"Then why don't you carry that?"
"'Cause it's so flopsy. It never stays still, and when it flops in my face it tickles me. Please you carry the tail end, Freddie."
"All right, Flossie, I will. But we had better go now, or maybe Momsie or Nan or Bert or Dinah might come out and tell us not to go. Come on!"
So, hand in hand, now and then looking back to make sure no one saw them to order them back, Flossie and Freddie started out to search for the lost Snoop. They wandered here and there about the island, at first not very far from the camp. When they were near the tents they did not call the cat's name very loudly for fear of being heard.
"We can call him loud enough when we get farther away," said Freddie.
"Yep," agreed his sister. "Anyhow he isn't near the tents or he'd've come back before this."
So the two little twins wandered farther and farther away until they were well to the middle of the island, and out of sight of the white tents.
"Snoop! Snoop! Snoop!" they called, but though they heard many noises made by the birds, the squirrels and insects of the woods, there was no answering cry from their cat.
After a while they came to a place where a little brook flowed between green, mossy banks. It was a hot day and the children were warm and tired.
"Oh, I'm goin' in wading!" cried Freddie, sitting down and taking off his shoes and stockings.