him?" she asked in a low voice, pointing to Bob Guess, who was talking
to the twins.

"That's so. We can't turn him adrift," Mr. Bobbsey agreed. "Well, I'll
get a room for him at the hotel. In the morning I can decide what to do.
I don't like to send him back to Blipper. But if the man has adopted him
he has a claim on the boy. We'll see what happens by morning."

Mrs. Bobbsey may have disliked to break the journey and stay at a
strange hotel, but the Bobbsey twins thought it great fun. The hotel was
a small country one, clean and neat, and the Bobbseys and Bob Guess were
about the only guests there.

"I'm not fit to stop at a hotel," said the ragged boy.

"Oh, you're all right," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Perhaps I can get you some
clothes here. If there isn't a store that sells them I may be able to
get you a second-hand suit from the hotel keeper."

As it happened, there was no clothing store in the village of Montville,
where the stop was made. But the hotel proprietor had some clothes of
one of his sons who had gone to the city to work. Bob was given a partly
worn but very good coat and trousers.

"He's a nice looking boy when he's dressed well," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as
the lad discarded his old clothes.

"Yes," agreed her husband. "He has a good, honest face. And yet, when I
think of my coat and the lap robe---- But I'll wait until I see
Blipper."