“Cousin Jasper Dent did become a sailor, when he grew up. But he sailed more on steamboats than on ships with sails that have to be blown by the wind. Many things happened to him, so he has told me in letters that he has written, for I have not seen him very often, of late years. And now the strangest of all has happened, so he tells me here.”
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Well, he has been shipwrecked, for one thing.”
“And was he cast away on a desert island, like Robinson Crusoe?” asked Bert, who was old enough to read that wonderful book.
“Well, that’s what I don’t know,” went on Mr. Bobbsey. “Cousin Jasper does not write all that happened to him. He says he has been shipwrecked and has had many adventures, and he wants me to come to him so that he may tell me more.”
“Where is he?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“In a hospital in St. Augustine, Florida,” was the answer.
“Oh, Florida!” exclaimed Flossie. “That’s where the cocoanuts grow; isn’t it, Daddy?”
“Well, maybe a few grow there, but I guess you are thinking of oranges,” her father answered with a smile. “Lots of oranges grow in Florida.”
“And are we going there?” asked Bert.