. And then the rain came down, and Blipper seemed to blame me for that."
"He isn't a very fair sort of man, even if he has his machine at a county fair," joked Uncle Daniel.
"He's terribly ugly," blurted out Bob Guess. "And I think he's worse than that!"