"I—I couldn't help this, Daddy," said the little fellow. "I—I just slipped!"
"Well, don't do it again," said the Aquarium man, with a smile. "If you had fallen in the other pool, where there are half a dozen turtles, though none as large as the one you rode on, you might have been bitten. But you're all right. Now come along and we'll dry you out."
It was an easy matter to dry Freddie's feet and legs in front of the warm furnaces in the boiler room, but his shoes and stockings did not get rid of their wetness so soon. And, as Mr. Bobbsey did not want to wait, he sent one of the attendants out to buy new shoes and stockings for his son. With these on, and carrying the damp ones in a bundle, Freddie was soon ready to go home.
"I guess I've had enough of the 'quarium," he said. "Anyhow I had a funny ride."
"I should say you did!" agreed Bert. "I wish we had a picture of you riding around on the back of that turtle."
Mrs. Bobbsey was at first alarmed, and then she laughed, when told of what had happened.
