"What in the world can she mean?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I'm sure I don't know," answered Bert.
"What did Freddie say about a net?" asked Nan, as she stumbled and spilled her blueberries. She was going to stop to pick them up.
"Never mind them," her mother said. "Let them go. We must see what the matter is with Flossie."
They saw a few seconds later, as they turned on the path. On top of a little hill, in a place where there was a grassy spot with bushes growing all around it, they saw Flossie and Freddie.
Freddie was dancing around very much excited, but Flossie was standing still, and they soon saw the reason for this. She was entangled in a net that was spread out on the ground and partly raised up on the bushes. It was like a fish net which the children had often seen the men or boys use in Lake Metoka, but the meshes, or holes in it, were smaller, so that only a very little fish could have slipped through. And the cord from which the net was woven was not as heavy as that of the fish nets.
"Flossie's caught! Flossie's caught!" cried Freddie, still dancing about.
"Come and get me loose! Come and get me loose!" Flossie begged.
"Mother's coming! Mother's coming!" answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "But how in the world did it happen?"
She did not wait for an answer, but, as soon as she came near, she started to rush right into the net herself to lift out her little girl. But Bert, seeing what would happen, cried: